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She gave a funny little laugh, then her face creased. ‘How’s Digger? Does he miss me?’
Sam smiled. ‘I think he does, but he’s enjoying his walks. We had a lovely run on the beach this morning at dawn.’ Down to the other beach, to sit on the stumps of the old cabin and torture himself with the memories…
‘Don’t let him off the lead. He’ll go down a hole.’
Sam laughed softly. ‘I do remember you telling me how he got his name. I’ll keep him on the lead, don’t worry.’
‘So—did you go to the surgery?’ she asked after the slightest pause, and he braced himself for the inevitable questions.
‘Yes, I saw Nick.’
‘And Gemma?’
He felt his mouth tighten and consciously relaxed it. ‘Yes, I saw Gemma. She sends her love. She seems to know you quite well.’
‘Oh, she does. She runs the cont…’
She trailed off, exasperated by her uncooperative tongue, and Sam put in, ‘The continuing care clinic?’
‘Mmm. She does my blood pressure. She’s beautiful, isn’t she? Pretty girl.’
‘I didn’t notice,’ he lied. ‘I was a bit busy.’
God, it was a wonder his nose wasn’t longer than Pinocchio’s! He put the grapes back on his mother’s bed table before he crushed them all inadvertently, moved her newspaper and picked up her weakened left hand. ‘Come on, let’s do some physio. We need to keep these fingers moving.’
She shook her head. ‘They just won’t.’
‘They will. Keep trying. Here, come on, I’ll help you,’ he said, and, taking her fingers in his, he started working on them, giving himself something to do apart from conjuring Gemma’s image into his crazed mind.
But it didn’t work, her image was still there larger than life, her soft, wounded, wary eyes torturing him, so after a few minutes he put his mother’s hand down and stood up. ‘Right, I’m off to the school to sort out young Jamie. I’ll see you tomorrow. Be good.’
‘What else?’ she said sadly, and her eyes filled again, ripping at his conscience. ‘Bring him—come for longer. I miss you, Sam. You don’t know…’
His conscience stabbed him again, and he sighed softly. ‘I do. You tell me often enough. But my life’s not here, Mum.’
‘Could be.’
‘No. No, it couldn’t. Just the moment you’re better and I’m given the all-clear by the physios, I’m going back to Africa.’
Her fingers tightened on his, her right hand clutching at him in desperation. ‘No, Sam! Don’t! You can’t go back!’
That was probably true, although not the way she meant it, but he wasn’t giving in. Not yet. ‘Mum, I have to go,’ he repeated, and, freeing his hand, he dropped a swift kiss on her cheek and walked out.
‘Sam! I didn’t expect to see you here. It’s the last place!’
‘Well, ditto,’ he said, and his smile looked strained. ‘Have you seen Jamie?’
‘He’s here somewhere,’ Gemma said, trying to control her see-sawing emotions. ‘Doing the name badges and the drinks for the parents? He will have done the careers thing last year, so he’s only helping. I don’t like to be unkind, but it doesn’t sound like him.’
‘Maybe it was just a reason not to go and see Mum. He hasn’t been in yet. I think he’s scared, but while I’m here I need to speak to his teachers and find out what I can about him hanging around with Gary Lovelace.’
‘Well, Lachlan D’Ancey’s here, he’ll fill you in. He’s Chief Constable now, but he just comes to support the school and sell the police force. Nick Tremayne’s here, too. If Lachlan’s busy I expect Nick could use some help, there are always lots of people thinking of studying medicine.’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t think the school would be interested in my support. I wasn’t exactly their star pupil.’
‘That’s rubbish, Sam, you got four As at A level!’
‘Only because I was constantly being grounded.’
She smiled slightly, remembering the tales of how rebellious he’d been, how he’d pushed everyone to the limit of their patience, worried his mother senseless and alienated half of the town.
Which, of course, had only made him even more attractive.
She dragged her eyes from Sam and looked at the girl who was hovering behind him. ‘Hi. Did you want to see me?’
‘Um—yes, please. I’m thinking of going into nursing, and I wondered if you could tell me about it.’
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sam lift his hand in farewell as he walked away, and she stifled a sigh of regret.
Foolish, foolish woman. It’s over. Forget it.
But she couldn’t, and for the rest of the evening her eyes were constantly searching for him, and every time they found him, her silly, stupid heart would lurch against her ribs.
It might be over, but apparently she couldn’t forget it. Not for the last nearly eleven years, and certainly not now, with Sam right here under her nose, his presence reminding her of everything she’d lost…
CHAPTER TWO
‘SAM—good to see you.’
He stifled a wry grin at the blatant lie from the man who’d had altogether too much to do with him in his youth. ‘Hello, Lachlan. How are you?’
‘Very well. Great, actually. Married again.’
Sam hadn’t known he’d got unmarried, but he wasn’t surprised that yet another thing had happened in Penhally without him knowing. He’d done his best to distance himself, so it was hardly rocket science, and he made some trite and socially acceptable remark and then Lachlan brought the conversation, not unexpectedly, around to Jamie.
‘Your brother’s getting himself in a bit of bother these days,’ he murmured. ‘You want to have a word with him. He’s going to end up with a criminal record if he goes on like this, and it’s a crying shame because he’s a good lad really. Sharp as a tack, which is half his trouble, of course, like it was yours. What he needs is a good role model.’
‘Well, don’t look at me,’ Sam said with a low laugh. ‘I’m the last person to give him advice.’
‘I disagree. You’re just the person—he reminds me a lot of you.’
‘What—loud and unruly?’
‘No—lost,’ he said, and Sam looked away, uncomfortable with Lachlan’s all too accurate interpretation of his youthful emotions. ‘You need to get him out of the influence of that young Gary Lovelace. He’s a nasty piece of work—God alone knows what Jamie sees in him, but he’s leading your little brother into all sorts of mischief.’
