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And Fliss pressed a hand to her mouth as if he’d struck her, before rushing tearfully out of the room.
‘SO ARE you going to tell me what happened?’
Graham was trying to be patient, but it was obviously difficult for him. In the week since Fliss had returned from Craythorpe, they had had no chance to discuss the repercussions of what had happened, and she suspected he was only here now because she’d practically begged him to come.
Graham was so conscious of his position as the vicar of St Margaret’s, and he had no desire to set tongues wagging any more than they already were. But Fliss needed his support; she needed his guidance; and if she didn’t talk about what had happened soon she thought she’d go mad.
‘It’s not easy,’ she said now, and Graham gave her a troubled look. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ she added softly. ‘What do people do in circumstances like this?’
‘If you don’t want to talk about it, then I shan’t press you,’ Graham ventured quietly, but she wasn’t sure whether that was for her benefit or his. It was apparent that he considered this conversation premature. He’d said as much when she’d told him she’d like to keep his ring.
‘I want to tell you,’ she said now, fidgeting with the glass beside her plate. She’d invited Graham for supper, although neither of them had done much justice to the meal, and she wondered if it would be easier if she was making coffee as she spoke.
Graham seemed to consider for a moment, and then he leaned across the table and took her hand. ‘I can see you’re upset,’ he said gently. ‘And if there’s anything I can do you only have to tell me. But, Fliss, my dear, I have to be seen to be objective. However much I love you, we can’t continue as before.’
‘I know that.’ Fliss sniffed. ‘But you do still love me, don’t you?’
Graham stared at her. ‘How could you doubt it?’
‘Well, I’ve hardly seen you since—since I got the news about Morgan.’ She bit her lip. ‘If only Aunt Sophie were here, I wouldn’t feel so horribly isolated. As it is, I feel as if I’m living in some kind of vacuum.’
‘Oh, Fliss!’
‘I do love you, Graham.’ She paused. ‘You know that, don’t you?’
‘Well, I hoped so,’ he admitted rather ruefully. Then he heaved a heavy sigh. ‘Oh, Fliss, it’s been hard for me, too. I’ve been trying to do my job when all the time I’ve been wondering how you were.’
‘I’ve been better.’ Fliss expelled a breath. ‘He—Morgan, that is—he was so aggressive. We were like strangers with one another, Graham. I knew it would be hard seeing him again, but I had no idea how difficult it was going to be.’
Graham squeezed her fingers. ‘I shouldn’t say it, I know, but I am relieved.’ He grimaced. ‘I was sure you were going to tell me that you’d realised how much you loved your husband, after all. That was why I was so reluctant to come here. I was putting off what I saw as the evil day.’
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