‘Paige’s mother and I had an affair just as I finished medical school,’ Niall said at last and it was as if he was talking to himself and Jess had ceased to exist. ‘It was a typical university love affair. I was a bit keen on marriage but Karen…Well, Karen was a free spirit. She was into alternative lifestyles and freedom of spirit even then and found my medicine anathema.
‘On our last night we had a fight about holistic medicine versus traditional and she walked out. For a while I worried about her but I was young and, well, there were other women and a medical career to pursue. Karen was part of my dim distant student days. Until…’
‘Until?’
‘Four months ago I had a call from a Buddhist monk in Nepal. Karen had stayed in a monastery there-heaven knows how or why-and when she left Karen abandoned Paige to the monks because the child was too ill to walk. Paige was just five years old. Karen didn’t ask the monks’ permission-just did a bunk when Paige’s illness got frightening. Like your Dr Hurd.’
‘Just left her daughter?’ Jessie sucked in her breath in horror.
‘I told you,’ Niall said grimly. ‘Karen’s a free spirit. I’ve found out since that Paige has been farmed out with obliging friends all over the world since her birth. Karen looked after her when it suited her image to have a sweet little girl by her side. The only decent thing I can say about Karen is that she has some good-hearted friends.’
‘But when Paige became ill…Surely…’
‘Karen dumped her because the responsibility would have scared her stiff. Not her style-to play nursing mother. I honestly don’t know how Paige avoided an orphanage before this.’ Niall’s hands clenched. ‘It might have been better for Paige if she’d been institutionalised. At least she would have had Sabine vaccine…’
‘And not had polio.’
Niall nodded. His eyes were still far away.
‘And when she became ill?’ Jess prodded.
Niall shrugged. ‘She was very ill, very fast. The monks were worried. A child-especially a desperately ill Western child with no relations in the country-is a heavy responsibility. They carried Paige down to the nearest hospital and from there she was transferred to Kathmandu. She was diagnosed as having polio almost immediately.’
‘And how did they find you?’
‘She had a small suitcase-pathetic really. Just nothing. No forwarding address for Karen. Not even a soft toy or some reminder of the past. Karen wouldn’t have been bothered with a child’s belongings. There was only the child’s passport and on the passport Karen had scrawled my name and the address I used as a student. Under the relationship section she’d stated I was Paige’s father.
‘So one of the monks, and I’ll bless him forever, took it on himself to find me.’
Jess licked suddenly dry lips. ‘And you are…you are Paige’s father?’
‘Oh, I’m her father all right,’ Niall said grimly. ‘Her birth date fits. Paige is my daughter and I never knew.’ His hands clenched again in the soap suds. ‘What gets me is that Karen must have known she was pregnant when she left…’
Niall stared sightlessly out of the window and his hands stilled. ‘I never even knew she was pregnant,’ he said bleakly. ‘Karen would have thought it was a wonderfully free-spirited thing to do. Bearing a baby on her own. The only trouble is that Karen would have been trying so hard to appear hip and cool and free that the responsibilities of a child would have come last.’
‘And Paige hasn’t seen her mother since Nepal?’ Jess asked softly.
‘Karen won’t come back.’ Niall’s voice was definite. ‘She rang the hospital once-once!-and asked how Paige was. They told her Paige’s legs were affected and Karen couldn’t get off the phone fast enough. “You’ll know what to do,” she told the interpreter and hung up. I can’t imagine Karen facing a polio-affected daughter-and acknowledging it’s her fault for not having Paige vaccinated.’
‘So…So where did that leave you-and Paige?’ Jess asked.
‘In a mess.’ Niall ran fingers through his thick, black hair and soap suds went through as well. He didn’t notice.
‘Paige wasn’t registered at birth as being my daughter so even getting her back into England was a problem. I eventually underwent DNA testing and proved who I was. That, the monk’s testimony of Karen’s abandonment and some good friends in high places made her legally my daughter. Proving parentage, though, was just the beginning.’
‘I can imagine.’
‘No,’ Niall said bluntly. ‘You can’t. You can’t imagine how hard it is to try and establish a relationship with a child who’s never had a father. Her only permanent adult has been transient, to say the least, and she’s now abandoned Paige completely. Paige has had to cope with that, plus the pain of polio and these damned callipers. I was at my wits’ end to know what to do-and then my uncle died.’
‘Louis?’
‘Louis.’ Niall’s voice softened a little. ‘Louis Mountmarche was my father’s brother and there was a family rift My father married an Irish girl-hence my name. When he and Louis fell out my father left the family wine business and settled in London. Wine growing, though, was supposed to be my heritage but the first contact I had with it was a lawyer’s letter saying Louis was dead.’
‘He must have been fond of you-to leave you the vineyard.’
Niall’s eyes grew bleak and distant. ‘I doubt he was fond of anything. Except his dog. His will left instructions that I care for the dog.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ Jess said softly. ‘And, Niall, the dog was so old-and so distressed-I had to put him down.’
Niall smiled then, a self-mocking smile tinged with pain. ‘I suppose so. It was just frustration that made me lash out at you…’
‘So you brought Paige here to get to know her and to give her a chance to know her father,’ Jess said thoughtfully.
‘It seemed as good a place as any. She’s frightened of people. She’s still frightened of me. I thought…Well, if there was only she and I and Hugo-for however long it takes…’
‘Hugo?’
Niall smiled again. ‘Taking on vineyards full time is hardly ideal with a convalescent daughter. Hugo is my father’s cousin. He’s always taken an interest in me-and he knows wine backwards. This place has a worldwide reputation-so we decided he’d keep it running.’
‘And the awful signs on the boundary…’
‘TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT?’ Niall shrugged. ‘They were already there and seemed as good a way as any of keeping to ourselves. Until Paige accepts me.’
‘But it’s not working, is it, Dr Mountmarche?’ Jess said slowly. ‘Your plan.’
‘No.’
Short. Blunt. Savage with pain.
‘Why not?’
‘She has these damned nightmares,’ Niall said harshly. ‘There’s nothing I can do to stop them and when she wakes she shakes and sobs, sometimes for hours on end. I’ve tried everything-including sedation.’ He shrugged. ‘What you saw is her fastest recovery time yet-and it wasn’t with me. It was with you. A stranger.’
Jess nodded. ‘Her illness,’ she said slowly. ‘She is convalescing?’
‘Yes. She still has major residual weakness in her legs but we’re working on that.’
‘We?’
‘Paige and I.’
‘Is that uncomfortable?’ Jess asked slowly. ‘Physiotherapy to keep twisted limbs straight? I’ve always thought…’
‘It’s a long and painful process. You’re right.’ Niall frowned. ‘I’m capable of the physiotherapy needed-but she hates it.’
‘You know,’ Jess said slowly, ‘when I’m treating a really frightened animal-one I think stress levels could kill- and it needs an injection or a dressing removed I always try either to have someone else do it or do it in such a way that it can’t see me.’
Niall frowned. ‘You’re saying that if I hurt Paige she won’t trust me?’
