Susie heard Marcia come in. She heard their soft murmurs in the kitchen. Then the voices were raised. Then came a crash of splintering crockery.
Should she get up and investigate?
Mind your own business, she told herself, and shoved her pillow over her head so she couldn’t try to eavesdrop.
She didn’t want to know.
She didn’t.
Breaking off his engagement had been as easy as that.
Hamish lay in bed and stared at the ceiling and wondered where to take it from here.
His cell phone rang.
It was three in the morning. Was there an emergency back in the office?
‘Douglas,’ he said crisply into the phone, trying to sound efficient, and there was a sigh down the line that he recognised.
‘You’re not supposed to be working.’
‘Jodie?’
‘You remember me?’ His ex-secretary sounded pleased. ‘Nick said you mightn’t answer the phone if you recognised my number. Are you still in Australia?’
‘Yes,’ he said cautiously. ‘Jodie, it’s three in the morning.’
‘Since when did you need sleep? I’ve just seen your photograph.’
‘My photograph,’ he said blankly.
‘Oh, Hamish, it’s lovely.’
‘Aren’t you supposed to call me Mr Douglas?’ he demanded, and her sigh this time was totally exasperated.
‘I’m not your secretary any more. I’m calling as a friend.’
‘Why?’
‘To tell you I think she looks gorgeous. To say the baby looks really cute and the dog’s amazing and I’ve never seen you look so happy. I opened the magazine and got such a shock that I almost dropped my coffee.’
‘What magazine?’
She told him and he gaped into the stillness. ‘How…?’
‘You’re on the beach,’ she told him. ‘The baby’s asleep at your feet. What’s the dog’s name?’
‘Boris,’ he said, before he could stop himself. His mind was racing. A photograph on the beach. Albert and Honey… It had to be Albert and Honey’s photograph. This was Susie’s doing. She’d told them his real name, they’d have done some research, and now the photograph would be splashed across America.
Did he mind?
‘Is she nice?’ Jodie was asking.
‘Um…yes.’
‘One of the girls from the office told me Marcia was following you.’
‘Marcia’s here. Jodie, what business is it of-?’
‘You see, the thing is that I’m pregnant,’ Jodie said, ignoring his interruption. ‘I thought I was last week and now I’m sure. Nick and I are so happy. But I’m so happy that I want everyone else to be. So I’m worrying about you.’
‘You don’t need to worry about me.’
‘I won’t if you end up with the lady on the beach.’
‘She won’t have me,’ Hamish said before he could stop himself, and there was a breathless pause.
‘You’ve fallen in love,’ Jodie said at last. ‘Oh, Hamish…’
‘She won’t have me.’ It was almost a statement of despair. He was in territory here he didn’t recognise.
‘You haven’t asked her to live in your grey penthouse?’ Jodie said anxiously. ‘She doesn’t look the sort who’d live in a penthouse.’
‘Hell, Jodie, it’s where I live. It’s where I work.’
‘I’ve taken a job as part-time secretary in the church that Nick’s restoring,’ Jodie said as if she hadn’t heard him. ‘The pay’s lousy. Not a lot of prestige there. I’m happy as a pig in mud.’
‘I’m pleased for you. But-’
‘Don’t stuff it, Hamish.’
‘Mr Douglas!’ he roared before he could stop himself, and there was a cautious silence-and then a giggle.
‘You’ve got it bad,’ she said on a note of discovery. ‘Oh, I’m so pleased I phoned. Nick said I was butting in where I wasn’t wanted but I so wanted to know, and now I do. I’ll ring you back in a few days and find out the next installment. Don’t stuff it. And don’t shove your penthouse down her throat.’
Where was sleep after that? Nowhere. The castle was almost eerie in its stillness. At five Hamish rose and went out into the bushland behind the garden. He walked the trails in the moonlight, calling over and over again.
‘Taffy?’
If he could find her…
He wasn’t sure what that might mean. He only knew that Susie was holding herself under rigid control and he needed to break through it. Somehow. If he could find Taffy, he could offer to buy a house on the coast, commuter distance from work. He could see Susie there, but the loneliness thing was an issue. She’d need a dog.
He could buy her a dog but Taffy would be better.
Taffy was dead.
But there was a tiny part of him that was refusing to accept the pup’s death. It was the logical conclusion and he’d spent his entire life trying to be logical, but he’d just let this tiny chink of inconsistency prevail. Just for now.
‘Taffy…’
He didn’t find her. Of course he didn’t find her. Logic was the way to approach the world. Logic was always right. Emotion…well, it had no place in his life. Did it?
There was a bruise on the side of his head that said emotion was happening whether he encouraged it or not.
Somehow he had to persuade Susie anyway, but by the time he conceded defeat and returned to the castle, he knew he was too late.
The castle was alive with people. Half Dolphin Bay seemed to be there. Kirsty was presiding over the kitchen, issuing orders. A mountain of luggage was piled in the hallway. Susie was behind a mug of coffee, with half a dozen women sitting around her.
She looked up as Hamish entered. Their eyes met-and he saw a tiny flicker of hope die behind her eyes.
‘You didn’t find her.’
She knew what he’d been doing. She wasn’t being logical either. She was still hoping.
Someone had to see things as they were. ‘No.’ He spread his hands, helpless. ‘Susie…’
‘Hamish, can you help Jake load gear into the car?’ Kirsty asked, sounding as if she was annoyed with him, and he met her gaze and knew he was right. She was seriously displeased. ‘It’s like a huge jigsaw puzzle. How we’re going to fit everything in, I don’t know.’
‘Sure.’
‘And what happened to Mrs Jacobsen’s casserole?’ Kirsty asked.
‘I took a dislike to it. Tell Mrs Jacobsen I’ll buy her ten more. Susie, can I talk to you?’
But Susie was no longer looking at him. ‘I’m leaving in half an hour and I have all my friends to say goodbye to,’ she whispered. ‘Hamish, we said everything we needed to say last night. There’s nowhere else to go.’
‘Susie, you’re way over the limit for cabin baggage.’ It was Jake, appearing at the door and looking exasperated. ‘Rose can’t need all these toys.’
‘One’s Hippo, one’s Evangeline and one’s Ted. They’re all too precious to be entrusted to the cargo hold.’
‘You’ll have to repack,’ Jake said, trying to sound stern. ‘Evangeline weighs two kilos. Two kilos for a toy
