Chapter 16

Trudy barely slept that night.

Almost as soon as the boisterousness of her greeting from the girls had quietened down, Seline managed to pry her away and shepherd her into her study.

She closed the door with a sigh and looked across at her old friend.

“You came,” she said simply.

Trudy nodded as she sank down onto one of the chairs.

“Yes ... I ... I...” the tears filled her eyes and her shoulders hunched as she broke down. “He will never remember what we were – what we had ... it’s all gone – gone forever – just as his father said it had!”

“His father?” Seline blinked and looked openly confused, and then her eyes widened as she realised something. “You mean when Matt was hurt – in the hospital?”

“Yes ... when you got me that job at the hospital – when Matt was in the coma ... I managed to be the nurse in his room, I was right there when he first woke up!”

She hugged herself as she remembered that heart-breaking moment when Matt first opened his eyes and looked at her, and Seline sat down beside her and hugged her tightly. For one split second he had recognised her, and then it was as if a veil had come down and he looked at her blankly and confused.

“He might have remembered me, if his father had not brushed me aside, and begun to issue instructions to doctors and Matt alike. By the time things quietened down again, Matt had been pumped full of drugs and was out of this world again.”

“You think his father realised?” Seline gasped.

Trudy laughed a bitter laugh. “I know that he realised, he knew about me all along, I believe ... but certainly at the hospital ... he cornered me soon after Matt came too. He told me that the doctors had said that his memory was damaged and that trying to fix that could be extremely dangerous for Matt. He told me to get out of the hospital and never come back ... that if I ever tried to contact his son, then I would be severely dealt with.”

“He threatened you!” Seline exclaimed.

“Oh yes and he was not even vague or circumspect about it.”

“But Matt’s father has been dead for years now?”

“But the council still wields power and uses Matt to illustrate it. I never met Jonathon Richards until recently and so assumed that he was his father’s son – if you know what I mean.”

“So, you just skulked away and never looked back?”

“Nope!”

Seline smiled at her friend’s hint of defiance.

“What then?”

“I waited for Mr Richards senior to leave the hospital and then I went back to Matt’s room one last time...”

“And?”

“He looked right through me – like I was nothing – just a part of the furniture ... I realised then that Matt – my Matt had been killed when he was attacked, and I saw nothing over the years to make me think otherwise.”

“And you still believe that now?” Seline demanded incredulously.

“No ... no, Matt the man is still there – hidden away, for whatever reason. But my Matt is gone for good I still believe.”

“You are so wrong about that!” Matt said from the doorway.

They had both been sitting with their backs to the door, and so caught up with the past that neither of them had registered the door opening.

His eyes were blazing with supressed fury, and fixed on Trudy who shrank away from him in an unusually timid way for her.

“Did no one ever teach you to knock, Matt?” Seline demanded irritably. “This is after all my private office – especially when that door is closed.”

He gave her a quick tight smile and half bow. “So sorry about that but I felt the need to talk to Trudy, here.”

Not Rowena – nor Miss Beaumont, and Trudy gave a little gasp and her bright blue eyes darkened to storm clouds.

Seline looked between the two of them and then pointedly at Trudy.

“Shall I stay?” she asked her friend.

Trudy smiled at her gratefully for a moment but then shook her head firmly.

“That’s not necessary ... I don’t think?”

“No, it’s not.” Matt agreed.

Seline sighed and walked towards the door, and where Matt was still standing.

She reached him and poked him in the chest with a hard finger.

“Be nice to her,” she hissed. “You owe her that at the very least!”

After Seline had left and the door was firmly closed once more, Matt continued to just stand there, staring at her in a hard fashion.

Trudy stared back defiantly for a moment but as the minutes ticked by, she began to feel decidedly uncomfortable.

“Well!” she finally snapped. “Do you have nothing at all to say to me – I thought you said that you needed to talk to me?”

He sighed suddenly and stepped closer but refused to take his eyes off her.

“I did have the need to talk to you,” he said slowly. “The trouble is, that I am not sure which you, that I need to talk to!”

The colour came to her cheeks and Matt’s memory skipped along hazily as though flicking through photographs.

“What do you mean – which me ... there is only one of me!”

“Huh!” he half laughed. “The woman who stared me down – refusing to be intimated or browbeaten, refusing to tell me anything about anything ... the woman who would have ripped out my throat, or that of those men who threatened your nieces. The woman who cares for and defends – who stepped in to help my brother when all else were frozen in terror. The woman who would die – or kill for anyone she loves ... who nurtures and protects ... who runs a successful business – or two – who seems to own half of London ... the woman who always seems to show up and invade my dreams and waking hours alike ... who was once the love of my life...”

Her chin shot up, and her bright blue eyes could have lit up the darkest of rooms. “You remember?” she whispered – her voice hoarse with suppressed hope and dread.

He hesitated for a moment, and then shook his head regretfully. “Not first hand – not completely, just bits from dreams and what others have said.”

She sucked in a breath and blinked back the tears. “So, you still do not know me!”

“I should like to though – I should very much like to get know who you are now – who the real you, is now.”

A thousand emotions flickered across her exquisite features, but she was saved from answering by the door suddenly bursting open.

“I am so sorry to disturb you.” Seline said clearly agitated.

“What?” Trudy was on her feet and moving across – but Matt was there before her.

“I don’t need you to tell me – the scent of fear is all over this house ... Trouble I believe.”

The front door was open and Marcie – the robust looking housekeeper, was stood in the frame with what looked like a cricket bat in her hand.

He tapped her lightly on the shoulder. “Can I get out please,” he asked her politely.

She stepped forward and slightly to the side so that he could leave the house.

“They are over there – under that tree,” she told him indicating with her bat.

He narrowed his eyes slightly and clearly saw the shadowy forms, standing like ominous statues.

“Five of them,” he murmured.

“Shall I come with you?” Marcie asked almost eagerly. “Or do you just want the bat?”

She had not taken her eyes off the men standing there so sinisterly, but as he touched her arm lightly, she glanced quickly up at him in surprise, and her eyes widened further at his whimsical smile, and twinkling eyes.

“That won’t be necessary I’m afraid.”

As Matt walked across the grassy land the almost full moon peeped out from a cloud.