‘Well, I must have had something to do with it.’
‘For crying out loud, he was the one who rang you from the airport!’ Oliver’s tone was incredulous. ‘He was a
total coward. The only good thing about the way he behaved was that it surely showed you that you had a narrow escape.’
‘Escape?’ Helen looked at him. Up until now she’d just been trying to cope with the shock. Trying to adjust to the fact that her future was no longer the way she’d planned it.
Oliver sighed. ‘Would you really want to marry a man who would treat you like that?’
Helen bit her lip. ‘I don’t suppose it’s his fault if he had second thoughts.’
‘It’s his fault that he didn’t stand his ground and face you. He was totally cowardly and he didn’t think about your feelings at all. Just himself.’
It was true, of course. David had only been thinking about himself.
‘What would you have done?’
‘If I’d changed my mind about getting married?’ Oliver let out a long breath. ‘Well, that’s hard to say because I wouldn’t make a mistake like that, but if I did then I would definitely have told you face to face.’
Of course he would.
Only a coward would do it the way David had and Oliver Hunter was certainly no coward.
This man wouldn’t run from anything.
‘My mother thought he was the perfect man.’
Oliver’s mouth tightened. ‘So why didn’t she marry him instead of you?’
Helen smiled. Sometimes she had been a little exasperated, seeing her mother fawn over David.
‘She had my best interests at heart. I suppose she worried about me. Her idea of a perfect life was to find a rich man and marry him. She gave up work as soon as she met my dad. She basically ran Dad’s life. She wanted the same for me.’
‘What about her own life?’
Helen frowned. ‘Well, Dad was her life.’
‘And that’s what you wanted for yourself?’ It was Oliver’s turn to frown. ‘Would you have given up work?’
Helen was silent for a moment. ‘David wanted me to, but I loved my job. To be honest, we’d reached the point where we couldn’t discuss it. It made him angry. My mother was hoping that once the fuss of the wedding was over, I’d come to my senses and resign.’
‘You’re a brilliant nurse, Helen. Why would you want to give it up?’
‘Sitting here with you, I don’t want to give it up,’ she confessed, ‘but back in London, surrounded by people giving me advice, it isn’t quite so easy.’
‘Then we need to make sure you don’t go back to London.’
She laughed. ‘What, you mean hide here with you forever?’
‘Now, there’s a thought.’
Her smile faded. For some ridiculous reason that she couldn’t begin to understand, the prospect of hiding here with Oliver filled her with excitement and warmth.
Telling herself that it was just because he was providing a convenient bolthole, she turned the subject back to him. ‘Didn’t your parents worry about you? Didn’t they have expectations?’
‘My dad was a climber,’ Oliver told her. ‘He trained as a doctor, but all he ever wanted to do was climb. He was always disappearing for weeks at a time to try out a new route on some rock or other. He said that climbing was the most fun that anyone could have, and he encouraged the three of us to climb the moment we could walk.’
‘And your mum didn’t mind?’ Helen looked at him curiously. It was so different from her own background that she found it hard to even imagine what it must have been like to be a child in the Hunter household.