Part Two

He Said

“Ah, if it isn’t the lovely Liv, escaped from her oppressor’s clutches at last,” Dan greeted, as he entered the clubhouse.

“Escaped? Hardly. I’m sharing an apartment with her,” she answered, seeming almost serious.

He sobered. “Are you here to be alone? I can go.”

She shook her head. “I just needed some space, I guess. It isn’t helping, so you might as well stay and distract me.”

“Distraction is my speciality,” he answered, dropping into a chair opposite her. “Though, a hint to what I’m supposed to be distracting you from would be handy right now.”

She sighed and looked away. “Men. Loss. Lies. Work – or lack of it.”

“Why are you really here?” Dan asked, while a dreadful qualm seized his insides.

Liv started. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

She turned away. “Trixie asked me to come. It’s as simple as that.”

He shook his head. “That’s not the whole story.”

“The whole story?” she shrieked, losing her temper with a suddenness that took him aback. “The whole story involves a possessive ex-boyfriend, a lecherous old man, a bruised ego, some really disgusting false accusations and practically a lynch mob. I didn’t feel safe in Corbin any more and Trixie was kind enough to invite me to come here, okay?”

He realised that his mouth was partly open, his brow puckered. “And you thought you could just keep all that to yourself? I thought we were friends.”

She swallowed. “I couldn’t stand talking about it. I was going to tell you, sometime. Or, at least, make Trixie do it. I just hadn’t gotten around to it, yet.”

“You did choose an eventful time to arrive,” he conceded.

“I didn’t choose it at all!” She huffed out a sigh. “I couldn’t stay where I was any longer. The ex-boyfriend kept on hanging around and the old lecher lived next door, as well as working with me, and he’d convinced half the people at the foundation that his side of the story was right. You don’t know what it’s like for everyone to be against you.”

“Don’t I?”

“Okay, well, maybe you do, but you don’t know what it’s like to defend yourself from a hand being shoved down your blouse and then end up being accused of things you didn’t do.”

“I don’t wear blouses,” he replied, in mock seriousness.

Despite her former seriousness, Liv laughed. “If you did, you might know just a little of how I feel right now.” Again, she sighed. “When I said that Trixie asked me to come, what I really meant was that Trixie badgered me into coming. She just wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

He nodded. “She’s like that.”

“But what am I supposed to do now? This isn’t working out the way I imagined it would. And I still feel terrible about what happened at the foundation.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

“I know, and I can’t think of any way I could have stopped it, but I still feel bad.”

He nodded.

“So, what do I do?” she asked again, more softly this time.

He considered the situation for a few moments before he spoke. “Let Trixie worry about the foundation. Give yourself some time to get settled here. Don’t worry so much; the Bob-Whites will look after you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that last one?”

Dan grinned. “Yep. We always see through the things that Trixie starts.”

To his satisfaction, she smiled in response. “I’ll bear that in mind.”

She Said

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” Trixie punctuated her words with bumps of her head against the wall.

“Will you stop that?” Liv demanded, coming up behind her. “The landlord will kill us if you make dints.”

Trixie declined to reply. It was her lease and her responsibility. Liv would not have to answer to anyone for damage that Trixie herself did and they both knew it.

“What is it?” Liv asked, more gently.

Her friend shrugged. “I don’t want to think about it, but I can’t get it out of my head. I feel guilty that I agreed to do something in a particular circumstance. And guilty that I’m not doing the thing I agreed to, even though that circumstance is never, ever going to happen.”

“Indira?”

Liv knew the basic outline of the other woman’s situation, but had never met her, or even spoken to her on the phone.

Trixie nodded. “Why does she do these things? She says things no one should say.”

“Maybe it’s easier to say what you mean when you’re dying.”

“Probably. But Indira always has.” She groaned. “I hate that that was probably the last conversation I’ll ever have with her. How am I supposed to live with that?”

“Go back,” Liv suggested. “Have another conversation.”

