He was lovely. Rottweilers had a vicious reputation but an animal who wastreated well was a real pleasure. Kiro was all pleasure. His steak devoured, he was wriggling his delight in Jessie’s company.
This dog could be an absolute comfort to Ethel and protection as well in case of Barry turning up in Sydney.
‘I have to go,’ Jess said regretfully. ‘See you later, boy.’
She left him whining his own regrets and went to find the horse.
Ethel had been right when she’d said that the horse would have to go to the knackers. Jess saw the little mare and her heart sank.
What sort of penury had reduced Ethel to treating the horse like this? The only excuse for it was that Ethel looked half-starved as well. If she hadn’t, Jess would have felt rage.
Even so…The horse should have been sold long ago rather than fall into this condition. She was in a stable at the other end of the yard to Kiro and whatever trouble had befallen Ethel had meant that the horse hadn’t been tended for days.
The manger was empty and the water supply was reduced to a little fouled water at the bottom of a rusty trough.
Ethel had loved this mare, Jess thought sadly. The woman had been so bashed about that she’d simply given up-though it was her husband’s threat to her animals that had driven her to final rebellion.
‘So, what do we do with you?’
The little mare looked at Jess with apathetic, dulled eyes. She hadn’t been exercised for weeks, Jess guessed, and her coat was rough and unbrushed.
Jess filled the water trough and searched vainly for feed. She’d have to buy some and come back.
Or maybe it would be kinder to ring the knackery this morning.
On the mainland a quiet little mare like this might stand a chance of being sold and rehabilitated. Not here…
There were plenty of healthy horses on the island. No one would want one in this condition.
Jess ran her hand along the mare’s bony flank. ‘Be sensible,’ she told herself.
It was going to be hard enough to arrange accommodation for the dog. Jess could hardly keep a horse at the hospital.
‘So…’
‘So I ring the knackers,’ she told herself harshly. ‘Now, before you burst into tears.’
She walked out of the stables and closed the doors behind her.
‘Doc Harvey…’
Jess blinked as she came from darkness into sunlight. It took her a moment to realise who was calling her.
A curlered head was poking over the back fence.
Monica Sefton.
Island gossip.
‘Dreadful goings-on last night, weren’t they?’ the woman beamed. ‘I was the one that called the police. Well, I said to my Herbert, I know he bashes her something awful and you can’t call the police all the time but the screaming last night-you wouldn’t credit it. And then the chainsaw! How is she, poor soul?’
‘She’ll be OK,’ Jess said briefly. She wasn’t about to fuel gossip by giving Monica any more information than she must.
‘Lost two fingers, I hear. Dreadful! And what’s going to happen to her animals?’
‘I’ll look after Kiro,’ Jess told her and then hesitated. She badly didn’t want to go into the Simmons’s house. ‘Mrs Sefton, could I use your telephone? Ethel’s mare is in dreadful condition and I’ll have to call the knackers.’
‘Come right in,’ the woman beamed. She jumped from the fence and walked toward the front gate, only her curlers visible now behind the wooden palings. She kept right on talking.
‘What a shame. Such a pretty little mare she was when Ethel bought her. I remember the fuss. Ethel’s mum sent her some money for her birthday and Ethel spent it on the horse before Barry knew about it. I thought he’d kill her. I reckoned he might but he only found out when the Benns arrived to deliver it. The Benn kids all came too and Barry wanted to hit Ethel so bad you could taste it.
‘He and Ray had words-Ray’s a big man, isn’t he?-and Barry finally shut up and went down to the pub. Then a couple of Benn kids stayed on till dark to see it settled by which time Barry was drunk and the fuss just died down. Only I hear Ray told Barry if anything ever happen to the foal he’d fix him up proper. And Barry’s a born coward.’
Jessica had stopped dead behind her section offence.
‘Monica, you mean the mare was originally Ray Benn’s foal?’
‘Sure.’ Monica’s head poked up again over the fence. ‘It’s a foal of that mare of theirs…You know the one-nice brown little thing the kids ride in gymkhanas. Though didn’t I hear it bucked one of the kids off last weekend?’
