by Sharon Booth
The redhead batted her eyelashes at him, obviously hoping he would ask her what she wanted, but Eliot wasn't playing.
'What?' He looked at Eden as if she was mad, then shook his head impatiently. 'No, no, of course I don't want a drink.'
The redhead looked disappointed, and after waiting a moment, she tutted and moved away.
Eden tapped her fingers on the bar. 'So, you don't want a drink. Crisps? Nuts?'
'Are you being funny?'
'Well, at least I'm speaking. It's more than you are.'
'You like working here?'
'It's a living. I used to work here before.'
'I know. Cain told me.'
'Did he indeed?' Eden raised an eyebrow. She'd be having words with Cain before the evening was over.
'Said you'd trained in catering and were a cracking cook. All them rubbish meals of sausage and chips you did us. Now, that's acting.'
'All right. Point taken.'
'We sold Gideon.'
'You did?' She clapped her hands. 'Good price?'
'Better than I could have hoped for.'
'That's brilliant news! It will be a massive help to you.'
'It won't solve all our problems, of course, but we've other irons in the fire now.'
'Oh?'
A young man dressed in a crimplene shirt and corduroy flares lurched over to the bar. 'Excuse me, can I have a bag of pork scratchings?' he asked in a posh-sounding voice.
'Pork scratchings? Are you sure?'
'Oh, yah! Teddy says they're divine. This is a hoot, I must say. Never had a sausage on a stick before. Beats the dreadful dinner parties I usually have to endure.' He beamed at Eliot. 'Tremendous fun, isn't it?'
Eliot nodded. 'Oh, aye. Proper grand.'
'Proper grand!' The man grabbed the pork scratchings from Eden's hand and staggered off, laughing and repeating, 'Proper grand,' in a terrible attempt at a Yorkshire accent.
'Bloody hell,' Eliot murmured. He looked as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing at the party.
'What other irons in the fire?' said Eden impatiently.
'Eh? Oh, the barn thing. Your idea for bed and breakfasts.'
'You actually listened? You never said!'
'Aye, well. Just 'cos I don't say owt, doesn't mean I'm not thinking. We've been looking into it — well, Adey has. He reckons you're onto something, and with the money we made from the sales and a decent business plan, we should be able to get a bank loan to finance it. Adey's dad's cousin's an architect, and he's going to help us get planning permission.'
'Oh, Eliot, that's fabulous news!' Eden couldn't have been more delighted for him. She almost kissed him, but then she remembered that he still hadn't explained why he was there, and for all she knew he'd come to inform her he was marrying Daisy and intended to sue her for fraud. It wasn't likely, but she wasn't taking any chances.
'Aye. Suppose it is. Could use a cook.'
Could use a cook! Was that what he was here for? To offer her a bloody job? 'Well, I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd like to work in Skimmerdale. It's a great location, after all.'
'Mm.' He lapsed into silence again, and Eden served another three customers, while Eliot stood looking moody with his hands in his jacket pockets.
Eventually, her patience snapped. Handing the last customer his change, she leaned over the bar and confronted Eliot outright. 'So, what do you want?'
He looked a bit bemused, as if it was obvious. 'Well, what do you think?'
Eden shrugged. 'I have no idea. I'm assuming Cain invited you to Honey's and Teddy's engagement party. What else would you be doing here?'
'He did, yes.'
'Well, there you go.'
'But that's not why I'm here!' He must have spoken louder than he intended, because he looked around him, clearly embarrassed, before lowering his voice. 'You know why I'm here.'
Eden shook her head. 'That's just it, Eliot. I don't.'
'You're not going to make this easy for me, are you?'
'Eden, have we got any more pork pie in the back?' Gavin hollered at her in a most unprofessional manner. 'Plate's empty, and punters ain't happy.'
'Coming right up.' She rushed into the kitchen and stood for a moment, leaning against the door with her eyes closed. Just breathe, Eden, she thought. Calm down.
But what was he here for? The last time she'd seen him, he'd made it absolutely clear what he thought of her. Had he changed his mind? Then, why wasn't he telling her so? If he'd come all that way to offer her a job cooking breakfasts and serving cream teas in his new venture, she would shove the dratted pork pie somewhere so painful, he would have a permanent bloody glower.
