Party Games (43 page)

It hit the spot, just as intended. Felix came for Beau, roaring. Catherine only just got out of the way in time.

The age gap was too great. Beau was too quick and too strong. Grabbing Felix’s wrists, he got him down on the floor in a headlock.

‘Get your hands off me!’ Felix screamed. ‘How dare you!’

‘You’re a sad, fucked-up bully, who’s terrorized his wife and kids for years.’ Beau pushed his brother’s face into the carpet, subduing him. ‘For God’s sake, man, have some dignity. It’s over.’

All the fight went out of the older man and he crumpled on to the floor. ‘I was meant to be
more
than this,’ he moaned.

It was a pitiful sight to witness. Beau released him and got up.

‘What are you going to do?’ he asked Catherine.

‘I’m going public with the story. First thing tomorrow.’

Felix moaned again. ‘You can’t.’

She glanced at the pathetic heap on the floor. It was hard to believe she’d ever looked up to him.

‘People need to know the truth,’ she said quietly.

‘You do know it will cost you the election?’ Beau told her. ‘Tory chairman turns out to be major player in Ye Olde Worlde. It will ruin your chances of winning.’

‘I know.’ Taking one final look at Felix, she walked out.

‘I’m pretty sure it’s not an exaggeration to call Felix a sociopath. He’s always had a major chip on his shoulder.’

Catherine and Beau were at her kitchen table, a bottle of red wine between them. They had stayed long enough to watch Felix hastily pack a suitcase and disappear into the night. It was hard to feel any sympathy for him.

‘From the few things Ginny’s said over the years, he’s very like his own dad,’ Beau continued. ‘Apparently Trevor Chamberlain was a model citizen on the outside, but a real bully at home. He thought he was too good for Beeversham and clearly passed that on to Felix. The fact that he ended up back here after university and never left must have pissed him off deeply. He already harboured a deep resentment against my mother for leaving, but the truth was, that bastard Trevor Chamberlain abused her nearly every day of her life. Unfortunately, history went on to repeat itself.’

Catherine was shocked. ‘Felix beat Ginny up?’

Beau’s expression was stony. ‘I think it was mainly verbal, not that that makes it any better. How fat Ginny was, how useless and unglamorous she was compared to everyone else’s wives.’

Catherine couldn’t bear to think about what Ginny had been through. ‘Poor, poor Ginny.’ What a savage irony: that she had been campaigning against domestic violence, and it had been happening right under her nose.

‘I tried to get her to leave him so many times.’ Beau sighed. ‘In the end he’d alienated her from everyone: me, their old friends, her sister. His own children can’t stand him. Will, their son, had a massive fight with Felix a few years back and swore he’d never set foot in the family home again.’

‘But how could Felix keep it secret? Why did no one suspect anything?’

‘He was very good at keeping his public and private faces separate. A few people may have guessed what was going on over the years, but they probably didn’t want to interfere. Ginny would never have said anything herself. Felix had ground her down.’

‘I still can’t believe it,’ Catherine said. ‘Ginny hasn’t been herself for a while, but I thought …’ She stopped. ‘I thought she was ill.’

‘Things have been worse lately,’ Beau admitted. ‘I thought it was just because he was resentful of you running in the by-election, but now we know he had other stuff on his mind.’

‘I feel terrible I’ve made things worse.’

‘If it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else. Felix is a very jealous, bitter man. He’s obsessed
with money and power because he’s never really had it. Truth is, he was probably never good enough to be a big politician. He had the delusions of grandeur, but no conviction.’

‘I thought you were the one behind Ye Olde Worlde,’ she confessed. ‘Felix hoodwinked us all.’

Beau shrugged. ‘I could have let people know what my brother was like, but Ginny always begged me not to. This place is her life. So I kept my mouth shut.’

‘You’re very close to Ginny.’

‘I adore her,’ he said simply. ‘I was a lonely, grieving kid after my mum died. My father had gone back to America, and Ginny was the only one who was there for me. As much as she could be, anyway. Felix always hated me. You heard how I was the one who “got lucky”.’ He smiled thinly. ‘If I’d ever been asked to choose between money and family, I know what my answer would have been.’

‘Is that why you moved back here?’

‘It was a big reason. I knew things were getting worse. I thought I could keep an eye on Felix and be there for Ginny. And in a funny way, this town is home to me. Or it was, anyway.’

