Commitment

Part 62

When Regan went to Neil's christening, Gray, Sam and Loretta were there too. Gray wasn't sure he could face her, not after all the things he'd said, implied or done. And when he had related the information about Regan to his sister and their heated discussion left Gray feeling guilty. 

At the christening, Sam and Loretta made a beeline for her, while Gray went along with unease. They spent a long time talking to Regan about their new place but did not mention the fact that they knew about her financial situation. Sam and Loretta handled most of the conversation, while Gray just watched the reaction on Regan's face. She was still thin, but at least here, she looked happy. When Gray spoke to her, she avoided looking at him, and her response was short and he saw her shoulders stiffen. She wore a smile, but it was not reflected in her eyes. In frustration, he opted to sniped at her. Simply questions that disparaged her behaviour and disapproved her management of her farm: Any reasons why she sold her sheep with full coats?

Regan kept praying that the Jones family would rescue her from this company, and prayed that Sam did not have lots of enquiries, that Loretta would run out of news about their new situation, and hoped that Gray did not continue to thinly criticise in public.

Regan was happy when they were joined by Mairie and her husband Mark and another couple Gray did not know. Introductions were made and the conversation became more general and Regan took a back seat, listening rather than contributing. It was then that Gray realised that her behaviour in these types of social settings was probably a product of her up bringing. How reticent she was in public, with strangers. So he tried to bring her into the conversation. But her responses were brief. Not curt, just short. He worked harder. But still she seemed to want to stay in the shadows, despite the fact that she was amongst friends with just a few strangers in the group. That brought him up short. Perhaps she didn't feel she was amongst friends. He'd seen her with Lucy and Jenny and she was completely different. She was smiling and interjecting, asking questions, arguing, teasing and providing flippant replies. But now, amongst this small group, she hung back. A few seconds later, Regan excused herself from the conversation with an ambiguous reason.

Gray watched her as she left the group, and he also recognised the dress she wore. It was the same one she had worn to go out on her date. As that registered, the things Mairie told him suddenly started to take on more significance. Perhaps Mairie hadn't embellished the facts. His guilt increased. For days, and his nights, his conversations with Regan replayed over and over in his mind. He should have noticed. He should have checked her background, the context in which she had taken on his family. With hindsight there was so much he would do differently.

"Are you alright?" Lucy took the empty seat beside Regan. They were at the lunch party at Jenny's Wellington home, celebrating Neil's christening. Jenny had invited family and a few friends, and the gathering had resulted in well over fifty people being present for a buffet lunch.

Regan nodded, but the smile never reached her eyes. She was still smarting from Gray's most recent salvo.

"I'm going off Gray!" Lucy announced as if she had read Regan's mind. Then she smiled at her mother who approached, and Alison quietly took a seat beside her daughter.

Regan snorted in astonishment and turned to smile in welcome at Alison, "What? Why?"

Alison heard Regan's words and studied her daughter and could see from their mutinous expressions that they were far from pleased with Gray. 

"Because I was there when he was mean to Regan, Mairie told me what he said when she met him, and I am not happy about his attitude." Lucy huffed and used her fingers to straightened her hair, "There's absolutely no need for that." She waited a beat. "He should be thanking Regan. Why if she hadn't taken them in and..."