“She doesn’t usually work at the tea shop does she?”
She shook her head. “S
he used to, but then began to fight a lot with Charles. It put the customers off their tea, so she decided to remain at home instead. I don’t know what she does here all day but now, given what we know, I don’t think she is at home much. She is certainly not close to Uncle Charles any more. They hardly spend any time together and don’t even share the same bedroom.” She knew that she had already told him far too many family secrets, but if there was anyone she knew she could rely on to be honest with her in Tipton Hollow, it was Mark.
“If the relationship doesn’t warrant them even sleeping in the same room at night, there is a fundamental problem in their relationship that they need to work out as a couple. This is their relationship though, and down to them to sort it out. All you can do is advise her.”
“I am sorry you got dragged into this.”
Mark smiled. “With everything else that is going on right now, Babette is the least of the problems, don’t you think?”
“Where will it all end?” Harriett whispered and rested her head on his broad shoulder for a moment. His palm cupped the back of her head and he pulled her tightly against him.
She was so content that she could quite easily have stayed there for the rest of her life.
“Out of every darkness there comes light. You just have to be patient and allow certain matters to unfold for you. You can’t fight everything all of the time. In this, I am going to deal with Hepplethwaite, Humphries and Miss Smethwick in the morning.” He tipped her chin up and nudged her off his shoulder. “All you have to do is keep yourself out of harm’s way.”
He didn’t give her the chance to say anything more and captured her lips in a kiss that swept them both away on a tide of sensation that left them gasping and wanting more. Harriett trembled with the force of the desire. A need to draw him closer than ever before had her clawing at his jacket as he nibbled and nipped his way down her neck. The warmth of his breath in the hollow there made her shiver with desire and her head fell back to allow him greater access. She was stunned that someone like Mark would want her: Harriet, but she couldn’t question it. A small part of her wondered if these were the feelings Babette had for her solicitor friend. If it was, then she could only feel compassion and commiseration for Babette’s situation.
“Harriett, we have to stop,” Mark murmured gently. Every fibre of his being screamed at him to carry on: to ease the ache in his body and claim her as his, but the reality of their situation added an edge of caution to the passion that he couldn’t ignore. Even if he discounted the fact that they were in Harriett’s sitting room, they were in the middle of a murder investigation in which Harriett was one of the witnesses, and a potential victim. There were boundaries that even he couldn’t cross.
Harriett heard his words and felt a wave of shame for her rash behaviour sweep over her. Colour flooded her face and she tried to ease away from him only to find that he wouldn’t allow her any distance.
“Please believe me when I say that I want nothing more than to be able to allow things to continue between us. You and I are both adults, and we know where this is going to lead us. I want that more than anything.” Mark knew that if he had any chance of keeping her with him after the investigation, he had to approach the subject now; police investigation or not. “I want to be able to continue to see you after this investigation is concluded, and the mysteries that surround us are unravelled. I hope that you will seriously consider a brief courtship before we marry. Right now, it is chucking out time at the pub in a few minutes and Charles, if not Babette, will soon be home but, at some point in the not too distant future, you and I are going to discuss our relationship, Harriett.”
In a desperate attempt to snatch whatever time he had left alone with her, Mark dipped his head and gave her a kiss that was so fierce, so possessive, that by the time he drew his arms away and put some distance between them, they were both shaken.
He had kissed a few women but none had ever had the ability to turn him inside out like Harriett. The last few hours had allayed all of his doubts about the speed in which he seemed to have grown so attached to her. There was a lot they had yet to learn about each other but, given the passion that had raged between them with so very little provocation, he had no doubt at all that she would be his.
Harriett leaned against the dresser and had barely a moment to compose herself before Babette appeared in the doorway. Her head whirled at his declaration and she was as thrilled as she was stunned by that, and the kiss that had followed.
“Mark, you are here. I was worried about Harriett being all alone, so hurried back early,” Babette gasped.
“It’s alright. I just stayed to keep Harriett company for a while,” Mark sighed. He studied Harriett carefully and was a little concerned with just how quiet she had grown. Was she worried about her conversation with Babette, or shaken by what had just happened; about what he had just said?
