by Unknown
'I never meant to keep the truth from you,' Chrissie murmured sadly.
'Shush,' Guy ordered her firmly and she gave him a painful smile. 'It wasn't so much the fact that you were Charlie's niece that bothered me,' Guy explained. 'It was knowing that you didn't trust me enough to tell me...and that hurt. Stupidly because I was hurt...I lashed out unforgivably. Instead of admitting that I was hurt and behaving like an adult, I reacted like a child, accusing and blaming you.'
'The reason I didn't tell you was because I loved you too much,' Chrissie responded shakily. 'I was too afraid of losing you and then my mother suggested that I should keep quiet about being related to Charlie and I knew how you felt about him...' She shook her head, then went on quiedy, 'I was hurt, too, you know, when you weren't honest with me about your...your relationship with Jenny.'
She paused and waited painfully to see how he would respond.
'Yes,' Guy agreed after a small pause. 'I wasn't entirely honest with you about that, I know—'
'Because you didn't want me to know how much you loved her,' Chrissie interjected sadly.
'No!' Guy denied her assertion so forcefully that he winced as he tried to catch hold of her and jarred his bandaged arm.
'No,' he reiterated more gently whilst Chrissie fussed over his pain. 'No, the reason I didn't tell you about her was because I was ashamed of myself for...for being weak enough at that particular time in my life to believe that the answer to all my problems lay in forming a relationship with another man's wife, a woman who I already knew in my heart of hearts was quite simply not available to me. I was at an age where I wanted to fall in love, to settle down and have a family, but because it wasn't happening, because there was no one around who appealed to me in that way, I convinced myself that I was in love with Jenny, a woman who already had her family and who was so much in love with her own husband that there was absolutely no possibility of her ever falling in love with me.
'I never really loved Jenny at all, Chrissie, and she was wise enough to know as much and that was why I was so reluctant to discuss what happened with you.
I didn't want to expose myself to you as a flawed human being. The truth is that I didn't have a clue what real love was until I met you...until I saw you, and then when I had, when I did, the truth was so illuminating, so blinding, that...' He paused and shook his head. 'I'm very fond of Jenny and I always will be, but you are the woman I love. You will always be the woman I love.'
'Even though you think I'm lying about the desk?'
Chrissie asked him quietly.
Guy sighed. 'I don't know what to say. I only know the evidence of my eyes.'
'I understand,' Chrissie agreed quietly, disentan-gling herself from his embrace and walking slowly towards the door.
She was just about to open it when she heard Guy calling her name. Thinking that something was wrong with his arm, she reacted instinctively, turning round and running back to his side.
'Guy, what is it?' she demanded. 'What's wrong...
your arm...?'
'My arm's fine,' he replied in a muffled voice. 'But I'm not. Oh God, Chrissie, I don't give a damn about the wretched desk. You're what matters to me...all that matters to me. I can sell my share in the business, we can move, go and make a fresh start somewhere where no one...'
Chrissie stared at him. 'You'd do that for me?' she whispered. 'Even though...'
'I'd do anything for you,' Guy groaned as he reached for her, pulling her down onto the bed beside him.
'Anything and everything. I love you, Chrissie, and that's all that matters, and just as soon as I get out of this damned hospital, you and I are going to sit down together and make plans...not just for our own future but for our child's, as well,' he promised her firmly as he started to kiss her.
Laura opened the door, saw the couple on the bed, Guy's good arm locking Chrissie to him as he kissed her, and discreetly closed the door again.
'We're going to be so happy together, the three of us,' Guy declared when he finally released her, but although she smiled at him, Chrissie wondered.
It was all very well for Guy to talk of leaving Haslewich and making a new start, but the issue of her family's trustworthiness would always be there between them, no matter how deeply they tried to bury it.
'We've had an official invitation to go round and have tea with Ruth Reynolds, one of my neighbours,' Guy announced as Chrissie walked into his sitting room.
