Caroline Anderson, Sara Morgan, Josie Metcalfe, Jennifer Taylor

by Brides of Penhally Bay Vol. 01 (lit)

  ‘It was just an accident, sweetheart,’ she said softly. ‘Accidents happen. Eddie’s going to be all right, I know he is.’

  Having examined Eddie as best he could, Marco removed his coat and pulled his jumper over his head. Then he wrapped the boy in the layers, giving him as much protection from the elements as possible. Then he glanced at Alfie and winked at him. ‘Do you know how many accidents can happen sitting indoors, playing on the computer?’

  Alfie sniffed, still clinging to Amy. ‘Now you’re kidding me.’

  ‘You can have an accident without ever moving from your chair at home. The ceiling can drop onto your head. You can develop muscle strain and eye strain from too much gaming. Heart disease from lack of exercise. At least you were having fun outdoors.’

  ‘But Eddie wouldn’t have been here if it hadn’t been for me. I chose the smugglers game. He loves dressing up as a pirate.’

  ‘So—you’re a fun brother to have and pirates sounds like a good game,’ Marco said easily. ‘You’ll have to tell me more about it someday soon.’ He glanced at Amy and gave a faint smile of approval as he saw her first-aid measures. ‘Very inventive.’

  ‘You learn to be inventive in Africa.’ She pressed hard on the wound. ‘They’re not exactly flush with equipment over there.’

  Something flickered in his eyes and then he turned his attention back to his little patient.

  ‘Do we have to go to hospital?’ Alfie’s voice wobbled and he sounded very young. ‘Our mum is going to go mad.’

  ‘She’ll just be relieved you’re safe. Now, sit down here for a moment.’ Amy helped him sit down on a flat piece of rock. ‘Don’t move. It’s very slippery and I don’t want you to fall again and I want to help Dr Avanti with your brother.’

  Shivering without the protection of her scarf, she moved across to Marco and knelt down beside him. ‘You must be frozen. You gave all your layers to Eddie.’

  ‘I have more body fat than he does.’

  Amy’s eyes slid to his powerful, male frame. Not an inch of fat was visible. Just lean muscle under a thin T-shirt that clung to the impressive width of his shoulders. But she knew there was no point in pointing out that he was getting cold. Marco would do everything within his power to save a child. She’d always known that about him.

  A hiss and a crash reminded her that the sea in winter was hungry and unforgiving and frighteningly close. ‘That was a big wave, Marco.’

  ‘Yes.’ Marco’s tone was matter-of-fact. ‘If the helicopter doesn’t arrive in the next few minutes, we might have to move him. I don’t want to but it’s the lesser of two evils.’

  Amy glanced up at the sky, willing it to arrive.

  Eddie gave a little whimper and Marco murmured something reassuring and tucked the layers more tightly around the child. ‘He’s in and out of consciousness. I should have asked Sam to bring blankets down from the pub.’

  ‘The helicopter will be here before Sam gets back,’ Amy said optimistically. ‘I can give him one of my layers.’ She started to take off her coat but he reached out and caught her arm.

  ‘No.’ This time his voice was harsh. ‘Keep your coat on. You need it.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Don’t argue with me, Amy. You don’t exactly have an excess of body fat to keep you warm. Didn’t they feed you in Africa?’

  She swallowed but was spared the trouble of thinking up an answer by the noise of the approaching helicopter.

  ‘Good.’ Marco watched with visible relief as the helicopter appeared in the sky like a giant insect. In a matter of minutes it was overhead and Amy could see the winchman in the doorway of the helicopter.

  With precise, accurate flying and slick teamwork, the winchman was lowered onto the rocks next to them.

  He unclipped the harness and moved across to them. ‘How many casualties, Marco?’

  Amy was wondering how they knew each other and then remembered that the RAF winchmen were trained paramedics who often practised their skills alongside local doctors.

  ‘Two. One of them serious. According to his brother, he lost consciousness when he fell. GCS was 13 when we arrived on the scene…’ Marco gave a swift, comprehensive summary of the situation and together they prepared Eddie for his transfer to hospital. Finally, strapped to a backboard, the child was winched into the helicopter.

