Page 88 of The Wedding Proposal

A voice came from the quayside. ‘Ahoy, Shady Lady!’

Lucas went out onto the bathing platform. He hadn’t been back from work long and his shower-damp hair blew into his eyes. He had to flick it back to see Loz on the quayside. His insides hitched in case she brought him news of Elle. ‘Come aboard.’ He gave her his hand to cross the gangplank.

Loz beamed, settling herself on the cockpit seat in the sun. ‘I’ve come to invite you and your parents to a drinks party this evening.’

He took the seat beside her. ‘Thank you. What’s the occasion?’

Loz smiled. ‘Just one of our regular get-togethers. But I thought you might like to come and celebrate Elle being back.’

He bounced to his feet. ‘Back? Where?’

Looking suddenly apprehensive, Loz half-pointed in the direction of Seadancer. ‘She’s—’

Lucas turned and with a run and a jump was on the shore. Too angry for good manners, he abandoned Loz alone on the Shady Lady and stormed along the quayside and up the gangplank onto Seadancer.

He found Elle in her cabin, unpacking her suitcase into the cupboard.

Fury burned so hot inside Lucas’s skull that he thought flames would shoot out of his eyeballs. ‘So when were you going to tell me you were back?’

Elle didn’t pause in her task of sliding folded T-shirts into a wide drawer under the bed. ‘I was going to come along to the Shady Lady soon.’

‘But not to live? And that’s not a detail you thought you’d share with me?’ He reached out and flipped shut the lid of her suitcase, maddened beyond reason at her refusal to pay him attention.

Deliberately, Elle opened the suitcase again. Then she squared right up to him, blue eyes sparking. Her voice was dangerously soft. ‘I appreciate that you’re angry. Being angry is one of the things you do. But I told you to give me space. It wasn’t a request. It wasn’t something I expected to be ignored. I told you.’

Lucas halted. His anger drained away in the face of her greater fury. It was as if every slight she’d ever suffered, every frustration or injustice, was concentrated in the set of her beautiful mouth as she stared him down, refusing to accept his moment of disrespect.

‘OK,’ he said. And turned and walked away.

* * *

Shocked at the words that had poured from her mouth, Elle stood looking at the doorway through which Lucas had vanished. Where had her anger come from? It had been like she was possessed: her lips had opened but the voice of a furious demon came out.

Since she’d seen Joanna installed in her new room at The Briars and tied things up with the police so far as she could for the present, Elle’s head had buzzed with conjecture about how matters would stand between her and Lucas when she got back to Malta. She’d hung around to pay a few afternoon visits to her mother, wanting to see if Joanna’s confusion would lessen once in the familiarity of The Briars, but finally had to acknowledge that Joanna’s ability to recognise her daughter was random. Elle’s presence was largely irrelevant.

So she’d booked a flight with a sense of relief at removing herself from any fallout from Ricky or his mates, but also a sense of returning to face the music. Well, now she knew what tune was playing — a crashing bashing discord.

Loz came down and popped her head into the cabin. ‘All right?’ she squeaked tentatively.

Forcing herself to return to her unpacking, Elle nodded brightly. ‘Fine.’

Loz hovered. ‘Maybe you should get a nap before the party? You can be a guest, you know, you don’t have to do anything.’

‘I’d rather keep busy.’

‘Davie’s gone to do the shopping. You and me can throw a few salads into bowls.’

Elle nodded.

Loz came properly into the cabin, expression doleful. ‘I’m sorry I opened my big mouth. When you agreed it was OK to invite Lucas to the party I assumed you’d told him you were back.’

‘I was going to go along when I’d unpacked.’ Elle blinked back the tears pricking like hot pins in the corners of her eyes. Finally, Loz seemed to get that Elle wasn’t feeling chatty, and melted away. Elle stowed her case and took a shower. Then she pulled on clean shorts and a top and settled herself on the bed to text Joseph and say she was back while she reacquainted herself with the feeling of a boat moving beneath her. The breeze was up and the motion was lively. She hoped that she wouldn’t have to find her sea legs all over again. She supposed she ought to go along to the galley and see if Loz had got started with the party food yet. But she felt tired and heavy — maybe she would take that nap.

She rolled down onto the bed and covered her eyes with her arm.

Probably she did doze, because suddenly she became aware of Lucas standing in the doorway of her cabin once again.

‘Can I show you something?’ He didn’t smile, but his earlier anger seemed gone. He looked composed.

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