He had been allowed home from the hospital the previous day but only with the proviso that there was someone to look after him.
There was no way she could take on the task, Laura had insisted determinedly. Not with her own husband due home in the next twenty-four hours, and the horses to look after, so of course Chrissie had really no option other than to take on the role in her stead.
'Oh, when does she want us to go?' Chrissie asked him.
'Come in, both of you,' Ruth invited warmly as she answered the door to Guy and Chrissie's ring. 'I've invited Jon to join us,' she added unexpectedly as she led the way to her pretty drawing room. 'I feel it's important that he should be here, if only as an informal recorder and, of course, to give corroboration to what I have to say, just in case. But I'm rather jumping the gun. How are you feeling, Guy?' she enquired solicitously.
'Much better than I was,' Guy told her wryly.
'Much better than I might have been if it hadn't been for Chrissie,' he added as he turned towards her and smiled tenderly.
Ruth had, of course, heard about their reconciliation, and as Jenny had said, it was lovely to hear that they had resolved their differences and that their love for one another had proved to be strong enough to overcome them.
'I'm so glad for them both,' Jenny had continued.
'They are so obviously right for one another.'
'Come in and sit down,' Ruth invited. 'Chrissie, if you wouldn't mind pouring the tea, I have a rather interesting story to tell you both.'
She smiled at Chrissie's slightly surprised look as the younger woman dutifully went over to the table and started to pour the tea.
'I've been rather puzzled and concerned,' Ruth began, 'about this problem concerning the true ownership of the desk that was found in Charlie Platt's house. So I've been doing a little bit of investigating.
As Jon is aware, my father had rather a thing about his relatives in Chester, and since he knew that the desk he had copied was one of a pair made as birthday gifts for twin daughters in the Chester family, it seemed to me that it didn't make sense that he should only have had the one desk made. That's why I decided to do some research....'
She paused before reaching for the heavy book that lay on the floor at her feet.
'This is the account book for the year when the desk was commissioned, or should I say when the desks were commissioned?'
It took some time for her wry words to sink in, but once they had, Guy exclaimed, 'You mean there were two desks, but—'
'Yes, there were two desks,' Ruth interjected calmly. 'Two identical desks, just like the pair made for the Chester family.'
'But that still doesn't explain how one of them came into the possession of my family,' Chrissie observed.
'That it doesn't,' Ruth agreed quietly. 'Accounts are simply statements of funds paid out and gathered in.'
'Surely my great-grandfather didn't buy one of the desks?' Chrissie questioned doubtfully. 'That would—'
'No, Chrissie, he didn't,' Ruth returned gently before looking at Jon. 'Our father, Ben's and mine, was married twice. Our mother died shortly after my birth and a young girl was hired to help out in the nursery.'
Ruth paused and then continued.
'That girl was your great-grandmother, Chrissie. A relationship developed between her and my father, and when she became pregnant he apparently persuaded her to marry one of his tenant farmers, who was himself a widower with no children.
'It was agreed between the two men that the baby, a son, would be brought up as the farmer's ch
ild. He, it seems, was already middle-aged and desperate for an heir. A sum of money also changed hands.' Ruth grimaced slightly. 'That poor girl. I suspect she must have loved my father very much, so much so it seems that she pleaded with him to be allowed to take with her to her new home some memento of what they had shared. He agreed and she chose the desk,' Ruth concluded simply.
Chrissie stared at her in shock before demanding huskily, 'Is this really true? It seems so...'
'Yes, it's really true, Chrissie,' Jon confirmed with quiet authority.
'But why hasn't my mother ever said? Why...?'
'I doubt very much that she knew,' Ruth told her.
'I certainly knew nothing about it myself and Ben, my brother, only found out when our father was dying. According to Ben, it was confided to him as a secret that he was sworn to keep. It was only when I challenged him about the fact that there were two desks and threatened to inform the police that he finally admitted the truth to me.'
