three deep breaths and a holiday.
Niall Mountmarche wasn’t on holiday.
The island’s medical superintendent was waiting for her, sitting on a fallen log behind the hospital car park. Heaven knew how long he’d been there. He had the air of a man in no hurry at all.
As she pulled to a halt he rose and walked slowly towards her.
Niall stopped at the car-park barrier.
‘Jess…’ His voice was a caress.
Jess closed her car door with a bang and locked it with careful deliberation. ‘I don’t want to see you,’ she said, her back turned to him.
‘Why not?’
‘If you don’t know, you should.’ She took a deep breath and turned, bag in hand, to walk down the path into the building. Niall blocked her path.
‘Jess, Hugo told me…’
‘Told you what?’ Jess stopped dead, cold anger welling through. She felt so betrayed that it made her feel sick. ‘That I was upset? Did he tell you that he told me the truth? And I didn’t like it?’
‘Jess, let me explain.’
‘There’s nothing to explain. Let me past.’
He gripped her shoulders and stopped her pushing by. She was no match for his strength. One hard shove told her that. Finally she stopped pushing-instead, standing still and rigid-steeling herself not to respond to him.
‘I think there is.’
‘No.’ She fought back stupid, betraying tears of weakness. ‘Dr Mountmarche, does or does not the vineyard belong to Paige?’
‘Yes, it does. But…’
‘The whole island believes it’s yours. And you let them believe that.’
‘It was easier that way,’ Niall told her. ‘Jess, it’ll create problems for Paige…If her mother finds out…’
‘You mean it’ll create problems for you,’ Jess spat. ‘Maybe even a custody battle. Was I to be the insurance?’
His face stilled. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘It’ll be easier to keep Paige-keep the vineyard-if you have a nice docile little wife living on the island,’ Jess whispered. ‘Wouldn’t it?’
His face darkened with incredulity. ‘I didn’t think that.’ His grip tightened so much it hurt. ‘Not for a moment. Jess…’
‘You want to go back to England?’
‘I don’t know,’ he told her. ‘My medicine’s important to me and with two doctors already on the island I can’t see any permanent place for me here. I can write but I don’t want to lose my medicine completely. But Paige is important, Jess. Once she’s settled and happy, if I have to go then she’ll come with me. And I hope…Jess, I hope you, too…I won’t leave you.’
‘Pull the other leg,’ Jess said crudely. ‘It plays “Jingle Bells”. Let me past, Niall Mountmarche. I want nothing to do with you or your corrupt little schemes.’
‘You have to believe me, Jess.’
‘I don’t,’ Jess said bluntly.
She met his look and anger met anger.
The incredulous expression in Niall’s eyes was slowly hardening to a cold, hard contempt.
‘There has to be trust, Jess.’
‘Well, there isn’t. I’ve seen what men can do and I don’t want any part of it.’
‘You can’t compare me with that…with…’
‘I do,’ Jess spat. ‘John Talbot. Barry Simmons. Niall Mountmarche. Underneath, they’re a type. Well, I’m damned if I’ll spend the rest of my life with men like that. You…you talked Ethel Simmons out of being a victim. I have only myself to get me out of this mess. And I will. Now get out of my way, Niall Mountmarche, before I scream blue murder. Now!’
The hostility in her own eyes was reflected in his. There was tight-lipped fury.
‘If you think I’m capable of that, there’s no more to be said,’ he said harshly. He released her so fast that she almost staggered.
There was a long moment of silence. Jess met his look unflinchingly.
Then, finally…finally, Niall Mountmarche stood to one side of the path, giving her room to pass.
‘We had it all, Jess…’
Jess shook her head as she made her feet walk past him.
‘We had nothing.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
IT WAS a night of loneliness.
A night of pain.
A night so long that Jess never wanted to go through it again in her life.
Jess somehow managed to get through her normal tasks. She drove out to the Benns’ to help settle the little mare in her new home, hoping that it might help ease the hollow ache inside-but nothing would.
Nothing.
She lay in the dark in the empty hospital and she’d never felt so alone in her life.
When the telephone rang at three a.m. it was almost a relief.
She’d rather have a difficult calving in the middle of a paddock than this awful emptiness.
It wasn’t a sick cow.
It was Sergeant Russell, sounding anxious.
‘Jess, are you safely locked up there?’
Jess frowned. She leaned over and switched on her bed light.
‘What…? How do you mean?’
‘Barry Simmons is out.’
‘Barry…’ Jess frowned. ‘You mean he got bail?’
‘I don’t mean anything of the sort,’ the sergeant said wearily. ‘There was a car crash over the other side of the island. Drunk teenagers. No damage to themselves but a lot of property damage. I had to go. Barry must have heard me go and used the opportunity to fool Marie.’
Marie…The sergeant’s wife.
‘What happened?’
‘He started screaming blue murder five minutes after I left. Said his hand was killing him-said the bandages the doc put on his hand were cutting off circulation and his fingers were turning black. When Marie went down to the cells he made out he was having some sort of convulsion-grabbed his hand, choked and fell over like he was unconscious. So…’ He sighed. ‘So she broke every rule in the book and went in. And he hit her and took off.’
‘Is she all right?’ Jess asked anxiously.
‘Sore, sorry for herself and feeling stupid,’ the policeman told her. ‘But he locked her in the cell and she was there for an hour till I got home. So, now…Well, I guess he’ll probably head home. I’ll go there now.’
Jessie’s heart missed a beat. She should have taken the Rottweiler out of harm’s way. ‘Sergeant, Kiro…Ethel’s dog’s there. Barry threatened to kill it.’
‘Yeah. He’s angry enough to do anything,’ the sergeant said. ‘The only worry is, he’s furious at Ethel. He knows she’s laid charges and I didn’t tell him she’s left the island for Sydney.’
‘You didn’t tell him…?’
‘I haven’t been able to get within earshot of him for abuse since he found out Ethel was laying charges,’ the sergeant said. ‘I couldn’t have told him even if I’d wanted to. Which I didn’t,’ he said fairly. ‘After treating Ethel the way he has the least he knows about her whereabouts the better. But now…’ He sighed.
