Stunned into silence, the sisters watched as Isabelle blinked back tears.
“I... I’m sorry Tom. I know how much you care for Lily, really I do, and I didn’t mean to imply that... well... I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m just in a funny place in my head right now. Forgive me?”
Swiftly, Tom pulled Isabelle into a quick hug and pressed a light kiss down on her head.
“You know, Bel,” Luke added, reaching across for one of her hands, “you can talk to us if you’re having any problems. We’re here for you.”
“I know.” Isabelle nodded, miserably, still blinking back tears, “But not now. We’re supposed to be celebrating. Please?”
Taking the hint, the group collectively moved the conversation on, with Megan asking Elise about when she was next off on assignment, and Luke asking Isabelle how her latest book was progressing. Soon, the group was chattering away, and Isabelle threw a grateful look at both Luke and Tom, knowing that she had been let off lightly. Lily, however, was noticeably quieter, her earlier carefree mood replaced by an underlying solemnity, her mind seemingly distracted by other thoughts.
* * *
As they sat in the cab, driving through the dark streets of London lit by the headlamps of oncoming traffic, Tom turned Lily to face him and pulled her into his side.
“Are you going to talk to me about what’s bothering you?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” she answered, startled out of her reverie.
He raised an eyebrow at her, and she flushed.
“Don’t try to fool me, Lily. Your face is an open book. Something’s on your mind. You’ve been quiet and pensive ever since Bel got upset over dinner.”
“It’s nothing, really. Ignore me.”
“How is it nothing when you’re sitting there clearly unhappy? Whatever the problem is, if you talk to me about it, we can sort it out.”
Lily sighed. “Bel thinks I should be stronger than I am,” she said, bluntly.
“What?” Tom responded, his voice incredulous. “What on earth makes you think that?”
Sharply, Lily turned to him, her eyes looking up at him, her face tight with tension. “You heard her! She thinks you’re wrapping me up in cotton wool, and she’s probably right! I should be stronger. It’s part of my job to deal with problems with the kids, not to hide behind you!”
“Oh sweetheart, I was there the whole way through that conversation and at no point did I think Isabelle was saying that you weren’t strong. In fact, from where I was sitting, it sounded like she was telling the world just how strong you are, and warning me not to let that change!”
“But don’t you see?” Lily looked at him, her eyes beseeching, “Before I met you, I would have been trying to sort out whatever problems the twins are having, not waiting for the police to investigate it!”
“Lily,” he said firmly, “before you met me, you were working in a school where the kids didn’t have the same sort of problems. If you followed up with them over their problems, it was likely to be that their parents were divorcing, or they’d had problems with their friends, or they were struggling with the academic pressures of St. Catherine’s. At Clayston, the problems are different, and Sam will tell you that teachers just can’t wade into those problems in the same way. It’s a completely different situation.”
She sighed, again. “I know it’s different. I’m not stupid. But I do need to know I can do my job properly.”
“Of course you can. I meant what I said, Lily. I would never stop you doing that. I just want you to make sure you keep yourself safe while doing it. It's advice I would give to any teacher at Clayston, man or woman. The face that I love you completely, and I couldn’t bear it if any harm came to you, just adds to it.” Tom lowered his lips to hers and drew her into a lingering kiss, wanting to impress upon her the depth of his love for her, relaxing slightly as he felt her body release its tense stance and rest into his side. He knew from her quiet manner that she remained concerned, but he hoped that with his reassurance her doubts wouldn’t overwhelm her.
“If I had to guess, I’d say Isabelle is caught up in her own problems right now. Maybe the new man she was seeing means more to her than she’s let on?”
“Hmph,” Lily snorted, inelegantly. “I can’t see Isabelle letting a man upset her like that. You’re right, there probably is more to it than she’s let on, but she’s always had a ‘damn them all’ attitude, and sometimes I wish I could be more like that.”
“Maybe she’s outgrowing that attitude?”
