“Louisa, I think you should let me take you to thehospital.”
“No. My mum got in enough fights with her boyfriends for me to know what warrants a hospital trip and what doesn’t. I know how to deal with a cracked rib and a split lip.” My response comes out sharper than I intend, but Bryce doesn’t try to insist. He simply nods and makes thetea.
“Where is your mum, Louisa?” he asks gently, pulling up a seat next to me and placing a cup of tea on thetable.
It takes me a while to answer, and when I do I’m not surprised by the hollow sound of my voice. “She’s dead.” I can’t look at him. If I do, I know I will dissolve into tears, and I can’t. I must bestrong.
“I’m so sorry,” Bryce says, placing his hand over mine. I close my eyes against thetears.
“Is that why youleft?”
I nod my head. “I got a phone call from Richard the night we returned from Petite Cabane. I was in a state. I just wanted to get home. I’m so sorry I left the way I did. It waswrong.”
“It makes sense now. None of us could understand what we did wrong…” His voice catches, and my head snaps up. For a moment, he looks like a lost boy and I realise the extent of the damage my leaving has caused him. If I’m honest, I am taken aback by it. I knew it was wrong to leave without saying goodbye, but when I had allowed myself the time to consider what I’d done, I truly didn’t think they would care. It was a holiday fling to them, nothing more. I’d almost convinced myself of that. Untilnow.
“I’m sorry. I didn’tthink…”
“You didn’t think we cared about you? You didn’t think we would worry about you? You didn’t think we would feel rejected, cast aside? Louisa, it wasn’t a fantasy. Not forus.”
It hadn’t been for me either, not at all, but I don’t feel able to say that right now. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think men like you would ever really care about someone like me…” I drop my head, feeling a thousand times worse now I truly understood how I’d hurt them and how I’d hurt myself in the process. Low self-worth does that to aperson.
Bryce lifts my chin. “Why? You’re perfect,” he says, his gaze unflinching. “I’ve missed you. Weallhave. That’s why I’m here. Why I came to findyou.”
I shift in my seat. My back is beginning to throbnow.
“Did you hear what I said? I’ve missedyou…”
Looking at Bryce, I raise my hand to his face, feeling the now shorter beard. “You trimmed your beard and cut your hair,” I say, avoiding answering him. I can’t say how I feel right now, because I feel all over theplace.
“You don’t likeit?”
My fingertips graze over his cheeks. He leans into my touch a little. “I love it,” I say. My hand falls away and the action causes me to wince, a sharp pain stabbing me in theback.
“You need painkillers. Do you have any?” Bryce asks, jumpingup.
“There’s some Tramadol in the cupboard up there,” I say, pointing to the cupboard above the sink. “It’s an old prescription of my mum’s. I’ll take one for thepain.”
“It’s not your prescription,though.”
“It’s fine. Please, Bryce, a paracetamol won’t cutit.”
“Okay, look. I’ll get it for you, but tomorrow you’re getting checked out by a doctor, so you can get your ownprescription.”
“Fine,” I agree reluctantly. He grabs the medicine and passes me the packet. I pop one out and swallow it with a mouthful oftea.
“So, this man who hurt you? Who ishe?”
“I’ve not met him before today. He came here looking for my mum. Turns out she owed him a lot of money, five thousand pounds to be precise. Apparently, her debt has passed to me as her next ofkin.”
“That’s bullshit,” Brycesays.
“That’s what I said. He wasn’t too pleased about my response,” I say, smiling half-heartedly.
“Well, whoever this prick is, he can’t enforce itlegally.”
I scoff. “Legally? This guy’s a criminal, Bryce. He won’t doanythinglegally. If I don’t pay up then this,” I say, indicating my injuries, “will be nothing in comparison to what he’ll do to me. It’s a mess.” My shoulders slump with the weight of myworries.
“He won’t get the chance,” Bryce says, squeezing my hand tightly. “There is no way that animal is going to touch you again. I won’t let him nearyou.”