Chapter 13 #2
‘Augi,’ he greeted. ‘Glad you could come. I thought—’
‘Kate invited me,’ said Augi quickly.
He cleared his throat, raked his fingers through his hair and twisted around. He suddenly noticed everyone was looking at him. ‘Would you like a glass of wine? Champagne?’
‘White wine would be lovely, thanks.’
Lucy and Jen exchanged amused looks. Lucy couldn’t help thinking she was witnessing the beginning of something. But what that something would be she had no idea. Because, apart from being very different people, Augi had to be about ten years older than Dan. Still, stranger things had happened.
‘Augi,’ greeted Lucy. ‘Come and take a seat.’
Augi nodded, glanced at Oliver and then placed her plate on the table and lifted the lid to reveal a Greek dessert. ‘As I couldn’t get here until after dinner, I thought you might enjoy something from my homeland.’
‘Yum! Thanks.’
But as Lucy began to divide up the dessert she felt a sense of tension settle around them, and the conversation dwindled to a halt. She looked up to see Augi was still standing beside the vacant chair and looking intently at Oliver who’d just turned round to meet her direct gaze.
‘Augi,’ said Kate. ‘Is something the matter?’
‘I’m sorry,’ Augi said to Kate before nodding to Lucy. ‘I hadn’t intended…’
‘What?’ Kate responded with a frown.
‘To say what I’m about to say,’ she said. ‘I was going to wait, but I can’t.’ She turned her attention back to Oliver. ‘You haven’t told them, have you, Oliver?’
After a frozen second he shook his head. No one else spoke. He licked his lips. ‘No, I haven’t. I guess you are, though?’
She nodded. ‘It seems I have to. I’ve never liked hypocrisy.’
Oliver visible flinched. ‘I’m not —’
Augi raised an autocratic hand and Oliver stopped speaking instantly. ‘Save it…’ she glanced at Lucy, ‘for Lucy because she needs to hear your explanation, not us.’
‘Explanation for what?’ burst out Lucy, finding her voice at last.
‘For why,’ said Augi, ‘Oliver has moved the goal posts around community consultation.’
All eyes were on Oliver. He looked at each of them in turn, his gaze only faltering when he looked at Lucy, before turning back to Kate.
‘Your friend is correct. I’ve met with both the mayor of Kāpiti and Wellington a few days ago and, subsequently, their teams have agreed to a change in the consultation process.’
‘What change?’
‘A streamlined consultation process has been approved.’
‘A… what?’ said Lucy, hardly believing she was hearing this.
‘Streamlined.’
‘As opposed to… usual, to normal, to thorough.’
Oliver’s lips tightened. ‘The council want a Wellington development I’m also working on to proceed and there were a few things uncovered about the hotel which have allowed for the consultation process to be reduced.’
‘To what?’ asked Kate in a steely voice which Lucy rarely heard from her mother. It clearly had an effect on Oliver, too.
‘Ten working days notification.’
‘And that’s passed,’ she said. ‘What else?’
’10% engagement threshold.’
‘You can’t have received that yet.’
Oliver winced.
‘You have.’
He nodded. ‘At the public meeting last Monday.’
‘But that was to the first of several,’ said Lucy, finding herself standing up.
‘It was, but not now. There won’t be any more public meetings. I’m only required to have one now.’ He was looking only at Lucy. ‘I’m sorry.’
She shook her head, unable to voice the confusion of feelings which filled her and walked away, her chair falling back behind her with a clatter. She stopped once inside and out of sight. But she could still hear everything that was being said.
‘I’m sorry, Kate. I shouldn’t have accepted your invitation.’
‘Well, that’s one thing you’ve got right! How could you Oliver? When you know how much it means to all of us, especially Lucy. It’s bound to have a negative impact on her business and all the other businesses in our village. Not to mention changing its character.’
Lucy didn’t wait to hear his reply; she had to get away. As a sob tore through her throat, she went running into the drawing room — her father’s domain which still held a feeling of refuge and calm. But she heard footsteps follow her.
‘Lucy,’ called Oliver.
She remained quiet, waiting for him to leave.
Then he pushed open the door. ‘Your mother said you might be here.’
’Why the hell did she tell you?’
‘Because she knew I couldn’t leave it like this.’
‘Well, she was wrong. You can. I know all I need to know about you. Please just go.’ She hated how her voice broke.
He closed his eyes briefly as if he’d been wounded.
‘Lucy, when I started this project, I hadn’t met you, or your family, or ever been to MacLeod’s Cove.
But now I’ve started, I have to finish. It’s one part in a big plan which is extremely important to me and which I’m so near to achieving, I can taste it. Don’t you see?’
She suddenly felt calm. ‘I see more than you think I do. I want you to leave.’
‘Won’t you hear me out?’
‘No. You lost any right to that when you entered my home, talked to my family, and lied to us.’
‘I didn’t lie.’
‘You didn’t come clean. You let us make assumptions about you, knowing they were wrong.’
‘I didn’t tell you because…’ he trailed off, wincing.
‘Because you knew you wouldn’t be welcome here.’
‘No, because I wanted to have the chance to get to know you before I told you the truth. I hadn’t expected to be beaten to it. Hadn’t anticipated you’d employ someone to research me.’
‘Just as well I did. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known how absolutely without honour you are. How absolutely without a heart you are.’ She shook her head. ‘And yet here you are, in the heart of my family, pretending you have one when you don’t.’
He closed his eyes as if he’d been struck. When he opened them again, there was a change in them, a difference she refused to analyse. It was too late.
‘Lucy, please, give me another chance.’
‘No. You don’t deserve one. Go. Just go. Now. And just do me one favour.’
‘Name it.’
‘Never return to MacLeod’s Cove again.’
She pushed past him to the front door which she held open for him.
After he’d stepped through, just as he was about to turn to her, she slammed it closed and leant back against it.
And in that moment, for all her thoughts of lingering mistrust she realised, by the depth of her hurt, that trust and hope had bloomed even though she hadn’t meant them to.
Oliver walked slowly up the path to his car. He’d got what he wanted. She was right. He had won. One telephone call and he could have the contractors on site within twenty-four hours.
So why did winning feel like losing?
His phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and looked at it. It was his contract manager. He had to decide. He tapped the screen.