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That was her real grudge. Rex really didn’t need this now. However, he wanted to keep her on side. “I apologize unreservedly. That was not my intention. I promise I won’t dump anything on you again without discussing it first. I was in a panic because of Carmen’s fall.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I hadn’t realized that was why.”
“Don’t worry. I know I didn’t handle it very well. We’ll chat about it when I get to the house.”
When he hung up he asked himself how much he could really say to her. He couldn’t rule out anyone in his hunt for the amateurs who were trying to scare them off the manor. There was no reason why the Amerys should be under suspicion, because his father had provided for them well. But he wasn’t going to rule anyone out until he had some more solid information. He couldn’t afford to. Carmen’s safety was at stake.
He put his foot down.
By the time he reached the church in Beldover he was feeling frantic.
The church was built on a hillside and the graveyard was beyond it. Rex scanned the area as he parked. There were no other cars around. He got out and jogged from his car to the row of thick, dark pines that lined the church boundary. The old wooden lych-gate creaked open and he passed under its canopy. Looking ahead, he saw and heard no sign of visitors. Praying that she was here and hadn’t been waylaid, he ran up the meandering path and skirted the perimeter of the church, his heart thumping in his chest.
When he turned a corner and arrived at the spot where the rolling hill flattened o
ut beyond the church and the graveyard began, a flash of fabric moving in the breeze caught his eye.
Relief flooded him.
Carmen was there, standing with her back to him, her overnight bag sitting on the grass nearby as she stood at the grave. Rex stopped in his tracks. It was a poignant image, the sight of her standing there with her hair lifting on the afternoon breeze while she looked down at her mother’s grave.
He recalled her saying that she’d done this each year since her mother had passed on. Up until this anniversary, his father had joined her. Rex didn’t want her to be standing there alone, so he walked to her side.
“Rex, you startled me.” Her eyes were wide but she broke into a smile.
That smile made him feel as if everything was right in the world, even though he knew it wasn’t, not yet. He put his arm around her shoulders and then drew her into his embrace. He kissed the top of her head. Her hands went against his chest and she rested her head on his shoulder.
He wanted to hold her that way forever. He looked across the rolling downs toward the clouds shifting over the distant hills. Centuries of tradition stood behind them within the church. Generations of the local villagers and people from the surrounding countryside were buried here, their headstones testifying to the lives they’d led.
The two of them had been here just weeks before for his father’s funeral. At that event he’d felt like an outsider. Then he’d looked up and seen Carmen standing there, her expression concerned and curious, and the whole world fell away. Finally meaning took hold, as if the very sight of her drew the jigsaw pieces of his life together. Studying her face, he acknowledged how much he cared. This is where I’m meant to be. He’d come home, but it was because of Carmen.
He looked down at his father’s grave—turfed now but still awaiting its headstone—and he felt both grief and regret. How different it was to the last time he’d been there. Because of Carmen. Because we are together again. Staring at his father’s grave, Rex felt gratitude surge inside him. The old man had put this woman back in his arms, and Rex couldn’t have been more grateful.
“You didn’t need to rush up here.”
“I wish I’d known it was the anniversary today. You should’ve said.”
“You had an important business meeting. It had to be, because I know you’d have taken time off if you could have.” She moved, and wrapped her hands on the back of his head, stroking his hair as she smiled at him.
He wanted to see her smile that way forever.
“I still wish you’d told me it was today.” He nodded his head at the grave.
“Hey, I’m a businesswoman. Your pitch had to come first and I knew it.”
“If I’d known, I could have rearranged things.” Why did he sound like he was making excuses? Because he felt as if he should have been there—should have at least driven her up and made sure she was okay and cared for. “I don’t want you to have to do stuff like this alone.”
Carmen gazed up at him, and her utter serenity impacted on him somehow, making him feel clueless.
“I’ve done just about everything on my own for a long time now, especially dealing with my mother’s death. Your father came on the anniversaries but it was an odd thing, barely rubbing shoulders with each other, all the regrets. It was a shared experience, yes, but...” She paused and shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe it’s me, maybe it’s ingrained in me to be alone.”
That hit Rex like a punch to the gut.
Was it true, was that what was stopping them being together?
“You weren’t always that way.” He knew it sounded shallow and childish, as if he wanted her to be the way she had been before. He couldn’t help it. He loved the mature Carmen but it pained him to think of her alone, ever, let alone always.
“I know.” She smiled up at him and the smile was there in her eyes, too, which was a huge relief to Rex. “I need to be more sociable outside the workplace again. I’m hoping the manor will be part of me getting that back again.”
