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He shot her a quick, penetrating glance. ‘Well—what are you waiting for? Hadn’t you better go and get on with it? Matthew isn’t going to be hanging around all day, you know.’
Flummoxed, she said, ‘No—no, of course he won’t. I’ll go and see to it right away.’
‘Do that.’
She watched him as he strode along the corridor towards the double doors. He was a powerful figure of a man, long-legged, lean and muscular, his whole body exuding energy.
Did he still think she was wasting everybody’s time? He was a complete mystery to her, she decided. She had absolutely no idea what went on in the man’s mind.
Even so, she couldn’t help feeling a growing tinge of respect for him. At least he wasn’t standing in her way—he was giving her the opportunity to do what she thought was right, even if he thought she was on the wrong track. He had shown that he was prepared to listen to her, and he wasn’t going to stand in her way as long as she was clear in her reasoning.
She hurried away to make preparations for the tests…best not to delay, or give Sam any reason to change his mind.
It was a couple of hours later when she finished work for the day, and she decided to call in at the accommodation office on her way out to ask for the keys to the flat Sam had mentioned. It wouldn’t hurt to take a look at it.
She hurried back to Jenny’s house once that had been done. ‘Do you want to come with me and have a look at the flat, Jenny?’ she asked. ‘It might be a good idea to let the children take a look. That way, Ben will get used to it right from the first. You know how he always has a problem with anything new and any change to his usual routine—we might as well show him from the start, so that he doesn’t have a problem when you visit me.’
‘Is this the one your boss mentioned?’ Jenny asked.
‘That’s right. As far as I know, it’s not on the market at the moment because some work is being done on it. The brickwork is being pointed up, I think, and the outside lighting is being updated, as far as I can gather, along with some general redecoration.’
‘That sounds like quite an overhaul,’ Jenny murmured. ‘It doesn’t sound as though it will be very comfortable, living there. There’s no rush, you know. You don’t have to move out right away.’
‘I know. But I am in the way here—my stuff takes up so much room, and it’s not fair on the children to be crowded out like this, having to share a bedroom. Besides, I’m sure Tom will be back before too long, and you won’t want me around then.’
Jenny shook her head sadly. ‘I don’t think he’s going to come back, but if you’ve made up your mind to move out I’ll do what I can to help. It sounds as though this place might be what you need.’
‘Well, at least it’s not too far away, and it’s fairly close to the hospital, so things should work out reasonably well if it’s suitable.’
‘I’d like to see it.’ Jenny turned to the children and explained, ‘We’re going to have a look at a new flat where Auntie Megan might be going to live. You can have a few minutes more to play, and then I want you to get ready to go and see it.’
‘It might look a bit of a mess,’ Megan told the children. Mrs Carter had warned her that work was still going on. ‘The workmen are trying to fix up the outside of the building.’
‘Me take my tools and fix it,’ Josh stated, his eyes widening with excitement, his little chin jutting with determination.
Jenny smiled. ‘I don’t think we can stop him,’ she murmured. ‘He takes his toolbox everywhere with him.’
Ben resisted at first, but Jenny drew in a deep breath and explained again what they were going to do. Over the years she had learned that it didn’t do to hurry him or spring anything new on him.
Half an hour later, they set out. It didn’t take them long to get there, and from the first Megan was impressed with what she saw. The flat was in a neat block of houses built of mellowed red brick, and it was clear from the outside appearance that the property had been well maintained.
Megan looked at the children. ‘Shall we go in and have a look?’
‘Me go.’ Josh was keen to get inside, but Ben hung back.
He dug his heels in, and when Jenny tried to gently coax him into going with them he began to shriek in protest.
‘You can’t stay out here,’ Jenny told him firmly, and when he continued to hang back she led him forward, telling him all about what they were going to see.
Megan marvelled at her patience and began to unlock the front door. Ben immediately tried to reach up to lock it again.
