Free Dark Nights by Kitti Bernetti Page B

head spinning. Her mother’s exhortations to always be independent, her father’s ability to pursue his own ends whilst recklessly ignoring his family dogged her. But how long should she hang on to her mother’s experience and make it hers? Her history was her own to mould. When she got back, she needed to think. A jog around Crystal Palace Park always made her see more clearly. She’d go the long way today. Her body, moreover her soul needed the solace of a good long run.
    She pounded the streets, then the paths and finally the grass breathing in the cleansing air as if it were wine. She’d got herself into such a mess. Being a thief, for that’s what she was, had been a move of desperation, then it had been too easy to carry on. And look where it had got her? Enthralled to a man who would squash her like an insect once he had done with her. Any thoughts that he might have any emotional attachment to her was surely an illusion. Her steps slowed as she approached home. But as she did, she saw Summer and her mother standing at the window looking for her. Something had happened, she was always on edge, had always taken care of them. She bounded up the steps. But when she got in they were beaming.
    ‘You’ve just missed him.’ Her mother had a cooling pot of coffee on the table, cups were arranged around it. Expensive chocolate biscuits which they only brought out on special occasions lay half eaten on a plate.
    ‘Missed who?’ Breeze’s hackles were raised.
    Summer tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. ‘Sebastian Dark himself. He’s so much better looking than his photographs in the papers. And that car.’ Summer almost swooned. ‘You must have done something pretty major to be that much in the boss’s good books that he’d go to the trouble of coming here.’
    ‘I showed him around,’ Breeze’s mother said proudly, clearing away the cups. ‘He has hidden depths that man. He’s interested in Victorian and Edwardian architecture, was very knowledgeable, in fact. He was most impressed with your grandfather’s designing of the house. And he loved how you’d restored the old conservatory. He was very admiring of Summer’s orchids, said he’d seen some like them when working in the far east. He congratulated us on such a beautiful house. No, “home”, that was the word he used. “You have a beautiful home, Mrs Monaghan, I envy you that. No amount of money can make that happen.” I told him it was all down to you, that we would have lost your grandfather’s house years ago without your hard work.’
    ‘What on earth was he doing here?’ Her mother was such a sensible woman. Breeze had never seen her looking like that, sort of besotted. Seb must have turned the charm full on.
    ‘He said you must have lost this in the office,’ said Summer dropping the gold heart with the little diamond into her hand. ‘He was passing by so he dropped it in. He noticed you always wear it and might be worried about losing it. That’s so thoughtful for a busy man. I thought you said he was mean and selfish. Just goes to show you never can tell. Oh, and he also left this padded envelope. Something boring to do with work he said.’ Summer breathed in the air, ‘I can still smell his aftershave, just like pine forests.’ The two women were still singing his praises as her mother and Summer, invigorated by their visitor and glowing in his praise went off to water the orchids. Breeze collapsed onto a dining room chair, trailed the little heart and chain in her fingers then opened the envelope. Inside was a long box and inside that laying on a blue velvet bed, the prettiest necklace she had ever seen. A string of sublime fire opals, glowing and changing in the sunshine. She had never seen opals like that before, their lights danced on the skin of her hand. She read the card inside. She was intrigued at the large, swirly, extravagant handwriting. Surely, Seb’s father had been wrong when he said his son wasn’t