The look the woman shot him in return should have singed his eyebrows, but David stood his ground, earning a silent cheer from Sarah. Although now he’d embroiled her and Tony in his battle with this uppity in-law. Not a good start to a restful holiday for Tony and Lucy, but James would love the animals David seemed to collect.
And they could all do their sightseeing from there.
She finished closing the door and leant against it, but it wasn’t soundproof. She could hear the ongoing murmur of David’s voice as he began listing the accommodation options on the island at this time of the year.
Rowena looked across at Sarah, her usually clear grey eyes bleak with confusion.
‘I’ve loved him almost since the day he arrived,’ she admitted, speaking slowly as if this abrupt confession was being torn from her lips against her will. ‘Only I didn’t recognise it for a long time. I don’t know why—why I loved him, not why I didn’t know I did. Perhaps it was because he was so hurt and I’d been there myself and understood. It was as if we were the same under the skin.’
She rubbed the fingers of her right hand against her temple. ‘I don’t know why I’m telling you this when I’ve not even wanted to think about my feelings up till now.’
Sarah stayed where she was, fearing that movement might break the mood, but tried to transmit the empathy she was feeling across the room.
‘Perhaps you need to put it into words to clarify your feelings,’ she murmured.
Rowena nodded slowly, then continued her confession. ‘Recently I’ve thought he might be beginning to see me differently—as more than just his colleague. Things he’s said—the way he looks at me sometimes—but I haven’t wanted to make a fool of myself…’
Her voice trailed away but Sarah knew exactly what Rowena meant. Love might be all-powerful, but there was so much uncertainty in the early stages of a relationship that walking through quicksand would be easy by comparison. While the pain of that uncertainty was immeasurable and seemingly infinite.
But now wasn’t the right time for an in-depth discussion on relationships, so she picked up on something else Rowena had said.
‘You’ve been there yourself? Suffered that kind of pain? I’ve seen the photo on your desk—your husband and son?’
Rowena nodded.
‘It’s five years now. My husband was the doctor here—we were both island bred, had grown up together. We went to the mainland to study, married young and had Adrian, then came back to work together at Three Ships. It had always been our dream. They went sailing one day, Peter and Adrian. He was five. The wind came up. Peter had sailed all his life. I assumed they’d taken shelter somewhere and would be back as soon as the wind dropped.’
She paused and rubbed her hand across her eyes as if to press back pain, and Sarah felt remnants of her own devastating loss so many years ago when Lucy’s father had died in a car accident a week before their wedding—seven months before their daughter was born.
‘It was not knowing what had happened!’ Rowena continued. ‘It nearly drove me crazy. So, when David decided to give up paediatrics and came to work here, though it was two years later, I understood what he was going through—or part of it. The dreadful uncertainty part. The loss and grief.’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Though no one has ever accused me of murder! I’ve never been investigated. That’s another whole issue David’s had to deal with.’
‘Had you known David before that? When he was married to Sue-Ellen?’
Rowena looked surprised by the question.
‘Not really, though, of course, we knew of him from when he first met Sue-Ellen because her family were well known on the island and she and Mary-Ellen had always holidayed here. During their marriage, they spent occasional weekends here, but we didn’t see them socially. Of course, when his wife disappeared…’
The sentence dropped away as if that time was too confusing to consider, then Rowena frowned and finished what she’d been saying before Sarah had interrupted.
‘Anyway, when he came to work here, keeping Peter’s dream of a doctor on the island alive, I came to help—the way I’d always intended.’
The words were so harshly defiant that Sarah looked down at her forearms to see if they’d scored her skin. No wonder these two had taken so long to come even close to getting together. Both of them, like she herself at one stage of her life, had been unwilling to commit to a new relationship and subject themselves to the possibility of even more pain. Neither of them had wanted to be overtaken by the vulnerability love imposed.
But love had apparently found, or was finding, a way through the maze, until a new problem, small in size but huge in its implications, now flared like a rocket across their path.