“And risk having her tell me exactly what I’ve done wrong with my life? And how to fix it? No, thanks!” She shook her head. “Even if I wanted to, I doubt that she’d be well enough to speak to me again. She was just so weak and drowsy when I talked to her and now I’ve heard that she’s a lot worse.”

“Then, let it go. Either that, or take her advice.”

Trixie cast her a long look. “There’s no way that’s happening!”

“Then, what are you worrying about?”

She stared into the distance for a few moments. “What if she’s right? But then, what if she’s wrong? I don’t even know which is worse.”

Liv remembered Dan’s all-too-recent advice and tried to rephrase it to fit Trixie’s situation. “Someone wise told me just this morning that I should not worry so much and that the Bob-Whites would look after me. I think that goes even more for you than it does for me.”

Her friend shrugged and looked away. “Yeah, they would. Always.”

“Then, let them,” Liv advised.

Trixie nodded, glanced at the wall she had been banging her head on and walked away.

He Said

Jim answered the door to find his best friend, shoulders rigid and expression grim, standing on the doorstep. They had not known each other all these years for Jim to not be instantly sure of the news his friend bore.

“Come in. Let’s sit down,” he invited. “Do you need a drink?”

Brian shook his head, not speaking until they were both seated opposite each other on the twin sofas in the living room. Jim held the baby on his lap, while Madoc crawled around the room.

“She’s gone.” Brian’s voice was low and serious. “It happened in the early hours of the morning.”

Jim breathed a sigh. “Is there going to be a funeral?”

“I don’t think so,” his friend answered. “Her family don’t want one. She only had a few close friends – us, mostly.”

“There should be a memorial of some kind. People need a chance to say goodbye.” He made a decision. “If no one else is going to organise one, I will. Do you know who’s making the other arrangements? And what is it going to be? A cremation or a burial?”

“Neither. She’s donated her body to medical science.”

“Oh, of course.” Jim took a breath. “I guess that makes it easier. I just need a time, a date and a venue. And to decide exactly what kind of thing we want to do.”

“I can’t imagine anything formal being fitting for her,” Brian noted. “She never did things the way others did them.”

Jim nodded. “You’re right. So, let’s do things the way she’d do them. We’ll sit in a circle and drink tea and tell the absolute truth.”

Brian cracked a smile. “That sounds just right.”

“Here.” Jim decided. “Right here, with her children present and as many brightly patterned items as we can get our hands on. Maybe Honey or Di has some exotic linen put away somewhere.”

“We can use her own,” Brian replied. “As executor of her estate, I think that’s in my power to grant.”

“Executor?”

Brian nodded. “I have to go and clean out her apartment after this.”

Jim grimaced, but did not offer to help. He had quite enough to handle already.

“Do you have space in your attic?” Brian asked, interrupting Jim’s musings.

“Plenty,” he answered. “Store whatever you like up there; it won’t bother me.”

“Thanks,” Brian answered. “I’d better go and get it over with. I’ll probably be back in a couple of hours.”

Jim nodded. He let his friend out and went back to sit in the living room. For a long time, he just stared into space, stopping only when the baby cried.

She Said

Trixie arranged to call on Matthew Wheeler at home that evening, at which time she poured out her woes regarding the foundation and its director.

“You know my resources are at your disposal,” he answered. “Draft up a letter to him, explicitly stating that it is a formal warning and outlining the reasons for the warning. Put down exactly what he needs to do to stay within his contract – shutting down that extraneous project and restoring the ones he’s scrapped. Send it to me and I’ll run it through the legal department before you sign it.”

“Thank you.” She smiled, though not with her usual brilliance. “I think I’ve made a really big mistake here, and I don’t know how I’m going to fix it. There’s one other thing I need your advice on.”

She outlined Liv’s theory about the reference check, ending, “I can’t decide whether to re-check the referees, or do some other checking on them first.”

“Hmm,” he mused, tenting his fingers. “That’s a tricky question. What does your gut tell you?”

“I want to do both, but I’m thinking of checking up on them first. That way, if they’ve supplied inaccurate references on purpose, it won’t get back to him.”

