Belle and Jack slept together that night in the double bed in Jack’s room, cuddled naked into each other like spoons in a drawer. When Belle woke, she was disappointed to see that it was morning already. Time to face reality. She was halfway out of the bed, thinking that yesterday had just been madness and that today would be an end of it, that he would regret everything, realize his mistake and snub her. His hand closed over her arm, stopping her movement.
‘Where you going?’ he murmured.
‘Up. It’s gone nine.’
He pulled her back down. ‘Nah, stay a minute.’
Belle lay back down, turning so that she faced him, careful to let her blonde curtain of hair fall over the left side of her face.
‘You’re beautiful,’ he whispered against her mouth.
Belle’s mouth twisted. ‘I was.’
‘When I found you in the barn I thought I was having a nightmare. You were in a hell of a mess.’
‘I know.’
‘You’re still beautiful.’
‘Bollocks.’
‘But I think it’s changed you. Having this happen.’
‘I’d better get up,’ she said.
‘Nah, you’d better kiss me,’ he said against her mouth. Then gently, almost tenderly, he brushed her hair aside and kissed her scar. She thought of poor Milly, being used for sex by Nipper. Was this what Jack was doing, right now? Was she just a convenient female, a hole to put it in? Was that it?
‘I’m getting up,’ she said, and this time he didn’t argue.
Jack took the Jeep and went into the village that morning to get in some food while Belle fed the horses then went down to the coop to let the hens out. They were flapping and indignant at this late start. She topped up their water and scattered feed for them, then started gathering up the eggs, prior to going back up to the stables to muck out and feed Lady and Goldie. Up in the yard at the front of the house, Trix started barking.
‘It’s probably that old dog fox roaming about again,’ she told the chickens. Trix often barked when she sensed the fox moving around the farm, looking for whatever he could find. ‘You want to watch out for him, you lot.’
Up near the house, Trix barked on and on.