by Joanna Neil
Her father hesitated for a second or two, and then asked, ‘How is your sister? Is she getting along all right?’
Rhys grimaced. ‘I’m afraid not. She isn’t doing too well at the moment. She’s been depressed for a long time.’
‘I’m sorry about that.’
‘So am I.’
‘It’s difficult to know what to do in the circumstances, isn’t it? It must be hard for your family.’
Rhys remained silent, and Emma’s hopes for any kind of reconciliation between them plummeted. Emma’s father must have sensed that there was no point in prolonging the conversation. He was never going to break through that barrier of resistance. Rhys’s family weren’t open to any approach after what had happened to Amy.
Instead, he turned to her and gave her a hug. ‘I must go. I’ll see you next week some time.’ He inclined his head towards Rhys, and then walked briskly away.
‘I need to go inside and check on Kayla,’ Emma said, glancing at Rhys. She still had no idea why he was there. It couldn’t be anything to do with work, because he wasn’t dressed for it, and he didn’t have that brisk, ready-for-anything vibe about him this morning. He was far more laid back.
He looked good—far too good for her peace of mind. He was wearing casual clothes, olive-green chinos that fitted him to perfection, teamed with a dark-coloured shirt. He was tall and lithe, flat-stomached, and altogether he presented a picture that was infinitely pleasing on the eye.
‘Kayla?’ He lifted a brow in query.
‘My neighbour’s little girl.’ She averted her gaze from his long legs. ‘Do you want to come in?’
‘Thanks.’ Rhys followed her into the living room, and Emma went to make sure that Kayla and the dog were still outside in the courtyard. They were playing a game of tag, the dog jumping up in excitement, while Kayla giggled happily, and Emma smiled, leaving them to it.
‘We don’t normally see you around these parts,’ Emma murmured, going back to Rhys. ‘Did you come to see me about anything in particular?’
He shook his head. ‘No, actually it was Elliot I came to see.’
Emma frowned. That was odd. ‘What makes you think that he would be here?’
‘He’s not at his own place, and I just wondered if he might have come over to see you. After all, you’re only a short walk away from each other. I stopped by on the off chance. Amy was hoping that he would look at some papers, and she asked me to bring them round.’
‘Oh, I see.’ She didn’t, not really, but she was busy fighting off a surge of disappointment at learning that he hadn’t come to see her especially, and she was reluctant to dwell on what had prompted him to think that Elliot might be there.
Kayla came in from the courtyard, the dog trailing behind her. ‘Hello,’ she said, staring up at Rhys. ‘Who are you?’
‘Hello.’ He hunkered down to the child’s level. ‘I’m Rhys. I work with Emma,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know that she had a little girl. What’s your name?’
‘I’m not her little girl.’ Kayla chuckled. ‘I’m Kayla. I live next door with my mummy.’ She looked at him as though he might have trouble taking that in and started to explain carefully, ‘My mummy works at a chemist’s shop, and this is her Saturday for going to work. She doesn’t go in every week.’
‘Ah…that explains it.’ Rhys smiled. ‘So Emma is looking after you, is she?’
Kayla nodded. ‘Just for a little while. I’m going to my friend’s house in a bit, but first we’re going to take Samson for a walk on the common. Emma said so.’ She looked at him as though that point might need clarifying. ‘Emma takes him for a walk sometimes when Mummy’s at work, ’cos he needs his exercise, you see, and Emma says she needs her exercise, too, so she can keep her tummy flat.’
Emma made a peculiar squeaking sound at that unexpected revelation, and Rhys turned to her in amusement. His glance shifted over her slender shape, gliding down over the figure-hugging cotton top that she was wearing and coming to linger on the line of her smoothly fitting denim jeans.
‘Her tummy looks fine to me,’ he said. ‘In fact, she looks pretty well perfect all over. I guess she must have been doing a lot of walking.’
Kayla nodded, wide-eyed, and Emma felt a flush of heat colour her cheeks. Was he actually saying he liked the way she looked?
The little girl watched as Rhys stroked the spaniel’s silky ears. ‘You can come with us, if you like,’ she added. ‘Samson likes you.’
