‘Oh my dear,’ said the doctor. ‘Whatever is the matter?’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Diana, taking a tissue from her. ‘It’s just as you said – it’s bittersweet, that’s all.’
But Diana felt as if she had been plunged into a living nightmare.
53
Rachel stared listlessly at her computer screen. In theory, she was trawling through the hours of security footage from the Notting Hill house. But in reality, all she could think about was Liam. It had all ended so badly. That moment outside the barn on Saturday should have been exactly that. A moment. Liam had been racing around London trying to raise the money for her hotel venture, and that had to count for something. She should have thanked him, kissed him, told him how she really felt, given it one last shot to find out once and for all what they meant to each other. Instead she had insulted him, abused him. Told him to go back to Ko Tao where girls in bikinis were snaking round the block for him.
A sharp tap at the door jolted her out of her thoughts. She turned to see Adam Denver grinning through the glass, and suddenly she felt a little better.
‘Adam! What the hell are you doing here?’ she said, opening the door of the Lake House and welcoming him in.
‘Sorry, did I startle you?’ he said, clearly amused at her reaction. ‘I didn’t realise you’d be deep in thought.’
‘I was just doing some work,’ she said, snapping her computer shut.
‘Yeah, yeah,’ laughed Adam. ‘Work that involves looking at expensive shoes, I’ll bet.’
‘So are you here to see Diana?’
‘No, not today. I was in the area, thought I’d check you were all right out here in the woods now that you’re all on your own again.’
Rachel glanced around the little room. Actually, the Lake House did feel lonely without Liam. She hadn’t realised how much she had enjoyed having him in the next room, or humming to himself as he shaved, or leaving his dirty running shoes next to the door for her to trip over. Not that she was about to tell Adam that.
‘I’m managing,’ she said. ‘Some of us independent young women don’t actually need a man all the time, you know. We can choose the TV channel on our own.’
‘Believe it or not, I always had you down as a very capable woman. This place is great, isn’t it?’ he said, walking to the window and staring out over the lake.
‘Have you never been here before?’
‘Julian got very excited about building these things and then grew bored of them pretty quickly . . . Do these windows open?’
‘Sure, give it a tug.’
‘Wow, you can dive straight into the water from here.’
‘Tempting, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, I remember Jules saying that when he showed me the plans. I don’t think he ever did it.’
‘No. Funny, it was the first thing I thought when I saw it, but I have never got round to
it either.’
‘Better late than never,’ he said, drawing the window right back so that a soft early evening breeze floated into the room.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Go on. If anyone should do the inaugural dive from the living room into the lake, it should be you.’
‘Stop it, it’s late,’ she chuckled.
‘It’s not even seven o’clock, and it’s still twenty-five degrees out there,’ he said, leaning out and peering down into the green water. ‘How deep is it?’
‘Don’t know exactly. At least ten feet. Maybe more.’
‘You’ve checked?’