He nodded. “That’s probably a good thought. But make sure that you don’t alert them to your checking.” He considered for a moment. “Give me their names and I’ll put someone on it. I don’t know whether they’ll get any results, but it’s worth a shot, before you personally go running back to Corbin.”

Trixie smiled, a genuine smile this time. “Honey keeps telling me not to go back. She’ll appreciate it.”

He smiled in return. “It’s partly for her benefit that I’m making the offer. Partly, it’s in my own interest as well, since I am your sponsor, to some extent. But the personal angle is weighing more heavily, I will admit.”

She nodded. “I don’t want to make things harder for her. I’ve done enough of that already.”

“Let’s put these plans into motion,” he answered, avoiding the topic. “We’ll see if we can get away with working on it from afar. I think we should be able to.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll get onto it right away.”

He Said

On the day chosen for Indira’s memorial, only a relatively small group of people gathered in Jim’s house: all of the Bob-Whites, except Trixie, a few of their family members and just a couple of other friends. They entered the living room and took places in a rough circle, just as Brian and Jim had planned. When it was time to start, Brian took charge.

Slowly, deliberately, Brian made the tea and poured it into a number of small cups, each decorated in a different bright pattern. The eclectic mix was Indira’s own, which Jim intended to set aside for her children. Brian gave a cup to each person present.

“I remember the first day I met Indira,” Jim began, with a faint smile on his face. “I could hardly believe that she was Brian’s friend. She lived her entire life as his polar opposite – in some ways. When I got to know her better, I realised that they were very similar in a number of important ways. She was intelligent and compassionate, a good listener and very perceptive. Unlike Brian, she felt free to speak her mind on any topic and to live exactly as she saw fit. I will miss her frankness and the brightness she brought to everyone around her.”

“I’ll miss talking to her on the phone,” Honey added. “She was always so funny, especially back when they were sharing a house and she tried to explain why Brian wasn’t there.”

Several other people went on to share their reminiscences. The tea cups emptied, a few were refilled. Others put theirs down, untouched.

“I remember conspiring with her over the phone,” Di shared. “We were never really close, but she helped me so much.”

A silence fell.

“What about you, Brian?” Honey asked at last. “You’re the only one who hasn’t shared something.”

He frowned and looked down at the cup in his hands. The brown liquid had cooled and he could see a few brown specks on the bottom.

“When we planned this, Jim and I agreed it was only right that everyone should say exactly what they think.” He took a breath, hardly noticing when someone beside him gently took away the cup, which was rattling against its saucer. “And the truth is that, even though I’ll miss her – her crazy talk, her even crazier ideas, the way she told me off every time I was being ridiculous, the ever-changing hair and the crazy clothes, and even the way she kept managing me for my own good – all that fades into insignificance in the face of the anger I feel against her. She should have told me she was sick.”

His words were quiet, almost mumbled, but they still caused a shocked silence.

“She should,” Jim agreed. “I don’t understand it, either.”

“Maybe she didn’t believe it would come to this,” Honey suggested.

“That doesn’t excuse her!” Brian snapped, eyes brimming with tears.

Mart got up from his place and squeezed in next to his brother, giving him a firm pat on the back. “We’re all in this together,” he promised. “All for one and one for all.”

“You have no idea …” Brian muttered, under his breath.

“Don’t I?” Mart whispered back. “I think I do know. And it’s going to be okay.”

“Let’s have a couple of minutes’ silence to remember Indira,” Jim suggested.

As they each thought about what they had lost, Brian’s tears finally fell.

She Said

The front door to Di’s tiny cottage stood open, catching a cooling breeze. She had found this place almost by chance, with its existence being conveyed to her by word of mouth. The elderly owner was delighted to have someone like Di living in her old family home. Better still, it was not far from Glen Road, so friends and family could drop in unannounced.

“Can I come in?” a voice asked from the doorway.

Di turned, saw Liv standing there and smiled. “Of course. How’s it going?”

