‘Good evening, sir,’ said the surgeon, taking Sebastian’s hand and pumping it up and down. Seb recognized him from several dinner parties, and smiled. ‘I hadn’t realised it was your young chap in the theatre.’
‘He’s my jockey,’ Sebastian said, wondering why he was making such an obvious statement. ‘How is he? Will he be all right?’ Sebastian heard a sob behind him and turned to find Paige moving towards Ali, Mickey’s young bride. Her large rounded stomach told him just how close they were to becoming parents. It was also probably the reason why Mickey hadn’t been as eager as Sebastian expected when given the opportunity of racing his prized horse. He felt doubly guilty for urging him to do so.
‘Ali, how did you get here?’ he asked, looking behind her to see if anyone was with her.
‘My uncle bought me. He’s parking the car. I came as soon as I could, but I was at my sister’s and didn’t get your message for nearly two hours.’
‘Never mind,’ He led her over to the surgeon. ‘This is Mr Golding. He’s about to tell us how Mickey’s getting on.’
The surgeon shook Ali’s hand and gave her his half-hearted smile. ‘Mr, ah, Mickey is going to be all right. There’s no danger to his life.’ Ali sobbed again, this time with relief. Paige dug into her handbag instantly retrieving a tissue, which they waited for her to pass to the distraught woman. ‘He has a broken tibia and fibula as well as several cracked ribs.’
Ali stifled a cry. ‘Poor Mickey. Will he walk again?’
The surgeon nodded. ‘Yes, he’ll have no problem walking.’ He addressed Sebastian. ‘He also has a badly broken arm, but we’ve done our best to rectify that. We had to remove his spleen, I’m afraid. One of his lungs was punctured by a broken rib, too.’
‘But he’s going to be fine,’ reiterated Sebastian, wanting Ali to calm down and not panic too much with this overload of frightening information.
The doctor nodded, and Ali blew her nose.
‘But he’ll never race again, if he’s that badly hurt,’ she cried. ‘He won’t be able to work, which means we’ll lose our cottage. The baby’s due in four weeks.’
Sebastian could hear Ali’s rising panic and was relieved to see Paige put her arm around her shoulders to soothe her.
‘When can I see him?’ she asked tearfully.
‘Not tonight,’ Mr Golding said. ‘He’s heavily sedated and won’t know you’re here anyway. I suggest you go home and try to get some sleep. Come again in the morning when I’ve been able to do my rounds, say around eleven.’
Sebastian thanked the surgeon for all he’d done for Mickey. He walked with him away from Paige and Ali towards the theatre doors stopping just in front of them. ‘Do you think he’ll be able to race again?’ he asked quietly. He needed to know exactly what Mickey’s chances were for his future. It was his fault the boy was in this predicament and he had to know exactly how things stood before making any decisions.
The doctor lowered his voice. ‘It’s doubtful. He’s been pretty smashed up, and although I’m no expert on riding horses, I can’t imagine he’ll ever have the strength in that leg to be able to compete at a professional level. I could be wrong, of course, but I doubt it. There was significant damage to the bones.’
‘Hell, poor guy,’ Sebastian said thoughtfully.
‘I’ve done all I can for now. I’ll visit him tomorrow and discuss any follow-up surgery with him should it be necessary.’
Sebastian nodded. ‘Of course, thank you for all you’ve done this evening.’
He turned to watch Paige sitting with Ali, pain and concern etched on the young woman’s face. She was barely out of her teens, thought Sebastian. What sort of life was she going to have with Mickey now that he didn’t have the release he found whenever he raced?
She looked up at Sebastian, tears rolling down her drawn face. ‘What’s going to happen to us, Mr Fielding?’ She wiped her damp cheeks with the back of her hand. ‘Mickey never wanted to do anything but race horses, and if he can’t do that, he’ll not be needed at the yard. If he has to leave his job, we’ll lose our cottage and then we’ll have nowhere to go.’
Sebastian sat down next to her and patted her hand. ‘Ali, listen to me,’ he said, as gently as possible. ‘We don’t know if Mickey will race again, but whatever happens I promise you he’ll always have a job with me, for as long as he wants one.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. Mickey is brilliant with the horses, and I’ll always need another trainer in the yard. I’m never going to ask you to leave the cottage. It’s your home for as long as you want it to be. He was injured riding my horse and I won’t turn my back on him if he’s unable to race again. Please don’t worry about it. Mr Golding told us Mickey will be fine. He’s going to walk again and will recover from his injuries.’
Ali sniffed. ‘Thank you, Mr Fielding.’
‘Now,’ he said. ‘Mr Golding said you were to go home and get some sleep, so why don’t you let me give you a lift to the cottage. You can come back here to see Mickey in the morning.’