'I still can't quite take it all in,' Chrissie whispered, tears filling her eyes as she turned to Ruth and confided emotionally, 'You can't know how much I've been dreading having my mother identify the desk.
How much...'
'I think I can,' Ruth corrected her gently.
Guy still hadn't said anything, but his expression gave him away. 'Two desks,' he announced grimly, standing up now and pacing the floor. 'Of course. Why didn't I guess that for myself? I knew there were two originals.'
'There was really no reason why you should have done,' Ruth soothed him. 'You had, after all, only seen the one and no one had ever suggested to you that there might originally have been two.'
'Maybe not, but I should have thought... questioned... Chrissie!'
'It's all right,' Chrissie reassured him unsteadily as she reached for his hand. 'Ruth's right. You really couldn't have known and,' she added with heart-warming honesty, 'in your shoes, I would probably have reacted just as you did.'
The look Guy gave her made Ruth bite her lip and look away. Some feelings, some emotions, were just too intense, too passionate, too raw, to be witnessed by any outsiders.
'You're a liar,' she heard Guy saying huskily, 'and a very generous one.'
Chrissie shook her head. She was still feeling too overwhelmed by Ruth's astonishing revelations. 'I can't believe this is happening,' she told Ruth and Jon shakily. 'It seems so...well, it's so unexpected.'
'Well, it certainly helps to explain where Charlie got his rogue genes from,' Ruth commented humorously, explaining wryly to Chrissie, 'Unfortunately there is a certain inherited characteristic in the Crighton ancestry that tends to produce the odd individual who is not only monumentally selfish, but totally lacking in what the rest of us might describe as moral responsibility, as well, which reminds me...'
She stood up, then walked over to Chrissie and embraced her warmly.
'Welcome to the Crighton family, my dear.'
The Crighton family. Chrissie opened her mouth and then closed it again.
'It's all right,' Ruth told her in a kind voice. 'We'll all understand if you choose not to acknowledge us as part of your family.'
'I just don't know what my mother is going to say about all this,' Chrissie exclaimed weakly.
'I expect you and Guy would like some time on your own now to talk over... every thing,' Ruth said, gently touching Chrissie lightly on the wrist and then giving her another warm hug as Chrissie stood up to leave.
Jon, too, hugged her before she left, and as she said afterwards to Guy when they were on their own in his home, 'They were both just so warm and welcoming.' She started to cry and Guy who had been getting them both a drink walked across the kitchen to catch hold of her and demanded gruffly, 'What is it...what's wrong?'
'Nothing,' Chrissie hiccupped into his shoulder.
'I'm just so glad that it's all over. I was so afraid that this would always haunt us, that it would always come between us...that you'd never be able to completely trust me.'
'Me trust you?' As he bent his head to kiss her, the apology he was starting to make was muffled by the warm pressure of Chrissie's mouth against his, sooth-ing the pain of his guilt and remorse. 'First thing tomorrow morning we're flying to Amsterdam,' Guy informed her huskily once she had released his mouth,
'and it won't just be an engagement ring I shall be buying you. And while we're there we might as well add an eternity ring, as well,' he added, as he gently stroked her finger, 'because this time, my love, it is for eternity.'
'Yes, it is,' Chrissie concurred softly.
'May I see your rings? Oh yes, they are beautiful,'
Ruth's granddaughter, Bobbie, admired as Chrissie ignored the shower of rose petals one of the wedding guests was throwing over both her and Guy to step forward and extend her hand.
Chrissie had surprised herself by choosing not an antique ring as she had first intended, but a modern trio of rings, especially designed for her by one of Amsterdam's top jewellers. The heart-shaped diamond of her engagement ring had been chosen by Guy, and Chrissie had gasped over its breathtaking magnificence.
It only stopped short of being vulgar by just a heartbeat, she had told him at the time, but both the jeweller and Guy had argued and assured her that in com-parison with some of the solitaires they sold, it was, in fact, rather modest. The simple band it was set into had been specially made to interlink with both the diamond-studded, entwined-rope design of her white-and-gold wedding and eternity rings, whilst around the centre of the eternity ring ran an additional ring of perfect but more modestly sized individual diamonds.
