CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
He was on his knees, bending over Freda and calling her name urgently, and just as I got there, her eyes flickered open.
She seemed confused, asking where she was and trying to get up. But Dan was reassuring her and telling her gently to lie still.
‘Are you in pain? Did you bump your head?’ he asked, but it seemed Freda was too confused to reply.
Dan was gently feeling her head as Jeremy arrived, out of breath after his swim. ‘She has a small bump on the side of her head,’ he murmured, looking up at Jeremy. ‘It should probably be checked out.’
Jeremy, looking horrified, nodded immediately and said he’d go to reception and get them to call for a doctor.
‘Look, why don’t you stay with Freda,’ suggested Dan, leaping to his feet. ‘And I’ll go and talk to reception.’
‘Okay.’ Jeremy looked relieved. ‘Thank you so much.’
He sat down next to her. ‘Are you okay? How do you feel? Do you know what day it is?’
Freda looked at him as if he was mad. ‘Of course I know what day it is.’
‘So what is it?’
‘Erm . . .’ She looked dismayed when she couldn’t actually remember. And poor Jeremy looked distraught.
‘It’s probably just a little concussion,’ I said soothingly. ‘She’ll be all right in a minute, I’m sure.’
‘Do you think so? She came down with quite a wallop.’
‘Hey, I am here, you know. Stop talking about me!’ commanded Freda. ‘And by the way, it’s Friday.’
Jeremy and I exchanged a smile of relief. And then Dan was coming back and telling us that there was a doctor on his way. The hotel had an arrangement with a private medical practice so there would be a charge for the call-out plus any medication necessary.
‘I don’t care about that,’ muttered Jeremy. ‘Just as long as a doctor can check her out.’
‘She’s visiting another patient just now but I’m told she shouldn’t be long,’ said Dan.
Freda was trying to get up, ignoring Jeremy who was protesting that she shouldn’t move.
‘Let’s stay right here for a minute, Freda.’ Dan bent over her, commanding but gentle, and when he took her arms, she allowed him to lie her back down. ‘How about we make you a little more comfortable while we’re waiting for the doctor?’ He glanced around. ‘Pass me those towels, would you, Lizzie?’
I quickly folded them into a pillow shape and handed them to Dan, and very gently, he lifted Freda’s head slightly and slid the ‘pillow’ underneath.
She sighed. ‘That’s better. My head really hurts.’
‘Don’t worry,’ soothed Jeremy. ‘The doctor will be here soon. And then we’ll get you checked over and all patched up.’
‘You make me sound like a tatty old quilt,’ protested Freda, but she was smiling. She reached for Jeremy’s hand and he squeezed it gently. Then he turned to us. ‘Look, I’ll stay with her until the doctor arrives. Thank you so much for all you’ve done.’
I smiled and Dan said, ‘Hey, no problem. If you need anything, phone me, okay?’ He and Jeremy swapped numbers.
I nodded. ‘Yes, we can come straight back.’
‘Thank you,’ said Freda weakly, and Jeremy nodded his gratitude.
Dan and I left the poolside to get into dry clothes, and at the changing room door, I said, ‘We should hold off having dinner, just in case we’re needed.’
‘My thoughts exactly. Let’s make sure Freda’s okay.’
‘See you in the spa reception?’
He nodded and disappeared.
I quickly got changed so that I could phone Wyatt before I went out to meet Dan. I told myself I needed to know what the arrangements were for the following evening. It was nothing to do with me feeling guilty over the weird blip that had happened with Dan in the pool earlier.
Wyatt answered with his usual cheery greeting. ‘Hey, I’ve missed you so much, Lizzie!’
‘Have you?’ I had my doubts, mainly because I was recalling our phone chat the day before which had been distinctly one-sided. Wyatt had seemed rather more interested in watching Caitlyn mount Rob Roy than he was in our conversation!
‘Of course I’m missing you. Hey, I hope you won’t be gone too long? You can bet I’ll be hanging out the flags and the bunting to welcome you home.’
Usually, I found his dramatic way of expressing himself amusing and rather touching. But now, I found myself raising my eyes to the wooden ceiling of the changing room. ‘I’m back tomorrow morning. I texted you earlier, remember?’
‘Did you? I mustn’t have seen it. I’ve got so much to think about what with the Regency Romp Festival getting dangerously close. It’s hard when you’re the star of the show, you know, and everyone’s depending on you!’
‘Of course. It must be,’ I said icily. Not that he noticed my irony. He was already chatting away about getting his costume adjusted. ‘Caitlyn’s not only a wonderful horsewoman, but she can sew as well.’
‘That’s great, Wyatt. Listen, can I ask you something?’
