Deceit. [COMPLETED.]

Chapter 21

"The nightmare begins."
[ELEVEN YEARS AGO.]  

'Where the fuck is she? She can't have gone far'

In fact she was so much closer than he thought. She was in fact on the opposite side of the hedge and she could just make out his shoes through the gap in undergrowth.

Her breathing was slow, her heart rate pounded in her chest and her ears strained hard to listen for any tell tale signs that someone was approaching because if that happened then she would have to run again as though there was no tomorrow.

She had gone down to the lake because she was annoyed that her brother was late. She should have remained in the hotel but the air was cool and the gardens were lovely at this time of year, she just wanted to take a stroll before it was too dark only now with night closing in she wished she had stayed in her room.

Happy thoughts, she just had to think happy thoughts, anything to keep her going while she laid huddled on the other side of the hedge hoping not to be seen; after all, this should have been the happiest day in her life.

"Would you not miss all your money? We'd be poor. There wouldn't be much on a gardener's salary."

They had still to set a date and Jenny still needed to smooth things over with her parents but they were in love and that amounted to all the money in the world.

"We'd have to live here with granddad. It would be cramped. Until we could afford a house of our own. And you would be living near the school."

Yes. The Chandler Ladies School of excellence. A contradiction if ever she heard it. A place full of vipers whose only goal in life was to find someone who was even richer than they were.

'Look she's here somewhere. Fan out and if you find that prick of a boyfriend bring him to me, on his knees if necessary.'

She had always abhorred cruelty in any form. It was the lowest mark of a human being and how anyone could hurt another living soul was always a trouble to her.

"Leave them alone!"

She didn't mean to shout but what they were doing was horrid.

"What the fuck's it got to do with you. What are you? The fucking police?"

She had only been trying to help a nest of ducks. Anyone in their right mind would have done the same but those men  were drunk, she knew that now. They didn't even stop when she asked them to and she had to stand there while two more chicks were killed without even a care in the world.

And the worse part was ... she recognised the men.

Or at least the boy, the one with the white T-shirt; the one with the stick whose boots were covered in the blood of one of those poor birds. He was the one who seemed to be having most of the fun. He was the one always hanging about the school on his motorbike.

The hotel remained just out of reach.

It was about two hundred yards to her right. If only she had dared cross the path and hid in the orchard on the other side but they were catching up on her and so she had to stop and hide.

"Hey. Can we have less of the swearing please lads. We've a lady present."

For all the good it did. Poor Isaac. He was always trying to live up to her lifestyle when all she wanted to do was be just like him, carefree, kind, warm and compassionate.