“I will leave you two to chat.” Regardless of Babette’s presence in the room, Mark skirted around the table to face Harriett.
She glanced up at him and felt her stomach flip at the tenderness on his face. “I will be by first thing in the morning to take you to work again. Don’t leave home without me.” His soft words were accompanied by a tender smile.
“Goodnight, Mark,” Babette called as Mark left the room.
“You don’t have to look so scared. Everyone in the village knows that he is protecting you because of the threats against you. Nobody is going to think twice about him calling around here so often,” Babette assured her with a wry smile when Harriett returned to the sitting room once Mark had gone.
“We both know what the gossips would do if they got wind of clandestine assignations,” Harriett replied quietly. “Although it would outwardly appear innocent, they wouldn’t be able to resist discussing it. It would bring shame upon the entire family, and could damage business at the tea shop.” Her eyes met and held Babette’s with such directness that the older woman paused in the doorway to the kitchen.
Babette looked frightened for a moment. Her eyes locked with Harriett’s. Harriett knew that it was now or never.
“I am not judging you.” Mark’s words echoed in her ears and she now knew what he had meant. Given what she had just shared with Mark, and the emotions he so easily stirred in her, she could understand Babette’s decision to seek solace in the arms of a man who did care. “I just think that you need to consider that there are other people involved in what you are doing.”
“What do you think I am doing, Harriett?” Babette dropped into a seat at the table wearily, as though having to maintain the subterfuge had sapped her strength.
“Well, as far as I can see, there aren’t many solicitors who wish to meet their clients at two o’clock in the morning or after eight o’clock in the evening, especially single, eminently eligible bachelor solicitors.” She watched Babette’s shoulders slump moments before she began to weep. Harriett felt like an eel for having raised the matter, but had to get Babette to at least acknowledge the risks involved in what she was doing.
“I am sorry, I truly am,” Babette sobbed. “I don’t know how it started. I went to see him to discuss divorcing Charles. I hate it here, Babette. Charles is so fixated on work and the pub that there is nothing between us anymore. There hasn’t been for several years but, of late, we are veritable strangers in our own home. When your parents died, we kept things going for the sake of raising you. It has suited us fine, until about five years ago when I started arguing so much with Charles that life became unbearable. He is never here and, when he is, hardly speaks to us. At work, he always has his friends dropping by for a chat and seems a different person entirely. I don’t know why we are together. I went to see Andrew about a divorce and he asked me what had gone wrong. You know, if there was any chance of reconciliation, because a divorce would bring scandal, especially in a small village like Tipton Hollow. I came home to think about it but continued to argue with Charles.” Now that the subject had been raised, Babette’s words came out in a constant flow as she tried to explain herself. Harriett could do little else but listen while she ineffectually patted her aunt’s hand. “At first, the meetings were in his office. We went through everything; the house, the business, you, the lot. The business is mine, as you know. It was handed down to me, but Charles has taken over practically everything to the point that I have been squeezed out of my own inheritance. Andrew started to look into the finer details of a separation and asked me a few questions. We met several times, and I popped information around to his house because it was quicker than having to travel to Great Tipton. We got talking and, well, things just progressed from there.” She lifted water-filled eyes to Harriett’s. “I love him, Harriett. If it wasn’t for Charles, I would be with Andrew.” She hiccupped and began to weep quietly into her handkerchief. “I have never felt like this before, not even with Charles. I know it is foolish, but I love Andrew. He has urged me to divorce Charles so that we can marry.”
“I understand, Babette, truly I do,” Harriett whispered. Her heart ached for her aunt’s predicament. To be able to be with the man she really cared about, Babette would have to face public censure and gossip the likes of which could pose a significant problem for the good name of the business the three of them had spent many years building up. However, to ignore her feelings and remain with her loveless marriage would mean personal misery, and being separated from the man she truly loved.
“I have to break it off, don’t I? With so many police around day and night, it is impossible to go anywhere without being seen. It is only a matter of time, as you say, before I bring the entire family name into disrepute.” She heaved a sigh and blinked tearfully at Harriett. “I knew that one day I would have to say goodbye to Andrew, I just didn’t think it was going to be yet.”