An hour. It was a ridiculous amount of time. Too short to take a swim in the health spa or to walk into the city. Too long to sit here twiddling her thumbs. She would normally have phoned Annie but – miracle upon miracle – her sister’s stuck-in-the-mud husband had decided to take her away again on a whim. The second time this century.

Far be it for her to interrupt her sister’s romantic interlude to moan about her own. Besides, what if she was busy chatting on the phone and Jude was trying to get through?

There was nothing for it. She opened the champagne, kicked off her shoes and put her feet up. Surfing through the channels on the television again, she settled on a programme called Animal Park which seemed marginally less dull than Live Snooker.

A rare deer had just got its antlers stuck in the perimeter fence of its compound and Lauren was beginning to feel very anxious about how its keepers would release the poor thing, when her phone beeped again. Her heart leaped at the sound. That surely would be Jude letting her know that he was about to arrive? Lauren switched off the television and laughed to herself. It would be just like him to be standing outside the door.

She threw open the door to the suite. Just in case. But he wasn’t there. Then she saw that the text message read: Can’t make it. Forgive me. J xx

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Lauren drank too much – she knew she did. But it stopped the pain. Well, mostly. She was curled up on the bed, mascara tracks down her face. One bottle of champagne had been drained and she was about to call the butler to ask him to bring her another.

There was no way she could drive home now, she was too far gone. Besides, Jude had paid for this extravagance for the weekend, so why shouldn’t she enjoy it? If only she could stop crying, then she was sure that she would.

His family won all the time. Whenever it was her versus them, they won. She was the one who was always left alone. She was the one who suffered. They didn’t even know that she existed.

Her fingers played over the keys of her phone. She wanted to call him. She wanted to rant and rave and cry and beg for him not to leave her here alone. This should have been their weekend together. This should have been him making up for a thousand small hurts. Where was he? Why did he care so little for her feelings?

She shouldn’t call Jude – she knew she shouldn’t. But it was tempting, so tempting. Instead, she called Annie. She was desperate. Annie would understand. Her dear, dear sister always did. But Annie’s phone went straight to voicemail and, dismayed, Lauren hung up. She cried on her pillow some more.