Stay with Me (47 page)

Lena knew he was directing criticism at her but made no retaliation, as she might once have done.

Peter noted this muted reaction to the words he had deliberately used, and was glad.

‘I was careful. I went to people I could trust. After two visits to Hull, I went to London also.'

‘London? What has London to do with it?' asked Lena, mystified.

‘All in good time.' Peter left a little pause for dramatic effect then announced, ‘I have sold everything.'

A momentary silence came over the room and then it was filled with gasps of disbelief and words of enquiry.

Lena stared at him wide-eyed. ‘Why?'

‘I realised that after what had happened, people in Hull would not want to work for me, and with three ships lost I was in a precarious position. I decided it was best to raise what I could for the assets I had.'

A chill was enveloping Lena's heart and mind at his use of the words ‘me' and ‘I'. He was excluding her. Her future looked bleak.

‘I found a buyer for what was left of the business. I also sold the town house and all its contents. Raby, too, I'm afraid.'

‘No!' Lena cried, knowing with this announcement that she would never again visit the place she had come to love.

‘I found I could no longer call it home after what had happened,' he said quietly.

‘Oh, Peter, what have I done?' The words caught in her throat and tears started to flow down Lena's cheeks.

Marcia, deeming that the time had come when Peter and his wife should be alone, cast a glance at Charles and Greta. They took her meaning and all three of them slipped quietly from the room without either Peter or Lena seeming to notice.

‘You ruined everything through your stubbornness and stupid obsession with Carnforth's.'

‘But, Peter, I . . .'

‘Don't try to make excuses of any kind. Just hear me out.'

Tears still running down her cheeks, Lena gave a little nod.

‘When I knew I could assemble all the money from the sales, I got Alan Frampton and Jos and Dan to summon to a meeting the immediate relatives of the men who were lost. I got Alan to arrange for Captain Goss to be there. Alan, Jos and Dan, along with some of their friends, acted as my bodyguard. And it was a good job they did! I tell you, there was uproar when I appeared, but things calmed down when I was able to tell people I was paying them compensation for their loss. Captain Goss will see that the people of Grimsby are duly paid, and I told him he too would be recompensed for the loss of the
Seagull
.'

‘So you have nothing left?' asked Lena, her voice scarcely above a whisper but full of remorse, accepting her own responsibility for this state of affairs.

‘I kept sufficient for the purpose I had in mind.'

‘And what might that be?' Lena lifted her gaze to meet his, feeling a glimmer of hope.

‘That can wait a little longer. First I must tell you how I raised much of the money I handed out in compensation . . . not that it could ever be sufficient recompense for the lives you destroyed.' He hesitated as if considering the best way to tell her, but in reality he was letting her own thoughts torment her a little longer. He fixed his eyes on her then and she could not turn away. ‘Your brother once had designs on buying Hustwick's, remember? Sadly, he did not live to see Carnforth's as its owner!'

Speechless, Lena still could not tear her eyes away from his. Then she understood. ‘You sold the business to them?' she whispered.

‘I did,' he said in a tone that left no room for doubt in her mind.

She stiffened slightly. ‘I thought we had an agreement that we should both act upon major decisions?' As small as they were, there were hints of defiance and hostility in her tone now.

‘You dare to bring that up, after the way you flouted that same agreement!' Peter's disgust was unmistakable.

The challenge that had flared in his wife was gone almost immediately, but he had sensed it and surprisingly, he gave a slight smile. ‘Ah, I see there is still a little spunk left in you. That is good for what is to come.'

‘And what is that? It can be no worse than letting Carnforth's win.'

‘I'm going to Australia!'

Lena stared. She couldn't be hearing right. ‘Australia?'

He nodded. ‘I am going to ask Greta to come too. She has no ties, no relations, and will otherwise be left on her own.'

Lena felt cast aside. Memories of the past flooded in and the enormity of what she had brought on herself was overpowering. She couldn't fight back. Helpless and defeated, she gazed at him with tear-filled eyes. ‘What am I to do?' she sobbed.

‘Lena, you'll do what you want to do . . . you always have. But I'm going!' The utter certainty in Peter's eyes shook her to the core.

As dismayed as she felt, cold and unloved, Lena found a spark of her old strength. She pushed herself quickly to her feet and started for the door. ‘Go then, and take Greta with you!' she flung over her shoulder. ‘I'll manage, even if I have to crawl in the gutter and beg from the people I've wronged!'

‘Stay with me.' His words, quietly spoken, stopped her in her tracks.

She turned round slowly. ‘What did you say?'

‘Stay with me.'

She held his gaze. In those three words, she heard forgiveness.

‘I still love you. Come with me, Lena. There is sufficient capital to start out there again, but only on one condition: I run the firm. You merely help, just as Greta will.'

‘I promise,' she said. The tears welled over then. ‘I don't deserve you, Peter.'

He held out his arms to her. As she felt them embrace her, Lena resolved that their new life in Australia would never again test their love for each other.

Lena stood at the window of their house on a Sydney hillside, with magnificent views across the sparkling waters of Port Jackson. She smiled inwardly. It beat the view even from Raby Hall. And Whitby? Well, that would always hold a special place in her heart, in spite of the trauma of her final days there.

She looked down into the well-kept garden in front of the house and saw Peter stand still and gaze up at the window. He waved and she raised her right arm in reply, then held up one-year-old William. Laughter lit up Peter's face then and he waved again before blowing them both a kiss goodbye.

A few moments later he was lost from their sight, on his way to the office of Hustwick - Merchant for another day of hard work towards making their firm into one of consequence in Sydney's thriving port.

Lena was happy for him. She hugged William to her, enjoyed his smile, kissed his forehead. Then she whispered in a wistful tone, ‘You'll have a thriving business to inherit here, but one day I will tell you of your ancestry . . . of the Carnforth blood that flows in your veins only, and of the firm far away in Whitby that is rightfully yours.'