Unbreak My Heart (Childhood Sweethearts Reunited) (20 page)

***

The following morning, tired and sweaty, Kate tramped along the narrow Cornish road from the bus stop to her mother's cottage. Keiko fussed, obviously hungry and uncomfortable. Her diaper needed changing, and her fine golden hair clung damply against her head.

As Kate opened the front gate, her stepfather, Derrick, was on his knees weeding the garden. He sat back on his heels, and gave her a guarded look. "I hope you haven't got an entourage with you."

Kate sighed and shook her head. She didn't want to argue with her stepfather again. It upset her mother. "No. Just the two of us this time."

He stood and peered up and down the road as if he didn't believe her. With a critical glance her way, he brushed the soil from his hands. She'd never gotten along with Derrick. He put up with her mum's quirky ways, but then her mum's sculptures brought in a lot of money and had allowed Derrick to retire early. "Your mum's in her studio."

Kate smiled. Some things never changed. She entered the open front door, dropped her backpack and walked through the cottage to the sunny studio at the back. Hesitating in the doorway, she savored the familiar clean, wet smell of clay that enveloped her like a welcoming hug.

Her mother's fair hair was twisted up haphazardly, secured with silk flowers. Her head angled thoughtfully, she smoothed the torso of a clay figurine with her fingers. Keiko snuffled, and Kate's mother turned, eyebrows raised.

"Hi, Mum." Kate tried to smile but her face wouldn't work. Her lips trembled. Her control cracked, and all her pent-up emotions burst out, tears flooding her eyes.

"Oh,
Katey
, are they following you again, sweet pea? Come here." Her mother stood and wrapped her arms around both her and Keiko. Kate pressed her face into her mother's shirt collar, breathed in the familiar smells of clay, glaze, and patchouli oil, and sobbed.

When she'd cried herself out, her mum made them a cup of tea and took her into the shady sitting room. Kate fed Keiko and related everything that had happened since her last visit.

Her mother sipped her tea and twisted a stray lock of hair between her fingers. When Kate finished, her mum released an anguished breath. "I'm so sorry Derrick sent you away last time,
Katey
love. I would never have let him if I'd known."

"It's all right. It was my problem, Mum. Not yours."

Kate's mother moved to her side and lifted Keiko into her arms. "My poor, sweet, little darling. What a start to life and all because of that horrid daddy of yours."

Kate closed her eyes and let her head drop back against the cushions. The last thing she wanted was another argument about Daniel Crowther. Her mother had never liked Dan and made no secret of the fact. She had been unhappy about Kate's pregnancy, but of course adored Keiko when she was born.

"I bet Andre will make a good daddy, though," her mum continued with a pointed glance Kate's way. She held Keiko up in front of her. "What do you think, sweet pea? Would you like Andre to be your daddy?"

"Mum!"

"What? Keiko can't understand me."

"I can."

"It sounds to me like he's been auditioning for the jobs of father and husband if I'm reading between the lines correctly." Her mother raised her eyebrows.

Now Kate wished she hadn't gone into so much detail about her time in Jersey, but she'd needed to get it all off her chest. Although talking hadn't help ease the sick feeling of loss inside her. "Can we continue our chat tomorrow? I'm too tired right now." Kate shut her eyes and let her mind drift, hoping she might doze.

"If you love Andre, why did you run away?"

Kate rubbed her gritty eyes. "I told you what he said."

"Men say all sorts of rubbish they don't mean, love, especially when they're cross. You have to ignore most of it."

"Is that how you handle Derrick?"

Her mum gave her a conspiratorial smile.

Maybe she should have waited for Andre to come back to the cottage yesterday evening and talk things over calmly, but really, what was the point. She wasn't the type of wife he wanted. She'd thought about their situation endlessly on the ferry to England and bus ride to Cornwall. "Our differences amount to more than a few cross words, Mum. Andre and I are just not right for each other."

"It sounds to me as though he's behaved like a man in love. He took you in and looked after you. He didn't have to."

"I love him too, Mum. But it's not enough. We're different."

Kate's mother stared out the window pensively. "Your dad thought the two of you would end up together. 'Two peas in a pod,' he used to say. Robert Le Court saw it as well. That's why he was desperate to separate Andre from you."

Her mother was quiet for a while and despite her weariness, Kate found her thoughts drifting back over the years. Her childhood on Jersey was all about Andre. He had been her world, life without him unthinkable. This last month she'd fallen right back into that world as if the years apart had never happened. And the night they made love her feelings for him had transcended the past. She pressed her fist against the pain in her chest.

"When's this press conference Andre wants you to attend?" her mum asked, breaking into her reverie.

An image of a crowd of reporters shouting questions flashed into her mind, and she pushed it away. "I don't know."

"Oh,
Katey
. You should at least have found out. It's obviously important to Andre. Why don't you phone the Caspian and ask? You don't have to say who you are."

"I don't think the date's finalized yet, and I'm not getting involved anyway. I've had enough of the press to last me fifty lifetimes. Andre will manage just fine without me." And he would. He'd been managing alone since his grandfather died.

Alone
. The word penetrated her soul like a shard of ice. Andre's mother had left him, his father hadn't cared about him and, eventually, even the grandfather he loved had gone. Andre had coped with the responsibility of taking over the hotels at an age when most young men were still studying. Kate had regretted not being there for him. Yet when he told her he loved her and suggested she do just that, be his wife, stand by his side and support him, she had thought only of reasons not to. She loved him, but she had walked away and left him alone again.

***

Kate lay under the apple tree in the back yard of her mother's cottage, listening to the rhythmic sweep of Derrick's scythe as he cut the long grass at the end of the garden. Three days had passed since Kate arrived, four since her argument with Andre. She wanted to go back to him, but her mum had persuaded her to take a few days to recharge her batteries before she made the tiring journey again, and she'd agreed. Poor Keiko needed time to recover from the constant stress of the last few weeks as well.

