Page 84 of A Colourful Country Escape
‘You’re through to the voicemail messaging service … ’
Oh God. Lexie’s futile hopes were stopped dead in their tracks. His phone was off. Ben Carrington’s phone was never off, just like he was never late. Business never stopped for him. Unless … But she couldn’t even bring herself to imagine the one intimate thing that would cause him to be uncontactable. When he was meant to be here with her.
Lexie looked down at herself, her legs still quivering under the ludicrously expensive dress. She didn’t belong in it any more than she’d belonged in Ben’s world. He had only ever used her for a bit of sneaky pleasure. In the back of a crappy shop; behind her dad’s bloody shed, for God’s sake. She was just cheap to him. He was probably even paying her for the time they’d spent groping.
With a flurry of rage she pulled off the silk dress and watched glassily as it floated to the floor, leaving her bare flesh exposed. Craning her neck to see what she could throw on instead, she caught sight of herself in the mirror. The tattoo on her back. The dark inky stain seemed to catapult its reflection off the mirror and hit her in the face. And at last the tears came. Thick and fast, they rolled down her cheeks, taking streaks of borrowed La Prairie make-up with them.
Even her own skin embarrassed her. Or maybe she was an embarrassment to her skin. Her pale, can’t-even-afford-a-decent-holiday face under Skin Caviar that wasn’t hers. And that tattoo. What a joke. It was a lotus flower, symbolic of growing up through the mud to bloom. Seven years later, she still wasn’t worthy. It was nothing more than a badge of her naivety. She couldn’t stand to look at it.
That was it – she was getting out of here. Away from this mess. And as soon as she got back to England, away from Nutgrass Hall. She grabbed a wad of toilet roll from the bathroom and blew her nose violently. Throwing on her giraffe-print jumpsuit, she gathered up Grace’s dress and did a final sweep of the room. She stood for a moment in the doorway. Her mobile clutched tightly in her hand, she realised there was one more thing. One more cord tying her sorry self to Ben and his surreal world.
She uncurled her shaking fingers and pulled the back off the phone. The handset was hers, but the bills were paid by Carrington Paints as she’d used it for work. She didn’t want them paying for her and she didn’t want them to get in touch. Nor vice versa. She knew the important numbers by heart or would be able to find them. But she hadn’t memorised Ben’s and she didn’t want to know it. She plucked out the SIM card and dropped it into the bin, its small golden face disappearing under tissues and her discarded purple harem pants.
She’d suspend her social media accounts too, when she got back to her laptop. She wouldn’t even need the online world if she wasn’t going to be anyone’s social media manager. And what would she want to share about her own life right now? Precisely nothing. She was as un-Insta-worthy as it got.
So that was it. Time to get to the airport and see how quickly she could fly out of that place. And then who knew what. As she dragged her suitcase along the darkened hotel corridor, she tried to ignore the dissenting screech of its annoying broken wheel.
Chapter 42
‘Wooooah!’ Lexie jumped about a foot in the air, her hand flying to her heart to check it was still beating. ‘What the … ?’
Her suitcase tumbled to the floor, and the thing in her bed that had made her yell started screaming back. Lexie fumbled for a switch.
When light illuminated her bedroom at Nutgrass Hall, the scene before her still made little sense. Her sister huddled on her bed amid pyramids of crumpled tissues and empty Greggs wrappers, wearing a zebra onesie and watching Bridget ‘my love life’s a pickle’ Jones.
‘What are you doing here?’ Sky had the cheek to ask when she got her breath back. Her sister shuffled to the edge of the bed and Lexie could see her eyes were puffy.
‘I live here,’ Lexie stage-whispered, shoving her suitcase fully into the bedroom and closing the door, keen not to make a disturbance. ‘Livedhere,’ she corrected.
It was the middle of the night and Nutgrass Hall seemed silent with Ben still in Morocco, the staff in their cottages and no sign of Cory’s camper. She’d been planning to get in and out quickly. Now it seemed she had a zebra-striped spanner in the works.
Even so, the sorry sight before her made her heart feel sad. She moved towards Sky and opened her arms. ‘What areyoudoing here, is the real question.’
Sky bundled in and began a particularly ugly cry against Lexie’s shoulder. Bridget, seeming to sense Sky couldn’t manage any words, launched spiritedly into the crescendo of ‘All by Myself’. Well, that makes three of us, thought Lexie.
‘Did you break up with Billy-Nob?’ She sensed she could get away with his hate name right then.
‘Yes.’ Sky pouted. ‘And I don’t want to hearI told you so. I know you thought he was a joke.’
Was there any point in lying? ‘I just didn’t think you were a great match,’ said Lexie, diplomatically.
‘Like you’re so amazing at choosing blokes. Inkie and Drew were dick-skulls.’
And Ben, Lexie silently added. ‘You’re right – I can’t pick a good one either. What happened?’
Sky armed herself with more tissues and embarked on a sniffly tale about Billy-Bob being part of a scam to do a runner with everyone’s money. When people joined the commune they handed over their worldly goods towards the upkeep of the place, with the rest promised to charity. Only it turned out that Billy-Bob’s greedy pockets were the real destination for the cash. When the apparently not-so-naive Sky sussed him out, he’d offered her a cut. Sky had offered to cut his balls off.
Lexie gasped.
‘And I called the police, of course. They arrested a bunch of them and closed the place down.’
‘I knew there was something fishy … ’ Her sister glared at Lexie and she put her hands up in surrender. ‘Sorry. I’m not saying I told you so. You did the right thing. That bastard. What’s wrong with some people that they let money rule their heads and hearts? Urgh.’ She shook herself down and tried to swallow the bitterness rising.
‘At least I got a few quid back for a train ticket down here. And sausage rolls.’ Sky gave a tiny smile. ‘Anyway, you made me jump. I wasn’t expecting you back yet. What’s going on? I did try to call you, but your number hasn’t been available.’
‘Oh, yeah, that.’ Lexie sighed. ‘Long story, but my SIM card is in a dustbin in Marrakech. And we’re leaving. Come on.’ She rubbed her sister’s shoulders and stood up. ‘Help me pack.’
‘What the hell?’
