The Doctor's Longed-For Family

by Joanna Neil

‘I haven’t told them everything, yet…only that their parents went to look at another villa, and they aren’t able to come home right now. I didn’t want to upset them if there was a chance that Amy and Tim turned up somewhere, safe and sound. I don’t know how much longer I can keep it from them.’

  She reached up and touched his face lightly with the palms of her hands, caressing him, wanting to show him how much she cared. He looked so bleak, as though the life had gone out of him. ‘You did the right thing,’ she said. ‘It must be so hard for you to know what to do.’

  He bent his head towards her and she tilted her face to him and kissed him tenderly on his lips, compelled by an impulse to assuage his grief in any way she could.

  He returned the kiss, hesitantly at first, his lips gentle to begin with, and then with a ragged sigh he kissed her deeply, passionately, hauling her against him as though he would drive out his torment and lose himself in possessing her.

  Abby’s head was in a whirl. Her soft, feminine curves were overpowered by the strength of his long, hard body as he held her fast, gripped in a maelstrom of fervent need that overcame everything in its path. His hands moved over her, seeking out the soft swell of her breasts, running down over the curve of her hips and tugging her against the hard cradle of his abdomen. Sensation coursed through her, suffusing her with intense, earth-shattering desire. Her body was pure flame, burning out of control.

  She wanted this, she needed to have him hold her this way, but at the back of her mind she wondered if he was really aware of what he was doing. He had kept his sorrow to himself all this time, not sharing any of it with her, but surely he must have known that she would want to do what she could to lessen his pain and be there for him? Why had he shut her out?

  An ambulance siren sounded in the distance, and it must have brought him back to his senses because he dragged his lips away from hers and held her for a moment, his body taut, his breathing ragged.

  He was very still. ‘I shouldn’t have done that,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking of.’

  ‘It’s all right.’ Abby tried to reassure him, lightly laying her hand on his chest and registering the heavy thud of his heartbeat beneath her palm.

  ‘No, it isn’t. This is wrong, it’s out of order.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’ She drew back from him, shocked by his vehemence, but, of course, he was right. He had never said that he cared for her in any special way, and he didn’t need her to comfort him. She was letting her emotions run away with her. What had just happened between them was out of the ordinary, born out of a moment of madness, and it didn’t mean that his feelings for her were in any way different from before. He was going through a bad time, and he wasn’t thinking clearly.

  He hadn’t told her what was going on in his life, and perhaps it was none of her business. He clearly didn’t want to share such deeply personal worries with her.

  Even so, she hated to see him suffering this way. She sent him a worried glance. ‘If there’s anything I can do, you only have to ask.’ A thought occurred to her, and she added quickly, ‘I imagine the children are still with you? Are you coping all right? If you would like me to give you a hand in any way, I’ll do whatever I can.’

  He shook his head and pulled in a deep breath. ‘No, I’ll be fine, thanks. I’ve managed to sort everything out so far, and it’s just meant making a few alterations to my schedule. What I really want to do is to go over to Greece and see if I can do anything to help with the search. I feel so powerless being so far away, but I realise it’s impossible for me to go right now. Jacob and Sarah have friends they could normally stay with, but for one reason or another they can’t both be accommodated at such short notice. I’ll just have to liaise with the authorities by phone as best I can.’

  ‘They could stay with me,’ Abby said. ‘I’m a bit tight for space, but I could put a camp bed up in the study and at least there’s a garden for them to play in.’

  He gave her a brief smile. ‘Thanks for the offer, but I would still have to make arrangements for them to be picked up from school and looked after until you finish work.’

  ‘Not if you went tomorrow. I’m off for the next two days and as it’s the weekend they would be off school.’

  ‘Yes, but I have to be on duty here.’

  ‘I’ll find cover for you. Sam will probably do it, because he wants the extra hours, or I could call an agency. Anyway, you don’t need to worry about that. We’ve managed before under pressure, and we’ll do it again.’

  ‘If you’re absolutely sure?’ He gave her a cautious look.

  ‘Yes, I am.’ She heard the rumble of a trolley bed in the corridor outside and the bleep of a monitor nearby. It reminded her that there were patients coming in and she had to prepare herself to treat them. ‘I should go,’ she said.

