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‘I don’t feel like I have any other choice.’ Leaving Juniper Meadows was going to break her heart. Whether it happened today or a few months down the line was immaterial. In the meantime, she would do everything in her power to protect Rhys and the rest of his family. It wasn’t much, but it was the best she could do.
28
For the next couple of weeks, Tasha was as edgy as a cat as she waited for Simon to break his word and bring her whole world crashing down around her ears. Half a dozen boxes arrived via a courier with no explanation note. When Hope called her up to let her know, she had to make up an excuse and say she’d only kept her flat as an insurance policy but, with everything going so well, it had felt like an unnecessary waste of money to keep paying the rent.
Rhys brought the boxes over to the lodge, and she could tell how pleased he was that it seemed as if she was making a commitment by giving up the safety net of her flat. When they made love that night, she told herself that it wasn’t really a lie because she was committed to him. He meant so much to her, more than she had the words to tell him, but she’d done her best to show him.
Her good mood was spoiled the next morning when she checked her personal emails after Rhys had left her at his usual ungodly hour to see to the animals. She stared at Simon’s name in the sender details of the unopened message for a good five minutes, before deciding that not knowing was worse than the temptation to delete it. Taking a deep breath, she opened the untitled message. It was a brief and ugly final twist of the knife.
Here’s your P45. I’m paying you to the end of the month, but only because HR told me I have to honour your contract. If it was up to me, you’d never get another penny, in fact I should be demanding a refund because you’ve been no use to me whatsoever since you started there. Good luck, Tasha, you’re going to need it because as soon as those stuck-up bastards find out what a waste of space you are, they’ll be desperate to see the back of you, just like I am.
Just reading it made her feel dirty, and Tasha tossed the phone aside and hurried to the bathroom. As the hot water of the shower sluiced over her, the tears began to fall. She hated herself for the weakness, for letting him hurt her again. By the time she’d scrubbed her hair and body clean, she was calm. It was over. It was done. Simon Willoughby and SJW were in the past. It was time to focus on the future.
Tasha settled at a corner table in the café, glad to get out of the lodge for a bit. Though she’d tried to concentrate on her work, the words of the email had kept playing over and over in her mind. She knew they weren’t true, that Simon had been lashing out, but, God, they hurt. In need of a distraction, she’d decided to head out early and treat herself to one of Penny’s fantastic salad bowls and a double-shot cappuccino.
She was meeting one of the contractors Declan had recommended to talk all things compostable toilets at one-thirty. Such a glamorous life she was leading these days. The fact she could make a joke about it proved she’d done the right thing in getting out and about rather than sitting and brooding.
Tasha dug into her salad as she gazed out of the windows and wondered what Rhys was up to that afternoon. On a whim she opened the calendar on her phone and sent him a meeting invitation for an hour starting at 3p.m. entitled Afternoon Delight. What better way to remind herself of why she was doing the right thing than in his arms? She’d barely put her phone down when the acceptance notification pinged through. Grinning to herself, she opened the brochure the supplier had sent her and tried to concentrate.
When the door to the café opened, Tasha looked up. Her smile froze when, instead of the contractor she was expecting, in strode Lydia Caster-Hardwicke. She couldn’t have looked more like a member of the country set if she’d tried, dressed in cream jodhpurs tucked into shiny black riding boots, and a blue quilted jacket. Tasha stuck her nose back in her brochure and pretended she hadn’t seen her. The café was open to everyone, after all.
‘Coffee, please. I’ll take it to go.’ Lydia’s voice seemed to carry to every corner of the room. Of course, she was one of those people who didn’t feel they needed to talk quietly in a public place. She was probably used to commanding attention and having people fawn over her. Tasha turned the page of the brochure and tried to concentrate on a diagram of an anaerobic digestion system. That snooty voice came again, only much closer. ‘Tanya, isn’t it?’
Ignoring the cheap attempt to rile her, Tasha kept her expression neutral as she glanced up. ‘I’m waiting for someone.’
‘Are you waiting for Rhys? I saw the way you were hanging all over him the other day.’ Lydia’s lip curled as she looked Tasha up and down.
‘What do you want, Lydia?’
Lydia tapped an immaculate finger on the table. ‘Just a little word to the wise – don’t pin your hopes on him. I’d hate for you to be disappointed.’
Tasha held her spine rigid, refusing to react to the taunt. ‘My relationship with Rhys is none of your business.’
That smile Lydia gave her could only be described as predatory. ‘Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. Rhys and I have an understanding.’
Tasha burst out laughing, she couldn’t help it. ‘An understanding? This is the twenty-first century, not the nineteenth. You’ve been watching too much Bridgerton.’
Lydia’s smile grew thin. ‘Yes, I suppose someone of your ilk would assume that’s the way people like us carry on.’ She said ‘us’ as though she were referring to a superior species. ‘You’re not the first girl to fall for his charms, or should I say the charms of his title, and no doubt you won’t be the last.’
Though Tasha was almost certain the other woman was lying, there was a tiny seed of doubt sprouting. ‘If that’s true, why would you put up with it? Why would you let a man you’re supposedly in love with treat you like this?’
Lydia shrugged. ‘Who said anything about love? My family is one of the richest in the south of England. With what I bring to the table, the future of the Juniper Meadows estate will be secure for generations to come. When push comes to shove, Rhys will do what’s right for his family, including marrying me.’
And that was proof enough for Tasha that this woman was lying through her teeth because there was no way the Travers family would let Rhys marry someone he didn’t love, even if they were on the brink of financial disaster. ‘Is that really the best future you can see for yourself? Spending your life with a man who doesn’t want you but needs your money? You’re rich, pretty and you’ve got the confidence of a bulldozer to try and face me down like this. The world should be your oyster so why on earth are you trying to pimp yourself out to a man who doesn’t want you?’
Lydia looked at her for a long moment, then her frosty expression crumpled into a rueful smile. ‘You’re not going to be scared off, are you?’
‘No. Sorry.’ And she was sorry. Not because she wasn’t going to give Lydia what she wanted, but sorry that the other woman had such low expectations for herself. ‘Why are you doing this, Lydia?’
Lydia gestured to a chair. ‘May I sit?’
Tasha glanced at her phone to check the time. She had ten minutes before the contractor was due to arrive. ‘Sure.’ She closed the folder and pushed it to one side. ‘So what’s behind all this?’
Lydia popped the lid off her takeaway coffee with a sigh. ‘My brother’s getting married.’
‘And, what? There’s an ancient family curse that means you have to get married too?’
Lydia laughed. ‘Sort of, I suppose. I’ve managed the house for years because Mummy died when we were quite young…’
