City Girl

by Patricia Scanlan

  Devlin suddenly became aware that a man was standing in front of her blocking the sunlight. She raized her head, expecting it to be her father or one of the doctors. A deep, faintly familiar voice asked quietly, ‘It’s Devlin Delaney isn’t it?’ Surprised, she squinted in the sunlight and recognized Luke Reilly, who was obviously unable to mask his surprise and shock at the sight of her. She supposed she looked a sight but her appearance had ceased to cost her a thought. She wore the filmy negligées Lydia brought her and allowed the nurses to brush her hair, but apart from that, she took no interest in how she looked. Sometimes she would catch sight of herself in the mirror and see a thin gaunt hollow-eyed woman. But she did not care.

  ‘Hello.’ Her response was automatic. Why did he have to stand there staring? Why couldn’t he just go and leave her alone?

  Luke Reilly knew he was staring but couldn’t help it. My God! What has she gone through, he found himself wondering, as he noted her extreme pallor, the deep dark circles around the eyes that had lost their sparkle, the blond hair once shining and bouncy, now so dull and limp. What shocked him most was the suffering that was evident in her blue eyes, now huge pools of sadness that made him catch his breath. Awkwardly he stood in front of her, not knowing what to say. Then he cleared his throat: ‘I’m sorry to see you like this, Devlin. I hope it won’t be long until you are recovered.’

  ‘Thanks,’ she murmured, surprised at the gentleness of his tone. At least he had the sensitivity to realize that she wanted to be left alone. She watched his broad figure stride across the grass and wondered briefly what he was doing at the hospital, but soon forgot him as the cloud of misery descended on her once again.

  Two days later they met again. This time she was on crutches, the nurses having insisted that she was no longer sick enough for the wheelchair. ‘Hello, Devlin,’ he said crisply.

  ‘Hello.’ Her tone was guarded. She remembered she hadn’t taken to him the first time she had met him at her parents’ house nearly three years before. He had seemed so overpowering, yet there was a strength about him that was strangely attractive.

  ‘You seem to be making progress,’ he smiled at her, and she noted the strong even white teeth and the nice way his eyes crinkled up at the sides.

  ‘I suppose you could say that.’ Her tone was uncharacteristically bitter.

  ‘These things take time but at least you’ve plenty of that,’ he said, and she caught a note of sadness in his voice. He said goodbye and she found herself wondering who he was visiting. A wife, maybe? She must ask him the next time she saw him. Although Maggie and Caroline visited often and tried to cheer her up, she felt in the few moments she had spent with him that he had understood her grief although he could have known nothing of what had happened to her.

  It was a week before she saw him again. He looked tired, deep lines running down the sides of his mouth but he smiled when he saw her.

  ‘Hello.’ This time she greeted him first.

  Good, he thought to himself. She’s getting better. ‘How are you?’

  ‘Well, at least I’m getting the hang of these things.’ She indicated her crutches. They walked along the hospital corridor, he matching his pace to hers.

  ‘Are you visiting someone?’ Devlin enquired. He turned and his amber eyes clouded. ‘It’s my father,’ he explained quietly. ‘He’s dying.’

  ‘Oh . . . Oh, I’m sorry,’ she murmured inadequately.

  ‘He had a good life, and a very full one,’ Luke said half to himself. ‘He’s slipping in and out of a coma. I try to get here as often as I can. I have a lot of business commitments in London.’ He sighed. ‘It’s not easy.’

  For the first time since her accident Devlin felt some emotion for another human being. Having been so wrapped up in herself she hadn’t taken much notice of the other sick people around her. She heard herself asking, ‘Does your wife never come over?’

  They stood staring at each other and she blushed at her impertinence. ‘Oh excuse me,’ she stammered. ‘That was very rude of me.’

  ‘I’m not married,’ he said quietly, his heavy-lidded amber eyes staring down at her, a strange look in their attractive depths.

  ‘Oh.’ Devlin felt a flicker of surprise at this piece of information.