“I doubt it. Why would she? She has an amazing life. Her books are flying off the shelves. All the major reviews of her last novel were falling over themselves with praise, which isn’t normal for romance fiction. Why would she change the way she’s living her life?”
“Maybe something’s missing from it?”
“She can have any man she wants!”
“But maybe she doesn’t quite know what, or who, she does want?”
“Maybe. But I doubt she would stand for any man telling her what to do, the way you or Luke do!”
“Really? She seemed to be upset enough tonight when she thought she had hurt you?”
“I know she’d never want to hurt me, or Meg, and she loves you and Luke as surrogate brothers, but she’s too much of her own person to go out with someone like you!”
Tom raised his eyebrows at her. “You think I tell you what to do? That Luke tells Megan what to do?”
“You know you do!”
“Only to keep you safe. You’re your own person, Lily. Never forget that. Do you think Meg is a lesser person for letting Luke take care of her?”
“It’s different,” Lily responded, stubbornly.
“Why?”
“Meg’s incredibly strong!”
“As are you, love. As are all four of you. Don’t forget that.”
Tom didn’t like the self-doubt he saw in Lily’s eyes and, as the cab pulled up outside the apartment, resolved that he would do everything he could to make sure that she saw herself as the brave, strong young woman she really was.
* * *
On Monday, Lily was sipping her coffee at lunchtime in the staff room, still mulling over the weekend’s events. She knew that everything Tom said made sense, but she couldn’t help but feel that any of her sisters would be handling the situation differently.
Suddenly, Sam popped his head round the door of the staff room. “Lily, Tom just called. He said he’d tried your mobile but it was switched off so he assumed you were in class. He couldn’t speak for long but said to tell you Luke will pick you up from school tonight and not to drive home yourself.”
“What?” Lily’s head jerked up, “What do you mean? My car is here! He can’t be serious.”
“That’s what the man said, Lily. You should listen. He knows what he’s talking about.” With that, Sam left the room, leaving Lily silently fuming.
All afternoon, through her classes, the anger in Lily built up to bursting point and, as the bell peeled signalling the end of the day, she swept up her papers and coat and determined to drive herself home, as the adult she was. She had no idea why Tom wanted Luke to pick her up, but he had no right to leave messages like that with Sam.
Fuming, she stalked out of the building and walked towards her car, not seeing the tall man waiting by his car outside reception.
“Hey, Lily!” Luke called.
Startled, Lily swung round to see her soon to be brother-in-law, standing there looking imposing next to his car.
Casually, not sensing her black mood, he walked up to her to take her heavy school bag from her.
“It’s fine, Luke,” she snapped, “I can take care of it, and there’s no need for you to drive me home, I’ll be fine.”
Puzzled, Luke’s brow furrowed in confusion, unused to hearing Lily’s voice raised in anger, and he asked, “Didn’t you get Tom’s message?”
“I got his message just fine. Not that it’s any of your business. Or his business, for
that matter. I can get myself home, and I don’t need a chaperone!”
“Lily, are you okay?” Luke asked gently, “Have you and Tom argued?”
“Not yet, but we’re going to!” She prepared to stalk off towards her car.
Before she’d got more than a few meters away, a firm hand grasped her arm and she was forced to stop in her tracks and look up at her de facto brother whose eyes had turned hard, although his voice remained soft.
“Look, Lily. I don’t know what’s going on between you and Tom, but he asked me to pick you up today. The investigation has turned up some new information and he didn’t want you having to make your own way home. He’s tied up in a meeting for another hour or so, or he’d have come himself.”
Pulling futilely against his grip, Lily struggled to see through her anger, “I don’t give a shit, Luke, just go away and leave me alone.”
“Not a chance, Lily. Now get in the car.” Luke’s tone was firm and cool, “You really don’t want to create a scene in the school grounds.”
Realising that there was little she could do without drawing attention to them, furiously Lily strode over to his car, ignoring his offer of help with her bags and threw them in the back seat, climbing into the front passenger seat with her face set in mutinous rage.
