‘Only it wasn’t over, was it?’ said Mike, his gaze meeting hers.
‘No…’ she hesitated. ‘It wasn’t. I’m sorry, Mike.’
‘Don’t be sorry,’ he said, leaning forward and taking her hand. ‘Maybe we should both be thankful that we’ve recognised what we want before it was too late.’ He paused. ‘You said you were coming to see me, Claire. Were you coming to tell me about you and Dominic?’
‘Yes.’ Claire curled her fingers around his hand and squeezed it tightly. ‘It was Penny who made me see that it wouldn’t be fair to anyone if I went on living a lie.’
‘That’s quite right,’ Mike agreed, then after a moment, he said, ‘Does Dominic know any of this?’
‘No, not yet.’ Claire shook her head. ‘He is still under the impression that I am working at my relationship with you.’
‘In that case, don’t you think you should go and see him right now and put the poor man out of his misery?’ said Mike softly.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Claire. ‘Yes, I will.’
The old brewery building, which had recently been tastefully converted into modern apartments, stood on a bend in the river. In the past this had been a busy stretch of water with many merchants’ vessels taking goods to the nearby port. Now it was a comparatively quiet backwater, its moorings filled with houseboats and cabin cruisers.
There was little or no breeze that morning and warm, hazy sunshine, which sparkled on the water. A family of ducks trailed downstream, the ripples behind them forming a wide V-shaped wedge while two swans glided effortlessly around the moored boats. Claire saw Dominic before he saw her so had the advantage of being able to study him unobserved for a while. He was talking to the owner of a particularly colourful houseboat, the glossy sheen of its black woodwork decorated with garlands of brightly painted flowers. Casually dressed this morning in faded blue denims and a black, ribbed vest-style shirt, his hair looked wet, as if he’d just stepped out of the shower.
Claire hadn’t really seen him since the previous day when together they had entertained Evelyn and Dorothy in the staffroom. After the two ladies had taken their leave Dominic had thrown her a wry glance. ‘It rather looks,’ he’d said, ‘as if the cat might be out of the bag now, doesn’t it?’
She had only been able to agree with him, at that moment fearful what effect the sisters’ visit might be about to have on their lives. Since then, of course, everything had changed—she still could hardly believe by just how much. Now, as she stood there watching Dominic her heart suffused with love for this man who had entered her life in such a dramatic way and who had since, quite literally, turned her world upside down. She had believed herself to have been in love with Mike, and in her way she had loved him and at the time it had been very real, but that had been before she had known what it was to have loved and to have been loved by Dominic. After that it had seemed that nothing could ever be the same again.
As if he sensed someone watching him, he half turned, and when he saw her standing there he straightened up, murmured something to the man on the boat and slowly began walking towards her.
‘Claire…?’ he said wonderingly when he was close enough to read the expression in her eyes. ‘This is a surprise…’
‘I need to talk to you, Dominic,’ she said softly.
‘Really…?’ He frowned for a moment, trying to read what was in her eyes, then—with a quick glance back at the man on the houseboat, who was eyeing Claire with interest, and a second glance up at the old brewery where he now lived—he said, ‘Why don’t we take a walk?’
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘that would be nice.’ She could tell he was apprehensive about what she was going to say, why she should have sought him out on a Saturday morning. Together they began to stroll along the towpath beneath a belt of willows whose branches formed a cool, green tunnel, the tips of their leaves trailing in the water, then out on the other side to where the river meandered gently through lush water-meadows thick with clusters of yellow musk and huge white daisies.
‘Has the balloon gone up?’ asked Dominic at last, casting her a sidelong glance.
‘How do you mean?’ She hesitated, unsure now how to tell him, not wanting him to think she had only come to him because Mike had left her.
‘Well, I imagine after Dorothy and Evelyn left, Mike wanted some answers,’ he said with a wry smile.