'They all interlock and belong together, like the three of us,' Guy had told Chrissie tenderly when they had chosen the design. The three of them.
Her wedding outfit had been made in Chester, its simple cut and the richness of the heavy cream satin discreetly masking her growing pregnancy. That was why Chrissie had decided against a traditional wedding gown and opted instead for a full-length plainly cut dress and a matching full-length satin coat over it with a small train at the back.
'I'm not ashamed of the fact that I'm carrying our child,' she had told her mother proudly. 'But we are having a church wedding and I just don't feel that a traditional dress would be appropriate.'
'You'll look lovely, darling,' her mother had assured her as they studied the design Chrissie had chosen.
And of course she did.
More than lovely as Guy had already told her.
She smiled at him now, touching his arm to draw his attention to where her mother was standing with his sister, Laura, the two of them deep in conversation.
The fact that Laura and her mother had struck up such an immediate bond had been an additional bonus so far as Chrissie was concerned. It had been Laura who had taken charge when her parents had travelled south, insisting that they stay with her and her husband and very firmly dealing with her mother's reservations about how she might be judged.
'You are not your brother. You are yourself and people will judge you accordingly,' Laura had told her forthrightly.
And so it had proved to be. Several women who had been at school with her mother had made very warm overtures to her. Chrissie might suspect that Laura had had a hand in their warm welcome, but she certainly wasn't going to spoil her mother's pleasure in being remembered by saying so. And both Guy's family and the Crightons, as well, had made it plain that they considered them very welcome additions to their family circles.
Only Natalie had held herself rather aloof, and Chrissie hadn't been upset at all to learn that she had decided to move to London.
Her mother had received the news about their connection with the Crightons with the same astonishment as Chrissie, but what had touched Chrissie most of all was to overhear her mother remarking to Jenny the day before the wedding that she and Chrissie's father were definitely thinking of moving South when they retired.
'After all,' she had said to Jenny, 'it won't just be our daughter and son-in-law who are living here, but our
grandchildren, as well.'
'If I didn't know better,' Guy teased her as they watched one of his teenage nieces flirting outra-geously with a gangly-looking boy who seemed more embarrassed than flattered by her attention, 'I almost suspect that you'd rather stay here than go to Barbados with me.'
'Only almost?' Chrissie teased him back. 'It's so wonderful to be part of a big family, Guy, to know that our child, our children, will be growing up with that advantage, but it's nowhere near as wonderful as knowing you love me,' she whispered huskily in his ear. 'And as for Barbados...'
'Barbados. Why the hell didn't I just book us a suite at the Grosvenor in Chester?' Guy groaned against her mouth as he bent his head to kiss her. 'Do you know how long that flight is?'
'We've still got the reception to get through yet,'
Chrissie reminded him demurely.
'Just you wait until I get you on my own,' Guy warned her.
'On my own?' Chrissie raised an eyebrow and pat-ted her gently rounding body teasingly. 'I don't think so,' she reminded him archly. 'By the way, I'm glad they've caught the gang responsible for those break-ins.'
'So am I,' Guy agreed, giving her a sombre look.
'I can't believe that I even thought in my dreams that you were remotely involved.'
'Shush.' Chrissie placed her fingers over his lips.
'It did all seem to fit into place and the gang did have a female member.'
'I don't deserve you,' Guy whispered tenderly.
Across the churchyard, Madeleine Crighton saw them laughing and witnessed the look they exchanged, the love they so obviously shared so palpable you could almost reach out and touch it.
Tiredly she looked away.
When she had been pregnant with both their children, Max had treated her not with tenderness and love but with acidic fury, reminding her that he had not wanted children, just as he had not really wanted her.
She started to make her way quickly through the crowd to where Jenny, Max's mother, was standing with the children.