Everlasting Love
By
Carole Mortimer
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EVERLASTING LOVE
After six years Olivia had still never forgotten Marcus Hamilton—and how much she had loved him. She still did love him, in fact, as she realised when she met him again. But he had never loved her—and there was even less reason to suppose he would ever love her now…
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This edition 1984
© Carole Mortimer 1984
ISBN 0 263 74622 4
CHAPTER ONE
'Ready, Olivia?'
Olivia sighed, moving to open the door to admit Natalie Irving, a young and pretty girl of seventeen, with long golden hair. 'Are you sure you and Rick wouldn't rather go on your own?' she frowned. 'I can easily go shopping for the afternoon. There are lots of things I—'
'Now don't be silly,' Natalie dismissed, coming further into the bedroom. 'Is this your costume?' She held up the emerald-coloured bikini, leaving the black one-piece suit on the bed where they had both been laid out for Olivia's examination.
'The black—'
'Too old-fashioned,' the young girl dismissed with a wrinkle of her nose, and rolled the bikini in the towel, tucking them both under her arm, sighing as she saw Olivia still hesitated. 'You know Rick feels easier when you're around,' she encouraged softly.
Olivia sobered as she thought of her patient, her green eyes thoughtful, a frown marring her usually smooth brow. She was seven years the other girl's senior, although she didn't feel it when Natalie bossed her about in this way! She didn't look it either, in the clinging black vest-top and wrap-around green and black skirt, her legs long and bare, her feet thrust into loose sandals, her hair a mass of red-gold curls, her face youthfully beautiful, even if the chin was a little too determined.
'I'm not sure that's good for him,' she said quietly. 'I'll be gone in a couple of days now that Rick is well again. I don't think he would still depend on me.'
'He doesn't,' Natalie dismissed with a confident laugh. 'He likes you, and he's grateful. Most nurses would jump at the chance of an afternoon lazing by the pool—wouldn't they?' she prompted teasingly.
Yes, they would. And after weeks of caring for Rick Hayes, of making him believe he could walk again, of convincing him that he wasn't going to be a cripple all his life, an afternoon doing nothing but sunbathe and swim was exactly what she needed.
'But wouldn't you and Rick rather be alone?' Still she hesitated about accepting the invitation. The Hayes family, mother and father, Rick, and his young sister Dawn, had all been very kind to her during the three months she had been Rick's private nurse after he was discharged from hospital following a serious car crash. But there had to be a limit to that kindness, and surely intruding on Rick's date with his long-time girl-friend Natalie was that limit.
Natalie didn't seem to think so. 'We can hardly be alone with thirty other people,' she said dryly.
Olivia's eyes widened. 'Is that how many will be there?'
'About that,' the young girl nodded. 'Then perhaps I ought to go, on a professional level,' she murmured thoughtfully. 'It will be Rick's first time among so many people, I don't know how he'll react to people seeing his limp.'
'He'll be fine,' Natalie assured her. 'Okay, so he'll never play football for England—he never could play the game anyway,' she dismissed lightly. 'A little old limp isn't going to effect his becoming an architect, and that's all he's interested in.'
'Besides you,' Olivia teased, knowing the young couple intended getting engaged on Natalie's eighteenth birthday.
The younger girl grinned. 'That goes without saying.'
'Modest with it!' Olivia laughingly followed Natalie down to the car where Rick sat impatiently waiting for them.
'I was going to send out a search party,' he moaned as he drove out on to the country road. 'I'll never know what you women find to talk about all the time!'
'Men, sweetheart,' Natalie taunted.
'I hope you meant that in the singular?' he returned with mock jealousy.
'I wouldn't want to make you conceited,' his girlfriend returned haughtily.
Olivia sat in the car listening, to their lighthearted bantering, smiling to herself. She was going to miss this family, every mad, lovable member of it, from the absentminded Clara, practical joker Eric, handsome Rick, self-assured Natalie, to shy Dawn, the latter slightly overshadowed by the other extroverts in her family. Three months of sharing their big rambling home was a long time to spend in close living with anyone, and the lack of. a close relationship with her own parents had made her appreciate this loving and loved family all the more.
But soon it would be over, only another five days and she would be leaving to take care of her next patient, an elderly woman who had fallen and broken her leg, needing nursing care for her first few weeks at home. She would be sorry to leave the Hayes family; she had become very fond of them all. Becoming emotionally involved was a hazard of nursing she had never quite managed to overcome, and she doubted she ever would.
But she hadn't left this family yet, the sun was shining, Rick and Natalie were very much in love, a wonderful glow emanating from them that made her feel included in their happiness at being alive.
Several boisterous teenagers were already in the pool when they arrived at the Grayston home, and Olivia was at once included in their laughing group, despite her age difference from most of them.