‘There was certainly some explaining to do,’ Claire agreed, ‘but it wasn’t Mike who wanted the explanation—it was Penny.’
‘Penny?’ Dominic looked mildly surprised.
Claire nodded, ‘Penny and I have been friends, close friends, really, ever since I came to the Hargreaves Centre,’ she said, ‘and I would say she knows me pretty well. She had already picked up on something since my return from Italy and especially since you came here to work, but I don’t think she could quite put her finger on what it was. Anyway,’ she went on when he remained silent, ‘when Dorothy and Evelyn turned up and let on that we had all been in Italy together, Penny immediately wanted to know why I hadn’t mentioned that fact when you first arrived at the centre.’
‘And what did you tell her?’ There was a glint of amusement in his dark eyes now.
‘I told her I hadn’t been able to say anything because of Mike,’ Claire replied quietly. ‘She, of course, then immediately put two and two together and realised that we must have meant something to one another in Italy.’
‘Well, yes.’ Dominic considered for a moment. ‘I guess that’s putting it mildly, but, yes, I suppose she was on the right track. So, did you deny this fact or admit it?’ he asked curiously.
‘I admitted it,’ said Claire.
He stopped, taking her hand as he did so and tugging it slightly so that she, too, was forced to stop and face him on the narrow towpath. At this point on the pathway the cow parsley grew so high it obscured them from anyone passing on the river. It was quiet, so quiet that the only sounds to be heard were the buzzing of a bee as it darted from one flower to another and the occasional plopping sound from the water as fish came up for the insects that skimmed the surface. ‘What did you admit?’ he said softly, looking down into her eyes.
‘That I fell in love with you in Italy,’ she said, ‘but that I felt I had to forget you when I came home because I didn’t want to hurt Mike.’
‘And what did Penny have to say about that?’ he asked.
‘She said I would end up hurting everyone if I carried on the way I was,’ Claire replied simply.
‘Clever lady, your friend Penny,’ observed Dominic. Gently drawing her towards him, he tilted her chin, dropped a kiss on her forehead, then another on the tip of her nose.
‘I really had thought I loved Mike,’ said Claire, ‘but that was before I met you…’
‘So are you going to tell him now?’ he asked, urgently searching her face.
‘I already have,’ she said.
‘You have?’ There was no disguising the light that flared in his eyes.
‘Yes.’ Claire took a deep breath. ‘I made up my mind that I was going to see him this morning,’ she explained. ‘I was going to tell him everything. But even before I had the chance to leave the house he came round to see me.’
‘How did he take it?’ asked Dominic.
‘Not as badly as I feared,’ said Claire with a little sigh. ‘You see, what he had come to tell me was that he and his ex-wife Jan are going to give their marriage another try…’
‘You’re joking!’ Dominic stared at her.
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘It appears that while they were at their son’s bedside while he was so ill they were drawn together again.’
‘Amazing,’ said Dominic, ‘although, now I think about it, I can’t say I’m that surprised. Mike still seemed very involved with his family and his ex-wife certainly didn’t appear to have let go.’ With a sudden grin, he said, ‘Does this mean we can shout our love from the rooftops now?’
‘Well, I don’t know about that…’ Claire beg
an.
‘I do love you, you know, Claire,’ he said urgently, suddenly growing serious again. ‘I still can hardly believe it, but that’s the way it is. Before I met you I had convinced myself I wasn’t ready to settle down or form any lasting relationship, but that all changed that week in Italy. The moment I set eyes on you I knew you were the one for me and after the experience we went through I was even more convinced.’
‘I know,’ she whispered. ‘It was the same for me. What happened was truly amazing.’
‘I know I shouldn’t have followed you and come to work at the centre,’ Dominic went on, ‘but I couldn’t help myself, Claire—you have to believe that. I couldn’t just let you go. I knew I was in love with you and I felt deep down, in spite of what you had said about it having to end, that you felt the same way about me.’ As he spoke he slipped his arms around her waist, drawing her towards him again.
