Saving Katy Gray (When Paths Meet Book 3)

by Sheila Claydon

  Smiling, Emlyn pointed to where his parents were sitting in the shade of a large oak tree while they waited for the Bella Blue concert to start. Alice was there too and so was Paul, so he and Katy were free to wander at will across the Corley Estate while the rest of his family savored their last few days together before his sister flew back to Australia.

  Katy looked longingly after Mrs. Tomlins as she walked away. If the DNA test was positive would she love Katy as much as the rest of Jack and Izzie’s extended family, or would she see the blood tie for what it really was, just a mix of genes, not a code into an instant relationship. Emlyn glanced down at her and frowned. Much as he wanted today to be about enjoying themselves, and at the same time letting the people of Corley know that thanks to Katy, he was a changed man, he knew it wasn’t possible. Until she received the results of the DNA tests she, Jodie and Izzie had taken two days previously, she wouldn’t be able to relax.

  As if she knew what he was thinking, she looked up at him. “I’m sorry I’m not better company Emlyn. I know you want today to be special but I just can’t stop thinking about the test. Although I’m frightened it’s going to be negative, I’m just as nervous about it being positive because, if it is, what then? Will Jodie and Izzie really want me to be part of their family, or will finding me just help them forget the tragedy of their past and move on?”

  Emlyn, who had already learned about Izzie’s sleepless nights from Jack, shook his head. “They are just as nervous as you are sweetheart, which is why it’s better that you all stay apart until the results come through.”

  “I guess. When I said goodbye to them after the test, Izzie did tell me she and Jodie had agreed not to talk about it at all once they got back to Corley Hall. She said they couldn’t because every time they did, they both got upset. She also said that whatever the result of the test, we’ll all get together next week.”

  “Very sensible. Now do you think you can do the same?”

  “What…stop talking about it you mean? I’ll try, I really will,” she gave him a tremulous smile.

  He squeezed her fingers sympathetically. “Good because there are some people I want you to meet. People I used to work with in the city.”

  Pulling him to a halt she shook her head. “I can’t Emlyn. I wouldn’t know what to say to them.”

  “Really! So you’re going to take a vow of silence when we live in London are you?"

  She stared at him. “Who said anything about moving to London together. I’m staying here in Corley so I can look after your parents, and you’re coming down each weekend. You know that’s what we agreed.”

  “No it isn’t. I said I’d travel down every weekend until we’ve sold Dad’s business and Oak Lodge, and found somewhere more suitable for them to live, somewhere where there’s help when Mum gets worse. Once we’re sure they’ve settled in, we’re moving to London.”

  Fear clenched at Katy’s stomach. “I can’t do that,” she whispered, suddenly overcome by all the things that were happening in her life.

  “Why not? You’ll have to get used to cities sometime Katy, and London is one of the best I promise you. Besides, I’ll be there to help you find your feet, and we’ll come back to Corley often, to see everyone.”

  “But what about my job?”

  “What about it?”

  “I won’t be able to get one in London, not with my employment history.”

  Leading her behind a towering horse chestnut tree so that she was hidden from view from most of the visitors who were milling about the estate, he put his hands either side of her, trapping her against its wide trunk.

  “Stop worrying. You’ll be fine. I already told you that, at the same time I told you that you are definitely going to get some money back from the odious man who defrauded your father.”

  “I know you did, but it doesn’t make any difference. I still feel tainted by everything that happened.”

  “You mean unless you have your hair pinned back and are wearing those ridiculous spectacles I’ve hidden away, you won’t have the courage to apply for a new job.”

  “Something like that, and especially in London,” she looked away so she wouldn’t have to see the frustration in his eyes.

  Emlyn wasn’t frustrated though. For once she’d read him wrong. He was worried. How was he going to draw her out into the wider world when all she craved was the security of a small village like Corley where nobody was interested in the jobs she’d had in the past, or in her plans for the future either.

  “You’re so wrong Katy. You’ll be fine in London. Surely you can see how competent you are and how you cope with things. Without you I hate to think where my family would be now. You’ve saved all of us, you know you have, so now it’s my turn to save you.”

  “How are you going to do that when I’m too scared to leave Corley,” she asked him, her eyes clouded with tears.

  “Easy. First I’m going to kiss you, and then I’m going to take you over to meet my work colleagues so they can see how lucky I am, and so you can learn that none of them bite.”

  * * *

  “They don’t do they?” Katy said as they watched the spotlights pick out the musicians one by one, so they could each play a short piece before Izzie came onto the stage and the audience forgot about them.

  “Who doesn’t do what?” Emlyn asked as he searched through the crowd for his family. Then, satisfied that they were still altogether, he concentrated on what she was saying.

  “Your friends…they don’t bite.”

  He smiled at her. “Told you!”

  “Do you think they realized I was pretending they were all new patients in my virtual hospital and that I was trying to help them settle in by putting them at ease.”

  His roar of disbelieving laughter made the people sitting around them smile. They smiled too when he slipped his arm around her shoulders and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

  “You’ve always got a solution Katy Gray, now shush because Izzie is about to appear. She lets Marcus come on first and take his place at the piano, and then she makes her entrance. Get ready for it because everyone here is going to go wild.”

