Mark’s sunken eyes narrowed as he scratched his neck, and Ashley stood. The two, so alike, clung to each other.
Ashley’s voice trembled harder than her hands. “Mark, fuck off.”
Arthur appeared, a steady warmth emanated from him, and Rebecca wanted to grab hold of him. He set the to-go cups down. “Everything all right?”
Rebecca shook her head, and as he turned to Mark, who stepped back a little at the sight of Arthur, he went rigid.
“This is Mark Crest.”
“Is it?” The danger of Arthur’s voice made her skin prickle.
Arthur had Mark up the wall by the scruff of his tracksuit and bared his teeth in a second. “I’m not a violent man,” Arthur growled out as Mark squirmed. “But let me explain how this is going to work. You are going to fuck off. You’re going to leave Rebecca and Ashley alone because if you don’t, if you come looking for them, I will kill you. I know people.” Arthur slammed him against the wall for good measure, and the bastard fell to the floor.
Rebecca looked from Mark, with Ashley clinging onto her, to Arthur, who had a murderous look on him. She’d never seen him like that, not even when he was angry with her.
His hand shook as he pointed it at Mark. “I mean it. We both know what you are, and I know Rebecca is capable, but she shouldn’t have to endure you.”
A doctor came into the lounge and stopped, assessing the situation.
“Get up,” Arthur spat.
Mark pushed up the wall, glancing at Rebecca.
He looked away and pushed past the doctor, and Ashley let her breath go.
The doctor cleared his throat and went through the paperwork and medications.
When they were alone, and preparing to go, Rebecca paused. “Do you really know people?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” He smoothed his shirt, and she smiled.
Arthur wheeled Ashley out, and Rebecca watched for Mark.
Once in the car, Ashley looked around as Arthur took the wheelchair back. “This is nice.”
“It is.”
“So you two, I mean Arthur seems like a good person.”
Rebecca turned to Ashley, her hair limp, eyes foggy, and the bruises on her neck fading. Memories shuddered through her. “Look, I know we share blood, and technically we’re family, but don’t think that everything is okay. It’s not. We will help you because I’m not a monster, but I can’t trust you.”
“Ask me anything.” Ashley held her head up.
“Do you know what happened to nan?”
“She died.”
Rebecca thought as much but hearing it deflated her anger.
“I know everything.”
“How come?”
“Tracy liked me because I did what I was told. She talked to me. She’d always say, I look after my own.” Ashley’s voice trailed off, and revulsion played over her face. “I know what I am and how people see us. We’re barely human to anyone else. I bet you think the same now you’re a rich bitch. Better than us.” There was no anger.
Rebecca understood perfectly. “No. I never did think that. I’d have been content with a little job and a roof. I wanted to be safe, nothing else. If Tracy and dad had been decent people, I’d have stayed. You have no idea what it was like living there.”
“I do. I moved in.” She rested her head back. “My mum fell out with your mum years ago. Huge bust-up over David. Everyone is terrified of your dad. Everyone. He was awful to you but worse to others. What he said went. You don’t realise what you did. Going against him in court… Mark was never the threat, he was.”
Arthur got back in the car from taking the chair back. “There’s no sign of him.”
They got straight onto the motorway and drove in silence. Rebecca’s mind ticked over with thoughts of what Ashley said. Flashes of the past made sense.
“Where is your mother?”
“I don’t know. She washed her hands of me when I got together with Mark, but it’d always been difficult. She won’t talk about your mum. Tracy said they were stuck-up bitches who look down on everyone in Manderly. I think the truth is more complicated, but don’t sanctify your mother. She left you behind.”
“There’s no danger of that. I tried to find her once. I know she’s married and has a kid.”
Arthur glanced at Rebecca as she stared at the whizzing scenery.
In the months away from Arthur, she’d looked. A rudimentary search on social media showed her where her mother was. She knew if she went to the woman, she would probably welcome her now that Rebecca had done well. It was easy to understand leaving, but not taking her along, she couldn’t forgive.
