by Margaret Way
“Health problems, and I believe she’s a little wild. The whole town knows. Kathy is always at the hospital with her.”
“How very worrying.” Mallory’s stance had softened considerably. “Is the child on medication? There are so many underlying reasons for behavioural problems. Sometimes it can be hard for a GP to differentiate. Kids are hyper for a wide range of reasons.”
“I’m sure you’re right, Doctor James.”
Ah, the suavity of his tone! “Helping problematic children is my area, Blaine,” she reminded him sharply. “I’d like to point out, while we’re on the subject, I didn’t allow bitterness over what happened to me and Jason to eat me away. What’s past is past.”
“Faulkner didn’t see it that way.”
“Okay, the past is never past. That way of yours of constantly having the last word drives me crazy.”
“As I’ve suggested, it could be your bad case of ‘sibling’ rivalry. You were lucky you didn’t marry Jason. He didn’t break your heart.”
“Did Selma break yours?”
He only shrugged. “Forget Selma. Look, I’m not in the mood for this, Mallory.”
“Then you’re welcome to go on your way. I’m not stopping you.” She tilted her chin.
“Take a chill pill, why don’t you.”
She flared up. “Chill pill? I don’t pop pills.” She had been on antidepressants for some years. Occasionally she had panic attacks, but she worked to contain them without medication.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Mallory! Why do you work so hard to misunderstand me? You’re a psychologist. You know all about chill pills to control moods. I know this is difficult. If it helps, Cartwright is working hard. Jessica too.”
For a split second she allowed her shoulders to droop. Then she straightened. No way was Blaine going to see her crumple. She’d do that when she was alone.
“Jessica Cartwright mightn’t be a bucket of fun, but she’s extremely competent,” he went on. “She’s far better than Jason at getting the best out of the staff.”
“That’s her big rap, is it? Jessica Cartwright gets the best out of the staff. Does she do it with a whip? Jessica was the nastiest kid in the school. She tormented the life out of Kathy Burch, when Kathy had suffered enough with that appalling father. Dare I ask how she wrangled the job?”
“Good question.”
“With no good answer. Uncle Robert never liked her. He once called her a little monster.”
“Tell me who did like her? Being pleasant never caught up with Jessica. She needed a job. The prospect of her finding work in town was uncertain at best.”
“Most people had had kids in school with Jessica,” Mallory said tartly.
“She mightn’t have a winning personality, but Jason’s life doesn’t seem to be complete without her.”
“Repressed development. Jessica is the alpha twin. She’s always been in charge. But Jason is a married man now. If Jessica is around she probably spends her time ensuring every day is a real bad day for her sister-in-law. It’s cruel for Jason to subject his wife to Jessica’s TLC. God forbid he does it on purpose.” Mallory felt up to her neck in unwelcome disclosures. “She’s not his identical twin. They don’t share identical genetic material. Jason was as pleasant as Jessica was downright nasty. Having said that, twinship is a deeply symbiotic relationship. I hope it’s not too rude to ask, but what now? Is there a way out?”
“Not at the moment. Jessica lives in an apartment in town.”
“I expect you own the complex?”
“I expect I do,” he said.
“Modesty doesn’t come in your size, does it?”
“If you say so, dear Mallory,” he drawled. “To try to balance the good with the bad, Jessica has stuck by her brother.”
“She’d stick with him if he were a total nutter. I really liked the Cartwrights.”
“And they loved you.” He went heavy on the loved.
“It was what it was,” she said soberly. “So you got me here knowing all this?”
“I got you here for Robert. You owe him.”
Memory after memory was sidling up. All of them full of angst. “I do so love you when you’re righteous!”
“Me, righteous?” He spread his shapely hands.
“That’s one of your big problems, Blaine. You’re most righteous when you’re in the wrong. And this is wrong.”
“Would you have come back had you known?” He pinned her with his luminous eyes.
“So you deliberately kept me in the dark?”
“What would you have done had I told you the truth?”
She averted her gaze. “You don’t know the workings of my mind, Blaine.”
“You don’t know mine, either.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re smart. You’ll figure it out. One piece of advice. Take it slowly.”
She searched his face. Blaine was a central part of her life, but hunkering down inside her bolt hole had become a habit. “You make that sound like I could be steering into dangerous waters.”
“And so you could be.”
“They know I’m coming?”
Blaine nodded. “I expect they’re feeling their own brand of trepidation. But life has moved on. You have moved on, Mallory. You’re Doctor James now, a highly regarded professional in your field. You could even be of help to the child.”
The thought took the edge off her upset. “Only I’m certain Jason and his wife wouldn’t want any help from me. Jessica was never my friend.”
“I did tell you that as well.”
“You did indeed.” Between the heat and her sizzling emotions, she felt compelled to get away from him. “You know I’ve always thought you a complete—”
He cut her off, opening her car door. “No need to say it, Mallory. I can fill in the dots. And it wasn’t always. Once we were good pals, until puberty got in the way.”
“Puberty? Whose puberty?” she demanded, incensed.
“Why, yours, of course. I’m not a fool, Mallory. I know you hate it, but I know you too well.”
“You’ll need to do a lot of catch-up.” With practised grace, she swivelled her long, elegant legs as she settled into the driver’s seat. “You find this funny?” She caught the glint in his eyes.
“Not at all. I just hope you’re relatively okay with it.”
“Like I’m relatively okay with a Category Five cyclone. What time tomorrow?”
“Say eleven o’clock. Robert has a new housekeeper. Mrs. Rawlings. She lost her husband, Jeff, to cancer.”
She nodded. “Uncle Robert did manage to tell me. I’m sorry. He told me plenty about your goings-on as well. We do so know he thinks of you as the son he never had. What did go wrong between you and Selma, anyway?” Her voice was edged with malice, when malice didn’t come naturally to her. “I would have thought she was madly in love with you.”
“You’ve managed to make that sound like one would have to wonder why.”
“Just trying to spin your wheels. Besides, I didn’t think you cared all that much what I thought.”
“I’ll let that one go as well. It was Selma who decided against an engagement,” he offered with no loss of his iron-clad composure.
“It was the other way around, I fancy. She loved you, but you found you didn’t love her, or not enough to get married. Had you a new conquest in mind?”
He made to close her door. “Let’s swap stories at another time, shall we, Mallory?”
“Nothing in it for you, Blaine. I’m a closed book.”
“Unknowable to everyone but me.”
She could have cheerfully slapped him. Instead she found herself tightening her body against the odd tumbling inside her. “I assume that’s your arrogance talking?”
“Not entirely. See you tomorrow.”
He shut her door.
He walked away.
He didn’t look back.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
USA Today bestselling
author MARGARET WAY has written more than 130 books—many of them international bestsellers. She has been published in 114 countries and 34 languages. Her novels are set in her beloved Australia, where she was born and lives to this day. Her stories always contain the beauty and rugged nature of rural and Outback Australia, as well as the rainforests and coral reefs of Northern Queensland.