Sam straightened. ‘Not drugs?’
‘Not that we know of, but I shouldn’t be surprised. But Gary’s a thief, and a bully, like his father and his little brother, and you need to get Jamie away from him before something bad happens.’
Sam sighed inwardly. This was the last thing he needed.
‘So how’s your mother? I was sorry to hear about her stroke—she seems far too young.’
‘Yes. But strokes can happen to anyone, from tiny babies upwards. She’s making great progress, but we just need to know why it happened to stop it happening again.’
‘You ought to speak to Gemma. It was Gemma who found her. She went round after work and checked up on her because she was worried.’
‘Did she?’ he said softly, wondering why Gemma hadn’t mentioned it. Because she didn’t want to talk to him any more than she had to? Very likely. He didn’t really want to talk to her, either, and so far all their exchanges had been carefully contained, with all hell breaking loose just under the surface—at least, on his side. But if Gemma had found his mother, she could easily have been responsible for saving her life, and at the very least he ought to thank her. Not even he was that churlish.
‘I’ll go and have a word. Thanks, Lachlan—and if you hear anything I need to know about Jamie, let me know.’
‘Will do. And you do the same.’
‘Sure.’
He went back towards Gemma, but there was a crowd of young girls around her, so he wandered over to the desk where Jamie was handing out name tags and soft drinks to parents.
‘Checking up on me?’ Jamie said, his mouth set in a defiant line, and Sam just smiled.
‘No. I don’t need to, I’ve got the rest of Penhally doing that, by all accounts. How long are you going to be here?’
‘Another few minutes, then I’m going out with my friends.’
Sam frowned. ‘Why? It’s a school night. You’ve got your exams in a few weeks, you should be working.’
‘Nah. I’ve got it all under control, Sam. You don’t have to come home and play the heavy brother with me.’
‘That’s not what I’m hearing.’
‘Well, tough. What do they know?’
‘Well, I gather Mr D’Ancey knows quite a lot about you—probably rather more than is healthy.’
Jamie’s eyes slid away and his face took on a defensive cast. ‘Whatever. I’m out tonight. My work’s up to date, I’ve got nothing outstanding—and don’t even think about suggesting I tidy my bedroom. All I hear from Mum is that I’m just like you.’
Sam stifled a smile and gave up—for now. ‘OK. But not late. Ten.’
‘Ten-thirty.’
‘Ten-fifteen—and if you’re so much as thirty seconds late, you’re grounded for a week.’
‘What? Where do you get off—?’
‘Suit yourself. Ten-fifteen or you’re grounded. I’ll see you later.’
And without giving his brother a chance to argue any further, he walked away. Gemma was free now, and he crossed to her quickly before another wannabe nurse appeared. ‘Can we talk?’
Her eyes widened with alarm, and he realised she’d misunderstood. Or maybe she hadn’t, not really, but he wasn’t getting into all that now. He could barely keep a lid on his emotions as it was. The last thing he needed was to have a deeply personal conversation in public with the woman who’d shredded his heart. ‘About my mother,’ he added, and saw the alarm recede.
‘Sure. When are you thinking of?’
‘After you finish? I haven’t eaten yet, I don’t know if you have, but I thought we could go up to the Smugglers’ and have something there while we talk.’
She nodded slowly. ‘That would be fine. Give me another few minutes, and if nobody else comes, we can go.’
‘Fine.’ He gave her a brisk nod, and walked off to find Nick.
‘Ah, Sam, just the man. This is Dr Cavendish—he’s been working in Africa with an aid agency—was it Doctors Without Borders?’
‘No, but it’s similar,’ he said. ‘Why?’
‘Young David here is considering medicine and wants to work in that field. Can you give him some advice?’
He dredged up a smile for the youngster. ‘Sure. What do you want to know?’
‘Sorry about that, I got caught up.’ ‘So did I. Nick found me a young lad with a death wish. He wants to work in Africa—he’s talking about doing a gap year with an aid agency before he goes to med school.’
‘So what did you say?’
‘Don’t do it. Are you all done now?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then let’s get out of here—have you got your car?’
‘Yes. Shall I meet you up at the pub?’
‘Good idea.’
He followed her down past the surgery to the harbour and turned right along Harbour Road past the shrouded site of the Anchor Hotel, over the River Lanson at the bottom of Bridge Street and along to the end, past Nick Tremayne’s house and his mother’s house next door, then up the hill, past the little church on the left with the lighthouse beyond it on the headland, and then over the rise to the Smugglers’ Inn.
The place was doing well, if the number of cars outside on a week night was anything to go by, and he parked in the last space and got out, breathing deeply and drawing the fresh sea air into his lungs.
God, that smelt good. It was one of the few things about Penhally that he missed—apart from Gemma, who was walking towards him now, her eyes unreadable in the dimly lit car park. Her hands were stuffed into the pockets of her coat, and she looked wary and uncertain, as if she was regretting saying yes.
She didn’t need to. He wasn’t a threat to her. He had no intention of getting into any personal territory at all. Not even slightly.
‘Lots of cars,’ he said, aiming for something neutral. ‘Do you think we’ll get a seat?’
She looked round and shrugged. ‘I don’t know. We could always sit outside on the terrace,’ she said doubtfully.
Hell, no. They’d spent whole evenings on that terrace, and it was the last place he wanted to go. ‘It’s not warm enough, the food might get cold.’
‘There might be room inside.’
‘We’ll see.’ Oh, God, endless pleasantries, and all he really wanted to do was touch her, thread her hair through his fingers, feel her body soft against his…
He yanked open the door of the pub and ushered her in, and as they walked into the bar, a hush fell.
