Last Resort (67 page)

"Esther said Stirling reneged. Is that true?"

I

"His hands were tied/ he answered. There was nothing he could do in the end."

I She took a breath and closed her eyes tightly.

"Why didn't you call?"

she said.

"I was so worried."

"I know and I'm sorry. It's just been difficult and things... Well, nothing's gone the way I thought it would. I tried calling you all weekend. Where were you?"

"I was here/ she answered.

"Something must have been wrong with the phone."

There was a pause as they both felt the sheer desperateness of the situation.

"How long will you be gone?"

she asked, steeling herself for the answer.

T don't know for sure. Five years, maybe less."

Five years! This was a nightmare. She'd wake up in a minute and he would be there, grinning at her, teasing her and telling her it was all a joke.

"Oh God, David ..."

"I'm sorry, Pen/ he said.

"I didn't think it was going to happen like this."

He paused. T love you. You know that, don't you? I love you very much."

T love you too/ she whispered.

"Keep that bed warm for me?"

he said.

"Of course/ she said brokenly.

T'm sorry/ he said again, and she could tell he was having as hard a time keeping it together as she was.

The need to touch him, to see him, was burning an unbearable frustration deep into her heart.

"When are you leaving?"

she asked, the idea of flying over to London rushing into her mind.

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'In about an hour. I'm at a hotel outside the airport. I'll have to go soon."

Penny swallowed hard. There was so much she wanted to say, but nothing was coming.

"Where are you going?"

she said.

"Miami."

Then, in a voice fractured with emotion he said, T wish you were here right now so I could hold you

in my arms."

"Oh David,"

she choked. T wish I was there too. I love you. I'm never going to stop loving you."

"No, me neither/ he said. Then, Tve got to go now, got to get that plane.

You'll be OK, Pen. Nuance is yours they won't be able to take it away. Look after yourself, sweetheart,"

he said.

"And remember ..."

His voice gave out for a moment.

"You know what I'm saying,"

he whispered, and the line went dead.

"David!"

she cried, tears streaming down her face.

"DavidV But there was no reply. She looked helplessly at Esther.

"It's all right, dear,"

Esther said soothingly, taking the receiver from her and replacing it.

"You'll be all right. We'll be here to take care of you."

Penny's eyes closed as the nightmare of those words engulfed her. David was gone and she was left here with Esther and Wally Delaney. It was all so wrong, it shouldn't have happened this way. Why did life have to be so cruel as to prevent her seeing him one last time before he went?

"I'm sorry/ she said, unable to look at Esther.

"I need to be on my own for a while. Maybe you could come back ..."

"Why don't you just go upstairs, dear? I'll wait here in case you need anything/ Esther said.

Feeling too worn down and distraught to argue, Penny nodded, and getting up from the chair she walked slowly out of the kitchen unable to think of anything

beyond the way he must be feeling now.

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An hour later Penny was curled up in a chair beside the roaring fire Esther Delaney had built in the sitting room, nursing a steaming mug of Lemsip and a handful of fresh tissues. She was calmer now, but her face was ravaged by the tears she had shed in the privacy of her room. She was still shaking, but not as badly as before, and having thrown up as violently as sh had seemed, in some peculiar way, to have cleared her head. Or maybe it waS the fact that the worst was now happening, that the terrible speculation and fear were at an end and knowing what she had to face had brought its own perverse sense of relief.

She looked up as Esther bustled into the room with a tray containing an ashtray, two glasses of red wine and the bottle she had poured it from.

"No, really, not for me,"

Penny said, shaking her head as Esther offered her one of the glasses.

"But you carry

on.

After stoking up the fire and putting everything tidily back in place Esther settled herself in the opposite chair, while Penny gazed through the condensation on the windows at the drizzling rain and thought about David boarding the flight in London. It was almost too much to bear.

"Why was Wally with David?"

she asked, pushing the words through the suffocating emotion in her throat.

Esther sucked noisily on her cigarette, then took a hasty mouthful of wine.

For the moment Penny couldn't bring herself to look at her as she asked herself why she had to be sitting here with this irritating old woman whom, under any other circumstances, she would probably feel sorry for.

"He had to give statements to the lawyers and to Stirling,"

Esther answered.

"I'm sure he'll tell you all about it when he comes back."

Penny nodded. The fact that Wally, apparently, wasn't going to face any charges himself mattered to her neither

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one way nor the other. All that mattered was David. Then, turning to look at Esther, she felt herself soften slightly, for the compassion in Esther's eyes seemed as genuine as the love in David's voice.

"Why did you do it?"

Penny asked.

"Why did you get me and Christian together when you must have known what it would do to David? But no, of course, you didn't, did you?"

She sighed, remembering that David had told her that Esther hadn't known the whole story.

Esther's eyes darkened with sorrow.

"It wasn't until you'd gone off with Christian that David told me about Gabriella and Jenny and the way Christian was ..."

She stopped, flattening her lips and looking down at her drink.

"Such a terrible thing for Christian to have done to David, taking you away like that,"

she muttered.

"But I promise you, my dear, that had I known what he was up to I'd have put a stop to it right away. Oh dear, I've made such a terrible mess of those boys"

lives and I really should have listened a bit harder to what Billy was trying to tell me. He was talking about David, you see. He was trying to tell me about David, but I thought he meant Christian."

Penny tensed, but she was no longer listening to Esther: she was thinking about the geomancer she had seen in Hong Kong. Feeling as ill as she had lately and with the results of her blood tests still to come, the memory of his hand closing over hers wrapped itself around her heart in a cold grip of terror.

Realizing that Esther had fallen silent, she said,

"Are you able to tell me what happened during the past two weeks? Do you know why David didn't call until now?"

