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But it was true… she did love the house and its gardens. Given that, surely she should be as enthusiastic and pleased that something was going to be done to protect them as Roberta appeared to be. So why wasn’t she? It couldn’t be because of Adam’s involvement, could it?
She was frowning as she said goodbye to Roberta and hurried towards the estate agents, pausing briefly as a leaflet in a shop window announcing the meeting she and Roberta had just been discussing caught her eye.
‘Good idea, that,’ a woman standing next to her also reading it commented to her. ‘It’s about time someone looked into what these councillors and the like get up to… if you ask me there’s far too many of them more interested in lining their own pockets than in doing what’s right by the likes of us.’ She sniffed disparagingly, turning to tell the child at her side to stop scuffing his new shoes on the pavement, before taking hold of him and disappearing inside the shop.
Still frowning, Fern walked on. What was happening? Adam had always been one of the most popular and well-liked of all the local councillors, and certainly one of the most trustworthy and honest, and yet now it seemed even people who knew him well, like Roberta, were beginning to question that honesty.
And all because of one anonymous article which had appeared in the local paper.
Perhaps she would go to this evening’s meeting after all, she decided thoughtfully.
* * *
The estate agent was helpful and efficient. They would send someone round in the morning to measure up and take photographs, he promised, although, given the present state of the market, he could not say quite how long the house might take to sell.
Thanking him, Fern turned to leave, and then froze as, directly opposite her and just about to cross the street, she saw Adam.
Time, movement seemed to slow down, accompanied by an icy mind-numbing tide of shocked anguish that flowed as pitilessly as poison through her veins. She saw him pause to check the traffic, his face and body in profile to her, his skin still tanned from his holiday with Lily and her parents, and still she stayed there, her body as tautly defensive as that of a crouched petrified animal, unable to speak, move, or do anything to avoid the inevitable moment when he turned and saw her.
Only when it actually happened, when he looked at her, focused on her, changed the direction of his path to come towards her, was she sprung from the trap of paralysis and shock.
Panic filled her, making her over-react wildly, rushing, running almost in the opposite direction, head down, muscles bunched and tense, heart pumping so fast that she could feel its fierceness shaking the cavity of her chest.
Where she had been icy cold, now she was sickly hot, her body bathed in a flood of nervous perspiration, her legs shaking, her eyes almost blinded by the rush of angry tears which stung them.
Behind her she heard Adam call her name; she was aware of people pausing to watch her, aware too of her own idiocy and folly, but these were distant awarenesses, numbed by the intensity of her need to escape, to get away.
Ahead of her, a tall middle-aged dark-suited man stepped to one side out of the way of her flight, and as he did so she heard him exclaiming, ‘Adam! I was just on my way to your office…’
Weakly, sickly she leaned against the door of her car.
There was no need for her to run any further; Adam was not pursuing her any longer…
It was only now, as her brain started to clear, and her overstrained body tried to deal with the effects of her shocked, terrified surge of adrenalin, that she fully appreciated how stupid she had been.
It was one thing for her to know how afraid she was of seeing Adam, of listening to his inevitable expressions of sympathy and having to will herself into accepting that they were simply the same polite, concerned emotions he would have shown to any acquaintance in the same situation, that they had no personal significance or meaning; it was quite another to have behaved publicly in such a way that other people might question what had caused her stupid behaviour. Other people—and Adam himself.
The sensible, the only reaction she should have shown ought simply to have been a calm and distancing acceptance of his sympathy.
She felt the pain wrenching at her body as she tried to stifle the impact seeing him had had on her. How was it possible for her literally to ache with so much need and desire simply at the mere sight of him?
She smiled grimly to herself. Who needed to see him? Just thinking about him could have that effect on her. Just thinking about him and remembering…
That was over, finished, she reminded herself fiercely. She had a new life to live now… to look forward to.
* * *
Fern was late for the meeting at the Town Hall, primarily because she had been in two minds as to whether or not to go.
In the end it had been that same niggle of doubt she had experienced earlier in the day which had finally motivated her; that and curiosity to know the identity of the writer of the article in the local rag which had sparked off so much interest, expressing, so it seemed, the hitherto unexpressed views of the majority of local people, that those who were supposed to serve their interests might not always do so.
Whoever had written it had been very clever, she acknowledged, tapping into a vein of doubt and suspicion which seemed to run counter to the views people expressed publicly. It had been someone clever enough not merely to understand the darker side of human nature, but also to make use of it. Fern frowned. Why was it that she had the feeling that there was far more involved in tonight’s meeting than the apparently excellent cause of protecting Broughton House… a cause which after all she ought to be fully applauding…?
The Town Hall was packed when she arrived, with standing room only at the back: further evidence of the skilful way public opinion and curiosity had been manipulated. Manipulated…?
An hour later Fern knew exactly why she had felt that small niggle of doubt.
It had been a shock to see Nick taking the platform to address the meeting and even more of one to hear the speech he gave.