‘You did.’ Jess licked dry lips. ‘Mrs Sefton, I might just ring Ray Benn first before I ring the knackers.’
* * *
Half an hour later, Jess bade farewell to Ethel’s mare.
The little horse left the same way as she’d arrived four years ago-in the Benns’ horse float, surrounded by excited little Benns.
‘Of course we want her,’ Ray Benn practically shouted down the phone when Jess rang him. ‘Jess, you send her to the knackers over my dead body.’
‘She’s in rotten condition, Ray.’
‘Yeah, well, I never should have sold her to Ethel,’ Ray said savagely. ‘Ethel pleaded-and I knew she’d love her-but Barry Simmons…’ He broke off. ‘Well, least said about that slimy creep the better. We’ll hook on the horse float and be right there. She’s not Matilda but she’s the next best thing.’
He was true to his word.
Jess stood and watched as the float was driven out of the yard. The little mare’s eyes seemed lighter already.
One happy ending.
Ethel would love this. It was right.
Niall would enjoy hearing it, too.
Jess said farewell to Ethel’s Rottweiler again, climbed into the car and turned the vehicle towards the Mountmarche vineyard.
Towards Niall…
Her heart was so full that it felt like bursting into song all on its own.
Niall’s house call to old Mr Hayes must have taken more time than Jess had spent at the Simmons’s. The ambulance he’d been driving wasn’t in front of the house when Jess arrived.
Jess pulled into the yard and Paige came stumbling out almost at a run on her crutches. The child was still in her nightdress, her face liberally smeared with something brown.
When she saw who it was her face fell-but only for a moment.
‘My daddy’s not home yet,’ she said importantly. ‘But he said on the phone he’d be here soon. He didn’t say he was bringing you.’
‘Maybe because I’m bringing myself,’ Jess smiled, swinging the little girl up to give her a hug. This little one could be her daughter…
Whoa, Jess…
Things were moving too fast.
Hugo appeared at the kitchen door and smiled a welcome. ‘Doc should be here any time, Miss,’ he beamed. ‘Would you be interested in a cup of tea-or a glass of wine?’
‘Neither, thanks,’ Jess said nervously. ‘I think-if you don’t mind-I might just take a walk down to the river while I wait’
‘Good idea.‘ Hugo beamed. ‘I think I’ll come with you. I left a pair of secateurs on the bottom vines last night and I need them this morning.’ He turned to Paige. ‘And you, miss…What about hopping inside and getting yourself dressed? If your dad comes home and finds you still in your nightdress at eleven in the morning he’ll think your Uncle Hugo is a very poor sort of child minder.’
Paige giggled. ‘I don’t think you’re very good at it, anyway,’ she chuckled. She looked impishly up at Jess. ‘Uncle Hugo let me have chocolate ice cream for breakfast.’
‘Yes, well, you can get rid of the evidence of that, too, while you’re about it,’ Hugo grinned. ‘You’ll have us both in leg irons.’
Paige didn’t seem too worried. She giggled again, adjusted her crutches and hobbled inside.
‘Is it OK to leave her?’ Jess asked doubtfully and Hugo nodded.
‘Her
dressing’s her one absolute independence,’ Hugo told her. ‘When she was still so ill and Niall tried to help her she screamed like she was being beaten. Now…now it takes her half an hour or more but she does it herself. And every time we let her be the happier she gets. It’s like an expression of trust.’
‘I guess I can understand that.’ Jess thought of the changes the little girl had suffered in her life and thought that if Paige managed to retain only one measure of independence she was performing miracles.
‘She’s changed so much over the last couple of weeks,’ Hugo smiled. He was leading her down the rough tracks between the vines. ‘An easier little girl all round. I reckon we’ve turned the corner.’ He looked at Jess out of the corner of his eye. ‘Thanks to you, I reckon.’ He grinned. ‘It’s starting to look like our Dr Mountmarche might put down a few permanent roots.’
‘You don’t think he intended to…before…?’
