‘All right. I’ll come,’ she agreed. ‘As long as your parents don’t mind. After all, it is their home.’
‘It will be fine with them, I assure you.’ And looking happier than he’d done all morning, Kyle shepherded her towards the lift that would take them upwards.
As the day wore on news of the morning’s casualties came through. It appeared that the elderly Chinese woman had been the wife of the proprietor of the take-away. He had gone to the cash and carry at the time of the explosion and had been demented with grief on hearing what had happened to his wife.
The customer with the partly severed leg had been taken for microsurgery, and the man with head injuries had been diagnosed as having a fractured skull.
‘All in all, not too cheerful,’ Kyle remarked when the reports came in, ‘but it could have been a lot worse without us.’ As his glance rested on the only female member of his staff she was already wishing that she hadn’t been so quick to accept his invitation for a weekend away.
She’d only met Kyle’s parents once and Ben a couple of times, and her relationship with the boy’s father was in such a delicate state that it needed nurturing rather than being sidetracked into ‘happy families’.
But it was too late now. Both Ben and his dad would be hurt if she backed out. So at the end of a very strange day she prayed that she hadn’t imagined a new closeness between Kyle and herself since they’d had that straight talk in the car.
CHAPTER SIX
ON THE Thursday morning Kyle asked Hannah, ‘Which way would you rather travel on Saturday—by rail or road? I just haven’t got around to getting myself a car since I came to London, but I can soon hire one.’
He went on to explain, ‘One reason why I haven’t bothered is because the tube is so handy, and for another it’s more relaxing travelling to see Ben and my parents by train. Dad picks me up at the other end and if I need a car while I’m there he lets me use his.’
Hannah had smiled. She still couldn’t believe that he’d invited her to spend the weekend with him. Even more amazing was this consideration for her wishes.
She was tempted to tell him that whatever kind of transport he laid on, it would be fine. That the back seat of a tandem or a slow-moving donkey would do just as well, as long as he and she were together.
But maybe she was being previous. She needed to remind herself that Kyle had asked her to join him because it was what Ben wanted.
Having seen him with the boy, she was aware that if his son asked for the moon he would try to lift it out of the sky for him. So thinking that Kyle was eager for her presence could be a mistake.
‘The train will be fine,’ she told him. ‘No need to go to the trouble of hiring a car. Although I have to warn you that I shall probably sleep all the way.’
It was most unlikely, but a voice inside was warning her to keep him at a distance until his motives became clearer. In the last couple of days they’d made progress. They were talking like reasonable people after the straight talk that seemed to have finally cleared the air.
But, and there was always a ‘but’, the man she loved could be unpredictable. Even though he appeared to have accepted that he’d made a big mistake long ago.
With anyone else but Kyle she would have been walking on air, but he had his own rules, his own standards, and even though she knew he’d wanted to make love to her the other night, it didn’t mean that harmony was going to follow passion.
‘Good,’ he said, aware that her thoughts were wandering. ‘I’ll book a couple of tickets.’
‘And what was all that about?’ Jack asked as they flew above the chimneypots minutes later in answer to a call for assistance at a serious accident on a building site.
‘What?’ she parried innocently.
‘You know! You and the boss being all chummy.’
Hannah laughed. ‘We’re going away for the weekend,’ she told him teasingly.
‘What, you and Dr Templeton?’ he joked back. ‘I don’t believe it. What are you going to do? Chat about old times?’
If he’d anything else to say he didn’t get the chance. His copilot, with map in hand, was pointing to a partly finished office block, and on looking down they could see an ambulance and a cluster of workmen standing beside a still figure on the ground.
Jack brought the helicopter down onto waste ground beside the building site, and as Hannah and the accompanying paramedic raced towards the scene there was the familiar chilling dread inside her as she braced herself for what she was about to be faced with.
This time there were multiple injuries in keeping with a fall from high scaffolding. The victim looked to be in his late twenties, and though his hard hat had saved his head the rest of him was in a mess.
‘My neck,’ he was moaning as they reached him. ‘I can’t move my neck!’
‘We’re going to need temporary splints for his arms and legs,’ she told the paramedic as she examined him. ‘There are multiple fractures, and the neck rigidity indicates vertebrae damage, so we’ll have to get him on to a spinal board before we can move him.’
‘What happened?’ she asked of a young police constable.
‘Nobody knows. The fellow was up there on his own, so it wasn’t a case of him being pushed.’
‘Pushed! You’re joking surely?’ she cried.
He shrugged. ‘It has been known.’
They’d been easing him onto the board while the police constable was propounding his theories and with a brief nod in his direction they moved off to where the pilots were patiently waiting to take on board their injured cargo.
That had been Thursday’s major trauma, Hannah thought as she made her way home beneath the setting sun. The rest of the call-outs had been of a less serious nature, critical enough but not quite as bad as the poor fellow on the building site.
There had been no follow-up report on him so far, but when it did come through she wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he’d been transferred to a spinal injuries unit.
Kyle had been still at his desk when she’d left and he’d beckoned her to go in as she’d passed the open door of his office.