  * * *

  Unable to believe what she was seeing, Katy gave herself up to the music that was pounding out from the huge sound system at the side of the stage and listened, mesmerized, as Izzie sang. She already had some of her CDs and she had watched one of her early concerts on TV, long before she left school, but she had never before experienced the raw energy of live music.

  “She’s amazing,” she shouted, trying to make herself heard above the rhythmic beat of the drums as Izzie paused for breath.

  Emlyn grinned at her. This was the real Katy; she just didn’t know it yet. Her reclusive parents, the home schooling, a mother who had been ill for most of her teenage years, these were the things that had made her cautious and careful. They had made her kind and patient too, which was why she was a good nurse, but ever since they’d first met he had known there was something simmering underneath, an eagerness for life that she kept hidden from the outside world.

  If was younger and less experienced he might not have noticed it. He might not have seen beyond the heavy spectacles of the stern looking young woman who he’d interviewed to the girl who needed to be loved. He might not have had the arrogance to override her fears either, by insisting she meet his work colleagues. He smiled to himself as he remembered how she had enchanted all of them earlier in the evening, and how he had been the recipient of a great many envious glances as she chatted to every one of them, and his smile widened still further when he remembered how she had done it. Patients in a virtual hospital indeed! If she could do that and get away with it then she could do anything. Settling into his seat for the second half of the concert he decided that even though they still had a lot to sort out, life was going to be very exciting with Katy Gray.

  * * *

  The second half of the concert was quieter and more thoughtful as first Marcus played a pian
o solo, and then Izzie joined him for a soulful duet before segueing into songs from her new album, songs that were new to most of the audience and which were greeted with wave after wave of applause when she finished.

  “I don’t want this to end,” Katy whispered as the lights dimmed for the final number.

  “Me either,” Emlyn replied, wondering, as he pulled her close, why he suddenly and desperately wanted to make love to her. Was it the music or was it what it was doing to Katy? Something had happened to her as she listened to Izzie and he knew it had nothing to do with her newfound confidence. It was the music itself that was affecting her, making her sit forward on her chair, her eyes bright with anticipation while her body swayed to every beat.

  Watching her, he forgot to watch Izzie. He heard the words of her final song though and they were all about love and togetherness, and as he listened something inside him bled for Katy. Would he be enough for her if the DNA results were negative and she found herself without a family or any knowledge of her birth parents all over again? Although she was trying hard to be realistic, he knew she desperately wanted Izzie and Jodie to be her sisters, however difficult bonding with them might prove to be, and he silently cursed the tardiness of the testing laboratory as he joined in with the applause.

  Coming to the front of the stage Izzie held up her hands, her corn colored hair a golden halo in the spotlight. “Thank you. Thank you everyone for coming this evening and helping us to raise money, yet again, for the organizations that work with people with autism. And thank you, too, for your enthusiasm for all my old songs, although I hope you enjoyed the new ones just as much because if you didn’t then I’m really going to have to find a new job.”

  She paused, waiting until the clapping and the laughter died down, then she raised her hands again. “Just now I received a very important piece of news that I’ve been waiting for, and before you go I’d like to share it with you. Somewhere out there is my sister, Jodie Lewis. You all know Marcus Lewis, her husband, because he’s not only right here on stage with me, he’s written some of the most successful film scores of all time. You probably know, too, that without his support in the early years of my career I’d never have made it. Jodie, however, likes to keep a low profile, so few of you will know who she is. Well I’m just about to change that because although she’ll hate me for doing this to her, she’s about to join me on stage.”

  As she finished speaking a second spotlight searched the crowd until it found where Jodie was sitting with her daughters and several of Izzie’s friends. Laughing, they pulled her from her seat and gently pushed her towards the stage where Jack, with a murmur of explanation, met her and led her up the steps and across to where Izzie was standing.

  “If there weren’t so many people watching I might just kill you,” she muttered, trying and failing not to smile.

  “Don’t worry, Katy will be happy to help you in a minute,” Izzie told her, her face alight with laughter. Then she turned back to an audience that was still applauding despite not knowing why. Smiling, she held up her hands for a third time.

  “Please save that for later because I haven’t quite finished yet. There is one more person in the audience who is going to join me on stage, my other sister, Katy Gray. Where are you Katy? Jodie and I need you up here with us.”

  The spotlight began to play across the audience again but Emlyn didn’t wait for it to find Katy. Instead, he picked her up and lifted her across the people in front of him, right into Jack’s waiting arms. He’d seen him leave the stage and make his way across to where they were sitting and he’d guessed what was coming next, and because he and Katy were sitting right in the middle of a crowd of people, he knew that it was the only way to get her to the stage quickly.

  Totally disorientated, Katy struggled in Jack’s arms. When he reached a gap between the seats, he put her down, accompanied by the applause of the people around them. “It’s all right, Jodie is already moving in for the kill so you’ll have company in the cells afterwards,” he whispered.

  Meeting his eyes she saw the message in them and immediately her confusion cleared. Grabbing his hand she pleaded with him. “Is it really true Jack? Please tell me.”

