Chapter 39
‘How y’all feeling, sweetie?’ Carrie’s voice cut through the swirl of thoughts filling Bex’s head.
How was she feeling? She had just resigned from her job. Her job, which she had given her soul to for years. Her job, which had defined who she was as a person. Who she thought she wanted to be. Successful, smart, determined. And now… now what was she?
‘I… I don’t know,’ she replied, a strange numbness seeping through her.
‘Well, for what it’s worth, I’m proud of y’all. Took a lot a balls.’
‘I don’t have a job.’ Bex’s breath began to quicken. ‘I don’t have a job. Crap. I just quit my job. How’m I gonna earn money? How’m I gonna live?’
‘I’m sure you’ll sort all that out,’ Keith said, still staring at the narrow winding roads. ‘Let’s just see what’s goin’ on with that dog o’ yours first.’
The journey back to the village felt impossibly long, but soon they were driving up past the White Hart, towards Lorna’s cottage.
Before Keith had even put the handbrake on, Bex was out of the car and running for the front door.
‘Don’t worry, I’ve got a key,’ Carrie called after her, and yet before she’d even reached Bex, the door swung open. Duncan stood behind it.
‘Where is she? Where’s Ruby? What happened?’
Bex went to move past him, but he held her by the shoulders, keeping her in place.
‘You need to prepare yourself for this,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what happened. I don’t…’
Tears pricked behind her eyes. ‘I shouldn’t have left. I shouldn’t have left…’
‘Nothing would’ve changed if you’d been here. Believe me,’ Duncan said. ‘And as for why you left, I’m guessing that’s something we need to talk about. But it can wait for now.’
‘No, you don’t understand.’ Bex just wanted to get past him. ‘You don’t understand, I—’
‘You need to breathe,’ Carrie said gently. ‘Can’t have you having another panic attack on us.’
‘A panic attack?’ Duncan’s tone cut through sharply. His eyes widened with fear, but Bex lifted a hand to silence him before he could say anything.
‘I’ll tell you about it in a minute; I’ll tell you about everything. But please, I just need to see Ruby, okay? I need to check she’s okay.’
Rather than moving, Duncan combed his fingers through his hair, his eyes still narrow as he nodded slowly.
‘Well… she’s tired, I’ll tell you that. But she’s also a natural.’
‘Natural? What do you mean?’
Finally, he stepped aside, giving Bex room to come into the bedroom and into the living area.
Lorna was there, kneeling on the floor. She turned and looked over her shoulder at Bex.
‘Did you tell her?’ she said to Duncan.
‘No, I thought it was best she saw for herself.’
Bex’s stomach churned as she walked further inwards, only stopping when a strange sound caught her attention. A faint, high-pitched squeak. The moment she saw the dog, her hand flew to her mouth.
‘Oh my God!’ Tears filled her eyes. ‘She’s had puppies? Ruby has puppies?’
There, curled up beside their mother, feeding away, were three small bundles of red fur. Each so little they could have fit in the palm of Bex’s hand. As Ruby finally noticed Bex, she lifted her head ever so slightly and gave a couple of firm beats of her tail.
‘That’s why she was losing weight,’ Duncan said as he slipped beside Bex and wrapped an arm around her waist. ‘Apparently, it’s common for dogs in the first few weeks, especially first-time mums.’
‘I’m telling you now, I wouldn’t have agreed to dog-sit if I’d known this was going to happen,’ Lorna said.
Bex laughed, wiping the tears from her eyes as she did.
If she had gotten on the plane to London, she knew she might still have a job, but she’d have missed this.
And somehow, a corner office, or any office at all, didn’t seem that important any more.
Still blinking back tears, she crouched down slowly next to the dogs, and she reached out her hand. Ruby stretched her neck forward, giving Bex a long, loving lick across her knuckles.
‘You’re a beautiful mummy,’ Bex whispered, her voice thick with emotion. She looked at the three fox-red puppies nursing at Ruby’s side. ‘You’ve done such a good job, haven’t you? You’re incredible.’
A thought struck, causing her chest to sear with pain.
‘When she came and found me. She was already pregnant.’
‘She is one pretty incredible dog,’ Duncan said softly, crouching beside her.
Bex’s tears spilled freely now. ‘She’s amazing,’ she said.
‘It’s kind of nice having a small litter too,’ Keith commented, standing in the background, watching everything unfurl. ‘They’ll get so much care.’
‘Well, as long as they continue to listen to their parents when they get older,’ Carrie agreed.
The group laughed, but Bex didn’t.
The comment, though clearly meant as a joke, struck something deeper.
It wasn’t just about Ruby and her puppies.
She thought about her own relationships, how much she relied on her parents, always deferring to them when she needed something.
The moment she managed to gather herself, she was going to ring them and get Fi to drop them here, so they could meet the new arrivals too.
Duncan’s relationship with his parents was different.
The independence he’d had from such a young age had been fostered by Fergus, possibly because he’d envisioned this day would one day come.
Not the day when Duncan’s dog had puppies, but the day he found out he had an entire estate.
Still, Duncan adored his father and stepmum, and they loved him back.
But not everyone had that. Some relationships between children and their parents were estranged or difficult for reasons beyond anyone’s control.
Yet they all helped shape the person you became.
The way they had for her and Duncan and Lorna. The way they had with Kieron too.
Fergus had loved his sister, and the way he’d always said it was his father’s traits that Kieron had inherited hadn’t been mentioned as a compliment.
But Bex had heard Kieron on the phone with his mother.
He had sounded like a petulant child. That had been what she’d first thought, but on reflection maybe it wasn’t that at all.
Maybe it had been more a child seeking their parents’ approval.
Yes, that was exactly what it sounded like.
A spark of excitement flickered within her.
‘Guys.’ Bex straightened up. There was a quickening in her pulse that felt nothing like a panic attack. ‘I think I have a plan. A plan to get Kieron out of our lives, or at least out of the castle. For good.’