Harriet's Arrangement

Taking the next step

Harriet's heart was pounding. Her head was spinning. She was sure her shock and disbelief and terror would be showing on her face, and she had no energy left to rearrange her features into anything that she would have wanted them to be in that moment. All she could think was that if Jennifer disappeared, Malcolm would know it was her that was at the root of it. And her thoughts were spiralling into awful places, wondering why she ever thought this was a good idea, why she had ever approached Jennifer in the first place, why she had felt any sense of responsibility. Why couldn't she just have left them alone? Let them leave the wedding. Not seen the confused emotions in Jennifer's face and just assumed they were happy and that Malcolm's treatment of Harriet was a one-off.

Tom's hand rubbing her knee brought her back round to rational thought and she glanced at him to see that he had fully shifted his attention from Jennifer to her. She met his eyes, and saw concern in them. She longed to be alone with him, to have time to talk this through, to figure out what this all meant.

But they had been silent for too long. Reluctantly she tore her gaze from Tom's and turned back to Jennifer and swallowed. "Do you... do you know what you would do, if you left?" she asked. She had been holding Jennifer's hand gently all the way through Jennifer's story, and she continued to hold it now, knowing the other woman needed not to feel isolated in this situation – but wanting nothing more than to move closer to Tom and for him to fold her into his soft, safe embrace.

"I want to try and find my mum," Jennifer said, quietly, "I have money for one or two nights in a hotel I think, and I have a starting place for mum... but I just... I couldn't leave not knowing anyone to call...I needed to..."

Tom interrupted, to Harriet's surprise. "Jennifer if you only have a little money, you aren't wasting it on a hotel. Both Harriet and I have sofas you can sleep on," he said, "But the more immediate problem is how to get you out of here." Harriet looked at Tom, a little alarmed. Was he going through with this? He had turned back to Jennifer, though, and if he noticed, he didn't acknowledge the look. "Reception have our names," he explained, "And if you go missing, and Malcolm asks – which he will – then it won't be so many steps to finding any one of us. So we need to be clever."

"I thought about that," Jennifer said, quietly, "I found the number of the conference organisers for the conference he's at today. I thought that you could call and say there was a medical emergency and tell them I've been taken to hospital – name a hospital that sounds convincing, and then he'll go there first. The lifts don't come out in the main lobby – if I use one of the other exits – through the Chinese place is probably least conspicuous – then reception wouldn't know. You would have to go through the lobby so they see you leave, or sign you out, or whatever they need to do. And then you wouldn't be implicated. But you'd probably have to call after you'd left, or he'd figure out the timeline. He probably will anyway, but this will lead him down the wrong road, hopefully long enough for us to have done what we need to do."

Harriet stared at her. Tom took a deep breath. "You've been planning this for a while," he said. It wasn't a question, and Jennifer didn't respond; she just met his gaze as confidently as she could. Tom glanced back at Harriet, who was now looking at him, wide-eyed. "Hattie," he said, quietly, with a touch of urgency, "I will not let that man hurt you again. Do you understand?"

His tone made her believe for that moment that it was just the two of them. His words quelled her fear, and the hand that wasn't in Jennifer's moved to his, still on her knee. She nodded, unable to find the right words, trying to convey in some way that she knew that they had to do this, having come this far. But he knew that of course. As if Jennifer wasn't there, he stood and planted a soft, gentle kiss on her lips. She closed her eyes for a second, now freeing her hand from Jennifer – who had relaxed her grip – allowing herself to be swept up by the kiss for just a moment. He moved his lips to her forehead, and took both of her hands in his, stepping back and silently encouraging her eyes back to his. She managed the tiniest smile, and she saw a flicker of relief in his expression as he smiled back. He squeezed her hand and then turned back to Jennifer, who was trying her best to not be seen to be watching this exchange.