Caroline Anderson, Sara Morgan, Josie Metcalfe, Jennifer Taylor

by Brides of Penhally Bay Vol. 01 (lit)

  ‘Ah, so that’s her name, is it? Alison.’

  Jack swirled the wine around his glass as he tested out the name of the blonde-haired stranger. It suited her, he decided. She looked exactly how an Alison should look—sweet and feminine—even though she obviously hadn’t judged him quite so favourably.

  The thought stung a little, although he had no idea why it should have done, and he hurried on. ‘I take it that she works at the surgery?’

  ‘Yes. Didn’t she say?’ Lucy frowned when he shook his head. ‘That’s strange. Alison is usually very friendly. She’s the practice nurse and all the patients adore her.’

  ‘That’s good,’ Jack observed lightly, wondering what he’d done to get himself into Alison’s bad books.

  ‘We’re really lucky to have her. She’s a single mum—she has a little boy about the same age as your Freddie, in fact—so we try to tailor her hours to fit in with his needs.’

  ‘What’s her surname?’ Jack asked, although it was a bit like poking at a sore tooth, trying to find out about this paragon who had taken such a dislike to him. He shrugged when Lucy looked at him in surprise. ‘I was just wondering if I’d met her before. Is she local?’

  ‘Yes, although she’s not from Penhally Bay. Her surname is Myers. Her parents lived in Rock, I believe, although they’re both dead now.’ She sighed. ‘She and her husband divorced not long after Sam was born so she’s on her own. I don’t envy her. It can’t be easy being a single parent.’

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ Jack agreed flatly.

  Lucy grimaced. ‘Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Anyway, you and Alison are completely different. After all, you have your family here to help you.’

  ‘I have you,’ Jack corrected her. ‘I can’t see Dad wanting to help out, can you?’

  ‘You could be surprised,’ Lucy assured him. ‘He just adores Annabel. In fact, he’s turning into a real doting grandfather!’

  ‘I’m really glad about that, Lucy. I know that you and Ben had a tough time when you first got together again, so it’s great that everything has turned out so well for you.’

  ‘But you don’t think Dad will feel the same about Freddie?’

  He shrugged. ‘I’ll just have to wait and see.’

  ‘I suppose so, but it could work out better than you think, Jack, especially now that you’ve moved back here. When do you start at the hospital?’

  ‘Monday morning, bright and early.’

  Jack dredged up a smile. There was no point getting cold feet at this point. He’d considered the drawbacks before he’d moved back to Penhally Bay and had decided they were outweighed by the pluses. Having Lucy around would help to get him through this really difficult period. And once Freddie had adapted to the changes in his life, then Jack could get himself back on track.

  ‘I’m really looking forward to it, actually. My new boss has an excellent reputation and I’m hoping to learn a lot from her.’

  ‘Great! At least one of us will end up as a top surgeon.’ Lucy glanced at her watch and groaned. ‘I’ll have to go. Annabel will need feeding soon, and as she refuses to take a bottle I will have to be there otherwise Ben will be pulling his hair out.’

  ‘It’s been great to see you,’ Jack said, helping her on with her coat.

  ‘It has.’ She hugged him tight, then grinned at him. ‘See you very soon, big brother.’

  ‘Good to hear you acknowledging my status,’ Jack teased her. He was the older twin by ten minutes, a fact that he had reminded her about many times when they’d been growing up.

  Lucy laughed. ‘My big brother, the surgeon. Who could overlook your position in life, Jack?’

  ‘Out before you say something you’ll regret,’ he retorted, shooing her out of the door.

  Lucy paused on the step. ‘I’ll try to call round on Sunday with Ben and Annabel. In the meantime, if you need anything phone me. You have my number?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘And if there’s anything really urgent that crops up, Alison lives just round the corner.’ She pointed along the road. ‘Number 2, Polkerris Road. Just knock on her door and I’m sure she’ll do her very best to help you.’

  ‘Fine,’ Jack said, thinking that it would need a real, live emergency before he knocked on Alison’s door. One rebuff was more than enough for any man if he hoped to salvage a scrap of his ego.