‘He’s got a thing about locks,’ Jenny said in a rueful, harassed tone. ‘And handbags, and briefcases—come to think of it, he has a problem with anything that needs to be opened and closed.’
‘Perhaps it’s just locks and clasps,’ Megan suggested as they walked into the living room.
It was a large room, furnished simply with a softly upholstered lounge suite that blended easily with warm-coloured curtains and carpet. There was a glass-fronted display unit along one wall and a neat writing desk along another. That would be useful, Megan thought, when she had to concentrate on her studies in the evenings.
Warm afternoon sunlight filtered in through a wide window, and she went to look out. The view was magnificent.
She said happily, ‘Come and look at this, Jenny—I can see the park from here. Isn’t that lovely? We’ll be able to take the children to play there.’
Jenny came over to the window and looked out. ‘You’re right, that’s fantastic. What a glorious view.’
Josh had already rushed forward and was tugging at his mother’s skirt, anxious to see for himself. Jenny picked him up and showed him the view of the parkland with the river meandering gently in its midst.
Megan turned to look at Ben. ‘Would you like to come and look?’ she asked him.
Ben hung back, and she added, ‘I bet you could draw a lovely picture of this. You like drawing, don’t you? I brought some pencils with me. You could do a picture of the ducks sitting on the water.’
Her words didn’t have much effect on him, and Jenny said quietly, ‘You know, sometimes I wonder if he can hear properly. If he can’t, perhaps that’s why he gets so frustrated and acts up. I don’t know what to do. It’s as though I can’t reach him at all, and it makes me so unhappy. I can’t think why he’s the way he is.’
‘It’s possible that he’s a little bit deaf, I suppose,’ Megan said. ‘I can make arrangements for him to be tested if that’s what you want.’ She wasn’t altogether sure that that was Ben’s problem, though. There were times when he seemed to hear the faintest of sounds. ‘Do you think part of his problem could be that he’s missing his father?’
Jenny was thoughtful for a moment. ‘Perhaps. It certainly doesn’t help, but I don’t think it’s just that. His behaviour seems so odd at times, and there were problems long before Tom went away. It’s just that it’s so much more difficult for me to cope since he left us.’
Her shoulders slumped a little. She looked tired and depressed, Megan thought, and it was hardly surprising. Looking after two young children was a lot for anyone to cope with singlehanded.
‘Tom does keep in touch, though, doesn’t he?’ she asked. ‘Didn’t you say that he talks to the children on the phone and comes to see them every week?’
Jenny nodded. ‘Yes, he does. It’s not the same as having him around, though. The children miss him.’
‘I’m sure they do.’ Megan made up her mind there and then that she would try to have a word with Tom fairly soon. He and Jenny had always seemed like a happy couple to her, and she would never have imagined that he would want to leave his family. It seemed so out of character for him to behave that way.
They looked around the rest of the flat, and Megan was pleased to see that there was a little balcony running around the back of the building, looking out onto the park. At the moment it was cluttered with ladders and various bits of equipment left behind by the workmen, and that surprised her a bit. She would have expected them to clear up at the end of the day.
Still, when they were finished, she guessed that she would be able to sit out here on a warm afternoon and relax. She smiled, seeing that Josh was already in his element, taking out his plastic toy hammer and bashing everything in sight.
‘What do you think?’ Jenny asked, raising her voice above the din he was making. ‘It looks good to me. Do you think you’ll take it?’
Megan nodded. ‘I do like it. I think I could settle in here fairly quickly.’
Once she had made up her mind, everything was set in motion fairly quickly, and by the weekend she had moved in. She had told Mrs Carter that she didn’t mind if the workmen were around for a short time.
She soon got to know the people who shared the building with her. Her immediate neighbour was a woman in her early thirties, a single parent who had two young boys. The children came to see her as she was carrying boxes into the flat, offering to help her.
