“Me. Go on with you.” Vera turned to study him, with that motherly look in her eyes again. “You’re going to send yourself mad at this rate. Do yourself a favour. Go and talk to her.”
“Huh.” Luke replied.
“It’s not as impossible as you think.”
“Vera it is totally impossible. There’s too much water under the bridge and all that. Faye has made things... complicated.” Luke reminded his housekeeper.
Complicated wasn’t even a strong enough word to describe the situation but it was the only word that came to mind.
Luke heard Vera huff and he looked over in her direction. She put her hands on her hips and gave him a stern look.
“That just sounds like a load of who shot John to me.” She told him sternly and a small smile played on Luke’s lips despite his foul mood.
“Who shot John?” Luke lifted his eyebrow at her. She did have a way with words. “I don’t know, who shot John?” he asked her.
“Probably Jack in his backyard.” Vera threw back at him and he laughed then. He hadn’t meant to but Vera was just so colourful.
“Okay, I’ll play. What would I say exactly?” Luke asked. Giving in seemed the easiest option right now and looking at Vera’s face he could see that she was pleased.
“You will think of something.”
“Now it is you that doesn’t get out of it that easily.” Luke said.
“Do I have to do everything for you?” She moaned at him.
“Hey, you are the one that started it. I have told you it is impossible. If you think it is not, then you are going to have to give me some pointers.” Luke told her. With any luck she would be able to talk herself out of it if he gave her the chance.
“Just do not talk about her sister otherwise you will both be arguing before you know it.” Vera tutted loudly, before continuing with.
“So what should I talk about?”
“Talk about her. Talk about you. Talk about the weather if you think it will help.”
“The weather.”
“Well, perhaps not. Just don’t go slitting your own throat by talking about the crackpot demented sister because if you do you can kiss goodbye any chance of winning Cassie over.” Luke already knew that, he did not need Vera to tell him that.
“I will keep that in mind.” Was all he said, agreeing was easier.
“Make sure you do. You need to get Cassie on her own and away from her sister. How are you going to get Cassie on her own without nut job sniffing around?” Vera asked him and he winced.
“Vera please, the woman has serious mental issues.” Luke warned.
“That she does.” Vera agreed.
“The sister’s going away today.” Luke told Vera and she looked up. He could see the glint in her eye as a wide smile spread across her face.
“Really? Good. Here’s your chance. How long is she away for?” Luke shrugged and put his cup into the sink.
“I got the impression it was going to be a while. She has gone to see their father or something.”
“Is she going far?” Vera was unrelenting once she got the bit between her teeth.
“Australia.” Luke told her.
Vera raised her hands and looked up at the ceiling as she wiggled her hips and did a little dance.
“Hallelujah, there is a god and he does listen sometimes. Though it took you long enough.” She shouted at the ceiling before turning on him. “Now you listen up buddy.” She began as she pointed a stern finger at him and wagged it. “You need to use this time wisely. Don’t you be going and messing it up.”
“Aye-aye sir.” Luke gave her a mock salute.
“I mean it, faint heart never won fair maiden. You just remember that.” He was informed.
“I will try not to.” Luke said.
“To Australia for a long time.” She nodded and smiled her pleasure. “I approve.” She said.
“So glad.” He commented dryly.
“You should be glad too.”
“And I am.” Luke agreed.
“And it will give poor Cassie a break at any rate. She was looking positively ill that last day in court.” Which was the last time Vera had seen the other woman. She had looked tired, Vera reflected. That had been two weeks ago now.
“She’s very pale.” Luke said absently.
“Hopefully a break from her sister will help.” Vera told him as she begun to busy herself.
“A much needed one.” Luke agreed. “She does far too much for that sister of hers.”
“You’re concerned for her.” Vera guessed correctly and Luke suddenly felt bare, emotionally.
“She looks tired.”
“She did in court, a little thin too.” Vera said.
“Yes.” He agreed. He had noticed that. “It can’t be easy dealing with a demented sister.”
“Families are complicated that’s for sure.” Vera began putting on her apron. She stopped mid process and turned to him. “You think you can handle that?” Luke thought for a moment.
Could he handle that or would Faye end up being the death of any relationship he might have with Cassie?
“I don’t know. I guess I could handle Faye just as long as I got Cassie.”
“You want some advice from a wise old woman?”
“Why, do you know any?” He asked her. Vera picked up a clean tea towel and threw it at him and he caught it before it hit him in the face.
“Once you’ve got the girl. You should work on making Cassie strong so that she can stand up to Jekyll and Hyde psycho sis and then Faye won’t be a problem anymore.” Vera suggested.
“What she needs is help.”
“Then try and get Cassie to see that. She probably already knows that. It’s hard to broach that subject with those you care about.”
“I know.” He sighed.
“So then, help Cassie stand up to her sister, and help get her comfortable with the idea that her sister needs help rather than being bailed out.” Vera told him.
“Now that sounds like a plan.” Luke told Vera swiftly feeling more optimistic than he had just an hour ago.
