Chapter Eleven
Little happened over the next few days as Katy continued to work her way through the rooms at Oak Lodge, systematically clearing and tidying, while Mrs. Brooks spent most of her time in the garden. Emlyn, who was dealing with a backlog of clients, was too busy to visit. Instead he telephoned each evening, ostensibly to enquire after his mother but actually to talk to Katy, and after a couple of false starts she found herself looking at the clock and willing it to ring.
Although he was so busy catching up on his work that it was midnight before he packed his papers away most nights, it wasn’t the only reason Emlyn was keeping his distance. He was experienced enough to know that Katy needed time to come to terms with her feelings, time that she wouldn’t get if he was within touching distance, so he curbed his impatience and concentrated on wooing her with words.
“I’ll be free by the weekend,” he promised her. “And then I’ll show you exactly how serious I am about you Katy Gray, but only if you promise not to scrape your hair back into that ridiculous bun when you’re with me.”
“It’s not ridiculous it’s…it’s professional,” she told him indignantly and then stopped talking altogether as he told her exactly what he’d do to each and every hair grip if he had to take them out himself. By the time he finished he was so aroused by the picture he’d painted that he nearly gave in to his need to see her…nearly, but not quite, because he could hear his mother humming under her breath as she pottered about in the background, and as he said goodnight he wondered, for the umpteenth time, how he was ever going to get Katy alone.
As it happened, the opportunity arose sooner than he expected and without him having to do a thing about it. When he rang Katy on Friday evening she told him that Mrs. Tomlins had invited his mother to spend the following day with her. “Apparently there’s a flower festival at the church and someone is coming to judge the village gardens too. She says your mother always used to be involved so if it’s okay with me, she’s happy to take her so I can have some time to myself.”
“And is it okay with you?” His mouth went dry at the thought of being alone with Katy.
"I think so,” her answer was little more than a whisper because she knew what he was really asking her.
* * *
Saturday morning was bright and clear, and as Katy waved goodbye to Mrs. Brooks, her heart lifted. Although she wasn’t sure what the day would bring she did know she wanted to see Emlyn again. With this thought in mind she took the stairs to her bedroom two at a time and opened her wardrobe. There weren’t many clothes hanging on the rail because she’d learned to travel light, but amongst them was one of her favorite dresses. It was red and scattered with tiny black spots and she knew it set off her hair and coloring to perfection. With a sigh of satisfaction she pulled it over her head and let it slither onto her hips, luxuriating in the sensuous feel of cool silk on skin already warmed by the early morning sun. Then, happy that it still did the things to her figure that she remembered from the past, she began to brush her hair.
When she opened the door to Emlyn half-an-hour later she was so far removed from her professional persona that for a moment he was speechless. Although her hair was still pulled back from her face the style couldn’t have been more different. With the front caught up in combs and the back a riot of dark curls that hung almost to her waist, she had changed from a sensibly dressed young woman into someone far more exotic. As he leaned forward to kiss her, her black eyes sparked with a promise that set his pulses racing.
“So this is the real Katy Gray,” with reluctance he held her away from him. Now was not the time, however alluring she was.
Her answering smile was hesitant and in it he saw a flicker of doubt. It didn’t surprise him. Why should she believe he was serious about her when all she knew about him so far was that he was short-tempered, over-worked, and hadn’t hesitated to take advantage of her at Corley Hall. He shied away from the memory, not wanting to imagine how it could have been if she hadn’t returned his kiss. She could have slapped him, or complained to Izzie or Jack. She could even have asked one of them to drive her back to Oak Lodge so she could pack up her belongings and resign her job before he abused her further. That he had somehow known she wouldn’t do any of those things didn’t make it any better. He had taken advantage of her, choosing to forget how young and vulnerable she was, and how difficult she might find it to reject him.
Katy stared at him, wondering what had made him pause, and wondering, too, when he was going to take her in his arms and kiss her properly. Was he having second thoughts? Had inviting him to spend time alone with her today been a big mistake? Was he looking for a way to wriggle out of a situation that had only arisen because they were two lonely people with problems who were both in need of affection?
Seeing the questions in her eyes Emlyn pushed his own doubts to the back of his mind and concentrated on Katy. “How does a picnic sound?”
Relieved that he at least had a plan, she smiled again, and this time she was more confident. “A picnic sounds lovely. Do you want me to pack up some food?”
He shook his head with a wry inward smile as he compared her reaction to that of the women he’d gone out with in the past; women to whom a picnic was anathema unless it comprised champagne, foie gras and exotic cheeses and fruits at the very least; women whose remit certainly didn’t include preparing sandwiches.
“I’ve already asked Connie at the Corley Arms to make up a picnic basket up for us.”
* * *
Katy didn’t begin to relax until, picnic collected and stashed on the rear seat of Emlyn’s car, they left Corley behind them and drove out into the country. Emlyn, seemingly unaware of her tension, kept up an inconsequential flow of conversation as they followed the bends of the river as it wound its way down to the sea.
