Save Her by Abigail Osborne (novel books to read .txt) 📗

awful if I didn’t like it. Could you imagine.’ She chuckled but there was no laughter in her eyes.

Flora’s face heated up. How foolish of her to not realise that this was exactly how Cecelia would react. It would take more than this to gain Cecelia’s respect. She needed to stop seeking it. Flora looked down at the floor, not wanting to give Cecelia the satisfaction of seeing tears pricking her eyes. She rebuked herself: many people would have the same reaction and she would have to stop taking it personally. Not everyone was a published author. Plus, no one cared that she had poured her heart and soul into that book. No one knew that she had struggled with literacy her whole life and the thought of publishing a book was so ludicrous she would have laughed if someone had suggested it. Still, she couldn’t help it, to see Cecelia completely dismiss it like it was nothing at all was painful, no matter how much she tried to remind herself that Cecelia was just being her usual mean-spirited self.

Flora sneaked a look at Sam, waiting to see what he would say.

‘It’s really good, Mother. I’ve read it and thought it was brilliant.’

Cecelia changed the subject to her new favourite topic: houses they have seen for sale that Sam might want to buy. Flora tuned her out. There was no way she was buying another property and she knew that Sam felt the same. It was getting boring now.

Sophie caught her eye. ‘Waste of a book, really. You should have given it to someone else. You should have bought her a book on dragons instead. Much more relevant.’

Flora choked down her laugh, glancing at Cecelia to check she hadn’t heard.

‘How are you?’ asked Sophie. ‘Really.’

It took a while for Flora to answer. The truth was she didn’t know. She was convinced that someone was trying to scare her. Just this evening, she had arrived at the car park after leaving the centre and could not find her car anywhere. She finally found it on the top floor of the multi-storey she had parked in. There was no way she had parked it there because she didn’t like the tight turns coming down the car park so she always parked on the lowest floor she could find when using the multi-storey. She cringed at an echo of the panic she had felt running around the car park like a crazed person, convinced her car had been stolen. She almost wished it had. It would make much more sense to other people that way. She hadn’t told Sam. There was no point: there was no way he would believe someone had moved her car. He would just think what everyone else thought: that she had forgotten where she parked it. Just another stupid, ditzy woman.

She wondered whether to tell Sophie. But Flora still hadn’t talked to Sophie about Greg’s behaviour at dinner the other night. It was obvious Sophie was not confiding in her because she didn’t want to burden her when she was so wound up. Telling her this was only going to make Sophie even more reluctant to share anything that was worrying her. So she swallowed it away. It was her secret. Plus, telling someone would trigger that fear all over again and she was not going to let whoever was doing this get away with it. So what, they moved her car. They were obviously just trying to mess with her mind. She would rise above it. Flora also tried to ignore the small voice in the back of her mind that reminded her that no one but Sam had a key to her car.

Flora jumped as a hand touched her arm. It was Sophie.

‘Hey, where did you go?’ Sophie laughed. ‘Away with the fairies?’

‘Sorry. I’m just going to nip to the loo.’ Flora needed to compose herself, eradicate all thoughts of today and convince Sophie and more importantly herself, that she was fine. She had just left the room when Cecelia’s shrill voice pulled her towards the kitchen.

Her anger was palpable. ‘She will not get away with this! Taking my son away from me. My son.’

Unable to stop herself, Flora peered around the kitchen door, just in time to see Cecelia throw her book into the kitchen bin. Not satisfied, Cecelia turned and grabbed a saucepan off the stove and poured its contents into the bin, covering the hardcover book in thick brown syrup.

Flora could see Cecelia’s side-profile and could just make out a malevolent smile. She was breathing heavily.

Reginald stood to attention next to her. ‘But what can we do, madam? Master Cavendish loves her.’ Reginald sounded devastated.

‘You’ll find, Reginald, that there is nothing that money cannot solve. That includes love. We will just have to work harder to get rid of her. If I have to, I’ll ensure that little orphan Flora goes exactly the same way as her parents.’

24

‘You’rre so pretty,’ slurred a drunken Flora.

Sophie smiled affectionately. ‘Someone is feeling better,’ she replied.

Drunk Flora was hilarious. She’d been known to steal traffic cones and people’s hats. Sophie did not drink; she did not like anything that took away her control. She had also seen first-hand what it did to her mother. But she was happy to be the sensible one looking out for Flora, fending off the wandering hands of drunk men who seemed to think it was their right to touch whatever came in their vicinity. A swift jab to the nether region always put them in their place.

Flora was only tipsy tonight, so she didn’t need much looking after. For the first time in months, Sophie was enjoying herself. It was like the old days before they had got married. Flora was letting her hair down, drowning her fears with alcohol. Sophie couldn’t believe the nerve of Cecelia. The things that she had said about Flora confirmed what Sophie had known all along. The Cavendish family were dangerous.

Sophie had been so