Alison looked away when she felt her heart flutter. Maybe Jack did seem to appreciate her help, but it would be foolish to get too carried away by the idea. In the glamorous, highsociety world in which he moved, she wouldn’t register as the tiniest blip on the social scale.
‘I’d better go.’ Jack announced. He wrapped Freddie up in the blanket and stood up. ‘I’ve taken up far too much of your time as it is. Thanks for all your help tonight, Alison. I really appreciate it.’
‘It was nothing.’ Alison followed him to the door. ‘I know what it’s like when you have sick child to worry about.’
‘Lucy mentioned something about you having a little boy?’
‘That’s right. Sam’s three—the same age as Freddie, in fact.’
Jack paused beside the front door. ‘How do you manage when you’re working? Does your little chap go to a nursery?’
‘He goes to nursery every morning, then to a childminder in the afternoon.’
Jack frowned. ‘Do you think that’s a better system than leaving him in nursery all day?’
‘Not really. I can’t afford the nursery fees for a full day’s care. This way is cheaper.’
‘Oh, I see. Right.’
He sounded embarrassed and Alison hurried to reassure him, wondering why it mattered how he felt. It wasn’t as though she and Jack were going to become close friends. She didn’t move in his circle and he most certainly wouldn’t be interested in moving in hers.
The thought was dispiriting and she chased it away. ‘I’m happy with the arrangement. Sam loves Carol, the childminder. She also looks after a couple of the other children from the nursery in the afternoons and he has lots of fun when he’s with her.’
‘It sounds great. I might consider that kind of arrangement myself once I get sorted out.’ He grimaced. ‘I’m afraid I took the easy option and booked Freddie into the nursery full time, although I’m not convinced it’s the best thing for him at the moment.’
‘You can’t look after him and go to work,’ she pointed out, and he sighed.
‘I suppose so. It’s the old rock and hard place scenario, isn’t it? I want to be there for him, but I also need to provide for him. Being a parent isn’t easy.’
‘It isn’t, but the rewards are huge,’ she assured him.
‘I know. Even though Freddie only tolerates me, I can’t imagine being without him now.’
He gave her a quick smile, then opened the door. Alison followed him out to the step, shivering as a blast of cold air roared across from the bay. Jack turned to her.
‘Thanks again, Alison. You’ve been great.’
He leant forward and kissed her lightly on her cheek, then strode off down the road. Alison went back inside, her hands shaking as she closed the door. She went back to the sitting room and loaded the cups onto the tray, then carried it into the kitchen, and all the time she was doing so her heart was bouncing up and down like a yo-yo on a string.
Heat flowed through her as she recalled the feel of Jack’s lips on her skin. The kiss must have lasted no longer than a second yet she knew it would be imprinted in her memory for an awful lot longer. It wasn’t just the fact that it had been a long time since a man had kissed her either—she could have dealt with that. It was the fact that it was Jack who had kissed her, Jack’s lips which had left this imprint on her cheek.
Lifting her hand to her face, she touched the spot and shuddered. It was going to take a long time before the memory faded.
CHAPTER THREE
SATURDAY dawned bright and clear. When Jack opened the front door, he detected a definite hint of spring in the air. Scooping Freddie into his arms, he carried him to the car and strapped him in. Although the child seemed a lot better that morning, he still intended to have him checked over. As he’d told Alison last night, he wasn’t taking any chances with his son’s health.
Jack frowned as he slid behind the wheel. It was strange how he had found himself opening up to Alison. Normally, he shied away from discussing his private life with anyone else, yet he’d had no hesitation about telling her all about India and Freddie. Was it the fact that she had the rare ability to combine practicality with sympathy that had made him reveal so much? he wondered as he started the engine. True, there’d been a couple of occasions when he had first arrived at her house when she’d seemed a little prickly, but he had put that down to the fact that she hadn’t had time to get to know him then. However, it appeared that his initial assessment, that she had taken a dislike to him, might have been wide of the mark, and he found that an incredibly comforting thought. For some reason he couldn’t explain, he wanted Alison on his side.
