Rebecca Winters - Cherish Collection January 2014 (Books 1-12)

‘You should be ashamed of what you did,’ Jackson snapped. ‘And you damned well know it. Running off like that just before the wedding.’

‘Don’t heap all the blame on me,’ came Dan’s voice. ‘You were the one who made it happen.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘Yes, it is. You said it would be better to dump her then rather than later and I took your advice.’

For a moment Freya froze, then she flung open the door.

Jackson was sitting at his computer, confronting Dan, who glared back at him from the screen via a video link. Dan’s face had a self-satisfied expression that she realised she had seen many times before. But it faded as he saw her come to stand behind Jackson. Just for a moment he was taken aback.

‘Surprised to see me, Dan?’ she asked coolly. ‘After all the times you’ve avoided me it must come as a nasty shock.’

Jackson had also received a shock, going by his face as he looked up at her.

‘Freya,’ he said, almost stammering in his dismay, ‘it’s best if we talk later.’

‘I’ll talk to you later. I’ll talk to him now.’

‘There’s not much to talk about,’ Dan said.

‘What did you mean about taking Jackson’s advice?’

‘I told him I wasn’t keen on our marriage and he said I should dump you right away. I thought he knew best, so I did. I’ve got to go now, Freya. Goodbye.’

There was a click and Dan vanished from the screen.

Freya clutched her forehead.

‘He’s lying, isn’t he?’ she choked. ‘Tell me he’s lying. You never said anything like that.’

‘He’s twisted my words,’ Jackson said desperately. ‘He said he hadn’t ever wanted to get married. He proposed because Amos tried to scare him off, not because of love. I was appalled that he’d deceived you and let it get so far. I said he should have been honest with you from the start, that he would hurt you more if he married you without love and let you down later.’

‘So you did say it?’ she demanded, aghast.

‘Not the way he made it sound. I meant that he should never have planned a wedding in the first place, not that he should back off at the last minute. But he seized on it as a way out. Don’t you see? It gave him an excuse to shift the blame. All right, I was clumsy and stupid, but not malicious. Please, Freya, try to understand. I never intended it to happen the way it did.’

‘What do you mean about him proposing because of Amos?’

‘Oh, heavens!’ He groaned. ‘Amos tried to make him back off, threatened him. Dan lost his temper and—’

‘And that’s why he proposed to me?’ she whispered. ‘That’s all it was?’

‘Yes.’

‘He never loved me at all?’

‘I’m afraid not.’

‘And you’ve known this all the time?’

‘I only found out on the way to the church. If I’d known earlier I’d have warned you, but it was too late.’

‘Too late to warn me, but not too late to make him run for it.’

‘I told you I never meant that to happen. I spoke clumsily.’

‘You’ve deceived me—’

‘No!’

‘I begged you to tell me why he ran, but you never told me the truth—’

‘I was as honest as I could be, but I couldn’t repeat all the things he said. Have you forgotten the terrible state you were in that day? There was no way I could tell you everything. It would have finished you off, Freya. Please be fair.’

But she was too distraught to be fair.

‘I trusted you,’ she choked. ‘Talked to you, told you things I’d never have told anyone else. And all the time you were laughing up your sleeve at me.’

‘That isn’t true. I was trying to do my best for you. I’m sorry if I got it wrong, but I meant well. Call me an idiot, if you like, but don’t call me a deceiver.’

‘I believed you,’ she whispered. ‘Relied on you. I thought you were being so kind to me.’

‘I felt terrible about what happened—how I helped to bring it about. I’d have done anything to make it up to you.’

‘Anything except tell me the truth. Be honest, Jackson, if you know how. You’ve been enjoying watching me be an idiot, haven’t you?’

‘No, I swear it. Freya. you’ve got to believe me.’

‘How can I? When I think of some of the things I said—how I trusted and confided in you. What a fool I must have sounded!’

‘No, I was the fool for damaging you so idiotically. But I did my best to help you survive it—all right, it was a poor best, but I tried. Why don’t we talk later, when you’ve had a chance to calm down?’

She had a feeling that a chilly bleakness had settled over the world.

‘You think I’ll see sense, don’t you?’ she said bitterly. ‘You’re wrong. Nothing will change. You won’t ever look different to me from the way you do now. Mean, spiteful, contemptible.’

‘Freya—’ He reached out for her hand but she snatched it away.

‘No, don’t touch me. I can’t bear the sight of you.’

‘Please don’t let this spoil our friendship.’

‘There never was a friendship,’ she whispered. ‘There never could be.’

‘Freya—’

He reached out for her again but she darted away. After a moment he heard her bedroom door shut and the key turn in the lock.

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