Soothed by the tone of his voice as much as his words, she slanted a look at him. Although his hair still needed cutting it was less tousled than usual and his clothes were different too. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt instead of his work suit, and without that and his trademark rumpled shirt, undone at the neck and with his tie loosened as if he was trying to escape the confines of his job, he looked younger and more carefree. He looked surprisingly fit too, as if he worked out. Noticing the taut bulge of his biceps as he changed gear she took a deep breath. There was far more to Emlyn Brooks than she’d realized. The thought reawakened her doubts. Why would a big-shot lawyer with an athlete’s body and a glittering career on hold until he had resolved his mother’s problems, be interested in her?
Katy Gray was nobody. She didn’t have a future however much he tried to persuade her otherwise because who, other than someone as desperate as Emlyn, was going to employ her? It was the reason she had dragged back her curls and hidden behind those unnecessary spectacles when she went to interviews. Too many people knew about her failures for her to want to expose the real Katy Gray ever again, and yet here she was with Emlyn, pretending that everything was fine. How could she be so stupid? She was even wearing the same dress she’d worn on the day a journalist had tricked her into answering seemingly innocent questions and then splashed her picture across the front page of the local newspaper, inviting the people of the town where she’d lived all her life to judge her on her looks instead of her professional qualifications. Hugging her elbows she moved away from Emlyn in an unconscious movement. Why on earth had she thought she could trust him when life had already taught her that she couldn’t trust anyone, not even her own parents?
Sensing the downward dip of her emotions Emlyn gave an inward sigh. Kissing Katy Gray might have been much easier than he deserved but winning her heart was going to be a lot more difficult. He decided to confront it head on.
“It’s just a picnic Katy. I thought you’d prefer that to somewhere more public, but if you’d rather we found a country pub then we can. I’ll even take you back home if that’s what you want although I hope it isn’t.”
“No, it’s not. I�
��m sorry. It’s just that I’m not used to people being nice to me. I promise to try to enjoy it.”
He winced at her choice of words. “Good because we’ve arrived. Jack, Tony and I discovered this place when we were boys. It was our favorite campsite and we used to spend days down here, much to the irritation of our families who never knew where to find us.”
“Your childhood sounds very different from mine,” she sounded wistful.
“It was close to idyllic in the summer when I was home from school, not so much when I wasn’t.”
“You went to boarding school?”
“Yes, the same one as Jack. Tony was the lucky one; he got to stay in Corley all year round although he will tell you he was bored if you ask him.”
“But I thought boarding school was meant to be fun…all midnight feasts and adventures.”
He chuckled as he tucked the picnic basket under his arm and locked the car. “You’ve read too many books. It was okay some of the time, especially when I was older and into rugby, but not when I was small. It was…I was really miserable until Jack rescued me. He never said anything about my red eyes when he found me though, he just asked if I wanted to see the blackbird’s nest in a tree at the far end of the cricket pitch.”
“How old were you?”
“About eight I think. Jack is two years older and he recognized me as a small boy he’d seen in the village.”
Katy stared at him. At eight years old she’d been so cosseted and protected by her parents that she’d never even been outside their large and rambling garden on her own. Friends had come in to play with her occasionally, but not often. She couldn’t remember ever sleeping over at someone else’s house either, not even when she was a teenager, because by then her mother had been far too ill for it to even be a possibility, and afterwards she’d been too busy following her father’s dream to pursue any of her own. Walking silently by Emlyn’s side she wondered what she would have been like if she’d had different parents, a mother and a father who wanted more than a quiet, uneventful existence. Would she have been better able to deal with the knocks life had recently thrown at her if she’d had brothers and sisters to share them with, and would she have been more adventurous as well? Maybe she would have dealt with her father better too; even refused to do the nurse training he had so badly wanted her to do but which she’d resisted for months before giving in.
Emlyn glanced at her. “Penny for them?”
She shook her head. “Not worth it. I was just comparing our childhoods. Yours sounds a lot more exciting than mine even if you did hate boarding school.”
He looked slightly shamefaced. “I didn’t hate it, not really, not once I was used to it. I just preferred being at home. Jack did too, although for different reasons. He didn’t miss his family because there was too much unhappiness at Corley Hall after his mother died, but he did miss the estate. He loves the outdoor life, he always did. There’s not much Jack doesn’t know about flowers and plants, or about animals for that matter. He can deliver a fawn as easily as he can train a dog, or plan and plant out a garden. Although running the Corley estate wasn’t what he expected to do when he was growing up, it’s absolutely the right job for him.”
Realizing that Jack’s childhood was so interwoven with Emlyn’s that, if she wanted to find out about the one, then she was going to have to include the other, Katy asked him what Jack’s plans had been. “I know his father and brother died within months of one another because Izzie told me. She didn’t tell me what Jack was doing before he took over the estate though.”
Pausing to help her over a style, he shrugged. “We both had dreams when we were young. I wanted to be a professional rugby player and Jack wanted to be an artist, but then life did what it always does, and got in the way.”
Standing on the style she looked down at him and he saw her eyes rest briefly on his battered nose and the scar that slashed his forehead.