Effectively blocking all chance of a future for them?
Sarah hoped not. Though she hadn’t known Rowena long, she suspected that this woman was the right one for David—a woman who could restore the gleam to his eyes and laughter to his voice.
A woman who could give him the happiness she and Tony shared.
Before she could tentatively suggest this might be possible, the door opened and David returned. His dark hair was tousled where he’d run his hand through it, and his face lined and drawn.
‘Sarah!’ He strode forward and took Sarah’s hands in his. ‘That was unforgivable of me to thrust you into such an unpleasant situation. But the thought of her staying there, in the house, knowing what she thinks of me…’ He hesitated, raising tortured eyes to meet Sarah’s. ‘I took the easy way out, used you as an excuse. I’m sorry. Of course, there’s no reason for you all to stay out at my place when your family arrives, though I’ve plenty of rooms—they just need cleaning out and I was intending to do that anyway. You can go back to the guest-house as we’d originally planned, if you’d prefer. I’ll simply tell Mary-Ellen you changed your mind.’
Sarah squeezed his fingers.
‘Nonsense! We’ll be delighted to stay with you, as long as you let Tony and Lucy share the cooking and tell us when we’re in your way. In fact, I was wondering how to ask you about alternative accommodation. The guest-house is lovely, so beautifully set up with its period furnishings and little knick-knacks, but I’m afraid James would wreak havoc there in ten minutes and Lucy’s sleeping habits wouldn’t fit with Lorelle’s idea of mealtimes.’
She sensed David’s relief.
‘I’ll explain to Lorelle,’ he offered. ‘And pay her for the time you’d have been there. Could you…? Would you mind…?’
‘Shifting tonight?’ Sarah rescued him. ‘Not at all! I haven’t unpacked much because I knew a house or flat would be better once the others arrived.’
David threw her a grateful smile, but the concern returned to his eyes when he looked towards the other occupant of his office.
‘Rowena…’ he began, hesitancy fudging his usually clear voice. ‘I—’
Before he could finish, the statuesque blonde rose smoothly to her feet. She stepped towards him and looked him in the eyes.
‘You know where I live, and how to contact me at any time,’ she said bluntly. ‘If there’s anything I can do, and I mean anything, David, you have only to ask.’
Simple words but they produced a buzz of electric tension in the room. Sarah wished she could render herself invisible, for it was obviously a moment when David might have reached out to the woman who loved him.
Maybe admitted his own feelings…
But David, for all the notice he took, might not have heard. He’d certainly missed the emotion quivering in Rowena’s voice. He turned away, his face closed, his lips tightening grimly, then a smile that didn’t reach his eyes quirked the left side of his mouth upward just a little.
‘I don’t suppose that offer would extend to shooting my sister-in-law?’ he said.
‘Don’t tempt me!’ Rowena retorted as she left the room.
‘For an island of two thousand souls, the actual towns, if you can call them that, are very small. It’s always
been primarily farming land, with some fishing and kelp-gathering in the season.’
They were heading out of the main settlement of Winship, after collecting Sarah’s suitcase and appeasing the guest-house owner with a wad of cash. Now David seemed determined to act as a tour guide, probably to keep his mind off his other problems. Whatever worked, Sarah thought, and she sat back, content to listen, though most of what he was saying he’d already told her the day he’d picked her up from the airport.
‘The fishing fleet uses Makepeace Harbour—presumably because they need to make peace with the elements before leaving home. It’s about twenty kilometres east along the coast at the end of a long narrow inlet. The only other settlement of any size is Redwing, which is just about dead centre of the island. The farm is equidistant to all three places, so it was convenient for me to live there rather than in one of the towns.’
‘Oh, look at the goats. Aren’t they sweet?’
The sudden appearance, in the middle of the road, of the herd of long-haired, doe-eyed animals saved her asking the question that had curled on her tongue. The one about why, when this place was so intricately connected to memories of his wife, he had chosen to come here to work.
