The Secrets of Whitelea

|Chapter Ten|

Chapter Ten

"I'm sorry." Bella said. She was sat on the window seat in her room, looking out at the grounds below. Douglas moved closer to her and leant against one of the bed posts.

"It's fine."

"No," Bella said, turning to look at him. "it isn't." She turned her head back to the window. "I shouldn't have gotten so angry. I don't know why I got so angry. I just saw the photo and I saw you in it and I saw her lying on the floor and I knew it must have been something bad but she wouldn't tell me and I needed to know and-and-"

"Bella," Douglas put a hand on her shoulder. "calm down. It's fine."

"She probably hates me. She needed me and all I did was yell at her." Bella found that she wasn't crying. She thought she would have been. Douglas didn't say anything.

"It's nice to know you care about me though." Douglas said eventually. Bella gave a little chuckle before going back to staring out the window.

After Bella's outburst the day before, James had dragged her upstairs out of the way. He'd called Douglas to come over and take her home while he went to help Elizabeth calm down. Douglas had come with Mariam and taken Bella home, Mariam staying to help with Elizabeth. Douglas had stayed with Bella all night while she calmed down and realised what she had done. Douglas had comforted her as a wave of guilt washed over her at two 'o' clock in the morning. He had made her breakfast when she woke up again. Mariam had stayed with Elizabeth, claiming that a woman's presence would be better than 'an uptight police officer with no idea what he's doing'.

"Mary called." Douglas said. "Lizzy's calmed down and she wants to see you."

"I doubt that."

"Maybe she just wants to yell at you face to face." Douglas suggested.

"Not helping, Doug." Bella said. She slid off the window seat and headed towards her bathroom. "I should probably shower." Douglas let her go before leaving her room and heading back down the two flights of stairs to the kitchen.

He was greeted by James who hadn't left his seat from when he'd arrived wanting to see Bella earlier that morning. Douglas hadn't let him up the first step of the staircase. "Is she okay?" James asked.

"She's fine. She feels guilty at the minute."

"Maybe when she sees Lizzy it'll go away."

"Or it could make it worse." Douglas sat himself down on a chair opposite James. "Has Elizabeth given any explanation?" James shook his head.

"Not word. Not even to Mariam or Kuro. Are you sure you don't remember anything?"

"I don't remember anything about that picture. I don't know why I would ever be up at Maybank Lake and I don't know why I would ever have an argument with Elizabeth Hamilton. We've only ever really spoken since Annabelle has come back."

"Are you sure you don't remember even the slightest detail? Anything at all?"

"I've told you, I don't remember a thing!" Douglas cried. He rested his head in his hands. "I don't remember anything! If I don't remember this, what other things don't I remember? What if I forget everything?" He looked back up to James, looking stricken.

"Douglas, it's just this one little event that you don't remember." James said as comfortingly.

"Little event?" Douglas exclaimed. "It's not that little if it causes Elizabeth Hamilton of all people to have a breakdown!"