To Wear His Ring Again

‘Part of him died with your brother. He never got over losing Simon—and he needed me. I took my marriage vows seriously—for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.’ Her mother had looked at Isobel curiously. ‘You made the same vows when you married Constantin. You’ve never explained why your marriage ended. It’s not my place to pry into your private life, but I can’t help wondering if you gave up too soon. A year isn’t a long time, and marriage isn’t all hearts and flowers. You have to work at a relationship and make compromises to hopefully gain a better understanding of each other.’

She had tried to understand Constantin, Isobel thought grimly. But she need not have bothered, because she’d now had her darkest suspicions confirmed: that he had only married her because she had conceived his child. She had never told her mother about Arianna. It would have been cruel to tell Ann that she had lost a granddaughter as well as a son and husband.

Isobel dragged her thoughts back to the present when she realised that Ryan was speaking. ‘I would never have met Emily if I’d stayed in Eckerton village, that’s for sure.’ He ran a hand through his fair hair, and said awkwardly, ‘Izzy, I’ve done it. I’ve asked Emily to marry me—and she said yes.’

‘Thank heavens for that,’ Isobel said in a heartfelt voice as she flung her arms around Ryan’s neck. ‘You two were made for each other and I know you’re going to be very happy together.’

Ryan’s expression clouded. ‘Emily makes me the happiest man in the world, but I don’t deserve to feel like this. I keep thinking about Simon, and how he never had the chance to grow up and fall in love. If only I’d stopped him going into the reservoir that day.’

‘Don’t.’ Isobel pictured her brother’s mischievous grin. She could not imagine him as an adult. For her, Simon would always be fourteen, always laughing and fooling around. ‘You know what a daredevil Simon was. He wouldn’t have listened to you. I know you did everything you could to try and save him, and you have to stop blaming yourself.’ She squeezed Ryan’s arm. ‘You and my brother were best friends. He would be glad that you’re going to marry the woman you love.’

Ryan nodded slowly. ‘I guess you’re right. Thanks, Izzy.’ He glanced at the clock. ‘Hey, we’d better get moving. We’re due on stage in ten minutes. How do you feel?’

‘Nervous,’ Isobel admitted. ‘I always am before a performance, but I’ll be fine once I start singing.’ She was about to follow Ryan out of the room when her phone rang, and she walked back over to the dressing table where she had left it. Because she was in a hurry, she unthinkingly answered it without checking the identity of the caller, and she tensed when a familiar voice spoke.

‘I’ll be watching you tonight, Izzy. It is written in the stars that we are destined to be together for ever.’

She cut the call and the phone slid out of her trembling fingers. Was David here at the hotel? Could he be a guest at the charity fund-raising event?

‘Come on,’ Ryan called from the doorway. He frowned when he saw how pale Isobel had gone. ‘Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’ He glanced at her phone as she dropped it into her bag. ‘You haven’t had any more nuisance calls, have you?’

It wouldn’t be fair to share her worries about the stalker with Ryan tonight, when he was clearly ecstatic that his girlfriend had agreed to marry him. There was probably nothing to worry about anyway. She was being silly to let the mysterious David bother her.

She shrugged. ‘I told you, I’ve just got a bit of stage fright, that’s all,’ she said as they took the lift down to the ground floor of the hotel. ‘In a strange way I find it more daunting to perform in front of an audience of five hundred guests who paid a fortune for tickets, than at an arena in front of thousands of fans.’

Keen to take her mind away from the unsettling phone call, she changed the subject. ‘Are you and Emily going to announce your engagement tonight?’

‘No, I only proposed yesterday, and she’s gone to her parents’ country estate in Suffolk to break the news to them first.’ As they walked backstage to wait until it was time for the band’s performance Ryan caught hold of Isobel’s hand. ‘Thanks for helping me and Emily to keep our relationship out of the media. The speculation that you and I are romantically involved has allowed Emily to stay out of the limelight.’

They were interrupted by one of the sound technicians. ‘You’re on in two minutes, guys and girls. Do you want to check your mic, Izzy?’

As the host for the evening walked onto the stage to introduce the Stone Ladies, Isobel peeped through a gap in the curtains and felt a sickening sensation in the pit of her stomach. The glare of the footlights meant that it was impossible for her to see the audience clearly, but even if she could make out people’s faces she would not recognise David. He had told her in one of his phone calls that they had met after a Stone Ladies concert and she had given him her autograph, but since the band had become famous Isobel had met hundreds of fans and signed her autograph countless times. She assumed David must have asked her to write ‘to my darling’—fans often made strange requests—but she had no recollection of him.

Was he out there in the audience? She shivered as she remembered his most recent phone call. What had he meant when he’d said that they were destined to be together for ever? Was it her overactive imagination, or had there been something vaguely threatening in his words?’

The curtains were opening and there were cheers from the audience, but Isobel’s feet felt as though they were rooted to the spot. The urge to run from the stage was so strong that she half turned and bumped into Ryan, who was standing behind her.

‘Forget everything else and just focus on the music,’ he murmured. ‘Pretend we’re kids again, four friends pretending to be rock stars in Eckerton village hall.’

Ryan’s words calmed her and she looked around at Carly and Ben and returned their smiles. During her marriage, she had tried to explain to Constantin that the band had become her family who gave her the love and affection that she hadn’t received from her father. After she had lost her baby, it had been her closest friends who had supported her through the darkest days of her life because Constantin had refused to talk about what had happened.

Taking a deep breath, she walked out onto the stage and launched into a song that had recently been a number-one hit in the charts. There was applause from the audience, but Isobel blocked out everything else and sank into the music. Ever since she had been a small child and had picked out simple tunes on her mother’s piano, music had been her great love, her joy and her solace when she had needed an outlet for her emotions.

* * *

‘...Constantin?’

The sound of his name intruded on Constantin’s thoughts, and he tore his eyes away from the unedifying spectacle of his wife dancing with her very good friend, Ryan Fellows. A nerve flickered in his jaw, but a lifetime of disguising his true emotions came to his rescue and he smiled smoothly at the willowy blonde at his side, who was staring at him accusingly.

‘I’m sure you haven’t been listening to me!’

Lying was pointless. The woman—Ginny? Jenny? he’d already forgotten her name—had sat next to him during dinner and seemed to think that she had exclusive rights to his attention for the rest of the evening. But ignoring her had been rude. He gave an apologetic shrug of his shoulders. ‘Forgive me. I have things on my mind and I’m afraid I am not an attentive companion tonight. But I’m sure there are many other men here who would enjoy meeting you,’ he murmured.

The blonde finally took the hint and flounced away. Constantin watched the indignant sway of her bottom clad in tight red satin for all of two seconds, before his eyes were drawn back to the dance floor and Isobel.

Listening to her singing earlier in the evening, he had been struck anew by the liquid quality of her voice, and he had been reminded of a crystal-clear stream tumbling softly over pebbles. He had never understood when she had said that music was part of her. But watching her on the stage tonight, he’d realised that she sang from her heart, from the depths of her soul, and he had felt an inexplicable ache in his chest, a longing for something that might have been, if he had been a different man.