Page 10 of A French Country Escape
‘It’s over, Rory. Please do not contact me again.’ She pressed the off button on her phone, not waiting to hear his protestations, and exhaled a shallow sigh of relief.
She’d been expecting the phone call ever since he’d stormed out of the flat last night after their latest row. Briefly, she wondered whether this argument would follow the pattern of previous ones. After the obligatory phone call to say how sorry he was and to beg her forgiveness, a contrite Rory would appear clutching flowers, chocolates, and a hangdog expression on his face, reiterating how sorry he was and assuring her it would never happen again. An assurance that no longer held a grain of truth in it for Penny – she’d heard it too many times before. She knew, though, it was not going to be simple breaking off this relationship. Rory did not like to be thwarted.
Last night’s disagreement hadn’t been an outright fisticuff clash – more of a one-sided verbal fight, with Rory hurling words at her; but for the first time he had gripped her by the arms and shaken her as he shouted horrible names in her face. Those names had hurt Penny as much as his tight grip on her arms. And all because she’d said she wasn’t ready to have the baby he was desperate for her to provide him with. When she’d tried to point out that they didn’t even live together yet, he’d retaliated with: ‘That’s your fault. I’ve been happy to move in with you for ages now, but you keep saying no. That you’re not ready.’
‘If I’m not ready for you to move in, I’m certainly not ready to have a baby either,’ she’d snapped at him. Which was the point where he had called her more names before pushing her against the kitchen counter and storming out. And that was the moment she’d finally acknowledged that she had to stop fooling herself that this was a healthy relationship, and that she must end it.
At the beginning of their relationship when he’d occasionally been cross with her, he’d acted distant, shrugging his shoulders and being coldly indifferent towards her, but recently he’d changed tactics, becoming more demanding and shouting at her – maybe hoping to frighten her into doing what he wanted? The niggles over Rory’s behaviour had been increasing in her mind for some weeks. He’d always been moody, but now his temper flared at the slightest provocation if she happened to say something or do something he didn’t like, changing him, in a split second, from the happy, successful man she’d been drawn to when they had first met, to someone she was afraid of.
Recently too he’d taken to ringing her at odd times during the day when she was at work, wanting to know what time she’d be finishing so that he could pick her up. He knew she wasn’t supposed to receive private calls, but that didn’t stop him. When she asked him why he did this, knowing it would cause troublefor her, he’d shrugged and said, ‘I needed to hear your voice.’ As if his needs overrode everything else. He seemed to want to control every aspect of her life.
Whatever the reasons were behind the change in him, she hated it and last night’s altercation had been one disagreement too far. Penny knew there could be no going back from this final denouement and his contempt of her for not doing what he wanted.
In so many ways, she wished she’d gone to France with her parents when they’d first moved over. She’d only just met Rory then and had wanted to give their relationship a chance, believing he could be the one. But everything had started to change soon after her parents had left. Penny caught her breath at that thought. Was that a coincidence? Or had Rory deliberately waited until she was alone, unable to talk face to face with her mum or even to run to them about his moody, controlling behaviour to ask advice about how she should handle it?
He’d wanted her to spend Christmas with him and his mother, but for once she’d stood firm and told him there was no way – she was going to France to spend time with her parents. She deliberately kept the whole truth about her relationship away from them on that visit, knowing how upset they would be on her behalf. She knew her father in particular had found Rory difficult to like on the one occasion he’d met him. Something that was confirmed as the Christmas break came to an end. Peter had driven her to Roscoff for the ferry and after she’d checked in and he was preparing to leave her in Departures, he’d given her a tight hug before giving her a serious look.
‘Your mum told me not to say anything, but she’s not here, so I’m going to. Believe me when I tell you it’s said out of love and not meant to hurt or upset you. Your mother and I are worried about you. Not only are you painfully thin, you’ve lost your joiede vivre since you’ve been with Rory.’ Peter had paused before adding quietly, ‘We think you are with the wrong man. Rory sounds far too controlling.’