  Shivering like a wet puppy, Alfie watched. ‘Wow!’ His voice was awed, concern for his little brother momentarily forgotten. ‘That’s so cool!’

  Marco pulled on his jumper. ‘It’s definitely cool,’ he murmured, helping the boy to his feet as the paramedic returned, ready to take his second patient.

  ‘I’m going up there, too? Just wait until they hear about this at school.’

  ‘Maybe he would have been safer on the computer,’ Marco murmured, watching as the second child was safely winched into the helicopter. Then he lifted his hand in acknowledgement and the helicopter soared away on the short journey to hospital.

  Around them the sea thrashed and boiled like a wild beast, angered that its prey had been snatched from its jaws.

  Amy was shivering uncontrollably. ‘Let’s get moving,’ she muttered, and was suddenly enveloped in warmth as Marco wrapped his coat around her.

  ‘Wear this.’

  ‘You can’t give me your coat!’ Protesting, she tried to shrug her way out of it but he was stronger than her and more determined.

  ‘Put it on.’ His voice rough, he fastened the coat as if she were a child and then gave a faint smile. ‘It swamps you.’

  ‘Well, you’re bigger than me.’

  His eyes darkened and she flushed and turned away, picking her way across the rocks back towards the path. She knew that he was bigger than her. She’d always been aware of his physical strength. It was one of the things that drew women to him.

  At the top of the path a little crowd was waiting, including the boys’ mother, Mary.

  ‘I sent them to play in the garden because they’ve been on those wretched game machines all holiday and then when I went to call them for lunch, there was no sign of them.’ She covered her mouth with her hand but the sobs still came. ‘I guessed they’d gone to the beach and that Eddie had followed them. Everyone’s saying that he’s badly hurt—’

  Without hesitation, Marco stepped forward and slid an arm around her shoulders. ‘They are boys and they were playing,’ he said, his accent thicker than usual. ‘Alfie has a cut on his head, but nothing that a few stitches won’t sort out. Eddie also banged his head…’ He paused. ‘From Alfie’s description it sounds as though he might have been knocked out when he fell on the rocks. But he was starting to regain consciousness when we got to him and they’ve taken him to the hospital.’

  ‘I need to get up there right away. I need to call my husband so that we can go to the hospital.’ Trying to hold herself together, Mary fumbled in her bag for her phone, her hands shaking so much she dropped the bag twice. ‘He’s gone to help my brother take down a shed in his garden. It will take him ages to get back with the way the roads are.’

  Marco stooped, picked up her bag and handed it to her. ‘I’ll take you in the Maserati.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I’ve got time to drive you and still be back in time for afternoon surgery. Tell your husband you’ll meet him up there.’

  Mary looked at him, her eyes swimming with tears. ‘You’d do that for me?’ She bit her lip. ‘But there must be other more urgent things you should be doing.’

  Marco looked directly at Amy and she knew what he was thinking. That the thing he should be doing was giving her the conversation she’d demanded.

  So it was up to her, then, to decide. He was giving her the choice. She could insist that he stay and finish the conversation they’d started or she could let him take this frantic mother to her children.

  ‘We can talk later,’ she said quietly, slipping off his coat and handing it to him. ‘My train doesn’t leave until four.’

  With only the briefest hesitation Marc
o reached into his pocket and gave his car keys to Mary. ‘Go and sit in the car. I’ll be with you in a minute.’

  The woman walked across the car park and Amy gave a faint smile. ‘Trusting someone else with your precious Maserati, Marco?’

  ‘Only because I need to talk to you without an audience,’ he growled, reaching out and removing a smudge of blood from her cheek. ‘You’re freezing and you need a shower. Go back to the surgery and ask Kate to sort you out with a change of clothes. Wait for me there. We’ll talk later.’

  ‘I think our conversation is doomed. We’re running out of time.’

  ‘Then stay overnight.’

  She stared at him. ‘That’s out of the question.’