Not to mention giving up a lucrative paediatric practice to administer to the general health and well-being of his two thousand scattered souls.
‘They’re not goats but a weird breed of sheep, kept especially for their milk which is used to make a very tasty yoghurt—in fact, you’ve probably been eating it for breakfast at Lorelle’s. Rowena’s family, the Andersons, own that herd. The lad driving them across the road at peak hour is her nephew, Bart.’
She heard a softness in his voice when he mentioned Rowena, but when Sarah glanced towards him his profile was just as grim as it had been since they’d left the surgery.
‘Bart comes over quite often. He feeds my animals if I’m not able to get home for any reason.’
Talk of his animals—which apparently included a variety of native marsupials recovering from various injuries, plus one obstreperous ram, a confused pig, a couple of goats and a donkey—occupied the rest of the drive, although the questions she hadn’t asked still nagged in Sarah’s head. When she’d first learned of David’s decision to become a GP on Three Ships, she’d assumed he’d wanted to cling to the ties with his lost wife.
Today’s reaction to his sister-in-law’s arrival, and a few earlier snippets of conversation they’d had, now had her wondering if the memories were all that happy.
Rowena stood at the surgery window and watched the two doctors depart. She envied Sarah her privileged position as ‘old friend’ in David’s life. Envied the fact that she’d be the one closest to him at the moment, when he needed someone to lean on.
‘You should be grateful he’s got someone staying with him,’ she told herself, but she wasn’t. She was edgy and unhappy and probably, if she analysed the multitude of emotions surging in her body, a little jealous.
‘Damn this for a joke!’ she added, scowling at her hazy reflection in the darkening glass. ‘And be damned to convention. Get off your butt, Rowena Jackman, and damn well fight for your man!’
The words echoed around the room, making her smile at the repetitive nature of her curses. Maybe it was time she began to use a few stronger ones.
The smile lingered on her lips as she locked the surgery and walked up the little back lane to her home. It hovered in her heart as she chopped meat and peeled vegetables. It warmed her as the casserole began to cook, and made her fingers fumble as she packed a small suitcase.
She showered, careful to keep her hair dry, then wrapped herself in a towel while she brushed the long tresses before pulling the whole swathe of it forward over her right shoulder and plaiting it loosely. The clothes she’d chosen for stage one of her campaign were laid out on the bed. Jeans—one wore little else on the island—and a rich purple linen shirt, with a bulky, hand-knitted cardigan for warmth.
Courtesy of one of the many clever craftswomen on the island, she had a well-padded cloth bag ideal for carrying a piping hot casserole, and with it in one hand and her suitcase in the other, she walked out to the car. It wasn’t until she was driving down the lane that she realised she hadn’t locked the house. Not that anyone locked up on the island—except when they were going away for any length of time.
She stopped the car very deliberately, walked back to the house, found the key after a flustered search and locked the house.
CHAPTER TWO
DAVID heard the car pull up as he was pouring Sarah a glass of wine. They’d put off the question of where she’d sleep until later, simply dumping her case and smaller bags in the hall before going outside to tend the animals while it was still light. She’d walked around with him, hovering, he had no doubt, in case he needed her support.
Though he wasn’t going to fall to pieces just because Mary-Ellen had arrived. He’d been shocked, of course, particularly in the instant when he’d seen her as Sue-Ellen.
Seen his missing wife standing in the waiting room!
But he’d got over that and now he was going to take the next step towards burying the past. Starting tomorrow, no doubt with Mary-Ellen watching every move, he was going to sort through the huge shed filled with antique farm machinery, old horse-drawn vehicles and an assorted accumulation of generations of junk, and get rid of the lot, either to Mary-Ellen or a dealer.
It was time to start afresh!