  ‘Yes, me, too.’ He paused. ‘Thanks for that, Abby. I appreciate it.’ He touched her hand as she rested her fingers on the door panel, and she wished he hadn’t done that because it stirred her senses and sent them into disarray when she had only just managed to force them into some kind of order. A lump came to her throat. Why did she care about this man so much? Didn’t she have any sense of self-preservation at all?

  ‘I’ll see if I can book a flight for tomorrow morning.’

  She nodded. ‘I’ll go and organise the cover for you.’ She glanced at him. ‘What will you tell Jacob and Sarah?’

  ‘I don’t know. Probably I’ll say that I want to go and look at the property out there and see if I can meet up with their parents.’ He grimaced. ‘Part of that will be the truth, anyway.’

  ‘Yes.’ Straightening her shoulders, she went out into the main thoroughfare. Thank heaven the cameras were nowhere to be seen. That would have been the final scrape along the edge of her nerves.

  Matt brought the children over to the cottage well before breakfast next morning. ‘I hope this isn’t too early for you,’ he said, ‘but if I leave here right away, I’ll make the early morning flight. That will give me more time to do what I have to over there.’

  ‘That’s OK.’ She greeted Jacob and Sarah and showed them into the kitchen where she had put out some colouring books on the breakfast bar and set out some jig-saw puzzles that she hoped might capture their interest. ‘There’s a pot of glue and some brushes,’ she told them, ‘in case you want to do some cutting and sticking later on. I’ve some old catalogues that you can cut up, if you like.’

  Sarah nodded. ‘I like to do that. I cut out furniture and rugs and things and pretend I’m making my house.’

  ‘That’s a good idea.’ She smiled at both of them. ‘I thought you might like something to eat first of all, so there’s cereals and milk on the big table in the corner.’

  Jacob went over to take a look. ‘There’s all different little packets,’ he said. ‘Can we have any one we like?’

  ‘Yes, of course. Help yourself.’

  He didn’t need any second bidding, and Sarah gave him a scornful look. ‘He’s such a peasant,’ she said. ‘He always has to rush and get there first.’

  Abby’s mouth twitched. ‘There are two packs of each sort, so you won’t miss out.’

  She spoke to them for a moment or two longer and then left them to it and went to talk to Matt. ‘Have you thought out what you’re going to do when you get there?’

  ‘I’ll start with a visit to the emergency services to see what stage they’re at, and I’ll go and talk to Kim, the estate agent, to find out what Amy’s plans were when she and Tim set out that last day. I might be able to retrace their steps.’ His jaw clenched and she could see that this was intensely painful for him. He didn’t want to give up on finding his sister and her husband, but there still hadn’t been any news of their whereabouts and hope was fading fast.

  ‘Take care, whatever you do.’ She laid a hand on his arm. ‘Will you ring me and let me know what’s happening?’

  ‘Yes, I’ll keep in touch.’

  He went to the table where Jaco
b and Sarah were munching on chocolate-flavoured cereal hoops. ‘Will you be all right here, then, for now? I should be back by late tomorrow night, all being well.’

  They both nodded. ‘Abby said there’s a play area near here and she’s going to take us there later on.’ Jacob’s eyes were gleaming with excitement at the prospect.

  ‘Well, be good while I’m away.’ He gave them both a hug, and then swivelled around to face Abby. ‘I have to go,’ he said, taking a quick look at his watch. He squeezed her hand, drawing her to him and resting his cheek against hers for a second or two.

  Then he hurried out of the front door and slid into his car, starting the engine and hitting the accelerator almost simultaneously.

  Abby watched him go, but he didn’t look back. She felt empty inside. He hadn’t even kissed her goodbye.

  She went back into the kitchen and put on a cheerful face. ‘Would you like some toast?’ she asked the children, and they nodded.

  ‘Yes, please,’ Jacob said. ‘Can I make a robot with these cereal boxes? I could stick some arms and legs on him, and give him big eyes and a laser gun. Actually, it would be better if I had a bigger box. Have you got any straws for his antennae? And I need some silver foil and sticky-backed tape and—’

  ‘I’ll see what I can find,’ Abby said. Her head was spinning already and it was only seven o’clock in the morning. This promised to be a long weekend.

