Page 58 of Broken Beyond Repair
“You’d lost touch then?”
“We broke up about ten years ago. It was my cousin’s wedding that put us back in touch. I hadn’t realised how much I missed her. She’s a good laugh.”
Beatrice smiled. It was another thing she was beginning to discover for herself.
“How much does it cost to do whatever it is you’re doing?”
Sam sucked in a breath. “Parts alone are into the low thousands. It all depends on how much needs doing once I open her up.”
“You do what needs doing, and when the time comes, give me a call for payment.” Beatrice rifled in her handbag and presented him with a card. She waved it at him to gain his attention, which had glazed over at Beatrice’s request.
“Are you… sure? That’s incredibly generous.”
“Let’s keep it between us for the meantime, yes?” Beatrice asked, noticing Sydney emerging from the house.
Sam nodded and took the card.
CHAPTER23
“Sydney, these aren’t mine.”
Sydney glanced up from the washing basket to see a pair of her blandest black Marks and Spencer knickers hanging from Beatrice’s finger. She begged the ground to swallow her whole.
“Erm, sorry,” Sydney replied, retrieving them from a smirking Beatrice, dying a little more as she realised they weren’t even black, more like a thousand-wash grey.
“Would you assist me with a bath?” Beatrice said, blessedly moving the conversation along. “I need to wash my hair after that boat ride.”
“Of course, I’ll run one now.”
Thoughts of their visit to the harbour filled her head as fast as the bath filled with water. It was like two worlds colliding showing Beatrice her old territory and introducing her to Sam. Not to mention the small moment of declaring herself a lesbian to her employer. It was an unexpectedly enjoyable day, considering how the weekend panned out. The food was delightful, the company more so. Beatrice poked her head out of her shell a little more and showed a humorous side to her personality that Sydney hadn’t noticed before — a side that suited the woman. It was a much-needed win for peace and harmony at Highwood House.
The woman arrived in the bathroom in her bikini, forgoing her dressing gown, and made her way over to the toilet seat, ready for Sydney. They were like a well-oiled machine with Beatrice strapped into her waterproof cover and in the bath within two minutes.
“Would you assist me with washing my hair, please? I find I need to keep one hand on the side of the bath to stop myself slipping about.”
Sydney was more than happy to oblige and worked the shampoo into Beatrice’s hair with her fingernails, rubbing at her scalp. Beatrice’s fingers clenched the top of the roll-top bath in sync with her touch, her body writhing a little in the warm water. She was working her like a puppet master.
Her mind unhelpfully recalled the dream of the previous morning, a dream she’d fought to keep far back in her mind and was now struggling to. It made her realise she’d do anything for the woman who was now at her fingertips. She longed for the next time she might hear Beatrice say, “Very good.” The tone in which she said it left you unsure if you had satisfied her or dissatisfied her. Even if she was saying it to get rid of you, you didn’t care — all you wanted was to hear it again.
After the bath, they hobbled downstairs, where it was time for Beatrice to try out Rosie’s scooter. It brought much delight to her when Beatrice first saw it. Watching her face contort with a mixture of pleasure and disgust as if she were laying an egg was something Sydney wouldn’t forget in a hurry. After five minutes of practice and another five minutes of fretting over whether the device had left marks on the floor, Beatrice was a pro. She was like a kid wheeling around on an office chair.
“You’ll be able to fetch things for me now,” Sydney joked.
“Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves,” Beatrice proposed. “And nothing hot! Okay? You’d have to come down for it anyway. I may be mobile again but only one floor at a time.”
“Well, I thought I might work from the dining table again whilst Alex was gone. Unless you’d prefer to be alone?”
“No,” Beatrice replied quickly with a smile. “I’d like that very much.”
Sydney thought she noticed a little blushing on her sharp cheekbones as the woman manoeuvred herself onto the sofa from the scooter.
“Have you thought any more about physiotherapy?” she asked.
“I suppose I need to be fighting fit for when I return to set. Put something in the diary for next week, if your friend is available,” Beatrice said as she clawed her fingers around the top of her cast.
Sydney quickly tapped out a message before she could change her mind, knowing Rosie would make room in her busy schedule if it meant meeting Beatrice.
Carrying her laptop to the sofa, she took a seat beside the actress. “Come on, focus on something other than the itch. It’s time we tackled these formative years. What did you mean by your ‘new beginning’? I know you reinvented yourself, but I don’t know why. Has it something to do with your parents and the lack of childhood you spoke of?”