She screwed up her nose. “Like I abandoned my life and travelled to a whole new state, with nothing more than a vague offer of help to rely on? Yeah, I think that sums it up.”

“But you’ve got a roof over your head and food on the table and there’s plenty of prospects for you finding a job that you’ll like, aren’t there?” Di sat down on the sofa and patted the seat next to her. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed you and a certain someone.”

“If you mean Dan–”

Di let out a most unladylike snort. “As one of Dan’s exes, let me assure you that his style is not like that at all. When he’s serious, it’s all done in private. Whenever he says something personal in public, I know right away that it’s not the real thing.”

“Good to know.” Liv frowned. “But there’s not anyone else, really.”

“Isn’t there?” Di arched a brow. “That’s not what I’m seeing. I’ve been noticing you and Brian interacting rather a lot.”

“Yes, but it’s not like that.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?”

Di reached for the phone, but Liv caught her hand.

“No, forget I said that.” She sighed. “It’s kind of complicated. I want to get to know him better, but I don’t think he wants the same thing.”

“He’s sensible and measured,” Di noted, after a pause. “Cautious. Slow, even. Not slow intellectually, of course, but I mean, he doesn’t rush into things. And in his past, when he did rush things, it turned out terribly.”

Liv frowned. “I didn’t know that. I guess it makes sense.”

“Just give it time. He’ll come around when he’s ready.”

“I might have left town by then!”

“So, nothing’s happening in terms of employment?”

Liv shrugged. “Trixie did hear of something and I went and interviewed. I even went in and worked a couple of days, but it really didn’t suit me and the boss and I agreed that it was a mistake.”

Di frowned in sympathy. “That’s tough. And you’ve got nothing else on the horizon?”

“I’ve got to find something and soon.” She sighed. “I didn’t think this through at all. I have no resources, nothing to fall back on. When the last of my savings run out – which will be pretty soon, let me tell you – I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Trixie won’t kick you out,” Di chided. “You’re going to be okay. You just need something to tide you over, I guess.”

Liv nodded. “I don’t want charity. I’m capable of working. I just – well, I need to find the right fit.”

“It will turn up,” Di assured her. “And, in the meantime, we’re all on your side.”

“Dan said something like that, too.”

Di smiled. “Then listen to him! We’re not going to let you starve. And Trixie is not going to kick you out, after dragging you all the way here.”

“I suppose not,” Liv admitted. “She was impossible to say no to.”

“You’re going to be okay,” Di repeated. “Even if Honey or I have to get one of our fathers to invent a job for you, we’re going to make sure you find one.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Di answered. “Trust us. Please.”

Liv nodded. “If you put it that way, how can I say no?”

He Said

Matthew put the phone down and swore softly. When Trixie approached him for advice, he was only too willing to help her out. Now that the results of his enquiries were trickling in, he wondered just what she had gotten herself into and how he could best help her out of it. Making a decision, he picked the phone up again and dialled her number.

“I have some news,” he admitted, once the preliminaries were over. “My people have gotten back to me about those reference checks and we think we have something. The man who supplied the reference appears to be fine, but someone in his office has since been dismissed for undisclosed reasons and that person is a close friend of your wayward director.”

“So, you think I should approach the referee?”

“Yes, I do. There’s nothing official available, but it appears to be some considerable animosity between him and the man he sacked. This could be the short-cut that we need, rather than waiting for the warning system to take its course.”

She groaned. “I think I’m going to be issuing a second warning any day now. He still hasn’t shut down that new project. And I’m hearing that he’s planning another one, also outside the bounds of our stated goals.”

He frowned. “Let’s do a surprise audit. I want to know where the money is coming from to do this stuff. If you’re agreeable, I’ll set that in motion.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Do you think I should make some enquiries, too? Privately, I mean, with some of the staff that I know well?”

“If you have someone that you’re sure will be loyal to you, yes. Otherwise, it might be wiser not to.”

She made a noise of agreement. “If Liv was still there … but there is someone else. I’ll call her at home, but I’ll talk it over with Liv first and make sure her loyalties didn’t change between when I left and when Liv left.”