The sound of the car—it was sure to be Mary-Ellen checking that Sarah was staying here—shook this resolve slightly. He stiffened his backbone and prepared to stand his ground. Politeness would prevent him from telling her exactly what he thought of her, but he’d not let her needle him or get to him in any way.
He passed Sarah the glass, and resisted reaching for a beer for himself as he heard the footsteps cross his veranda.
‘Can I come in?’
His heart thudded—probably with relief, he told himself—as he recognised Rowena’s voice, then the sound of her footsteps coming closer down the hall.
Funny how familiar those footsteps were—how natural-sounding in his hall.
‘I’m bringing dinner so I was reasonably certain you wouldn’t turn me away,’ she added, coming into the light so he could tell from a wariness in her lovely eyes that she was far less certain than she was making out.
He could also see the suitcase.
‘Leaving town?’ Sarah asked.
Rowena dropped the case but retained her grip on the cloth bundle in her other hand.
‘Yes, but not the island,’ she said firmly. Then she turned to David. ‘I’ve come to stay!’
‘You can’t!’ he said, his voice deepening with denial in case she didn’t understand the words. ‘Not now!’
‘Nonsense!’ Rowena retorted. ‘You just try to stop me. Now is exactly when you need friends around you and while I know you’ve got Sarah, she’s not a local. You need local support as well, and that’s me, David Wright, so get it into your thick head.’
‘No!’ he repeated, struggling to find the words he needed to make her understand. But while she stood before him, strong and straight, her eyes glittering with stubborn determination, he couldn’t think at all.
Well, not rationally.
Irrationally, he wanted to kiss her—to hold her in his arms and lean his body into hers, feel her full breasts against his chest, the hardness of her pubic bone pressed into his groin…
‘You can’t,’ he muttered weakly, then he turned to Sarah. ‘You explain!’
‘I don’t see any reason why Rowena can’t join us,’ Sarah said, betraying their years of friendship without so much as a quiver of regret.
The anger which had churned beneath his apprehension since setting eyes on Mary-Ellen now bubbled to the surface and was fuelled by his totally inappropriate but still frustrated lust.
‘You must see why she can’t stay,’ he stormed at Sarah. ‘With Mary-Ellen here, the entire unsavoury mess will be
dug up again, and the whole island will be talking. I don’t want Rowena involved in it—I don’t want her hurt by the talk and gossip that will spread around the place faster than the summer bush fires. She’s one of them, an islander. She belongs here and I won’t have her contaminated by the filth that woman flung at me four years ago.’
‘Then tell her so yourself,’ Sarah told him, standing up the better to glare at him. ‘Stop shilly-shallying around the place and tell the woman how you feel about her.’
The words hit David with all the impact of a force-ten gale!
‘How I f-feel about her?’ he stuttered, wondering how the devil Sarah had discovered his secret—almost before he’d figured things out himself.
Now his infuriating old friend was smiling at him, the kind of smug grin women used when hugging secrets to themselves! He scowled at her but it had little effect. The smile remained.
‘As you two are discussing me as if I’m not here, I think I’ll put the casserole in the oven,’ Rowena said, but when she walked out of the room it felt colder.
‘Well, you do fancy her, don’t you?’ Sarah persisted, the determination in her voice telling him she wasn’t going to drop the subject.
‘I don’t quite know what I feel for her,’ he prevaricated. ‘But I do know I can’t tell her anything—can’t even think about courting her—until I’ve got rid of all the remnants of the past and can start afresh. Until I can offer her a whole man!’
Sarah chuckled.
‘Courting! What a delightfully old-fashioned word it is!’
Then she reached out and touched him lightly on the shoulder.
‘But old-fashioned or not, you’ve never been less than a whole man to any of us who love you,’ she said. ‘A hurt man, certainly. A man who felt lost, bewildered and betrayed. But never less than whole, David.’
She kissed him gently on the cheek then she, too, left the room. Presumably to find Rowena.
David closed his eyes as the name echoed in his head.
Her Dr. Wright Page 2