by Joanna Neil
She laughed as he gave her a gleaming, wickedly seductive look, and then she gave in to temptation and finished off the delicious fruit. It was a delightful medley of white and black grapes, orange, pineapple, pear and apple. ‘That was exquisite,’ she said.
‘I’m glad you liked it.’ His mouth curved. ‘It was worth it, just to see the expression on your face.’
He started to clear away the dishes and murmured, ‘Call Caitlin. I’ll make coffee.’
She did as he suggested, keying in Caitlin’s number, but even though she let it ring for a while, there was no answer. Frowning, she rang the house where Caitlin was supposed to be staying and waited for a response.
‘I was just about to ring you,’ Gemma’s mother answered. ‘We’ve been expecting her for the last half-hour or so, but she still hasn’t arrived.’
They spoke for a minute or two more before Saskia finally cut the call.
‘What is it?’ Tyler asked. He looked concerned.
‘She hasn’t arrived at her friend’s house,’ she told him, fear rising in her throat. ‘I must go and look for her. I can’t think what might have happened. It was only a ten-minute ride by bus.’ She stood up and started to look around for her bag. ‘I have to go.’
‘Wait for a moment. There’s no need to panic.’ Tyler came over to her and held her, wrapping his arms around her when she would have run from the house. ‘Let’s take a minute or two to think this through.’
‘But she... Anything could have happened. She might have had an accident. She could have been abducted...’ Her voice became frantic with worry.
‘That’s not likely in this small community. Calm down and we’ll decide what we need to do.’
He’d said ‘we’ll decide’ and that was what eventually made her stop wanting to rush out into the street. That and the warm pressure of his arms encircling her, soothing her and letting her know she wasn’t alone.
‘I must go after her.’
‘We will. Let’s assume she caught the bus, shall we? I’ll drive us to the stop where she would have got off the bus, and we’ll retrace her footsteps from there.’
‘Yes, okay.’
He held her for a second or two longer and she laid her hand on his chest, reassured by the strong, steady beating of his heart. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘Thanks for being here for me.’
He brushed her forehead with a gentle kiss. ‘We’ll find her.’
She nodded. ‘Yes.’ It was just intended as a comforting gesture, that kiss, wasn’t it? But she could still feel the warm imprint of it on her skin and, whether it meant anything or not, she had already taken it into her heart.
CHAPTER SEVEN
TYLER DROVE TOWARDS the east side of the island, following the route that the bus would have taken. Darkness had fallen some time ago, making it difficult to see anything very clearly, but Saskia looked out of the car windows anyway, desperately searching for any sign of Caitlin.
Soon they left the town behind them and began to cross wild heathland as they approached the coastal area. Some half a mile further on, when the road petered out at the bus terminus where Caitlin would have been set down, Tyler drew the car to a halt. They set off to walk the rest of the way to Gemma’s house.
‘How far is it from here to the farmhouse?’ Tyler asked. ‘I’m assuming she would have followed the footpath.’
‘It’s about a ten-minute walk, I think. I feel so awful now for letting her come out here alone, but she’s been here before and never had any problems and I felt sure it would be all right.’ Her voice shook as she thought about what might have happened and she took a deep breath to calm herself. ‘We need to follow the path towards the coast.’
From here they could already see the craggy outline of the cove up ahead. Moonlight shimmered on the water and silhouetted the sand dunes where marram grass blew this way and that in the wind that came in off the sea.
Saskia shivered a little. She had put on a thin jacket but it wasn’t too effective against the evening breeze that had sprung up. ‘Here, let me keep you warm,’ Tyler said, putting an arm around her and drawing her against the warmth of his body.
His thoughtfulness cheered her. Having him hold her like this helped to take some of the chill from around her heart. He was warm and supportive and everything she needed just then. It was hard to believe that such a pleasurable evening could change so fast and turn into this awful nightmare.
They walked slowly, taking care to look all around them, searching for Caitlin in the bracken and among the hedgerows and all the while calling out her name.
