Trust Me - Sheryl Browne Page 0,53

a positive future. Contentment settling inside her, she went back to the school to collect her coat and bag.

Digging into the bag for her car keys, she found the envelope that had plopped through her letter box this morning. She’d stuffed it into her bag unopened, as she was running late. Climbing into her car, she dumped her bag on the passenger seat and pulled the envelope out, turning it over to look for clues as to who it was from. It was a plain white self-seal with a typed address. No stamp, she noted, and assumed it was from someone local. A parent of one of her pupils, possibly?

Thinking no more of it, she tore open the envelope, pulled out the page inside and unfolded it. As she read it, her stomach turned over. Panic constricting her chest, she took several slow breaths, then, with trembling fingers, pushed the note back into the envelope and placed it on the passenger seat. It looked so innocuous. Not the sort of correspondence that would shatter the recipient’s world.

It was strange really. She’d known this day would come. She reached back into her bag, drawing out the tablets prescribed by Jake Merriden. Then, feeling calmer for knowing they were there, she pushed the key into the ignition of her little white Mini and listened fondly to its familiar cough. It was ancient. Still, she loved it. She’d been reluctant to part with it. She’d never aspired to fancy cars or foreign holidays. She preferred to holiday at home, loved the slow pace of life here in the village. The school was all she’d really needed. Seeing the smile in the eyes of a child was her reason to keep going.

Poppy’s story about her strong princess making it to the riverbank on a raft made out of sticks and leaves would be beautiful. It broke Jenny’s heart that she wouldn’t be there to hear it.

Twenty-One

Millie

Concerned about disturbing her boyfriend, who lay snoring quietly beside her, Millie lay still, watching the treetops sway in the soft breeze outside his second-floor flat. What was she doing here? she wondered, wiping away the slow tear that slid from the corner of her eye. She loved Louis, got that flip in her tummy whenever she thought about him, but this wasn’t how it was supposed to be, she was sure. She’d imagined making love would be special. A sensual discovery of each other emotionally and physically that would bring them closer and bind them together forever.

This wasn’t any of that. She’d bunked off biology, which she really couldn’t afford to do – her mum would go spare if she knew – to come to his flat. This was the second time she’d been here, the third time they’d had sex, and still there’d been no mood-setting, no foreplay, no sweet endearments or whisperings of love, which she longed to hear.

Her first time hadn’t been anything like she’d hoped it would be. Basic sex in the back of his car, it had been rushed and actually quite rough. Painful, too, though she hadn’t told him that. So what were you hoping for when you agreed to come, then? Rose petals scattered on the bed? Soft music and scented candles? Christ, grow up, Millie. She was always going on at her mum not to treat her like a child, and here she was acting just like one because there hadn’t been flowers and violins and exploding white lights. But wasn’t that what she’d liked about Louis: the fact that he was the kind of man who knew what he wanted and went for it? He’d wanted her. He’d told her so. In fact it was the very first thing he’d said to her. Waiting for her outside the nightclub, he’d caught hold of her arm as she’d come out, leaned into her and whispered, ‘You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I want you.’ She could hardly believe his arrogance, but she couldn’t deny that the huskiness in his voice and the intense look in his eyes had sent a thrill of excitement through the entire length of her spine.

She’d noticed him watching her in the club, never taking his eyes off her as she’d danced with Anna. He was a bit old to be at Tramps, she thought at first, but he was bloody good-looking – had that dark, broody thing going on. Also, he was tall, tanned and muscular from working outdoors, definitely her type. She