  Lucy kissed him again, then ran to her car, waving out of the window as she drove away. Jack stood on the pavement after she’d left, listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the harbour wall. It was the very beginning of March and the air was cold and crisp, laden with salt and the smell of the sea. The scent was as heady as wine and he felt almost drunk on it after a couple of minutes.

  He glanced along the road, his gaze lingering on the turning to Polkerris Road. Was Alison standing outside, taking in the view, or was she tucked up by the fire? He wasn’t sure why he was interested in what she was doing, yet he was. For some reason he found it comforting to know that she was close by.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ALISON was on her way to bed when there was a knock on the front door. She hurried to answer it before Sam woke up. One of her neighbours had offered to lend her a DVD, and she assumed it was her, so it was a shock when she found Jack Tremayne standing outside. He was carrying a child all wrapped up in a blanket, and Alison frowned. What on earth was he doing, dragging his son out at this time of the night?

  ‘I’m sorry to bother you, but you don’t happen to have any analgesics suitable for a three-year-old, do you? I meant to stock up before I left London, but with one thing and another I completely forgot. The only thing I have to hand is aspirin and they’re not at all suitable.’

  ‘They most certainly aren’t,’ Alison replied. ‘It’s extremely dangerous to give a young child aspirin.’

  ‘Yes, I know.’

  Jack gave her a quick smile to show that he appreciated her advice, but she flushed. He was a doctor, for heaven’s sake, and he didn’t need her pointing out the dangers of dosing a child with the incorrect drugs. Opening the door wide, she stepped back.

  ‘I’ve got some stuff which should help. Come in.’

  ‘Oh, I didn’t mean to disturb you…’

  ‘You can hardly stand out there if your son is ill,’ she said, then immediately wished she hadn’t said it in such a bossy tone of voice.

  ‘Thanks.’

  Jack’s smile faded as he stepped inside the hallway. He paused politely, waiting for her to lead the way. Alison took him straight to the sitting room, because it was either that or the kitchen, and it didn’t feel right to entertain Jack Tremayne in her cramped little kitchen.

  ‘Sit down,’ she invited, going over to the fireplace and poking at the embers. She added another log from the basket, replaced the guard and went to the door. ‘I’ll just fetch that bottle for you.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  Jack sank onto her sofa with a weary sigh. Alison paused when she realised how exhausted he looked. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘Just about.’ He gave her a tight smile as he glanced down at his son. ‘I’ll feel a lot better once this little chap is all right, though.’

  Alison’s heart immediately went out to him. She understood only too well how stressful it was when a child was ill. She smiled reassuringly at him. ‘I’m sure Freddie will be fine. Let me get that medicine for you, then we can see if we can make him a bit more comfortable.’

  Jack just nodded. He seemed too worn out to reply. Alison frowned as she made her way to the kitchen, because his response to Freddie being ill wasn’t what she would have expected. The Jack Tremayne who had featured in all those magazine articles would have shrugged off the child’s illness as something inconsequential, yet he appeared to be genuinely worried—overly worried, in fact.

  She found the bottle of liquid analgesic, then took a measuring cup from the drawer and went back to the sitting room. Freddie was whimpering when she got back and Jack looked more worried than ever.
Alison experienced a sudden urge to reassure him.

  ‘Here you are. Shall I pour it while you hold him?’ she offered, sitting down beside them.

  ‘If you wouldn’t mind.’ Jack turned Freddie round so that he was facing her. ‘Alison is going to give you some lovely medicine to make you feel better, tiger,’ he crooned. ‘Can you be a really brave boy and swallow it all down?’

  Alison poured the correct dosage into the cup and offered it to the little boy, but he turned his head away. She smiled at him. ‘It’s really nice, Freddie. It tastes of strawberries—just try a little sip.’

  She held the cup to his lips but he immediately flung back his head, catching Jack a glancing blow on the chin.

  ‘Ouch!’ Jack waggled his jaw from side to side, then grinned at his son. ‘Good shot, tiger. That was nearly a knockout, and in the first round, too!’

  Alison stood up, not wanting him to see how surprised she was by his reaction. She would have expected him to be annoyed by what had happened, but there’d been no trace of it in his voice. She hurried to the door, feeling guilty for having misjudged him.