‘She wouldn’t have run away, would she?’ All kinds of dreadful scenarios were running through Saskia’s head. ‘I know she was unhappy, but I put it down to teenage angst, on top of everything else.’ She couldn’t conceal her anguish. ‘I should have spent more time with her, tried to get her to talk to me a bit more.’
‘Stop beating yourself up about it,’ Tyler said. ‘You did your best. And if she was trying to run away, where would she go? There’s no ferry to get her to the mainland at this time of night.’
‘No, I suppose you’re right.’
They walked on, stopping every now and again to examine the hedgerows on either side, calling for Caitlin as they went. Saskia strained to distinguish the night sounds—the occasional hoot of an owl, the rustle of a shrew or a hedgehog scuffling through the undergrowth. But then, a few minutes later, there was another sound, a faint rasp, a murmuring of some sort.
‘Wait...what was that?’ She stood still, suddenly on alert. ‘I think I heard something.’
There was only silence, though, and she called again. ‘Caitlin, where are you?’
‘Saskia...’ It was very faint, a whisper almost, but she felt her heart begin to thud heavily.
‘Did you hear that?’
Tyler nodded. ‘I did. I think it came from over there, by the verge.’ He pointed to where a hawthorn spread its branches, dipping low to the ground. There was a ditch covered in brushwood, filled with tangled undergrowth.
The low moaning sound came again. ‘Sass...’
Through the darkness Saskia could barely make out a shadowy figure curled up on a bed of grass and leaves. The buckle of a belt shone dimly in the light of the moon, and elsewhere there was the faint gleam of a jewelled hair slide.
‘Caitlin—thank heaven we’ve found you...’ She moved forward to get closer to her, but her foot caught in the spreading roots of a gnarled tree and she gave a small moan of frustration as she struggled to release herself. ‘Tyler, can you get to her?’
‘Yes, it’s all right, I have her.’ Tyler clambered into the ditch and knelt down beside Caitlin. He carefully slid his hand under her head. ‘Are you hurt?’ he asked quietly. ‘Can you tell us what happened?’
‘I felt a bit dizzy...’ Her voice was barely audible and she seemed to be having trouble thinking clearly. ‘I must have fallen.’ She closed her eyes, exhausted by the effort, and mumbled, ‘My head hurts...and my ankle.’
‘It’s okay, Caitlin. You’ll be all right now. I’ll just quickly check you over and then we’ll get you out of here.’
‘Gemma—she’ll be... I need to...’
By now Saskia had freed herself from the undergrowth and came to crouch down beside her niece. She held the girl’s hand in hers, shocked by how cold it felt, as she soothed her and tried to ease her fears. ‘I’ll phone Gemma and let her know what happened. You don’t need to worry about anything. We’ll take care of whatever needs to be done.’
Tyler finished his examination. ‘I don’t think anything’s broken,’ he said, ‘but I can’t be sure about the ankle until we get her to the hospital. There has to be a reason for the dizziness, so we’d better be extra careful how we move her.’
Saskia nodded. ‘Can we make a collar f
rom my jacket? It’s thin enough to fold.’
‘Yes, we can try that.’
Saskia shrugged out of her jacket and rolled it into the shape of a neck collar. ‘It’s very makeshift, but it’ll do for now,’ she said. ‘We’ll have to tie the ends as best we can.’
When they were satisfied the collar was in place, it was at long last time to get Caitlin out of the ditch. ‘I’ll hold her head still while you lift her,’ Saskia said.
‘Okay, here we go.’
He carried Caitlin to the car and when Saskia opened the car doors he gently lifted the girl into the back seat and made sure she was safely secured.
Shivering a little, Saskia slid into the seat beside her. ‘She’s so cold from lying out there. It’s been chilly today and the ground was damp.’
‘Yes. She’s suffering from hypothermia, I expect, but it’s all right, I’ll get a blanket from the boot. We’ll keep her as warm as we can. In the meantime...’ He took off his jacket and laid it over the ghostly-pale child, before going to rummage in the boot of the car.
