Diamonds Forever (21 page)

‘It makes Jason a Harville on both sides, though. I haven't dared mention it to him.'

‘I can't take this in. It's mad.'

‘I know. I nearly screamed when I put all the documentation together and realised what it meant.'

‘So bloody Lord High and Mighty Harville isn't even the right bloke for the job,' said Linda indignantly.

‘Ah, well, who knows? Perhaps there's legal documentation to insist the Hall is always entailed away to a male member of the family. So you might never have got to live there and use the title anyway. But all the same …'

‘It's quite a nice feeling,' said Linda, lifting her chin and looking, despite herself, surprisingly regal. ‘Lady Linda. I like it.'

Jenna smiled at Linda's burst of pomp and circumstance, then put her cup down.

‘But it's the whereabouts of Lord Jason I need to know about,' she said. ‘Can't you think of anywhere he might be?'

‘Well, let me think …'

But Linda's thinking was disturbed by a hammering at the door.

‘Is that him?'

Jenna rushed to answer it, but quickly slammed it shut again on seeing the flash of bulbs from the landing.

‘Jenna, Jenna! What have you got to say about the picture in circulation all over the internet? Jenna!'

‘Oh
God
,' she said, running back to Linda. ‘We're under siege. Somebody's tipped the press off that I'm here.'

‘Oh dear. What are we going to do?'

‘I'll call the police, see if I can get them thrown out of the building at least. They shouldn't be in your communal hall.'

‘Shame that,' said Linda. ‘I were going to run out to the offy. If I'm Lady Harville, I ought to be on the champagne.'

It had been a stupid idea to storm off without his mobile or his wallet.

Jason could see that now.

In fact, he could see that storming in general was a bit pathetic and childish really.

He wished to God he hadn't done it.

If he'd kept his temper and stayed with Jenna, he wouldn't now be crossing a wet wheat field with no idea at all whether he was heading in the right direction for Bledburn.

He hadn't taken the road back for fear of being pursued and picked up again by Harville and his goons. Luckily they had been so preoccupied with Deano, they had given him a head start. He'd been out of there like a bat out of hell.

But he needed to get back to Bledburn as fast as possible. He couldn't say he was Deano Diamond's biggest fan, but he felt he ought to get him some help.

Jumping a stile into a field of nervous sheep, he thought over Harville's plan. Could it have worked for him? Would Jenna have believed that he, Jason, had decked Deano? And would she then have dumped him?

He thought the answer to the first question was yes. It would be perfectly easy for Jenna to believe he was capable of using his fists on his rival.

He had shown her time and time again what a mardy bugger he was.

‘You need to chill, son,' he muttered to himself, start-ling a nearby sheep into bleating.

But would she dump him over it?

He found this question more difficult to answer, because it raised a few more, some of which he didn't really want to think about.

He didn't doubt that she loved him now, wholeheartedly and passionately. But now was still only a few months distant from their first meeting. And he knew, from bitter experience, that a relationship can start as promisingly as it likes – it still doesn't mean it will last.

As he tramped through the fields, his mind went back, almost against his will, to those heady early days with Mia, back at school. They had been the Romeo and Juliet of the year, without all the suicides and suchlike. Always getting into trouble with the teachers for their public displays of affection and being told to ‘get a room' by their eye-rolling peers.

‘Pretty hard to get a room when you're fifteen and skint,' he had said once. ‘But if you can get one for us, we'll take you up on it, no probs.'

In the end, a room had not been necessary.

He and Mia had grown up together, their development into adults entwined with, and perhaps inhibited by, each other. Towards the end, she had accused him of suffocating her, and he had been hurt. She had never said she didn't want him! He had assumed she
wanted
to spend all her free time with him, as he did with her.

Perhaps there was a lesson in that. Perhaps he shouldn't be living with Jenna at this early stage. Perhaps she would tire of him, as Mia had done.

And then what would he do?

It wasn't as if his life had been great before he met her. It hadn't. It had been shit, in fact. In many ways, she had saved him – so many ways.