There was just one other car parked in the surgery’s car park when he arrived. Saturday morning surgery was for urgent cases only and the townsfolk understood that. Although most general practices had cancelled Saturday surgeries, Jack knew that his father had decided against such a step. Nick Tremayne preferred a more traditional approach, so the doctors working at Penhally Bay Surgery did their own night calls as well. While Jack admired his father’s dedication, he also resented it. He had never been able to rid himself of the thought that if Nick had been less committed to his job, he might have had more time for his own family.
Jack lifted Freddie out of his seat and carried him inside. Hazel Furse, the surgery’s newly appointed practice manager, smiled broadly when he went in.
‘Jack! How lovely to see you.’
‘Hi, Hazel, how are you doing?’ Jack replied, walking over to the desk. ‘I believe congratulations are in order following your promotion.’
‘Thank you. I was thrilled to be offered the job when Kate left.’ Hazel smiled at Freddie. ‘Is this your little boy?’
‘Yes, this is Freddie. He’s been running a bit of a temperature and I wondered if someone would have a look at him for me. Who’s on duty this morning?’
‘Your father,’ Hazel replied cheerfully. Reaching into a drawer, she took out a new patient form, mercifully missing Jack’s grimace. He’d been hoping to avoid his father until he was settled in, but obviously it wasn’t to be.
‘You can drop this in any time you like,’ Hazel explained, handing him the form. ‘You’re in luck because we’re really quiet this morning, so you can go straight in. It’s such a lovely day that nobody wants to waste it by seeing the doctor.’
‘Great. Thanks.’
Jack tried to summon up some enthusiasm as he knocked on the consulting-room door. He went in when Nick bade him enter, forcing himself to smile when his father looked up. ‘Morning, Dad. I thought I’d bring Freddie in for a check-up. He was running a temperature last night and although I couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with him, I wanted to make sure there was nothing nasty brewing.’
‘Bring him over here.’
Nick’s expression was difficult to read as he got up and walked around the desk. Jack couldn’t tell if his father was pleased to see him or totally indifferent as he made his way to the couch. He placed his son on the bed and stood beside him. ‘There’s no need to be scared, Freddie,’ he said softly, when the little boy began to whimper.
‘Hello, Freddie.’ Nick bent down and smiled at the child. ‘I’m just going to feel your tummy and then listen to your chest. Do you think you can do me a really big favour and hold this for me?’
Nick offered the child his stethoscope, and to Jack’s amazement Freddie accepted it. He shook his head as he watched his son clutching it in his chubby little hands.
‘He’s usually terrified of strangers. I’ve never known him accept anything before.’
‘I’m not exactly a stranger, though, am I?’ Nick said flatly, bending over the child.
Jack bit back his sharp retort. This was neither the time nor the place to start one of their infamous arguments. He watched as his father examined Freddie, reluctantly admiring the fact that Nick was able to perform the task without causing the child any distress. He mentally ticked off the procedures as his father performed them:
a visual examination of Freddie’s ears, eyes, nose and throat; a careful inspection of his skin to check for a rash; palpating his abdomen; and feeling his armpits for any signs of tenderness or swelling.
‘Has he had a cold recently?’ Nick asked, glancing up.
‘No, nothing at all. Physically, he’s been quite well.’
Nick’s gaze sharpened. ‘How is he mentally? Lucy said that he has stopped talking—is that right?’
‘Yes. That’s why it was so difficult to work out what was wrong with him last night—he wouldn’t tell me.’ Jack sighed. ‘I’ve tried everything I can think of to encourage him to speak, but he still won’t talk to me or anyone else.’
‘He needs time to get over the trauma,’ Nick said bluntly. ‘It’s not going to happen overnight and you need to be patient.’
He turned and smiled at the little boy, not giving Jack a chance to explain that he already knew that. ‘Can I have that back now, Freddie? Thank you. That’s a good boy.’
