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He was sitting at a table in the large kitchen, studying the coffee in front of him as if there was some solution in there. She could tell him the answer to that. She’d tried it enough times herself. She mustered a smile, and sat down opposite him.
‘So who’s Archie named after? Archimedes?’ She pulled her own coffee towards her and peeled off the plastic lid. It was smooth and strong and the caffeine hit her straight between the eyes.
He looked up, suddenly aware of her presence. ‘Yes, actually. Although it’s a mispronunciation, of course. Am I that predictable?’
‘No. I thought of the most unlikely thing I could and suggested that—’ She broke off as he smiled at her. That smile did all kinds of things to her, none of which were going to be of much help at the moment.
‘So.’ His gaze dropped to his cup again. ‘You’re in trouble, aren’t you?’
‘Yes. I am.’ She should have realised that Edward would cut straight to the point. He wasn’t much for small talk. Charlotte hadn’t anticipated how much of a relief it would be. ‘It isn’t what you think.’
He looked up at her. Those deep blue eyes were almost irresistible. ‘I’m not thinking anything.’
‘You’re always thinking something, aren’t you?’
A trace of a grin tugged at his lips. ‘Yes, I suppose I am.’
Suddenly she wanted to defend herself from all the implications of what Edward had seen and from whatever conclusions that agile, razor-sharp mind of his was working its way towards. ‘The debts aren’t mine, Edward.’
‘I know. It was your husband they were looking for …’
‘He’ll be my ex-husband soon. Very soon, if everything goes as planned.’
Maybe she should have been a little less vehement about that. Said it a little more as if it was a matter of fact rather than an avowal of innocence. Edward seemed far more at home with facts than emotions.
‘Have you asserted your separation financially?’
‘Yes. There are no more joint accounts and credit cards. The house and the mortgage are in my name.’
‘Then you have nothing to worry about. As long as you’ve applied for a Deed of Separation, and you’re not jointly liable for any of his debts …’
‘How do you know all this?’ The question had occurred to Charlotte on her doorstep, but she’d pushed it to the back of her mind.
‘I have a degree in Law.’
‘As well as being a surgeon?’
‘I … um … I was advised to wait until I was eighteen to go to medical school. I was at a loose end.’
‘So …’ The gossip was correct, then. ‘You are a genius?’
‘They called it “gifted” when I was a kid. Now it’s called High Learning Potential.’
The twitch of his lips told Charlotte that they were just labels, which Edward didn’t set much store by.
‘I don’t need to be a genius to know that there’s more to your situation than what you’ve told me.’
There was a lot more. Charlotte grinned at him almost automatically, the way she did whenever anyone offered anything that sounded a bit too much like sympathy. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah, really. And you’re not going to convince me otherwise with that smile, either. Even if it is a very nice one.’
Stop now. One thing at a time. Having Edward as a concerned friend was already turning her universe upside down. It was a bit too soon for compliments.
‘You’re right, that’s not all. My husband had … I think it’s probably fair to say has … a gambling addiction.’
‘And that’s why you left him?’
‘I wasn’t that smart. I didn’t know about it until the bailiffs started calling. The first one was the day after Isaac’s second birthday.’ She sighed. She didn’t need to go into details; he was getting the gist. ‘I started out by paying his debts. He promised me that he’d stopped, and I believed him.’
‘But he lied?’ He was blunt, but there was no brutality there. Just the truth.
‘Yes, he just kept on racking up the debts. Internet gaming sites, card games … He maxed out our credit cards and I dipped into the money I’d inherited from my parents just to keep a roof over our heads.’ Charlotte gulped in a breath of air. This time she was going to do things better. She had to for Isaac’s sake.
‘But you couldn’t hold it together.’ Another flat, emotionless statement of the inevitable facts.
‘I did for a while. Then he left. That was eighteen months ago. I sold the house, paid off all the debts, and managed to scrape enough together for a deposit on a smaller house. Made a new start for Isaac and me.’