  Sarah was a delightful child, a sweet-natured girl who quietly organised herself and kept her head while others flapped around. She took one of the jig-saw puzzles and asked if she could go and play with it in the sitting room.

  ‘Yes, I’ll show you where you can set it out,’ Abby said, showing her into the neighbouring room. She guessed Sarah wanted some space to herself.

  ‘This is a pretty room,’ Sarah said. ‘I love the colours on the curtains and the cushions. They remind me of the flowers that grow in my garden back home. We have sweet peas that grow along the fence in summer, and they have all these soft pastels.’

  She gazed around her, picking out the comfy settees and the writing bureau that stood to one side, next to the tall window. ‘And there’s a bookshelf, like the one we have in our house.’

  ‘Yes, I love to have lots of books around the place.’

  Sarah turned back to Abby. ‘Where will we sleep tonight?’

  ‘Upstairs. Do you want to see?’

  Sarah nodded, and Abby went to fetch Jacob so that he could join them. ‘I wasn’t sure who would want to sleep where, so I thought you might like to choose,’ she said. She opened a door and showed them into the first dormer bedroom. ‘This is my guest bedroom, and it faces out over the garden. It’s nice and quiet in here, and there’s a little writing table with paper and pencils and a lovely flower patterned dressing screen, so I wondered if you might like this one, Sarah?’

  The little girl nodded, looking pleased.

  ‘And this is the room I use for a study,’ Abby said when they moved on. ‘It’s a dormer room like the last one, so it’s an odd shape where the window juts out of the roof space, but there’s a lovely computer table in here, and cupboards and little drawers.’ She looked at Jacob. ‘I thought you might like to play with your toy soldiers in here. You brought them with you, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes, I did.’ He looked around and saw the camp bed with a canopy over it, the filmy drapes providing a subtle hide-away. His eyes lit up. ‘It’s a tent,’ he exclaimed. ‘This is mine. It has to be mine. Can I have this one, please…please?’

  Abby glanced at Sarah, who nodded. ‘Ok, then. That’s settled.’

  ‘Can I stay in here and play?’

  Abby gave a small frown. ‘What about the robot you were going to make?’

  ‘Nah. I’ll make him later.’

  ‘He does that,’ Sarah said. ‘My mum says he wears her to a frazzle.’

  Abby smiled at that, but her heart gave a little lurch as she thought about why Matt was going away, and she looked back at the canopy, not wanting to give away the fears that clutched at her. ‘I suppose that’s all right,’ she said to Jacob. ‘Bring your toys up here.’

  Jacob rushed down the stairs to search for his soldiers, and Sarah wandered back into her room to take another look around. She fingered the delicate glassware on the dressing-table and picked up a hairbrush that Abby had placed there especially for her.

  She said quietly, ‘Do you think Uncle Matt will be able to find my mum and dad?’ She looked up into Abby’s face, her eyes clear and bright, and Abby was so stunned by the question that she didn’t know what to do or say.

  After a moment, she managed haltingly, ‘I’m not sure I understand, Sarah. Your uncle Matt has gone to look at some properties out there, and he said he would see if he could meet up with your parents, didn’t he?’

  ‘Yes, but he said that so that we wouldn’t worry.’

  ‘What makes you think that?’

  Sarah gave an awkward little shrug. ‘Because he’s kind, and he wouldn’t want us to know if anything bad had happened to them.’

  Abby sucked in a quick breath. ‘Do you think something bad has happened?’

  Sarah nodded. ‘I saw something in the newspaper. Uncle Matt had thrown it away, and he never does that until he’s read it, but I found it in the waste-paper bin and I saw a picture. I couldn’t read all the writing, but it was about the place where my mum and dad were going to, and there was a boat accident and it said the people were lost.’

  Abby put an arm around Sarah’s thin shoulders and drew her down beside her on the bed. ‘Did you tell your uncle that you had seen it?’