Jack gritted his teeth while Nick listened to Freddie’s chest. He wasn’t going to snap back, and certainly wasn’t going to appear as though he was on the defensive. ‘So what do you think?’ he asked mildly after his father had finished.
‘I’d say it was his teeth. The second molar on the right of his lower jaw has recently erupted, and I’d lay good money on that being what has been causing the problem. A lot of children feel very out of sorts when they’re teething.’
‘A new tooth? I never thought of that!’ Jack exclaimed, feeling incredibly foolish for having overlooked something so simple.
Nick shrugged. ‘It’s an easy mistake to make. After all, Freddie is three and you probably assumed he was past the teething stage by now.’
‘I did.’
Jack grimaced as he lifted his son down from the couch. Although he was relieved that Freddie wasn’t sickening for something serious, it was galling to wonder if his father now believed he was incompetent.
He pushed the thought aside, because he wasn’t going down that route again. He had spent far too much of his life trying to gain Nick’s approval, and he had made up his mind a long time ago that he wasn’t going to carry on beating his head against the proverbial brick wall. Nick could think whatever he liked. He knew that he was a damned good surgeon and he didn’t need anyone’s approbation to prove that to him.
‘Well, thanks for that,’ Jack said stiffly, taking hold of Freddie’s hand.
‘It’s what I’m here for.’ Nick sat down behind his desk. ‘Just keep giving him junior paracetamol and it should settle down in a day or so.’
‘Right. Thanks. I will.’ Jack headed for the door, then paused when his father carried on.
‘Have you seen Lucy yet?’
‘Yes, she called round late yesterday afternoon after she’d finished here.’
‘Good. It will be a big help to you, having Lucy on hand,’ Nick said quietly.
Jack felt a shaft of pain run through him. Had that been a subtle hint that Nick himself wasn’t going to offer a helping hand if he needed it? His expression hardened as he opened the door. ‘It will. At least there’s one member of my family who’s willing to help out.’
‘That wasn’t what I meant,’ Nick began, but Jack didn’t wait to hear what he had to say. He wasn’t interested.
He shook his head as he stepped out into the corridor. There was no point wishing that his father gave a damn about him or his son. He knew what Nick thought of him because he had made it perfectly clear that he disliked the way Jack had chosen to live his life. OK, so maybe he had gone a bit wild a few years ago—he was willing to admit that. He had spent a lot of time on the London party scene, although in his own defence he had never let it interfere with his work. However, in the past couple of years—ever since his mother had died—he had cut out the socialising and concentrated on his career.
He was no longer the playboy Nick imagined him to be, although his father would never accept that. Nick seemed to prefer to think the worst of him, and if that was how he felt then Jack wasn’t going to try to change his mind. As for him and Freddie, they would manage perfectly well without Nick’s help. He had Lucy to help him if he got really stuck, and if she was busy he would sort things out himself. Just for a moment his mind flashed back to the empathy he’d seen in Alison’s eyes the previous night before he blanked out the memory. Alison had enough to contend with without taking on his problems as well.
Nick got up after the door closed and went to the window. He sighed as he watched Jack lift little Freddie into the car. He should have gone after him and made him listen, instead of letting him rush off like that. Now Jack believed that he wasn’t interested in his grandson, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Of course he cared about the little boy, just as he cared about Jack, too. The trouble was that every time he and Jack were together they ended up arguing. Annabel had said it was because he and Jack were so alike—they were both strongminded and passionate about issues they cared deeply about.
Maybe it was true, but it didn’t help to resolve this issue. Jack needed his help more than ever at the moment, and he wanted to be there for him and Freddie. It was how to convince Jack of that fact which was going to be the hardest thing to do.
Alison was on her way back to Penhally Bay when the accident happened. She’d been to the local farmers’ market to buy some fresh fruit and veg. Sam had been invited to a birthday party at his childminder’s home so she had taken advantage of the fact that she’d had a couple of hours to herself. She was driving back along the narrow winding lanes when a car overtook her, travelling far too fast. It reached the bend and she saw its brake lights flash on as the driver tried to slow down, but it was too late by then. It careered across the road and she gasped in horror when she saw a tractor suddenly appear, travelling in the opposite direction. There was a sickening crunch of metal as the two vehicles collided.
