Of all the explanations for his deception that he’d puzzled over in the privacy of his cabin today, Charlie’s suggestion that it was to show Elle that there was no chance of them getting it on again hadn’t occurred to him.
He forced himself to consider it now.
But, eventually, he shook his head. No, that wasn’t it.
Chapter Fourteen
Elle wasn’t enjoying Loz’s dinner party.
She was grateful that Loz had invited her and knew the invitation had been issued at least partly to show Lucas that he wasn’t on the guest list, but it was impossible to forget her role as ‘the help’ even though Loz kept saying, ‘Elle, you’re not on the payroll this evening, you’re not to do a thing.’
Actually, with the others being depressingly coupley, drinking a lot more than Elle felt like drinking and then shrieking with laughter over coupley anecdotes, Elle would rather be clearing up the galley.
When she could find no more to do, she took her last half-glass of rosé out onto the aft deck to enjoy the quayside and the gardens.
The breeze was up and a slow swell had risen again, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Elle supposed she must have found her sea legs, even though she hadn’t actually been to sea, unless you counted a little potter around the harbours. She hadn’t done a lot of things she’d meant to do. Tomorrow, her day off, she’d put that right. She’d take a ferry to one of the sister islands in the Maltese archipelago, Gozo or Comino.
There would be at least three benefits. She could leave the party now, yawn and say it was time she went off to bed as she needed to be up early; she would be seeing new things and having new experiences, which was her mission; there would be little chance of crossing paths with Lucas.
But as she finished the last half-inch of wine and turned to go up to the foredeck to make her excuses, a movement beside a tree at the edge of the gardens caught her eye. She paused, pretending to look up the quayside for several seconds while she tried to decide whether she’d seen what she thought she’d seen.
Then she turned back.
The little person behind the tree was too slow to anticipate her and was in plain view for half a second before he pulled his head in.
Keeping her movements slow, twirling her wine glass between her fingers, she sauntered down the gangplank in the direction of the tree. ‘Carmelo! Bonswa. What are you doing out so late?’
Reluctantly, Carmelo detached himself from the shadows. Shrugging, he dug his hands into his pockets.
Elle saw tear tracks on his cheeks. Her heart twisted. ‘Are you OK?’ she asked gently. ‘Is something the matter?’
Silently, Carmelo shook his head which, as it could have been in response to either question, wasn’t helpful.
‘Let’s sit down.’ She crossed to one of the benches that, by day, would be full of tourists or parents watching their children on the playthings, but now stood empty in a cool patch of moonlight. ‘What are you doing here, in the dark? Have you been looking for me?’
Again, Carmelo only shrugged.
‘Are you hurt?’
He shook his head.
Elle searched for what else made a child unhappy. ‘Are you frightened?’
Another shrug. But Carmelo’s gaze did flicker towards Elle for an instant.
Then, taking her by surprise, he threw his arms around her and clung on, silently. Every instinct demanded that Elle hugged him fiercely back but her child protection training kicked in and she only ruffled his hair, wondering, sadly, how often anyone hugged this child. Bloody guidelines. How the hell was she supposed to help some poor little kid who obviously needed someone on his side?
Remembering her mother’s avoidance tactics whenever Elle had needed someone to talk to, Elle felt quite unable to turn a deaf ear on a child who needed a listening one. She made her voice soft. ‘Well, we’ve got to sort this out, haven’t we? Because I think Mama and Nonnu will be wondering where you are, don’t you?’
Again, the shrug, his shoulders as thin-edged as card against Elle’s arm. She began to rise from the bench, which obliged Carmelo to break his embrace without her having to actually reject him. ‘Do they know where you are? Will they be worried about you?’
Carmelo shook his head.
‘Are Mama and Nonnu at home?’
‘Yes.’ Carmelo’s voice was small with tears.
She made her voice as understanding as she could. ‘You will need to go home, won’t you?’
Carmelo shook his head.
‘I could go with you—’ she tried.
The headshake, this time, was more violent. ‘No!’