‘Will Ginny come back?’

‘I’m not sure yet, she’s safe at her sister’s.’ He sighed again. ‘The irony is, things had got so bad, I’d convinced her to see a divorce lawyer. That’s where I’ve been this week. I guess she hasn’t got a choice now.’

Catherine didn’t press for more details about Felix’s philandering. Her brain couldn’t cope with any more revelations.

‘What about you?’ Beau asked. ‘What are you going to do without your campaign manager?’

‘I doubt I’ll have much of a campaign to run.’

‘Well, you know you’ve got my vote if it helps.’ He gave her a disarming grin.

‘Thanks for tonight,’ she said shakily. ‘I don’t know what I’d have done without you.’

He shook his head. ‘I just feel sorry for Ginny.’ He stood up. ‘I’d better shoot. I’ve got a lot of work to get through.’

‘At this hour? Must be important.’

‘It is.’ He paused. ‘I’ve just signed a deal for a big piece of land round here.’

‘You’re not going to build another theme park, are you?’

‘Ha, no. But it could be pretty risky, especially in the current climate.’

‘Sounds intriguing.’

He sized her up through his cool blue eyes. ‘Maybe.’

A mobile ringtone went off. ‘Excuse me,’ he told her, pulling an iPhone out of his back pocket.

‘Hello? Hi, Robert. Yeah, sorry, I’ve been a bit tied up.’ He frowned. ‘No. Why?’

Beneath the tan, his face drained of colour. ‘Don’t move,’ he ordered. ‘I’m coming over.’

Dawn broke over the London rooftops but Vanessa barely noticed. She’d been by Dylan’s side all night. When she’d seen him lying motionless in the road outside the Royal Albert Hall, she’d feared the worst. At one point the doctors had said it was critical, but miraculously he’d started to improve. He’d been drifting in and out of consciousness ever since.

There was a bed shortage, so he had ended up in a mixed ward for the elderly. The air was tinged with the smell of antiseptic and a faint waft of urine, the gentle sound of monitors and an occasional rasping snore. Vanessa was still in her dress, although the cripplingly high heels had been kicked off long ago.

An old man wearing an oxygen mask in the bed opposite had been watching her with great interest for hours.

‘Wish my wife made such an effort when she came in to see me.’

‘I don’t always look like this, trust me.’

‘No? Shame. You look very pretty. Young girls these days don’t know how to dress.’

‘I’m not that young but thank you for the compliment.’ Vanessa felt like she’d aged a thousand years in the past few hours.

She looked back at Dylan. His eyes were closed and the normally brown face was a sickly white. A huge plaster covered the right side of his forehead. There had been so much blood. Too much blood. Vanessa’s stomach turned thinking about it.

Despite the time, a few patients were awake. ‘Are you on the television?’ the cockney lady on Vanessa’s right asked.

‘I was meant to be, last night.’

‘I know you: you’re that Vanessa Powell! My Angela has your perfume. She loves it, but it’s a bit overpowering, if you ask me.’

Vanessa smiled. ‘I know what you mean.’

‘So what’s going on there?’ She nodded to Dylan. ‘That’s not your husband, is it?’

‘No.’ Vanessa turned to Dylan. ‘This is the man I’ve left my husband for.’

‘That’s going to cause a bit of a ruckus, isn’t it?’

‘It already has.’

‘Well, you can’t pretend to be happy when you’re not. I’ve had four of the buggers. Husbands, I mean.’

She had to be twenty stone and then some. ‘I was quite the stunner back in my day. It’s no use blushing, dear, we all end up losing it along the way.’ She peered at Dylan again. ‘He’s quite a looker. Are you going to feel the same about him when he’s old and saggy?’

‘I don’t care about that. I love his spirit more than anything.’ Vanessa pushed a black curl off his face.

A breakfast tray rattled past in the corridor, distracting her. When she looked back Dylan’s eyes were open and he was looking right at her.

‘Dylan! Oh my God.’

‘Vanessa.’ His voice was cracked and barely audible. She poured a glass of water and held it to his mouth.

‘How are you feeling? Does it hurt?’

‘I’ve felt better.’ He gazed at her. ‘What time is it?’

‘Early.’ She stroked his hair. ‘You’ve been asleep for hours.’

