by Joanna Neil
‘Some people would call it being nosy,’ he said with a laugh, ‘but I don’t mind. I’m really keen to know how you’re gettng on, what you’ve been doing these last few years. In fact...’ he hesitated a moment as though he was thinking something through ‘...maybe we could get together for a meal or something while I’m over here? We could take some time to get to know each other all over again.’
A rush of heat ran through her at the suggestion, and she was sure her cheekbones must be highlighted with a flood of pink. Spend time with him? Get to know him all over again? Heaven forbid. Having him here in her small office had already sent her senses spinning full throttle into overdrive. How on earth would she be able to go on with her tranquil, orderly life if he was to be around for any length of time?
‘Oh, I don’t know about that,’ she said huskily, going over to the fridge and searching for the anti-tetanus vial. Seeing the quick look of disappointment that crossed his face, she added, ‘I tend to have an awful lot on these days, what with work, and renovating Waterside Cottage in my spare time. I’m actually waiting for someone to come and give me a quote for roof repairs.’ They were just feeble excuses, and she guessed he knew it.
‘That’s a real shame.’ He frowned. ‘Does the cottage belong to you now? It used to be your aunt’s property, didn’t it—an old farmhouse that she started to renovate? I remember you and Jessie used to go and visit her there quite regularly.’
‘That’s right.’ She went over to the couch and prepared Finn for the injection. ‘Just a scratch, now. There, that’s it. It’s all done.’
She cleared away her equipment once more and turned back to Ross. ‘It was her ongoing project,’ she said with a smile. ‘She never did finish everything that needed to be done, and unfortunately she died a few months ago and left the house to my sister and me. Jessie was already in the middle of buying a property for herself, though, so I bought her half from her.’
‘You always liked that house, didn’t you?’
She nodded, glad that the conversation had turned away from the worry of her going out on a date with him. ‘There are still a few things that need doing, though, so it’s turning out to be a bit of a money pit.’
‘I can imagine.’ He looked as though he was about to say something more, but there was a knock on the door just then, and Colin McKenzie stepped into the room.
‘How’s it going in here, Katie? Is the lad all right? Is he going to be fit for questioning?’
‘I’ve patched him up, but he’s not in any state to be interviewed. He’s suffered a nasty injury, lost quite a lot of blood, and he’s still in shock after what happened. I think we should leave him to recover for a few days, don’t you?’
‘Hmm.’ The sergeant gave it some thought. ‘Okay, I suppose you’re right. I dare say no harm will come from it.’ He straightened up and came further into the room, putting on his formal police officer manner as he approached the boy. ‘As soon as you’re finished here, you’ll be bailed to appear back at this station next week to answer questions. Do you understand?’
The small amount of colour that had been in Finn’s face rapidly disappeared. He didn’t answer Sergeant McKenzie, but nodded in a worried fashion.
‘He’ll be here, along with his solicitor,’ Ross said in a curt tone. ‘But do you really believe he’s done anything wrong, Sergeant? He said he saw the lads and was looking to see what was going on—it’s pure supposition to suggest that he was acting as a lookout.’
The sergeant braced his shoulders. ‘We all have a job to do, McGregor.’
‘I accept that,’ Ross retorted, ‘but I’d have thought by now the other boys would have told you that Finn had nothing to do with the break-in.’
‘Aye, but strangely they all seem to have suddenly lost any notion of who was with them,’ the sergeant answered with feeling. ‘To hear them talk, they were all there looking to see what was going on.’
Ross’s mouth twitched faintly. ‘Well, in Finn’s case, if he says he knows nothing about the break-in, I’m quite sure that he’s telling you the truth. Anyway, I’ll be here with him when you decide to question him.’
The sergeant’s brows rose. ‘You’re planning on staying around, then? What about your work on the mainland? You’re a doctor now, aren’t you, at the hospital?’
