From Single Mum to Lady (18 page)

He nodded and sighed. ‘Maybe—but this is the first big job I’ve had in an age. It was going to set me up a bit, this was.’

Jandy watched Harry lumber off, feeling intensely sorry for him. She knew what it was like to be hard up—but at least she had a regular job. Her heart might be broken, but as long as she could look after Abigail and keep a roof over their heads she mustn’t complain.

She went to the central desk to put the patient’s case notes on the computer, brushing past Patrick who was writing something up on the whiteboard. He turned to look at her slim figure with her back to him as she sat in front of the screen. Bob was sitting by her, just finishing a telephone conversation. He put down the phone and turned to Jandy.

‘You still look a bit bushed,’ he said. ‘You wouldn’t fancy having a drink with a few of us after work, would you?’

Out of the corner of her eye she was aware that Patrick was watching her, but with an abrupt movement he rose from his chair and strode out of the room. She gave an inward shrug. She had to put Patrick Sinclair out of her mind.

She smiled ruefully at Bob. ‘I’m terribly busy at the moment, Bob. Moving house in a few days means every hour after work is taken up with packing and sorting. It’ll be some time before I can take time off.’

He nodded affably. ‘Just a thought. Hope the move goes OK.’

Jandy turned to go back to Reception and on the way passed Patrick. He caught her arm, a grim expression on his face.

‘So you’re going out with Bob now, are you?’ he said stonily to her.

She stared at him in amazement, lost for speech. What was this man like? But her heart started pounding at his touch, a kind of excitement building up in her that he was at least communicating with her.

‘I beg your pardon?’ she said tartly with a raised eyebrow. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. Bob asked me out for a drink with some of the others, but for your information I declined—not that it’s any business of yours!’

Then, with a withering look of scorn, she walked away from him.

Patrick clenched his fists in his pockets. He hadn’t known it would hurt this much, listening to another man asking Jandy out. He hadn’t realised that the thought of her with anyone else would be like a knife turning in his stomach. He sat at the desk and looked down at his hands, seeing the golden wedding band he still had on his ring finger. Rachel would forever have a special place in his heart—but that was in another life. Now he knew that whatever he had found out about Jandy’s reason for going out with him, it was she who dominated all his thoughts at the moment—and he was eaten up by jealousy, unable to do anything about it.

CHAPTER TEN

‘I
THINK
we’re all done, love. The van’s empty now, so we’ll be off!’

The genial removal men gave a wave and went off down the path, the door of the cottage banged shut and Jandy and Lydia flopped down on the sofa.

‘Thank God!’ exclaimed Lydia. ‘We’re in at last! And it looks lovely after all the hard work you’ve put in, Jandy, painting and scrubbing. I’m sorry you had to do it all.’

‘Oh, I quite enjoyed it. There’s something satisfying about seeing a result. Anyway, you’ve been doing your stuff with Mum in Scotland for a week. You say she’s doing really well?’

‘It’s amazing how’s she’s improved, and Bertie’s coming home next week.’

There was the sound of pattering feet on the stairs and Abigail ran across the room, eyes alight with joy. She was so precious, thought Jandy, so full of life and exuberance. It made everything worthwhile, and even helped to subdue the unhappiness of the situation between Patrick and herself.

‘Mummy, Lydia, come and look at my room—it’s got lots of pictures up of flowers and fairies and little animals! I love it!’

‘We’ll come in a minute, pet. Just let Mummy and I have a little sit-down—we’re exhausted,’ begged Lydia.

‘Well, I want to show Livy my room soon,’ declared Abigail. ‘Can we ask her to come round? You said she could come when we were all moved in.’

She looked pleadingly at Jandy, and Lydia grinned. ‘What a good idea. Livy’s Patrick’s little girl, isn’t she? Why don’t we have a small house-warming party with Livy and Patrick? Give them a call, Jandy. After all, it was Patrick who mentioned the cottage was to let and he hasn’t seen it transformed yet.’

Jandy felt her cheeks redden, suddenly at a complete loss as to what to say. The last thing she wanted was to see Patrick. In the future she supposed it was inevitable they’d meet in the little village as they lived so near each other, but at the moment her feelings were too raw, still smarting from his incredible behaviour a week ago. They had seen each other in the hospital, of course, worked on the same patients sometimes, but had barely exchanged words. It was horrible, but she was going to stick it out until Patrick left in a few months. Sometimes she thought he was about to say something to her—but so far she had skilfully avoided entering into any conversation with him. If he hadn’t the basic politeness to tell her why he didn’t want to pursue their relationship then she didn’t want to have anything to do with him.