  Luke smiled at her. ‘My poor old Dad was always on at me every time I came home. “Any sign yet?” he’d say to me.’ He rubbed a hand wearily along his jaw. ‘It was a bit of a disappointment to him, I suppose. He always wanted me to come home and settle down. I don’t think he liked Nola.’

  It was as though he had forgotten she was there. And she wondered who the disliked Nola was.

  He shook his head slightly. ‘Excuse me, Devlin. Of course this means nothing to you. I didn’t mean to keep you standing so long.’

  ‘That’s OK. I’ve nothing much else to do anyway.’ Then a thought struck her. ‘If you like,’ she said a little hesitantly, realizing that she wasn’t the only person in the world to suffer trauma, ‘I’ll sit with your father sometimes, when you aren’t here.’

  He stared at her. ‘Would you really, Devlin? That’s extremely kind of you. I know the nursing staff here are excellent but they can’t be there all the time and I hate to think of him being alone.’ He smiled down at her and it warmed her. ‘I’d be very grateful.’

  ‘You’d better show me his room,’ Devlin murmured, half sorry she had offered. What on earth had possessed her? Hadn’t she enough problems of her own without getting involved with anyone else’s?

  He showed her to a private room similar to her own, and as she watched Luke take the limp hand of the waxen-faced old man who lay so frail and ill in the bed she was glad she had made her impulsive offer. It was obvious that there was a strong bond between them and she found it touching to see the way Luke cared for his father.

  She was discovering that there were many sides to Luke’s character and gradually, over the weeks that followed, she found herself growing closer to him. She told him of her accident and about her aunt’s death but she couldn’t bring herself to talk about the baby. That was her secret, forever to be buried in her past. Lynn was gone and she was left and the only way she could deal with her grief was to push the memory of her daughter into the furthest recesses of her mind.

  Luke had been very interested when she told him that she and Kate had planned to start up in business together. Briefly she told him a little of her time in London, omitting all reference to Lynn, and he was fascinated to hear that she had taken a night course in business studies.

  ‘Brains and beauty,’ he teased her. And she gave a rare smile.

  ‘Will you carry on with your business plan in Rosslare?’ he enquired.

  Devlin swallowed and shook her head. ‘There’s nothing down there for me now,’ she said tightly, and turned her head away from him so he wouldn’t see the tears that glittered in her eyes.

  ‘I understand.’

  When she had composed herself she turned to face him. ‘I would still like to go into business for myself. Perhaps you might advise me on an idea I have.’

  ‘Of course I will. It’s the least I can do to try and repay your kindness. But it will have to be next week. Here’s Agnes to throw me out and I’m flying to London first thing in the morning.’ Luke smiled at Agnes, their favourite night nurse, who would always bring him a cup of tea along with Devlin’s.

  ‘Go on with you, Luke Reilly,’ Agnes smiled at the handsome man in front of her. ‘You should have been gone an hour ago.’

  ‘Ah Agnes, under that tough exterior lies the softest heart in Dublin. You can’t fool me. Look after Devlin for me, I’ll just go and look in on Dad.’ He smiled at the nurse, touched Devlin’s cheek with a gentle finger and then he was gone and the room seemed suddenly empty.

  ‘That’s one nice man,’ Agnes said approvingly as she gave Devlin her medication and settled her bed for the night. ‘Good night, pet. If you need me ring the bell and if you can’t sleep I’ll make you some hot milk later on.’ />
  ‘Thanks, Agnes.’

  The door closed quietly behind her and Devlin was alone with her thoughts.

  What would Luke think of her idea when she told him about it? Would it work? She couldn’t think why not. To keep herself from going crazy with thoughts of Lynn and Kate during the long pain-filled nights, she had developed this idea. An idea that returned constantly to her and which gave her something to hold on to. Something to sustain her. She wanted to open an exclusive health centre in Dublin, to cater to the wealthy who had the money to throw around. It would be something on the lines of the one she had worked in in London. Devlin was convinced that it would take off. The market was there and as far as she was aware, it hadn’t yet been tapped. True there were health and fitness clubs in the city, but nothing exclusive.