“And while you are at it, teach her that you can help her stand up to her sister. That’s half the problem you know.”
“What is.”
“I get the impression that she’s frightened to stand up to her sister.” Luke regarded Vera for several moments before frowning and asking.
“Do you think so? Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I got when I was watching them in court. Didn’t you notice how every time Faye started getting just a little agitated Cassie stepped in to try and calm it quickly. Didn’t you see the fear in the poor woman’s eyes. She looked desperate to stop her sister.”
“Are you suggesting that Faye might get a little… out of hand… physically?” Luke remembered the day in the car when he had spotted Faye and Cassie arguing. He had seen Faye hit her sister in the back.
He had made to go over there and put a stop to it but Faye had stopped and after a while they were hugging so that was that.
But he had not given it a thought that perhaps it was a regular occurrence or that there could be times when it might even be worse, and he didn’t want to think about it. He already felt anger toward Faye for what she put her sister through. If he thought that perhaps she got physical with her… well. Luke clenched his teeth together.
Faye was way out there in her temperament, he had seen that. She had become physical with him. Not directly but there was that tray incident. And the pen. Was it possible that Faye might be hurting Cassie behind closed doors. Was it possible that that was why Cassie mopped up after her?
A way to keep the peace, in the same way a woman kept the peace in an abusive relationship with her spouse. Luke shuddered, he did not want to think that Cassie might have been caught in that type of situation all this time without having anyone to help her.
Damn that sister of hers, again.
“It’s possible. I don’t know mind
.” Vera held up her hands. “But she can be explosive, we have seen that. Who knows what happens when she thinks no one is watching. Faye may be many things, but there is shrewdness in those eyes of hers. She manipulates Cassie and she knows she does. It’s very deliberate.”
Yes, he had also noticed that. She used emotional blackmail too he had seen that with his own eyes.
“I know.” Luke said.
“Then you need to help her get strong so that if she is being used as a punching bag there’s a way out for her. Show her that you can be at her side and stay there.” Vera told her. “It will give her the confidence she needs.”
“I’ve got surgery this morning but my afternoon is free.” Luke said now.
Already his mind beginning to form plans. Though how he was going to pull any of them off was beyond him right now, He would think of something.
“Well then, why are you standing around here doing nothing. Go get the girl and get out of my kitchen. You are making the place look untidy.” Vera complained.
“I’m going.” Luke told her and made his way out of the room.
Chapter 14.
Cassie massaged her forehead with firm fingers. She hadn’t managed a wink of sleep all night because her mind had tortured her with thoughts about Luke.
She had taunted herself with images of the two of them naked. Skin sliding on skin. Luke’s hands on her body.
Cassie stopped her train of thought right there. She could feel her body begin to ache. She was going quite mad.
These fantasies that were weaving through her thoughts were not like her at all and it disconcerted her that she was having them.
Nobody had ever made her feel like this and it made her feel exposed, powerless to protect herself from the intensity of her feelings or the magnetism Luke seemed to have.
Not that she hadn’t felt physical sexual attraction, she was twenty-seven for heaven sake. But it had been nothing like this. She had never experienced anything so intense. So all consuming.
The truth was that Luke seemed to have power over her. A power that no one had ever had over her. Boy was she ever in trouble.
“Cassie.” Faye’s voice broke through her thoughts and she jumped. Her raw nerves jangled and she took a moment to compose herself before turning towards the kitchen door.
“Sorry, did you say something?” Cassie watched her sister appear in the doorway before she stepped into the kitchen. She looked her sister up and down before asking her. “What are you wearing?”
What she was wearing was a black lace top, a black skirt. Or maybe belt was a better description. And big menacing looking black boots with many large silver buckles. It really made her hair stand out and the rest of her to.
“You don’t like it?” Faye asked her.
“Are you sure you want to wear that. Perhaps something a little more…” She shrugged.
“You are so old.” Faye complained.
“Maybe. But I think you should still change into something that is a little less… and a little more…” Cassie pulled a face.
“Demure.” Faye suggested.
“I would settle for normal.” She told her sister. “You have to go through a metal detector.”
“That’s why I am wearing it. Might as well make the security guards work for their money.” She told Cassie.
“They work hard enough without you toying with them.” Cassie sighed.
“You look pale.” Faye observed.
It threw Cassie for a moment. Faye never normally noticed anything unless it had something to do with her. Or, something in it for her.
“I feel pale.” She told her. Not to mention tired, and washed out. But she kept quiet. Faye didn’t much care, Cassie was under no illusions there.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Faye asked her with a worried frown on her face as she looked Cassie up and down. “Ooh, coffee.”
Faye’s mind was already diverted elsewhere as she spied the percolator and began busying herself with making a cup of coffee. “Need another refill?” She turned to Cassie with the coffee jug in her hand. The brown liquid sloshing around.
“No thanks I’ve already had three.” Cassie told her sister.
“You must be buzzing.” Faye gasped. “It’s not like you to drink so much coffee.” It was true that it was unlike Cassie to drink so much coffee. Usually one cup was her limit in the morning.