Rummaging in the fridge, she removed what was left of the pie and cut it into slices. Her hands trembled by the time she pushed open the door and carried the plate through to the head table, not looking towards the bar.
'Pork pie, eh? Now you're talking. I don't believe we've met,' said an elderly man with long, dyed black hair, bloodshot eyes, and a tattoo of three teardrops on his cheek. He held out a hand adorned with a huge, ugly ring in the shape of a skull. 'Apparently, you're Eden, and you've done all this lovely grub yourself. I'm —'
'Rex Scotman,' she finished for him. 'Yes, I know. Pleased to meet you.'
'Sorry to interrupt,' came a voice in her ear, and before she could protest, a hand gripped her arm in a vice, and she was pulled away from the table and out of the pub.
'What are you doing?' she demanded, as Eliot led her into the car park towards a familiar vintage Rolls Royce.
'Cain's orders,' he said, rattling the car keys in her face. 'No arguments. You and me are going to sort this bloody mess out, once and for all.'
Chapter Thirty-Five
'Well, I must say, this is riveting.' In truth, it was torture. Eden folded her arms and tried to quell the nervous churning in her stomach.
They'd been sitting in Cain's car for five minutes, and neither of them had said a word. He'd come all the way from Skimmerdale for this?
Eliot smacked the steering wheel with the palm of his hand and turned to her, his eyes full of frustration. 'You know I'm no good at this stuff. What do you want me to say?'
'Excuse me? Look, I didn't make you come here, and I haven't asked you to say anything.'
'Sounds to me like you're not that bothered, anyway. Maybe coming here was a mistake.'
'Well, if you're just going to sit there and say nothing, maybe it was.'
'Do you mean that?' He searched her face, and she saw the anxiety in his eyes and crumpled.
'Of course I don't. I just — I just don't know what it is you want. Are you here for an apology? An explanation? Because I apologised that day, and I tried to explain. You didn't want to know.'
'I know. And no, I'm not here for an apology.' He shrugged. 'Mind you, if you want to say it again, I won't stop you.'
She glanced at him and saw the corners of his mouth turn up, just a touch. She unfolded her arms and took hold of his hand. 'Okay. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Eliot. I didn't want to deceive you, even before I arrived in Skimmerdale, but after I'd met you ... There wasn't a single day when I didn't hate what I was doing and wish I could come clean.'
'But why didn't you?' He twisted to fully face her, his expression deadly serious. 'Okay, I get that Honey left you with no choice, but once you'd got to the farm, once you'd met us, why didn't you tell me the truth then?'
'How could I? You were a total stranger. For all I knew, you'd be straight on the phone to Cain, and then I'd really be for it. If crashing his car wasn't bad enough — or at least, covering for the man who did — helping Honey make an idiot of him would have been the final straw.'
'I wouldn't have called him,' he muttered.
'Wouldn't you? Are you sure? Think about it, Eliot. I was being entrusted with your children. If I'd told you I was just an employee of Cain Carmichael, would you have felt able to leave me on my own with them? You only trusted Honey because she was a blood relative of Jemima's and you we
re desperate. Why would you trust someone who'd lied to you and was deceiving her own employer?'
After a quiet pause, he nodded. 'You're right. I wouldn't have trusted you. I'd have told Cain.'
She leaned back in the car seat and sighed. 'And then, once James Fuller started, I was in even deeper. He realised I wasn't Honey, and he —'
'Blackmailed you. Aye, I know. Beth told me.'
'Beth knew?'
'Not at the time, but she and Fuller have had a bit of a heart to heart apparently, and he confessed.'
'Oh.' Eden felt uneasy. She was on uncertain territory, talking about the Fullers. She didn't know what to say next.
'You must have been going through hell,' Eliot said eventually. 'First Honey, then Fuller. I'm sorry. I should never have thrown you out that day. I was just so churned up. Everything seemed to be coming at me all at once, and I didn't know what to do, or how to react.'
'You don't need to apologise,' she said. 'You had every right to be angry.'
'It wasn't so much anger,' he began, then his voice trailed off. He thumped the car door and shook his head helplessly. 'I wish I could explain this stuff better. How I feel, I mean. I'm no good with words.'
