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Unhappiness choked her for a second. ‘That’s a hateful thing to say!’ she whispered. By rights she should be the one making the accusations, and she shivered a little with apprehension. She could have sworn she knew David inside out, and yet all at once she felt as though she did not know him at all.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ she asked.
There was silence, then he replied defensively, ‘I thought you might let it slip out before I’d got everything fixed up. I didn’t want Marsh to know until I was sure myself.’
‘When will you be back?’ Storm asked him, her mind still trying to grapple with what he had told her. David running a bookshop! It would suit him, she acknowledged with a shock. She could just see him in shabby tweeds poring over some ancient volume.
‘I don’t know.’ He sounded evasive. ‘Don’t do anything stupid yourself, Storm,’ he warned her. ‘When the news breaks Jago is going to look round for a scapegoat. He can say what he likes, but he needs me more than he thinks. He still doesn’t know his way round the station, and he could waste one hell of a lot of time and money finding it.’ He sounded as though the thought gave him a good deal of satisfaction.
‘I tried to speak to you this afternoon,’ he went on, ‘but you were out.’
‘We went to see Mr Harmer,’ Storm told him mechanically. ‘I think we’ve secured his advertising.’
There was a pause, and then David’s voice, faintly metallic, over the wires, saying with false enthusiasm, ‘Clever girl! I’ve got to go now. We’ll get together when I get home.’
He hung up before she could ask him when he would be coming home, and she shivered as she replaced the receiver. She had never thought for one moment that David would give up the station without a fight. What pressure had Jago brought to bear on him to make him do so? Had he threatened to tell the I.B.A. that he didn’t think David would ever make a go of it? Storm wouldn’t put it past him. He was just the ruthless sort of bastard who would do something like that, she reflected. God, how she hated him! Her fists were clenched tight with the violence of her anger. He had said he would obliterate David from her mind. And from her life? She was letting her imagination run away with her, she told herself; Jago Marsh was not the sort of man to let mere desire for a woman colour his decisions. No, his desire to get rid of David had nothing to do with her.
‘Something wrong?’ Richard Templeton asked when Storm rejoined them. She was moving like a sleepwalker, her eyes dull and clouded.
‘David’s leaving the station,’ she told her parents dully. ‘Apparently it’s all arranged. He’s joining a friend in Oxford who owns a bookshop as a partner…’
‘And never told you a word about it until it was a fait accompli?’ Storm’s father asked in thinly veiled irony. ‘I think it’s time you started asking yourself where you stand in David’s life, Storm, and he in yours.’
‘There were reasons,’ Storm responded defensively. ‘He didn’t want anyone at the station to know…’
‘Anyone? Is that all you are to him?’
Storm felt faintly sick. Two days ago she would have denied the question without hesitation, but since then her life and emotions had been turned upside down, her eyes opened to things she had never noticed before.
‘I don’t know,’ she admitted with pain. ‘All I do know is that somehow Jago Marsh is responsible for David leaving, and I hate him for it,’ she said childishly.
‘Aren’t you jumping to conclusions?’ her father commented mildly. ‘You know, love, loyalty is a good thing in its way, but sometimes it can be taken too far—it’s called fanaticism,’ he teased gently.
There was a tight ball of mingled tears and anger at the back of Storm’s throat.
‘Is that a kind way of telling me I’m a fanatic?’ she asked.
Her father’s eyes were gentle. ‘No, I’m just reminding you that even the best of us can sometimes be guilty of closing our eyes to what we don’t want to see. No one forced David to make the decision to leave—he did it of his own volition. Now I’m not saying that he might not have had some justification,’ he added when Storm opened her mouth to protest, ‘but I’m sure he isn’t the martyr you seem to believe. Think, Storm, he’s known for some time that Jago would be joining you, but he waits until now to make his decision. If you’re honest with yourself you’ll admit that it’s more the action of a coward than a hero. David is no match for Jago Marsh and he knows it.’
‘You’ve only met Jago once,’ Storm retorted, stung into a fresh defence of David.
‘My dear,’ Mr Templeton said very dryly, ‘everything about him proclaims the type of man he is. He won’t suffer fools gladly. You have the right to think of David however you choose, Storm, but you must remember that you can’t impose your views on others. They too are free to make their own choice. Think, child, you’ve always had a soft spot for a lame dog, and if you’re honest you’ll admit that it is exactly what David is and always will be. If you tie your life to his, he’ll lean on you all through it. Are you strong enough to carry that sort of burden? Be honest with yourself, Storm, and don’t let loyalty blind you to reality.’
‘I suppose you think Jago Marsh would make a better husband,’ Storm said recklessly, tears not far away. ‘Well, if you do, it’s you who are avoiding reality this time—Jago Marsh wouldn’t even begin to understand the degree of commitment it takes to make a marriage!’
* * *
It was obvious to Storm the moment she walked into the office the next morning
that the news of David’s resignation had broken. Pete and Sue were so deep in conversation that they barely noticed her approach until Sue looked up. She flushed rather defensively and muttered something about seeing to the post, leaving Storm alone with Pete.
‘So old David’s turned tail and run,’ Pete commented unkindly. ‘Can’t say I’m surprised. Best thing all round, if you ask me.’
‘Well, I didn’t,’ Storm said bitterly. ‘And I don’t know how you can say that, after all that David’s done…’
‘Oh yeah? Like drop a soggy wet blanket over everything we’ve ever come up with that might make the station a success. Sure I’m going to miss him like crazy,’ he jeered callously. ‘Sneaky too. I bet you didn’t know what was going on, did you?’
His words were too close to the truth for comfort, and Storm flushed angrily.