‘OK, thanks,’ she accepted with a smile. ‘I could do with a helping hand.’ Jamie, the youngest, was eight years old and wanted to know everything about her. His older brother, Jack, was ten.
‘Did you have a removal van come and bring all your furniture?’ Jack asked.
‘No. Most of the furniture was already here.’
‘My dad helps people move house,’ Jack volunteered. ‘He doesn’t live with us any more. He has a van and he goes around moving furniture for people. He says it does him in, with all the lifting, but that’s because he smokes. Do you smoke?’
‘No, Jack. I never have done. I don’t think it’s very good for you.’
Jack mulled that over. ‘It makes my dad cough. He says he’ll have to cut down… I think maybe I won’t start smoking.’
Megan nodded. ‘I think you’re very wise.’
They had been busily fetching and carrying for about half an hour, and she was just about to offer the children a glass of lemonade when there was an almighty crash, followed by the sound of a boy howling, and she rushed out onto the balcony to see Jamie on the floor, clutching his ankle.
She rushed over to him. ‘Let me have look at you, Jamie…show me where it hurts,’ she said quickly.
‘It’s my foot.’ White-lipped, Jamie looked up at her, the pain showing on his face. ‘Have I broke it?’
‘I don’t think so,’ she murmured, carefully examining the ankle. There was some swelling, but she didn’t think the damage was too bad. ‘I think you’ve just twisted it, Jamie. Stay there, and don’t try to get up. I’ll go and get a bandage for you.’
She glanced at Jack, who was watching and looking concerned for his brother. ‘Jack, will you stay with him?’
He nodded.
Megan quickly went and found her medical bag, and came back to crouch down beside Jamie so that she could set about strapping up the ankle. ‘Jack, will you go and fetch your mother? Tell her what’s happened.’
He sped off, glad to have something to do.
Megan concentrated on examining Jamie. It looked as though he had a nasty sprain.
‘There, does that feel a little better?’ she asked after a while.
He nodded, and she said lightly, ‘How did you manage to fall over?’
‘I tripped over the ladder. I forgot about it.’ He looked at his freshly bandaged ankle. ‘Are you sure it’s not broke?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, I’m sure. It will be painful for a day or so, and you might need to rest it for a while, but there’s no serious damage.’
By this time his mother had come hurrying along to see what was happening. ‘Is it bad?’ she asked anxiously. She knelt down to comfort her young son.
Megan shook her head. ‘No. He’s twisted his ankle, and I imagine it must be painful for him. He’ll probably need to take paracetamol for a day or so until he feels better.’
His mother nodded. ‘I’ll see to it that he has some. It was really good of you to help. Thank you for looking after him.’ She pulled a face. ‘You know, it’s about time those workmen finished up here and moved all their stuff. If they hadn’t left it lying about, this wouldn’t have happened.’
Megan could see her point. ‘I think I’ll have a word with the landlord,’ she said.
‘I’ll be all right, Mum. You don’t need to say anything to him about it,’ Jamie said.
His mother shook her head. ‘It isn’t right to leave things like this. We were lucky that it was just a twisted ankle. It could have been much worse.’ She led Jamie away, and he was still protesting as they went in through their door.
Megan went back inside her flat and phoned the accommodation officer, Mrs Carter, and explained what had happened. ‘Perhaps you could let the landlord know that there’s a problem,’ she said. ‘I think it’s something that should be dealt with fairly soon. Maybe he could have a word with the workmen?’
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Mrs Carter said. ‘I expect he’ll be in touch before too long.’
Megan went back into the living room and tried to sort her belongings into some kind of order. Luckily, the flat was equipped with lots of shelves and cupboards and there was plenty of room to store everything away. It wouldn’t be too long before she had everything the way she wanted it. For the moment, though, she contented herself with adding a touch of colour to the place with cushions and rugs and some of her favourite ornaments.
When she had finished she went and soaked in the bath for half an hour, glad of the chance to relax in the scented water. Coming back to Wales had been a good move, she decided. She was back with her family, and although her new job had its own difficulties, she would do her best to make things turn out well.