Her messy past crawled into her thoughts and having Ashley was an odd comfort of the familiar and a discomfort of memory at the same time.
They arrived in Chadford, and Rebecca was easier in her heart being home. They pulled into the driveway, and Ashley gaped at the house.
“Are you serious?”
Arthur looked at her with the familiar severity that made Rebecca smile. “Listen, this is temporary, and you will find somewhere to live and a job. You need help, we’ll give it, but if you think you can loaf, you’re mistaken.” He carried the cases in.
Ashley looked at Rebecca.
“It’s the way he is.”
Arthur stepped back as Ashley settled in the first week. He held Rebecca at night when she cried and made love to her when she needed him, and he knew it would be okay. Ashley’s bruises faded. Rebecca her spent time with her, took her shopping, and they sat together in the evenings and talked.
While she and Ashley were at ARC for a counselling session on Rebecca’s afternoon off work, he went to see his solicitor. Not that he could do anything. There would always be the threat of it hanging over their heads.
His comfort was that Ashley didn’t have a phone anymore and didn’t seem inclined to go back. The question was, how long would it last?
He picked them up, and though they were quiet, they seemed okay, yet something was bothering Rebecca; he saw the worry behind her eyes.
That night in bed, as she nestled into him and he kissed her neck, he asked.
She reached across him, clicked the light back on, and ran her fingers through her hair, holding it off her face as she leant on him. “What do you want? For the future?”
“In general, or with you?”
“Both. Either.”
He frowned, running his hand up her arm. It was a now or never kind of moment. “Everything, eventually.”
“Specifically?”
“I want to travel. I want to see the world. I want children. Pets. I want muddy wellies at the back door, and I want to take kids to the park and worry about which school to send them to. I want the noise and the drama. I want the chaos and love. I want those things with you, but only if you want them.”
She licked her lips. “Sounds perfect.”
Arthur’s heart skipped a beat, and he grinned.
“What if kids came first?”
“What?”
“Remember that time in the hotel?”
He slow-blinked. “Then that’s fine. It’s okay. We’ll be parents.” A giddy feeling came over him as he grinned.
“Really?”
“You’re worried? Oh sweetheart.” He pulled her close and kissed her hard. “Are you sure?”
“No, I’m waiting for my period, which is five days late. I mean, it might be the stress, but we didn’t use a condom.” She looked at him with a set face.
“Are you okay with being pregnant?”
“I never let myself think about it. Never. Yes. I wasn’t sure if it was too soon.”
Arthur pecked her lips with a smile. “A baby with you would be perfect, no matter what. Listen.” He shifted so they were on their sides and cupped her face. “I love you so much. Every bit of me is yours. I’m so lucky. You’re everything I wasn’t looking for and yet found. Everything we went through was worth it.
You’re my joy, and our babies will be my joy too.” He kissed her.
She pulled back, a smile creeping up. “Babies, plural?”
He wiggled his eyebrows, and she laughed.
Three days later, and Rebecca sat on the loo in work crying. She knew in the morning by the shitty bloated feeling that she was due on.
Someone knocked on the door, and she sniffed.
“You okay?” Gladys asked.
“I’m not pregnant.”
“Then you’re not tryin’ hard enough.”
Rebecca laughed and wiped her eyes. It’d been a horrifying realisation that they’d not used a condom, and she felt like she’d done something wrong. But Arthur’s reaction made her want it so much.
She told Arthur on the way home.
He nodded and was quiet, and she felt awful.
“I have an idea,” he said quietly.
“Oh?”
“Ashley seems to be doing well, and I took her to look at a flat, and she did her paperwork for the job centre. She was actually happy. Hopeful. She reminds me of you when we first met.”
“I guess so.”