As he got in and started the engine, Luke paused. “Lily, do you want to go grab coffee somewhere and talk about this? Whatever it is that’s bothering you, maybe talking about it will help?”
Tears threatened to brim over in her anger, and all Lily could do was hit out more, “Why don’t you all just fuck off and leave me alone? Maybe that would be the best help you could give? I’m a big girl and can take care of myself.”
Luke flinched as if she’d slapped him, and Lily couldn’t help the pangs of guilt that came over her as she saw her words had hurt.
“This is what this about? You think we’re treating you like a child?”
Refusing to meet his steely gaze, Lily just muttered, “You wouldn’t treat Megan like this.”
Reaching over, Luke turned Lily’s face to his, “I can assure you that if Megan had such blatant disregard for her own safety that she tried to defy clear instructions from the police not to drive herself home, not to mention using the language you just used, she’d be over my knee before she could blink, as you well know. Nor will I put up with any sister of mine acting, or talking that way, and the only reason you’re not over my knee right now is because I’m guessing Tom will take care of it when he gets home.”
Ashamed, knowing he was right but still too angry to apologise, Lily still tried to look away.
With a sigh, Luke manoeuvred the car out the school gates and drove to Lily’s apartment. True, he was angry at Lily’s behaviour, and he’d meant it when he said that if he wasn’t pretty certain Tom would take care of it, he’d be spanking Lily for verbally lashing out as she’d done. But, he was more worried about what had caused Lily’s mood to turn. As long as he’d known her, she had never acted like that. Something was clearly wrong, and he wanted to help her through it as best he could.
When he parked outside Lily’s apartment, she darted out of the car, grabbing her bag and papers as quickly as she could, and pretty much ran up to her front door, slamming the car door behind her and not saying a word to Luke.
As she swiftly unlocked the front door and prepared to shut it firmly behind her, she found that one broad shoulder was firmly planted in her way.
“I don’t think so, Lily,” Luke said firmly. “I told you, I’m waiting here with you until Tom gets back.”
“Babysitting?” she queried, sarcastically.
“Perhaps,” he answered evenly. “The way you’re acting, babysitting is probably an accurate description.”
Her eyes narrowing, she stalked off into the apartment, refusing to offer him any tea or coffee. They sat in silence in the living room, Lily glaring at him and Luke looking at Lily with concern written over his face.
Finally, they heard the door open and Tom came into the apartment. Luke got up to greet him while Lily refused to move.
“What’s wrong? Lily?” Tom asked, sensing the atmosphere in the small apartment could be cut with a knife.
With an unspoken look, Luke indicated with his head towards the kitchen and Tom followed the other into the next room.
After a good five minutes of the men speaking in hushed voices in the kitchen, they came out to face Lily, Tom raking his hand through his hair in concern and dismay.
“Lily, are you going to tell me and Luke what’s wrong?”
“It’s not frickin’ rocket science, now is it?” Lily responding, scathingly. Tom winced at the tone as well as the language.
“I’m sorry, Luke,” he apologised to the other man. “I had no idea that she would react like this. I’ll take care of it. Thanks for picking her up, and I’m sorry you had to deal with this.”
“Take care of what, exactly?” Lily said sarcastically.
Ignoring her, pointedly, Luke nodded to Tom, “I’m going to head back to Megan. Let me know how she’s doing later?”
As Tom nodded back at Luke, he turned to Lily, “Lily, please talk to Tom, even if you won’t talk to me. If you do want to chat later, let me know. We all love you, and we don’t want to see you like this.”
At Lily’s continued silence, he shook his head and Tom walked him to the door.
Moments later, he was back in the living room taking of his jacket and shoes. Lily looked up at him warily, waiting for the outburst she fully expected would come.
Instead, he sat back on the sofa opposite her and said nothing.
After a while, she couldn’t bear the silence any longer. “Why aren’t you yelling at me?” she asked, cautiously.
