She felt sick to her stomach and through the agony of mind he appeared almost a stranger. Not because he had slept with her sister but because of how he was talking now. A growing realization that she didn’t know him the way she thought she did was frightening. He looked like he’d always done, like her Adam, but the person in front of her was not the lad she’d committed her life to. And if she didn’t know Adam, if she’d got that wrong, then she didn’t know anything or anyone. A horrifying panic made her feel as if she was shrinking, becoming smaller and smaller, and it was only when he reached out to her again, taking her arm, that she came back to herself.

The push she gave him took him completely by surprise and sent him sprawling backwards as his feet slipped on the ice and compressed snow. As he struggled up, her voice was like the crack of a whip.

‘Don’t touch me. Here –’ she flung her engagement ring at him, which he caught instinctively – ‘I don’t want this.’

‘Please, Ruby, no. Listen to me—’

‘I don’t want to hear any more, and as for us being together, that’s over. You’ve gone with my sister, my sister. I hate you both and I always will. You disgust me.’ There was a moment’s stark silence. ‘Whatever happens now, however things turn out, I never want to see you again so if you’re going to run away from this and take the easy way out, don’t use me as an excuse. I wouldn’t have anything to do with you if you were the last man on earth, Adam Gilbert. I mean it.’

He could see she meant it. Adam looked into her great chocolate-brown eyes, the ring they’d chosen together pressed into his palm, and knew he’d lost her. It was inconceivable, unthinkable, but those drunken, exhilarating, shameful minutes on New Year’s Eve had cost him his Ruby, his love. Never again would he run his fingers through her silky blonde hair that was such a striking contrast to her dark eyes, or hold her close to him. All the lads had been after Ruby from when he could remember, but he had always known she was his. She’d never played the coquette or flirted. Straight as a die, Ruby was.

Desperately, even while knowing it was hopeless, he whispered, ‘Please, lass, please. I’ll crawl on my knees if that’s what you want. I’ll do anything, anything, Ruby.’

Her face was bleached of colour, as white as the snow. He had expected her to shout and scream at him when he told her because she could be fiery at times, but all she said was, ‘Go home, Adam. It’s finished, we’re finished.’

‘I’ll walk you home.’