  He smiled at her. “That’s Izzie’s job, not mine. Come on because she and Jodie are waiting for you.”

  Katy never remembered running across the grass and clambering up onto the stage. Instead she remembered Izzie’s smile and Jodie’s tears, and how their hands seemed to fit hers as she stood between them and listened to the applause that went on and on after Izzie had finished their story. When it finally began to die down Marcus started to play the piano and instantly the crowd was quiet.

  “Tonight, in honor of Katy, and with thanks to whatever gods brought her to Corley, I want to sing one more song, and this time you can all join in.” Izzie’s voice was husky as she addressed the crowd for one final time and then, still holding Katy’s hand tightly in her own, she started to sing a popular song about the love between sisters.

  With a ripple of delight, the audience joined in, and soon the roar of their voices disturbed the few people in Corley who weren’t at the concert. With tears running down their cheeks Jodie and Katy joined in as well, while Emlyn made his way over to his own family and kissed each one of them, even Paul, who for once didn’t make a single joke about anything.

  Epilogue

  “So which is it to be, red or purple?” Emlyn asked as he sprawled his long legs out in front of him and tossed the newspaper he’d been reading onto the floor.

  “Neither. I’m going for blue.” Katy, who had been studying the color charts that were spread across the floor on the far side of their sitting room, stretched the kink out of her back.

  He groaned. “Preserve me from a woman’s logic. That was the first color you chose.”

  “I know it was, but there was just this little bit of doubt,” she pinched two fingers together then got up and walked over to where he was sitting. “Anyway deciding is fun.”

  “Mmm, if you say so. Personally I’d rather stick pins in my eyeballs than curate an exhibition, so unless it’s absolutely essential that you share the reasoning behind your change of heart, I don’t want to know.”

  Laughing at him, she lowered herself onto his lap and slid her hand under his shirt. He clamped it with his fingers. “Stop it. Everyone will be here any minute, so behave yourself.”

  Ignoring him, she shifted just far enough to reach his mouth and began a deliberate assault on his lips. Although he tried to resist her, he knew he was a lost cause, and by the time the doorbell rang he’d forgotten they were expecting visitors at all.

  Pulling herself away from him, Katy stood up. “I’ll tell them you’re not quite ready shall I?” she asked sweetly as she surveyed the state of his arousal.

  “Witch! You’re going to pay for that,” he grabbed her arm as she walked past him and, pulling her back into the chair, did all the things he knew would turn her on. When the doorbell chimed again he let her go, satisfied that now she was just as frustrated as he was, and by the time the first of their visitors entered the room he looked every inch the master of the house. Katy, on the other hand, looked distinctly flustered. He grinned at her, a grin that turned to a laugh when she poked her tongue out at him.

  “What are you laughing at?” demanded Annetta, who was close enough to her teens to be on the alert for anything that indicated that she might be the butt of an adult joke.

  He shook his head. “I wasn’t laughing at you, I promise. Now come out onto the balcony so I can explain all the landmarks to you. That way you’ll be able to impress Izzie and Jack with your vast knowledge when they arrive.”

  “Too late, we’re already here,” Jack dropped the bags he was carrying onto the floor and joined them on the balcony. Izzie followed, then Jodie, who was carrying her youngest nephew, one-year-old Charlie.

  “I don’t fit,” said William plaintively as he tried to push his way through the forest of legs in front of h
im.

  “Yes you do,” his father bent down and hoisted him onto his shoulders while Annetta dutifully pointed out Big Ben and the revolving wheel of The London Eye.

  “Those are easy,” she told Emlyn. “Everyone knows them, even Maria.”

  “I know a lot more than that,” her younger sister said indignantly. “I know that building over there is The Royal Opera House.”

  “Now I’m seriously impressed,” Jack said, smiling at his youngest niece.

  She turned to Marcus who had finally managed to join them after finding a slot for his car in the underground car park. “Papa told me when we arrived, didn’t you.”

  Brushing his fingers across her hair he smiled. “I did, and well done you for remembering.”

  Katy, who was standing beside him, gave Maria a high five and was rewarded by a wide grin. Wondering if she really had looked the same when she was her niece’s age, she returned it. She loved every single member of her new family but somehow Maria was special. Without her, and without Luke’s uncanny ability to notice every little detail of someone’s face, she might never have found any of them.

  Jodie, who had been watching, smiled at her. “You look happy.”

  “I am,” she moved across until she stood next to her and ruffled Charlie’s blond curls. “Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure this really is my life and that somehow, more by luck than judgment, Emlyn and I have managed to solve all the problems we started out with. I’m even on the bottom rung of a new career, the one that I always dreamed about but never thought would happen.”

  “I do the same when I think back to where I started, and especially to the years before we found you,” leaning forward, Jodie kissed her on the cheek. “So let’s leave the rest of them to admire the view shall we, because I, for one, would like to see the inside of your new apartment, and then I want you to tell me all about your job at The British Museum and how long it will be before you’re fully qualified. Then I’ll tell you what we’ve been up to before Izzie takes over with tales about William and Charlie.”