“Your psycho murder-husband is out prowling the countryside with a cricket bat and God knows whatever other weapons he has managed to find. We have a handbag and a suitcase and our wits to defend ourselves with. In short, we’re absolutely fucked. So I’m letting you know. Just so you know. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone else ever.”
She stared at me for a moment. And then she started to giggle, and her giggles were infectious because soon enough both of us were laughing so hard we were crying.
“Oh, Willa,” she panted, as she desperately tried to regain control. “Oh my God, I love you so much.”
“Mortal Peril is now upon us,” I gasped in between my wheezes. “We’ve confessed our mutual admiration for how amazing we both are. We shall shag like bunnies in a bit, but for now can we please just get the fucking fuck out of here?”
Still giggling, she closed her door and eased us back into motion, and we scraped and bumped our way along what barely rated as a cow track until we emerged onto another narrow lane.
“This one leads over into the next valley and from there we can get to Cranleigh,” she said. She wiped her eyes and gave me a fierce grin. “You’re amazing yourself, you know. Standing up for me like that. God my heart wants to burst I’m so proud of you.”
“He’s a violent prick. I know his type. Fucking power-drunk bully in a nice suit. No way was I going to let him touch you. And speaking of amazing, you faced him down starkers. Holy hell, Sam, you’re such an awesome woman.”
She reached out and put her hand on my leg, quite high up, and I covered it with my own and squeezed it.
“Thanks for being there for me,” she said. “This time and all the times before it.”
And I shifted her hand to the warm vee of my crotch and kept it there, close to me, until we’d parked outside my house, and I’d called Pete, and told him I needed him to come make sure we got in okay.
.:.
Pete and Marius welcomed Sam like a long-lost sister and Pete (being Pete) immediately broke out the spare duvet and wrapped it around her shoulders.
They listened wide-eyed as I gave them an only-slightly-embellished account of our evening; Sam simply sat, pressed in against me, shivering and drinking the wine Marius had poured for her. I kept my hand on her leg; a steady reminder that we were okay.
Very soon she put her wine aside and simply pulled her legs up against herself as she curled in against me and hid her face in my neck; I caught Marius and Pete’s shared look but said nothing as I gently wrapped my arm around her and held her to me.
At last I finished, and the boys sat back. Pete whistled; Marius shook his head.
“A cricket bat,” Marius said. “That goat-fucking fucker.”
“Have you called the police?” Pete demanded.
“Not yet.” Sam shifted against me and sighed. “I… we needed to be somewhere safe first. Thank you for this.”
“You need to report it so they can find him before he has time to concoct some wild-arse tale. Like how you tried to run him over by reversing at him.”
She raised her head far enough to give him a bleak look. “He has expensive lawyers and a lot of free capital, I have the clothes I’m wearing. I can’t touch him.”
Pete frowned. Then he shook his head and sighed. “I’m too simple for this level of nastiness.”
Marius turned and regarded his partner with an amused grin. “You just flatten them on the rugby pitch.”
“As I said, I’m a simple man,” Pete muttered. “Willa, are you okay?”
“Yeah. I was… more scared for Sam than for me. He was fucking livid with her; I was just a… convenient target of opportunity.”
“He’s never been that angry before,” Sam murmured. “He’s usually just shouty. That’s the first time he’s got… physical. I wonder… I wonder what’s going on. Something must be up at work.”
“Or… maybe he was just jealous that you got to see our Willa in her birthday suit and he didn’t,” Marius said with a grin.
“Marius!” I laughed.
“She is rather nice, isn’t she,” my lover said in that deadpan way she had.
I flushed.
“Have you girls eaten yet?” said Pete.
Sam snorted and Marius choked down his laughter.
“Oh for fuck’s sakes, you two,” Pete sighed. He waved his hand vaguely. “I meant food. Not… treats. Are you hungry?” he added, slowly and deliberately as if speaking to idiots.
“Are you cooking?” I asked him.
“I might, if you ask nicely,” he said with a grin. “I can whip us up something. Samantha…”
“Sam, please,” she said. “Just Sam.”
“Sam, then, do we need to do something about your car? Is the window intact enough for tonight?”
“Bertha’s a tough old bird; she’ll be okay for now. The rear window’s completely wrecked but everything else is okay. Might need a respray but that can wait.”
“Right then. Marius, come give me a hand, you lazy sod.”
“I’ll give you more than a hand if you carry on like that,” Marius drawled. He gave us a wink and sauntered after his partner.
I glanced down at Sam.
“Are you okay?” I whispered to her.
“No. I’m still really shaken. But… but being here is helping. Being with you is helping more than anything. I… I will have to ask for the police to go back with me when I go home.”
“Get his shady arse chucked out while you’re at it,” I demanded. “Make him fuck off.”
She sighed.
“I need to work out how to untangle this mess.”
“What’s there to untangle? Cut yourself loose from all of it.”
“But… Beth. My life. My… obligations.”
“Beth’s an incredibly switched-on girl, Sam. She knows something’s up between you and her dad, she knows divorce pretty much a given at this stage. She just doesn’t care what happens so long as she has you.”
“How can you be so sure?” she demanded.
I stroked her hair back out of her eyes.
“Because she told me so,” I answered her.
“What? How? Bethany almost never talks about her own feelings…”
“She does with me,” I said, gently. “I guess she views me as a… big sister of sorts.”
“Oh,” Sam breathed.
She folded up against me and I felt rather than heard the little sob she gave.
“Some kind of a mum I am,” she whispered. “My own daughter won’t even…”
“Hey. No. You’re awesome. You’re totally awesome. You do everything. She knows that and loves you utterly and completely for it. Don’t take this as a fault. Be proud that she knows how to reach out.”
“She should want to… reach out to me…”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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