The White House - Book 6, The Porth Kerensa Series

Chapter Eight

He was losing her again. This time, though, he didn’t know if he wanted to try and save her.

      ******

The following morning, a few minutes after James had left for work, Ben knocked on the door. He smiled, cheerfully, and accepted Elise’s offer of a quick cup of coffee.

“I have just enough time before I go to work,” he said, following her into the kitchen. “I spoke to my friend about what you told me yesterday and she thinks we should try to communicate with it, as soon as possible.”

Elise raised an eyebrow at him and said, sarcastically, “How do you suggest we do that? Shall we send it an email?” She sighed, wearily, instantly apologetic. “I talked to it once or twice, but it didn’t answer me. I don’t think it’s interested in having a chat, Ben.”

“My friend, Kay, said she could come here if you’d like her to. She has experience, more than us anyway, in this kind of thing.”

Elise pulled a mocking expression and waggled her fingers at him. “Ooh, Ben, do you mean she dabbles in the dark arts?” She laughed, pouring his coffee and passing the mug to him.

Ben ignored her teasing. “She offered to help you, Elise. Shall I say yes, or no?”

She winced at the word ‘help’ and nodded. She knew she was lucky Ben hadn’t laughed at her when she’d told him about the incidents she’d experienced since moving in. She couldn’t afford to alienate him and his friend with stupid jokes that might offend them, or she’d have no one to confide in. It was only Ben’s validation that was stopping her from admitting she might be going mad…again.

“She can’t come here when James is around, though,” Elise said, quietly.

“I guessed that much already. I have a free afternoon on Friday so I’ll pick her up after work and bring her over around at 2ish.” Ben gulped his coffee down in three long swallows and sighed, regretfully. “Thanks, for that Elise, but I really must go.”

She wanted to ask him to stay, but she nodded and smiled easily when she saw him out. The lonely silence that enveloped her seemed starker than usual in his absence. She shouldn’t feel so comfortable with him for she barely knew him, but she suspected that was exactly why she felt no need to raise her emotional drawbridge. He didn’t know her past and he had no preconceptions about her. He took her at face value, instead of analysing everything she said and did; waiting and wondering if she was in her right mind.

She hadn’t realised how much being around James exhausted her, until she’d met Ben. Her honest responses to the man who lived opposite only served to emphasise the distance and the walls between her and James. The constant face off in their Cold War had left her weary and drained. Every slight, every icy silence, every insult they threw at each other were vicious weapons that they used with accurate efficiency. It seemed that since the move to Porth Kerensa the battlefront had only grown more hostile, despite their best intentions.

      ******

James couldn’t stop his face from flushing red when Amy Collins arrived for work that morning. Her bright smile and cheerful hello tumbled him back into the vague memories he had of holding her in his dream the night before and he mumbled a greeting and carried on checking his emails. The last thing he needed right now was to develop a crush on his pretty secretary. Deep down he knew the only reason she had intruded on his dream was because she wasn’t Elise.

He recalled the look on his wife’s face when he’d found her on the floor of the attic and he shivered. He was losing her again and it scared the shit out of him. When he was alone in the darkness of the night he could fool himself into thinking he would file for divorce, but in the cold light of day he knew he could never walk away and leave her to drown in the memories that tormented her. How could he ever live with himself if he left her when he had promised to love her in sickness and in health? But if he had known what was ahead of them would he have made the promises or would he have turned tail and ran?