Truly I do (19 page)

Part way down
the room Russell stopped to look out of one of the windows that
looked over the court yard. "Ah!" he announced, "Here comes
everybody else."

For the first
time Julie-Anne noticed a long table in the middle of the gallery.
It was laid with a white cloth and set for ten diners. Freddy took
her hand and followed her as she walked over to look at the fine
bone china settings. "How are thing between you two?" Freddy
whispered hoarsely. Even when she was whispering her voice was too
loud. "I hear things are a bit strained these days?"

Julie-Anne
flashed her a warning look. "You could say that." she admitted,
unwilling to discuss the matter any further.

Freddy
squeezed her hand. "Poor darling! No wonder you're fading away.
Don't worry, if ever I saw two people who were meant for each other
it was you two - it'll work out, you see!" Satisfied, as if she'd
somehow solved all their problems, Freddy let go of Julie-Anne's
hand and swept away to greet the people who were filing in through
the door.

In the wake of
the other visitors came caterers. They busied themselves putting
out terrines of fresh, hot food. Patti came up too. She was dressed
in a black skirt, white blouse and white apron and she joined in
with two other little waitresses in serving the food when the
visitors had found their places and sat down.

Russell sat in
the carver at the head of the table. Julie-Anne deliberately took a
seat three places away from him, not wanting to look as if she was
laying any claim. Freddy sat dutifully next to her. In a way she
was relieved to have Freddy there, at least good old Freddy could
be relied upon to talk, a lot, and carry the conversation. Russell
frowned briefly at her and then leaned to the woman at his side and
began what looked like an interesting conversation over their soup
dishes.

As dinner
progressed Julie-Anne learned that there was an architect who
specialised in restoring listed buildings, a group of four local
business men who were showing an interest in sponsoring some
showings during the year, the woman next to Russell was from the
local tourist board and farthest away from Julie-Anne sat a local
artist who was keen to develop regular exhibitions of his own.

Throughout the
meal everybody chattered casually about the possibilities that the
West Gallery had to offer.

After dinner
Russell made a formal speech, thanking everybody for coming. "I
believe I may have a partner to help to manage and organise regular
events here." he told them without looking at Julie-Anne. "And,
from what everybody has said today, I think that with the support
of the local tourist board and, of course, our own promotions
through the web site I'm planning to design, we have every
probability of setting up a very successful art gallery."

Everybody
looked very pleased. "Well done darling. Very good!" Freddy
cheered, clapping her hands with glee. "Isn't it exciting, setting
up your own little exhibition space like this!"

Julie-Anne
leaned toward Freddy and tried to be discreet, "Are you and Grace
going to help manage the place?" she asked quietly.

"Good gracious
no!" Freddy almost shouted her answer, laughing. "That's your job
you funny, silly girl!" She clapped her hand on Julie-Anne's
shoulder, almost knocking her over. "You are an odd little thing!"
she declared, kissing Julie-Anne on the cheek. "And aren't you
going to have so much fun!" she carried on, spreading her arms in a
sweeping gesture around the long, spacious gallery. "We'll be able
to phone each other and swap ideas and information - from one end
of the country to the other, eh?"

Julie-Anne
nodded dumbly. She was not sure what her future held but Freddy
seemed so certain.

Russell was by
the door shaking hands and talking to people as they began to
leave. Julie-Anne could see the business men standing in a group
around him, nodding positively and looking pleased. It looked as if
they were certainly going to support the venture. It occurred to
her as she watched them leave, that what ever happened at least
Russell had the finances to back the project. There need never be
an embarrassing time if customers got thin on the ground or
exhibitions failed for nay reason. 'Clever Russell' she thought.
'Your real investment here is strength and protection isn't
it.'

"Penny for
them?" Russell approached rapidly, looking very pleased with
himself.

"I think it's
all quite wonderful." Julie-Anne answered honestly. "I can see that
his space will be ideal for all sorts of exhibitions."

