notice.’
The end of the holiday was near. The four of them would fly to London, where the children would be reunited with Mary. After that, she hoped she and Darius would have a little time together before returning to Herringdean.
But the day before they were due to leave the financial world began to call to Darius more urgently. Hardly a minute passed without a text, an email or a call on his cellphone.
‘Is it bad news?’ she asked him urgently.
‘Not bad, just interesting. It could go either way, depending on how I handle it. I think we need to change our plans. It’s best if you don’t come to London after all. I’ll have to stay there a few days, sort some things out. So I’ll take the kids back to Mary and stay out of your hair for a while.’ He grinned. ‘You’ll be glad to have a rest from me.’
‘Of course I will,’ she said in a dead voice. ‘Who could think otherwise?’
The children complained bitterly about her not coming with them.
‘I’ve got work to do,’ she said cheerfully. ‘It’s time I took over the shop and I have to go to training sessions for the lifeboat.’
‘But we will see you again?’ Frankie urged.
‘I’m sure you will. Who knows what’s around the corner?’
She spoke brightly, but she couldn’t help being glad Darius wasn’t there to hear. She couldn’t have helped watching for his reaction, and now something in her was warning her to expect the worst.
On the day she saw them off and stood looking up into the sky as the helicopter rose higher and higher, then swung away until it disappeared completely and the sky was empty but for a few seagulls.
How lonely it was now. After the pleasures of the last week, the quiet and emptiness were almost unbearable. Worse still was the fear that what had gone was gone for ever. He had said the news could be good, depending on how he handled it, and she guessed he would handle it with skill, perhaps ruthlessness. The ‘no mercy’ side of him would rise and take over again.
He would leave Herringdean, having no further use for it, or for her. He’d learned how to reach out to his children and he could carry those lessons forward without her help. He’d settle back in London, find a wife who suited him better, sell Herringdean and forget she existed.
It was time to be sensible. She was good at that, she reminded herself. She had a shop to see to, and Phantom to look after. He was showing signs of depression now his two adoring young friends had gone.
‘People always go off and leave you, don’t they?’ she said, caressing him. ‘Well, not me. I’ll always be here for you. That’s a promise.’
Moving back into her home, she filled up the time by cleaning it. More time was occupied at the lifeboat station, but mostly in training sessions. For some reason, very few boats got into trouble.
Now she began to understand Mark and Frankie’s frustration at the lack of action. Why couldn’t people obligingly get into danger so that she could have the satisfaction of saving them? Not that she wanted anyone to suffer. She just wanted to feel needed, and that was becoming hard.
For the first few days Darius called her regularly, but the calls were always brief. Then they were replaced by texts, friendly, cheerful but unrevealing. Exactly the kind of message a man might send if he was easing his way out of a relationship.
One evening she and Phantom went out for a long walk. As she strolled back home a car passed her going in the other direction, and slowed down. It was Walter.
‘I just drove past your place,’ he called, ‘and there’s a fellow standing there.’
‘Did you see who it was?’ she asked eagerly.
‘No, I wasn’t that close, but he looked as if he was waiting for you.’
‘Thanks, Walter.’
Her heart soaring, she sped away, racing Phantom until her shop came in sight and she dashed around the corner, to where a man was walking impatiently up and down.
It was Amos Falcon.
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘GOOD evening, Mrs Connor.’
Harriet wondered if she’d only imagined that he stressed ‘Mrs’ very slightly.
‘Good evening, Mr Falcon. What a surprise. You didn’t tell me you were coming.’
‘It was a sudden decision. Aren’t you going to invite me in?’
‘Of course.’
She led him up to her apartment over the shop, keeping her hand on Phantom’s collar, dreading that he might give one of his displays of friendliness. But she need not have feared. When they were inside, Phantom moved as far away from Amos as possible and sat huddled in a corner, eyeing him distrustfully.
When the door had shut, Harriet said, ‘If you were hoping to see Darius-’
‘I wasn’t. I know he’s in London. I’ve seen him several times in the last few days.’ He was watching her face carefully, easily seeing that this disconcerted her. ‘Did he not tell you that? Strange.’
On first finding him there she had remembered how pleasantly he’d spoken to her when they danced at the wedding. But now she saw that his smile was cold, and she remembered how Darius had described his father- ruthless, scheming, implacable; a man who was determined to make others do his will. She recalled too that Amos had chosen a wife for his son, and wondered uneasily what had brought him such a distance to see her.
‘So you don’t know what’s been happening to him?’ Amos said in a genial voice that struck a false note to her ears.
‘I don’t ask Darius about his business,’ Harriet said. ‘I doubt if I’d understand it, anyway.’
‘Possibly, but when a man is taking hold of his problems and dealing with them successfully it’s not hard to understand. Anyway, never mind that. You and I have things to discuss.’
‘Coffee?’ she asked politely.
‘Thank you, I will. You know, I really took to you when we met before. You’re an admirable young woman, not just because you helped save my son’s life, but also because of the way you’ve built up this shop. It’s worth a lot more than you’d think by just looking at the outside.’
‘How do you know what it’s worth?’ she asked.
He shrugged. ‘That kind of information isn’t hard to come by. It belonged to your husband but he had very little time for it so the running of it fell to you. It was you who arranged the loans and made sure they were paid on time.’
‘So you’ve been looking at my bank records?’ she asked in outrage.
She knew that a man like this, who stood at the summit of the financial universe, would have no difficulty in accessing any figures that he wanted, yet the discovery that he’d had her investigated was a nasty shock that made her seethe.
‘And I’ve been very impressed by what I found. You’ve turned this place into twice what it was before. I’m prepared to pay a high price for it.’
‘It’s not for sale.’
He gave a harsh chuckle. ‘Of course it isn’t. That’s exactly what I expected you to say.’
‘And I meant it.’
‘Naturally. But you and I don’t need to waste any time. We both know what the score is. You’ve gained a real influence over my son, but now that he’s returning to his old life I don’t want him harking back to you. The fight isn’t over yet and he’s going to need all his faculties to come out on top.’
Then Harriet did something that she did very rarely. She lost her temper, turning on him with such a look that he nearly backed away.
‘Understand me,’ she said. ‘I will not discuss Darius with you. If he wants to consign me to the past then he
