Caroline Anderson, Josie Metcalfe, Maggie Kingsley, Margaret McDonagh

by Brides of Penhally Bay Vol. 03 (li

  ‘What weight is the baby?’ Kate asked, as Nick pulled the cork out of a bottle of champagne, and began filling some glasses.

  Dragan looked comically dismayed.

  ‘I’ve no idea. The midwife did tell me, but I was just so relieved my son had arrived safely, with the correct number of fingers and toes, I didn’t take it in.’

  ‘Have you and Melinda decided on a name?’ Chloe asked, taking the glass of champagne Nick was holding out to her, and the Croatian doctor shook his head.

  ‘We didn’t decide on a name or buy any baby clothes either, or a cot,’ he replied. ‘We felt we might be somehow tempting the gods if we did.’

  ‘Then you’d better start hitting the shops in Truro fast.’ Eve laughed. ‘New mums and babies are lucky if they’re kept in hospital for forty-eight hours these days.’

  ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ Dragan said, aghast. ‘You’re right, I’d better go shopping right away.’

  ‘But not until we’ve all toasted the new arrival,’ Nick said. ‘I always keep a bottle of champagne in the surgery for special moments, and I think the birth of Melinda and Dragan’s son certainly qualifies as one of those.’

  ‘Hear! Hear!’ Oliver called, and everyone laughed.

  ‘Does everyone have a glass of champagne?’ Nick asked, and, when a chorus of assent rang out, he said, ‘Then I want you all to raise your glasses to the new arrival. May he have a long and happy life, and have inherited his mother’s looks, and—’ he winked across at Dragan ‘—his mother’s brains, too.’

  More laughter rippled round the room and, as everyone raised their glasses, Tom leant closer to Eve.

  ‘Are you OK?’ he murmured so low nobody else could hear him. ‘I mean, if you’d rather not be here I can cover for you.’

  She looked up at him, both surprised and touched he would realise occasions like this could be painful for her, and shook her head.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘Dragan…He had so little sunshine in his life until he met Melinda, and he deserves to be happy.’

  ‘Eve…’

  ‘Shush,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t think Nick’s finished yet.’

  ‘Nick could talk for Cornwall,’ Tom muttered, and Eve choked over her champagne, and waved an admonishing hand at him.

  ‘I would also like to take this opportunity to say these last few days have been very difficult for everyone,’ the senior partner continued. ‘We’ve been through the kind of flood I never want to see again in my lifetime, and lost some good, decent people, but…But,’ Nick added with emphasis, ‘in the middle of the catastrophe my staff rose to the occasion magnificently, and I just want to thank you all, and say you were incredible.’

  ‘You were pretty wonderful yourself, boss,’ Oliver observed. ‘Managing to assist at a breech birth with no electricity, and damn few medical instruments, takes some doing.’

  A chorus of agreement met that comment, and Nick’s cheeks flushed slightly, then he held up his hand, clearly calling for silence again.

  ‘There is, however, one person who deserves my very special thanks,’ he said. ‘One person who I admit I have not made welcome since he came back to the village, and yet it is that one person without whose help things would most certainly have been considerably worse, so can I ask you to raise your glasses once more, and drink a toast to Tom Cornish? Penhally’s very own, home-grown hero.’

  ‘Tom Cornish!’ everyone exclaimed, but when the toast had been drunk and Dragan was, yet again, being bombarded with more questions about his son, Tom looked down at Eve quizzically.

  ‘Did you know he was going to say that?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m as surprised as you are,’ she replied. ‘Considering how unfriendly he’s been towards you since you came back, I’d have thought you were the last person he would have wanted to thank.’

  And not just thank, Eve discovered as Nick eased his way through the throng towards them, with Kate at his side.

  ‘I owe you an apology,’ the senior partner declared the moment he drew level with Tom.

  ‘Forget it, Nick,’ Tom said, and Nick shook his head.

  ‘I can’t,’ he declared. ‘I know I have a brusque tongue—’

  ‘You can say that again,’ Kate murmured, and Nick gave her a hard stare.

  ‘And sometimes speak before I think,’ the senior partner continued, ‘but I will be eternally grateful for everything you did for the village. If you hadn’t been here, I don’t know what would have happened.’