“And what does Liv herself say about it?”

She thought for a moment. “She hasn’t said all that much. She mostly told me about the creepy guy that got hired and the way he intimidated her. She hasn’t really talked about anyone else.”

“Ask,” he urged. “Do it as soon as possible. Everything you’ve done there is at risk while this man is in charge. In the meantime, we need to do some damage control.”

“Okay,” she answered. “I’ll get onto it right away.”

She Said

Liv sat alone in the clubhouse once more, wondering just what she was going to do. Her thoughts raced around and around, getting her nowhere. Glancing across at the table, where she had left her towel and swimsuit, she wondered whether a swim in the lake would have been the better choice after all. She had started coming here, at Trixie’s suggestion, as a place where she could find solitude. It never seemed to work and it wasn’t going to work this time, either. She could hear footsteps approaching.

“We meet again,” Dan greeted. “Am I interrupting this time, or would you like some company?”

She shrugged. “Do whatever you want. I don’t mind.”

He frowned. “That doesn’t sound very promising.”

Liv shook her head, trying to clear it of the bad mood she had fallen into. “Sorry. I’m just having a bit of a pity-party.”

He sat down next to her, but did not speak.

“Want to talk about it?” he offered, at last.

“Not really. Nothing to say that hasn’t been said.”

They lapsed into a thoughtful silence, then Dan’s eyes sharpened.

“Don’t move. You’ve got a spider in your hair,” he told her.

She froze. “Where?”

“Here. Let me get it.”

His arm – the way he was leaning towards her – the scene went out of focus and suddenly she was somewhere else.

“Liv? What’s wrong?” she heard him say, but the words made no sense in the context of her memory.

Her focus returned and she looked at Dan, whose wary and concerned expression spoke volumes.

Heart beating fast, she pushed him away. “Sorry. Got to go.”

Snatching up her things, she raced outside. After a moment’s hesitation, she chose a direction.

She raced down the path to the lake, ignoring the sheen of sweat appearing on her face and concentrating on the rhythm of her footsteps. Reaching the boathouse, she stepped inside and shut the door. In the cool darkness she dropped her towel and swimsuit on the bench and took a moment to catch her breath.

What was she really running from? She closed her eyes and remembered the scene, letting it overlap in her mind’s eye with another scene in the past. But Dan was not like that other man. And he would probably never want to be more than a friend.

Sighing, Liv pulled off her clothes and dressed in the bikini that Di had convinced her to buy. She smoothed the material over her hip, where the edge of a jagged scar peeked out, still red against the paleness of the surrounding skin.

Leaving her clothes where they were, she picked up the towel and left it near the water’s edge. The first plunge seemed far too cold, but she pushed herself to keep going. Strong strokes took her out into the middle, where the bottom seemed to disappear altogether.

She turned over onto her back and stared at the blue sky above. Even so, her thoughts still swirled. Not wanting to swim any further, she began to explore whether the lake really was too deep to reach the bottom here. Her first, tentative, exploration below the surface yielded no clue, so she tried again and again, getting further from the boathouse with each dive, but never finding the lake bed.

Running short of breath, she floated on her back once more, this time with her eyes closed, and reflected that this method of calming her mind was not working at all. Giving it up as a bad idea, she turned and dove under the surface once more, this time heading back. Feeling a disturbance in the water ahead of her, she came up abruptly, almost face to face with another swimmer.

He swore, then appeared to relax. “Oh, it’s just you.”

“Brian.” Her mind at last identified him. “Sorry. I thought I was alone.”

“So did I,” he answered, with a hint of a smile. “Though, perhaps I shouldn’t have. I did see your towel. I just thought it had been left behind sometime.”

She nodded, not quite knowing whether to move away or stay where she was. He made the decision for her, by retreating a short distance.

“I won’t interrupt if you want to be alone. There’s plenty of room for both of us and I was thinking of getting out anyway.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. In fact, it is cold, now that I’ve stopped moving.”