He came back shortly and replaced his jacket with a new-looking fleecy blanket that he tucked around Caitlin. Then he draped his jacket around Saskia. ‘Here, wear this. We can’t have you collapsing from the cold as well.’
‘Thanks.’ Gratefully, she snuggled into it. It was still warm from his body and smelled faintly of his subtle cologne. It was the next best thing to being up close to him and for a little while she gave in to the guilty pleasure of imagining herself in his arms. She was beginning to realise that was what she wanted more and more, to be with him. She needed to have him near.
At the hospital, Tyler made sure that they were able to stay with Caitlin while she was being assessed. The makeshift collar was carefully exchanged for a proper one that would keep her neck stable, and then the team concentrated on trying to get her temperature back to normal. They gave her a warmed, humidified air/oxygen mix to inhale and wrapped her in special heat-retaining blankets. It was probably going to be a slow process, but Caitlin had been lying in the cold, damp ditch for some time and she was chilled to the bone.
Jason Samuels, the registrar on duty, took charge of Caitlin’s care. He was quiet at first, making sure they were keeping tabs on her vital signs, but as time passed he recognised that she was a little more able to understand what was going on.
‘I’ll give you something for the pain in your ankle,’ he told her, ‘and as soon as you’ve warmed up a bit we’ll take you over to X-Ray. I don’t think anything’s broken, but it’s as well to be sure.’
A nurse handed her a mug of drinking chocolate. ‘This should warm you from the inside,’ she said, and handed her some tablets to take along with it.
‘Have you had trouble with dizziness before this?’ Jason asked.
Caitlin hesitated before answering. She was still having some trouble getting her thoughts together. ‘It’s been happening for a while,’ she admitted. ‘On and off, ever since Mum and Dad’s accident.’
Startled, Jason glanced at Saskia. ‘It sounds as though there might be a connection.’
Saskia frowned. ‘I thought it was just the once—I’d no idea you’d been having problems ever since then. Why didn’t you tell me?’
Caitlin wriggled her shoulders. ‘It wasn’t too bad and I didn’t want to make a fuss, not after what happened to Mum and Dad.’ She huddled into her blankets. ‘They’ve been so ill, and the dizziness was nothing really.’
‘But you were in the car with them when it happened, weren’t you?’ Saskia was swamped with feelings of guilt for not investigating further. ‘Did you feel a nasty jolt at the time?’
‘Yes, but I was okay.’ She looked thoroughly miserable. ‘It was just...my head’s been feeling a bit muzzy ever since then and I’ve been getting a ringing in my ears.’ She sighed wearily. ‘I thought it would go away. I’ve been feeling really irritable—I’m sorry I’ve been so bad-tempered, Sass. I didn’t know what was wrong with me.’
‘Sweetheart, I wish you’d told me.’ Saskia gave her a gentle hug.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t want to complain when Mum and Dad were so ill. I thought this is nothing compared to what they’ve been through.’
‘I think we need to get an X-ray and maybe a CT scan, to try to find out what’s going on,’ Jason said. ‘It does sound as if you might be suffering from whiplash, but we’ll have a look at the films to be sure.’ He turned to Saskia. ‘I’m thinking it might be a good idea to keep her here overnight for observation, as she collapsed—just as a precaution, really, as her blood pressure’s quite low. And, of course, we need to get her temperature back up.’
‘Yes, I think you’re right.’ Saskia glanced at Caitlin. ‘I’ll pop home and pick up a few bits for you—everything you had with you is wet from being in the ditch. I could do that while you go down to Radiology—would you be okay with that? I’ll be as quick as I can.’
‘Yes, that’s all right,’ Caitlin agreed, adding anxiously, ‘But you’ll stay with me when you come back, won’t you?’
‘Yes, of course I will.’ Saskia smiled at her. ‘Don’t worry about anything. I want you to try and get some rest.’