  ‘I thought you wanted to talk? Stay the night, Amy, and then at least we’re guaranteed peace and quiet. I’m not on call. You can come out to the house and we can eat, talk and then you can get the first train back tomorrow. I’ll drop you at the station myself.’

  ‘That’s not—no.’ She had to say no. ‘I can’t.’

  ‘Amy.’ His voice was impatient and he glanced towards his car where Mary was now waiting in a state of anxiety. ‘We can’t tie this up in a matter of minutes. We need time and we need privacy. You’re the one who wants to do this. It makes sense. In fact, I can give you the house keys and you can go now and have a shower at home. That’s a much better idea. Wait for me there. I’ll be home by six and we can talk.’

  She hadn’t wanted to go to the house. It would just be too painful.

  ‘I don’t—’

  ‘Stop arguing and looking for problems.’ He dug in his pocket and pulled out his house keys. ‘In that car is a woman worrying herself to death about her children and in the hospital are two young children who need their mother. They need my help and you’re holding me up.’

  Amy swallowed and took the keys from his hand. ‘I’ll see you later.’

  Marco let himself into the house and walked through to the enormous sitting room that faced out to sea.

  Amy was standing by the glass, staring out across the crashing waves. She was wearing the same soft wool trousers that she’d been wearing all day but she’d removed the rest of her soaked clothes and helped herself to one of his jumpers. The fact that it swamped her just increased the air of vulnerability that surrounded her.

  She didn’t turn when he entered the room but he could tell from the sudden increase in tension in her narrow shoulders that she was aware of his presence. ‘The view is incredible.’ Her voice was almost wistful. ‘It was this room that sold me the house.’

  Vulnerable, maybe, but still capable of wreaking havoc.

  Engulfed by a fresh spurt of anger, Marco dropped his coat over the back of the sofa. ‘It’s a shame you didn’t stay around long enough to live in it.’

  She turned, pain in her eyes. ‘Don’t do this, Marco. This doesn’t have to be an argument. Just let it go.’

  ‘Like you did?’ He watched her face, searching for some glimpse of the woman he’d married. ‘You just let our relationship slip through your fingers. You never once tried to solve whatever problem it was that you suddenly found. You just walked away.’

  Anguish flickered across her face and for a moment she looked as though she was going to defend herself. Then her shoulders sagged and she turned back to look out of the window as if she’d lost the will to fight. ‘We wanted different things. You married me because you wanted to start a family and at first I thought I wanted that, too.’ She broke off and sucked in a breath. ‘But I discovered that I didn’t. That sort of difference is too big to bridge, Marco.’

  He stared at her with mounting incredulity.

  She made herself sound both flighty and indecisive and neither adjective fitted what he knew about her. Nothing she said made sense.

  ‘So you had a sudden change of heart—why didn’t you discuss it with me?’

  ‘There was nothing to discuss. You wanted one thing, I wanted another.’

  Marco tried to make sense of her words. She was saying that she didn’t want children and yet he’d seen her with children and had been captivated by how gentle and kind she was. Just now with Alfie, she’d been tactile and gentle. He’d seen how much she cared. In fact, he would have said that she was better with children than adults.

  ‘You love children. You couldn’t wait to be a mother,’ he said hoarsely. ‘That’s why I married you.’

  ‘Yes.’ This time when she turned to face him, her expression was blank. ‘I know that’s why you married me. And that’s why I knew that it would never work. I knew that there was no point in “trying again” or working at our marriage. There was no point in talking it through or having endless discussions that wouldn’t have led anywhere. You married me because you wanted to settle down and have a family. You were perfectly clear about that. And I’m telling you right now that that isn’t what I want. So ending our marriage is the fairest thing for both of us. You should be with a woman who wants children. That’s very important to you and you can’t ignore something like that.’

  Marco inhaled sharply and laid himself bare. ‘For me, you were that woman, Amy. What was I to you?’ She wasn’t good at communicating but he’d thought he’d known what she’d felt. He’d felt utterly secure in her love. Arrogance on his part? Maybe.

