The freezer offered some ready-made meals that only needed a quick zap in the microwave but none of them appealed.
The phone rang as she was still peering into the freezer, hoping for inspiration.
A reporter, asking if she’d like to comment on the article.
‘Wouldn’t my comment have been more appropriate before you printed it rather than after?’ she snapped, and slammed the phone back down.
At least in a town this size, with only one newspaper and no local television, she wouldn’t be hounded by the press.
Deciding she wasn’t hungry, she sank down onto one of the kitchen stools, rested her chin on her hand and gazed at her flowers, uncertain whether to smile or weep.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NOISES OUTSIDE—A car pulling up.
Deciding there wasn’t anyone in the world she wanted to see—well, apart from Will but it wouldn’t be him—she had every intention of ignoring the expected ring on the doorbell.
But there was no ring, just the sound of a key in the lock, and although she knew, really, really knew she shouldn’t get excited about Will being here, her heart leapt in her chest then hammered like a wild thing.
‘Anyone home?’ he called. ‘You on the deck, Alex? You’ve got visitors.’
Visitors?
Plural?
She turned to see Will striding into the kitchen, a curly-headed moppet perched on one arm, and what looked like half a dozen shopping bags dangling from his other hand.
‘I’d told Charlotte all about Buddy and she wanted to meet him,’ he said brightly. ‘And I’ve brought takeaway.’
Again! Alex thought, but that was only because she didn’t want to think about the ramifications of this visit.
Buddy, meanwhile, was showing obvious delight to have a small person visiting him, bouncing up and down on the bench and going through his entire vocabulary, starting with the inevitable question about Bruce, telling Charlotte what a pretty girl she was, and finally finishing with such a wuss.
Charlotte was clearly delighted, looking at Alex with her father’s sparkling brown eyes.
‘Daddy said he could talk,’ she said, kicking herself free of her father’s arms and standing next to the bench, holding out a tentative hand towards the still-talking bird.
‘Sometimes he talks too much,’ Alex responded, her heart aching as she saw just what she’d be losing—this beautiful, trusting child, as well as Will.
‘Look, Daddy, he’s hopping up my arm.’
Her delight was so obvious Alex had to smile, although she wasn’t so sure about Will moving to stand beside her and rest his hand on her shoulder.
She should be angry at being ambushed this way, but how could she be?
So she told herself it might be the last time they were together and allowed herself to indulge in all the wonderful feelings a simple touch on her shoulder could produce.
Charlotte was obviously entranced by the bird, who was tugging at her hair and hopping on her head.
‘Look, Daddy, look at him.’
‘Let’s go outside and watch the river,’ Will suggested, and Alex recovered enough from the unexpectedness of the visit to find some biscuits in the pantry and cheese from the fridge.
Will produced a couple of bottles of light beer from the bag he’d carried in.
‘You did say you liked beer, didn’t you?’ he checked, and Alex could only smile.
She took the measly plate of snacks out onto the deck then squatted down to talk to Charlotte.
‘I’m Alex,’ she said.
‘I know, Daddy told me,’ the very confident young lady said. ‘And he told me about the river and that you’ve got a boat. Can we go out on the boat?’
‘It’s getting a bit late for boating,’ Alex said, wishing she could add that they’d go another day but not wanting to make false promises to a child.
Particularly this child!
Buddy had fluttered onto the railing and Charlotte, done with her conversation with her hostess, followed.
‘Oh, you’ve got a beach. I like beaches. Can I play on your beach?’
This time Will came to Alex’s rescue.
‘I think it’s a bit late and getting a bit cold for playing on the beach, poppet,’ he said, ‘but I brought the bag of toys you take when you go visiting. Perhaps you’d like to show them to Buddy.’
Overcome by the unexpectedness of it all, Alex sank down into a chair, watching the little girl pull a zoo of soft stuffed animals out of a bag, holding each one up for Buddy’s inspection before placing it carefully in a row on the edge of the deck.
The simple scene made Alex’s heart ache for what might have been—the family she’d been foolish enough to allow herself to dream of.
‘Okay, here’s the beer, and here’s the list.’
Will sat beside her, setting her beer on the table and pulling out the list.
‘The ones marked with an R are people Robyn knows and she’s going to contact them. You and I are going to search out the rest. We’ll start with the ones at the bottom. These are people Robyn remembered from school—older sisters of her friends. She says she knew about the touching and, because she was younger, she must have heard it from someone.’
There were six names and someone, possibly Robyn, had added phone numbers of the ex-students’ parents.
Alex looked at the man who was doing all this for her—looked at the man she loved—but the despair she’d been feeling all day had only intensified.
‘What good would it do?’ she asked. ‘It’s too late now—the story is out there.’
‘That’s why we have to get every bit of evidence we can to refute it, and once that’s done, the paper will print a retraction,’ Will growled. ‘And soon!’
Alex shook her head, but he wasn’t having any of it, reaching out to put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her towards him as he said quietly, ‘Alex, you gave me the greatest gift of all, the strength to love again. So now, my love, I’m asking you—begging you—to take some of my strength, and fight this with me.’