"Well, if
you're interested, I could get my solicitor to draw you up a
contract. You could manage the place for me on a commission basis I
thought." His look was matter of fact, he scanned her face for her
response.

Julie-Anne was
taken aback. She hadn't been expecting this. It was at once
exciting and strangely formal. Surely the relationship between them
should have meant that she didn't need to be engaged on any kind of
contract? On reflection she sadly realised that this was no longer
true, she had no relationship with Russell to speak of. 'Well it's
not a wedding license, but at least it would forge some kind of
ongoing relationship between us.' she decided.

"Okay Russell.
I'll leave it to you. I"m sure your solicitor has some kind of
standard contract for this kind of business, I'll look through the
details when he's drawn it up and we'll come to terms."

This seemed to
satisfy Russell and he turned away to say goodbye to the woman from
the tourist board. She had a broad, friendly face. On her way out
she winked at Julie-Anne, making her stomach flip. 'Good grief!
does everybody know or guess about the relationship between Russell
and me?' Julie-Anne wondered.

After everyone
had gone, including Freddy who insisted that she'd rather drive for
hours to get home to 'civilisation' in London than sleep out here
'in the sticks', Julie-Anne followed Russell back to the main
house.

"Come and have
a coffee in the Library before you go back to your hotel?" he asked
her.

His tone
seemed friendly now and she was in no hurry to get back to the
solitude of her hotel room just yet. "Okay. I'd like to see this
library of yours!" she responded.

Patti, still
dressed in her waitress' outfit, brought them coffee. They settled
in two lovely, leather wing backed chars and Julie-Anne looked
around.

'There must be
several thousand books in here!' she calculated. She knew that
books were Russell's passion and she felt pleased for him that he
had obtained such a beautiful library for himself.

"I'm getting
specialists in to see to t he cleaning and, if necessary,
restoration in here." he was telling her.

She looked at
him as he talked about some of the books he'd come across on the
shelves. He was vibrant and excited about being able to handle and
enjoy these precious tombs - just as she was when she got the
chance to handle fine works of creative art. She longed to reach
out to hi m, to hold him and really share his joy. She wondered if
he was secretly feeling the same way towards her.

"I hope Della
put those tapestries away safely." She said after a while.

"She's a
sensible woman, I"m quite sure she did." he answered.

"Don't you
think they should be installed in the West Gallery?" she asked.

"No
Julie-Anne, I don't."

"Oh?"
something was making her heart flutter, she was finding it
difficult to control her breath.

"No." He
looked directly at her. "I have known about them since I first came
to view the place. When I learned about you I just knew you'd love
them. So I've always planned to hang them in the master bedroom, as
I said. My thought was that you'd see them every morning and start
every day with a big smile on your face! I don't see any reason why
I should change that plan."

She stared at
him. What did he mean? Working hard not to jump to inappropriate
conclusions she said, "Do you want me to look the room over and
make sure it's suitable for them? They are very sensitive to
conditions, they must be hung in an appropriate place." she
offered, whilst thinking 'Stop Julie-Anne - your gabbling!'

"Not today."
he answered without a moment's hesitation. "I've got some phone
calls to make and some paper work to look over this afternoon. I'll
give you a call in a day or two, eh?"

Julie-Anne had
been holding her breath. She breathed out, long and slow. 'Take
this step-by-step. Don't expect him to rush things.' she coached
herself. Smiling sweetly she nodded, "Yes, that sounds like a good
idea. I suppose I must be going now anyway."

She managed to
put her cup and saucer on the tray without trembling too much, and
was glad that Russell let find her own way out to her car. She
didn't think she could say goodbye to him without wanting to fall
into his familiar arms and kiss him.

*

It was a bout
ten o'clock that night, when she'd just snuggled into her bed with
a slushy novel and hoes for sweet dreams of Russell, that the
telephone rang. 'If that's you Dad . . . !' she thought, irritated.
But it was not her father's voice on the other end of the line it
was Della's.