  ‘I just wish there could have been no fatalities,’ Tom observed. ‘Reverend Kenner seems to have been a well-liked man, and Mrs Baxter…She and I may not have seen eye to eye, but I’m sorry she’s dead.’

  ‘Did you know that Lauren is giving Foxy a home?’ Kate said as Nick walked away in answer to Oliver’s beckoning wave. ‘The dog knows her, you see, from when she used to do Audrey’s physio, so he’s not scared of her, and she actually got him to eat something yesterday which the RSPCA says is a miracle because he’s point-blank refused to take food from anybody else.’

  ‘I just wish we could find Chloe’s cats,’ Tom declared, glancing across to where the midwife was talking animatedly to Dragan. ‘But there’s no sign of them—not even their bodies. In fact, I was wondering—’

  ‘Tom, I think Mitch wants a word with you,’ Eve interrupted, seeing the redheaded pilot hovering in the waiting-room doorway pointing silently at Tom and then at himself.

  ‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ Tom said, half turning to go, then he stopped. ‘Don’t go anywhere. Stay here.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ Eve laughed.

  But he was going somewhere, she thought, feeling her smile slip sideways when Tom reached Mitch and the pilot ruefully handed him a sheaf of papers.

  They were leaving. She could see it in Tom’s face. Mitch must have received a fax from their headquarters, and they were leaving.

  Well, she’d known it was going to happen eventually, she thought as she took a sip of champagne then put her glass down. She’d just hoped—stupidly—that he might have been able to stay for a few more days.

  ‘What’s up?’ Kate asked, gesturing towards Mitch and Tom.

  ‘I think Tom’s just received a call from Deltaron,’ Eve replied.

  ‘But that means he’ll be leaving,’ Kate said with dismay, and Eve forced a smile to her lips.

  ‘He was never going to stay, Kate. His work—his life—isn’t here.’

  ‘But I thought…’

  Eve didn’t give the midwife the chance to tell her what she’d thought. Instead, she made her way towards Oliver, Lauren and Chloe who were standing by the window.

  ‘Isn’t it marvellous news?’ Lauren beamed when she saw her. ‘Melinda and Dragan must be so happy.’

  ‘Christenings and weddings.’ Chloe laughed. ‘Reverend Kenner is going to be…’ She came to an abrupt halt, and bit her lip. ‘Sorry. Force of habit. It’s so hard to believe he’s gone, isn’t it?’

  ‘How is Rachel?’ Eve asked. ‘I thought I might call in on her this afternoon, see how she is.’

  ‘She’s gone to Plymouth with her aunt and uncle,’ Lauren replied. ‘She’ll come back for the funeral, of course, but I think she wanted out of the village with all its memories.’

  ‘She’s a very brave girl—braver than I would be in the circumstances,’ Chloe observed. ‘To be left with no mother, no father, and expecting a baby…It’s going to be tough for her.’

  ‘She’ll cope,’ Eve said, her eyes following Tom as he scanned the waiting room, clearly looking for her. ‘We all have to cope in different ways with what life throws at us, and she’ll cope.’

  ‘I thought I told you to stay where you were,’ Tom declared with a frown when he reached her side. ‘Give a woman a simple order, and what does she do? Completely ignores it.’

  ‘I can see why you’ve never married, Tom.’ Chloe laughed, and he gazed at her severely.

  ‘You know, for that remark, I should refuse to
give you the present one of my men has just brought in for you.’

  ‘What present?’ she said, looking puzzled.

  ‘Actually, I’m more interested in meeting the bloke who thinks he can give my fiancée presents,’ Oliver said, his voice mock stern, and Tom grinned.

  ‘It’s two presents actually,’ he said. ‘One is ginger and has only one eye, and one is white with a black patch over its eye.’

  ‘You’ve found Cyclops and Pirate?’ Chloe gasped, her face lighting up.

  ‘One of my men has. They’re outside in cat boxes if you want to see for yourself.’

  Chloe was already halfway out of the room, and Oliver gripped Tom’s hand fervently.

  ‘Thanks, mate,’ he said. ‘I owe you. I owe you big time.’

  ‘Are you sure your name isn’t actually Santa Claus?’ Eve said when the couple had gone, and Tom laughed.