  ‘I’ll make him a drink and pop this into it. Sam is never keen on taking medicine either, and I find it’s easier to disguise it in some fruit juice.’

  ‘We seem to be putting you to an awful lot of trouble,’ Jack said ruefully.

  ‘It’s not a problem,’ she assured him as she beat a hasty retreat. She went back to the kitchen and took a beaker out of the cupboard, realising that she should have asked if Freddie preferred orange juice or blackcurrant. She really didn’t want to go back and ask, so she made up a drink of orange squash and added the medicine to it. She headed to the door, then paused and glanced at the kettle, wondering if she should make some tea while she was at it. It seemed very inhospitable not to offer Jack a drink.

  She made a pot of tea and loaded everything onto a tray, then went back to the sitting room. Jack looked round when he heard her footsteps and grinned when he spotted the teapot.

  ‘Don’t tell me you’re a mind-reader as well. I am absolutely dying for a cuppa.’

  ‘Good.’ Alison placed the tray on the coffee-table, then picked up the beaker and handed it to him. ‘It’s orange juice—I hope that’s all right.’

  ‘Fine. It’s Freddie’s favourite.’ Jack handed the little boy the plastic cup, nodding in satisfaction when Freddie immediately began to gulp down the drink. ‘Looks as though your plan has worked. I must remember it for future reference.’

  ‘It’s a lot easier than everyone getting stressed,’ she assured him, kneeling down while she poured the tea.

  ‘So it isn’t just me who gets all worked up when his child is sick?’

  Alison shook her head. ‘No. Every parent is the same. It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor or a dustman. You still worry yourself to death.’

  ‘That’s good to hear.’ Jack reached for the mug and took a long swallow of the tea. ‘Ah, that’s better.’

  Alison smiled as she picked up her own mug and sat down in the armchair. ‘The cup that cheers, or so they say.’

  ‘Well, whoever “they” are, they’re quite correct. It’s definitely cheering me up.’ Jack took another drink from the mug, then put it down and laid his hand on Freddie’s forehead. ‘He seems to be cooling down a bit now, thank heavens.’

  ‘Good. When did it all start?’

  ‘I’m not sure. He was fine when I put him to bed, or as fine as he ever is.’ He sighed as he settled the little boy, now sound asleep, more comfortably in his lap. ‘He still hasn’t adjusted properly. He misses his mother, and everything is so new and strange—even me. Especially me,’ he added wistfully.

  ‘Lucy said that you knew nothing about Freddie,’ Alison said quietly.

  ‘That’s right. I didn’t have a clue until India’s solicitor phoned and asked me to go and see him.’ Jack rested his head against the cushions and there was a look on his face that tugged at her heartstrings. ‘I hadn’t seen India since we’d split up. Oh, I’d heard on the grapevine that she’d had a baby, but it had never occurred to me the child might be mine.’

  ‘Why do you think she didn’t tell you?’ Alison asked as she digested that.

  ‘I don’t know. I’ve racked my brain about it ever since I found out about Freddie, but I still don’t know for sure why she didn’t say anything to me. I can only assume that she wanted a baby but she didn’t want all the rest.’

  ‘The rest?’

  ‘Marriage, commitment, the whole happily-ever-after scene.’ Jack shrugged. ‘A lot of India’s friends were having children at the time, and I think she decided that she wanted a baby as well. I just happened to be around and able to fulfil her wish.’

  ‘There must have been more to it than that!’ Alison exclaimed.

  ‘I doubt it. What India wanted, India got, and to hell with everyone else.’

  Alison shivered when she heard the bitterness in his voice. Was Jack angry because India had taken the decision to have a child without consulting him? Or was he angry because of the position he now found himself in? It must have been a shock for him to have to take responsibility for his son. Looking after a child didn’t exactly fit with the kind of hectic lifestyle Jack was used to. She could understand why he might be less than pleased by the change in his circumstances, even though her heart ached at the thought of his son suffering because of it.

  ‘It isn’t Freddie’s fault,’ she said defensively. ‘You can’t blame him for what his mother did.’

