‘But there’s no way you want that woman to be me,’ Verity guessed angrily.
‘I don’t want Honor to be hurt,?
? Silas interrupted her bluntly.
Verity stared at him. She could feel the too-fast beat of her own heart and wondered dizzily if Silas too could hear the sound it made as it thudded against her chest wall.
Was he really trying to imply that she would stoop so low as to try to hurt Honor? A child…? Did he really think…?
For a moment Verity felt too outraged to speak. Quickly she swallowed, drawing herself up to her full height as she challenged him, ‘Are you suggesting that I would hurt Honor? Is that really what you think of me, Silas?’ she questioned him carefully. ‘Do you really think of me as being so…so vengeful?’
Half blinded by the tears that suddenly filled her eyes, she turned away from him and started to walk quickly towards the house, breaking into a run when she heard him calling her name.
‘Verity,’ Silas protested, cursing himself under his breath. She had every right to be angry with him, he knew that. But surely she could see that he had every right to protect his child?
‘Verity,’ he protested again, but he knew it was too late. She was already running up the steps and into the house.
Quickly Verity dabbed at her hot face with the cold water she had run to stop her tears.
How could Silas imply that she would hurt Honor? How dared he imply it after what he had done to her, the way he had hurt her? It must be his own guilty conscience that was motivating him.
She would never do anything like that. Not to a child, not to anyone… She had wanted to help Honor for Honor’s sake alone. Her sense of kinship with her had nothing to do with the fact that she was his daughter.
Hadn’t it? Slowly she straightened up and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Hadn’t a part of her recognised how easily she might have been Honor’s mother? Hadn’t she felt somehow honour-bound herself to reach out and help the girl because of that inner knowledge?
To help her, yes, but to hurt her, never. Never…never…
She couldn’t stay here in this town. Not after this. She would ring the agent tomorrow, tell him that she was terminating her lease on the house; the charitable trust she had wanted to establish in her uncle’s name in the town could still go ahead—the details of that could be dealt with as easily from London as from here. She had been a fool ever to have come back. She was a fool. A stupid, idiotic, heartbroken fool!
CHAPTER TEN
‘VERITY…Verity…It is you, isn’t it?’
Verity put down the shopping she had just been about to put in the back of the car and looked uncertainly at the woman hailing her, her face breaking into a warm smile as she recognised a girl who had been at school with her.
‘Gwen!’ she exclaimed warmly. ‘Good heavens. How are you…?’
‘Fine. If you don’t count the fact that I’m thirty-three, ten pounds overweight and just about to do a supermarket shop for a husband and three kids,’ the other woman groaned. ‘When did you get back to town? You look wonderful, by the way…’
‘Only very recently. I—’
‘Look, I’m in a bit of a rush now. We’ve got the in-laws coming round for supper.’ She pulled a wry face. ‘I’d love to have a proper chat with you, catch up on what you’ve been doing…Can I give you a ring?’
‘Yes. Yes, that would be nice,’ Verity acknowledged, quickly writing down her telephone number for her before climbing into her car.
It was ironic that she should bump into one of the few girls she had made friends with at school just as she had decided she was going to leave town, she thought as she started her car.
Honor looked sideways at the telephone in the garden centre office. It was Saturday morning and, instead of going swimming with Catherine and her mother, she had opted to come to work with her father. He was outside dealing with a customer. Glancing over her shoulder, Honor reached for the telephone receiver and quickly punched in Verity’s telephone number.
Verity heard the telephone ringing as she unlocked the front door, putting down her bag as she went to answer it.
‘Verity, is that you?’
Her heart lurched as she recognised Honor’s voice and heard its forlorn note.
‘Honor…Where are you? Are you all right?’ she asked anxiously.
‘Mmm…sort of…I’m at the garden centre. Verity, can I come and see you?’