"Julie-Anne!"
Della sounded out of breath and anxious. "I think you'd better come
over to the house - can you get here? Something awful's
happened."

"What's the
matter Della?" she felt sick and dizzy, what could this possibly
be? Then Della said the worst thing Julie-Anne could ever hear,

"There's been
a motor accident - Russell's been hurt!"

Julie-Anne let
out a scream before she could control herself. She began shaking
violently. "No!" she cried, "Not again! Not Russell!"

"Don't drive -
get a taxi, but come . . . please." Della sounded awful and
obviously wanted Julie-Anne with her.

Somehow
Julie-Anne managed to phone for a taxi and get some clothes on
before it arrived. She could feel no emotions and her imagination
refused to forecast what harm might have been done to Russell. The
last time she'd had a phone call like this it was Andrew and he'd
passed away before she even got to the hospital - she couldn't
allow herself to believe that the same was going to happen again
now.

The taxi ride
to the house seemed to take an eternity and Julie-Anne had no
thoughts or memory of the journey at all when she got out of the
car and paid the driver.

Her legs were
quaking so violently she could hardly walk to the front door, but
Della was t here in a pool of electric light, in the doorway. She
threw her arms around Julie-Anne and hugged her tightly. "I'm so
sorry to worry you like this - but I thought you should be here."
Della explained. "They won't tell me anything from the hospital
apart from that he's resting comfortably at the moment. They won't
say what damage has been done or anything. I wasn't sure what to
do, so I thought I'd call you and get you over here. Very early in
the morning we'll go together to the hospital and see what news we
can find out."

The two women
supported each other into the kitchen and sat at the table watching
their coffee go cold. Neither of them could drink anything. They
waited until five o'clock, the night was long and cold without much
to talk about. They held each other's hands from time to time but
mostly the waiting was just empty time and space that seemed to
take for ever to drift past.

At five
o'clock Della said "I think we could go over to the hospital now.
So they got into Della's mini cooper and she drove them. Again
Julie-Anne was too numbed to take any notice of the journey. It was
dark and very cold, the hospital looked like a pool of golden light
when they finally arrived.

*

A sweet little
nurse with blonde hair tucked up under her cap and a crisp white
apron over her pale blue dress, smiled cheekily at Julie-Anne and
Della when they explained why they'd come.

"Actually,"
the little nurse said in a chirrupy voice, "he's in a private room.
I've just come from there and he is awake. It's against all the
rules but you look so worried I don't think it'll hurt to let you
pop in and say a quick good morning."

Julie-Anne
could have hugged the girl. "Thank you so much," she said, "you
don't know how much this means to us."

"It must be
only for a few moments though - then you'll have to go get a coffee
or something until proper visiting time at nine. Okay?"

"Thank you."
Julie-Anne agreed, "I promise we won't get you into trouble."

The nurse
winked at her and led them down the passage to Russell's room.

Cautiously
they cracked the door open and Julie-Anne peered in past the little
nurse. Russell was there, sitting up. His face was badly bruised
around the forehead and he had one black eye. His right arm was
bound up in a sling and his shoulder looked badly bruised too.

He looked at
the nurse and said, "Can I go home yet?"

"No, you
can't!" The little nurse said in a hushed tone. "But I've brought
some visitors to pop in and say 'good morning' to you." She stepped
aside to let Della and Julie-Anne go into the room.

"Hello you
two!" Russell said sheepishly, "This is a bit of a nuisance isn't
it."

"Well - we
could have done without it!" Della agreed, moving to stand by his
side. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, you know,
like I've driven my car into the back end of a truck!" he replied
recognising the irony.

"Is that what
happened?" Julie-Anne gasped, staring at him.

He lifted his
eyes to look at her. With his good hand he beckoned her to come
closer, "Julie-Anne, I'm so sorry. When you heard about this it
must have been devastating for you," he said, sensitively.