Rose was not looking forward to getting home or going back to Alec's.

"Rose, you should stay with me again tonight," Alec told her without any emotion in his voice.

"Can we stay at my place?" she asked, feeling nervous.

"Not a good idea, just get what you need for tomorrow."

"When are you gonna arrest him, for trying to kidnap me?"

"Rose, I have to call Tess first, to get her to officially reopen the case, it's all related. He's after you because of Sandbrook, because he thinks you told me about him."

"Yeah, I know that Alec," Rose told him as they turned into the street. "Is it a good idea to have Ellie talk to Claire though? Won't Claire be mad enough at you?"

"She may have already left the cottage, if she has, she may go and confront him, especially if she put him up to going after you and she finds out he failed."

"You should have let me drive home, after your attack this morning."

"I am fine now. The call to the hospital will have to wait until morning now."

"You're just tryin' to find excuses Alec. You still have time to call. You can do it while I get a few things," she told him as she got out of the car in front of his house. "I don't know why I bother with that car; it's been stuck here the last few days."

"I am sure you will get to drive it when this is all over. Okay, I will call the hospital while I wait for you."

Rose went off to her bedroom and Alec got the last letter he'd received from the hospital out of his pocket. He'd already tried and failed to contact his own doctor last week to say he'd had a change in his symptoms, not that he was going to tell Rose that, she had enough to worry about. Now, he wasn't even sure if he had the same feelings for her as he'd had before the attempted kidnapping.

Rose was putting a few more things into the bag she'd taken back that morning and emerged just as Alec was finishing his call.

"Is that the earliest you can fit me in? Monday morning? The letter said it was urgent," he tried to tell the consultant's secretary.

"Yes Mr. Hardy but that was two weeks ago, you never called back. The letter said we needed to see you urgently so that's the only time the consultant can fit you in. Will you be able to attend?"

He saw Rose looking at him. "Very well, I will be there at nine thirty on Monday morning, though I should be attending a court case," he replied reluctantly.

"I will let the consultant know to expect you. She may be able to fit you in for the surgery later in the day."

"I would rather go back if possible but I will see what my options are."

Rose put the bag down on the chair. "Alec, can we just get this over with before I go back to your place? I have a feeling you're not happy with what happened this morning."

"You think?" he replied, taking a seat. "What exactly did he mean? That night you said he got interrupted by your father, what was going on eh? Did you encourage him to try to have sex with you?"

"What? Are you crazy Alec? Lisa was the one who fancied him, not me. Yeah, he came on to me, even before that time he made me give the babysitting job to him but Lisa used to look daggers at him. She changed Alec, in a few months because she was spending a lot of time at their house, with Pippa."

"How do you mean changed exactly?"

"Her attitude. I told you that Gary Thorpe was pining after her, she went on that date with him and never talked about it but that was at the same time Lee started following us. Those photos you had, I think Lisa put Lee up to it."

"You think she left your gate open?"

"Enough for him to put his phone through and take pictures, yeah. Come to think of it, that day they were taken, I do remember she kept looking around all the time. The gate was set back at the side of the house but from the outside, he'd still have got a good view. It was a hot day; we thought we were safe enough."

"I expect you did? So, you never encouraged him then changed your mind?"

"No Alec, that's the truth. Whatever he was saying this morning was probably to try and insinuate that I was only pretending I didn't want him. I was a bit out of it."

"Well he was very convincing, before I grabbed him and I almost died," Alec relented.

"I am so sorry that happened Alec, really I am. Maybe I should stay here tonight? I'll lock all the doors and windows and I can call you if I'm worried."

Alec shook his head. "I still want to know what he did to you Rose."

"I know you do and if I tell you, you'd never speak to me again Alec," she said sadly.

"You have still to tell Tess, about your involvement," he reminded her, thinking he should maybe take his pills before she did tell him.

He got up and went to get some water, Rose watching him. "This is making you worse Alec," she told him.

"Never mind me, I have a hospital appointment on Monday morning, I will last a little longer. There is no court tomorrow thankfully."

"Yeah, I have loads of things to catch up on. You want to know what happened, the first time?"

"Yes, it will not go any further but I want to pursue you Rose, I can't do that if you can't be honest with me and put it all behind us. Was it so bad that your father kept you from telling us?"

Rose went to fill the kettle with water then nodded to him. "Yes Alec, he thought with mine and Lisa's reputations around the estate, no-one would believe that I'd not encouraged Lee and that I'd been asking for it."

"Then he did sexually assault you, not once but twice?" he asked, wishing now he'd never asked.

"Not quite but it was still horrific, it wasn't welcome. He got disturbed before he could, you know, get into my underwear properly."

He knew this was hurting her to recall the unpleasant experiences. It had to be got out of the way, if they wanted any kind of relationship.

While Rose told him what happened both those times, Ellie had been to see both her sons and gone down the Claire's cottage. Claire had got back after being disappointed Lee hadn't got his way with Rose but it didn't matter now, Alec would be onto Lee so she had to keep her distance. She'd been surprised to see Alec's DS walking towards her as she sat on the fence outside.

"Oh, so Alec's sent his little pet then?" Claire asked sarcastically. "Did he tell you he'd given me until tomorrow to leave this hell-hole?"

"He mentioned it but if you don't need protection, you can hardly blame him Claire," Ellie told her.

"How would he know?" Claire huffed back at Ellie, not getting off the fence.

Ellie leaned the opposite way on the fence. "It's over Claire, you have to face it. Lee came to the court this morning."

"That must have been nice for him, Ellie was it?"

"You're saying Lee was after you, he's not is he? How do I know that?" Ellie asked her. "Because if you were scared of him, you'd have run Claire, not relied on Alec Hardy to keep Lee away from you but that was it all along, wasn't it? Did you ever tell the police the truth? Were you at home that night Claire?"

"Why should you care?" Claire wanted to know.

"Because a young girl died and one's still missing and my best friend's boy was killed last year by my husband and it looks like he's going to get away with it, that's why," Ellie replied, getting annoyed at the fact she had to face up to the fact Joe was going to walk free.

"You never saw what he was doing?" Claire laughed. "Then you come asking me about my husband? You want to form a 'we didn't know what our husbands were doing club' Ellie? If I'd known what Lee was doing that night, I would have never…." she trailed off, afraid she'd said too much.