At that moment Samson was jumping up for attention, placing his paws on Rhys’s thighs and gazing up at him with eager expectation. ‘See,’ Kayla said. ‘He only does that with people he really likes. He growls at everybody else, or he starts barking, and then Mummy gets cross with him.’
The doorbell sounded and, as if on cue, Samson began to bark noisily. Kayla went to fetch her doll from the settee, and hugged it to her.
Emma went to see who was at the door, and a moment later she came back into the living room, accompanied by Elliot. His visit had taken her completely by surprise, and she was a little subdued, not at all sure what Rhys’s reaction might be.
Rhys sent his brother-in-law a narrowed stare. ‘I wondered if I might see you here,’ he said.
Elliot looked uncomfortable. ‘I just brought some croissants back from the bakery,’ he murmured, holding out a paper carton. The smell of fresh-baked pastries filled the air. ‘They’re still warm, and I thought Emma might like to share them with me.’ He gave an awkward shrug of his shoulders, as though he didn’t quite know how to handle the situation. ‘There are enough for all of us.’
Emma wondered if Rhys would refuse the offer and leave, as he had done the other day, but this time he inclined his head and said, ‘That would be good. I haven’t eaten yet because I was hoping to catch you before you went out.’
‘You wanted to see me?’ Elliot asked, a line appearing on his brow. Emma left them to talk and went to make coffee in the kitchen at the far end of the room.
‘I did. Amy was concerned about some work that you arranged to have done at the house. The workmen arrived and wanted to know a little more detail about what you had planned, but she wasn’t sure, so I’ve brought the papers along with me. Perhaps you could take a look at them? If you want to explain to me, I’ll relay the information to the workmen.’
Elliot took the papers that Rhys handed to him and quickly scanned them. ‘Perhaps it would be better if I go and see Amy and explain them myself. We should be able to deal with our problems in an adult manner after all. There’s no need for her to contact me through a third party.’
‘I’m glad you think so.’ Rhys sent him a thoughtful look. ‘Obviously Amy must have had second thoughts about that.’
Emma placed butter and pots of fruit preserves on the dining table and set out plates. ‘Come and sit down,’ she told them. ‘Help yourselves to coffee.’ She glanced across the room at Kayla. ‘There are some buns here for you, Kayla, and some milk.’
Kayla came and sat at the table, breaking off bits of bun and feeding them to her doll.
Elliot started to ask Rhys about his work, and they talked for a while about how Rhys had chosen to work with the helicopter emergency service.
‘I didn’t want to stay within the confines of a hospital,’ Rhys said. ‘I felt the need to be out and about, and I wanted the freedom of not having to be in a specific place each day. It makes me feel good to know that by being one of the first to arrive at the scene of an accident, I can make a vital difference to the outcome when someone has been injured.’
‘That’s what you call life in the fast lane,’ Elliot murmured. ‘It wouldn’t do for me. I’m not sure that I could stand the pace. Lately, things have been crowding in on me, and I’ve been finding that I need more time to reflect on things.’
‘At least you have time for a leisurely breakfast with Emma.’ Rhys turned an assessing gaze on him. ‘That can’t be bad, can it?’
Elliot’s mouth made an odd shape. He seemed ill a
t ease, and he said slowly, ‘I’ve been helping Emma with a problem over her lease. She’s applied for an extension and the paperwork was complicated. We’re both busy people, but at least this way we get time to talk things through.’
Emma stood up and started to load plates in the dishwasher. Why should Elliot have to explain himself to Rhys? Her lips firmed. Why should she be made to feel that she was doing something wrong by having breakfast with him? Elliot had left his wife, but that was between him and Amy, and it had nothing to do with her. She didn’t have any designs on him.
Samson was getting restless. He ran to the door, whining, and Emma said, ‘I have to take him out before Kayla’s friend arrives to pick her up. I promised Kayla that we would walk across the common.’
Elliot scraped back his chair. ‘And I’m supposed to be meeting up with someone in half an hour, so I’ll leave you to it, Emma. It was good having breakfast with you. We must do it again some time.’