Alison braked to a stop and reached for her mobile phone to call the emergency services. Once she was sure the ambulances were on their way, she jumped out of her car and ran over to the vehicles. The car had rolled over onto its roof; its windows were shattered and most of its bodywork had been stoved in by the force of the impact. The tractor had fared rather better—it was still upright but the driver looked dazed as he staggered down from the cab.
‘There was nothing I could do,’ he said when Alison hurried over to him. ‘I tried to stop but it all happened so fast…’
He swayed and she grabbed hold of his arm and led him to the grass verge. ‘Sit down there,’ she instructed, crouching in front of him. ‘Did you hurt yourself?’
‘I think I must have hit my head,’ he said vaguely, touching the side of his head.
Alison gently explored the area, sucking in her breath when she felt a definite depression in the skull above his right ear. ‘You’ve had quite a bump,’ she said, trying to hide her alarm. An injury like this could cause untold problems if it wasn’t attended to promptly.
‘Aye. It feels like it, too,’ the man replied gruffly. He suddenly started to shiver, as reaction set in, so she took off her coat and wrapped it around him.
‘I’m going to have a look at the people in the car,’ she explained. ‘Just stay there until I come back.’
He nodded, and she frowned when she realised that he was definitely less responsive than he had been initially. She propped him against the wall, desperately wishing there was something more she could do for him. However, it would need more than first aid to sort out his injuries.
She ran over to the car and knelt down so she could peer through the rear window. The driver was dangling upside down from his seat belt. He was cursing loudly and didn’t appear to be badly injured, from what she could see. She left him there and went to check on the passenger, a teenage girl who hadn’t fared nearly as well. She obviously hadn’t been wearing a seat belt because she had gone straight through the windscreen when the car had overturned. Alison found her lyi
ng in the road and could barely conceal her horror when she saw the injuries to the girl’s face. She was conscious, though, and responded when Alison asked her name.
‘Becca.’ She raised a trembling hand to her face but Alison stopped her.
‘No, you mustn’t touch your face, my love. We need to make sure that it stays as clean as possible.’
‘It hurts,’ Becca whimpered.
‘I know it does, but the ambulance will be here soon and the doctors will sort it all out at the hospital for you,’ she explained, mentally crossing her fingers. From what she could see, the damage was so extensive that it would need major surgery to put everything back together, although she had no intention of telling the poor girl that.
She stood up and smiled at her. ‘I’m going to fetch some dressings from my car. We need to keep the germs out of those cuts.’
‘Are you a doctor?’ Becca whispered.
‘No, I’m a nurse,’ Alison explained. She patted Becca’s arm. ‘I’ll only be a moment—stay there and don’t worry.’
She left Becca sitting on the ground and checked on the driver again. He had managed to unfasten his seat belt and had crawled out through the rear window. He was holding his head in his hands when Alison reached him.
‘How are you?’ she asked, crouching down.
‘How do you think?’ He rubbed his hands over his face and groaned. ‘I’m going to have a king-sized headache in the morning!’
Alison frowned. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she could smell alcohol on his breath. ‘Have you been drinking?’
‘Why? What’s it got to do with you?’ he shot back, glaring at her.
She stood up, having neither the time nor the patience to argue with him. ‘Not a lot, but I’m sure the police will be interested if you have.’
He swore loudly, but she ignored him as she went to check on the tractor driver again. He was unconscious now, so she placed him in the recovery position, frowning when she heard how noisy his breathing was. His face was very flushed as well, and when she checked his pulse, it was heavy and bounding but extremely slow. He was exhibiting all the signs of compression, in fact, so Alison took out her phone and called Ambulance Control so they could alert the hospital. If blood was collecting inside the man’s skull and putting pressure on his brain, it would need to be drained away as soon as possible.
Brides of Penhally Bay - Vol 1 Page 50