‘That’s right, but I’ve some time off owing to me, so I’m planning on taking it now.’ He inclined his head in the direction of the large holdall he’d brought with him. ‘I’ll be here as long as it takes to see Finn through this.’
Colin McKenzie digested that information. ‘Okay, just as long as you both realise he’s in deep trouble.’ He looked at Finn. ‘If it weren’t for this incident with the dog—’
‘And that’s the point, Sergeant,’ Katie interrupted him as Finn paled all over again. ‘I haven’t finished with my patient yet, so I’d appreciate it if you would leave us while I tend to him.’
He nodded. ‘Of course. He’s all yours, Doctor. For now.’
Katie looked at the shaking boy and debated whether she ought to give him a sedative. On the other hand, he had Ross to bolster him now, and maybe that would be the boost he needed.
She wrote out a prescription for antibiotics, and handed it to Ross. ‘Could you get this filled for him? There’s a late-night pharmacy on the High Street.’
‘I’ll do that.’ He gave her a thoughtful look and said softly, ‘I’ll be seeing you around, Katie. Maybe you’ll think some more about having dinner with me—if only as a way of letting me thank you for taking such good care of Finn.’
‘Maybe,’ she murmured. His fingers brushed hers as he took the prescription from her, and the brief, intimate contact sent shock waves rippling throughout her body.
Her heart was thumping, banging against her rib cage in a heavy, pounding rhythm. It was so confusing, having him here on the island, in her surgery. After all this time she’d thought she’d managed to blot him out of her mind, but here he was, back in full, whirlwind force.
How on earth was she going to cope, having him around?
CHAPTER TWO
‘ISN’T IT GREAT? I could hardly believe it when Maggie at the post office told me Ross McGregor is back on the island.’ Jessie was bubbling with excitement, full of the news that was the talk of the village. ‘I wonder if he’ll decide to stay?’
‘I don’t think that’s very likely.’ Katie was listening to her sister with half an ear while she busied herself getting ready for a trip to the mainland. She’d spent the last half-hour checking her overnight bag for last-minute essentials. ‘I wonder if I’ll need a special dress for the evening? It’s only a two-day conference after all.’ She frowned, thinking it through. ‘Perhaps I’ll take a cocktail dress just to be on the safe side.’
‘Aren’t you thrilled, though, Katie?’ Jessie’s grey eyes were shining with enthusiasm, making her look like an excited teenager.
Katie glanced at her, holding up a simple black dress that was adorned with an embroidered pattern of silver thread at one side of the bodice. ‘Excited...why? It’s just a conference about using video technology for health services. There’ll be a few speeches and some hands-on use of the equipment, but nothing too spectacular, I imagine. Except for the castle where it’s being held, of course.’ She paused to dwell on that for a moment or two. ‘Now, that could be really interesting. It looks out over the loch.’
Jessie threw up her hands in a gesture of impatience. ‘Honestly, Katie, you’re so single-minded. Haven’t you heard a word I’ve been saying? I’m talking about Ross—I’m so happy he’s back. I’ve only managed to see him for a day or so each time he’s been home over the last few years, but I’ve heard all sorts of things about him while he’s been away. I wonder if he’ll drop by McAskie’s Bar one evening? It would be so good to meet up with him again.’
Katie laid the dress inside the bag and closed the zipper. ‘I’m not so sure it would be wise to get involved with him,’ she cautioned. ‘You’re not teenagers any more, and he could break your heart if you give him half a chance. Besides, he’s only here for as long as it takes to sort out the business with Finn, and he’ll walk away from us without even looking back, the same as he did before.’
‘I’m not talking about getting involved with him.’ Jessie shook her head, her silky black hair settling in a neat bob just below her ears. She was a beautiful young woman, with a perfect oval face, a peaches-and-cream complexion and full, well-shaped lips. She had the figure to go with all that, too. Being curvaceous and good-natured, she was every man’s dream girl.
