but Guy wouldn’t have dreamed of reading it. He had seen how Aidan had addressed the envelope, to Mrs Fiona Templeton, not Mrs Aidan Templeton-Barr. Guy was gratified that he was getting the result he wanted, but he was anxious about how Fiona was going to react to her impending heartache. It was so good to see her dressed elegantly again and wearing a little make-up but he feared she would be about to take to her bed again and sink into a deeper despair than before.
Fiona had read her name on the letter and was sitting up rigidly.
‘What does the letter say, Mum?’ Finn asked. He had a good idea by her stricken face and Guy’s embarrassed fidgeting. He clenched his fists, bracing himself for a fresh, fiercer bout of weeping and wailing from his mother.
Fiona tore open the envelope and let it fall to the floor. She held the prison notepaper before her eyes and scanned it, then said in a disembodied voice, ‘You want to know what it says? What I should have known it would. I’ll read it to you.’
Finn wasn’t sure he wanted to hear it now, remembering his father had once been a good father to him really. There had been boys at his school who had been beaten, ignored or cruelly ridiculed by their fathers. There had been orphaned or fatherless boys, and one with a stepfather who bitterly resented him and had made his life hell.
Fiona began to read, one hoarse word at a time. ‘“Fiona, I thought you might have taken the hint by my long silence and broken off with me. You haven’t, so I’ll put this to you straight. It’s over between us. You were a good and loyal wife to me but it’s not enough for me to want to return to you. I met someone else months before my arrest and she is waiting for me. We will be setting up home in a secret location. I feel bad about the mess I left you in but you have Carthewy looking out for you now. Be sensible and take advantage of it. There is no point in me seeing the baby, but I’ll treasure the snaps of her. Finn has made it plain that he’s finished with me, so it is best I make a clean break from all of you. I am glad to know you have help from your new friends. Lean on them. Make your future with them. There will be no point in you writing to me again, accept that you would only be flogging a dead horse. I wish you well. A.”’
Her eyes seething, Fiona crumpled the letter and threw it down. Finn was glad. Guy was glad. They were both thinking it good she was angry with Aidan. It would help crush her yearning for him, help heal her heartbreak. Without looking at Guy, she said tightly, ‘Thank you for making that wasted journey, Guy.’
She got up and went robot-like to Finn. ‘Well, you must be happy. You got exactly what you wanted. Aidan would never have wanted to come back to me with his son showing him such disrespect as to shun him.’
Swinging back her hand she smashed it violently across Finn’s cheek making his head lurch to the side. ‘I hate you for it and I’ll never, ever forgive you!’
Ten
Verity thanked the driver of the rattling old coach, stuffy in the hot murky day, as she got off at the stop just past the Olde Plough. She had been to Wadebridge where she had been window-shopping, just for something to do. She had to be careful with her money. She had enough to last the summer then she must look for a job. She might find a secretary’s post or something in the town that she could travel to daily. One thing she was certain about, while still weighed down under the hurt of her parents’ unjust rejection and with her confidence taken a battering over Julius Urquart’s mocking remarks: she needed the security of living with her doting aunt and uncle. The soothing experience of living in what she now considered her home was wearing off a little, however, and doubts as to whether she could make something of her future were sticking uneasily in her mind. She also had less to occupy herself with now the Templetons had moved back into Merrivale.
Fiona had insisted on returning there before all the finishing touches were done, saying she would