moment later there was a tap on the door and her father put his head around it. ‘I’m told it’s safe to come in.’
‘I warn you, if you say something nice I’m going to cry all over you.’
‘Your mother warned me. I came prepared,’ he said, taking a mini pack of tissues from his pocket.
She laughed. ‘They’ve got hearts on them.’
‘Immi ordered a box of them for her own wedding.’ He took her hands. ‘You look beautiful, my dear. Cleve’s a lucky man.’
‘We’re both lucky,’ she said.
‘Yes. I’m afraid I badly misjudged him.’
‘Misjudged him?’ She frowned. ‘When?’
‘Oh, years ago. He had a bit of a reputation back then.’
‘A girl at every airfield?’
‘You knew?’
‘I was eighteen, Dad. Old enough to know that any man who looked like him would be beating girls off with a stick.’
‘There was that,’ he admitted, ‘but when he came to buy his first aircraft I was sure he’d be broke within a year.’
‘Cleve?’ She frowned. ‘No one works harder, is more respected in the business.’
‘Not then.’ He shrugged. ‘He was young and it was all a game.’
‘Not like you and Mum giving up all your dreams to save Marlowe Aviation.’
‘Maybe that influenced me. Envy... But I could see how taken you were with him and I knew he’d break your heart.’
‘Dad?’ She tightened her grip on his hands. ‘What are you saying?’
‘I did what I thought was right for you, Andie. What I still think was right.’
‘You warned him off?’ For a moment she couldn’t be sure which would be worse. Her father’s interference or Cleve’s capitulation. She let go of her father’s hands, took a step back. ‘What did you do?’
‘It’s not important. I just wanted you to know that I’m glad you finally found one another.’
‘I’m about to marry him, Dad. I’ve a right to know what it took to make him walk away the first time.’
‘He wouldn’t...’ He lifted a hand in a gesture of surrender. ‘Very well. Cleve had signed a contract to courier goods for a big electronics company, the bank had agreed to loan him the money for a Hornet.’
She knew all that. She’d been at uni then, but he’d always texted her to let her know when he’d be there so that they could snatch a few minutes. The last time they’d met he’d promised to let her know when he was going to pick up the Hornet and they would go out and celebrate the new contract that established Goldfinch as a serious contender in the business, and his new aircraft. A proper date with all that promised.
In the event there had been no text, no date and no more kisses.
She’d assumed that he’d met someone closer to hand. She’d wept on Immi’s shoulder, soaked her pillow for a week and then she’d got on with her life because what else was there to do?
Her mouth was dry but she had to know. ‘What happened, Dad?’
‘Two weeks before the delivery date the banks went into meltdown and they pulled the plug on hundreds of small companies.’
‘But...’
‘Without the Hornet Cleve wouldn’t be able to fulfil the contract. Staring ruin in the face, he came to see me. His parents were prepared to lend him some money to cover his working overdraft but he needed me to accept staged payments for the aircraft.’
‘What did you do?’
‘I offered him a deal on the understanding that he would stay away from you.’
‘Me or the Hornet?’
‘You were at university, Andie, doing well. I wanted you in the company, designing for me. I didn’t want him tempting you away, not just to his bed, but giving you a chance to fly.’
‘He took the deal.’
Of course he did. He might have had a tendresse for her but Goldfinch was his life.
‘I gave him an hour to decide and to give him his due he took every second of that hour but we both knew that he had no choice. He’d signed the contract on the bank’s word. If he was unable to deliver he would have gone under.’
‘Did you make him sign an agreement?’ she asked. ‘Or did you shake hands like gentlemen?’
‘Andie...’
‘Didn’t you call him on it when he broke his word and gave me a job?’
‘He was married by then. Settled.’ Her father walked to the open French doors and looked out over the bay. ‘I watched you sending off application after application, Andie. I saw a light go out of you when no one would even give you an interview.’
It took a moment for what he was saying to sink in.
‘Are you saying that you asked Cleve to give me a job?’ No, it was worse than that. There hadn’t been a job. There had been precious little for her to do for the first couple of months... ‘You didn’t just ask him to take me on, you paid him...’
She didn’t wait for his answer. She tore the circlet of daisies from her head and walked out through the open French doors.
She needed to be alone to process what she’d just heard but the garden was full of people who all turned to look at her and, kicking off the ridiculously high heels, she picked up her skirt and ran for the beach.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Immi make a move to follow her, saw Portia catch her arm and hold her back.
Andie didn’t stop until she was at the edge of the water and it was only Sofia’s precious dress that stopped her from wading in so that the sea could wash her clean.
It felt as if her entire life had been a lie. The one thing that she’d clung to, that was hers alone, had been a conspiracy between the two men she loved.
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