She looked into his eyes, intense with feeling, and the ‘love’ word hung between them.
He was right!
It was time to fight back.
‘I’ll just get my mobile,’ she said, and slipped into the kitchen, returning with a smile as she watched Buddy dancing around the stuffed toys, Charlotte clapping her hands in delight.
Moving a little away from the child, she phoned the first number on the list. Wilson, she remembered the name.
Her heart jittered around in her chest as she considered the reaction of whoever answered when she said her name, but her voice only quivered slightly when she responded to a ‘Hello’.
‘Mrs Wilson, this is Alex Hudson, and I was trying to get in touch with…’ she glanced at the list ‘…Barbara.’
‘Oh, Alex, how good to hear your voice. I wanted to phone to say I knew it was a lie. He didn’t rape Barbara but he did touch her a lot. She didn’t tell me until after the Spencers had left town, so I couldn’t help you at the trial, but I’ve talked to other people and the man was a monster.’
Alex tried to speak but couldn’t, the lump in her throat too big to let air through. Seeing her predicament—and probably the tears streaming down her cheeks—Will took the phone and introduced himself. Yes, he was the doctor from the ICU, yes, he remembered Mr Wilson being in. How was he?
But eventually he got the conversation back on track.
‘I knew Alex back then, Mrs Wilson. She lived next door with two doctors from the hospital who believed her story completely, as my family did. But ever since she came home to see her father again, she’s been a target of a stalker—phone calls, a rock through her window, nasty things spray-painted on her house. This is obviously the work of the same person and we’re trying to find out anything we can about what was going on at the school and church at that time.’
Silence on this end of the phone as Mrs Wilson poured out all she knew to
Will, Alex having recovered now and wondering what on earth could be taking so long.
Then Will talking again.
‘Thank you, Mrs Wilson, that would be a great help. The more people who are willing to write to the paper, telling what they knew of the man, the better. Alex is a wonderful doctor and it’s wrong that she should be driven out of town like this.’
More silence then, ‘No, you’re right, we won’t let it happen.’
He put down the phone, and put out his hand for a high five.
Alex responded although it seemed a little premature to be high-fiving.
‘Well?’
Will settled back beside her and took her hand, cold and slightly damp from the beer glass.
‘Mrs Wilson says that her daughter told her there was a rumour he was having an affair with one of the students. If that was the case, maybe he’d told the girl he’d marry her. Given that he left town almost straight after the trial, it might have given that girl—or woman now—reason to think you’d ruined her life.’
‘Oh, dear, how desperately sad,’ Alex said.
Will frowned at her.
‘For who?’ he asked.
Alex turned towards him. ‘For the girl, of course. You can bet if he didn’t rape her to begin the affair, he seduced her into sex, then just used her. Maybe she was getting older than he liked and he turned to me.’
She shuddered and Will put his arm around her again.
‘Let’s eat before we do any more. Charlotte will have some food then promptly fall asleep. I assume you don’t mind if we put her on the couch until we’re finished here and I can take her home.’
‘Of course not,’ Alex told him, turning to watch his daughter still entertaining the bird. ‘She is such a sweetie!’
The sadness in Alex’s voice meant Will had to give her another hug, before getting up to heat and serve the takeaway he’d brought.
They ate at the table, Buddy behaving himself for once, and when the meal was over, Charlotte yawned.
‘Are we going home, Daddy?’
Will picked her up.
‘How about we stay a little longer?’ he said. ‘I’ll take you upstairs to have a wash and then you can have a sleep on Alex’s couch while Daddy finishes some business.’
‘Okay,’ his daughter said sleepily, and Will blessed the fact that she’d always been a good sleeper. Playing flat out one minute then asleep the next.
‘But I’ll want my animals, and can Buddy come in while I sleep?
‘I’m sure he can, but he mightn’t stay there. Although maybe he’s ready for a sleep too, and we can put his cage in near you.’
Alex was happy to put Buddy to bed in his cage, and Will moved the cage into the living room so Charlotte could turn her sleepy eyes towards her new friend.
Will put his arm around Alex’s shoulder and together they watched the child fall asleep, Buddy obviously realising he had a serious job and refraining from comment.
They were walking back to the deck when Will’s phone rang. Praying he wasn’t needed at work, he checked the screen—not work—and answered.
And listened.
And listened.
Alex returned to the deck and waited. She’d failed in her first attempt at a phone call, so what else was there to do?
Think about the situation, that’s what, her head suggested, but Will and Charlotte’s visit had brought her such happiness she couldn’t be angry about it.
He finally joined her, a huge smile on his face.
‘Well, Mrs Wilson’s story is borne out. That last call was Robyn who’s heard it from three different sources—this talk of a secret affair.’
Alex shook her head in disbelief.
‘And no one knew?’
‘Someone must have,’ Will said. ‘Or at least suspected.’
Another phone ringing, this time the landline. Fortunately, Alex had carried the handset out onto the deck so that if anyone did ring, it wouldn’t wake Charlotte.
Lifting it, she said a very tentative hello, then heard the familiar voice on the other end, a voice that had changed very little in twenty years.
