‘Please…’ Jess whispered as she gripped the wheel and turned into the Mountmarche vineyard and her plea was for two things in varying degrees of urgency.
Please let Matilda live.
That was the big request.
But there was another, niggling behind.
Please let me not make a fool of myself here and get out of this time with Niall Mountmarche with my heart and my pride intact…
Niall and Paige beat her home.
Jess emerged from her car to find Paige almost running across the yard toward her, crutches flying.
‘Hey, whoa…‘ Jess caught the child in her arms and lifted her high. ‘You’re supposed to be careful.’
‘Not when you’re coming.’ Paige looked behind to where her father was watching with lazy amusement. ‘Aren’t we pleased to see her, Daddy?’
‘Very pleased,’ Niall drawled with his lazy smile and Jess burned crimson.
‘I…I can’t stay long.’
‘Daddy said he bet you couldn’t,’ Paige nodded. ‘But come inside and have a cookie. They’re really, really good!’
‘They’re even edible,’ Niall grinned and somehow Jess found herself smiling.
The tension eased.
It eased even more when they went inside. Hugo was already settled behind the tea kettle. The elderly man seemed almost a grandfather figure to Paige and it was clear that he regarded the child in the same light. He smiled at Jess and made her welcome but he clucked over Paige with the anxiety of a mother hen.
‘You’ve been good for Paige, Dr Harvey,’ he told her with just a trace of a French accent. ‘She’s more cheerful now than since her dad found her.’
Jess didn’t have to answer. She was finding it hard to concentrate on anything other than Niall’s presence beside her at the table but the conversation flowed over and around her and she wasn’t pressured.
It was as if they were all giving her time to acclimatise.
Hugo and Niall talked easily about the vines. There were problems with water here too, it seemed, and Hugo was concerned about the spring growth. Jess listened with half an ear while Paige chattered like a butcher’s magpie and ate chocolate chip cookies like there was no tomorrow.
Paige seemed a different child.
‘You’re hardly eating any,’ Paige complained as the child finished off her third. ‘Aren’t they delicious?’
‘Delicious,’ Jess agreed. ‘But-’ she cast a nervous glance at Niall as if expecting him to disagree with her ‘-I really have to go.’
She stood and the men stood with her.
‘I’ll take you out to the car,’ Paige said importantly but Niall shook his head.
‘Six o’clock, Paige, love,’ he told her. ‘Time for a bath.’
‘But…’
‘No buts.‘ Niall pointed to the clock. ‘We don’t argue about the rules.’
‘I’ll run it for her,’ Hugo said and made his way out to the passage. ‘After you, Paige, lass.’
They stumped off down the passage and Jess and Niall were left alone.
‘I suppose that seems hard,’ Niall told Jess. He hadn’t moved from where he’d risen but was watching Jessie’s face. ‘When Paige first came to us she fought us all the way. It was one long scream to have her do anything. We got over it by writing our schedule up on a noticeboard and sticking to it absolutely. Every night at six Paige knows she has a bath, come hell or high water. It seems to work.’
‘I’ve pulled you out of routine, then.’
‘You have at that.’ Niall’s eyes locked on hers across the table. ‘And the hard part is that it seems it’s changed things for the better.’
‘What do you mean?’
His eyes smiled at her, fatigue in their depths as well as humour. ‘Hugo and I have been fighting a losing battle-but all of a sudden we seem to have turned a corner. Since her day with you, Paige has been…well, she’s been a child again.’
‘I’m glad.’
‘I don’t know whether I am or not,’ Niall confessed. ‘It seems we were doing the wrong thing, keeping her isolated.’
‘I’d guess you weren’t,’ Jess said softly. ‘For a start, Paige’s illness must have demanded a period of quiet Now…Now Paige has you as her base and she’s finding the world again. With luck she’ll go from strength to strength.’ She hesitated. ‘Her legs…How bad are they?’
‘They’re stronger every day. With luck, and with Geraldine’s help, she’ll walk without aids. She’s been very lucky.’
‘I’m glad about that too,’ Jess said warmly. ‘I’d have hated to have interfered for nothing.’
‘You interfered to get a doctor for your precious island.’ His eyes watched hers for a reaction.
‘That’s right. I did.’
Jess agreed with him swiftly. If Niall thought he was goading her to argument he was mistaken. Punctilious courtesy and then fast flight. She took a deep breath. ‘Thank you for the coffee, Dr Mountmarche. I must go.’
‘I’d like to show you the winery.’
Jess licked suddenly dry lips. ‘Some other time…’
‘Scared?’
Her eyes flashed up to his. ‘Y-yes,’ she confessed. The word was out before she could stop it.
‘Why?’ Niall leaned back against the kitchen bench, arms folded, surveying her with interest.
‘It’s none…’
‘Of my business?’ He smiled. ‘You’re wrong there, Dr Harvey. You’ve elected me medical superintendent for the island and, as such, the welfare of every islander is, by definition, my concern. Mental as well as physical. So spill the beans, Dr Harvey.’
‘There’s nothing to spill.’ Jess walked two steps towards the door but Niall was faster than she. He cut her off at the pass-somewhere between table and door.
‘I think there is,’ he said gently. His hands fell onto her shoulders and he gripped hard. ‘You concern yourself with the well-being of my small daughter, Dr Harvey, but you cut me out like I’m a real threat. My daughter has been frightened of me-but that’s fading. She’s five years old and not used to a male figure. I can understand her fear. What’s your excuse?’
‘I don’t have one,’ Jessie whispered. ‘Please…Let me go.’
He shook his head. Releasing her shoulders he stood, his body still blocking her path and his dark eyes trying to read hers.
‘I don’t understand what’s driving you, Dr Harvey,’ he said slowly. ‘You’re not an islander. Why, then, did you decide to practise here? It’s hardly a profitable veterinary practice.’
‘It pays well enough.’
‘Does it?’ His eyebrows rose in mock surprise. ‘I heard the quote you gave Ray Benn for treating his horse. You’d be lucky to cover the cost of the drugs. There isn’t any leeway in there for profit.’
‘What I charge is my business.’
‘But it seems our life is your business,’ he said gravely. He held out his hand. ‘Come on, Jess. I want to take you round the vineyard.’
Jess looked at his hand. It was an imperative gesture, demanding her to respond. To place her hand in his.
‘I don’t want to,’ she whispered.
‘I’m not going to threaten you, Jessie,’ Niall said gently and the hand remained outstretched. ‘I’m just going to walk you along the rows of grapes and practise saying, “These are shiraz grapes and these my uncle intended last year for dry semillon only the boutris affected area was so large he ended up making noble rot instead”-and generally sounding like a wine-grower extraordinaire. Indulge me, Jess.’
The hand stayed outstretched.
‘I…’ She looked at the hand. ‘No.’