‘He’s on holiday at the moment,’ Jandy said quickly, glad that she didn’t have to lie. ‘I know he’s taken a few days off, so we’ll have to wait until he comes back.’

Abigail’s little face fell, then she said resolutely, ‘I’m going to send Livy an invitation. Will you help me to write it, Mummy? I’ll go and get my crayons.’

‘I must say I can’t wait to see the guy,’ said Lydia chattily as Abigail raced upstairs for her crayons. She opened a bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate their move. ‘Mum is in ecstasies about him—says he’s got everything! I thought perhaps I’d see him round here before I have to fly off again on Wednesday.’ She handed a glass of wine to Jandy. ‘Cheers! Here’s to happy times. By the way, has Patrick told you why he had to leave Scotland so quickly last week? And before I got to see him too!’

Jandy took a sip of wine and twirled her glass, watching the bubbles rise to the surface. ‘Er…no, he hasn’t mentioned it, actually.’

Lydia raised her eyebrows in surprise at her twin. ‘Why on earth not? I must say, it’s the first thing I’d ask him. You were really worried about what had happened to his father, weren’t you?’

‘I did try and find out but he said he didn’t want to discuss it in front of everyone at the hospital—and I can’t say I blame him.’

‘But you must have had times alone with him surely—even after work perhaps?’

Jandy was silent for a second and Lydia looked at her curiously, then she put her glass down and came over to Jandy and took her hand, saying softly, ‘You can’t fool me, darling…I’m not your twin sister for nothing. Something’s wrong, isn’t it? Have you had a row?’

Jandy swallowed. ‘Not really…well, sort of…’ She shrugged, her eyes a little too bright, and said with a weary half-smile, ‘No use keeping anything from you, is there? The truth is, Lydia, I don’t know what went wrong. We were getting along beautifully in Scotland. It was wonderful, and I really thought he liked me a lot—there was no sign of anything wrong. And then…and then when I came back from the shops after you’d arrived, he’d just vanished! And…’

She stopped and wandered over to the window, gazing out at the little garden and the mansion house beyond it where Patrick lived.

‘And what?’ prompted Lydia. ‘His note implied that it was something to do with home, didn’t it? Nothing to do with you and him.’

Jandy whipped round from the window and burst out, ‘But it must have been something about me—don’t you see? We were so very close on the night we’d come back from seeing Mum in hospital. I…I thought we’d made each other very happy. It all seemed absolutely perfect. And then…without a word he vanishes and since then he’s barely exchanged two words with me—except to be curt and rude. I just can’t understand it.’

‘Poor darling,’ whispered Lydia, hugging her sister. ‘I can’t believe it is anything to do with you. It must be something much deeper than that—some background worry that’s making him like this. Perhaps when he’s returned from holiday he’ll have sorted it out and things will get back to normal.’

‘I don’t think so, sis. I’ve come to the conclusion that he just doesn’t want any sort of commitment and he’s frightened I’ll be too possessive—something like that. You know, he still wears his wedding ring and perhaps that’s a sign that he hasn’t let go of the past yet.’ Jandy drained her wineglass, put it down on the table and said sadly, ‘Whatever it is, I’m damn well not going to make another mistake and fall for someone who can toss me aside so easily.’

‘I don’t want anyone to hurt you again either—I just can’t believe that this man is another Terry, though. You know, Mum’s a pretty good judge of character and she never liked Terry, even before he deserted you—but Patrick Sinclair’s a different story. She really was impressed with him.’

Jandy gave a sudden laugh. ‘Oh, well, I’m going to forget about the rat anyway. Tell me about this dishy new pilot you’ve met. Are you smitten?’

Lydia grinned. ‘Let’s finish this bottle, and I’ll tell you the whole story.’

* * *

It was a cold night with a wintry feel and Jandy had made up a log fire with apple wood and it sent out a lovely fresh smell and warmed the room beautifully. Jandy thought how cosy it was as she snuggled down on the sofa, ready to switch on the TV and watch a talent show. She had looked forward all week to a quiet Saturday evening. Abigail was already in bed and Jandy was nibbling at some smoked-salmon sandwiches she’d made for herself as Lydia had flown off again on some exotic flight or other.