  Kate had willed her the farm and a substantial amount of money and her father’s solicitor had told her she could expect a very large settlement in damages for her own injuries. It was with this money that she would set up her own business.

  Twenty-two

  One evening they sat outside Luke’s father’s room, while the nurses were caring for him. The subject of Devlin’s business venture at last came up for discussion. From what Luke had told her, he was obviously a sound businessman with an instinctive flair for a good opportunity. Self-made, he had left school at seventeen and gone to sea. For several years he had travelled the world and made enough money to invest in land and property. He had then gone to London, invested in several profitable business ventures and never looked back. He commuted regularly between London and Dublin and still owned several properties around Dublin.

  When Devlin told him of her idea he was intrigued and they spent hours discussing the project. ‘You know,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘as well as catering to the wealthy trendsetter lot, I think you should cater for the young “upwardly mobile” women executives who put in a hard day at the office and need a place to relax, unwind, keep fit or whatever. There’s a lot of them around. Nola used to go to one in London all the time.’

  Who is this Nola, she wondered. This was the second time he had mentioned her. ‘Hmmm . . . You’re right there.’ She smiled at him. ‘That’s a very good idea, Luke. In fact I was just reading an article the other day that said the very same thing. The hotel business is just beginning to cater for these American Express-waving women. Maybe it’s just what the city needs. We could cater for both types and maybe I’ll just open a club specifically for women, you know, like The Sanctuary in London.’

  Luke felt a strange sense of achievement as he watched a faint hint of pink banish the dreadful pallor from Devlin’s face. There was a spark of animation in her expressive blue eyes as she discussed this dream of hers and slowly but surely he was beginning to inch his way through that reserve that she so successfully hid behind.

  Luke had never met a woman who interested him as much as Devlin. He couldn’t explain it. He hadn’t been joking when he had told her she had brains as well as beauty. She had a sharp intelligent mind and they could talk business for hours, but when the subject became personal she retreated behind her guard and the old unhappy look would reappear. He had a powerful longing to make her laugh, to banish the pain from her eyes. Many nights he lay awake wondering how he, man of the world Reilly, could be so obsessed by her. For him it was a new experience and a disturbing one. He hadn’t planned on getting involved with anyone for a while after the break up of his relationship with Nola Hanlon, a personnel manager in a large London building society. Nola’s hard, driving ambition had ultimately wrecked their love affair. It wasn’t that Luke didn’t understand his lover’s drive to succeed. He did. He, of all people, knew what it was like to have goals and ambitions, and he had encouraged and advised her as much as he could, but it seemed to him that as she stepped higher up the ladder of success, she became harder, more ruthless.

  ‘They think I’m a bitch at work,’ she often moaned to him and in a way he felt sorry for her. She was in a position of power over people and she gloried in it. She could transfer staff from one building society branch to another, all over London, something she did with great frequency, not caring that personal lives could be affected drastically. Flats would have to be changed, longer distances spent commuting. To her, the staff were pawns on a chessboard, not people with feelings.

  ‘It’s good for them, keeps them on their toes, Luke,’ she argued when he pointed these things out to her. ‘You’re much too soft. I don’t know how you succeeded in business.’

  ‘I succeeded,’ he said evenly, ‘because I have a very loyal highly-motivated staff who work hard for me because I look after them and treat them with respect.’

  ‘Oh shut up!’ she retorted.

  ‘If you don’t like my opinions, don’t ask for them,’ Luke responded curtly. Their arguments had become more frequent, Nola was promoted yet again and spent more and more time in the office. Work dominated her waking time completely and they spent less and less time together. What had attracted him in the first place – her drive, her energy, her will to succeed – was eventually the cause of their splitting up. He had the same traits himself, but he also had a caring quality that Nola, with all her success and achievement, completely lacked. He knew their relationship would never be her number one priority until she had achieved everything she had aimed for in her career and he had to admire her singlemindedness. There were many businessmen he knew who were less singleminded than she. But he needed more from the relationship than she could give and so they parted. Now here was Devlin Delaney who not only had Nola’s intelligence and ambition but a vulnerability and compassion that his former lover would never possess. She intrigued him like no other woman he had ever met.