"I really don't know much more than you do,"

Esther said solemnly.

"Wally will be able to tell us when he gets back, I'm sure."

"When will that be, do you know?"

"Tomorrow, I think. Maybe the next day."

Penny took a sip of her lemon drink, then stared down 526

at the crackling logs in the hearth.

"Where's Christian now?"

she asked.

"In Miami."

"And Gabriella?"

she said almost to herself.

When Esther didn't answer right away Penny turned to look at her and felt her heart contract with unease at the look on the old woman's face. Obviously she knew much more than she was telling.

"It's you he loves, my dear,"

Esther said, her voice quaking slightly. Tou must know that, when he came after you the way he did. He knew what a risk he was taking, dear boy. He knew it would probably be the end but he did it anyway, so you can't ever doubt how much he loves you."

"I don't/ Penny responded.

"But you didn't answer my question. Where's Gabriella now?"

Esther's face twitched; then, sighing, she looked helplessly down at her drink.

"She's with David,"

she answered quietly.

Penny could feel the slow burn of jealousy and pain driving right to the very core of her.

"How long has she been with him?"

she asked.

"As far as I know, ever since he went to Marseille."

Penny's hand went to her mouth as the betrayal dug ruthlessly into her heart.

"So that's why he didn't call,"

she said.

"I expect so,"

Esther replied dully.

"I can't say for sure of course. But, yes, I expect so."

Penny looked at her.

"What do you think it means?"

she said. That Gabriella was there."

Esther wrinkled her brow thoughtfully.

"It could mean a lot of things/ she said,

"but, now that we know the whole story, my guess is that she's been doing her own kind of deal with David while the lawyers have been doing one with the DA.

But even if she is going to stand by him I'm afraid it doesn't look like it's going to do him much good."

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'Do you think that's a possibility? That she will stand by him?"

Penny said, despising herself for not wanting it to be true when it could, in the end, make a difference to the sentence he received.

"Anything's possible,"

Esther answered.

"But why don't you look at it this way, dear? He's just called you. He didn't go without saying goodbye or telling you how much he loves you. So nothing's changed for him on that front and in your heart you must know it. But there's a whole other agenda for him now and, whichever way you look at it, right at this moment you just can't come

first."

"No,"

Penny mumbled, not liking the truth of it but knowing she had no choice but to accept it. And because she needed to voice her thoughts, she said,

"It's just... Well, it's just so hard to imagine what he's going through, to get any idea at all of what's really going on. I hate being in this position, feeling so shut out and useless."

"But you're not useless, my dear. It's going to be very important now for David to know that you love him, that you're going to keep things running for him. And I shall be here to help you, of course. And you'll know soon enough what's happening to him. Though if he's surrendering himself it'll probably be because of the evidence Christian's already given against him. Or maybe because Gabriella's going to give evidence too. Oh dear, we just don't know, do we?"

"Oh God!"

Penny groaned, her head falling back in despair.

"Hasn't she tormented him enough? How many pounds of flesh does she want, for God's sake?"

Esther was silent as she picked up her glass.

"Have you ever met her?"

Penny asked. Esther nodded forlornly.

"I'm afraid so,"

she answered.

"Not a pleasant woman. Not pleasant at all. Dismissed me like I was a nobody.

Not that I blame her, of course, but really there was no need for her to be quite so rude.

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Funny thing was, Wally liked her."

She laughed briskly.

"But then the old thing likes anyone who makes him feel important and she certainly knew how to do that. Beats me why she bothered, but there it is.

People think I'm just a silly old woman, but I'm not always quite so silly and I could see through Gabriella Villers as plain as I can see through glass and I think she knew it. All that one was interested in was money and, now I know everything, the power she has over David, of course. Dreadful woman, stopping him seeing his children the way she does. Still, mustn't be too down on her, must we? It might just be that she will speak up for David and he won't have to go to prison after all."

Penny allowed her thoughts to drift for a while; then, more from a need to say something than out of any real concern, she said,

"I suppose yours and Wally's income will dry up now."

I Esther gave a nervous laugh.

"For a while, maybe,"

she maid.

"But David will take care of us. He'll see that we on't go without."

Penny frowned. That's going to be pretty hard for him Plow that he doesn't have any money, isn't it?"

she cornmented.

Esther's eyes drifted off to the window. This was obviously something she didn't want to talk about, and as she emptied the bottle into her glass Penny watched the way her hands were shaking. But before Penny could say anything Esther was already talking.

"Do tell me to mind my own business if you want to,"

she said, holding her glass in front of her wine-stained lips, "but I have to tell you, dear, that you really don't look at all well. Are you sure you're all right? Is there anything I can do?"

Penny shook her head as the knot of fear in her chest tightened. Then, again out of a need to share her feelings with someone, she said,

"My friend wants me to find out if there are any hospitals for tropical diseases nearby."

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She made a half-hearted attempt at laughter; then, hardly thinking about what she was saying or to whom she was saying it, she added,

"But to tell you the truth, Esther, 1 don't think I've got a tropical disease.

What I think is, I'm pregnant."

Esther's busy eyes were suddenly arrested in their sockets as she stared incredulously across the room at Penny. Then, abruptly, she started shaking her head.

"No/ she said emphatically.

"You're not pregnant. I'd know if you were pregnant."

Penny looked at her curiously.

"How would you

know?"

she asked.

"I just would,"

Esther answered.

"Believe me, I know these things, and you're not pregnant."

Penny wasn't about to argue, because in her heart she didn't believe it either.

"No, you're right,"

she sighed miserably.

"I've just got several doses of jet lag, some kind of delayed reaction to trauma and a touch of flu, all of which are curable."