‘Of course. Go ahead.’
‘Why did you and Dante . . . Dan . . . fall out?’
‘Sorry?’
‘It’s a simple question, Wyatt. There’s obviously some bad blood between you and I’d just like to know exactly what it’s about.’
‘I thought I told you.’
‘You did. But . . . well, tell me again. You don’t mind, do you?’
‘No. No, of course not. It’s . . . well, I rarely talk about it. It was a case of love gone sour, you see. And you never get over your first love.’
‘Your first love? Was this when you worked at the same place as Dan and that girl?’
‘That’s right. It was love at first sight for me when I met Judith.’
‘Judith,’ I repeated. ‘I’ve never heard you mention her.’
‘Well, no. Because I really hate talking about it. Much too painful. Best forgotten. No, the thing is, Dan and I were friends and I knew he had a soft spot for Judith, but I never in a million years thought he’d betray me like he did.’
‘What happened?’
‘Well, he bumped into Judith in a bar one night. She was out with her friends. They started chatting and drinking, and then the next morning, she broke it off with me and started seeing Dan instead.’
‘Really? And what about your job?’
‘What about it?’
‘Well, didn’t Dan somehow get you fired?’
‘Fired?’
‘Yes. I’m sure that’s what you said the last time. You lost . . . Judith. And you lost your job as well?’
‘Erm . . . well, I think you must have got the wrong end of the stick. Shortly after . . . the incident . . . I got a job elsewhere and moved away.’
‘Right. So Dan didn’t lose you your job?’
‘No.’
My head was spinning after this confusing exchange. But one thing I knew for certain. Wyatt was lying about some of it.
He’d started talking about Judith, though. And I could actually hear tears in his voice.
‘I pride myself on being strong and resilient, Lizzie, but that girl shattered my heart into a million little pieces.’ He paused to blow his nose loudly.
‘Oh, sorry. What was I saying? Yes. Even though it happened all those years ago, sometimes it still feels like yesterday. It was a double whammy as well, of course.’ He gave a shaky sigh.
‘I not only lost Judith, I lost Dan as a friend as well.’
‘But you’ve forgiven him?’
‘Dan? Well, it’s hard.’
‘I’m quite surprised you didn’t spark him out that day we were doing the horseback photo shoot.’
‘It took a lot of willpower not to, I can tell you, Lizzie. But I just said to myself: Wyatt, be the bigger man as always and just ignore him.’
‘Well, good for you.’
‘So you’re back tomorrow?’
‘Yes. I’ll probably stay in tomorrow night . . . have a family dinner. I’m a bit worried about Kitty. Don’t mention this to anyone, Wyatt, but I’m afraid she might be drinking a bit too much. Alone in her room. We’ve all been low since Dad died, you know?’
‘Of course. Well, how about I come over and cook for you? You can chat away while I make you all my cordon bleu spaghetti bolognese?’
‘Oh. Well, okay. Yes. That sounds good.’
Mum liked Wyatt and was always saying I should bring him over for dinner more often. I’d got the feeling that the social media stuff wasn’t going as well for her as she’d like it to lately, so maybe having Wyatt over would cheer her up?
The conversation last longer than I’d thought, and by the time I made it out to the spa reception, Dan was no longer there.
But a moment later, he came in with the news that the doctor had checked Freda over and thankfully, he didn’t think any real damage had been done.
‘She has to take it easy, obviously, because of her concussion. And she’s agreed to tell Jeremy immediately if she has any suspicious symptoms.’
‘Oh, that’s such a relief. Poor Jeremy looked devastated seeing her lying there.’ I smiled. ‘You were great, though. Practical and caring. Have you ever thought of retraining as a doctor?’
‘Can’t stand the sight of blood.’ He grinned. ‘Tell you what, I don’t know about you, but I’m really hungry now. Fancy grabbing some dinner?’
I nodded, suddenly realising how hungry I was, too. ‘Swimming always makes me ravenous.’
‘I enjoyed our race . . . especially when I beat you.’ He gave me a twinkle-eyed smile and my stomach flipped over.
‘Oh, ha ha! If I hadn’t lost my bobble, I might have won the race.’
‘Lucky I was there to do a bobble rescue.’ His words were flippant and jokey, but when our eyes met and held, his face told a different story.
I swallowed hard. I knew he was remembering our ‘moment’ in the pool, and suddenly the air between us was charged with tension, just like before.
‘Right.’ He slapped his thighs decisively and smiled, breaking the spell. ‘Dinner?’
I nodded, suddenly realising I’d been holding my breath. ‘I’ll just need fifteen minutes to get ready?’
‘Okay. Come on, then. Our reservation will have gone, but hopefully we’ll still get a table.’