  An idea began forming in Luke’s mind one evening as he sat on a 737 winging its way across the Irish Sea. One long tanned finger rubbed his dark evening-shadowed jaw in reflection. Oblivious to the admiration in the eyes of the attractive air hostess as she handed him his drink, he murmured a polite thanks as facts and figures raced through his quick brain. A slow smile curved his firm mouth. Lucky girl! thought the air hostess enviously, accepting defeat as she watched him take a pad and paper from his briefcase and begin writing.

  His father had neither improved nor worsened and he sat patiently beside the hospital bed holding the thin old hand in his. Devlin had been there when he arrived, sitting beside his father, a great sadness in her eyes as she wiped the sweat from the old man’s face. Their eyes had met and Luke had felt a surge of gratitude – and something else – for the frail girl with the huge luminous aquamarine eyes that smiled when she saw him.

  ‘I’ll see you later,’ she whispered, leaving him alone with his dad.

  Later, when Devlin’s own visitors had left and the night nurse began pulling the curtains and bringing supper around, they sat in her room and she told him that she was to be discharged in another week or so. Her physical injuries had healed well, whatever about her emotional wounds.

  ‘I’m going looking for a loan. Do you think I’ll be successful?’ she asked. Luke said nothing for a while and then he said steadily, ‘Well, Devlin, from what you’ve told me, you’ve certainly got acceptable collateral in the property your aunt left you as well as the settlement you’ll get from the insurance company.’ He smiled. ‘You know as well as I do that for the business you hope to start and for the clientele you hope to attract you are going to need a good central property and a hell of an amount of cash to stock, staff and decorate it. Your overheads will be big and frankly . . .’ he paused, as if unsure of what to say next.

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘Don’t think I’m patronizing you, Devlin. I assure you I’m not, but I don’t know if you have enough experience to convince a bank manager to give you the amount you are going to need. That’s if you really want to have the best of everything, and in my view, for the business you envisage, nothing but the best will do.’

  Devlin looked at him glumly. She didn’t think he was being in th
e slightest bit patronizing. He was just being perfectly straight with her, which was one thing she liked about him. Besides, she had had the same thought herself. Luke cleared his throat. ‘Listen, Devlin, you know the old saying “two heads are better than one”? As it happens I think yours is a great business idea and I’ll certainly understand if you want to go it alone. But if you’d like to accept me as a partner, I have a property in Stephen’s Green that might be ideal.’

  He stood up, his broad-shouldered body impressive in a black leather jacket, neatly pressed grey pants hugging his long legs. Beside him Devlin felt like a pygmy. ‘Think about it,’ he said easily and walked from the room. She watched how he walked, like a panther. There was something so solid and dependable about Luke, she mused. How mistaken she had been about him at their first meeting. It must have been her hormones. Her mind weighed the pros and cons of the idea. What he said was true and his business experience would be invaluable. The idea of property on the Green was enticing. Right beside one of the most trendy shopping areas in Dublin, it could not but attract the moneyed citizens of the capital. From listening to how he visualized it, and from her own experience in London, she knew he was right ahout the amount of money that would have to be spent. Devlin also knew that Luke would not have made such an offer if he hadn’t thought it was going to work. They would have to get the best of everything to appeal to those who could afford it. It would have to become an in place to be seen at – that took money.

  Excitement rose within her. Instinct told her it was going to work and she decided to accept Luke’s proposal. Impatiently she waited to see him the following day. Devlin had grown to look forward to his visits. His ideas excited her and she could understand how he had made his fortune. There was always a slight air of impatience about him, as if he was straining at some invisible leash and ready to explode into action.