‘Meg’s just told me,’ Amy said. ‘It’s brilliant news.’
Jed loaded their drinks onto a tray, then added a bowl of chilli crackers, a packet of salt and vinegar crisps and a dish of salted cashews.
‘It’s a bloody feat, is what it is,’ he said as Amy tapped her debit card on the reader he’d presented to her. ‘Never thought we’d get it sorted. Sam’s been a diamond. From glass collector to business adviser! He’s a good man.’
Amy shoved her card back inside her purse, then shouldered her bag and picked up the tray with care.
‘He is,’ she said, feeling utterly joyless but almost sure she meant it.
Chapter 24
Amy made her way to Rowton Hall on Thursday morning with a bilious, jittery stomach. Since Sunday afternoon, she’d carried the weight of her own misjudgement like an albatross around her neck; her own words kept coming back to torment her, each time bringing on painful, full-body winces.
It wasn’t lost on her that, having been wrong about Sam’s involvement with Jed and the pub, she might also have made other mistaken assumptions. She’d thrown accusations around like confetti that afternoon they’d argued in the rain– but what had they really been based on?
Tell me what’s on your mind, oraskme the question you want answered,he’d said to her that night at the theatre.I’d never lie to you. Back then, those words had felt like an empty challenge– hollow phrases designed to wrong-foot or manipulate her into revealing herself, overplaying her hand. Now she did Sam the courtesy of considering whether they might have been sincere.
Amy had no blueprint for apologising to him– mainly because she couldn’t recall ever having done it before. In itself, this suddenly struck her as problematic. It seemed unlikely that every single disagreement they’d ever had had been entirely his fault, mostly because there’d been so many of them.
Today, shewasgoing to say sorry. She needed to admit to him that she’d misconstrued things and now knew better. She wanted to try and make amends.
Within seconds of arriving at the Hall, though, any thought of approaching Sam for a calm, honest heart-to-heart went up in smoke. From a distance, she could see he was deep in conversation with another man at the entrance to the walled garden– someone tall, dark and well dressed … Someone who, as Amy approached, she noticed looked remarkably like Hugh.
God in heaven, itwasHugh. What the hell was he doing here?
The closer Amy got, the more certain she became that their discussion was heated– and that Hugh was becoming increasingly aggressive. Sam was leaning back slightly with his arms folded across his chest: a posture that spoke of deliberate control, of deciding against all provocation not to square up to a fight. Several times he raised a defensive palm as though to try and calm Hugh’s ranting, but apparently to little effect.
When Amy reached them, Hugh was snarling. ‘You always were a snake in the grass– totally untrustworthy– never on the right side … I remember you informing on Henry Atkinson, doing your best to make sure he was suspended after that incident with the first-year’s textbooks …’
Sam looked like he was trying not to laugh, which seemed to infuriate Hugh all the more. ‘In what universe isthatrelevant?’ Sam said. ‘I’d forgotten Henry Atkinson even existed until you just brought him up– but for the record, he fully deserved a suspension. Drowning some kid’s books in the toilet just for the fun of it … He was a merciless bastard, which I assume is why you stayed close to him. What’s he doing with himself these days? No, don’t tell me– let me guess: he’s in prison for some white-collar crime he claims is victimless.’
‘I believe he’s a trader in the City,’ Hugh spat pompously.
‘The perfect springboard from which to leap for that custodial sentence,’ Sam said.
Before Hugh could hit back, Amy interrupted.
‘Er … What’s going on here?’ she asked tremulously. Part of her was amused by their exchange of old school resentments, but another part felt deeply unsettled. Hugh had no reason to be at Rowton Hall, and no professional pretext she could think of for verbally abusing Sam. Amy was no egotist, but it would have been stupid not to consider that she might have some unwitting role in this altercation.
‘I decided to stop by and make sure Ainsworth here was aware of some key facts,’ Hugh said, his ice-blue eyes flinty and dangerous.
‘About what?Why?’ Amy asked.
‘About you and me, Amy,’ said Hugh, ‘because from what I hear his attentions towards you have not been strictly professional these past few months.Apparentlyhe’s been carrying a torch for you since he was sixteen– a rumour I’d have found touching if it weren’t so pathetic.’
Amy’s blood ran cold, oxygen replaced with fury.
‘How dare you?’ she said, her voice steady but sharp. ‘Thereisno you and me, Hugh– there hasn’t been for months. Who I see, in whatever capacity, is absolutely none of your business.’
‘So you admit you’re sleeping with him then?’ Hugh said, an almost maniacal triumph on his face. This unexpected crudeness took Amy’s breath away. She stared at him, appalled and humiliated.
‘Don’t speak to her like that,’ Sam said, his voice a low rumble that indicated his hold on his temper was slipping. ‘It’s completely uncalled for.’
‘And you’re her knight in shining armour, are you? Funny– she was always the independent woman with me. Apart from the fact that she let me pay for everything.’ He shot Amy a leer that made her insides lurch.
Had he been drinking? She didn’t think so. Perhaps this was just the natural end point– the most extreme manifestation she’d yet seen– of what Kit had called Hugh’s ‘possessive psycho streak’. Maybe it had always been in him to lose control like this, to become so entitled and erratic, once he felt like he was losing her. Why hadn’t she listened when Kit had warned her Hugh might not be the benign actor she’d always believed?
At the same time, it was almost alarming that it had taken him until now to go full bonkers ex-boyfriend on her. How had her move to the other side of the country, plus her rejection of his ‘I’m sorry’ gift and subsequent refusal to engage with him, not convinced Hugh their relationship was over? Then the truth dawned on her and she felt like throwing something at him: he had only believed his chances with her were completely dashed when he imagined she was seeing someone else.Thatimplied a change of ownership, a transfer of assets. Unlike her fundamental right to spend time with whomever she pleased, this was something he actually understood.