‘Caitlin, I can’t believe this. How are you? Where are you?’
She listened as her old best friend explained she was living in Sydney, then added, ‘But for some mad reason, I always check out the local paper on the internet.’
There was a pause before she added, ‘Well, it isn’t an unknown reason at all, Chrissie is a reporter for it.’
Alex remembered Caitlin’s older sister. She’d been pretty and very popular at the church.
And? Alex wanted to add, but something held her back, some instinct that said Caitlin had more to say.
‘I’m so sorry, Alex,’ she finally continued. ‘I know I should have said something at the time but my parents—well, they don’t speak to me any more because I even suggested such a thing—but Chrissie was having an affair with Spencer. It had been going on for a couple of years—from when she was sixteen, like you were. I didn’t know for sure until after he left town and Chrissie turned on me because my friend had ruined her life for ever. She ranted on like a madwoman, going on about how he had promised to divorce his wife and marry her and how she wanted to have his babies—awful stuff!’
‘Oh, Caitlin, I’m so sorry,’ was all Alex could manage.
‘You’re sorry?’ Caitlin all but shouted the words. ‘How do you think I feel that my sister has done this to you? She’s probably sleeping with the newspaper editor now to get him to print such scurrilous stuff. I’m going to get a retraction, make her tell the whole story.’
‘Calm down,’ Alex said, smiling as she remembered the young Caitlin firing up over injustices. ‘I know what she’s done was unforgiveable, but if you think back to how young she was and how much it must have scarred her—let’s see if we can sort it out without hurting her even more. She’s a victim too.’
‘Well, you’re a nicer person than I am,’ Caitlin said, ‘but keep in touch and let me know what I can do.’
Alex wrote down the phone number Caitlin gave her, and promised to keep in touch.
‘Found your old friend?’ Will said, smiling at her as she looked up from the phone.
‘Yes,’ she said soberly, ‘and my stalker.’ She explained about Caitlin’s sister, and her job as a reporter on the local paper.
Will reached out and touched her shoulder, kneading at it and running his fingers along her neck.
‘But you’re not going to use that, are you?’ he said, and Alex smiled up at him.
‘How could I?’ she said. ‘Do you really think a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl would have seduced him? Do you think he didn’t pick her out and groom her until he knew she was ready? What he did to her has already cast a huge shadow over her life. I can’t hurt her any more.’
‘So,’ said Will, ‘we go back to the lists and get as many people as possible to write letters to the paper, naming Spencer, the women telling of the times he touched them when they were young, others explaining how their strict church upbringing meant they couldn’t come forward at the trial.’
He pulled her to her feet and held her in his arms.
‘We’ll beat this,’ he said. ‘Just you wait and see!’
* * *
The media storm that followed the newspaper article was beyond anything Alex could ever have imagined. Somehow, in far-off America, the Armitages had heard of it, and a letter signed by both of them appeared in the paper.
But what affected Alex most was the number of women who came forward to say he’d behaved improperly towards them, one even admitting he’d raped her but she’d been too afraid to come forward.
They all praised Alex for speaking out when she had and so warning him against trying it again on other teenage girls.
And all sent regrets that not only had the wrong verdict been reached but that the case had once again become public.
‘Which still leaves us with Chrissie,’ Will said to her one evening, some we
eks later, when, as had become a custom, Charlotte was asleep on the couch and they were sitting on the deck.
‘I think I need to speak to her myself,’ Alex said. ‘I don’t want to hand her in to the police, but I do want her to know that I know it was her.’
‘I’ll come with you—you have no idea what she could do. She could be more incensed than ever.’
Alex smiled at her protector.
‘No, Will, it’s something I have to do alone. I’ll meet her in a public place—a coffee shop. Nothing can happen there.’
* * *
And nothing did, apart from tears and apologies and the outpouring of a grief that had been so deep for Chrissie it had escalated to a kind of madness.
‘I hadn’t thought about Mr Spencer for years. I’d buried all thoughts of that time,’ Chrissie said through her tears. ‘But when I found out that you were back in town all my anger came flooding back. Something inside me just…snapped.’
‘Have you thought about getting counselling?’ Alex suggested gently. ‘I could get some referrals from the hospital for you.’
‘Caitlin’s been on to me about counselling,’ Chrissie said.
‘It can be very helpful,’ Alex said softly. ‘I should know—I saw a counsellor for years.’
Her tears spent, Chrissie managed a watery smile. ‘It’s a bit late, but I know I need it.’
‘It’s never too late,’ Alex said. ‘I’m only just beginning to realise that myself.’ She reached across the table and took Chrissie’s hand, prompting another flood of tears.
‘I’m so sorry for what I did to you, Alex.’ Chrissie sobbed. ‘I know you could have exposed me as the girl who had the affair with him. I’ve been disciplined at work, even though the editor has been delighted with the controversy. Distribution numbers are way up as everyone reads the salacious gossip about a man they once thought was wonderful. I was such a fool.’
She sighed, and more tears slid down her cheeks.
Alex squeezed her fingers.
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ she assured Chrissie. ‘It was never your fault.’
The One Man to Heal Her Page 15