The doorbell rang as she was towelling herself dry. Frowning, she pulled on a soft robe and belted it around the waist. Who on earth would that be at this time of the evening?
Opening her door a fraction, she was startled to see Sam standing there.
‘Oh!’ she said in surprise. ‘I wasn’t expecting you.’
His glance drifted over her, taking in the soft robe that clung to her like a second skin and gliding down over the smooth expanse of her bare legs, before returning to rest on the tousled mass of her auburn curls.
‘So I see,’ he drawled, a glint of something unreadable darting in his grey eyes. ‘Perhaps I should have rung first…although I would have expected Mrs Carter to have let you know that I was coming here.’
‘Mrs Carter?’ she echoed faintly. ‘I don’t think I understand…’
He lifted a dark brow. ‘You don’t?’ He studied her thoughtfully for a moment. ‘Perhaps she didn’t tell you that I’m your landlord?’
Megan felt her world tilt on its axis. Sam Benedict was her landlord as well as her boss?
She groaned inwardly. She had just complained about conditions at the flat she was leasing from him. Was there no end to the trouble she could land herself in?
CHAPTER THREE
SAM BENEDICT’S glance flickered down over the skimpy robe Megan was wearing. His mouth tilted. ‘Wouldn’t it be a good idea if you invited me in?’ he murmured. ‘Dressed like that, you could catch your death of cold, standing out here. I know it’s springtime, but the evenings haven’t warmed up that much yet.’
She felt a tide of pink run along her cheekbones. Coming face to face with him like this had made her forget all about the way she was dressed—or, rather, undressed. She lifted a shaky hand and ran it through her hair, and immediately regretted it because the movement caused the robe to come adrift and reveal rather more of her creamy flesh than she wanted him to see. ‘I was in the bath…’ She tugged the offending garment around her more closely. ‘I wasn’t expecting anyone to call this evening.’
‘Weren’t you?’ He lifted a dark brow. ‘Mrs Carter said something needed to be done quickly—that’s why I’m here.’
Pulling in a deep breath, she took a step back, and said, ‘You had better come in.’
A hint of amusement flared in his grey eyes. ‘Thank you, I will.’
He was enjoying her confusion and that sent a spark of irritation racing along her spine. Why was she forever on the wrong foot with him?
Megan showed him the way into the living room, and then stood and stared at Sam. ‘I had no idea that you were the owner of this place,’ she said awkwardly. Then, regaining a little confidence, she added with a flash of her blue eyes, ‘When you mentioned this accomodation, you didn’t say that it was your flat that I would be renting. I would have thought you’d let me know.’
Sam shrugged. ‘Would it have made a difference? It didn’t seem to me to be all that important at the time. You told me that you were looking for somewhere to stay and I simply pointed you in this direction. I wanted to make sure that things went smoothly at work, and that nothing could interfere with the day-to-day running of the unit.’ He grimaced. ‘It doesn’t do to have colleagues overloaded with problems in their everyday lives. There’s enough for them to concentrate on at the hospital, without their home life intruding.’
‘I think you should trust me to do my job properly,’ she said stiffly. ‘I’m perfectly able to decide for myself what needs to be done to make my private life run smoothly. Perhaps you should concentrate on your responsibilities as a landlord?’
Something flared in his grey eyes as her barb struck home. ‘You could be right about that.’ He went on briskly, ‘Let’s sort the problem out, shall we? You rang Mrs Carter to complain about the work that has been going on here, and she said that there had been some kind of accident. Would you like to tell me about it?’
‘I wasn’t objecting to the work,’ she pointed out in a cool tone. ‘After all, I took this place on knowing full well that it was still being refurbished.’
He nodded. ‘Yes. That was how I understood the situation. That’s why I was rather surprised that you needed to get in touch with me so soon. So, tell me, what went wrong?’
