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CHAPTER 27
James called three times before he left the States the following Wednesday and, true to her word, Audrey didn’t pick up her phone to answer. By the third call, his voice had been flat and cool. It didn’t scare her as it would have done just days earlier.
“So, you’ve finally realized I’m not as stupid as I look,” Audrey said grimly to the phone when she had listened to his message. “Good! Because if you expect me to fall at your feet and beg you to make a go of things, you picked the wrong girl, Mr. Mayer.”
Then she closed her eyes and leaned back on the sofa. Her body was so tense it hurt. She had gone through every emotion known to man in the last few days but one thing remained constant. She was hopelessly in love with him. So foolish on her part…
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“This is a huge step for you to take and I don’t want you to feel trapped after...” “A few months ago, if anyone told me I would be thinking of settling in England, I would have told them they were crazy,” James admitted softly. “Now it’s different. I’m in love with the woman of my dreams. I’d like to buy a beach house in California, though. I’ve got plenty of friends there and it would be a base when we visit my relatives. You’d like it, I promise. There are even those who say the Pacific rivals the Cornish Sea,” James teased. “Oh… Not you, I hope.” “Never me, my love.” James drew her into him, kissing her until she was breathless. “Would you like our children to grow up at Seymour House?” he murmured against her mouth. “You know I would, sweetheart.” “Then that’s settled, Addie.” He kissed her again. “
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‘Just a few more hours and then everyone would leave. I can do it… I have no other choice,’ Audrey thought looking outside from her bedroom’s window. It was what her parents would have expected of her. She could almost hear her mother’s warm, faintly admonishing voice whispering in her ear. “Come on, Addie… Keep your eyes on the prize, sweet girl. And remember, this too shall pass.” It had been one of her mother’s favorite sayings when as a small child, she had tried to duck out of anything unpleasant. Audrey Seymour drew in a deep breath and straightened her drooping shoulders. Checking her reflection in the bedroom mirror, she satisfied herself that the recent flood of tears didn’t show and then left the room.&n
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While making her way around the room, talking to one group of folk and then others, Audrey was uncomfortably aware of a pair of blue eyes watching her every move. Most people had plates of Amy’s delicious buffet in their hands by now but, although Anthony had wandered off into the dining room, she knew James Mayer had not budged from his stance by the door.“Who is Maxim de Winter type Dad’s been talking to?” As Audrey joined the group consisting of Anthony’s children and their partners and his wife, it was Clarice, Anthony and Gillian’s youngest daughter, and the only child still unattached, who spoke.“He’s new around here, isn’t he?”“Oh, Clarice.” Her mother shushed her, but Clarice continued.“Wha
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Only it wasn’t going to be so simple. An hour later, sitting across the coffee table in the living room from Anthony, Audrey and Amy stared in horror at the lawyer.“I thought you knew…” Anthony had said this twice in the last ten minutes since he had dropped his bombshell and his voice was wretched. “I didn’t imagine… I mean…” He stopped abruptly.“Your father said he was going to tell you, Addie.”“I… Um… I suppose he was going to,” she replied numbly. “He’d asked me to come down to Seymour House the weekend before the crash but I’d got something on. I was coming down the next…” Her voice trailed away.“How, Uncle Tony? How could he lose e
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Over the next couple of days, Audrey and Amy followed one unproductive idea after another, but by the end of that time, Audrey was forced to acknowledge the fact that the situation looked absolutely hopeless. If either of them had shedloads of cash they could afford to pour into the old house it might be different, but if they had then they wouldn’t be in the position they were anyway. Her father had gambled on the business reviving and he had lost. End of story, end of Seymour House. The debt was huge, colossal. Audrey called Anthony Blackburn on the third morning after the funeral. She and Amy were sitting close together on one of the couches in the living room, so they could both hear the conversation, their faces tight and strained.&
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He stared at her. It took all of her strength not to let her eyes fall away but Audrey was determined not to be the one to look away first. Antony began to say something into the taut silence which had fallen but in the next instant, James was on his feet, glancing at the other two.“I think Miss Seymour and I need to talk privately for a few minutes. If you’ll excuse us? We won’t be long.”“Addie?” Anthony glanced at her, his face concerned.“It’s perfectly alright, Uncle Tony.” Audrey had risen to her feet and now she smiled at the lawyer and Amy.“Order for us if the waitress returns, would you? You already know what I usually order here.” She didn’t think she’d be able to eat a thing but it would be
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Audrey was trying to maintain her calm, but the man in front of her and his awful accusations was rubbing her the wrong way. So being cool, calm, and collected went all down the drain.“If you must know, Mr. Mayer, my mother was a wonderful woman, the best, if I may say so. And never, in a million years, would she have married my father simply because he was going to inherit a business and a big house. She wasn’t like that.” Her fury strangely seemed to calm James. His voice was now lower than it had been a moment ago and without the growl to it.“Calm yourself, woman,” he said but without using a mocking tone. “You’re overreacting right now.” She didn’t think about what she did next… It was pure instinct. The sound of the slap echoe
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