Free Always in My Heart by Ellie Dean Page B

by little she’d rewarded his perseverance byspending her few precious free hours with him. Their flirting had become a game which they both enjoyed, and although Rosie was a good deal younger than him, it seemed she didn’t mind being courted by a rather scruffy old Irishman. And then one summer night he’d taken her to a charity ball at the Grand Hotel on the seafront, and after he’d walked her home, she’d kissed him and told him she loved him.
    Ron dug his hands into his deep pockets, his heart warmed by the memory of how sweetly soft her lips were, and how perfectly she’d fitted into his embrace. But then she’d confessed she had a husband and that, because he was locked away in a mental hospital, divorce was out of the question. His love and admiration had grown as she’d opened her heart to him that night, and although he’d longed to take her to bed and kiss away her cares, he’d respected her wish not to betray her sick husband further with such intimacy.
    In the months that followed, Rosie had told him snippets of her life story, but when she’d revealed that shifty, two-faced Tommy Findlay was her brother, he’d been undeniably shocked. However, he had to accept there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Tommy had never done anything to him personally, but Ron knew he was light-fingered and sly. He detested the man for his smarmy ways and underhand dealings with the women who fell for his dubious charms, and wouldn’t have trusted him to tell him which way the wind was blowing. But as Rosie happened to shareRon’s opinion of her brother, he’d decided that as long as Tommy stayed out of Cliffehaven and away from Rosie and the Anchor, they could just forget about him.
    As summer had slowly waned into autumn and then winter their friendship had deepened to something very precious and Ron had thought Rosie felt the same way. But four weeks ago there had been a subtle change in her – so subtle he’d hardly noticed at first. Then he began to realise that she didn’t seem to want to talk to him as much as he sat at the bar during opening hours, and would cut short their afternoon teas in her rooms above the pub with some excuse about washing her hair or doing shopping. Yet the real eye-opener was when she’d asked one of the other men to help with the barrels and crates, and he’d known for certain that something was very wrong between them.
    He’d watched her more closely after that and detected a brittleness in her laughter, a darkening in her eyes as she studiously avoided his gaze, and a certain impatience that manifested itself in a shrug or a tut. It was as if she was trying to distance herself from him and, with each small rejection, his heart ached just that bit more.
    He’d tried asking her what the matter was, but she’d merely shrugged away his concern and told him not to fuss – in fact, she’d made him feel as if he was being a nuisance, and that had really hurt. So he’d stayed away for a while in the hope that his absence might bring her round. But there had been no telephone call, no little note through the letter box at Beach View, and asthe days had turned into weeks, he’d begun to wonder what he’d done to make her behave in such a way. It was simply so out of character.
    Now Ron was a plain-speaking man who didn’t like being kept in the dark, and he’d had enough of pussyfooting about. He loved the bones of her, and if something was troubling her then it was his duty to sort it out – regardless of the pain it might cause him.
    ‘It’s the Anchor for me tonight, Harvey,’ he said purposefully as they plodded homeward. ‘Ye’ll have to be content with sitting by the fire with the women. Me and Rosie have things to discuss and ye’ll only be in the way.’
    Harvey grinned back up at him, his ears flapping in the wind as he trotted alongside him.
    ‘Ach,’ said Ron. ‘You don’t care, do you? They say ’tis a dog’s life, but if all I had to worry about