She opened her mouth. Closed it again.
‘Don’t think about it,’ he said a touch desperately, wanting to shake her. ‘Just speak. Say the first thing that comes into your head. What do you really want?’
‘I want to be the person I would have been if my parents had lived,’ she blurted out. Then gave a little gasp, as if she hadn’t known what she was going to say. ‘A doctor,’ she said. ‘I was going to be a doctor, like my mother.’
That was it? Something so simple?
‘So what stopped you?’ he asked.
‘It was impossible. You must see that.’
‘I see only a woman who had a dream but not the courage to fight for it. A quitter.’
‘You don’t understand-’
‘Oh, I understand.’ He understood that if she went back like this, afraid to admit even to herself what she wanted, she’d never break free. She’d forced him to take a look at his life, to straighten it out, and now, because he loved her, he was going to fight for her whether she liked it or not. ‘I understand that you were enjoying being the nation’s sweetheart a little bit too much to give it up,’ he said, twisting the knife, goading her, wanting her to kick out, fight back. ‘Being on the front page all the time. Everyone telling you how wonderful you were, how brave…’
Her eyes flared in the lights of a passing car and he knew he’d done it. That if she’d had the room to swing her arm she might have slapped him and he’d have welcomed it, but he didn’t let up.
‘If you’d wanted to be a doctor, Annie, you’d have been one. I’m not saying it would have been easy, but you’re not short of determination. What you wanted was your mother,’ he said, ‘and being her was the closest you could get.’
‘No!’ There was the longest pause. ‘Yes…’ And then, with something that was almost a laugh, ‘Instead, I became my father. Good works, duty. Everything by the book.’ She looked at him. ‘Until he met my mother.’
‘She was a bad influence?’
‘That depends on your point of view. Without her, he’d have been like my grandfather, like Rupert. But my mother came from another world and she stirred his social conscience. Together they used his money, his contacts, his influence to help change the world.’ In the darkness he heard her swallow. ‘That’s why they were targeted, killed. Because they were the kind of people whose death mattered enough to make headlines.’
She didn’t say that her grandfather had blamed her mother for that. She didn’t have to. But it explained why he’d kept her so close, so protected. Not just from unnamed threats, but so that she wouldn’t meet someone like him. Someone who would take her away, as her mother had taken his son, and, from disliking the man on principle, he found himself pitying him.
But it was Annie who mattered.
‘You’re not a copy of anyone,’ he told her fiercely. ‘You encompass the best of both of them. Your father’s
As it lit up his life.
‘But-’
‘I’ve seen you in action. You’re not acting. That’s all you, straight from the heart, but you have to take charge of your life. Hold onto what’s good. Walk away from the rest.’
‘You make it sound so easy.’
‘Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. I’ve no doubt you’ll meet resistance. The “just leave it to us” response. Like punching marshmallow. It’s easy to get sucked in. I’m a designer, so I hire the best in the business to run my company.’ He smiled, even though she couldn’t see his face. ‘The difference between us is that I can fire anyone who doesn’t do it the way I want it done.’
‘I can’t fire my grandfather.’
‘No. Family you have for life. You told me to talk to my father-actually, you blackmailed me into it. Now I’m going to return the favour. Talk to him, tell him what you want.’
‘Or?’
He shrugged, knowing that he didn’t need to say the words.
‘You’re bluffing again.’
‘You want to bet?’
There was the briefest pause before she said, ‘No.’
‘Good call.’
‘Hungry?’ he asked.
‘Surprisingly, yes,’ she said.
‘Then here comes another new experience for you. The motorway service station.’
‘You’re going to keep the garage open to specialise in vintage cars?’ Annie asked once they were seated with their trays containing pre-wrapped sandwiches and coffee and, because he’d made his point, he was filling her in on his own plans. ‘Will Xandra go for that?’
‘I mentioned it when we were working on the Austin yesterday.’ George stirred sugar into his coffee, smiling at the memory of Xandra forgetting herself enough to fling her arms around him. ‘She knows it’s a good niche market. I’ll start looking for a manager, staff, in the New Year.’
‘So, if you’re not going to live with your parents, where will you live?’
‘I’m not going to move. They are. I’ll buy the farm-’
‘Farm?’
‘There are just over five hundred acres still let to tenants. Not quite an estate, no park gates, but it’s good arable land. I’m going to build a bungalow in the paddock for my parents, something easy to manage.’
‘And you’ll live in the house.’
The way she said that made him look up. ‘It needs some work and I’ll have to find a housekeeper, but that’s the plan.’
‘What about your business?’
‘I’ll have to make regular trips to Chicago, but I’ll turn the barn into an office. Anything I could do in California, I can do here.’
‘Everything in one place. The work-life balance achieved. Your extended family around you.’
‘You like the idea?’
Annie sighed. ‘I’m deeply envious. I totally fell in love with the farmhouse. But won’t you miss your place on the beach?’
‘There’ll be time for that too. Maybe next time you want a break you should give me a call. We could catch up on those motorbike lessons.’
She shook her head. ‘I’m not going to run away again, George.’
‘No?’
She swallowed. ‘No. Open, upfront. The trouble is that when you’ve used publicity you can’t just turn it off, expect the media to back off just because it’s no longer convenient. I come with a lot of baggage.’
He heard what she said. Something more. It was the sound of a woman taking a tentative step away from the past. Coming towards him.
‘You’ll just have to keep your top on when we’re on the beach then,’ he replied casually.
For a moment the world seemed to hold its breath.
Then she replied, ‘And keep the curtains drawn when we’re inside.’
‘Actually, taking photographs through the window would be an invasion of privacy.’
‘You think they’d care?’ she said, faltering.
‘If we were married it wouldn’t be a story.’
‘I never thought of that.’
And suddenly they were talking about a life. The possibility of a future.
‘What about Xandra? You’ve just got your life together.’
‘Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, Annie. I’ve fought for everything I’ve got. Worked hours that would have raised the eyebrows of a Victorian mill owner. Say the word and I’d fight the world for you.’
