Chapter 15 #2
Greg laughs. “Didn’t take you long to find a bit of rough, did it, Harriet?” his voice hisses at me. Greg has a temper, but this is different. Like he is consumed by anger that is not just his.
I rip myself around from Sam but am stopped by Sam’s arms trying to protect me. “Just go home, Greg,” I shout.
I see Sam’s fists curl into a tight ball. I need to calm the situation before something happens. I don’t want Sam in trouble.
Just as I take a breath to start talking in a more relaxed tone, the cottage door opens and my aunt and grandma come running out in dressing gowns. Aradia is carrying a golf club and Granny has a bat. Great, that’s not going to help.
“What’s all this shouting?” Aradia shouts. Ironic really.
I move around the stand-off boys to stop them coming any further. “I’m so sorry. Greg’s turned up drunk and he is just refusing to go home.”
“Oh, we will see about that.” Aradia stomps through the mud barefoot, hair wild and eyes the same.
“I think the lady asked you to leave.” She points her bony finger into Greg’s face. His face looks shocked to see this wild woman stood in front of him. He stumbles back, now surrounded by me, Sam and Aradia with Granny at the gate, the baseball bat over her shoulder.
“What happened to you, Harri? We had it all! Don’t you want that still? Surely not this?” He gestures up and down at Sam.
“I changed, Greg, you changed. We were who our parents wanted us to be. Not what we truly are.”
For a moment I feel like I have tapped into him, but his face becomes angrier. His eyes narrow on mine and his lips curl viciously.
“I know what you are, Harri, what you all are. I know everything.” His eyes dance with evil.
My heart stops. I don’t want to do this right now. To Granny, to Aradia, to Sam.
I pull him to the side away from the others, his drunk body falling into me. Sam rushes to intervene but Aradia gestures for him to wait.
I pull Greg back to the Range Rover where I can talk without the others hearing.
He smiles with a cunning smile, his brown eyes nearly black. “So now you want to talk?”
“Look, Greg, I don’t know what you think you know but just go home. You know I am coming to the ball. Surely your mother told you that. So just leave it and go!”
He looks at me then looks behind us at the now terribly angry and wet gang of mismatched Harri supporters. Even drunk he knows he is not going to win anything here.
“I’ll see you at the ball. Wear something hot.” He kisses the side of my cheek, keeping eye contact with Sam. He smacks on the side of the car with a loud thump.
Charles his driver jumps out of the front of the car and opens the door for Greg. The rain is now falling hard, making visibility hard. Charlies tips his hat at me. “I’m sorry, miss, he insisted.” Then he hurries back to the front of the Range Rover and starts off down the drive.
Aradia, Granny and Sam close around me. Sam places his hand on my shoulder and whispers, “Are you OK?”
I don’t reply. I’m too busy trying to stop my heart exploding in my chest. My body rages with a burning sensation that feels alien and painful.
“No wonder you left him! What a complete arse!” Granny remarks.
I am stood frozen to the floor. He knows.
He knows and he knows I know he knows. He can clearly bed any girl he wants, so why does he need to torment me?
Why does he need me? Probably like any spoilt brat he does not like to be told no.
Any ounce of me feeling sorry for him flies away in the wind.
He is just as bad as the rest of them. The sad crying act was clearly manipulation.
An arm pulls me from my trance. “Let’s get you inside,” Sam whispers softly into my ear.
His body protects me from the elements as he guides me up the path to the open front door.
Granny is following, cursing Greg under her breath and Aradia is close behind.
Sam sits me on the sofa in the living room, my face dripping with icy rain.
“Let’s make you both some tea,” says Granny, sighing. “Come on, Aradia.” She pulls my aunt from the living room leaving Sam and I alone.
“I’m so sorry you had to see that.” I feel completely mortified.
“I am so sorry you put up with that for… how many years? And you agreed to marry him?” His smile lifts a little trying to make light of the situation. I appreciate he is trying to make this easier.
I groan. “I was young and dumb.”
“I can tell.” His eyebrows raise.
My face screws up and I sink lower into the sofa. “I’m such an idiot.” I pull my sleeves up to my face. Wet and cold is a sudden contrast to the heat from the fire.
“Nah, we all make silly mistakes. I am just angry he showed up like that, and drunk. He is embarrassing. I was close to… well, if he hurt you.”
I nod, not able to speak.
“Did you want me to go?” he awkwardly asks.
“No.” I grab his arm. “Unless you need to?”
“Nana will be putting Lola to bed. I have time before she sends a search party out.” He smiles with his soothing smile.
“Thank you for staying, Sam. Sorry my life is a bit of a mess at the moment.”
“You are bringing excitement to Brindlewood. Strange girl shows up with drunk crazy rich ex.”
“Strange?”
“In a good way, like you’re new and fresh and different to the rest of those other girls we get in the villages.”
“Thanks, I guess.” I roll my eyes at his remark, He sits next to me and pulls my hand into his.
“I am not great with words. I mean, I can’t explain it, but the last few weeks of knowing you, I have felt good again. I have spent so long sulking that it was strange feeling the way I do towards you. There is something about you that feels familiar.”
“You’re just so sweet, Sam.” I am on the edge of sobbing but I pull it together.
“You’re better than him, Harri. You have so much about you that you don’t need that idiot. I don’t care what you were or whatever he said, I like you now.”
His forehead touches mine, his hair drips between our faces with the rainwater which is now warm from the heat of the cottage. Every urge within me wants to kiss.