“Have you ever known me to yell at you, or at anyone?” he asked, softly.
As she shook her head slowly, realising that he spoke the truth, he added, “I figured I’d wait until you were ready to talk. Something has to be pretty bad for you to treat Luke the way you just treated him, someone who’d walk over hot coals for you if he had to.”
Lily flushed, and hung her head in shame. Although she was still angry, she knew she’d behaved awfully to Luke. It was so out of character for her, she didn’t even know how she could begin to make amends.
“I figure it must also be pretty bad for you to decide you hate me so much you’d deliberately put yourself in harm’s way by ignoring my request for you to allow Luke to drive you home.”
Lily’s head jerked up, “I don’t hate you!” she cried, shocked that he could interpret her anger like that.
He got up and moved to where she was seated, lowering himself next to her. “Then tell me what it is that’s caused all this. Please.”
“You don’t think I can take care of myself,” she whispered, her hands clutching at the soft knitted throw that hung over one side of the sofa. “You think that all the others can take care of themselves, but not me.”
“What?” he said, perplexed. “What on earth do you mean?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” she said, bitterly. “It’s fine for Elise to wander round Africa on her own, fine for Isabelle to hit all the bars in SoHo with different guys, fine for Megan to take on clients who try to assault her in the street, but somehow it’s not fine for me to drive home from work!”
Slowly, Tom drew in a deep breath. “You really, truly think that that’s what I believe?”
He interpreted her glare as affirmation.
“Okay, well, in that case let’s take each of your sisters. I don’t think its fine for Elise to wander round Africa by herself, but as you know it sounds like the African assignments are now coming to an end and her next project is in Canada. Luke and I have been talking about asking a friend of mine who spends part of the year in Canada if he’d be around to accompany her on her assignment there.” At Lily’s shocked gasp, he added, “Now, I don’t know if Elise would agree to that, or be happy with it, but we’d certainly be happier if we kn
ew she had someone with her to help out if there was a problem. As for Isabelle,” he went on grimly, “neither Luke nor I are happy at all with her current way of life, but from what I saw last weekend it doesn’t sound like she is either, so we can work through that with her. She’s known Luke longer than she’s known me, so I’m hoping she’ll be able to talk to him about it, as for whatever reason she doesn’t seem to want to confide in the three of you, but if she wants to talk to me then I’ll be there for her whenever she needs it. And as for Meg…” he looked at Lily with amazement, “do you really, honestly think that Luke lets Meg work with clients like that anymore after what happened last year?”
Lily looked up him, not realising how much he knew about the awful client Meg had been working with when she first met Luke.
Tom nodded. “Luke told me what happened, and how Meg’s much happier since she left that law firm and works for a smaller firm where she can pick and choose her clients and avoid finding herself in that situation again. What do you think Luke’s reaction would be if he found out that something like that had happened again? Well?” Tom’s tone demanded an answer.
“Not happy,” Lily responded, the anger subsiding but uncertainty and some resentment still lingered.
“Exactly. So you really believe that we don’t think you can look after yourself?” he queried gently. “Lily, you look after yourself better than practically anyone else I know, but if I know there’s a situation that is dangerous, don’t you think it’s natural that I’d want to keep you far away from it?”
“But that doesn’t give you the right to give me orders!” she responded, searching for reasons she couldn’t fathom to still stand her ground.
“I wasn’t giving you orders, Lily. I was running to a meeting and I couldn’t get through to you, so I left a message with Sam asking him to pass a message on. It was a request, Lily, intended to keep you safe, not an order. We’d heard that the head of one of the local gangs was looking for Ricky Collins and was planning to turn up at the school a couple of hours ago. We had it covered, but I didn’t want you to get drawn in if anyone happened to recognise you from a couple of months ago. As it was,” he added with a frown, “the information must have been faulty, as no one showed up and Collins went home.”
Lily's Story, A Bentley Sisters Novel Page 9