Before what? What was she trying to say here?
Before Jess?
The elderly man hadn’t heard her question. He stared out over the vineyards, his face reflecting satisfaction.
‘He’ll come back now,’ he said placidly. ‘Before…Well, Niall just came to see Paige right-and to make sure the girl’s claim to the vineyard couldn’t be refuted.’
‘“The girl’s claim”…?’
‘This vineyard belongs to Paige,’ Hugo told her. ‘You knew that, didn’t you?’
‘No.’ Jess stared. ‘I thought it belonged to N…Dr Mountmarche…’
‘Heck, no. Not that he-well, we-didn’t want it.’ Hugo shook his head. ‘Louis Mountmarche was an old bastard. He screwed as much money out of the family as he could to set up this place and did his brother-Niall’s father-and me out of a lot in the process. Ran up debts in our names and then skipped the country.
‘Well, that’s water under the bridge-thirty-year-old history. Next thing we knew he’d set up here and then the place gets an international reputation. Louis knew the business better than any of us. He was the last Mountmarche in wine. With his actions he’d forced the rest of us out of the business.’
‘So…’
‘So we forgot about him.’ Hugo grimaced. ‘I started importing wine into Britain but I’ve always hankered after a place like this. Niall’s father left the business completely. And then Louis died…’
‘Leaving the winery to Niall…’
‘No. To Paige…’
To Paige…Jess frowned. ‘I…I beg your pardon?’
Hugo shrugged. ‘Louis hated our family with a vengeance. Well, there was a lot of bad blood. Niall’s father tried to sue for money owing and Louis acted like he was being personally persecuted. Niall’s father went broke in the process. Anyway, Louis decided he hated Niall’s dad and he hated me but Niall was old enough for Louis to remember.
‘Leaving the vineyard to Niall would be like leaving it to Niall’s father but I guess at the end he couldn’t bear to leave it away from his blood. So he wrote a will leaving it to Niall’s children-if there were any children-or otherwise it was to be sold and the money given to the Seamen’s Mission. Not that Louis ever had anything to do with the Seamen’s Mission. It was just pure vindictiveness on his part.’
Jess stopped still and stared.
‘So because Niall had Paige the vineyard came back to the family?’
‘Well, that’s the good part.’ Hugo smiled. ‘We-none of the family-knew Paige existed. Not even Niall. The papers were being processed to transfer the vineyard to charity when that monk or whatever he was phoned. We couldn’t believe it. The vineyard just coming back to us…’
‘So…’
There was a rotten taste starting at the back of Jessie’s mouth and her head felt thick and dull. She couldn’t make herself ask anything else.
Hugo didn’t need prompting.
‘So Niall got over to Nepal to the hospital where Paige was being kept and brought her home. Took all sorts of fuss before he could prove she was really his daughter. The lawyers put him through hoops…’
Jess swallowed and swallowed again. ‘So…so he proved she was his daughter so he’d get the vineyard?’
‘Well, of course,’ Hugo said solidly. ‘Anyone would. This place…’ He gazed about him. ‘You don’t know it, miss, but this place is a gold-mine. This part of the island seems to have soil and a microclimate made for growing grapes-better, I reckon, than the Bordeaux region of France. And it’s ours again.’
‘Paige’s.’
He didn’t hear the strain in her voice. Hugo touched a budding branch with a gnarled hand and grinned again.
‘The Mountmarche family’s,’ he corrected himself. ‘I’ll build this place up so even Louis wouldn’t recognise it By the time Paige comes of age…Well, with luck, it’ll be doing so well we’ll have bought more land and turned all the northern slopes into vineyards.’
‘And…and Niall…?’
Hugo shrugged. ‘He’ll be off back to England, I guess,’ he told her. ‘He’s a damned fine doctor, miss. Got a great reputation as a surgeon already and he lectures at the university and writes books as well. In time, when the child’s settled and Niall has to go, maybe we’ll find a nanny.’ He smiled slyly across at her.