  ‘I didn’t find them—Gregory did. He thinks they must have decided to take shelter on top of one of the wardrobes because they weren’t even a little bit dirty or wet.’

  ‘Lucky cats,’ Eve observed.

  ‘Eve…’

  He cleared his throat, and she knew what was coming. He was going to tell her he was leaving. She could see it in his face, and she didn’t want to say goodbye to him. She’d said it to him once before, and she didn’t want to say it again.

  ‘I think Nick is trying to attract your attention,’ she said quickly, and, when Tom groaned, she nudged him firmly with her hand. ‘Look, if he wants to thank you again, just smile and accept it with good grace.’

  He went reluctantly, and she waited only until he was deep in conversation with the senior partner then quietly slipped out of the surgery. He would be angry—perhaps even upset—when he found out she had gone, but she’d much rather he just disappeared out of her life as silently as he’d reappeared in it. To say goodbye to him, knowing she would never see him again…She didn’t have that much courage.

  ‘Lovely day, isn’t it?’ a woman called from outside one of the shops as Eve walked quickly past.

  ‘Beautiful, yes,’ Eve managed to reply.

  ‘You and your gentleman friend must come back once we’ve redecorated,’ the woman continued. ‘You never did get your lemon meringue pies.’

  It was the woman from the café, and Eve should have recognised her immediately but she hadn’t.

  ‘We’ll do that,’ she said, but of course they wouldn’t.

  By this time tomorrow Tom would be somewhere overseas, and she would have her work, and Tassie, to fill her days, and maybe, in time, she might forget this brief interlude. Though never completely, she thought as she crossed Harbour Bridge, and heard the chug of the firemen’s hoses as they continued to pump water out of the houses. No matter how hard she tried, the day of the flood would be forever etched on her memory, whether she wanted it to be or not.

  But she would survive, she told herself as she headed towards the lighthouse. She had survived before, and she would survive again.

  ‘Kate, have you seen Eve anywhere?’ Tom said with a frown as he walked towards her.

  ‘She’s gone, Tom,’ the midwife replied. ‘While you were talking to Nick she just slipped away. I imagine she’s gone home.’

  ‘Not home, no,’ Tom said thoughtfully, ‘but I think I might know where she is.’

  He turned to leave, and Kate put her hand out to stay him.

  ‘I hear you’re off on another mission?’ she said, and he nodded.

  ‘Earthquake in China. We’re flying out tonight, but I need to return to Switzerland first to finalise a team.’

  ‘You be careful, you hear?’ Kate declared, and he grinned.

  ‘Hey, I’m always careful,’ he said, and she shook her head.

  ‘I don’t mean in China. I mean with Eve.’ On impulse, Kate stood on her toes and kissed him lightly on the cheek. ‘That’s for luck,’ she whispered, ‘and now go after her.’

  ‘You’ll make my apologies to the others?’ he said.

  ‘Of course, I will,’ the midwife said. ‘Now, go.’

  He did.

  ‘First Eve disappears, then Tom,’ Nick declared when he joined Kate. ‘What’s going on between that pair? Are they an item again, or what?’

  ‘I think whatever Tom says to her when he finds her will decide what their futures are going to be,’ Kate murmured.

  The senior partner frowned as stared down at her.

  ‘I’m sorry, but you’ve lost me.’

  Kate smiled.

  ‘Let’s just keep your fingers crossed for them, Nick. They both deserve to be happy, and that was a very nice apology you made to Tom.’

  ‘Well, I had to give credit where credit was due,’ Nick replied, ‘and I think I was wrong about him.’

  ‘I think you were, too,’ Kate replied, but as she made to move away Nick caught her by the elbow.

  ‘Kate, on the night of the flood…’ He looked uncomfortable, ill at ease, then he firmed his jaw. ‘What you said—about Jem. I can’t make you any promises, but I will try.’

  She looked up at him, her eyes very bright, then nodded.

  ‘That’s all I want, Nick,’ she said, her voice husky. ‘It’s all I’ve ever wanted.’

