I Trust You Read Free

and chips from the van later on, when the heat had finally receded. She’d never really wanted speedboat trips and a glass fronted house with access to their own, private shore beneath the cliffs.
    Well, not happy exactly. Marisa couldn’t be that until she’d carried a child of her own, was part of a real family. The tears were threatening to make a reappearance. Marisa breathed in hard and blinked furiously.
    Suddenly, she realised she was standing in the centre of the pavement. The people walking past were giving her odd looks. One lady, who was plump but cheerful-looking in a wide, strappy dress stopped and touched her arm. ‘Are you alright, lovey?’
                  Marisa turned her head and smiled. ‘I’m fine. It’s just that my husband was meant to meet me a while ago and he’s still not here.’
                  The lady nodded wisely. ‘He’ll have stopped for a pint in the pub, lovey. That’s what men do on a day like this.’ She crinkled her sunburnt brow. ‘You don’t look very well. Are you local? My Keith could give you a lift home?’
                  ‘Actually, I’d really appreciate that.’
                  Marisa allowed the couple to lead her to their messy, overly-packed estate car in the seafront carpark and take her home.  

Chapter 3
     
     
     
    K eith and Wendy had been very impressed when they reached the house. The Colemans’ place was half-way up the hillside, along the road that wound its way out of White Bay towards Dorchester.              
    The house had been designed and built by Eliot’s father. It was angular in structure and any part of the building that wasn’t glazed had been rendered a startling white. You could see it from quite far out into the bay, especially when the sun was shining.
                  ‘Do you and your husband live here Marisa? We see it every time we drive into the town. I thought it might be owned by someone famous – an old rock star, you know?’
                  ‘It’s just us, I’m afraid. Eliot is a local businessman.’
                  ‘I’m pleased to hear that,’ Keith replied gruffly. ‘I can’t be doing with the moneyed types from London who keep buying up these huge places just to use once a year. It’s a disgrace. Those kinds of people are all over this coastline. Out of towners , I mean.’
                  ‘Well, we live here all the time.’
                  ‘What a wonderful place for a child to grow up in.’ Wendy was admiring the extensive gardens as they pulled up outside the front door.
                  ‘Yes, it certainly would be.’
                  Wendy continued her idle chatter as the couple accompanied Marisa inside before finally saying their goodbyes and driving away. She wasn’t really listening, too preoccupied with the fact that Eliot’s car was not in the driveway.
                  Marisa took a hot shower and pulled on some light linen trousers and a t-shirt. She lay down on the bed, feeling the waves of utter exhaustion break over her. It must have been over an hour later when a noise downstairs woke her up. It was still very light, but the sun was starting to set.
                  The noise came again. Several pairs of feet were pounding through the ground floor of the house.
                  ‘Marisa! Are you here?’
                  It was Eliot. She jumped to her feet and tore down the stairs into the hallway. There he was, with two of the burly engineers from the boat yard.
                  Eliot moved towards her and swept his wife into his arms. ‘Christ! Where the hell have you been? We’ve been searching half of south Dorset for you. I was about to ring the sodding police!’
                  ‘I could say the same to you! The tide was rising, the boat was about to come