‘But the way our Niall’s been looking at you-Well, if he had a wife on the island to look after Paige then we wouldn’t need a nanny-and he might even come back and forth from time to time. He’d have to if you were here. And you and me could cope with Paige and the vineyard…’
‘You and me…’ Jess whispered. ‘While Niall goes back to London!’
Hugo paused. He’d almost been talking to himself, Jess realised. Now he turned and saw her face-and his own face dropped.
‘Look, miss…’ he said uneasily. ‘That’s just what I’ve been thinking. I mean…Paige thinks you’re wonderful and you’re well settled here-part of the island…’
‘And I’d make a good mother for Paige…’
‘She loves you already,’ Hugo said simply.
‘I don’t believe this.’
‘I shouldn’t have said anything.’ Hugo shuffled anxiously. ‘Heck, miss…It’s none of my business. I mean, I don’t know what’s between you and the doc. I was just thinking-when he didn’t come home last night-’
‘That he might have been finding a nanny for Paige.’
Hugo had taken a tentative step forward again but Jess didn’t move. She stood with sunlight glinting on her face and her world crashing around her feet in a million razor-sharp pieces. Her nails were clenched so hard into her palms that she found later they’d drawn blood. ‘Hugo…Hugo, I’m not coming further. I…I’ve changed my mind about waiting for Dr Mountmarche. Tell Paige…Tell Paige I’m sorry…’
And she turned and ran up through the rows of budding vines.
Hugo stood watching her with horror.
‘Miss, please…’ His elderly voice cracked with despair as he yelled after her. ‘Miss…Jess…’
It was no use. Jess was beyond hearing.
Jess absented herself for the rest of the day.
She’d arranged for her animals to be fed until six so she took the radio in case of emergencies and drove herself down to the beach.
She sat on the sand and watched the surf run in and out while she tried to force her wounded mind to think.
It was like she’d been beaten.
Two men…
She’d given her heart to two men and one had turned out to be a murderer and the other…
He’d used a little girl to get a vineyard.
What lies had he told her?
Had he known of Paige’s existence before? Who knew? It was likely that he had, Jess thought bitterly, but had only acknowledged it when his precious winery was at stake. The Mountmarche wine.
So he’d brought his puppet owner back to Barega along with Hugo to do the work-and then he planned to head back to England. The family would be wealthier and he could get back to his precious career.
And Jess?
Jess tried hard to make herself think logically.
Why would he want her? Why not a nanny?
She licked dry lips, the answer being so darned obvious that it hurt.
Paige was a wealthy little girl. If Karen reclaimed her…
Karen had deserted her child when Paige needed her most. Any judge would look favourably on Niall’s custody claim-especially if he’d provided her with a stable stepmother.
If Jess took over that role then it would leave Niall free to do what he liked.
Men!
Jess stood up and walked down to the water. She stood in the shallow breakers, kicking sand and foam up in a vicious spray before her.
‘I should have known,’ she whispered. ‘I’m no better than Ethel. The victim syndrome…No man I want is any good. No man…’
So where did that leave her?
Right back where she’d started. Alone.
Only this was worse than being alone. What she’d felt for John Talbot-the fledgling feelings of admiration and love-were nothing to what she’d felt for Niall Mountmarche.
It was as if part of her was shrivelling inside-and she knew that it could never grow again.
The end…
‘So, it’s back to your animals,’ she told the sea bleakly. ‘They need you…’
And what about Paige?
Her heart went out to the lonely little girl living with the two men-men who saw her as a tool to get what they wanted.
Paige had to stay on the island. Her family’s plans dictated that.
‘I can be close to Paige when Niall’s not on the island,’ Jess whispered to herself.
And for the next few months? The time Niall had promised to be medical superintendent for the island? They had to keep some sort of professional relationship.
Heaven knew how.
Jessie’s heart was like stone. She glanced at her watch and was stunned to see how late it was.
She had to organise Kiro before six…
‘OK, Jess,’ she said bleakly as if someone was listening. ‘Get on with the rest of your life. A life without Niall Mountmarche…’
Why did it seem like no life at all?
Kiro at least was delighted to see her.
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