Chapter 57
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
As usual, the high street was a bustle of activity and Juliette found herself stopped twice before she got to the estate agents, by people she’d either met to say hello to in one of the shops or spoken to in the pub. It was lovely to be recognised already.
Finally, once outside their office window, Juliette studied the properties on display under the guise of looking for a new home while she glanced through the images and into the office behind.
There were two women at separate desks. One was on the phone, doing a lot of talking with her hand.
She didn’t look older than twenty so would be too young to have been with Richard for so long.
The other woman, however, seemed in her early thirties.
She had long blonde hair, was slim and wore rimless glasses perched on the end of her nose.
The uniform of navy-blue suit, white blouse and red neckerchief made her look like an air hostess, but there seemed no airs about her.
The woman looked up at that moment, probably feeling Juliette’s stare. She smiled and beckoned her inside. Juliette took a deep breath and went in.
‘Lovely morning, isn’t it?’ the woman said. ‘Although sadly, it’s given rain out for later.’ She held out a hand. ‘My name’s Carly. Is there anything I can help you with?’
‘Oh, I—’
‘Don’t tell me you were just browsing. I always beckon in the wrong people.’ Her smile was friendly as she teased, and Juliette felt herself relaxing enough to ask a few pertinent questions.
‘Actually, I’ve not long moved in. A few weeks ago, with my husband. I live in Abbey Cottage.’
‘I thought your face looked familiar. I must have seen you around the village. Oh, that’s such a beautiful property. I lived next door for a while. The views at the back are amazing.’
‘They are. I don’t know why anyone would want to move out.’ She faked embarrassment. ‘Sorry, that was a bit rude.’
‘It’s fine. I was in a relationship with the owner. He’s still there now, so I guess it’s him you’ve come to ask me about and you’re not remotely interested in a new property?’
There was no embarrassment to fake now. Juliette’s cheeks turned red in an instant.
Carly went back behind her desk and sat down. She pointed at the seat in front of her, urging Juliette to do the same.
Juliette sat, thankful that she hadn’t been thrown out.
‘What is it you want to know?’ Carly asked.
‘There was a woman after you. Louisa. She hasn’t been there for a year or so and I’m trying to contact her. I-I have something that I’d like to return to her.’
‘Right.’ Carly smirked. ‘Richard was an arsehole of the biggest proportion. Is that what you’re really after me saying?’
Juliette felt herself warming to Carly. Her nature was pleasant, considering what she was trying to find out.
‘I met Richard when he first moved here,’ Carly went on. ‘As you probably know, he can be quite a charmer. Very persuasive too and soon after we started dating, he asked me to move in with him. Over the course of a year, he changed me completely.’
Juliette couldn’t help but sigh.
‘Coercive control. It’s as damaging as domestic abuse, but I didn’t see the signs until it was too late.
We became an item really quickly but by the end of the first year, I was solely with him all the time.
I never went out with friends and I barely saw my family, even though everyone I know lives in the village.
‘He wanted me all for himself, but when he got me, it was as if I wasn’t enough.
’ She shuddered at the memory. ‘He went with other women while we were together, and that was all right from his point of view. It seemed he really wanted a glorified housekeeper, to look after him and then he’d do as he pleased.
I wish I’d had the courage to leave him earlier, but I was so frightened. ’
‘Oh dear,’ Juliette remarked, recalling seeing him with the blonde in the restaurant.
‘He’s a predator who played on my emotions. I’m sure he did the same with my mind too. I found out he’d been giving me sleeping tablets every so often.’
‘No!’ Juliette couldn’t hide her surprise.
Carly nodded. ‘But it came to a head when I finally couldn’t take any more and I tried to leave.
He threatened me with all sorts. Said he’d taken video footage of us in bed and would send it to everyone I knew.
Then he said he would ruin my business. I believed all of this but one night after a pretty brutal attack, I left and never went back. ’
‘You mean he hit out at you?’ Juliette blanched. ‘I’m sorry that I made you bring all this up.’
‘He punched me square in the nose,’ Carly continued, nevertheless. ‘I looked a terrible mess.’
‘Did you press charges?’
‘He persuaded me not to. Like I say, he could be a charmer. Don’t get me wrong, he’s great at the beginning of the relationship. But once he’s sucked you in, he stops with the acting and becomes extremely calculating.’
‘I’m sorry you had to go through that. Did you ever see Louisa with him?’
‘Only on her own, the times she was allowed to walk into the village for supplies. He was a bastard of the large variety. When I walked away, I went home to my parents at first. He kept pestering me to come back. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, couldn’t understand how someone had dared to walk away from him.
’ Carly sat a little straighter. ‘Well, I had, although my dignity was half intact as he had broken me a little with each passing month. I had no intentions of returning to him. Luckily I had somewhere to stay. Why do you ask about him? Are you worried about the woman he’s with now? ’
‘Yes.’ Juliette said no more. She didn’t want to betray Sarah’s confidence. Besides, she had enough now to be getting on with. She was already building up a picture of Richard that she didn’t much like.