Emmerdale’s Tom King (James Chase) seems to be intent on controlling every aspect of the life of new wife Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) – or Belle King, as he insisted on her becoming.
He’s done everything he can to isolate her from her family and being a King rather than a Dingle was a strong symbol of that. He tried to take control of the wedding and became angry when the Dingles took over proceedings.
On the wedding night he sulked and left Belle to sleep on her own downstairs, and in textbook gaslighting style pretended not to know what was amiss the next day.
Eden Taylor-Draper has warned that as this storyline plays out, Belle’s ordeal is going to get much worse.
‘Belle has no idea what is coming. Soaps can show behind the public face of a relationship. I think it’s the best thing as a viewer as you have a sneak peek behind closed doors. And actually things like this could be going on behind many closed doors to some degree,’ she told us.
In episodes to be aired soon, Tom is irritable as Belle insists that she wants to wait a while before having children.
She wants to focus more on work, but Tom is trying to control that, too. Suzy (Martelle Edinborough) is surprised to see her working on the reception desk at the vet’s and mentions that she offered her a job at Take A Vow.
Belle is completely unaware of this job offer and is angry when she hears that Suzy asked Tom to pass on a message about it and he didn’t.
She covers for Tom with Suzy, but later confronts her husband about not passing on the message. As he’s always managed to do so far, Tom manages to talk her round.
What he hasn’t managed to do is put her off the job at Take A Vow and she happily accepts Suzy’s offer. Tom, however, is not happy – and he’s absolutely fuming when Suzy innocently refers to Belle’s first client as her ‘perfect match.’
How will Tom react to this? How worried should we be for Belle?