She gave a jump of irritation when there was a knock at the front door then wondered rather fearfully if she ought to open it when it was so dark outside. She called out, ‘Who is it?’

‘It’s Bob—Bob Thoms. Just dropping in a little house-warming present from us all, but if it’s not convenient…’

‘Hi, Bob, how sweet of you to bring a present. Do come in,’ she said, opening the door.

‘Well…if it’s OK,’ he said. ‘I’m just on my way to meet up with our shift and they asked me to drop these off.’ He handed her an enormous bunch of flowers. He looked around the room. ‘This is very nice—did you say it belonged to Patrick?’

‘Well, it’s on his father’s estate and he wanted to let it and I was desperate to get somewhere. I was very lucky. What about a drink?’

Bob shot a look at his watch and shook his head. ‘I’m only staying for a minute as I promised I’d pick Tilly up, so I’d better be on my way.’

‘Well, thanks to all of you for these gorgeous flowers. It’s really sweet of you.’

She was interrupted by another knock on the front door. She smiled at Bob and said wryly, ‘You wait ages for someone to call and then two come along at once!’

She opened the door and looked with astonishment into Patrick’s eyes as he stood before her. A flicker of something very like longing and distress seemed to cross his face before his expression changed and became hard and remote again.

Oh, Patrick, whispered Jandy to herself. Why has it come to this? Why do you seem to dislike me so much? From love to hate so very quickly!

She might have been determined to put the man out of her mind, but when she saw him in the flesh—his glorious sexy body, wide shouldered, slim hipped, dark hair plastered wetly round his head from the rain—her resolution slipped somewhat.

Patrick’s eyes flicked to Bob standing behind her.

‘I didn’t realise that you and Bob were having an evening together,’ he remarked brusquely. In her heightened state Jandy detected a kind of sarcasm in the remark. ‘I won’t be long, though,’ he added. ‘I just came to see that you’d moved in OK—and if there was anything that needed doing. We always make sure there are no problems with our new tenants.’ He said that smoothly as if to underline that there was nothing special about him coming to see her.

Jandy stood stock still, numb with shock and still holding the bouquet of flowers. ‘No…no, thank you. Everything’s quite all right.’

‘Well,’ said Bob easily, oblivious to the atmosphere between Jandy and Patrick. ‘I’ll be off now anyway. Nice to see you, Patrick. See you both on Monday, I suppose!’

He opened the front door and Jandy called out as he left, ‘Thank you so much for the flowers—they’re really beautiful.’

‘Glad you like them!’ he called, disappearing down the little path and getting into his car. Jandy watched him go then turned round slowly to face Patrick, who was still standing by the fireplace. He looked drop-dead handsome, but weary and grey faced, as if he hadn’t been sleeping too well.

‘Is that all you wanted to see me about—whether everything was all right?’ she asked tersely after a short silence.

‘Yes…yes, that’s all.’ He folded his arms and looked down at the floor for a second as if gathering his thoughts, before raising his head again and lasering her with those deep blue eyes.

‘So you and Bob are seeing each other after all?’ he enquired smoothly.

‘I’ve no idea what you mean. He kindly brought some flowers round tonight as a house-warming present—although it’s nothing to do with you actually,’ she said bitingly, nearly adding, As you seem to have lost interest in me. But she couldn’t bring herself to utter the finality of those words.

Patrick shrugged. ‘Well, I suppose old Bob has a bit of money stashed away—he’s only got himself to support after all, so I expect he’s perfect for you.’

For a second Jandy couldn’t believe she’d heard him correctly then she said slowly, ‘I beg your pardon? Are you saying I only going out with men if they’ve got some money?’

‘It seems to make sense to me. The guy drives an expensive car, goes on luxury holidays. It would suit you down to the ground…’

A sudden blind fury overtook Jandy. How could he be so cruel, so unkind? ‘How dare you?’ she said in a dangerously quiet voice. ‘I cannot believe what you just said, and I can’t think what I’ve done to justify you making such a horrible remark. Not that it matters, but that bouquet was from the casualty team and not just Bob. Would you get out now? I don’t want to see you in this house again. I may be renting it from your father, but from now on, keep your distance!’