‘No, it’s all right,’ she looked over to the doorway where an older man stood staring at them in silence. ‘My uncle.’
Sebastian nodded to him.
‘He’ll give me a lift home.’ She blew her nose and wiped her eyes. ‘Thanks, Mr Fielding.’
‘It’s Sebastian, and please don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I promise you everything will be fine.’ He led her over to her uncle.
When Ali had left, Seb turned to Paige. ‘You must be exhausted,’ he said taking her hand and helping her up from her seat.
‘A little tired,’ she said, her eyes glistening from unshed tears. ‘It’s been an emotional evening all round. How are you bearing up?’
Sebastian shrugged. ‘I’m still a little shell-shocked to be honest.’ He still couldn’t believe she’d offered so readily to accompany him to the hospital and then to sit for several hours while the surgeon operated on Mickey. It was comforting to be this close to her again, as if their antagonism had never happened.
‘Come on,’ he said, putting an arm around her shoulders. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
‘I won’t argue with that,’ she said sliding her arm around his back.
The warmth of her hand against his back felt good ‘To make up for ruining your evening, can I offer you a snack and something to drink back at my home?’ He wasn’t sure if he should be asking such a question and hoped she didn’t think he was taking advantage of the situation to make a pass at her.
Paige smiled. ‘That would be lovely,’ she said eventually.
Relieved not to have offended her and ruined the unexpected closeness they’d managed to forge throughout the long evening, Sebastian opened the car door for her. ‘Good, I’m glad,’ he said, closing it once she was seated inside.
Chapter Thirty
The Mercedes glided down the seemingly endless tree-lined driveway, the only noise in the still night coming from the wheels of the car crunching over the gravel beneath. Paige was relieved to be in the dark, to be able to absorb the magnificence of the imposing, stark white Georgian house without Sebastian seeing her open-mouthed reaction to his home.
Seb parked and walked around to open Paige’s door, took her hand in his, and together they walked up the wide, granite front steps. Two swallows dipped and dived to the side of the house while Paige waited for him to open the front door. He led her through the porch and into the vast black and white tiled hallway. Paige gazed at the plain plaster cornicing, so typical of the era, and marvelled at the splendour all around her. A side door opened and a gentleman wearing a smart grey suit appeared.
‘Good evening, sir,’ he said, before addressing Paige. ‘Good evening, madam.’
Paige smiled, trying to understand who he could possibly be, until it dawned on her that he must be Seb’s butler. She opened her mouth to speak, closing it again, unable to make any sound.
Sebastian took her jacket from her, passing it to his butler. ‘Harwood, I t
hink we’ll take coffee in the drawing room.’
She tried not to think of how delighted her mother would be to see her in such magnificence, and wished they were in the private comfort of her small cottage instead.
Harwood nodded. ‘Of course, sir,’ he said, instantly leaving via the door through which he had so recently arrived.
‘This is incredible,’ she said, glad to have met him before knowing he lived in such a palatial place. He showed her into the large cream room where the only colour appeared to be in the sumptuous navy and gold velvet curtains closed over the ceiling height windows and matching cushions on the settees. ‘I didn’t know you had a home on the island. Well, not like this anyway,’ she added, trying not to feel too uneasy. ‘I thought you’d probably have a flat somewhere.’
He nodded. ‘I did until recently. This used to be my uncle’s house. When he died it came to me. I couldn’t justify having this place as well as a flat nearby, so I sold it.’
‘Do you live here alone?’ she asked, sitting down.
‘Brandy?’ he asked, pouring large measures into two glasses and handing one to her. ‘Not all the time. My younger sister, Fiona, lives here with me when she’s in Jersey. She’s at university at the moment.’
‘What about your mother?’ She blushed as soon as she’d realised how deeply personal her question sounded. ‘Sorry, I can’t help being nosy sometimes.’
‘Not at all. My mother’s dead,’ he said, without a hint of self-pity.
‘Oh.’ Paige could have bitten her tongue. ‘Sorry, it’s typical of me to put my foot in it.’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said. His eyes crinkled slightly at the sides as he smiled at her, making her wonder why she had never noticed how gentle he could seem before now. ‘She died years ago, nineteen to be exact.’
‘Nineteen?’ Paige tried to work out how old Fiona must be.
‘Giving birth to my sister.’
Paige cringed. ‘Was I that obvious?’
‘Put it this way, I could almost hear the cogs of your brain turning and doing the maths.’
‘Sorry,’ she cringed in embarrassment at her thoughtless faux pas.