  ‘I don’t.’ Jack looked at her in surprise. ‘Freddie is the innocent victim of all this. When I think about what he must have been through…’

  He stopped abruptly, his blue eyes clouding as he gently stroked the sleeping little boy’s dark curls, and Alison felt something warm and tender well up inside when she saw the anguish on his face. Maybe it had been a shock for Jack when he had found out that he was a father, but he obviously cared about Freddie and that was something she admired. As she knew from her own experiences, not every man felt the same way.

  She hurriedly pushed all thoughts of what had happened between her and Sam’s father out of her mind. She had promised herself that she wouldn’t allow herself to grow bitter and she intended to stick to that. ‘Freddie’s been through an awful lot. Losing his mother must have been very traumatic for him.’

  ‘It was.’ Jack glanced up and she saw the anger in his eyes. ‘I don’t know how much Lucy told you about what happened. I mean, it wasn’t exactly a secret when all the papers carried the story.’

  ‘Lucy hasn’t said very much, but I read the reports. India died from a drug overdose, I believe?’

  ‘That’s right. She’d been dabbling in so-called recreational drugs for years. And before you ask, no, I never joined in. I’m not that stupid. She was clean when we were going out together so it was never an issue.’

  Alison flushed when she heard the reprimand in his voice. ‘I never thought you had taken them.’

  ‘Oh, right. Sorry. So many people seem to assume that I was part of that scene as well, and it always gets to me.’

  ‘Well, no one around here thinks that,’ Alison assured him.

  ‘Good.’ He treated her to a smile, then carried on. ‘According to the coroner’s report, India suffered a massive heart attack after using cocaine. Maybe something could have been done to save her if there’d been anyone with her, but she was on her own when it happened. She’d given her housekeeper the weekend off so nobody found her until the Monday morning, in fact.’

  ‘Where was Freddie when it happened?’

  ‘In the house with her.’ Jack’s expression was grim. ‘The police think that India died on the Saturday afternoon, so Freddie was there on his own until the housekeeper returned.’ His voice caught and she could tell how hard he found it to rein in his emotions. ‘When they found India, she was surrounded by bits of biscuit and pieces of fruit. They think that Freddie had been trying to feed her.’

  ‘
Oh, how awful!’ Alison’s eyes filled with tears as she pictured the scene. ‘The poor little mite must have been terrified.’

  ‘He still is. He hasn’t said a word since it happened. Apparently, he used to chat away before, but he’s totally withdrawn into his own little world now.’ Jack kissed the top of the child’s head. ‘I’ve tried everything I can think of to get through to him but nothing seems to work. It’s no wonder when you think what he’s been through. His whole world has been torn apart. Despite India’s faults, she genuinely loved him, and it’s going to be hard to make up for the loss he’s suffered.’

  ‘I wish I could think of something to make it easier for you—for you and Freddie, I mean,’ she added hurriedly, before he got the wrong idea. It was concern for the child which had moved her most, she told herself firmly. Jack was capable of looking after himself, surely?

  The doubt crept in on the coattails of her determination to be sensible and she cleared her throat. ‘How is he now? Does he seem any better?’

  ‘A bit. He’s definitely not as feverish as he was, but I think I’ll get him checked out at the surgery tomorrow just to make sure.’

  ‘Really?’ Alison’s brows rose. ‘You don’t trust your own judgement?’

  ‘Nope. Not when it comes to Freddie, anyway.’ He smiled at her, a lazily seductive curl of his lips that did horrendous things to her blood pressure. ‘I’d prefer him to see someone who knows a bit more about paediatrics. I couldn’t find any sign of a rash or anything like that when I examined him, but I’m no expert when it comes to childhood ailments. I would hate to have missed something vital.’

  Alison was surprised by his honesty and said so. ‘Not many doctors would admit that.’

  ‘No?’ He shrugged, his broad shoulders moving lightly under the battered old leather jacket he was wearing. ‘I can’t see the point of boosting my ego at Freddie’s expense. I know my own strengths and my weaknesses. Put me in an operating theatre and I’ll give it everything I’ve got, but I’m nowhere near as confident when it comes to measles and mumps!’