‘I won’t keep you a moment,’ he promised. ‘Just tell me about this outing that’s planned for tomorrow night at a restaurant in the Park Lane area. Graham Smith tells me that a table has been booked for a late-night meal for the staff and anyone they wish to bring along. Are you going?’
Hannah shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I said I would when it was first mentioned some weeks ago, but at that time I didn’t know I’d be travelling to Gloucestershire with you the following morning. I’m presuming that you’ll want us to catch an early train so that you can spend as much time as possible with Ben.’
‘I think we should go,’ he said. ‘It’s not fair to let the others down. Added to that, this place isn’t in the most salubrious part of the city, so it’s time we hit the high spots for a change. Have you promised Krasner that you would go with him? He always seems to be hovering when you’re around.’
‘I wasn’t intending going with anyone in particular. I think Jack is bringing his current girlfriend. She’s a receptionist at one of the Harley Street clinics.’
Kyle was smiling. ‘Really? Jack the lad in more ways than one, it would seem.’
‘Mmm,’ she agreed blandly. ‘So, are we going or not? And what train have you booked us on?’
‘Yes. We’re going. The train doesn’t leave until midmorning…and if you oversleep it isn’t far for me to come and wake you up, is it?’
‘Er…no,’ Hannah agreed.
Nights were hot and airless in the capital in high summer and the one that followed that particular discussion was no different. In spite of having a fan in the bedroom and the windows wide open, Hannah found herself unable to sleep for the heat.
Her bedside clock said that it was half past two and, throwing back the tangled sheets, she went into the kitchen for a cold drink.
It was a moonlit night and as she looked down onto th
e shadowed park below a longing came over her to be out there in the cooler night air.
There was no one about and no sooner had the idea come into her head than she was throwing off her short nightdress and reaching shorts and a halter top out of the wardrobe.
It was cooler in the park and very quiet. Seating herself on a nearby bench, she sat gazing up at the moon, but not for long. A taxi had just spilled out four revellers in a side road and, peering through the park railings, one of them saw her sitting there.
‘Do you see what I see?’ he said, and the others nodded amid noisy laughter.
Hannah had heard them and was on her feet. They sounded harmless enough, but at half past two in the morning she wasn’t taking any chances.
The apartment block was only feet away, but to her dismay the men were lolling against the wall outside when she got there and when she took out her key one of them lurched towards her drunkenly.
She didn’t get the chance to use it. The door swung open at that moment and Kyle reached out and pulled her inside.
‘Stay there!’ he ordered grimly, adding to the loiterers, ‘I imagine that you have homes to go to. If you haven’t moved on within the next five minutes I’m going to have to do something about it.’
‘No need to get steamed up, buddy,’ one of them said. ‘We’re going.’
‘Are you insane, or what?’ Kyle bellowed when they’d drifted off. ‘Going out there at this time!’
‘How did you know where I was?’ she asked shakily.
He had been a most welcome sight as he’d flung the door open, but he’d been an unexpected one, too.
‘You weren’t the only one who couldn’t sleep. I saw you from my window, sitting on the bench as if it were the middle of the afternoon. Any inner city area is dangerous during these hours. You of all people should know that.’
‘Will you please stop yelling at me?’ she begged tearfully. ‘I know it was a crazy thing to do, but I was so hot.’
He’d heard the tears in her voice and his face softened. ‘How do you think I would feel if anything happened to you, Hannah?’
‘I don’t know. How would you feel?’
‘I would feel guilty as hell.’
‘But why? It wasn’t you that put me at risk.’
He reached out and gently pushed her hair back off her damp brow. ‘I would feel guilty because if our lives had run as they should have, you would have been in my bed tonight instead of wandering around a London park.’
‘And that’s it.’
‘Yes, that’s it, and now I’m going to see you to your door and will wait until you’ve locked it securely behind you.’
‘Right,’ she said limply. ‘And, Kyle…’
‘What?’
‘Thanks for being there. I’m not used to it.’
‘Huh? Not used to what?’
‘Being looked after.’
As she lay once more in her solitary bed a short time later Hannah was smiling. Kyle hadn’t laid a finger on her down there, except for dragging her quickly inside, but his concern for her had made her feel cherished and it was an unfamiliar but wonderful experience.
The next evening Hannah wore black again. The staff from the unit had all gone home to change once darkness had fallen and the Eurocopter had been put to bed, and when Kyle called for her she was only just ready.
Her dress was made of stiff silk, low cut with narrow straps over the shoulders and a skirt that ended just above the knee.
It was a colour that complemented her hair and the pale smoothness of her skin, and with a choker of pearls and matching earrings she knew that she looked cool and elegant.
If she’d had any doubts about it his expression when he saw her would have put them to rest. Yet he merely remarked, ‘You look good.’ The degree of understatement told her he was on the defensive for some reason.
‘So do you,’ she replied in like manner.
Kyle was wearing a dark suit with a crisp white shirt and silk tie. Whatever her appearance was doing to him, his was making her feel weak at the knees.