  She should have brought her jacket, Eve thought as she sat on the grass below the lighthouse, and hugged her knees. She was wearing her cherry-red sweater and a heavy tweed skirt, but there was no denying that autumn had well and truly arrived. There was a chill in the air, a feeling of darker nights approaching, and the scent of dried leaves now mingled with the tang of seaweed.

  ‘I could see you shivering from all the way back at the church.’

  Eve glanced over her shoulder to see Tom standing behind her, and sighed. She might have known she wouldn’t be able to get away from him so easily.

  ‘How did you know I would be here?’ she asked as he took off his jacket, and put it round her shoulders before she could prevent him.

  ‘No great mystery,’ he said. ‘I knew you would want to think, and this is where you always used to come if you had a problem.’

  ‘It’s amazing how many unimportant things you seem to remember about me,’ she replied.

  ‘I remember everything about you—I told you that.’

  She gazed back out at the sea.

  ‘Water…It’s so very beautiful isn’t it?’ she said. ‘And yet it can be so cruel and deadly, too.’

  He sat down beside her on the grass.

  ‘Mankind thinks itself so smart, so clever,’ he said, ‘but it’s Nature that wields the real power. It can be a horrifying power at times, a terrifying power, but Nature also has the ability to heal. I’ve seen whole forests reduced to a smoking ruin and yet, within a year, wildflowers will have appeared, and the first shoots of new trees.’

  She picked at the grass beside her for a few moments, then took a deep breath.

  ‘How soon are you leaving?’

  ‘I should be on my way now, but I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.’

  She stared down at the grass again, knowing that if she turned her head slightly she would see all of Penhally Bay spread out before her. The lifeboat station, St Mark’s on the hill, the houses clustered round the harbour, and the newer bungalows higher on the hill. Everything would look just the same, but not quite the same any more, and it never would be because of the man sitting beside her.

  ‘Have you decided what you’re going to do?’ she asked. ‘I mean, are you staying with Deltaron, or…’

  ‘I think you’re right, that Deltaron is where I’m supposed to be,’ he replied, ‘but only if…’

  She waited for him to finish, but when he didn’t she turned to face him.

  ‘If what, Tom?’

  ‘Before I answer that question, I have something to give you. I bought…’ Awkwardly he held out the plastic carrier bag he was clutching. ‘I don’t know whether this will help, or if I’ve got this wrong again, but I was thinking about what you said yeste
rday, and I thought…But maybe it’s not a good idea, maybe you might think…’

  ‘Tom, what are you trying to say?’ she demanded, and when for an answer he produced a small nosegay of flowers from his bag she stared at them blankly. ‘You bought me flowers?’

  ‘I bought them for her,’ he said, his voice half-muffled, his head lowered as though he was afraid to meet her eyes. ‘For our daughter. You said yesterday that what upset you most was there being no grave, nowhere you could go and say you were sorry. Well, I want…’ She saw him swallow. ‘I want to tell her I’m sorry, too. Sorry for letting her mother down, for not being there for her when she needed me.’

  ‘Tom—’

  ‘Eve, I want our baby to know I’m thinking of her, and I thought…’ His head came up, and when his eyes met hers she saw the pain and anguish she knew were in her own eyes mirrored in his. ‘I thought maybe I could put this in the sea—if you wouldn’t mind if I did that—in…in memory of her.’

  Tears began to trickle down her cheeks and into her mouth.

  ‘You really want to do that?’ she said, scarcely able to see him through her tears.

  ‘She was my baby, too, Eve. My daughter, too, and maybe…’ His voice broke. ‘Maybe…if I do this she might know that though she’s not here with me—with us—we will never forget her, and we will always, always love her.’

  ‘Tom…I…’

  Eve couldn’t say another word and when he hesitantly, awkwardly, held out his arms to her, she reached for him, too, and clung to him and felt him shudder, and knew he was crying as much as she was for the child they might have had and who they would never forget.

  And, when they were calmer, they walked together to the headland, and threw the little nosegay Tom had bought up into the air, watched it soar for a few seconds, a myriad of bright colours in the blue sky, then land with a gentle splash in the water, and clung to one another again and cried again.

  ‘I know this is too soon,’ Tom said with difficulty when their grief was spent. ‘So much has happened—and you’re fragile right now—and I…I’m pretty shaky myself—but do you think—is there any possibility—that we might start again?’