‘Anyway, he didn’t have much choice about leaving,’ she said, her face taking on a drawn, anxious expression. ‘The way things were for him at home, and with all the village against him—I don’t blame him for wanting to go.’
Katie’s mouth made a flat line as she thought back to that awful time. It still bothered her, all these years later, what had happened that fateful night. Ross had met up with Jessie at the Old Brewery, a secret get-together, by all accounts, because her parents had made it clear they were dead set against either of their daughters seeing him.
Nothing had happened between them, Jessie had insisted afterwards—that hadn’t been the intention when she’d asked him along. She’d dared him to go there with her, flouting all the rules. At fifteen, she’d been a bit wild and reckless, seeking adventure, and Ross must have seemed like the ideal partner in crime. She’d known the place was unsafe, and that had been the thrill, until it had all ended in tragedy.
Ross had suffered a terrible accident there but only after he had somehow managed to set fire to one of the outhouses.
What could have possessed him to behave in such a way that afterwards his only recourse had been to leave the village where he had grown up? There had been talk of a drifter hanging about the place, and it had been suggested that maybe he had started the fire, but no one had really believed that. Ross was the one they’d had in their sights. There had been no actual proof against him, but everyone had laid the blame at his door.
Katie still had trouble squaring it in her mind. He’d always been reckless, but causing a fire was something beyond the pale, even for him, surely?
‘No,’ she murmured, bringing her mind back to Jessie, ‘but you know how you felt when he went away. You were devastated. You sobbed for days and moped about the house for weeks, as I recall.’ Katie guessed it had probably been guilt that had made her sister react that way, but she knew that even now Jessie was impulsive, with a tendency to let her heart rule her head.
‘Only because it was so tragic, him having to leave. Besides, I was only fifteen, then.’ Her sister’s voice faltered and she started to flounce out of the room. ‘I’m older now, and much more sensible.’
‘Oh, yeah?’ Katie picked up the holdall and followed her downstairs. ‘I’m just saying you don’t owe him anything. You don’t have to make up to him for what happened in the past.’ She frowned. ‘I don’t want to see you get hurt.’
‘That’s not going to happen, Katie. Ross and I are just friends, nothing more. You don’t need to worry about me.’
‘Well, okay, I’ll try.’ Katie looked around the neat, farmhouse kitchen, ticking off a list of last-minute jobs in her head. ‘If the roof man phones while I’m away, will you remember to make a note of the day he’ll be coming to do the work?’
‘I will.’
‘And try to persuade him we need the work done like...yesterday.’
‘I will.’
‘And don’t let young Jack from next door do any weeding in the garden without supervision—he pulled up some of the aubrietia from the rockery last time I let him loose in there.’
‘I won’t.’ Jessie laughed. ‘You can trust me. I’ll look after the place while you’re off gallivanting.’ She picked up a slice of toast left over from breakfast, slathered it with butter and bit into it. ‘It’s good of you to let me stay here, Katie. I thought everything was done and dusted once I’d signed the papers for my house, but I didn’t realise it would take so long for everyone in the chain of buyers to move out of their own properties, or that I’d need to get my extension finished before I could move in.’
‘You know I love having you here. Don’t worry about it.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘Now, I must get a move on or I’ll miss the ferry.’
‘And I have to make tracks or Mum will wonder why the café hasn’t been opened up, and there’ll be a queue forming outside the gift shop.’
Katie gave her younger sister a hug. ‘Take care. I’ll be back before you know it.’ Sometimes she envied her sister her simple life, working on their parents’ country estate, a picturesque, rambling old house and gardens, nestled in a verdant stretch of forest, where people came to spend a day out while they soaked up the island’s historic heritage.
Ross had always been conscious of the wide differences in their backgrounds, but it hadn’t mattered to Katie. They’d mixed with the village children throughout their school lives, and it had seemed to her then that there were no class boundaries. They had just been children, spending their summers scrumping in the apple orchards or fishing with nets in the nearby burn.