  ‘You were—’ She broke off and her eyes slid from his. ‘You were a wonderful affair that never should have become anything more.’

  If he hadn’t been so exasperated and confused he would have laughed. ‘You’re trying to tell me you wanted the sex and no commitment? Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds, coming from you? You don’t have affairs!’ It was one of the reasons he’d wanted to marry her.

  ‘How would you know? We were only together for three months before we married. That’s not enough time to know someone. You never really knew me, Marco.’

  He’d thought he’d known her. ‘I know you’re not the sort of woman to have a casual affair.’

  ‘Maybe I am that sort of woman in some circumstances! I’m not the first woman to find you irresistible, Marco. You’re an incredibly sexy guy. Intelligent, good company…’ She shrugged as if his attractions were so obvious it was pointless naming them. ‘I don’t suppose there’s a woman in the world who would reject you.’

  He decided not to point out that she was rejecting him. ‘So now you’re saying that I seduced you?’

  ‘Of course not. I’m just saying that…the physical side took over.’

  ‘Physical? You married me because I’m good in bed? What about the rest of our relationship?’ Finding the entire conversation completely unfathomable and beginning to wonder whether his English was less fluent than he’d previously believed, Marco ran a hand over the back of his neck and held on to his temper with difficulty. ‘As I said before, we weren’t teenagers, Amy. Yes, there was strong chemistry but our minds were working, too. We shared a great deal more than an incredible sex life.’

  Colour bloomed in her cheeks and he remembered just how shy she’d been when they’d first met. ‘We were friends, yes. But we never should have been more than that.’

  ‘Was our relationship really that shallow? What about all those plans we made, or is my memory playing tricks? The way you’re describing our life together…’ he spread his hands in a gesture of raw frustration ‘…I’m beginning to think we’re talking about a completely different relationship!’

  ‘Perhaps we just saw it differently.’

  ‘When we met you enjoyed your work, certainly, but your plans for the future were the same as mine. Family. We lay in bed and talked about having children. We agreed that I would work and you would stay at home with them. You thought it was important for a child to be with its mother, to know it was loved. These weren’t my plans, tesoro, they were our plans.’

  ‘To begin with, yes. But then I realised that it was never going to work.’

  ‘Answer me one question, Amy. Did you love me?’

  She froze and her
eyes slid from his. ‘No.’ Her voice was so faint he could barely hear her. ‘Not enough.’

  Her answer shocked him so much that for a moment he didn’t answer. She’d loved him. He knew that she’d loved him.

  Or had he been deluding himself?

  She’d left, hadn’t she? She hadn’t tried to mend their marriage. The only contact she’d had with him had been in relation to their separation. Were those the actions of a woman in love? No.

  Which left him guilty of arrogance.

  Just because attracting women had never been a problem in his life, he’d grown complacent.

  He watched her for a moment, trying to make sense of it all—searching again for the Amy he’d married. ‘So when did you first realise that you didn’t love me enough?’ The words almost stuck in his throat. ‘Everything was fine until we moved back to Penhally. You seemed happy enough to begin with.’ Scrolling through events in his mind, he watched her, still searching for clues. ‘When did you suddenly decide that you wanted career, not family? And why didn’t you share your thoughts with me?’

  She turned back to the window. ‘You were working, Marco—busy setting up the surgery with Nick. You were hardly ever home so it was hard to share anything with you. I was lonely. And I discovered that I missed working. I discovered that my own career was more important to me than I’d thought it was. Our relationship was so intense that for a short time I was totally infatuated with you. Babies—a family—that was all part of the same infatuation. But good, stable marriages aren’t based on physical passion.’

  Marco frowned. ‘So when did you have this sudden change of heart? Not in the first few weeks, that’s for sure. You spent your days going to estate agents because we both agreed we wanted a house out of town and preferably right on the cliffs. You dismissed three properties because they didn’t have a garden. I still remember the day you rang me at work to tell me about this place. You were so excited! You’d even picked out the room that you thought should be the nursery. Where was the career woman then, Amy? Where was she?’ He stared at her profile and saw the faint sheen of tears in her eyes.