Happily Rick showed no self-consciousness about wearing bathing trunks, though his legs were still badly scarred from the accident, the limp quite noticeable on one of them. But he was mentally a well-adjusted young man, and had handled the inactivity during the first months after the accident with calm acceptance, only occasional panic setting in as he doubted he would ever walk again. But his progress from not being able to walk at all to walking unaided now had been a rapid one considering the extent of his injuries, and he was coping with his limp with the same maturity that he had handled the rest of his illness.
But as Natalie had said, it was Olivia's afternoon off, and after assuring herself that Rick was really all right, she lay back o
n a lounger to enjoy it, very slender in the emerald-green bikini Natalie had insisted she bring in preference to the more sedate black, dark sunglasses pushed on the bridge of her nose hiding eyes the same colour as the bikini.
'Like to borrow some sun-tan lotion?' a young female voice offered.
Olivia sat up, grateful for the offer; she had already felt the sun's rays beginning to burn her delicate skin. 'Thanks,' she smiled, pushing her sunglasses up into the riot of red-gold curls. 'Olivia!'
She looked curiously at the young girl sitting on the lounger beside her. She didn't look familiar; her long dark hair was pulled back to be secured in an impish ponytail, her face young and pretty, her grey eyes wide in surprised recognition. Grey eyes…?
Olivia's interest quickened as she studied the young girl, the stubborn chin, the determined mouth, and those shockingly familiar grey eyes. 'Sally…?'
'Yes!' the young girl cried excitedly. 'How are you?
You look well. What are you doing now? Oh, of course, you came with Rick, so you must be the nurse he talks so highly of. Are you—Did I say something funny?' she frowned as Olivia began to smile.
Olivia's smile deepened. 'Well, so far you've answered every question you've asked.' Added to which, if she didn't smile she might cry! She had thought the Hamilton family were well out of her life, and to see Sally again, after all this time, was startling to say the least.
'Sorry,' Sally gave a rueful grimace. 'It's just such a surprise to see you like this.'
That had to be the understatement of the year! 'How have you been?' Olivia asked politely.
'Fine,' the young girl nodded. 'And your father?' her voice cooled somewhat. Sally anxiously searched the bland expression on her face. 'He's well too. Working too hard!'
'He always did.' Olivia sounded brittle, fighting images of Marcus from her mind. She hadn't thought of him for weeks, and she wouldn't think of him now, wouldn't allow this chance meeting with Sally Hamilton to disrupt the even tenor of her life.
'You haven't seen him since—'
'Not for some time, no,' she cut in sharply. 'You mentioned something about sun-tan lotion just now,' she abruptly changed the subject.
'Oh—of course,' the young girl flushed, handing her the plastic bottle containing the brown lotion, watching as Olivia began to smooth it on her creamy skin. 'Don't you want to talk about Daddy?' she finally probed after several silent minutes.
Olivia didn't look up, her breathing becoming shallow. 'Is there anything to say?' She knew the question was put in such a way that it was a complete contradiction of itself, that she very much wanted to hear about Marcus, would accept any little crumb of information she could get about him. And as his daughter, Sally was guaranteed to know plenty about Marcus.
'I somehow thought—I just never expected you and Daddy to break up like you did. You seemed—well, he really liked you,' Sally finished awkwardly, her gaze questioning.
'I'm sure he did,' Olivia agreed with some bitterness. 'But there was you—and your mother.' 'Oh yes—Mummy,' Sally grimaced. Olivia's eyes widened at this reaction. 'You never used to feel that way about her,' she frowned, remembering well how Sally had cavaliered her mother. 'People change,' the girl shrugged. 'It was six years ago, I was only twelve, still a child really.'
And yet that child had helped to push the wedge between Marcus and herself, Sally's obvious aversion to any female but her mother in her father's life making Olivia's relationship with Marcus impossible. And that was before Ruth came back!
'I didn't understand the situation,' Sally added lamely.
'Of course you didn't,' Olivia agreed brightly. 'I'm not really sure that I did. I was only eighteen myself then.'
'But you loved Daddy!'
'I may have thought I did—'
'I'm sure you did,' Sally insisted vehemently.
'Maybe for a time,' Olivia acknowledged tightly. 'But a man in your father's position couldn't afford to be involved with an eighteen-year-old. After all,' she added tautly, 'he was Chief Surgeon even then.'
'He still is,' Sally nodded. 'At a different hospital— bigger.'
'Yes.' It had to be. Marcus would be thirty-nine now, and he had always been destined to be at the top of his profession; it sounded as if he had made it. 'And your mother, how is she?' she heard herself ask, her breath held in her throat as she waited for the younger girl to tell her how happy her parents were together, that they perhaps even had more children.
'Mummy?' Sally gave her a startled look. 'But don't you know?' She sounded puzzled.