It turned out the restaurant was busy, but the head waiter told us that a table would be free in half an hour if we would care to have a drink in the bar in the meantime.
We were so hungry, we hesitated and Dan suggested we could go out and find a fish and chip shop. But in the end, we decided to wait for the table in the restaurant.
‘What would you like to drink?’ Dan asked when we arrived at the bar.
‘Gosh, I don’t know.’ I smothered a yawn. ‘Sorry, I’m not sure my brain is up to making decisions at the moment. It’s been such a busy day.’
He smiled. ‘I know what you mean. How about a glass of champagne?’
‘Champagne?’ I stared at him, wondering at the cost.
He shrugged. ‘Why not? We deserve it. Let’s push the boat out.’
‘Are we celebrating?’
‘Well, I think we did pretty well today, walking in Charlotte’s footsteps. We found the lane with the hollow tree where those secret assignations probably took place.’
‘We did.’ I nodded. ‘It felt amazing and rather eerie at the same time, knowing that we were walking the path Charlotte regularly took into the village. It’s just a shame her cottage wasn’t there any longer.’
‘And of course we still haven’t proved that the ‘J’ Charlotte mentions in the diary was Jane Austen, although we have found a few tenuous links that suggest it could have been her.’ He smiled. ‘My sister’s going to be quite impressed with what we’ve discovered so far. So . . . champagne?’
I nodded and Dan hailed the waiter.
‘I can’t remember the last time I drank champagne,’ I murmured. ‘This is probably a regular occurrence for you, is it?’
He laughed. ‘Not at all. My parents cracked a bottle open on Christmas Day. I’m more of a red wine man myself.’
The champagne arrived and I held up my glass. ‘A toast to Charlotte and her mysterious friend, J!’
‘Charlotte and J.’
We clinked glasses and I took a sip of the delicious bubbles, savouring the taste and the fizz on my tongue. ‘Thank you. This is lovely.’
‘You’re welcome.’
I took another sip of my drink and the bubbles shot up my nose, making me giggle. And then I had to take another long swallow to stop myself coughing.
‘Steady on there,’ grinned Dan. ‘We’re not in another race.’
I held up my glass. ‘This is far too quaffable.’
‘Quaffable. Is that a word?’
‘Absolutely. It means it’s slipping down far too easily.’
He smiled. ‘I know what it means to quaff, Lizzie. I just thought you made the rest of the word up.’
He was teasing me and I liked it. A little too much.
I took another gulp of champagne. ‘It’s been such a great day. But one thing is puzzling me.’
‘What’s that, then?’
‘Well, there’s not a single mention in any of the Jane Austen biographies of her having had a fling with a local farm worker. And believe me, I’ve read them all from cover to cover.’
‘But there wouldn’t be, would there? A relationship between a respectable middle-class woman and a farm worker would have caused such a huge scandal, and the age difference would have made things ten times worse.’
I swallowed. And then, emboldened by the effects of the delicious champagne, I said, ‘What do you think is too big an age difference, then? In a relationship?’
He frowned, weighing it up. ‘I guess maybe anything more than five years would have been frowned upon in those days? Not if the man was older, of course. That was probably very common. But if the man was a good deal younger, then I guess the woman would have been a prime target for scorn and gossip.’
I nodded, mulling this over.
Ever since I’d found out my travelling companion was just twenty-eight, I’d been thinking about age – and my age, in particular. Thirty-seven suddenly seemed positively ancient. The next big milestone was forty, and then I’d be really over the hill! It was all quite depressing.
‘You okay?’ Dan asked.
‘Yes, yes.’ I raised my glass. ‘Here’s to love in spite of age differences!’ I announced rather recklessly.
Dan smiled and we chinked glasses.
I was having a lovely time, but I was still present enough to know I was probably drinking more than I was used to. But Dan had been kind enough to order champagne as a sort of celebration, and it would have been rude to refuse to join him in a glass or two!
Over dinner, the conversation flowed, and I was feeling more relaxed by the minute. The only problem was that Dan’s face kept moving in and out of focus, which was a little inconvenient.
At one point, while he was talking, I leaned my chin on my upturned palm and gazed dreamily into his eyes, thinking he was so very handsome and funny and sexy . . .
Mr Darcy, eat your heart out!
I’d no idea what he was actually saying by then, but I didn’t really care. I was just taking in the rich, deep tones of his voice as he talked and gazing into the deep dark depths of his mesmerising eyes.
It should have been Dan diving into that lake instead of Colin Firth. Not that Colin wasn’t handsome. Of course he was. But he couldn’t hold a candle to the man sitting opposite me right now . . .