Page 109 of The Grosvenor's Ghost
Whatever George, Albie and Charlie say to him is lost on me because when I enter the hall, all I can hear is ringing in my ears.
Athena rushes out, comes over to my side with Lottie.
“Are you okay?” She rubs my back and it’s then I realise how hard I’m crying.
“I’m fine,” I tell the both of them even though I can hardly catch my breath.
“My goodness,” Lottie looks at me with sincere concern. “Phoebe, you need to get him gone.”
I look up at her. “He’s good, I promise. He really is.”
The girls share a look but I can read it. It’s a look of pure and utter sympathy. They feel sorry for me. They feel sorry that I have to prove that my boyfriend is a good person even though we all know he really isn’t.
But he was, once upon a time. He wasn’t always like this—just how Arthur wasn’t always the Arthur he was in school. People change, things shift—not a single thing in this world goes untouched without a trigger. Everyone has that thing—that one button. And when it’s pushed, it goes off.
Ladies Day at Ascot is my favourite event and thus far, I’ve always enjoyed it—always looked forward to it but today he ruined that for me. He took my favourite day and pissed all over it and I’ll hate him for that forever.
“Can you get Arthur?”
Athena pulls a face. “He’s with his family, we really can’t get to him.”
Coming out of our private lodge, I see two men dragging Digby out followed by George and Charlie. I try to catch his eye, tell him I’m sorry—sorry for what, I don’t know but I know it’ll make it better somehow—tell him to come back and apologise so we can all go back to how it was and forget about everything. But as he’s dragged further down the hall, all he does is give me one brief look over his shoulder and then he’s gone.
“Good riddance,” Lottie mutters, goes over to Charlie’s side.
I stare at the four of them through a mosaic of tears. “He’s good! I promise!”
George comes over to me, wraps his arm around me. “He isn’t, Phoebs—fuck me, he isn’t.”
“Yeah,” Athena nods, covers my other side. “He makes you sad, he makes you cry.”
I look up at George. “It’s my fault.”
Shakes his head, of course he does.
“It is,” I tell him. “This time it really is.”
Charlie sighs. “Whatever you did, didn’t warrant a reaction like that.”
“I’m sorry he started on you,” I tell Charlie. I don’t know him too well. We don’t exactly spend a lot of time together but what I do know about him is that he wasn’t brought up like us but despite that, he’s still a hundred times better than some of the guys I grew up with.
He shrugs it off, kisses the top of Lottie’s head. “I’ve been called worse, believe me.”
George squeezes me lightly. “What do you wanna do?”
I sniff, press my lips together. “I want to go home.”
He frowns. “But it’s your favourite day.”
“He ruined it. It’s not my favourite anymore.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Prince Arthur
Friday night at Stratton House isn’t where I wanted to be but after Digby’s little show at Ascot yesterday, it’s exactly where I needed to be.
“Fucking cheek of him,” Connie shakes his head. “I still can’t believe it.”