Without talking any more they both returned to the shore. Liv picked up her towel and began to dry herself. Brian’s towel was close by and he did the same. Neither of them spoke.

Glancing down, she noticed that her pants had slipped a little and her scar was showing. She tried to put her hand over it, but thought better of the action. He must have noticed, for he commented, “We all have scars.”

“Not as bad as this one,” she muttered, a flush of mingled embarrassment and annoyance heating her face.

He snorted. “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.” He went on before she could reply. “Obviously, I don’t mean that literally. I just meant that I’m sure mine is worse.”

In answer, she eased the material down across her flat abdomen. As bikini bottoms go, this one belonged at the modest end of the range. She stopped at the point where a more scanty garment might end.

Raising an eyebrow, she challenged, “You still think so?”

Brian took a step closer. “This is still pretty new, isn’t it? It won’t be this red forever.”

“It’ll be this ugly forever,” she answered.

“I doubt it.” He turned his back and peeled the wet shirt up to his chest. “I guess I did say I’d show you mine …”

She gasped softly as she saw the network of scars across his lower back and could not help but reach out and touch one of them.

“How did this happen?”

He shook his head. “I offered to show you – and I’ve never voluntarily done that before. I never said I’d tell the story.”

“In that case,” she answered, stung, “I won’t tell you mine, either.”

Brian grunted and tugged his shirt back down. “Sorry. I guess I’m still touchy about it. I haven’t even told my parents.”

“Why not? Or is that too personal, too?”

For a long moment, he did not answer. “I guess I didn’t want anyone saying I told you so. And then it was a secret and I couldn’t explain why I’d kept it for so long. And then it became a habit to cover it up.”

“Tell them,” she urged, softly. “It will set you free.”

He stared, open-mouthed, for a long moment. “I’ll think about it,” he answered, at last. Belatedly, he added, “Thanks.”

She nodded and smiled.

He Said

Now, why did I say that? Brian wondered, as he continued to look at Liv. I can’t tell anyone this! Not after all this time.

But even inside his head, he could not completely rule it out. It would hurt. It would be a humiliation of sorts. But it might mend some relationships that he knew he had damaged.

“It’s lovely down here,” Liv commented, while gazing across the water. “Peaceful.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, but gazing at her, rather than the lake. Lovely.

An impulse overtook him and he acted without thinking. He took a step forwards and pressed a kiss to her lips. Her eyes widened in surprise and she did not respond before he pulled away.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have.” He stepped back and looked away. “I’ll go.”

“Wait.”

He turned back to her. She had not moved and, while a hint of the surprise lingered in her expression, she did not look angry or disgusted. His hopes raised just a fraction.

“I want to get to know you, Brian,” she told him. “I don’t know that I’m ready for anything more at the moment, but I’d like to … move in that direction, I guess you could say.”

“That sounds promising,” he answered.

Liv laughed. “I’m not promising anything!”

He smiled in return. “Neither am I.”

“Then we’re agreed.” She gazed at him long enough that, if anyone else had done so, he would have felt uncomfortable. “Are you free tonight? We could see a movie.”

He shrugged. “Provided it’s not a romance.”

Liv screwed up her nose. “What do you take me for? I like action movies best.”

He considered her. “You do?”

She nodded. “So how about it?”

“It’s a date,” he replied.

She Said

“Ugh! I am exhausted.” Trixie moaned, as she wandered in the front door. “Let’s get Chinese. There’s a great place that delivers.”

“Um,” Liv replied, not meeting her eyes.

Her friend pushed off some of the tiredness and stared. “What do you mean, um?”

“Um,” Liv repeated. “I’m going out?”

“Out?”

“Yes.”

Trixie’s eyes narrowed. “There’s something you’re not telling me. What is it?”

“I’m going out with Brian,” she admitted, at last. “I mean, we’re thinking of dating.”

“If you’re going to have wild, uncontrolled – erm – situations with my brother, make sure you do it when I’m not here!” Trixie urged, while screwing up her nose. “I don’t want to know the details.”