Edward just nodded.
Caught in the force of his concentration, Charlotte realised that Edward was not an absent-minded, otherworldly creature. He was thinking things through, his ruthless single-mindedness not allowing a single detail to escape.
‘Does your husband know where you are?’
‘Yes, he knows. I was hoping that he’d come and see Isaac but he never has.’
Charlotte heaved a sigh. She didn’t need to tell him about the thing that had damned her the most—it didn’t affect the problem at hand. Anyway, it was humiliating.
Even more so than having to admit she was being chased by her husband’s debtors.
She met those blue eyes again. Ever questioning, but not as judgemental as she’d feared.
‘And you said your divorce is in the pipeline?’
‘Yes. I have the Decree Nisi and I’m waiting for the Decree Absolute. I’m hoping that he won’t throw any spanners into the works and put in a last-minute objection.’
‘Do you have any reason to think he will?’
‘No … Maybe … I don’t know. Peter’s not exactly the most predictable of people.’ Charlotte sighed. ‘He’s not strong. He’ll do whatever gets him through the day and forget all about the consequences for tomorrow.’
‘You don’t trust him.’
Damn right she didn’t. She had very little reason to. ‘No, I don’t. The men who called this morning aren’t the only people looking to get paid. I had a telephone call last night from someone who said I owed money for a mobile phone bill.’
‘Do you?’
‘No!’ She was protesting too much again. ‘My phone’s a pay-as-you-go …’
Charlotte reached for her handbag to show him the phone and Edward stopped her, laying his hand on her wrist.
‘It’s okay.’
‘It isn’t. The divorce won’t protect me if he’s managed to raise a line of credit in my name, and I’ve no money to pay off any more of his debts.’
It was as if she and Isaac were being dragged back into the nightmare that she’d worked so hard to get out of, and there was nothing she could do about it. Charlotte gulped back the tears, pulling her hand away from his grasp.
‘What did you tell them?’ He was still calm, almost icy cool. Still focussed on the facts.
Charlotte took a deep breath. She should try to sound a little more grateful, Edward had already helped her more than he had any reason to. ‘I said that I had no knowledge of the account in question and asked them to put everything in writing and send it to me.’
‘Good. We can start making enquiries on Monday. In the meantime, is there anyone that you and Isaac can stay with?’
‘Not really. My parents are dead and I don’t have any brothers or sisters …’ She tried to smile, make light of it, but Charlotte had never felt so alone. ‘We’ll be okay. I’ll take the phone off the hook and lock the door …’
‘You’ll stay here.’ Even Edward seemed surprised at his uncompromising words.
‘No! I mean … Edward, it’s kind of you to offer, but I couldn’t think of it.’
‘What about Isaac? I gather that Sunday mornings are a favourite time for debt collectors to make their calls. He’s old enough to know what’s going on now.’
Low blow. He’d found the spot where her guilt was almost unbearable. ‘I thought he was too young to remember. But when those men called this morning …’
Isaac had understood exactly who they were and had launched himself at them, trying to drive them away, trying to protect her. Charlotte had managed to keep hold of him, and the men had smirked at each other as she bundled him back into the house.
She heard Edward sigh.
‘Look, you need to get yourself and Isaac out of the firing line for a few days, until you have a chance to sort this out. I’ve plenty of room here—there are two spare bedrooms upstairs—and you’ll both be safe.’
He didn’t mince his words, or dress it up to make it sound as if she had a choice, but he was right. She did need to get her son away from this nightmare, and she had nowhere to take him.
‘Charlotte.’
He reached out to her, his finger tipping her chin upwards. His shrewd blue eyes saw straight through her. There were no excuses, no way that she could just fob him off with something.
‘Where else are you going to go?’