  ‘No. I didn’t want to worry him. I know he was trying to keep something from us, and I know Mum and Dad were supposed to be home by now. Besides, Jacob might have heard us and he’s too young to know about it.’

  Abby folded her arms around her and held her close. Sarah was just a year older than her brother, and she was talking as though she had the wisdom of years in her head. ‘I’m so sorry that you’ve had to keep this to yourself,’ she said. ‘You’re a very brave girl, Sarah. I know how hard it must have been for you.’

  Sarah looked up at her, and Abby could see that her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears. ‘Do you think he’ll find them?’

  ‘I know that he wouldn’t have gone out there if he didn’t think there was a chance. He’ll look in places where other people wouldn’t think to go. We have to hold on to hope, Sarah.’

  ‘OK.’ Sarah gave a little gulp and buried her head in Abby’s chest, and for a minute or so her shoulders trembled faintly. Then she looked up and rubbed her eyes and said, ‘You won’t tell Jacob, will you? He’ll be upset.’

  ‘I won’t.’ Abby’s throat constricted and she felt the sting of tears behind her eyelids. Some children had so much courage that they put adults to shame. Matt had so much to be proud of in his young niece.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘WHEN’S Uncle Matt coming home?’ Jacob asked as he put the finishing touches to his robot next day. It was a lopsided creation, with foil cupcake-case eyes that were set slightly askew and legs made from cardboard tubes that ended in yoghurt carton feet. The arms were fashioned from pieces of plastic that had a pair of Abby’s salad tongs taped to one side so that he could grip things when Jacob squeezed them. ‘I want to show him my Super-Robo laser.’

  The laser was a masterpiece of ingenuity, Abby had to admit, with a slim-line torch concealed in a cardboard wrapper that had a red crystal bead from Abby’s jewellery box glued on to it. The bead glowed when the torch was switched on.

  ‘Super-Robo’s coming to get you.’ He switched on the beam of light, aiming the crystal at his sister and menacing her with the tongs.

  ‘Go away,’ Sarah said. ‘I’m trying to make a card for Uncle Matt. He’s coming home tonight.’ She glanced at Abby for confirmation of that.

  ‘Yes, he is. I think it will be very late when he gets in, though, so you’ll be in bed. You’ll perhaps have to say
hello to him in the morning.’

  ‘Unless he wakes us up to say hello,’ Jacob put in. ‘Or perhaps we could have the day off school so that we could stay with him tomorrow?’ he added on a hopeful note.

  ‘’Fraid not, Jacob. Uncle Matt and I have to go to work tomorrow. I’ll tell him that you’d like him to come and say hello when you’re in bed, if you like.’

  ‘Yes,’ Sarah said. ‘Ask him to do that…please.’ She gave Abby a cautious look that spoke volumes, and Abby knew that she wanted to be the first to hear if there was any news about her parents.

  ‘I will.’

  Abby went on folding clothes into her laundry basket. She didn’t have any news to tell either of them, because Matt hadn’t been in touch. All day yesterday she had waited for a phone call, and the same again today, but there had been nothing. Maybe he was too busy to even send a text message, or perhaps the truth was that she was simply an afterthought and he didn’t see the need to talk to her at all. She was the one who had asked him to call after all. He hadn’t volunteered.

  It hurt that she felt like an outsider. She wanted so much to be a part of his life, but as the days had gone by she had begun to realise that it was a false hope.

  She settled the children in bed later that evening, kissing Sarah on the cheek and stroking Jacob’s hair as he snuggled against the pillow. He smiled as she laid a kiss on his forehead and he was asleep within minutes.

  The hours passed by and still there was no phone call. Was Matt on his way back to them? Perhaps it had been too much that she should ask him to keep in touch. The mere thought that some harm might have befallen his sister must be weighing heavily on his mind.

  She didn’t go to bed, even though it was late. Instead, she had a soothing bath and changed into her nightwear, then she wrapped a soft robe around herself. She sat in a chair by the fireside and watched the flickering images on the television set without really seeing what she was watching. Occasionally she fell into a light slumber, but she always woke after a few minutes, too keyed up to sleep for long, waiting for him to arrive.