Before he could answer, Aidan’s dog sat up, ears swivelling towards the door.
‘Oh no.’
The chapel door flew open.
Leonard’s head wobbled on its neck as he scanned the room. ‘Who the hell are you?’
He took two stumbling steps forwards, face contorting in anger. ‘What’s a runt doing in my chapel with my daughter?’
Even if words could have made any difference at this point, Hattie was too stricken to speak. Aidan, quite possibly unaware of how awful this was, stood up and held out one hand as if to shake her father’s in greeting. A bubble of hysteria started rising up her throat.
‘I’m Aidan, sir. Pleased to meet you. Harriet and I are doing some schoolwork together.’
Leonard glanced at the proffered hand and instantly dismissed it. ‘Harriet. Get inside.’
‘No, Father, please. We weren’t doing anything. It’s just a quiet place to study, that’s all…’
‘I won’t tell you again.’
Any pathetic scrap of hope that this situation could be anything other than a nightmare vanished when Leonard narrowed his eyes.
‘Hang on a minute. You’re one of them, aren’t you? Hunter scum.’ He shook his head, spittle flying. ‘And you have the audacity to come on my land, put your grubby paws on my daughter.’ He swayed, nearly falling into one of the pews. ‘I’m going to bloody kill you.’
‘No!’ Hattie cried, trying to grab his arm as it swung wildly, even as Aidan, well used to drunken fists, stepped away.
‘I told you to get inside the house!’ Leonard yelled, clamping the arm around her with the intention of propelling her outside.
It was then that he felt the solid, round mass beneath her unbuttoned cardigan.
Despite being soaked in alcohol, his addled brain somehow made the connection. He froze in shock, allowing Hattie to slip out of the cardigan and duck away.
‘Go!’ Aidan called, and as she turned to him, chest near exploding in a torrent of fear and distress, he mouthed at her:Four days. Midnight. The riverbank.
She wouldn’t have left him, except that she knew Aidan had learned how to protect himself from violent men. He was stronger and fitter than her father, and crucially, he wasn’t hampered by half a bottle of whisky.
However, the most important reason that she ran was that for now, at least, she had to protect their baby.
For the next four days, all she had to do was protect their baby.
Lungs heaving, feet slipping as she hurtled to the comparative safety of her bedroom, she understood why Aidan was prepared to get involved with his family’s plans, because in that moment, she knew that she wouldn’t only risk prison for this child, she would die for them.
Four days.
It might as well have been forever.
* * *
Hattie and I shared a new-found intimacy over the next few days. Reluctant to press on with the next chapter of her story, she instead talked about happier times of her childhood as we worked through more crates of documents, spending Sunday evening burning those that were of no use or value. She reluctantly allowed me to take care of her over the weekend, bringing drinks and meals to where she lay tucked under a blanket in the sunroom, and offering no resistance to me insisting on walking Flapjack from now on. There were no in-depth conversations about her health, as she’d decided to do her best to put it to one side until she’d spoken to the doctor, but the freedom to make the odd joke about her aching bones or befuddled mind, to not have to try to hide the sudden bouts of agony or desperate exhaustion, was clearly a huge relief to her.
We spent as much time apart as we did together, her in the studio or sleeping, me walking and hanging out at the boathouse with Gideon, who also brought Agnes round for Sunday lunch, but an unspoken agreement had evolved between us. I was no longer simply here for the project. I would be staying for as long as my friend needed me.
It was terrifying. Monumental. Precious.
* * *
I was sitting in my tartan chair, staring at the rose-garden wall out of the window, when Kalani sent a message to the Gals, accompanied with a picture of a karaoke machine.
I only went and bought this. No going back now. The mics go live on Saturday at 7. Feel free to bring drinks. Preferably in travel mugs to prevent spillage.
