Lyrebird Hill Read Online Free PDF

left was Rob’s Jaguar, gleaming blackly in the floodlights. My mother had invited us to join her at the post-exhibition party, but I could tell her heart wasn’t in the offer. Our talk about Jamie had frazzled us both, and I knew she was relieved to see me go.
    ‘Ruby, are you okay?’ Rob said, watching me.
    I was beyond tired. The wine had gone to my head. The nerves that had been fraying away all day were suddenly ragged. All I wanted at that moment was the quiet solitude of a dark space, somewhere cosy and safe, preferably my bed, where I could hide, barricade myself against the day’s events. Anywhere but here, in the empty car park with its stark security lighting.
    Rob jangled his car keys. ‘Babe?’
    Drawing a deep breath, I dug in my bag and pulled out the scrap of black lace.
    ‘How do you explain this?’
    Rob stared from my face to the bra, then back to my face, apparently bewildered. He shrugged, palms up. ‘What are you talking about?’
    ‘You’re seeing someone else, aren’t you?’
    His eyes narrowed and he grew wary. ‘Now, hold on a minute, Ruby. You’ve lost me. You’d better start at the beginning.’
    My cheeks burned and my heart swooped around my rib cage, my lungs suddenly too tight to breathe. ‘This morning while you were in the shower, I smelled cigarette smoke on yourjacket. I picked it up to shake it out, and this’ – I waved the bra aloft – ‘fell out of your pocket.’
    Rob’s lips quirked up into a smile, but he didn’t look happy. ‘And based on that, you’ve now surmised that I’m cheating on you?’
    I nodded.
    He pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘I stopped at the bar on my way back to your place last night. A couple of the lads were there. Maybe one of them slipped it in as a joke. You know what they’re like, childish idiots sometimes. Stupid pranks like that—’ He gestured at the bra and rolled his eyes. ‘It’s just their way of letting off steam.’
    My hands shook. The bra quivered in my fingers. My legs were jelly.
    ‘I don’t believe you.’
    Rob looked pained. ‘How can you say that? How can you even think it?’
    I shook the bra. ‘I’ve got proof.’
    ‘Oh hell, Ruby. When are you going to get it through your thick skull – there’s no one else.’
    I searched his face for falsehood. The gallery light silvered the edges of his cheekbone and jaw, making him seem godlike and inhuman, as distant as a star. Then he moved and the illusion broke apart. He was just Rob again, big gentle Rob with his tailored suit and strong pale hands, shaking his head in worry.
    ‘You’re the only girl I want. Ever since I met you – love at first sight, remember? You’re the only girl I’ll ever want.’
    Cramming the bra back in my handbag and out of sight, I couldn’t stop myself asking, ‘Why? You could have anyone – why me ?’
    Rob actually laughed. ‘Why? Because you’re suspicious and untrusting and you always think the worst. You whinge relentlessly when you’re sick, you interrupt when I’m trying to tellyou something, and you scrape your plate all through the news. Oh . . . and you snore.’
    ‘I do not.’
    He nodded. ‘Afraid you do, babe.’
    I shuffled precariously in my tight shoes, feeling my argument deflate. An exhausted, vaguely tipsy numbness settled over me, urging me to surrender. I sighed.
    ‘Is that it? You like me because I’m so hopelessly flawed?’
    He smiled seductively. ‘Well, you do have a rather glorious bottom.’
    ‘Ugh.’ I gave him my sourest look. ‘You’re so shallow.’
    His smile fell away. Closing the gap between us, he cupped my face in his hands and drew me against him.
    ‘You’re the girl of my dreams, Ruby. Haven’t I told you that a million times? I used to dream about you before we met, and since that day in the bookshop, you’re all I think about.’ He kissed me tenderly, then murmured against my lips, ‘Don’t you know how much I love you, Ruby?’
    The words came at me so softly,