He grinned at her. “It had nothing to do with the slight rearrangement of my features. It was because I broke my neck.”
Her eyes wide with horror, she remained rooted to the spot. “But you might have died or been paralyzed at the very least.”
“Your training hasn’t been in vain Nurse Gray because that’s exactly what the doctor told me when he suggested it was time I stopped playing rugby and found something a little less physical to do.”
“How can you joke about it? Doesn’t the thought of what might have happened haunt you?”
He shook his head. “No, because it didn’t. I’m still all in one piece even if my neck doesn’t turn like it used to, and I wouldn’t have given up a minute of the life I led while I was playing rugby even if I’d known what was going to happen, because I loved it too much. Now are you going to get down or shall I start unpacking the picnic hamper right here?”
Flushing slightly she stepped off the style and waited for him to join her. When he did so he took her hand. “I believe that life is for living Katy, even if I’m making a pretty poor show of it at the moment, and you have to believe that too. You mustn’t let what has happened to you color the rest of your life. Although I wasn’t capable of such a philosophical turn of mind immediately after my accident, I did learn from it.”
“And Jack?”
Pulling her closer, he smiled. “You’ve only got to look at the estate to see how well Jack coped with having his dreams taken away from him. He loves his life. He is an excellent artist though. He painted a portrait of Izzie’s sister a while back and it’s brilliant. I’m not sure if she’s taken it home yet or whether it’s still on display in the Art Centre at the Hall.”
“What about Izzie? Has he painted her?”
“Not sure. He always had a thing about wanting to paint her sister, however. He says she has a very symmetrical face or something. I stopped listening when he went into artist speak.”
“Does she look like Izzie?”
“Not really. Izzie is very attractive, beautiful even, but she’s nothing like Jodie. Actually they’re half-sisters and I believe Jodie looks like their mother while Izzie takes after her father, so when you see them together it’s difficult to believe they’re related at all. Jodie is as dark as Izzie is fair, and she’s inches shorter too.”
He paused and looked down at her. “In fact she looks a bit like you. You’re about the same height and coloring. Apparently both her parents were Italian. Is there any Italian blood in your family history?”
She withdrew her hand as his words struck home. “Italian? No I don’t think so.”
Chapter Twelve
For the next few minutes they walked in silence with Emlyn pondering her sudden change of mood and wondering how to get past it, while Katy wished she hadn’t spoilt things between them. It wasn’t Emlyn’s fault that her ancestry was a no go area.
It was a problem that disappeared the moment they breached a slight incline and, momentarily breathless, stood looking at the view. Stretched out in front of them, the river was a glittering thread winding towards the sea while the sun captured the ripples and danced with them, and overhead the sky was blue and cloudless. Hearing her sharp intake of breath Emlyn smiled down at her.
“Like it?”
“It’s wonderful.” She shook her head, unable to explain how she felt. How the untrammeled view had surprised her into a sense of freedom and optimism, both things that had been missing from her life for a very long time.
As if he understood, Emlyn carried on standing there while she silently absorbed the beauty all around her and wondered why it had taken her all her life to find it.
* * *
Later, sitting on a rug that Emlyn had spread out on the riverbank, she tried to explain. “It surprised me…the view I mean. I wasn’t expecting something so spectacular so close to civilization. I guess it’s because I haven’t travelled much,” she added lamely when he didn’t immediately answer.
He finished unpacking the picnic hamper and poured her a glass of wine before he spoke. Handi
ng it to her he asked a question that had been bothering him for several days. “Don’t you have any other family, a cousin, an aunt, or someone else who could have advised you? Was there no one who could have taken you in when everything fell apart?”
After a moment’s hesitation as she adjusted to the change of subject, she shook her head. “No. I think there was a great-uncle somewhere when I was small but I expect he’s dead by now.”
“So it really was just you and your father after your mother died?”
“Yes. I already told you about my parents and how they never seemed to want anyone else in our lives.”
“I know you did. It’s just very unusual.”
“Yes, well my childhood was unusual. I was home schooled until I was well into my teens, which meant I never went anywhere on my own. I trained in a local hospital too."
“So you really haven’t travelled anywhere much at all?”
She shook her head. “Corley is the furthest I’ve ever been and even that seemed like the back of beyond to me when I first arrived.”
He grinned at her. “That’s because it is the back of beyond.”
She relaxed into a laugh. “So it is. It suits me though because I was brought up in a small town. I don’t think I’d like city life.”
“You’d cope with it better than you think because nothing fazes you. I still remember how you took charge when we found poor Mrs. Tomlins lying in a pool of blood on my mother’s patio.”
“That was easy. Being a nurse is easy. It’s the rest of my life that is difficult…was difficult until I met you,” she amended with a shy smile.
He deliberately misunderstood her. “You must be a masochist if you find working for me and my mother easy.”
Her smile faded. “I didn’t mean that…I…”
Ashamed of himself he reached for her hand. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t tease you. I know what you meant and I promise I’m going to try to make things easier for you but right now let’s forget our problems and just enjoy ourselves.”
Saving Katy Gray (When Paths Meet Book 3) Page 9