She nodded and saw him out, and then she went back to the kitchen and finished clearing away. ‘Are you going to come with us?’ she asked Rhys. ‘I’ve a feeling that Kayla will be disappointed if you don’t. She doesn’t extend invitations lightly.’
‘Then I’d better come along with you.’ He smiled at Kayla. ‘I’ve always wanted a dog of my own, but there’s no room for one in my apartment, and I don’t have a garden, so he wouldn’t have anywhere to run about.’
‘Don’t you?’ Kayla said, looking at him with pity. ‘I don’t know anyone who hasn’t got a garden, except for Mr Marshall at school. Samson loves playing in ours. He likes to dig for stones, and Mummy gets cross because he pulls up the flowers.’
‘Oh, dear.’ Rhys laughed. ‘That’s not good, is it?’
Kayla shook her head. By now, Emma had found Samson’s lead, and they started out for the common, where the dog could sniff at the shrubbery and inspect each of the trees in turn.
At the far end of the common, there was a brook that meandered and left shallow pools of water when the rainfall was sparse. Ducks were drifting on the watercourse, letting the current take them downstream, and Kayla ran towards them. Emma gave her some bread, and they stood for a while, watching as she broke it up into bits and threw it to them.
‘I’m sure she thinks you live in a hut of some sort,’ Emma said to Rhys. ‘Mr Marshall is the school premises officer, and he has his own little shed where he spends most of his time. He likes to potter in there.’
Rhys smiled. ‘Well, my place is not quite that bad.’
Emma looked at him. ‘You live in the Docklands area, don’t you? I heard Martin say something about it to James the other day.’
‘That’s right, I do. I’ve been there for about a year now, and I must say I really like it. My apartment looks out over the river, and on a clear day I can see right across London.’ He made a face. ‘Of course, there are drawbacks to living in an apartment, but it suits my purpose, and it means I’m fairly central for work.’
He sent her an oblique glance. ‘Perhaps you should come over and see it one day. I know you like the river, and you might appreciate being able to look out at some of the London landmarks. From my place you can see the boats coming and going to the wharves, and beyond the river to the south there’s the nature reserve.’
‘It sounds wonderful. I might just take you up on that.’ She would like to see his apartment. One thing was for sure, it wouldn’t be a cramped little two-roomed place like hers. On the contrary, it was probably quite spectacular.
‘It’s time that we were setting off for home,’ she told Kayla a short time later. ‘I expect your friend’s mother will be arriving to collect you at any moment. We’d better be ready for her.’
Kayla threw the rest of the bread to the ducks and came back to Emma’s side. She slid her hand into Rhys’s and danced along between the two of them, without a care in the world.
Back at the flat, Emma let Samson explore the courtyard while she helped Kayla to get ready to go to her friend’s house. When the doorbell rang just a short time later, she handed Kayla over to Lindsey’s friend.
‘Tracey has been really excited about playing with Kayla,’ the woman said. ‘I’m sure they’re going to have a wonderful time—I’ll give Lindsey a call when I’m ready to bring Kayla back, shall I?’
‘That’s a good idea,’ Emma said. ‘Thanks.’ She bent down to give Kayla a hug, but it was a brief embrace because the little girl was already turning excitedly towards her young friend.
‘See you, Emma,’ she said.
Emma went back inside the flat and gave a Rhys a wry smile. ‘It’s all go with children, isn’t it? They’re never still. I don’t know if I could keep up if she was my child.’
‘I’m sure you would make an excellent mother,’ he observed, giving her an oddly quizzical look. ‘You’re very good with her…and with the dog.’
She chuckled at that. ‘I’d better go and bring him in. He’s very partial to flowers and I don’t think my tubs will stand the attention for very long.’
She went outside to check on him, but a moment later she gave a sharp cry. ‘Samson? Oh, no…’
‘What’s wrong?’ Rhys came to stand by her side, and when he saw what she was staring at he said quietly, ‘It looks as though he must have eaten something that disagreed with him. Did you leave any food out here?’
‘No, of course not. Why would I do that?’
