Chapter 30
30
Jade was the first to notice Aiden heading towards them. Even before he reached them, she could tell from his body language that he was furious, although she didn’t have a clue why. She stood up uneasily, aware that at the same moment Finn had taken a step back from the table. ‘Hi, Aiden. How’s it going?’
But if Aiden heard her he didn’t react. He just marched straight up to Finn and threw a punch at him.
Finn, who’d sensed what was about to happen just before it did, dodged. He didn’t get the full fury of Aiden’s fist, which was just as well or it would probably have broken his nose, but the blow still knocked him off balance.
‘Good God.’ Ray, reacting more quickly than any of them, dashed to his son’s side, elbowing Aiden to one side in the process. ‘Are you all right, lad?’
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Jade yelled at Aiden at more or less the same moment. ‘Have you gone completely mad?’
Aiden stood blinking in the sunlight, as if he wasn’t fully aware of what he’d just done. On his right, Finn held a hand to his bloody nose and straightened up slowly.
‘Well, let’s hope that’s finally got it out of your system,’ he said, his voice icy.
Jade could feel herself trembling. ‘I think you’d better leave, Aiden. Before Finn takes it into his head to press charges for assault. Or I do.’
Aiden looked at her, confusion in his eyes. ‘But what about Fang?’
‘You’ve scared the life out of her.’ Jade crouched down and held out her hand to the little dog, who was hiding beneath the picnic table, close to the security of Mickey, her whole body trembling violently. ‘Get out of my sanctuary, Aiden. Before I call the police and have you thrown out.’
He turned, his shoulders round with defeat, and retraced his steps slowly down the yard.
For a few seconds, no one spoke, and then Finn said quietly, ‘I think that if he’s definitely gone, I’ll just go and clean this up before I bleed all over my clean tee-shirt.’
‘I’ll come with you and make sure.’ Jade glanced apologetically at Ray. ‘I’m so sorry about that. He’s normally such a mild-tempered chap. I’ll be back in two minutes.’ She went with Finn. ‘Are you OK?’
‘I’ll survive. It’s just a pity he had to pick today to stake his claim.’
‘What claim? What are you talking about?’ Jade went across to the main gate and saw to her relief that the jeep was gone. Finn didn’t say anything else until they were standing inside the front door of the cottage.
‘What all that was about,’ he said looking at her, ‘is that Aiden is in love with you. And he thinks I’m the reason you don’t return his affections. ’
She stared at him, confused. ‘But you’re not… I mean, we’ve never even – well…’
‘It’s not about us.’ Finn’s voice was unusually sharp. ‘It’s what’s inside Aiden’s head that counts.’ He frowned and touched his face. ‘Can I borrow your first-aid box? I think I’ll sort this out in the bathroom. Come up a minute.’
‘What about your dad?’
‘He’ll be fine. I expect he’s having a sneaky rollie to calm his nerves.’
Upstairs, she sat on the edge of the bath while Finn sponged the blood off his nose. There was a small cut just above his lip.
‘Does that hurt?’
‘Yes, it does a bit.’ He met her eyes in the mirror. ‘But not half as much as it would have done if I hadn’t ducked at the last minute.’
‘I’m really sorry. I mean, I know he had a bit of a crush, but I’d no idea he was going to get violent about it. Or take it out on you.’
‘It’s not your fault. He’s been getting crosser and crosser for a while. He had a go at me the other day when he brought the advert for that pig-farming job in. Perhaps I should have mentioned it, but I honestly didn’t think it would come to this.’
‘What did he say?’
‘He warned me off you. That was about it. I certainly didn’t wind him up. At least I don’t think I did.’ He dabbed at the cut. ‘Mind you, having Fang out probably didn’t help. His dog and his woman. He just exploded, didn’t he?’
She nodded, clenching her hands in her lap. ‘I’m not his woman. I’m not anyone’s woman. What do you think I should do? About him hitting you, I mean. I can’t let him think he’s got away with it.’
‘I don’t think you should do anything. I think he shocked himself as much as he shocked us. I bet he’s already regretting it.’ He sat beside her on the edge of the bath. ‘Don’t upset yourself over Aiden. I’m not. I just wish he hadn’t done it in front of Dad.’