CHAPTER FOUR
HE HADN’T MEANT to be cruel, just to look at the situation rationally. But when she finally gave way to her tears, her forehead sinking until it almost touched the surface of his kitchen table, her body trembling with the effort that it seemed to take her to cry, Edward realised that she wasn’t the only one who was in over her head. He didn’t feel equal to this—not the crying woman at his kitchen table, or the vulnerable child on his sofa—and the knowledge that he was way past the point of dispensing some good advice and leaving them to it wasn’t helping much.
‘Hey.’ He reached out, touching her arm tentatively with the tips of his fingers. ‘Charlotte, please don’t.’
She ignored him, and it had been a stupid thing to say anyway. Charlotte was at perfect liberty to do whatever she wanted. It was him who didn’t want her to cry, because it wrenched his heart so much to see it.
‘Okay. Well, you can cry as much as you like. But I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it down a bit or Isaac will be in here, blasting me with his ray gun for upsetting you. Which I didn’t mean to do, by the way.’
Her shoulders stopped shaking. Slowly she raised her head. For a moment Edward was unsure about whether she was going to burst into laughter or start crying again. He decided to wait. He’d probably said more than enough already.
‘I’ll pay you rent.’ Her voice was low, a little unsteady, but there was no doubt that she was back in control of herself.
‘No. I won’t accept it.’ She opened her mouth to protest and he silenced her with a look. ‘That’s not negotiable.’
‘I could clean for you.’
‘That’s not going to work either. I have a cleaning lady and there will be hell to pay if you put her out of a job.’
Somehow, from somewhere, she managed to find a smile. It was like basking in a ray of sunshine on a rainy day. ‘I wondered whether it was you who kept all these plants watered.’
‘We have an … understanding. She looks after Archie and the plants, doesn’t move anything that I’m working on, and I keep out of her way and don’t forget to pay her. Works like a dream.’
‘I’m sure it does. Does she cook?’
‘I imagine so. Not while she’s here, though.’
‘I’ll cook for you, then.’
She narrowed her eyes obstinately and a sudden flood of longing gripped him. He hadn’t counted on these sorts of complications, and wondered whether what he was about to do was wise.
‘Okay. Deal.’
She bit her lip. ‘Isaac won’t be any trouble. He won’t touch any of your things. I’ll make sure of it …’
That sounded a bit dull. ‘I can put anything that I don’t want touched away out of his reach. And he can be as much trouble as he likes.’
She gave a tremulous laugh. Charlotte wasn’t just a pretty face; she was tough, too. And brave. And about a million other things, all of which he felt inexplicably driven to find out more about.
‘You have no idea how much trouble a determined five-year-old can be and, trust me, you don’t want to find out.’
‘Well … I’ll leave that to you. What I mean is that you should make yourselves at home.’ His mother was always telling him that this house was far too big for one. Granted this was not what she’d had in mind, but the principle was a good one. There was more than enough room for him to carry on with his life, undisturbed by two house guests.
‘Thank you. I really appreciate this, Edward. And it’ll only be for a few days, while I get everything sorted out.’
‘You can stay as long as you like.’
He knew that it would take longer than a few days to work this out, and he didn’t want her or Isaac going back home until it was. They’d both been through too much already.
After he’d taken them back to Charlotte’s house, to pack what they needed, Edward had left them to their own devices. They had their own routine, which clearly involved eating and sleeping at regular intervals, and he had his, which disregarded any such practical activities in favour of whatever he happened to be doing at the time.
When he parked outside his house on Sunday evening his mind was still racing from the concepts that had been explored in the afternoon seminar he’d attended, and then endlessly again afterwards over sandwiches. The house was dark, and as he slipped his key into the lock on the front door it occurred to him that Charlotte might have taken her son and left, leaving a note on the hall table for him to find when he got back.
‘Oh, no, you don’t …’ He muttered the words to himself, since she wasn’t around to hear them.
He slid the key into the lock and the door gave by six inches, then caught. The chain, which usually hung unused from the frame, barred his entry. At least he wasn’t going to have to get back into his car and drive over to Charlotte’s house, to make sure that she and Isaac were all right.