He’d been attractive when she’d known him before, in a lean, restless sort of way, but time had calmed him down and taught him control, while at the same time filling him out physically.
A man in every sense of the word, he was strong, clever and darkly sensual…and added to that he was a loving father. It was the last thing she would have expected of the vibrant man that had been the Kyle Templeton of their youth, but she was looking at the mature version and he was something else.
‘So? Are we ready?’ he was asking. Bringing her mind back to more mundane things such as locking the door behind her and preceding him to the lift, Hannah answered the question in deeds rather than words.
‘Whose idea was it to come here?’ Kyle asked as they entered the muted elegance of the restaurant. Expensive leather furnishings and mellow wood panelling blended with quality tableware and linen, and beneath its soft lighting it was clear to see that this was an establishment to attract the discerning diner.
They were the first to arrive and as they settled down for a pre-dinner drink Hannah looked around her. She was smiling and Kyle asked, ‘What’s the joke?’
‘I’m just thinking about the staff of the helicopter emergency service dressed up to the nines in this place. It’s a pleasant change from dashing out to try to save some poor soul…in our unbecoming surgical suits. And in answer to your question about whose idea was it to come here, the man himself has just arrived.’
Kyle looked around him. ‘Who? Graham?’
‘Yes. Apparently he used to come here with his wife before they had the children and he suggested it from a nostalgia point of view.’
‘Well, it’s certainly very classy. I hope none of our lot are looking forward to the Karaoke.’
It seemed that they weren’t. They were all dressed for the occasion. Even Jack Krasner, whose clothes were invariably as casual as his manner, had made the effort.
The food and wines were excellent and expertly served. The company relaxed, and Hannah began to think she’d imagined Kyle being on the defensive as he faced her across the table.
She was seated next to Charles Conran, the latest member of the team and a widower for some years. The pleasant, balding newcomer had brought his sister with him and Hannah endeavoured to make them feel welcome on this their first foray into the social life of the unit.
But even so she was acutely aware of Kyle’s eyes upon her all the time and there was something in his glance that she couldn’t fathom.
What was going on in that mind of his? she wondered. They’d been close last night, or at least she’d thought they’d been, so surely it wasn’t anything to do with her.
When they were ready to leave and the account had been presented in a beautiful leather folder, he reached across for it. As the rest of the party observed him in surprise, he told them, ‘Tonight is on me, folks. As a token of my appreciation of the way you all give of your very best in a job that’s difficult, demanding and extremely nerve-stretching.’
He raised his glass. ‘A toast to the fastest medical response team in the city.’ Amid good-natured laughter they all followed suit.
Hannah was watching him thoughtfully. He had style. A talent for taking the moment and turning it into something special.
It was another warm night with a scattering of stars in the heavens when they got outside, and Kyle said, ‘How about we walk part of the way before hailing a taxi? We’ll probably regret it in the morning when we have to make an early start, but the night is too beautiful to just go home and sleep.’
‘Whatever you say,’ she said dreamily. If he’d suggested they throw themselves into the fountain in Trafalgar Square she wouldn’t have argued, so enchanted with the moment was she.
As they walked slowly along pavements that had seen many feet, Kyle took her hand in his. As his fingers tightened around hers, Hannah thought that to the casual observer they would be taken for lovers strolli
ng home to their nest. So why not pretend that they were?
He stopped at last and turned to face her, his eyes shadowed in the light of the streetlamps.
‘Have you ever thought about marriage?’ he asked casually.
‘What?’ she gasped, not sure if she’d heard him correctly.
‘I asked if you’d ever thought of getting married.’
‘Yes, frequently,’ she replied, rigid with amazement. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘I just wondered.’
‘There has to be a reason why you would ask such a question.’
‘I feel sometimes that I ought to provide Ben with a mother.’
Hannah’s amazement was turning to anger. ‘Am I missing something? Are you asking my opinion? Proposing to me? Or just making general conversation?’
‘I’m proposing to you, Hannah. I can’t let Ben go through life without the love of a caring mother.’
‘I see.’
Did Kyle realise he was on a slippery slope? That glaciers were forming?
‘Your son is adorable,’ she told him with appropriate iciness, ‘and I agree with your sentiments. But aren’t you forgetting something? Being a mother is a very hard task when there isn’t a loving husband to make up the trio. Unless my hearing isn’t what it was, I haven’t heard the word “love” mentioned with regard to you and I.
‘You have some nerve, Kyle. What would the set-up be? Separate bedrooms? Or are you quite happy to take advantage of the chemistry between us? The old lust-without-love package? I knew that something was brewing the moment you called for me tonight, but I never expected it to be this.’
A taxi was cruising past and she hailed it, calling over her shoulder as she opened the door, ‘Don’t bother calling for me in the morning. I’m not going with you on the “happy families” weekend. I’ve lost the taste for it.’
Kyle hadn’t spoken during her angry outburst. He’d just stood there like someone turned to stone. As the taxi moved off she looked through the back window and saw that he was still where she’d left him.
But he must have become mobile shortly afterwards, as no sooner had she flung off the black dress and stripped off her underwear than he was ringing her bell.
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