He lifted his hand to caress her face. ‘How are you?’

‘I’ve left Conrad,’ she told him. ‘He’s been arrested.’

She watched him slowly absorb the information. ‘Wow. How do you feel?’

‘I haven’t really thought about it,’ she admitted. ‘I’ve been so worried about you.’

He smiled, his gaze falling on her dress. ‘You look pretty. Sorry you got my blood all over you.’

‘It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters as long as you’re all right.’

He took her hand in his. ‘So, this is it. This is us, I mean.’

‘I guess it is.’ She looked anxious. ‘If you’re sure?’

‘Of course I’m sure. You’re not having second thoughts, are you?’

‘Of course not! I just feel terrible dragging you into all this.’ The press were already camped outside the hospital. ‘You didn’t ask for all this attention and scrutiny. I don’t want you to sacrifice your life for me.’

‘Vanessa, my life is you.’ He gave her his crooked
grin. ‘If we get any bother from people, I’ll set Eddie on them.’

They gazed into each other’s eyes, utterly lost. ‘For pete’s sake,’ the cockney lady said. ‘Are you going to kiss her or what?’

Dylan smiled, and with some effort, lifted his head and kissed Vanessa passionately. Clapping erupted round the ward.

‘Go on, my son!’ the old man called. ‘About time we had a bit of excitement round here!’

The rustle of a nearby animal woke Fleur up. She opened her eyes, wondering why she was so cold and stiff. A second later it all came back to her. The devastation was crushing.

She sat up. Her back ached horribly from the hard ground, while goosebumps pimpled her arms and legs. She rubbed her limbs furiously, but it would be a long time before she ever felt warm again.

Blackwater Farm lay beneath her. She saw past the crumbling buildings, the sagging fencing, the rusty machinery that should have been replaced years ago. The farm was her heritage, her identity. It represented three hundred years of work by the Blackwater family.

Now Beau had taken it all away from her.

The last thing she wanted to do was go home and face her dad, but there was no use putting it off. She started the long walk down the hill, feeling as if she was going to her own funeral. After all, she was dead inside now.

She stopped halfway to take in the view, while it was
still hers. In the west the sun was rising above a salmon-pink sky. The still air held the promise of another hot day ahead. Beeversham had never looked so beautiful.

I’m so tired
, she thought.
I’m so tired of keeping everything going
.

She just wanted to lie down and close her eyes for ever. There was no more fight left in her.

A frantic shout made her start. ‘Fleur!’

Beau was standing behind her, breathing heavily. He looked terrible, black circles under his eyes and sweat patches staining the pale-blue shirt.

‘I’ve been looking for you all night. Where the hell have you been?’ He took a step forward.

‘Stay away from me!’ Fleur hissed. ‘You’re a lying piece of scum!’

An anguished look crossed Beau’s face. Guilty conscience? It was too bloody late for that.

‘Fleur, I know how it looks …’

‘You wanted the farm all along!’ She was so furious the words tumbled out on top of each other. ‘You knew how much this place means to me! You
knew
. And you used me to get close to my dad, so you could buy it behind my back. My God. How can you sleep at night?’

He pulled something out of his back pocket. ‘I want to show you something.’

She looked at the wad of papers he was holding. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘The deeds for the farm. I’ve just signed them.’

She actually laughed out loud. ‘You’ve come all the way out here to rub my nose in it? You’re even sicker than I thought.’

‘Just look at them, will you?’ he said urgently. ‘OK,
you think I’m the biggest bastard ever to walk this earth, but will you just stop shouting and take a look?’

He walked over and shoved the papers into her hand. She glanced at them unwillingly, before studying the first page more closely. ‘I don’t understand. These deeds are in my name.’

‘Of course they are. The farm belongs to you.’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘I’ve bought your dad out. But only to keep it running as a farm. I’ve signed it all over to you.’ He tried a tentative smile. ‘You’ll make a real success of it. I know you will.’

She was utterly confused. ‘But you want to turn it into a spa! I heard you and Spencer plotting.’

He frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘That night you and Spencer tried to buy it off me! You said you wanted to turn it into a spa and later, when Spencer turned up at yours, I heard him out by the pool. He said, he hoped it was all worth it and said about “putting in the groundwork” with me.’

‘That’s because I’d just told him I was in love with you!’

‘Don’t give me that!’