Cherish Collection January 2014 (Books 1-12)

‘And you’ve known this all the time?’

‘I only found out on the way to the church. If I’d known earlier I’d have warned you, but it was too late.’

‘Too late to warn me, but not too late to make him run for it.’

‘I told you I never meant that to happen. I spoke clumsily.’

‘You’ve deceived me—’

‘No!’

‘I begged you to tell me why he ran, but you never told me the truth—’

‘I was as honest as I could be, but I couldn’t repeat all the things he said. Have you forgotten the terrible state you were in that day? There was no way I could tell you everything. It would have finished you off, Freya. Please be fair.’

But she was too distraught to be fair.

‘I trusted you,’ she choked. ‘Talked to you, told you things I’d never have told anyone else. And all the time you were laughing up your sleeve at me.’

‘That isn’t true. I was trying to do my best for you. I’m sorry if I got it wrong, but I meant well. Call me an idiot, if you like, but don’t call me a deceiver.’

‘I believed you,’ she whispered. ‘Relied on you. I thought you were being so kind to me.’

‘I felt terrible about what happened—how I helped to bring it about. I’d have done anything to make it up to you.’

‘Anything except tell me the truth. Be honest, Jackson, if you know how. You’ve been enjoying watching me be an idiot, haven’t you?’

‘No, I swear it. Freya. you’ve got to believe me.’

‘How can I? When I think of some of the things I said—how I trusted and confided in you. What a fool I must have sounded!’

‘No, I was the fool for damaging you so idiotically. But I did my best to help you survive it—all right, it was a poor best, but I tried. Why don’t we talk later, when you’ve had a chance to calm down?’

She had a feeling that a chilly bleakness had settled over the world.

‘You think I’ll see sense, don’t you?’ she said bitterly. ‘You’re wrong. Nothing will change. You won’t ever look different to me from the way you do now. Mean, spiteful, contemptible.’

‘Freya—’ He reached out for her hand but she snatched it away.

‘No, don’t touch me. I can’t bear the sight of you.’

‘Please don’t let this spoil our friendship.’

‘There never was a friendship,’ she whispered. ‘There never could be.’

‘Freya—’

He reached out for her again but she darted away. After a moment he heard her bedroom door shut and the key turn in the lock.

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