Aiden, shouting into a mobile phone, came over then. ‘The doctors are on standby.’
‘I’m coming with him.’ Marjory’s affected tearful tones carried across the garden.
‘Sorry, love.’ The paramedic shook his head. ‘He’s really too sick.’
‘I’m coming,’ Marjory said resolutely, her voice void of hysteria now. There was an air of authority and a strange dignity as she knelt beside the stretcher and took Jeremy’s lifeless hand. Turning briefly, she looked the paramedic square in the eye. ‘I won’t get in the way; you have my word. If my husband is about to die I want to be with him.’
‘I’ll look after her.’ Aiden was grey himself, trembling violently, his teeth chattering noisily. ‘She ought to be with him.’#p#分页标题#e#
The whirring chopper blades heralded the arrival of the transfer team. Everyone was moved back as it landed, its whirring blades buffeting the marquee, ladies’ hats and dresses flapping as the noise drowned out any conversation.
As they loaded Jeremy into the back Aiden turned to Tabitha, squeezing her hands tightly. ‘I’ll see you at the hospital.’
But Zavier had other ideas. ‘You’ll do no such thing. I’m taking her back to her house and then I’ll meet you at the hospital.’
‘But she ought to be there,’ Aiden argued.
‘What for?’ he snapped. ‘We both know she’s not the caring daughter-in-law to be. Mum and Dad are the only concern here. Look after them and I’ll meet you there just as soon as I can.’
The paramedics were ready to go now, and there was no time to debate the issue.
‘Keep your chin up, Aiden.’ Tabitha kissed him fondly on his tear-streaked cheek. ‘Everything will work out.’
If only she could believe her own words.
He stood over her as she packed, not saying a word, his dark eyes watching her every move as Tabitha piled her possessions into her suitcase.
‘Could you leave me alone for just five minutes?’
She desperately needed to go to the bathroom, to peel off her dress, undo her hair, to somehow remove every trace of the awful charade she had engineered. Dressed in her best, she seemed to embody the hard-faced bitch Zavier assumed she was, and suddenly it seemed imperative he saw her as she was, not as the sleek, sophisticated woman of earlier.
‘I’m not going anywhere. Just hurry up, will you?’
‘Are you scared that I might run off with a few choice items?’
‘It did enter my head.’
His patience snapped then. It was almost as if he couldn’t bear to watch her a moment longer; couldn’t stand being in the same room any longer than absolutely necessary. Pulling out the top drawer of the dresser, he tipped the contents into her case. She watched with mounting trepidation as he strode over to the wardrobe, grabbing her dresses and piling them into the case without even bothering to take them off their hangers.
Her underwear drawer was the next recipient of his simmering anger. Grabbing handfuls of lingerie, his face livid with unvented rage, he tossed them on top of her dresses before snapping the case firmly closed.
‘Anything that’s been left behind I’ll have sent on to you. Now come on.’
‘Please, Zavier, can I just come to the hospital? Surely your mother will expect me to be there?’
‘My God, you just don’t give up, do you? It’s over, Tabitha. The wedding is off—we don’t have to pretend any more.’
‘I didn’t mean for that. I just want to see how Jeremy is—how you all are…’ The thought of going home without knowing if Jeremy had lived or died was unbearable, but more to the point she wanted to be there for Zavier, to help him through what would undoubtedly be the worst night of his life.
Because that was what lovers did: they were there for each other.
But Zavier had other ideas. ‘Save the crocodile tears; I’m taking you home, Tabitha.’
He didn’t even wait for her to put on her seat belt, accelerating out of the drive as if the devil himself were chasing them. She sat there shivering and stunned, staring out of the side window, watching the dark inky ocean whizzing past as his car hugged the bay road.
The drive to Lorne had taken hours, probably because she had wanted to get there. But now she didn’t want to leave suddenly time seemed to be moving faster, the shimmering night skyline of Melbourne drawing ever nearer. She dreaded arriving. However strained the silence, however huge the loathing emanating from him, any contact, however painful, was better than none. The bleak empty wilderness of her life stretched before her: a life without Zavier.#p#分页标题#e#