Her heart was beginning to pound. The dog was lying on his side, clearly distressed, and he was panting, with blood coming from his mouth. Close by she could see a black, tarry deposit where he had relieved himself.
‘What could have happened to him?’ Her voice was thready with shock.
Rhys was looking around the small courtyard. ‘You say that you didn’t put any food out for him, but there’s some meat over there in the corner.’ His features were tense. ‘From the looks of him, he’s been poisoned.’
Emma tried to get her brain back together. ‘He’s bleeding inside, so that must mean that it’s some kind of rat poison. Warfarin—that would make him haemorrhage, wouldn’t it?’
Rhys nodded. ‘Perhaps we could get some charcoal into him—that would help to prevent any more absorption of the substance. He’ll need an injection of vitamin K. That will bring the bleeding under control. We’ll have to act quickly…get him to the vet. There’s no knowing how long ago he ate the meat, but I’m guessing he must have found it earlier.’
‘I don’t know how it came to be there.’ She frowned, anxiously mulling it over. ‘I suppose someone could have gained access from the garden next door. I’m fairly secluded here, but there is a gate, so that Lindsay and I can come around and see one another. I just can’t imagine why anyone would do something like this.’
‘Perhaps we should think about that later. The main thing now is to do what we can for the dog.’
‘You’re right.’ Emma hurried away to get her medical bag and some bath towels. ‘I’ll make up a mixture of charcoal, and perhaps between us we can manage to tip it down his throat.’ When she came back a minute or so later, she said, ‘I’ve given the vet a call to say that we’re on our way.’
They both knelt down beside the dog, and did what they could to get him to take the charcoal. Then they carefully wrapped him in the towels, and Rhys lifted him in his arms.
‘If you sit with him in the back of the car, I’ll drive,’ he said.
Emma did as he suggested. Why would anyone do this? Samson had never hurt anyone. ‘I’m just so thankful that Kayla wasn’t around to see this,’ she said, and then added on a worried note, ‘What am I going to say to Lindsey? She thought the dog would be safe with me.’
‘It’s hardly your fault,’ Rhys said. ‘How were you to know that someone would do something like this?’
Emma was thinking hard about that. ‘I thought someone was hanging around outside a few days ago…there were noises, sounds of scuffling, but we never saw anyone. I wonder if whoever did this thought that Sa
mson was my dog?’
Rhys didn’t answer, but she knew that it was a definite possibility. Soon, though, there was no time to dwell on the matter, because they arrived at the vet’s surgery, and Rhys gently carried the dog into the treatment room.
‘Did you bring the food with you?’ the vet asked, and Rhys nodded.
‘I brought what was left of it.’
‘Good. We’ll get it tested, but from the look of him I think you’re probably right.’ He glanced at Emma. ‘It does look like warfarin poisoning. If so, we’ll treat him with injections of vitamin K, and I think he might need a blood transfusion at some point. Whatever happens, we’ll keep him here and look after him. Most likely he’ll be with us for a few days, but with luck he’ll make a complete recovery. Usually we continue with the vitamin K in tablet form for several weeks, to make sure that there’s no relapse.’
‘Thank you. I know Lindsey will be glad to know that he’s in safe hands.’
She stroked Samson’s head, and then she and Rhys left the surgery. ‘There’s only one good aspect to all this,’ she said, ‘and that’s the fact that Lindsey has insurance. I daren’t even think what the vet’s bill will come to.’
They walked back to Rhys’s car. Emma was feeling very strange, disorientated almost. ‘Thank you for coming with me,’ she told Rhys. ‘You were brilliant. You didn’t hesitate. I was completely thrown by what happened.’
‘I was glad to be able to help out,’ he murmured. He gave her a wry smile. ‘This is turning out to be a very strange day off.’
Just minutes later, though, things became even more out of the ordinary. Emma’s phone bleeped, and Rhys’s ring tone sounded almost simultaneously.
Emma took the call, and began to frown. ‘There’s been an accident at the train station,’ she said. ‘They’re calling for people to go in and help out. An express derailed near the tube, and there are multiple casualties.’
‘Are you going in?’ he asked. ‘Shall I turn the car around and head for the City?’