seemed to be staring at her mother’s silver-clad figure down the wrong end of a telescope. She blinked, trying to get her into focus, to control her whirling thoughts.
‘You don’t mind, do you, sweetheart?’ Hugh was whispering urgently. ‘This was her idea, actually. I’d planned something a bit more private.’
Lydie found herself being propelled forward towards the bandstand.
Hugh was going to propose to her, she thought, dry-mouthed, in front of all these people. There’d be no going back after this. But why should she want to go back anyway? She’d be safe with Hugh.... And safety—a refuge—was what she wanted—needed above all else.
She saw Jon smiling at her, lifting a wavering glass, his face conveying a blurred irony. And Austin, beside him, clutching a forbidden cigar, his face oddly set.
. Saw Marius, standing as if he’d been chipped out of stone from the nearby moors, his eyes grey ice. Saw, as everyone else seemed to recede into some hazy distance, his lips move. Heard the silent words above the laughter and approving applause.
‘Madonna Lily.’
She tore her hand free from Hugh’s. Her voice was hoarse. ‘I—I can’t, you see.’ She stared up at him wildly, willing him to understand. ‘I thought I could—I wanted to Please—please believe that...’
Her voice cracked, and she turned and ran, the stunned onlookers parting like the Red Sea, back to the uncertain peace of the house.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE party had been over for hours. From the window-seat in her room Lydie had heard the goodnights being called and watched the headlights departing. Now the house was quiet and in darkness.
She couldn’t go to bed. She was too restless—too on edge. She’d started to undress, then abandoned the idea, throwing a robe over her teddy instead.
She’d half expected an irate visit from her mother, but presumably Debra had decided that it was too late for confrontations and was saving herself for a major scene in the morning.
Lydie shivered slightly. She’d brought it on herself. There were no excuses she could proffer, no apologies she could make.
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