CHAPTER THIRTEEN #2
Sage followed Maggie into the larder. ‘Please go and ask Gammy to wrap Hal up warm and get a bag packed for both of us,’ she whispered.
‘I’m going to get him away from here.’ Maggie nodded solemnly.
Sage returned to her grandfather, who was standing in the middle of the kitchen, still wearing his hat.
She felt sick. She had to get Santiago away from her grandparents just as much as she needed to protect Hal.
‘You’d better be there, Sage.’ Santiago trailed a warm hand down her cheek. ‘I warn you …’
‘Santiago, be careful about making threats. Either to me, or towards my father, or my grandparents – you’d do well to remember all I’ve endured from your hands. Now I’m going up to Hal. I’ll see you at the pub in half an hour. I’ll be there.’ She crossed her fingers behind her back.
Sage followed him to the front steps; she watched him get into his expensive hire car and drive back down the gravel drive and out through the electric gates. Then she dashed back into the house.
She met Betsy carrying Hal through the hall and quickly put her finger to her lips; she did not want to go into any detail in front of the child.
Hal was bundled up in a thick dressing gown and slippers and looked at her curiously as she took him gently from Betsy’s arms and hurried through to the boot room.
Sage grabbed a woollen hat for Hal and placed it on his golden head.
She took Dennis’s car key from Betsy, who looked distraught but stood with outstretched hand, the key offered up willingly on one finger, then loaded Hal into the Range Rover and sped off into the night.
Rafe was in the tack room and, hearing the car, came out to see who it was.
‘Oh, hello – I thought I was coming to collect you,’ he said affectionately, his face lighting up when he saw Sage, but then he noticed her pale, worried face. ‘What’s happened? Is Hal all right?’
‘Everything is fine … sort of. I mean, no one is hurt,’ Sage said, but then remembering Santiago’s purple bruise, she started to laugh. It was a broken laugh, on the edge of hysteria, and Rafe put his arm around her.
‘Hey, what’s wrong? Come into the tack room, the fire is lit. It’s freezing out here. I’ll get you a stiff drink.’ He was anxious to provide comfort but, not knowing the cause of her anguish, was at a loss as to how to help.
‘I can’t. I have Hal asleep in the car. I didn’t want to turn on my phone so I couldn’t tell you without coming here. I’m sorry. Santiago, my ex-husband – my soon to be ex-husband,’ she corrected herself, ‘is waiting for me in the Bull. But I’m not there!’
Rafe was confused. ‘Santiago is here? In Newmarket? I thought he lived in Panama.’
‘Yes, he does but he’s here, now. He was there when you dropped me off.
He’s come to England. I told him I’d meet him in town just to get him away from North Place and keep my grandparents safe.
I need to check they’re all right, and tell them to lock the gates.
’ Sage started to shiver, both the cold and shock permeating her bones.
‘Can I possibly use your phone quickly?’
‘Oh Christ. Yes, of course.’ He handed her his mobile.
‘Then let’s go into the house. I’ll just tell the lads to lock up.
’ Rafe stepped back into the tack room and Sage quickly dialled her grandparents’ number.
She got Maggie who told her that the gates were locked already and that her grandparents were just sitting down to supper.
Sage thanked her, relieved, and said she’d call back later.
‘Shall I grab the little man?’ Rafe asked.
‘Are you sure? I don’t want to impose.’ Sage’s plan had only got this far. She had meant to get as far away from Newmarket as she could but now that she was at Touchstone Lodge she couldn’t bear to tear herself away from Rafe. She felt safe with him.
‘I’m sure.’
‘Then yes, please.’ She smiled, blushing, and Rafe efficiently scooped a dozy, slightly bemused Hal out of his car seat and carried him gently him into the house.
Sage distractedly noticed the beauty of the cottage.
It had been decorated with exceptional taste.
They went in through a little hall that was painted cream with green trim and where thick, embroidered curtains of the same colours hung from the large sash windows.
There were stunning oil paintings of racehorses on the walls and an exquisite little portrait of Rafe in racing silks, all in simple, pale gold frames.
Rafe disappeared through a heavy green door and Sage followed, trying to take everything in.
She found herself in a much larger kitchen than she could have imagined possible from looking at the house from outside.
It had a polished oak floor and burnt-ochre walls cast a warm golden glow, emphasized by copper lanterns hanging from the high ceiling above an antique wooden table.