Elle subsided. Her training had covered basic challenging situations but this one was obviously outside her skill set and experience. ‘I know what we’ll do,’ she said, making her voice glad and enthusiastic. ‘We’ll ring Joseph. He’ll be able to help us sort this out.’
For a long moment, Carmelo considered. Eventually he shrugged.
Elle chose to take that as agreement. ‘I’ll just send a text to my friends on Seadancer.’ Her thumb flew over the screen as she tapped in hastily to Kayleigh – knowing Loz would only text a hundred questions in reply – Got to go. No prob, just something that’s come up re the centre. Hug Loz and Davie goodbye and say sorry from me, pls. x
Then she glanced around the lights of the quay and the shadows of the garden. There weren’t many people around, although she knew some of the bars and clubs of Sliema would be open, and in Paceville, a couple of miles away, the night was still young for those who liked to rage around the dance floor. But here in the gardens and the quayside it was almost eerily quiet.
She looked to her left and saw safety and a welcoming light.
‘Let’s go aboard the Shady Lady,’ she suggested. ‘We can have a drink while I try and call Joseph; then we’ll see about helping you get home.’
Instantly, Carmelo slipped off the bench. He even managed the ghost of a smile, his hopeful, swollen eyes fixed on Elle’s face.
Elle forgot present strained relations for an instant. ‘The light’s on so hopefully Lucas is on board and still up.’
‘He has Fanta?’
Elle grinned, glad to hear Carmelo say something normal. ‘We’ll ask him.’
When they stepped across the gangplank it growled and grated on the quayside as the boat moved on the swell. Through the open door, Elle could see Lucas lounging in the saloon with a copy of Diver and a beer. ‘Lucas?’
He looked up warily. His eyebrows quirked when he caught sight of Carmelo. ‘You’re up late, Carmelo.’
Carmelo looked down to the bare toes that peeped out from his sandals.
‘I need to ring Joseph to see if he can help Carmelo,’ Elle said. ‘I don’t suppose you have a Fanta or something nice in your stash, do you?’
Lucas flashed Carmelo a grin. ‘I’ve got Seven Up. That OK?’
Carmelo grinned back. ‘It’s good.’
‘If you sit down here, then Lucas can bring you out the drink.’ Elle ushered the little boy to the cockpit seat.
Lucas took the steps down to the galley in one long stride and opened the fridge. In moments he was out in the velvet night air, a tall glass of fizzing clear liquid for Carmelo, another beer for himself and a small bottle of water for Elle.
‘Thank you,’ Carmelo whispered. Then he lifted the glass in both hands and set about the liquid sweetness greedily.
‘Hey.’ Lucas raised his eyebrows. ‘You’re supposed to drink it, not dive in it.’
It took Carmelo a moment to interpret the joke, and laugh, but then he replaced guzzling with drinking.
While Lucas chatted to him in his deep, calm voice, Elle picked up her phone and, making sure to stay in Carmelo’s sight, stepped off onto the quayside to call Joseph, trusting that he and Maria wouldn
’t mind being disturbed so late.
In her ear, the phone sounded the Maltese single ringtone several times and she was just beginning to feel a skip of dismay, when, ‘Allo?’ Joseph answered, sounding dazed and gruff.
Elle winced. ‘Joseph, it’s Elle. I’m really sorry if I woke you up. But it’s Carmelo. I found him in Gżira Gardens on his own in the dark. He’s not very happy about something but he doesn’t seem to feel comfortable talking to me about it. He says his mum and grandfather are at home but he obviously sees some barrier to going back there himself. I offered to go with him but he was pretty positive that he didn’t want that.’
‘I understand.’ Joseph sounded as if he was waking up fast. He cleared his throat. ‘I presume Carmelo is safe? Is he still with you? Where are you? What’s his emotional state? How does he seem physically?’
Elle was able to reassure him but added, ‘I just don’t know what to do next.’
‘I’ll come down to the marina. Do you think Carmelo will stay until I arrive?’