He turned to face her again, his lips opening and closing as if he was figuring out what to say. When he suddenly pulled her to him, Eden dissolved into him, and he kissed her with a ferocity that proved, he may not be good with words, but he knew exactly how to demonstrate his feelings.
'Crikey,' she breathed, when he finally released her.
'I know.'
They stared at each other for a moment. Eden trembled, as he took her hand and kissed it gently.
'That's what I'm trying to say, I reckon,' he said. 'I love you. There you go.'
'You old romantic,' she said, laughter in her voice. 'I love you, too, Eliot. You have no idea how much.'
'Really?'
'Of course, really. How could you doubt it?'
He hugged her tightly then kissed her again, cupping her face in his hands.
'Good job we got that cleared up,' Eden remarked, when he finally let her go. 'I dread to think which part of the car you'd have attacked next. Cain would have a fit, if he knew.' She lovingly stroked his face. 'I think you've made your point. If you ask me, actions speak louder than words, and I don't think there's any doubt that you're a man of action.'
'Well, it went better than I hoped,' he said, clearly relieved. 'Happen you've turned me into a proper romantic.'
'Hmm, you've made a start. Give me six months and you'll be bringing me flowers,' she said, nudging him.
'I'll give you meadows full of flowers,' he told her. 'Every summer, you'll have a carpet of buttercups, red clover, eyebright and globeflowers. It's all yours for the taking, Eden. Everything I have.'
She swallowed, her eyes suddenly swimming with tears. 'And you say you're no good with words. So,' she added, blinking furiously and sitting up straighter, 'what happens now?'
'Well, I were kind of hoping you'd want to come home,' he admitted. 'I mean to Fleetsthorpe. We all miss you. The kids are pining for you. Georgie won't settle, and the girls go on about you all the time.' He held up his hands in horror. 'That sounds all wrong. I don't mean that's why I'm here. Bloody hell, here I go, messing it up again. First telling you I'll need a cook, and now this. What I mean is, the kids do miss you, but I'm not interested in you because of them. Oh, Eden, please don't for one minute think I just want a mother figure for them. It's not that, at all. Oh, hell.'
'Eliot, if you just wanted a mother figure for your children, you could have had Daisy any time you wanted, and we both know it.'
He visibly relaxed. 'You knew that?'
'Of course I knew that. Anyone could see she was crazy about you. What happened that day at the show? She seemed really upset.'
He looked down at his lap. 'She was. Came to tell me her dad were going into a home, and she were free to move in with me. Told me she loved me.'
'Poor Daisy. How did you handle that?'
'Told her the truth. I'm fond of her and I'm grateful to her, but I don't love her. I could never love her.'
'Oh, gosh. How did she take it?'
'Told me I were a fool. Said I were going down the same path as I had with Jemima. Said you'd break my heart, just like Jemima had.' He squeezed her hand. 'That's what I meant when I said it weren't really anger that day. It were more fear. You see, it took a lot to admit to myself how I felt about you. I didn't want to love you. To me, you were cut from the same cloth as Jemima, and I couldn't risk all that again. Somehow, though, I couldn't stop myself. When Daisy confronted me, I knew she were right. I loved you, and it were too late to stop it. So, that night, I took a gamble. I persuaded myself it could be different, that I could trust you. Then, when Cain and Freya turned up, and I realised you'd lied to me, like Jemima, I felt as if my worst nightmare were coming true. I panicked. I wanted you to go because I didn't trust my judgement anymore.'
'I can understand that,' Eden admitted. 'So, what changed your mind? What brought you here tonight?'
'I could never resist pork pie,' he said.
She nudged him in the ribs, and he laughed. 'All right, all right. If you must know, it were Beth.'
'Beth?'
'Aye. She came to see me. I were in a bit of a state, and she was worried about me. We had a long talk. There was a lot to discuss, to clear up. We had a lot of issues to resolve.'
'Something to do with why you wouldn't let the children near her?' Eden waited, wondering if he would confide in her, always supposing he knew the full truth.
He took a deep breath. 'When I said that Jemima had an affair, I didn't tell you who with. It was James Fuller.'
'Okay.'