All the same, there was the small matter of being locked out of his own home. Ringing the bell would probably wake Isaac up, as would bellowing through the letterbox, so Edward pulled the door to, twisting the key to relock it.
He seldom took the path around the side of the house, and he jumped as a pair of iridescent orbs appeared from the bushes. ‘Locked out as well, eh?’ Archie swished his tail. ‘Yeah, I know. It’s a bit much.’
Discomfiture that his arrival home hadn’t provided the usual well-ordered release from the complications of the world began to swell into anger.
He didn’t need to find the key for the French windows; they were standing open. She was there, in the failing light, curled up in a chair on the stone-flagged patio.
‘Charlotte!’
She jumped, throwing off the woollen jacket that was wrapped around her shoulders and twisting around. When she saw him she smiled, and Edward felt the hard edges of his anger melt.
‘It’s you …’ She rubbed her eyes with her hand, as if she had been dozing.
It occurred to Edward to make the point that there wasn’t much to gain by locking the front door if she was going to fall asleep with the doors to the patio wide open. But that sounded rather too much like criticism, and he’d already seen her flinch enough times when she or Isaac did something that she thought he might disapprove of.
‘Did I wake you?’
‘I must have just dropped off …’ Her gaze swung from him to the house and then back again. ‘Ohhh. I locked you out …’
That didn’t seem so much of an issue as it had a moment ago. ‘Putting the chain on the front door’s a sensible precaution at night.’
‘And falling asleep with the patio doors open isn’t.’ She gave a little self-deprecatory smile.
He shrugged, as if he’d not thought about that. ‘Why don’t you give yourself a break? You’re safe here. No one can find you.’ No one apart from him. He liked that thought so much that he dumped his briefcase on the stone flags and pulled up a chair, sitting down next to her.
She nodded. ‘Thank you. Having a safe place to stay has meant a great deal to me and Isaac.’
‘So you’ve had a good day?’
‘Yes, thank you. We had lunch and then went to the park. They’ve got a great playground there, and a lovely cafeteria. We played football, as well.’
She made it sound like a real treat, and Edward found himself smiling, wondering whether football wouldn’t have been preferable to a dark, humid lecture theatre. She and Isaac were a small, self-sufficient unit, though. They probably wouldn’t have wanted him along.
‘Sounds nice. Have you thought about what you’re going to do yet? With regard to your situation?’ He tried to put it delicately.
‘I called Paula and she’s going to lend me her laptop tomorrow. I’ve drawn up a list of things I need to find out about, and then I can start in on sorting everything out.’
Edward had left his own laptop on the coffee table, specifically so she could use it if she wanted to go on the internet. He should have thought that she wouldn’t touch it, or allow Isaac to either, without asking. ‘No need for that. Mine’s right there.’
‘Oh. Thank you.’ There was a hint of awkwardness in her manner as she slid to the edge of her seat. ‘Would you like something to drink? There’s some hot chocolate …’
Her determination to pay her own way seemed to know no bounds. Everything he did for her—things that he gave without expecting anything in return—was entered on a balance sheet in her head to be repaid at a later date. Edward was debating whether he should tell her that she really didn’t need to wait on him like this, but she was on her feet already.
‘Hot chocolate would be great. Thank you.’
Since she so much wanted to do something for him, he supposed he should let her, and Charlotte’s bright smile as she disappeared into the house tentatively proved his theory.
She brought him a mug of creamy hot chocolate, along with a plate of home-made biscuits.
‘Thank you.’ He took a sip and nodded his approval. Archie materialised from his nightly tour of the garden and curled up under her chair. If she’d been feeding him as well as she seemed intent on feeding Edward he couldn’t fault the animal’s change of allegiance. ‘There’s something I want you to do for me.’
She brightened noticeably. ‘Yes, of course. What is it?’
