Rejection Runs Deep (The Canleigh Series, book 1: A chilling psychological family drama), Carole Williams [ebook reader 8 inch .TXT] 📗

a better bet and more of a pushover.  I’d thought highly of you, Ruth.  I thought you were a decent person with integrity and honour.  How wrong I was.  Instead, you’re a conniving little bitch with a butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth manner.  That’s how you did it, isn’t it?  That’s why Father hasn’t seen through you.  You took a lonely old man and wormed your way into his heart with your simpering niceness and puritanical outlook on life just so you could be mistress of Canleigh and live a life of idle luxury.”

Ruth watched him stride about on the grass, rubbing his chin and glowering with fury.  She was glad they had met out in the open with other people out walking and children playing nearby.  She wouldn’t have felt safe alone with him now.  He was far too angry.  With sickening clarity, she remembered the scene in the kitchen at Canleigh and was amazed he had the audacity to castigate her for lack of integrity and honour.  Again, she pondered on the sanity of Richard and his twin.  They both had terrible tempers and a somewhat twisted view if things didn’t go quite their way.

Richard suddenly turned and strode towards her.  Ruth backed hastily and banged into the hard trunk of a tree.  She couldn’t move away as he stood horribly close, his eyes glittering with rage.  His hands were in the pockets of his jacket but she had a nasty suspicion he was longing to put them round her throat there and then.  He didn’t have to utter a word.  The threat was there, in his demeanour.

He glowered at her for a few seconds.  “I’m warning you now,” he hissed through clenched teeth, “if you plan to go ahead with this crazy idea of marrying my Father, I’ll have nothing more to do with either of you.  I shall flatly refuse to set foot in Yorkshire or Canleigh.  It would also be wise to remember that when he dies, which by the law of averages he will do long before you, as he is so much older than you, I’ll have you drummed out of the Hall so fast you’ll wonder what the hell hit you.  And you’ll be left penniless.  I’ll make absolutely certain of that.  Not one thing … not one single piece of my inheritance will you get your greedy little hands on,” he snarled, and then to her great relief, he turned quickly, stamped across the Meadow and disappeared back into the crowds in St. Aldates, leaving her shaken and with no doubt that he meant every word.

He hadn’t returned to Canleigh, not even briefly, and refused to talk to Charles when he phoned him.  Ruth never told Charles about that awful meeting with Richard and her heart bled for him after every attempted phone call.  Charles always looked so disappointed and sad when his son refused to speak to him and Ruth couldn’t help feeling guilty because she was the cause of this estrangement.

Charles stood beside her and placed an arm around her shoulders as they both looked across the lake at the Hall.  “It doesn’t matter, Ruth.  If Richard wants to be so childish it’s his affair.  It’s a shame he won’t accept our marriage but I’m not going to let that spoil what we have together.  I have never been as happy in my life as I am with you and nothing and no-one will interfere with that.  I love you so completely, darling.  That’s the most important thing to me.”

He bent his head and kissed her softly on her upturned mouth and stroked her golden hair, his heart ablaze with pure joy.  He could never explain to anyone exactly how he felt about this woman.  He adored her absolutely.  He worshipped her.  He would do anything for her.  She was his world.

Ruth smiled up at him.  She knew how he felt.  She felt the same.  He made her feel complete.  All her life something had been missing.  She had no idea what it was before their marriage but she did now.  It was him.  She had always been waiting for him ....  and now she had him, she was never going to let him go.  She would do everything she possibly could to make this marriage work and retain the joy and happiness they both felt now they were together.  She loved him intensely and would fight to the death to protect their cherished union.

Turning from the view of their home, they linked arms and re-joined the serpentine path which meandered around the far side of the lake, stopping to admire the tumbling cascade between two pools.  The water sparkled in the sunshine as it gushed down the slope with odd droplets caught on the mossy sides flashing like diamonds as they slid down to join the rushing water at the bottom as it poured into the larger lake beyond.

“You do realise that not only will it be Christmas but also our first wedding anniversary,” Charles smiled.  “A whole year.  It’s gone so quickly.”

Ruth laughed gaily, pleased to be able to turn the conversation from Richard.  “Yes.  It has.  Last year at this time I was trying desperately to find a suitable dress.”

“And you did.  You looked stunning, floating down the aisle.  I’m sad, of course, that Margaret died, especially the way she did, but at least it meant we could have our wedding at home in St. Mary’s.”

Charles wouldn’t forget the day he had heard about Margaret’s accident, delivered in a drunken phone call from Simon Parfitt.  Charles had taken the call and was quite surprised to find himself feeling almost sorry for the man.  Simon had actually cried pathetically, whining on about how he wanted to come back to England but there was no money.  He hadn’t actually asked for cash but Charles, guessing what was coming, had cut the conversation short, and not