Olivia frowned. 'Know what?'
'My mother died three years ago.'
She swallowed hard, shocked in spite of her usual calm composure. 'I—I had no idea,' she shook her head. 'I'm sorry,' she added dully.
Ruth Hamilton had been dead for three years, and she hadn't even known about it! That meant that Marcus had been on his own for all that time—or did it? Marcus was hardly the type to be alone for any amount of time, hadn't the two of them met during a temporary separation from his wife Ruth. And hadn't she been discarded just as quickly as soon as Ruth decided to come back! No, whatever hopes she might have had about Marcus for all these years, there had never been a chance of the two of them ever getting back together again. Although she felt sure there would be a woman in his life.
'Your father's married again?' she queried softly.
'Only to his work,' Sally replied dryly. 'He'll always be married to that.'
'Yes.' Olivia stood up with jerky movements. 'I think I'll go in for a swim,' she told the girl brightly. 'It's been nice seeing you again. 'Bye!' and she ran to the edge of the pool.
'Oh, but—'
Olivia didn't wait to hear any more, but dived smoothly into the clear blue water, welcoming its coldness, doing several laps of the pool before she even dared to look up again. Sally had gone from the adjoining loungers and was listening rather absently to a young man as he talked to her at the other end of the pool. Olivia levered herself out on to the side of the pool before hurrying to the changing-rooms, anxious that Sally shouldn't speak to her again.
Sally seemed to have matured into a very nice young lady, and yet six years ago she had been totally spoilt, and completely possessive of her father. Marcus had responded to that possessiveness with gentleness and understanding, but Olivia hadn't been able to cope with the young girl's rudeness quite so calmly. And even that hadn't been all Sally's fault; Olivia knew she had been too unsure of Marcus and his interest in her to defend herself against any barbs she might receive, too vulnerable and uncertain in her youthful love of him.
'Ah, good, you're ready to leave.' Natalie met her outside the changing-rooms. 'I hope you don't mind, but Rick has had enough for one day.'
All Olivia's concern was instantly for her patient, her own troubled thoughts forgotten. 'I should have thought of that—'
'Of course you shouldn't,' Natalie laughingly dismissed. 'He's an adult, he should know when it's time to go. And luckily he does. If you want to stay on I'm sure I could get someone to drive you back later—'
'No, I'm ready to go.' Her voice was sharper than usual, and she sensed Natalie's questioning look. 'I— The sun is very tiring,' she invented.
'Of course,' Natalie agreed sceptically. 'None of our friends were making nuisances of themselves, were they? I know some of the boys—'
'No, no, it isn't that.' Olivia assured hastily. 'It really is just tiredness.'
'You seem—upset about something?' the other girl persisted.
Was she so transparent? She hadn't thought she was, had thought she had built up a protective shell these last few days. A few minutes' conversation with Sally Hamilton, unwilling thoughts of Marcus thrust upon her, and her carefully controlled veneer had been shattered; Natalie sensed it, and now she was forced to acknowledge it to herself too. 'Tired,' she insisted firmly, following the other girl out to the car.
Rick frowned at her in the driving-mirror as they drove back to his home. 'Are you
all right?'
'She's tired,' Natalie answered him.
His brows rose. 'You seemed to be resting when I looked at you. You were talking to Sally for quite some time.'
Olivia moistened her dry lips. 'She didn't ever come to the house while you were ill, did she?' she queried in a casual voice—too casual?
'Only once, I think,' Rick answered thoughtfully. 'It was probably your day off.'
'Oh, that one,' Olivia teased.
'Cheeky!' he grinned at her.
'Well, Olivia's days away from you haven't exactly been numerous,' Natalie reasoned.
'Go on, she's loved every minute of it.'
'Yes, I have,' she agreed warmly.
'Don't tell him that,' Natalie groaned. 'He'll be unbearably conceited about it.'
'And I thought you loved me?' he groaned.
'I do—sometimes,' she added coolly.
'Thanks!'
'I think you asked for that one, Rick,' Olivia laughed.
'Probably,' he grimaced.
Oh, she was going to miss this family! That fact was brought home to her even more as she ate a lighthearted meal with them that evening. Clara and Eric had insisted that she ate all her meals with them, treating her like another daughter they had suddenly acquired. Five more days and she would be leaving this happy family group to take care of an elderly lady, and the contrast between the two households would be extreme. But she had chosen her profession, enjoyed it, and if she was sometimes lonely then that was her fault; the offer of boy-friends had been there often over the years. But none of those men had ever measured up to Marcus—
Marcus! Couldn't she get away from thoughts of him today? It would seem not, as she heard Rick mention Sally Hamilton to his father.
'Sally's back from Switzerland,' he told him. 'And Marcus?' Eric enquired.
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