‘Stop apologising, it’s fine, really.’ Sebastian stood up and walked over to the ornate marble fireplace. Placing his tumbler on the mantelpiece, he leaned one arm against it.
‘Your poor father,’ she said, touched by the agony of having been given a baby daughter while coping with the loss of his wife. ‘How dreadful it must have been for him to be left with a baby and a small boy.’ Paige swallowed a lump in her throat.
‘Hey, don’t get all maudlin on my account. My father did his best and my sister never seemed to have missed out not having our mother around.’ He shrugged. ‘To be honest with you, she was rather distant anyway, and always away travelling or at parties.’
‘But you were so young.’ Paige pictured a young boy sobbing into his pillow every night.
Seb laughed. ‘Paige, I was fifteen years old, and away at boarding school. It was a shock, of course it was, but to be honest my life didn’t feel very different afterwards.’
‘What about your father?’
‘He died a few years later, which is when my uncle took over.’
‘Didn’t your uncle ever marry?’
Sebastian laughed and shook his head. ‘Practically every female acquaintance, married or single, appeared up that driveway at some time or other, bearing food, offers of picnics, swimming parties in their pools, and that was just for Fiona and me. They tried every trick in the book to get him interested in them, but nothing worked. He always insisted he was a confirmed bachelor, and that having us meant he didn’t need to go through the exhaustion of living with small children.’
‘So, you didn’t have any female influence in your life then?’
‘No. There was one particular secretary who did last quite a few years. She doted on him, but eventually left and married a local chap. Wanted a life for herself, I imagine, instead of just being on the periphery of his. She was kind, but not really interested in us.’
Paige noticed a black and white photo of an elegant, grey-haired gentleman in a large silver frame on a mahogany table next to the fireplace. She thought how lucky Sebastian and Fiona were to have been looked after by him.
‘And before you ask, yes, he was good to us. Always spoilt Fi rotten and I never lacked any love.’ He smiled at her.
Paige felt her stomach flip over and wondered how she’d been able to resist his charms all these months. ‘I’ve been really hard on you, haven’t I?’
‘You’ve had your reasons.’ He leant forward, and, putting the tips of his fingers under her chin, lifted it slightly and kissed her, making her forget why she’d agreed to come back to his house in the first place. She let him take her glass from her hand as he moved to sit closer to her. ‘Thank you for being there for me today. I really appreciate it,’ he said, taking her in his arms and lowering his mouth onto hers.
She responded instinctively. His lips and tongue tasted of the rich brandy they’d been drinking. She melted into him, relishing the headiness that came with kissing this man. Sebastian drew back. She followed his gaze towards the closed drawing room door and heard Harwood cough discretely outside just before opening and entering the room.
‘Your coffee, sir. Would you like me to pour?’
‘No thank you, that’ll be all for tonight.’
Harwood nodded, ‘Goodnight, sir. Madam,’ he said, leaving the room as quietly as he had entered it.
‘I’m sorry about that,’ Sebastian said, reaching out to take her hand in his. ‘It’s so long since I’ve had live-in staff that I keep forgetting I’m not alone here.’
‘Did he work for your uncle for long?’ She felt a little awkward that the butler had felt the need to let them know he was there. Paige wondered if bringing women to his home at night was a regular occurrence for Sebastian, or if it was simply the butler’s way of announcing himself.
‘Yes,’ Sebastian said. ‘For years, so it must be a little strange for him having me living here after my uncle being the head of the household for so long.’ He kissed the side of her mouth. ‘To be honest, he runs this place like a dream, and we really can’t do without him.’
He nuzzled her neck, immediately making her forget the next question she had been about to ask. ‘I just need to remember he lives here too,’ he added his lips brushing her throat.
Paige could feel her resolve weakening. ‘Your mother grew up here then?’
‘She lived here until she met my father in London in the early seventies.’
‘You must need someone to help run a place as big as this one,’ she mumbled, trying desperately to retain some semblance of self-control.
Sebastian sat back a little. ‘I’m away so often, I just let him get on with it. He knows better than me what needs to be done,’ he said, without taking his eyes from her, the heat in them obvious.
Paige tried to take in every detail of his face, so tanned despite spending long hours in the office. His deep blue eyes seemed to bore into her very soul. She sighed. ‘Sebastian?’ She wasn’t sure what to say next and was past caring the instant his lips reconnected with hers.
He pulled her to him. ‘I want to make love to you.’
Paige wanted him too. She drank in his musky scent and pushed her hands into his wavy hair.
He pushed her back into the softness of the vast sofa, moving on top of her, his hardness pressed against her stomach. The pressure of his chest muscles against her as he held her tightly in his arms made her gasp.
The Jersey Scene series box set Page 54