‘You were right,’ whispered Claire. Reaching up, she wound her arms around his neck and with a little sigh of bliss allowed her fingers to sink into his dark hair, something she had been longing to do ever since that night in Rome.
‘I love you, Claire,’ he murmured, his voice husky with desire. ‘I love you and I want you to be my wife.’ She was unable to reply as his mouth covered hers at that moment in a kiss that awakened all the love and passion that had simmered below the surface since they had parted.
When at last they drew apart he looked questioningly into her eyes. ‘Claire?’ he murmured. ‘Will you marry me?’
‘Oh, yes,’ she said with a deep sigh. ‘Yes, with all my heart.’
Together they turned and with arms entwined made their way back along the riverbank past the row of houseboats and into the old brewery where they climbed the stairs to Dominic’s apartment.
EPILOGUE
‘IT WORKED, didn’t it?’ Dominic said.
‘What?’ Claire murmured dreamily as she lifted her face to the cooling spray from the fountains.
‘Our coins,’ he replied. ‘I told you two coins in the fountain would ensure our return to Rome, didn’t I?’
‘Yes,’ she agreed, putting up her hand to shield her eyes from the hot Italian sun, ‘you did, but even you couldn’t have foreseen that our return would have been on our honeymoon.’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ he said with a lazy smile, that same smile that still turned Claire’s heart over every time she saw it. ‘I wanted you the moment I set eyes on you and I guess I simply made up my mind there and then.’
‘That’s quite shocking, Dominic Hansford,’ she reproved mildly.
‘So didn’t you want me?’ he asked, raising one eyebrow.
‘Of course not!’ she protested. ‘I don’t go around looking at strange men and deciding I want them there and then.’
‘I hope you don’t,’ he said. ‘At least not now, but what about then?’ he added. ‘Can you honestly say that you didn’t feel anything that day we first spoke here by the Trevi?’
‘Well, I suppose I might have done,’ said Claire with a little pout.
‘What did you feel?’ he murmured, moving closer to her and gently caressing the back of her neck with his thumb. ‘Go on, tell me, I want to know. What did you feel?’
‘Attraction?’ she said, half turning her face towards him as her senses responded to his touch.
‘Is that all?’ He sounded mildly disappointed. ‘Attraction? Is that the best you can do? What about desire? Didn’t you even feel the first stirrings of desire?’
‘Well…’ She pretended to consider. ‘I guess I might have done…’
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ he said with a laugh, ‘because I can tell you I was having all sorts of problems with desire on that day, on every day we spent in Italy and on every day since. In fact…’ He lowered his voice so that none of the many tourists around them could hear him. ‘If I’m honest, I’m having problems with desire at this very moment…seeing you sitting there in the sunlight in that dress and with your hair all wet from the spray…’
‘Dominic, you’re impossible,’ she protested.
‘I’m sorry, I can’t help it, Mrs Hansford.’ He shrugged in true Italian fashion, the gesture exaggerated. ‘I guess the only thing for it is to go back to the hotel…it is, after all, almost siesta time.’
‘It’s at least another hour before siesta,’ Claire replied sternly.
‘Ah, well,’ said Dominic with another helpless shrug. ‘What’s an hour after all?’
They were staying at the same hotel where they had stayed before, and together they made their way back hand in hand across the sun-dappled piazza and through the narrow streets, totally happy and at ease to be back in that magical city where they had first met and where their love had first unfolded.
It was the sound of a single bell tolling from one of the city’s many churches that woke Claire. It was late afternoon and much cooler than it had been earlier. The sun had moved around, filtering through the lower slats of the green shutters covering their bedroom windows, casting golden patterns on the dark wooden floor. A huge fan whirred quietly above the bed with its herb-scented covers of crisp, white cotton edged with deep borders of hand-crafted lace. Turning her head, Claire saw that Dominic still slept at her side, one corner of the sheet wrapped round his naked body, one arm flung protectively across her own body.