She reached out and touched his face just above the cut. ‘That won’t do much for your love life, will it?’
‘You don’t think so?’ There was a softness in his eyes that belied the facetiousness of his voice. Then he caught her hand and kissed the tips of her fingers very gently. She looked at him, trembling slightly.
‘Are you cold? Or just shocked?’ Letting go of her fingers, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her mouth and she found she was trembling again, not for either of the reasons he’d suggested, but because she was filled with a sudden desperate longing for him. She kissed him back, scared of hurting his mouth, but never wanting it to stop. At some point, as if by tacit agreement, they stood up, but even when they finally drew apart they were still holding hands.
‘Seems to have done wonders for my love life,’ Finn remarked. ‘Maybe I should get myself thumped more often.’
‘We’re steaming up the mirror,’ Jade whispered, looking up into his grey eyes, half enjoying the frantic flutterings in her tummy and half afraid of them.
‘You’re such a romantic.’
‘Do you think we’d better go downstairs?’
‘I can think of lots of things I’d much rather be doing, but yes, I think we’d better.’ He searched her face. ‘I wanted to do that the other night. You did too, didn’t you?’
She hesitated, battling with the urge to tell him he was right and inwardly cursing Sarah because she couldn’t let this go further. If she told him how she felt then she’d have no excuse to keep the distance between them. Finn could crash through her barriers and she wouldn’t be able to stop him.
‘Are you two all right up there?’ Ray’s voice came up the stairs. ‘ Only I reckon we should have a stiff drink with our lunch. Good for shock. I brought a bottle of nice malt down with me for Finn. Should I get the top off?’
Finn smiled, a little uncertainly. ‘He never misses a trick.’
‘So I see.’ She pulled her hand from his, rubbed a patch in the mirror and glanced at her flushed face. ‘Can we talk about this later?’
‘Sure. You go down.’ He indicated the first-aid box still open on the loo seat. ‘I’ll just clear up and I’ll be with you.’
Half an hour later, once Jade had resettled Fang in her kennel and Mickey was mooching around the yard, they were sitting around the picnic table. Finn had brought out the sandwiches and crisps he’d got ready earlier, and Ray had sloshed a generous helping of malt whisky into his and Finn’s glasses. Jade had said she’d stick to orange juice.
‘Are you sure you don’t mind me gate-crashing your lunch as well as gate-crashing your evening meal?’ she asked Ray again. Joining their picnic hadn’t been a part of the day’s plan, but then the whole day was beginning to take on an unreal quality.
‘Course not, lassie.’ He chucked back his Scotch. ‘I figured you might want some company in case that maniac turned up again. Are you sure I can’t tempt you into a whisky? What’ll you do, Finn?’
‘Nothing. I’m sure it was a one-off. Aiden’s not normally prone to violent mood swings. He must have had a bad morning. He’s Jade’s vet, Dad.’
‘Is he now?’ Ray swallowed thoughtfully. ‘Not a very James Herriot thing to do, is it? Going around punching your customers. He could probably get struck off for that, couldn’t he?’
‘I’m not sure if vets do get struck off, as such,’ Jade said, frowning.
‘Well, I certainly won’t be complaining,’ Finn told him. ‘Least said, soonest mended, I’d say.’
‘Yeah, you’re probably right. And there was me thinking the countryside was a nice, peaceful place where nothing ever happened. Still, there’s nothing like a bit of excitement to work up an appetite. These sarnies look all right, lad. Shall we tuck in?’
Jade glanced at Finn. He was smiling, but he looked awfully tense. She wondered if he was regretting kissing her. And what had he meant about wanting to do it the other night? She’d wanted to do a lot more than kiss him on the night they’d counted stars. She’d wanted to take him to bed. She’d ached to feel his body pressed against hers. She still did. But the image of him with Sarah haunted her. And what if they did go to bed? Wouldn’t that just make things worse? While she kept the distance between them, the fact that she was keeping Sarah’s secret didn’t seem so traitorous. She wasn’t sure if she could sleep with him and still lie to him. She sighed, and then aware that neither she nor Finn had answered Ray’s question, she fixed her attention on their guest.