This morning though, Cassie had desperately needed a pick me up and there had been no chocolate in the house. Faye had probably eaten the last and so coffee had been a convenient substitute. At least until she went to the shop which, Cassie was planning on doing right after Faye left.
“Not as much as you might think.” And it was true. She wasn’t even suffering a headache like she normally did when she drank too much coffee. Her body had obviously needed it just as much as her emotions had.
“Huh.” Faye looked at her with a puzzled look.
“I didn’t manage any sleep at all last night.” Cassie told her sister and pulled a wry face at her.
Faye finished stirring her coffee really loudly and then threw the spoon into the sink. It landed with a loud clank. “Do you have to?” Cassie asked her sister.
“Soz.” She told her.
“What does that mean?” Cassie frowned at her sister.
“Sorry.” Faye said.
“You really need to shorten sorry to soz? How lazy.” She admonished her sister.
“How old fashioned of you. We are the same age aren’t we?” Faye complained.
“I am beginning to wonder.”
“Why didn’t you sleep?” Faye asked.
“It doesn’t matter.” Cassie fidgeted uncomfortably.
“No, go on.”
“It is nothing. Drop it.”
“You’re not seeing someone are you. Have you met someone.” Cassie looked up at Faye. She could see the worry in the other girl’s eyes. Not a normal reaction but then Faye wasn’t normal.
“No.” Cassie quickly reassured her.
“Oh thank heaven for that.” Faye relaxed. See, thought Cassie, not normal at all.
Though Cassie understood, Faye was worried that Cassie might start changing, that some man might be able to convince her to stand up to her and then Faye would not have her convenient little slave anymore. That’s why the relationships Cassie had managed to have had all ended in disaster. Faye had worked hard to split them up.
“Don’t worry, I am not planning on meeting anyone. There’s enough work in my studio to last me the next couple of years at least.” She told her.
“So then, if it’s not that? What is it?”
“I told you, nothing.” Cassie felt the warmth in her cheeks. She wished Faye would just drop it.
“You’re still not worrying about me are you? I told you Dad is going to meet me at the airport. Everything will be fine and I promise not to get myself into any trouble.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Cassie said.
“Look it’s not like I am going to hijack the plane or anything.” Cassie groaned aloud. Cassie didn’t want to hear those sorts of joke’s, not from Faye. She hadn’t given such acts a thought, but now. “I won’t I promise.” Faye held up her hands as if she were surrendering.
“Do not even make a joke about it.” She warned as she fixed Faye with a strict warning look.
“You really have a bad view of me don’t you.” Faye looked shocked, although how she could be, was beyond Cassie. Didn’t she know how badly she could behave?
Cassie studied her sister for a moment, taking in the garish strict hair and the black tacky tasteless clothes. She looked almost gothic in appearance. It may have not been to Cassie’s taste but it did seem to suit her mood.
“Well... perhaps even you couldn’t be that stupid.” She conceded, or she wasn’t that clever. It very much depended on perspective.
“Well gee thanks sis. Just once I wish you’d show a little faith in me.” Faye sulked like a child. She had
it down to a fine art. She’d had lots of practice.
“I’m sorry Faye. I just...” she let her voice trail off.
“I have made things impossible for you recently haven’t I?” Faye sat at the table. Cassie winced audibly at the sound of the chair scraping along the floor. Couldn’t she pick the chair up and move it?
“It hasn’t been an easy time.” Cassie agreed.
“So then you should be happy that I’m going away for a while.” Faye took a sip of her coffee, she even did that noisily, Cassie gritted her teeth tightly together.
“I am.” Cassie assured her sister and quietly pulled out the opposite chair, quietly, to sit down. “I just don’t think you have thought this through.”
“What’s there to think about?”
“We hardly know the man.” She began.
“He is our father.” Faye reminded her quietly.
“I know but the fact remains that he wasn’t there when we were growing up.” She began again.
“Mum didn’t exactly let him.” Faye jumped to his defence.
“That’s not fair Faye. He could have contacted us at any time. Mum couldn’t have stopped him. She wouldn’t have stopped him. She always wanted him back.” Cassie wasn’t prepared to let go of that point no matter what Faye said.
She had spent far too many times listening to her mother cry when she was drunk. In fact, the reason she had started drinking was because their father had left. Their mother had never gotten over it, never.
“I think Mum and Dad got many things wrong Cassie.”
“Yes but at least Mum tried.” Cassie argued.
“And when did she do that Cass? When she was plastered? When she was letting any Tom, Dick and Harry stay here? Or perhaps when she took herself off for weekends without telling us where she was? Or maybe it was when she was experimenting with drugs? Do you think she was trying when she was lining up the coke on the coffee table?” Faye’s bitter words stung Cassie as though they had been physical blows.
“Faye.” Cassie began.
“No, face facts. Mum spent most of our childhood so drunk or so high that she couldn’t tell us what day of the week it was. You brought me up because Mum couldn’t.”
The things we do for love. Page 10