Tyler waited with her while Caitlin was wheeled away to X-Ray, and then they walked together back to the car park.
‘I think she’ll be all right,’ Tyler murmured as he started the car. ‘She’s still a bit shivery, but I think we found her in time, before deep hypothermia set in. And if there’d been a lot of damage from the whiplash we would probably have seen more specific symptoms before this.’
‘Yes, I expect you’re right.’ She sent him a quick look. ‘I’m really glad you were with me when we went to look for her. It made me feel so much better, having you there.’
His gaze flickered over her. ‘I wouldn’t have let you go alone. I wanted to be with you.’
They arrived back at the house a few minutes later and Saskia slid out of the car, in a hurry to get into the house to sort out a few bits.
‘I’ll go and change into some clean clothes while you put a few things in a bag,’ Tyler said as he walked her to her door. He made a rueful smile. ‘After scrabbling around in a ditch and being caught up on thorns, I’m afraid these trousers are only fit for the dustbin.’
She made a face. ‘I’m sorry about that. You looked great in them, too.’
He laughed. ‘Really?’ One dark brow quirked upwards. ‘Well, that’s good to know.’ Instinctively, he moved closer to her, his hand moving as though he was going to slide it around her waist in a warm, intimate embrace...but at the last second he stopped, perhaps thinking better of it, and contented himself instead with sliding a hand down her arm in a light caress. ‘I’m glad we managed to get some time together earlier,’ he murmured. ‘We should do it more often—but maybe without the drama next time.’
‘I think you’re right.’ On impulse, she reached up and kissed him fleetingly on the mouth, her palms flattening on his chest. ‘I don’t know what I’d have done without you.’
She heard the breath catch in his throat. He seemed stunned by that kiss, momentarily pinned to the spot, motionless. But when he would have responded and tugged her into his arms she swiftly evaded him.
‘I should get these things for Caitlin.’ She didn’t know what had come over her, what had possessed her to kiss him, and she was awkwardly conscious that she’d stepped over the invisible line he’d drawn. But she wanted him, needed him—and all her thoughts of steering clear of men and being afraid for the future had flown out of the window since she’d got to know Tyler. Was this love? It had to be—it was all-encompassing, it filled her up, took over her being, and she’d never felt this way before, never cared for any man so much.
‘I won’t be long,’ she said. ‘I promised Caitlin we’d be back at the hospital before she knew it. Let yourself in if you�
��re ready before me—I don’t always hear the doorbell if I’m upstairs.’
‘Uh...yeah...okay.’
As landlord, he had his own key to the house, though he’d never presumed to use it. Was this yet another line she was crossing? Somehow, after the events of the evening, it didn’t seem to matter any more.
She went into the house and dashed upstairs. Caitlin was usually fussy about what she wore, but Saskia gathered up a fresh outfit of skirt, leggings and a warm top for the morning, in the hope that the teenager would be well enough to come home by then. Of course, she would need pyjamas and set of underwear along with a toothbrush and comb, and Saskia quickly added these to an overnight bag.
Then she went into the bathroom and freshened up, changing into a clean pair of jeans and a different pair of shoes. She added a light touch of make-up and after looking around to make sure she’d not forgotten anything she went back down the stairs.
The doorbell rang and she smiled faintly. Did this mean Tyler didn’t feel right about letting himself in? Perhaps she’d been presuming too much.
She opened the door, ready to greet him and show him that she had everything in hand. They could leave right away.
Only it wasn’t Tyler who was standing there, and the smile faded from her lips, her heart tripping in an uncomfortable, jerky beat.
‘Hi,’ Michael said. ‘I’ve been waiting around for ages, hoping you would come home.’
She stared at him, nonplussed. ‘Michael, what are you doing here? How did you find out where I was living?’
‘You phoned me, remember? It was fairly easy to find you after that.’ He studied her, a slight smile playing around his mouth. ‘Aren’t you going to ask me in?’
‘I can’t,’ she said. ‘I have to go out—to the hospital. I can’t stay here.’