'Thing is, it was much, much worse than an affair. Truth is, Fuller got her pregnant. George — George isn't mine.' When Eden said nothing, he looked at her, curious. 'You don't seem too surprised.'
It was her turn to confess. 'I'd guessed that.'
'What? How could you?'
'It was when I was sitting in the café with Fuller one day. There was something so familiar about his face, and I couldn't think what it was. Then, when I got home, and George had gone missing ...When we found him, he gave us that smirk, and my blood ran cold. I realised who he reminded me of, and after that, it was obvious. I'm sorry, Eliot, but he strongly resembles James Fuller.'
'Aye, he does. Beth and me can see it, too.'
'It must be awful for you, having to live with what happened every day. No wonder you didn't want them around to remind you.'
'There's more to it than that,' he said. 'For one thing, I was scared Fuller would claim George as his own and take him away from me. Beth's reassured me that won't happen, that Fuller's not interested. Apparently, he never was.'
'Well, that's good. Not that he'd be able to take him away now. You've brought Georgie up as your own. No court would drag him away from you.'
'You think? You don't know everything. You see, on the day Jemima died, Beth and I confronted her. We lied to her. Told her Fuller didn't want to know and had no intention of taking her or George on. It was a bluff, though ironically it turned out to be the truth. She were in a right state over it, and she shot off to Kirkby Skimmer to find him. Told me she were going to register George in his name.' His voice cracked, and he turned away, gazing out of the window toward the darkness of the car park. 'She never made it, and I've wondered, ever since, if I'd kept my mouth shut, if I hadn't lied to her that day, would she still be alive? Truth is, she probably would. She was rushing because I upset her. I've struggled with that knowledge ever since.'
'It was an accident! How could that be your fault? You weren't chasing after her. No one forced her to charge off at speed. You mustn't blame yourself for what happened, Eliot. For God's sake ...' Words failed her. He'd been living with all that guilt eating away at him, on top of the fear of losing George. What kind of man would take on a child, knowing his father was the man who'd betrayed him in the
worst possible way? Only a man like Eliot. And he hadn't just taken George on, he'd loved him, cherished him. Eden didn't think it would be humanly possible to love this man any more than she did at that moment. 'I don't know what to say to you.'
'Thought it were me that were no good with words,' he said, half smiling through tears. 'I should also tell you I broke the law. I deliberately lied on a birth certificate. There was no way George could be mine, but I said I were his father.'
'I won't tell if you don't,' she said. 'Whatever any birth certificate says about the father, you're George's daddy. There's no mistaking that. So, you and Beth discussed all this at last?'
'Aye. I think we needed to. We'd barely spoken since the accident. I think we both wanted to clear the air. She made me see it were just a horrible twist of fate, and it were time to move on from the past and look to the future. Make a new start, like.'
'Sensible woman,' said Eden. 'And is that why you're here? Am I your new start?'
He wiped his eyes and grinned at her. 'Happen you might be, if you play your cards right.'
'I don't know how any woman could resist such a charming offer,' she said.
He reached out and gently brushed back a strand of her hair, looking at her with such wonder and devotion in his eyes that she felt as if her insides were melting. 'You're sure? It's not the life for everyone, you know. It can be tough. You've only seen it in the summer. Come the winter, we can be snowed in for days, even weeks.'
'Oh, I do hope so,' she said. 'Look, Eliot, you must know how I feel about the place. I feel at home there. The truth is, when I walked away that day, I left my heart behind. I guess you could call it hefting.'
He grinned at her, understanding what she was trying to say.
'I love Skimmerdale. I love the farm. I love the children. Most of all, I love you. There's nowhere else I want to be, and there's no one else I want to be with.'
He took a deep breath. 'Thank God for that,' he said. 'Now, can we get out of this bloody Rolls Royce, so I can kiss you properly?'
They scrambled out of the car, and Eden rushed round to stand beside him. His lips softly brushed hers, dusting them with light, butterfly kisses — almost as if he was afraid the moment wasn't real, or that she'd change her mind. His fingers twisted in her hair, and she put her arms around him, pulling him closer to her. She heard him catch his breath, then suddenly he was kissing her with a hunger that she returned in full.