But he didn't like the thought that he had been saved. Seeing himself as some kind of lame duck who needed Jenna to come and sprinkle her magic dust over him to make him something worthwhile was difficult and humbling. But … well … it was a way of looking at it. It was how lots of people saw it, especially Lawrence Harville, and probably Deano Diamond too.

Without Jenna, he was nothing.

But, hang on, no he wasn't. He was really and honestly a good artist, and now he had clients and a portfolio and all that. He believed in himself more than he had ever done before.

He was something.

He just wanted to be that something
with Jenna
.

But what if Mia was right and he was boring and suffocating?

The thoughts rolled round and round in his mind as his feet blistered and his legs grew stiff with exhaustion.

If Jenna would have dumped him for punching Deano Diamond, then that would mean that she still had a place in her heart for Deano.

This, the idea that had been threatening him ever since Deano's return, made him stop in his tracks and let it sink in.

She and Deano had a history he had no part of, and he was jealous of that. He hated to think of it, especially hated to think of their young love when they were bursting with exhilaration and full of hopes for the future. He often thought of painting pictures of scenes from their early life together, just so he could have the satisfaction of painting over them. He wanted to paint over Deano, black him out, turn him into a lamp post or some other piece of scenery.

‘But that's impossible,' he said out loud.

This time his audience was a trio of cows, which took no notice and continued to chew the cud.

He needed to accept that Jenna had a past, as she had accepted his. She had never shown any signs of being jealous of Mia, or even interested in her.

‘It's different for her, though,' he said to the cows. ‘She can have anyone she likes.'

One cow looked up at him with mournful brown eyes, as if to say, ‘But she likes you.'

‘God knows why,' he muttered in reply to the imagined remark.

The cow stared on. This time she seemed to say, ‘Take a look at yourself.'

He grinned at that.

‘I'm not bad looking, if I do say so myself. Cheers, Daisy. Incidentally, can you tell me how far it is to Bledburn?'

She couldn't.

He laughed and walked on, mildly invigorated by the exchange.

He couldn't answer the question about whether Jenna would dump him for hurting Deano. But he could ask her. And that's what he'd do.

Everything out in the open, cards on the table. Then, a fresh start. Maybe they should leave Bledburn, go to London, leave all this Harville shite behind for good.

He reached the top of a ridge and exhaled with relief.

Below him was the complex of lakes, made from the old pits, and landscaped to provide a leisure and water-sports park for the people of Bledburn, who mostly couldn't afford it.

‘My kingdom,' he said, spreading his arms wide.

He squinted down at the huddled town, trying to find the spire of All Saints Church, from which he would be able to place Harville Hall. Yes, there it was.

‘Hold on, Jenna,' he shouted to the birds wheeling overhead. ‘I'm coming home.'

AN HOUR-AND-A-HALF LATER
, after running through the fields that surrounded Bledburn, arriving at Harville Hall and finding it empty, and leaving in search of Jenna, Jason found himself passing the police station.

The sight of it made him consider something that hadn't even occurred to him yet – of reporting what had happened at Harville's cottage.

Jason's record with the police was such that he would do almost anything and everything possible before involving them. But his plan had been to tell Jenna everything and leave the course of action to be taken up to her. And Jenna would surely have called the police.

Or would she? Bad publicity, of which she'd had more than enough lately, might put her off. Perhaps it was best to keep the boys in blue out of it. But then again … who else was going to charge up and rescue Deano?

He was pondering this question – safely out of sight of the front of the station – when a back door opened and disgorged none other than Mia.

‘Jay,' she exclaimed, stopping stock still on the pavement.

His heart skipped a beat.

‘What are you doing here?' he said through cold, somewhat stiff, lips.

‘Have to sign in every week. Probation type thing, you know.'

‘Oh, yeah,' he said, looking up the street, unable to meet her eye.

‘So … you all right, then?' she said diffidently.

‘Not so bad. You?'

She laughed sadly and looked down at the pavement.