Rafe had walked over to a pair of elegantly upholstered button-back chairs beside a stone fireplace and gently nestled Hal into one of them.
The fire was roaring. The house was warm and inviting.
‘Are you allowed to watch telly?’ he asked, bending down so that his face was on a level with the child. Hal looked beseechingly at his mother, his huge eyes imploring her to allow him.
Sage let out a chuckle.
‘Yes, you can today, sweetheart.’ Her heart ached with love as she watched Hal put his little hand on Rafe’s arm and repeat solemnly, ‘Yes, I am allowed today.’
‘All right,’ Rafe said, ruffling Hal’s hair.
He opened a walnut corner cupboard and pulled out a small flat-screen television that sat upon an extendable arm.
He pressed a button on the remote control and the screen lit up, showing racing under lights somewhere.
‘Is this what you normally like to watch?’ he asked Hal politely.
‘No!’ Hal went off into peals of laughter.
Rafe changed the channel, a serious expression on his handsome face, and put BBC News on.
‘How about this?’ A reporter was standing in front of the Houses of Parliament.
‘No!’ screamed Hal, laughing his head off.
‘Quite right, that looks excessively dull.’ Changing the channel again, Rafe found The Octonauts. ‘How about this?’ He laughed when he received no reply and looked down at the rapturous expression on the child’s face; Hal was instantly absorbed.
Rafe made his way over to a large Welsh dresser and took down two crystal wine glasses, indicating for Sage to sit down at the huge table.
‘Glass of wine? I have both white and red … or something else? I am quite well stocked. Gin? Whisky? Diet Coke?’ he asked gently, waiting patiently.
‘Have you, by any chance, got any food?’ Sage asked apologetically, surprised to find that she was hungry. She did not particularly want to drink on an empty stomach. ‘I am absolutely famished.’
‘Hmm, let me see …’ Rafe began opening cupboards.
He produced a big bag of crisps and found a pot of olives in the fridge.
‘Crack these open and I’ll ring for an Indian.
Do you like Indian food? I can actually cook but since I started training, I’ve probably cooked about five times. There’s sod all in the fridge!’
‘I love Indian food,’ Sage said gratefully.
Rafe poured whisky into two tumblers and, handing one to her, said, ‘Drink this while we wait, it’ll help.’ Then turning back to Hal, ‘How about you? Would you like a vindaloo? Lime pickle and poppadoms?’
Hal looked at Rafe in confusion, who tried again.
‘Are you hungry?’ he smiled.
Hal grinned back and shook his head, quickly returning to his programme.
When they had eaten the takeaway and Sage had filled Rafe in on the situation, she busied herself tidying up the debris on the table while he made a phone call in his study.
She felt better after eating but she knew that she could not go back to North Place that night.
She worried about encroaching on Rafe and was turning the options for where they could go over in her mind.
When Rafe came back, apologizing for being so long, she asked, ‘Can I possibly call North Place again? I need to get my father’s phone number.’ She had just that moment decided that was where she would go for temporary sanctuary.
‘Yes, of course. You know … you are both welcome to stay here with me. I have three spare bedrooms. You could share with Hal or have your own, whichever you’d prefer.
There’s plenty of space …’ Rafe trailed off, the expression on Sage’s face not hard to interpret.
‘Well, I would like you to share my bedroom, of course! I was trying to be a gentleman.’ He shrugged helplessly.
‘I just wanted to know that I was invited!’ Sage laughed, thinking that this was not how either of them had envisaged sharing their first night together.
‘Wicked temptress. Use my study to phone by all means but seriously, I do mean it, I’d love you both to stay.’ Rafe was not worried about the threat of Santiago himself; he just wanted to protect Sage and Hal. He drew her close for a moment.
‘I’m not quite sure what the right thing to do is,’ she murmured into his chest.
With iron will, he stepped away. ‘No need to decide right this moment. Go and make your call. It’s the second on the left.’ He pointed to a door.
Sage walked back out into the hall and, looking over her shoulder to check she was not being watched, peeped through the first door to find a smart little bathroom with striped wallpaper and lots of framed school photographs.
She crept in and turned the light on. There were pictures of teenage boys in penguin suits and straw boaters, cricket whites, rugby shirts and strange fez hats.
She looked closer and saw that the smiling, dashing boy labelled as The Hon.
Rafe Dunbarton was captain of everything. Another Harrow boy, she thought.