That had been when she’d first been aware of Ross, when she’d paddled barefoot in the cool, running water and he’d shown her how to chase the fish into the shallows and then trap them in her net. He’d helped her transfer them to a jam jar filled with water, and he’d laughed when she’d insisted on tipping them back into the stream before they’d set off for home.
She shook the thoughts from her head and set off a few minutes later for the ferry port. She took the bus, looking out of the window at the beautiful wooded hills and low mountains in the distance. Soon the blue sweep of the coastline came into view, and she readied herself for the next lap of her journey.
It would be a blustery crossing, she guessed, for although the sun managed to filter through the clouds every now and again on this late August day, the wind was already stirring, lifting her hair in playful gusts.
It wasn’t too long before she was standing on the deck of the ferry at last, looking out over the water. Gulls swooped and shrieked, and she smiled, relaxing against the rail as the boat began to move slowly away from port. The light breeze danced around her, pulling at the edges of her cotton jacket, adding a chill feel to her denim-clad legs.
‘Well, there’s a welcome surprise. My dreams have started to come true.’ Out of the blue, Ross came to stand beside her, placing a hand next to hers on the rail. He smiled, looking inordinately pleased to have found her there.
‘Oh!’ She looked at him in startled wonder. ‘What are you doing here? I thought you were planning to stay on the island for a few days?’
‘I am, but I have some business on the mainland that was arranged before this happened. I was going to cancel, but Finn has perked up a bit now and his mother’s being supportive, so he insisted on me going ahead with it. He doesn’t have to go back to the station until the end of the week and I’ll be back before then.’
‘Oh, I see. Are you staying at the house with them?’
He shook his head. ‘I’m renting a room at McAskie’s for the time being. It’s comfortable there, and the food is good, so I’m well set up.’
She guessed he didn’t want to be with his father. ‘It sounds as if you’re doing all right, then.’ Jessie would be pleased about that, at any rate. She often went to McAskie’s with her friends, so she was bound to run into Ross before too long.
‘And how is it that you’re on board the ferry?’ he asked. ‘Is it a shopping trip, or are you taking a holiday?’
‘Neither of those. I’m going to Loch Cragail for a medical conference.’
‘Really?’ A s
mile spread across his face, crinkling the corners of his eyes and making her heart do an unexpected flip-over. She sighed inwardly at her weakness. There was no getting away from it, he was an extraordinarily good-looking man. No wonder he was so popular with all the girls. ‘I guess I get to wine and dine you after all, then,’ he murmured with satisfaction in his voice. ‘That’s where I’m headed.’
‘You’re kidding.’ Her jaw dropped momentarily, and he gave her a quizzical look before she recovered enough to clamp her mouth shut. How could fate conspire against her this way? Two whole days in his company? The irony of the situation struck her and she gave a wry smile. Jessie would never forgive her when she found out that she and Ross had been staying together at a luxury hotel.
‘Is that such a daunting prospect? You and I could get along very well, you know, Katie,’ he said in a coaxing tone, ‘if you’d only give us half a chance.’
‘I wouldn’t bank on it.’ She turned a glittering emerald gaze on him. ‘I’ve seen you in action, remember, and I know full well that you can flit from one woman to another quite easily, without so much as a backward glance. Look what happened to poor Molly Jenkins. She fell for you, hook, line and sinker, and you left her and went off with her best friend. I’ve no intention of becoming one of a long line of conquests.’
His dark brows lifted. ‘I’m shocked you think that way about me. In fact, it sounds almost like a challenge.’ His mouth tilted a fraction. ‘One I’d be more than happy to take up. But I think you’re misjudging me, Katie,’ he added with a frown. ‘I don’t set out to hurt people. Anyway, that was all a long time ago. What makes you think I’m still the same man I was then?’
‘News filters through, one way or another.’ She shivered a little as the wind buffeted her, and she paused to pull her jacket more closely around her. ‘And you’ve never settled down with a woman for any length of time, have you?’