“When she’s settled, we should go travelling. Let’s do it. It’ll be good for you to be away, it’ll be good for her to stand on her own feet. We can make sure she has support, and ARC is helping her. We can do the things we want to do.”
“Go travelling.”
“Yep.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” Arthur grinned.
A month. She gave her notice to work, and that gave them a month. None of the flats that Ashley saw were much better than where Rebecca had lived in Little Lane, so in the first week of the run-up to leaving, Arthur brought it up at dinner.
“What if you stayed here?”
Ashley paused mid-chew and looked from Arthur to Rebecca. “What?”
“You two are working things out, and you seem to be okay.”
It was true, they’d talked a lot, and Rebecca saw the bigger picture. She was Ashley in many ways, and it might have been her life.
“We thought it would be easier for you to stay here.” He cleared his throat and levelled that look at her, the one that made Rebecca feel like she was in trouble. “But, there are conditions. One, you go to counselling every week, and you get a job or keep volunteering.”
She’d been cleaning at ARC as a volunteer once a week and joined a few agencies. Ashley nodded.
“And this is the most important thing. You don’t go back or get in touch with anyone. Not for anything. You tell no one where you live or with who, and there’s no reason to as Kathy said Tracy is pleading guilty. We’ll be gone for a few months. We’re choosing to trust you, and we want you to do well.”
Ashley swallowed and sipped her water. “I understand. It’s hard sometimes. What you know can be easier, but I don’t want that life. I don’t.” She glanced at Rebecca. “I’ll housesit.”
Arthur bought everything they’d need, emptied the safe, and put everything in the bank. It was a risk, but his mum had taken a leap with Rebecca, and if she forgave Ashley, then he could trust her too.
He also didn’t want the girl isolated, so he organised a little going away for Rebecca.
He drove them to the pub where everyone would be waiting with them both chatting away, Ashley excited for their night out.
The three walked into the pub, and everyone from her work was there, along with Joe, Pete, Stella, and Cressie.
“Oh my god.” Rebecca squealed and hugged her friends. It was so nice to see. She chatted with everyone and Ashley hovered, nervous. She introduced everyone to her, and when she got to Pete, she stopped.
“Wait a second, beware of this one, he’s a tart.”
“Hey, I resemble that.” He beamed, and his eyes sparkled.
Ashley blushed and cleared her throat. Rebecca nudged her cousin, they sat down, and Arthur raised his brows at Rebecca, who rolled her eyes with a smile.
“So,” Gladys said, distracting him from making eyes at Rebecca.
“Yes?”
“You nearly knocked her up, and now you’re taking her away.” She sipped her rum and coke, and Dot leant forward taking a long drink from her wine, and they pinned him with shrewd glares. He’d dealt with less formidable people in boardrooms.
“Um, well.” He glanced over at her as Rebecca laughed with Cressie and Pete. Ashley cautiously joined in as Stella mothered her. “It’s a shame she’s not, but seeing the world is a nice distraction. Gives us time.”
“Um-hm. You going to marry her?”
A grin grew on his face, and he winked before glancing over to her. Her head was thrown back as she laughed, and his heart dipped. There were moments he couldn’t believe it was real. His past misery evaporated.
Joe and Nav chatted, virtually sitting in each other’s laps the whole night, and by the time everyone else was drunk they disappeared outside. They all piled out of the pub at closing and found Joe snogging Nav up the pub wall like the world was ending.
Pete laughed, “Oi, oi, I love me a little love.”
Joe, mortified, let Nav down, and saying their goodbyes wandered off hand in hand. Rebecca started crying.
Arthur ran his hand up and down her back as she said goodbye to everyone.
“Pete, do something for me?” Rebecca asked, her voice breaking.
“Anything.” He glanced at Arthur and gave him a solid nod.
“Look after Ashley, but don’t fuck with her. She had it worse than me. And you know, and we’ve never talked about it, but I know you understand.” She held his t-shirt, and he frowned. It was one of the few times he didn’t have a fuckboi sheen to him.