“I wasn’t thinking of it,” Liv replied, her cheeks tinging pink. “In fact, I think I’d rather have any situations – as you put it – at his place instead.”

“That would be a lot less awkward,” Trixie agreed, grinning. “Just think. Otherwise, I might run into him in the morning. ‘Oh, hello Brian. Fancy seeing you here, in your underwear, in my kitchen. Coffee?’”

Liv snorted. “No. Definitely, no.” She sighed. “But I don’t think you need to worry about that just yet, anyway. I don’t want to rush into anything I’ll regret.”

Trixie shook her head. “I know what you mean. But I will give Brian a good reference. He doesn’t go around getting tired of girls and just dumping them.”

“Di’s already told me as much. She’s been encouraging us.”

Trixie’s brows drew together. “Really? How did I not know this?”

“I don’t think I’ve seen you and Di in the same place at the same time more than once or twice since I got here. She could be doing anything and you wouldn’t know.”

Trixie dropped onto a chair with a thud. “You’re right. I’ve hardly seen her lately. She could be doing anything. She might have a boyfriend that I know nothing about. Does she have a boyfriend?”

Liv shrugged. “Not to my knowledge.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s something, at least. And I thought I was doing better.”

“From what everyone tells me, you are doing better.”

Trixie snorted. “Thanks. A lot.”

“But you are okay with Brian and me, aren’t you?” Liv asked, reverting to the previous topic.

Trixie thought for a few moments. “Yes. I’m okay. More than okay. I hope you’ll be happy.” She sighed. “But you do realise that this means Honey was right.”

“Honey?” Liv wondered. “How?”

Trixie grinned. “Last year, she tried to tell me that there was an attraction between you and Brian, but I didn’t believe her.”

“Last year.”

“Yes, that’s what I said.” Trixie huffed a breath. “It’s taken ages to get to this point, but I hope you’ll both be happy.”

Liv smiled. “I hope so, too.”

He Said

Something was definitely wrong, Jim decided, as he bottle-fed the baby while eating a peach as the last part of his breakfast. In the high chair next to him, Madoc was busily wolfing down some fruit of his own. The morning routine was becoming familiar, but the sense of wrongness still intruded.

Jim cast his mind over the commitments he had, the things on his to-do list, the people he needed to keep up with. He glanced over at the wall calendar, trying to pick out anything he might have missed. He looked at the date. He thought a little more. He looked again.

With dawning horror, Jim realised that today was not the day he had been thinking of. Today was the day of an important meeting. In the turmoil his life had become, he had lost a whole week. He looked at the children and wondered exactly what to do about them – especially since Brian had still not gotten around to telling his family.

His first thought was to call his sister, so he put down the remains of his peach, picked up the phone and dialled.

Honey did not answer. He tried Manor House, even though he knew that there should be no one in the main house. Unsurprisingly, the call went to a message service. Jim declined to leave a message. He put a call through to Regan’s office, in spite of the incongruity of asking him to help, but no one answered.

What am I going to do? he wondered in desperation. I can’t get out of the meeting, but I really can’t take the kids with me. The memory of Mrs. Belden’s offer floated into his mind and he had picked up the phone before he had time to think things through. A few minutes later, he left home for Crabapple Farm.

The back door was thrown open for him as his car drew into the yard and Helen Belden emerged. “Don’t worry about a thing,” she told him, as he started to apologise for the intrusion and the late notice. “I meant what I said: we’ll do anything we can to help you.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Belden,” he answered, his deep gratitude seeping into the words. “I don’t know what I’d do otherwise.”

“Don’t mention it.” She smiled and gathered the baby into her arms. “It will be an absolute pleasure. It’s been too long since there’s been a baby in the place.” With no apparent effort, she also took the bag of belongings he had hastily packed and settled Madoc on her hip. “They’ll be just fine with me. You go and concentrate on your meeting.”

“Thank you,” he repeated. “Thank you so much.”

Continue to part three.