Kate had phoned Andre, though, and left messages, but he hadn't returned her calls. Perhaps he didn't want to talk to her. Perhaps she shouldn't go back to him. Perhaps her mum was wrong and when Andre had told her to leave, he really meant it.

To add to Kate's sense of guilt, her mum kept on about what a wonderful father he would make. Recollections ran through her mind of the many times he'd been thoughtful or kind to Keiko, the gentle way he held her and touched her with a sense of wonder on his face. Not only had she been selfish in not considering Andre, she hadn't even thought what was best for her baby!

She had to reach him on the phone, had to apologize and go back to the Caspian in time to present with him at the press conference. She rested her arm over her eyes to block out the sun. Andre was right. She was a liability. Memories of the happy moments with him chased through Kate's mind like a string of tumbled crystal beads, each one unique and beautiful. She missed him so much it was a constant physical ache inside her.

The phone rang and she sat up with a jerk. She rushed to the kitchen door, but it was only someone calling about flowers for the church.

"I can't sit still any longer. I'm going stir crazy." Kate poured herself some lemonade and paced to and fro across her mother's studio, watching Keiko through the open window.

"Why don't you go for a walk?" her mother said. "Take Keiko down to the estuary. The exercise will take your mind off Andre. He'll call when he's ready."

"That might be never! I just want to go back to him."

"Then go. But stay a couple more days before you take my granddaughter away from me. I love having her here, and I've seen so little of her."

Kate pulled on her mother's straw sunhat and set off along the road with Keiko in a stroller her mum had borrowed from a friend. When she had walked a mile up the estuary footpath and was nearly back to the road, she tucked herself away in a shady spot beneath some ash trees and sat on the grass with Keiko on her lap.

A young
springer
spaniel played in the water, and Kate held Keiko up, wondering if her sight was good enough yet to see the dog. Andre would know. His head was always stuffed full of facts, and it was a given he would have researched babies as soon as she arrived with Keiko.

In that moment she missed him so badly she could hardly breathe. Tears filled her eyes and she pressed her face against Keiko's lacy bonnet. The spaniel barked and Kate heard the owner calling it back. Then she heard a man's voice, a familiar voice, talking to the dog.

Her gaze jumped to the path and there was Andre, the
springer
pup bouncing around his legs, begging for attention. He paused and rubbed the dog behind the ears before it dashed after its owner. Kate sat stunned, her heart pounding, her breath suddenly gone as if all the air had been sucked out of her lungs.

He looked so good, dressed in a pair of tan pants and a blue button-down shirt, his dark hair gleaming. "Hello, stranger," he said with a smile as he drew closer. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Andre, I called you. Why didn't you phone me back?"

"I wanted to speak to you face to face."

He folded his lean body and sat on the grass at her side. "How are you, sweetheart?" He touched a finger to Keiko's chin and she smiled.

"Oh, my God! Did you see that? Keiko smiled at you."

"I know."

"That's the first time."

His eyebrows shot up. "The first smile. You mean, ever?"

"Yes." They stared at each other, the air between them charged with emotion.

"Do I get a smile from you as well?" he asked softly.

Kate tried to smile but her eyes filled with tears and she had to clamp her lips together to hold back her urge to cry.

"Oh, Kat." Andre pulled her into his arms and held her tight. "I'm sorry for being an idiot. I seem to make a habit of it around you."

His hand smoothed her hair, his fingers gentle against her cheek. "I love you just as you are. I don't want you to change. Please come back and be my wife. There's never been anyone else for me but you. I miss you and Keiko." He pressed a kiss to her temple. "Can you forgive me?"

"I'm just as much to blame. I was going to return to you in time for the press conference to show you I do care about what you want."

Andre leaned back so he could see her face. "I'd love that, but you don't have to. I know I've pushed you too much."

"I want to, Andre. I want to share this with you. I want us to do things together."

He cupped her face in his hand and touched his lips to hers so sweetly and gently she melted in his arms.

***

The following Thursday, Kate dressed in the green dress and matching shoes and arrived in the Caspian lobby just before ten thirty. She had hardly slept the night before and her belly churned with nerves at the thought of facing a whole room full of reporters. But she knew she would be all right with Andre by her side.

He'd come over from his cottage earlier to check everything was set up as planned while she waited for Mrs. Cooper to arrive to babysit Keiko. As Kate entered the Great Hall, she barely noticed the rows of people. Only one person mattered.

Andre stood in the corner of the room, a hand rested casually on the carved oak paneling while he waited for the crowd to seat themselves. The sun flooded in the large leaded window at the end of the huge room, bathing Andre in its glow, turning his hair to gleaming dark silk. Love swamped her, stole her breath with its intensity. He turned his head, his smile warm and welcoming, and held out his hand to her. Kate hurried the last few steps and grasped his fingers as though they were a lifeline.

"You look beautiful, Kat," he said softly. "Time to get this show on the road. Are you ready?"

Kate clutched her notes in a leather folio he'd given her with the new Caspian dragon logo on the cover. "Ready as I'll ever be."

"You'll do great." He brushed a knuckle across her cheek and then, with a hand on her back, guided her to a table at the front of the room. They'd been over their joint presentation many times during the past week, tweaking it until they were both comfortable. Andre introduced them and spoke first.

Reality hit. Kate stared at the faces, and her stomach went into freefall. Her gaze skittered to and fro along the rows. Edmund and Liz sat at the front and Jerry Markham's familiar cynical grin caught her attention half way back. Her throat squeezed shut. She wouldn't be able to speak!