‘I think so. He’s drinking Seven Up and talking to Lucas. Lucas is pretty laid-back and perhaps Carmelo finds him reassuring.’ She didn’t add that she found Lucas pretty reassuring herself. He hadn’t bombarded her with questions and objections when she’d turned up with Carmelo. He’d just handled the situation.
She explained whereabouts the Shady Lady was moored and ended the call, turning back to the boat. In the blueish cockpit lights she could see that Carmelo was having a burping competition with Lucas, and giggling.
She stepped back on board with an exaggerated sigh. ‘Pity the water Lucas got me isn’t fizzy. It puts me at a disadvantage in the burp department.’
Carmelo giggled harder.
Joseph turned up at nearly half past midnight. He strolled through the gardens and stepped on board, hands in pockets, with an easy smile. ‘Good evening.’
He showed polite interest in the boat for a minute before he turned to Carmelo. ‘You’ve had a nice drink. I think we’ll talk; then I’ll have to take you home, won’t I?’
Carmelo’s face fell, but he nodded resignedly.
‘We’ll go in,’ said Elle, immediately, picking up her water and taking it into the saloon. Lucas followed.
Joseph sat down beside Carmelo. Elle could see them and hear snatches of Maltese. Initially, it seemed as if Joseph would bear all the conversational burden while Carmelo looked down at his fingers and shrugged.
But then he began talking, voice low, his eyes still cast down.
Joseph nodded and listened.
Carmelo explained, gesticulated.
Joseph nodded and listened.
Elle sighed. She smothered a yawn and looked at her watch, then at Lucas. ‘Sorry if this has kept you up.’
‘Doesn’t matter.’ Lucas was gazing meditatively at her. ‘You’re quite different to the girl I used to know. Not just that you’ve lost the suits and the need to be at the front of the rat race. It’s that I don’t think I even saw you look at a child when we were together, let alone take a particularly needy one under your wing.’
She was too tired and sad to dissemble. ‘Being made redundant showed me how superficial my life was. It made me want to get involved with something more significant. I didn’t expect one of the children to become attached to me.’ Slowly, she twisted the cap from her bottle of water and sipped. ‘And what about you? In the past you wouldn’t have had the patience for Carmelo. You’d probably have given him a few euros to go away and have forgotten about him in five seconds.’
He looked surprised. ‘Was I that shallow?’
She smiled at his air of injury. ‘Just pointing out that you’re more developed.’
He began to say something that began ‘Except where—’
But then Joseph came to the door, saying over his shoulder to Carmelo, ‘Let’s ask Lucas to sit outside with you for a moment while I talk to Elle.’
Obligingly, Lucas went outside and began to chat to Carmelo.
Elle looked at Joseph. ‘Is it anything very bad?’
With a sigh as he took a seat on the sofa, Joseph lifted his hands. ‘Tonight his mother and his grandfather were drinking and they had a huge argument, shouting and swearing. Things were thrown. Carmelo was very frightened, so he ran away. It has happened before but I think a hatred for the tension is growing in him.’ Behind his glasses, his eyes were sombre.
‘Poor kid.’ Elle felt a weight inside her for any child who had to live with that kind of daily unhappiness. Her own home had been uncomfortable at times, but the weaponry had been silence rather than screams and missiles.
‘I’m going to take him home, now. I think he wants to go. I expect the adults will be sleeping off the drink and it will soon be forgotten.’ He hesitated. ‘He didn’t want you to take him home because he’s ashamed of where he lives. He sees what other children have and he knows that what he has is not a nice home. But he’s powerless to change it.’
Elle felt tears burn her eyes. ‘Poor kid,’ she said again. ‘What can we do?’
‘I don’t believe I need to involve the social worker. I’ll speak to his priest and I think the priest will speak to Carmelo’s mother. He has done so before and she always improves for a while.’ Joseph brushed back his hair and stifled a yawn. He nodded up the road. ‘Maria’s been waiting in the car. I’ve just texted her and she’s on her way to fetch us.’
