When he got home that night, even earlier than usual, he found her sitting in the front room crying. He tried to comfort her, but nothing he said seemed to make any difference. She looked up, and he couldn’t help thinking how enchanting she appeared even with tears streaming down her face. She tried to smile. ‘I love you,’ she said. The first time she’d admitted it.
‘And I love you, too,’ he replied. Another first. Unable to express how he truly felt in words, he decided he wouldn’t wait any longer to prove just how much he loved her. He dropped to one knee, and fumbled in his pocket before extracting a small leather box. He opened it and said, ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?’
He waited for her reply, but none was forthcoming. She finally looked up, but still said nothing. He leant forward and gently took her left hand and tried to place the ring on the third finger, but she pulled her hand away.
‘Don’t you want to marry me?’ asked Ross, sounding desperate.
‘Yes, I do,’ she said quietly. ‘But after I’ve told you the truth, you won’t want to marry me.’
CHAPTER 13
BETH PICKED UP THE PHONE on her desk.
‘There’s a Mrs Christina Faulkner in reception. She wonders if you could possibly see her.’
She was well prepared for this moment, though William had warned her it would come when she least expected it.
She took a deep breath. ‘Send her up,’ she said. While Beth waited, she repeated William’s mantra whenever he was dealing with a suspect: Listen, listen, listen, in the hope they’ll say something they later regret.
There was a gentle tap on the door. Usually, Christina came charging into the office unannounced, assuming Beth would drop everything for her. But not today.
‘Come in,’ said Beth, while remaining seated behind her desk.
The door opened slowly. The woman who entered her office was not the Christina she knew of old: self-assured, confident, in control. She stood hesitantly in the doorway, waiting for Beth to make the first move.
Beth didn’t suggest she sit in the comfortable chair by the fire that Christina usually commandeered, but gestured to the seat on the other side of her desk, as if she were a junior member of staff. Christina meekly obeyed, and slumped down on the wooden chair, but didn’t speak.
Listen, listen, listen.
‘I don’t know where to start,’ she said in a faltering voice.
‘By telling the truth for a change?’ suggested Beth.
A long silence followed before it all came pouring out. ‘I apologize for having behaved so badly, and would quite understand if you felt you could never forgive me.’
Listen, listen, listen.
‘I’m not like you, straightforward, uncomplicated and scrupulously honest. It’s one of the many reasons I admire you so much, and was proud to think I was your friend.’
Don’t fall for the flattery, William had warned. Listen, listen, listen.
‘I became used to a way of life that didn’t always make that possible, but my farce of a marriage has finally made me come to my senses, whatever the consequences.’
Try to remember that she doesn’t even know when she’s lying, William had told her. Next, she’ll try to appeal to your better nature.
‘However, during the past few weeks, I’ve come to realize just how much I value your friendship, and hope it might still be possible for you to forgive me, although there’s no reason you should.’
Listen, listen, listen.
‘If I could tell you where Miles was, I would, but he’s made no attempt to contact me since the day of the wedding, other than through his mouthpiece, the loathsome Booth Watson, who simply tells me to keep my mouth shut if I want to continue receiving my monthly payment. He ordered me to come and see you today and try to find out if William knows where Miles is.’ Christina looked up at Beth for the first time.
Listen, listen, listen.
‘For the first time in my life, I’ve decided to do what William would call the decent thing.’
If she bursts into tears, William had added, don’t fall for it.
She burst into tears.
Beth thawed. ‘The gallery will never forget the invaluable role you played in securing the Rembrandt, a Rubens and a Vermeer, for which we will be forever in your debt.’
‘You will never be in my debt,’ said Christina. ‘But I must warn you that if Miles is ever arrested and sent back to jail, Booth Watson has been instructed to claim the Vermeer back, and there’d be nothing I could do about it.’