Too late, Edward realised that he should have chosen his words more carefully. The impression that she was about to do him a favour was accurate enough, in the context of the amount of thinking time he’d already given to her plight, but Charlotte probably wouldn’t see it that way.
‘My father has his own practice at law, and I want you to consider making an appointment to go and see him. He can advise you and get his investigative team to find out exactly what’s going on. With my dad on your side, you can get things sorted out quicker and more efficiently.’
‘But I can’t afford to pay a lawyer, Edward.’
‘You won’t need to. If I ask him, he’ll do it for free.’
She hesitated. For a moment Edward thought that her pride was going to let her see sense and give in to expediency. Then she shook her head.
‘No, I can’t do that. It wouldn’t be fair. Please don’t mention it to him.’
He sighed. ‘What isn’t fair is that you’re spending time on researching and fighting your own battles when there are people who will happily help you out. It’s not just you that it makes an impact on—it’s your work at the clinic.’
That particular argument didn’t stand up to much scrutiny. Charlotte must have been worried sick over the last couple of weeks, but she’d never shown any evidence of it on the job.
She frowned at him. ‘I wouldn’t let anything get in the way of my work.’
‘I know you wouldn’t mean to, but none of us can be expected to give a hundred per cent when we’re under the kind of pressure that you’re facing at the moment.’ He was pressing hard, exploiting every chink in her armour.
She hesitated. ‘Edward, I … You’re confusing me.’
Well, now she knew how he felt. ‘It’s very simple, Charlotte. Trust me.’
Two little words, spoken almost as a throwaway to emphasise his point. He should have known better. If he’d thought about it for two seconds he would have realised that trust was something she had a lot of difficulty with.
‘I’m sorry.’ Without another word, she got to her feet and disappeared into the house.
Edward leaned back in his chair and stared out into the evening shadows. Archie slid past his legs, waiting to be stroked, and he ran his fingers thoughtfully along the cat’s back. Adjusting to the complex myriad of emotions that Charlotte and Isaac had brought to the quiet peace of his home was proving more difficult than he’d imagined.
The green reflective eyes seemed for a moment to understand his frustration, and then Archie was off again, his instinctive urge to chase shadows getting the better of him. Edward silently wished him better luck than he’d had tonight.
* * *
Edward had left the house before she was up the following morning. Charlotte went through the routine of getting herself up and ready for work, and Isaac ready for school, almost on autopilot. She was well aware that she’d walked out on Edward in the middle of a conversation last night, and common courtesy demanded that if he decided to broach the subject again she should have some kind of reasoned answer for him.
‘Mum …?’
‘Yes, Isaac.’
‘Is everything going to be all right?’
She sat down opposite him at the kitchen table. ‘Of course it is. What makes you ask that, sweetie?’
Some kind of understanding of the situation they were in, perhaps?
Isaac shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’
His brow was still furrowed, perhaps as a result of the unerring radar that seemed to alert him whenever something was wrong, even though he didn’t grasp quite what it was.
‘Look, sweetie. Those men came to our house by mistake on Saturday—they weren’t looking for us. We’re staying here with Edward for a few days, while I get everything sorted out, but that’s going to happen very soon. Everything’s going to be okay.’
‘Do you promise?’
He still lived in a world where she could make everything right. Those trusting eyes would give Charlotte the courage to face anything that the world could throw at her. They’d even give her the courage to ask just one more favour from Edward.
‘Yes. I promise. Cross my heart.’
She’d gone straight to Edward’s office when she’d arrived at work and left a note for him on his desk. As luck would have it, he returned from his morning’s surgery just as Allie and Paula were both within range of the nurses’ station, beckoning Charlotte into his office in full view of both of them.
She was aware that two pairs of eyes were following her every move, so knew she’d better make this quick. ‘I wanted to apologise. For last night …’
‘You have nothing to apologise for. Why don’t you sit down?’ He threw himself into his leather chair.
‘Because …’ Charlotte shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another. ‘We said we’d be discreet about our current living arrangements. And we’re being watched.’
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