They had made love for over an hour until at last, both exhausted but utterly fulfilled, they had slept. Their lovemaking seemed to get better and better, she reflected, for with every day and week that passed they got to know each other more deeply, discovering untold delights and awakening even deeper passions in each other.
Their wedding day had been wonderful, held in the tiny village church near to her father’s and Aunt Marjorie’s home, followed by a reception in a local hotel and attended by many of their friends and colleagues from the centre. Melanie and Peter had also been there, much to Claire’s and Dominic’s delight, and had issued an invitation to their own wedding to be held later in the year.
There had been no hesitation over the choice of honeymoon. ‘It has to be Rome,’ Dominic said.
‘But of course,’ she replied. ‘Where else would we go?’
Their biggest consideration was where they would live and what they would do once Ben returned to the centre and Dominic’s position as locum was at an end. On a temporary basis Claire moved into Dominic’s riverside apartment, mainly because it was larger than her flat, but when Dominic talked about looking for a new job she intervened.
‘You wanted to go abroad again,’ she said one mellow summer’s evening as they sat on his balcony and watched the houseboats drift by on the river below.
‘Ah, but that was before,’ he replied. ‘I couldn’t go anywhere now and leave you behind.’
‘I was thinking I might come with you,’ she said slowly.
‘Come with me?’ The surprise in his voice was apparent but underlying it she detected an edge of pleasure, excitement almost.
‘Would it be possible?’ she asked.
‘But of course,’ he replied eagerly. ‘Highly trained nurses are always in great demand.’
‘I thought we worked well as a crisis team,’ she said, leaning forward to watch one of the houseboats as it slid out of sight behind a curtain of willows. ‘Didn’t you?’
‘Oh, absolutely,’ he replied. ‘The best.’
And that was how it started. Much discussion followed between the two of them and it was finally decided that they would go abroad to work for one of the children’s charities Dominic had previously worked with, initially for a period of two years.
‘We may have had enough by then,’ Dominic said, ‘in which case we will return to England, buy a house, I will seek a partnership in some nice little rural area and if you wish, you could continue with your counselling. And who knows…maybe by then we will be ready to start a family.’
‘Sounds wonderful to me,’ Claire replied with a little sigh.
Now, as she recalled all
the plans they had made, she turned her head again and found that Dominic’s eyes were open.
‘Hello,’ she said softly. ‘I didn’t know you were awake.’
‘I was quite happy just lying here, watching you,’ he replied. ‘What were you thinking about?’
‘Everything,’ she replied. ‘About the last time we were here, how we met, about the earthquake and all the others, about our wedding day and about all our plans. Do you know, Dominic…’ She eased herself onto one elbow and looked down at him. ‘Sometimes I still can’t believe it all happened. It’s like a dream.’
‘Well,’ he said, looking up at her, ‘if it is a dream, I’m in it with you.’
‘I know,’ she said with a little sigh, ‘and it’s wonderful, isn’t it?’
‘Did you know,’ he said, ‘there’s a trip to Assisi tomorrow? Do you think we dare risk it?’
‘I don’t see why not,’ Claire replied. ‘In fact, I think we should, seeing we only got to see the hospital last time.’
‘So that’s tomorrow settled,’ said Dominic, ‘but what about the rest of today?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Claire. ‘Did you have anything in mind?’
‘It’s funny you should ask that,’ said Dominic, moving the arm that was supporting Claire’s weight so that she fell across him, ‘because, actually, yes, I did have something in mind, very much so.’
‘And what is that?’ asked Claire, her eyes widening innocently. As Dominic rolled over, imprisoning her beneath him, his intention becoming totally obvious, she lifted her face to his and gave a blissful sigh. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘silly me, I should have guessed…’
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5593-0
MEDITERRANEAN RESCUE
First North American Publication 2003
Copyright © 2003 by Laura MacDonald
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
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