‘Oh, you know,' she said.

There was an awkward pause.

‘Fancy a coffee?' she blurted.

Jason stared at her, startled.

‘What?'

‘Might be nice to catch up,' she said, with a defiant edge in her voice. ‘I do think about you, you know. A lot.'

‘Yeah, well, I haven't got any money on me …'

‘No probs. I'll pay.'

He frowned. ‘What're you after? Anyway, I can't, really. Kind of an emergency. But I don't know what to do about it.'

‘Maybe I can help?'

He was about to laugh scornfully and say he didn't think so, when it occurred to him that perhaps she could.

‘Go on then,' he said. ‘Coffee. A quick one.'

She smiled, as if she couldn't believe her luck.

‘Yay!' she said. ‘Come on then.'

She led him to a kind of fancy tea-room, not a Bledburn kind of place at all, if you asked him, and it didn't look cheap either, but then she was paying, so who cared?

‘So you're a famous artist now, then,' said Mia, as they took seats away from the window. ‘I saw you on the local news.'

‘Did you?'

‘Yeah. Always said you were talented, didn't I?'

‘Did you?'

‘Yeah.' She sighed. ‘I know you hate me, and you've got good reason …'

He waved his hand, cutting her off.

‘Don't,' he said. ‘It doesn't matter any more anyway.'

‘No,' said Mia, sighing again. ‘It was her that got me into this place.'

Jason made an exasperated sound.

‘Who?'

‘Jenna Diamond. She brought me here once.'

‘Jenna Myatt,' Jason corrected. ‘And what? Jenna brought you here?'

‘When you were in prison. She thought I could help …'

‘But you didn't. It was Kayley who had the guts in the end.'

‘I know. I felt bad. But I was so scared, you know.'

She broke off to order two coffees.

‘
You
were scared?' said Jason hotly, but then he remembered his mission and tried to calm down. ‘Yeah, well, Lawrence Harville isn't exactly Mr Nice Guy,' he conceded.

Mia nodded miserably.

‘It's him I want to ask you about,' said Jason. ‘As it goes.'

‘Lawrence Harville?' She looked surprised, and none too pleased.

‘Uh huh. What, did you think I wanted to talk about old times?' he sneered.

‘I'm sorry I hurt you,' said Mia quietly.

That threw him. He'd been expecting defensiveness, snapping, maybe even self-pitying tears, but not an apology.

‘OK,' he said after a pause. ‘Apology accepted.'

A waitress brought their coffees over.

‘When you used to hang around with Harville,' said Jason, ‘did he ever take you to a cottage, or country house type place? Like, not in Bledburn but maybe about eight, nine, ten miles away or so?'

‘A place in the country?' Mia's face set in the effort of recollection. ‘We mainly partied at the Hall but we went out sometimes … raves and stuff … out in the countryside. Let me think.'

‘It's important,' said Jason, breaking her reverie.

‘There might have been somewhere,' she said. ‘I remember a place with a wine cellar, belonged to one of his friends, or his friend's parents or something.'

‘A cottage? Off the beaten track?'

‘Yeah, it wasn't in Bledburn.'

‘Who was the friend?'

‘Oh God … I think … some guy Kayley was friendly with … I really can't remember his name.'

‘Well, can you try?' asked Jason with icy politeness.

Mia's hackles seemed to rise at that.

‘What's all this about anyway?' she said. ‘Why do you need to know?'

Jason exhaled, troubling the fluff on this frothy thing Mia had ordered for him.

‘I might as well tell you,' he said. ‘No point not. I got kidnapped by Harville just now.'

‘Kidnapped? Just now?' Mia blinked.

‘Yeah, well, this morning or whatever. Got into a car, and it turned out Harville was driving.'

‘So … why would you get in?'

‘Someone else asked me to. And Harville drove us all to this cottage place and there was a bit of a ruck and I got away, but my mate didn't. So I want to go back for him, but … I need to make a plan first.'

Mia blinked rapidly then sat back, laughing in disbelief.