In two minutes Maria arrived, driving slowly up the marina access road, waving cheerfully to Elle as Joseph and Carmelo said their goodnights and crossed to meet her. Maria got out to greet tired little Carmelo with a smile.
Once they had packed themselves into the car, turned and cruised slowly away, Elle turned with a sigh to find Lucas leaning against the cabin door frame. ‘I hate this,’ she said, vehemently. ‘I hate all adults who make kids miserable when a few kind words would make them happy.’
‘It certainly makes me appreciate the safety and security of my own upbringing.’ Lucas’s face was sombre.
Suddenly, Elle found herself wiping fiercely at hot eyes. ‘Your parents were great.’
His eyebrows shot up. ‘You thought they were a nightmare.’
Elle sniffed. ‘Only to me, because they didn’t think I was right for you.’ Words flowed out of her, uncensored. ‘That’s how much they love you, that they’d have the guts to tell you that you were making a mistake.’
Lucas closed the space between them, wrapping his arms around her, resting her head on his shoulder and his head on top of hers. ‘All the time we were together you resented my parents and now you’re praising them. You are one weird woman, Elle Jamieson.’
Elle’s sniffles wavered for an instant into laughter. ‘I resented being considered bad for you. Now that that’s no longer an issue, I can see that everything they did was because they wanted the best for you.’
His breath was hot against her hair. ‘I don’t think I ever understood you.’
‘No,’ she agreed, sadly.
Chapter Fifteen
On Sunday, when Lucas had disappeared in the green pick-up to teach tourists how to breathe underwater, and knowing that it was something she’d put off long enough, Elle phoned The Briars, the residential care home where her mother lived.
She lay on her bed, listening as she was put through to her mother’s floor and footsteps fading away as their owner went to find her mother’s key carer.
While she waited, she enjoyed the motion of the boat, making her feel a bit as if she were lying on a hammock or a garden swing. The air con was off and the weather was hot. It was hard to imagine that back in England her mother was living in a room not unlike an upmarket version of student accommodation, containing a bed and a wardrobe with a small bathroom leading off.
Joanna Jamieson did have a big comfy armchair with a table and TV rather than
a desk, but her living quarters were a far cry from the gleaming house she’d presided over throughout her marriage. In those days they’d had more spacious, gracious rooms than the three of them had needed, the stylish furnishings including a piano that no one knew how to play.
The house had been sold when Elle’s parents split up. Joanna had rented a place while she decided whether to buy a bungalow with a garden or an apartment overlooking the park. She’d seemed in no hurry to commit. Her husband ‘trading her in for a younger model’ had made her reassess her life. She’d joined friends on a cruise. She’d bought new clothes.
Sadly, Joanna had still been deciding between the bungalow or the apartment when the stroke had seared through her brain. Her capital was now being briskly drained away by the costs of her care, despite Elle’s contributions.
The sound of returning footsteps and the phone being scraped across a surface as it was picked up interrupted Elle’s thoughts. She found herself talking to Nerys, her mother’s key carer, a lovely, calm, sympathetic woman with a ready smile.
‘I rang to see how my mum’s getting on.’
Nerys sounded out of breath. ‘She’s much as before. Tires easily, you know. A little bit confused. But generally going on nicely, considering.’
Considering she hardly knew who she was and certainly not what she had been, Elle supposed. She looked around her cabin at her flip-flops and other paraphernalia of her new life and for the first time felt a long way from home. ‘Could I s-speak to her?’
Nerys sounded enthusiastic. ‘Actually, she’s only two rooms down, in the lounge. I could get her up here but it’ll take a couple of minutes.’
Elle swallowed. Her mum needed a frame on wheels and someone strong at her elbow to move along the smooth corridors. ‘If it’s not too much trouble,’ she murmured.
She listened to a few minutes of shuffling and cheerfully raised voices from more than thirteen hundred miles away.
Finally, Nerys returned, more out of breath than ever. ‘She’s here now, lovie. I’ll help her hold the phone.’
The Wedding Proposal Page 15