“I will. Like I took care of you. Promise. I’m so glad you’re happy.”
“We both deserve to be.”
“Maybe.”
Dot and Gladys – both the drunkest – said their goodbyes and fell into a taxi.
Gladys turned back to Arthur and pointed as she was getting in. “You make sure you do right, you hear?”
“Promise.” He closed the taxi door and waved them off.
Rebecca sobbed, and Arthur led her to the car. “It’s okay, promise.” Arthur kissed her hair as she wiped her eyes with Ashley trailing behind them.
“I know. It’s nice to have friends though. People who care enough about me to come and wish me well. I’ve never had that.”
“And they’ll be here when we get back. Providing I haven’t knocked you up.”
Arthur’s eyes were warm, and she laughed, wiping the last of her tears.
There was so much to look forward to, so much ahead.
Twenty-one
GETTING IT RIGHT
It was so hot that Rebecca couldn’t stand it, she rushed forward into the warm sea, but the cool undercurrent in the water gave relief. She swam a little way, letting the waves pull her back and forth.
She looked up to the perfect blue sky, the smell of tropical water, and sweet, salted air relaxed her. Turning in the water, she looked back to the little beach cottage. Arthur waited for her. Another day together, and she wondered if she would ever get bored, ever be tired of it. She doubted it. She would never take her happiness for granted; fighting for it had taken a long time, and it was hard won.
Rebecca thought of Ashley. She had a permanent job at a cleaning company in a two-person team and doing well. She and Pete spent a lot of time together, but they were friends. Rebecca laughed, she was sure Ashley was head over heels. It’d be interesting to see how that played out.
Tracy pleaded guilty to ABH. Mark got done for possession of class A drugs and went back inside. It’d been rough for her cousin, but at least she didn’t have to testify against Tracy.
So much happened while they were away. Rebecca wanted Arthur to drop the issue with Maddie, but he was so furious with her. The worst thing that could happen to her was humiliation. It was a shame her husband found out what she did and that she
slept with the police officer. As a result, her prenup voided and was in the midst of a messy and very public divorce. The sergeant had also been suspended and was under investigation for misconduct. It was done with though, and Arthur washed his hands of it.
She floated in the water, tranquil and happy, the past merely that, and the future her hope.
They talked when they reached Goa, a month into their travelling, about that baby. She wanted everything.
Arthur had taken to the task with enthusiasm. She laughed and started swimming back. She couldn’t wait to tell him all their practise over the past three months had paid off.
It was time to go home, make Arthur’s house into a home for their family. Her family. She shook her head, still disbelieving how things had turned out.
When Arthur said let’s travel, she thought of backpacking, and not the luxury travel that she was enjoying.
It was decadent and hedonistic. So unlike her old life. She’d give him anything, and vice versa. Wading out of the water as Arthur came out of the cottage, she felt overwhelmed by his love, and her luck. The little porch had a table and chairs, jasmine grew from pots up the rails, and Arthur leant against a rail post. Tanned and gorgeous as ever, all the tense stress he bore for years had melted away.
He wore only short trunks. Rebecca admired his body, he’d filled out again, and there was no trace of the worn strain from months past when they had been apart. She wore nothing.
Arthur nearly dropped his cup when he saw her, seeing the sun sparkling off her skin when she rose out of the sea like a goddess.
He found himself walking towards her. The sun had bleached her hair and skin had taken on a warm glow. She was so beautiful, and her happiness and goodness rolled off her. It filled her smile and her eyes.
Every drop of water on her skin looked like a jewel as she crossed the beach to him. He held her, her body was cool and slippery, and he was warm and dry.
There was no other person nearby, and they were alone other than for a few birds. This private heaven had been an idyll, where they made love whenever they wanted, drank good wine and enjoyed peace away from the world.
Getting a Life (New City Series Book 4) Page 22