Penny remembered shifting uncomfortably in his embrace as she feebly brushed his words away but inwardly accepted the truth of his words, even as she assured him she was just tired.
Her dad had given her another hard look. ‘Finish with him please, Penelope, and then come and spend some time with us in France.’ He’d given her a final squeeze and said, ‘Time for you to go through,’ before turning and leaving.
Penny had spent most of the long ferry voyage to Plymouth thinking about her dad’s words and the way he called her Penelope and not Penny. A leftover from childhood when the use of her full name had been the indication that she was in serious trouble.
Realising that her parents had sensed there was something seriously wrong about her relationship with Rory from the little she’d told her mum, this made her wonder if everyone else felt the same. That was another thing she’d realised as the ferry had ploughed through the choppy water: over the last nine months or so, she’d lost contact with all her girlfriends. Rory had started organising ‘date nights’ for the two of them on a Friday, ignoring the fact that she liked to meet up with her pals on that evening. One by one, the girls had drifted away, her invite disappearing. Dawn, her best friend, had been the only one to keep in touch, but weeks had started to go by without her making contact.
By the time the Devonshire coastline was in sight, Penny’s decision had been made. As soon as Rory returned from his mother’s, she would tell him as gently as she could that their relationship wasn’t working for her and that it was over. That was the resolve and the plan.
Walking out of the ferry terminal, both had been scuppered by a smiling Rory waiting for her, clutching roses. Months later,she still hadn’t managed to end it, and then last night had happened.
Phoning her mum earlier had been an impulsive decision. A hug was impossible, but she needed to at least hear her mum’s voice. At least the truth about Rory was out in the open now. Listening to her mum telling her she had to leave had stiffened her resolve.
The caller ID flashed up on the phone as it rang again. Penny took one look and blocked it. She needed to get away. There was only one place she could go to and feel safe – France. The question now was how soon could she go? And how could she stop Rory from following her? She needed a plan.
Penny scrolled through her phone contacts, found the one she wanted, took a deep breath and rang it. Dawn sounded wary when she answered.
‘Penny, haven’t heard from you in months.’
‘No, and I’m sincerely sorry about that.’ She and Dawn had been friends since they’d met at a party five years ago when Penny had first moved to Bristol. ‘I seem to have neglected my friends badly.’
‘You have, but I forgive you. Are you okay? You still with that twat Rory?’
Penny had realised early on that Dawn disliked Rory, but this was the first time she’d ever called him that directly to Penny.
‘Sort of, that’s why I’ve rung. I need your help.’ And Penny told her about the recent row.
‘You want help kicking him out of your life? It will be my pleasure,’ Dawn said. ‘None of us could ever fathom what you saw in him. So, what can I do?’
Quickly, Penny explained what she was planning, and Dawn willingly agreed to help while she organised things over the next few days.
‘Of course I’ll help, but there is one condition. You must come and stay with me. I don’t think you should stay in the flat on your own. Pack a suitcase, order a taxi and come on over.’
Ending the call with Dawn, Penny let out a huge sigh. One large hurdle over. She had help to do this. Now she had to square things with work. Everyone in the catering team had recently been put onto zero-hour contracts because business was so quiet. Emma, the boss, had been apologetic but had explained that the current turndown in hospitality and outside catering meant she had no option. ‘I know it will pick up, but until it does…’ She’d shrugged her shoulders and hinted that if anybody wanted to look for another job, she’d understand. Penny, who loved working with Emma, had decided she could cope without a fixed income for a few weeks in the hope that the upturn in business would arrive sooner rather than later. Now though, she didn’t have much choice.
Emma sighed when Penny rang her and told her she was leaving. ‘You are the one person whom I hoped would manage to cling on for another month, but I understand and wish you well. Where are you going?’
‘To an upmarket bistro pub in the Lake District,’ Penny said. ‘Sous-chef for the time being.’ She took a deep breath. ‘At least that’s what I’d like you to tell a certain person if he comes calling.’
