He stood up, and without another word, strode out. He didn’t quite slam the door behind him, but it was a close-run thing.

‘Oh dear,’ David sighed.

‘That didn’t go how I hoped it would,’ I swallowed, blinking hard as I stood up and returned the chair to its space under the desk.

‘It’s my fault,’ said David. ‘I should have taken your wishes onboard when you first expressed them.’

‘Yes,’ I nodded, as I gently laid a hand on his shoulder, ‘you should, but I can understand why you didn’t.’

I left him, finally absorbing the information I’d given him weeks ago and went to find Ned. I hoped he’d apologised to Maya in the interim, but when I caught up with him and saw how he was throwing boxes about on the veranda, I knew he hadn’t.

‘So, you’re still not happy that I’m going to tell everyone then?’

‘No,’ he snapped. ‘I’m not, but I know you’ll go ahead anyway.’

‘That’s hardly fair, Ned.’

He stopped what he was doing and let out a long breath.

‘I know,’ he said, raising his arms and letting them fall again. ‘I know it’s not fair. I know that you were only restating what you’d already said and I know that you’ve never done anything deceitful to make either Dad or me think that you’d change your mind and I know that you want to move on, but there was still a part of me…’

‘Still a part of you what?’

‘That was deluded,’ he shrugged, his bottom lip trembling a little.

I didn’t know what to say. It was a shock to see him so upset.

‘I’ll sort this later,’ he said, nudging the boxes into a row with his foot.

‘Ned…’

‘I need to apologise to Maya.’

I watched him stride away and found myself wishing I’d never come back.

Chapter 17

After our meeting and following few words, Ned made it painfully obvious that he didn’t want to be in my company and barely looked in my direction for the next couple of days. He had made a stunning job of decorating the veranda, but whenever I walked into a room, he walked out of it, so there was no chance to either tell him how much I liked it or thank him for doing it.

The atmosphere inside the lodge was frostier than outside and given the confused looks Bandit was giving us, I could tell it was taking a toll on our four-legged friend. I was just starting to seriously consider leaving, when Maya came to find me.

‘Are you busy?’ she asked, when I answered the lodge door.

Before she used to just walk in, but after Ned had bitten her head off, she had taken to knocking and waiting.

‘Not really,’ I told her. ‘Come in.’

‘Thanks.’