by Anne Fraser
She stubbed her bare toe on a loose stone and yelped. Damn, damn, damn, she cursed. Why does life have to be so bloody difficult? She let the tears that had been clogging her throat for the last half-hour fall. There was no one to see and she deserved a good cry.
She was halfway home when the moon disappeared completely. Away from the lights of Grimsay House she was plunged into total darkness, unable to see the hand in front of her face, let alone the road. For a moment she considered retracing her steps and returning to the ball, but only for a second. She knew deep down inside that she wasn’t up to a scene. No doubt she’d have to face Rachel some time, but not tonight. It was more than she could bear.
Suddenly she felt the hard surface of the road give way. Surprised, she stumbled and lost her footing. She went down heavily, twisting her ankle in the process. For a few minutes she sat, rubbing her ankle, waiting for the shock and nausea to pass. The pain was excruciating. Had she broken it? she wondered. She waited a few moments longer, hoping the pain would subside. Once she had caught her breath and the pain had faded slightly, she attempted to stand, tentatively testing her weight on the foot. It was no use. She couldn’t walk. Mentally she calculated the distance to her house. She had been over halfway when she had fallen. Her cottage was just a few hundred yards in front of her—or was it behind her? Without any light to guide her, she was disoriented. She should be able to see the lights of Grimsay House and get her bearings that way. But she had been going downhill and around a corner. The lights had been hidden from her view by the hill. That was one of the reasons she had lost her footing.
Don’t panic, she thought. Eventually someone would drive down the road and with a bit of luck she’d be able to attract their attention. And if not, well, she had her mobile in her bag.
She felt in her handbag for her phone and when her fingers located the slim, hard shape, she felt relieved. That was until she realised there was no signal. She felt tears of frustration prick her eyes. Then she remembered. Hadn’t some one once told her that you could send a text sometimes even if you couldn’t get a signal? It was worth a go anyway. Quickly she tapped in a message to Jessie and pressed the ‘send’button. Just as quickly a message came back telling her that her message had failed.
Meagan took a deep breath. She couldn’t stay there all night. Especially as a couple of cars whizzed past her, unable to hear her cries for help. She would just have to hop or crawl towards her cottage.
But a short while later Meagan knew she was lost. She had no idea whether she was getting closer to help or further away. She couldn’t even find the road to follow it. She decided to rest for a while before trying again.
As she sat shivering on the damp, peaty ground, her thoughts turned to the tiny life growing inside her.
Mentally calculating dates in her head, she worked out the earliest time she could have a scan. She would be around four weeks, she thought. She would need to be a bit further on before she could have a scan that would tell her for certain if the baby was growing in her womb or in her Fallopian tube.
Poor tiny baby, she thought. You really do have the odds stacked against you. But perhaps this child would be a fighter. Like its parents. The thought spurred her on. She couldn’t stay here all night and she needed to keep moving. It was a cold night and if she stayed where she was she would become hypothermic. She needed to keep moving. She struggled to her feet, but only managed to hop a few steps before having to rest again. There was nothing for it. She would have to crawl. She ripped a strip off the bottom of her dress with her teeth and used the fabric to bind her ankle as best she could. She smiled inwardly. She was a bit like Cinderella—going to the ball, only for her finery to be turned back to rags. And as for the prince, well. Still, a dress could be replaced. But what about Rachel and Cameron? Could their fractured relationship ever be mended—even for Ian’s sake? Her thoughts turned to Cameron. Had he managed to persuade Rachel that what she had seen meant nothing? Would they be announcing their engagement right now?
In the perfect stillness of the night she could hear the waves lapping against the shore. Did that mean she was moving in the right direction? She carried on crawling.
How she loved it here. It would have been the perfect place to bring up a child. For a moment she left herself imagine how it might have been. Her child growing up free to run wild. To learn what it was like to live in a community where everyone helped each other. Where you knew and cared about your neighbour. Where life and death was part of the everyday fabric.
The thought of death made her shiver. What if she couldn’t find her way to help? What if she ended up there all night?
She shook her head to banish the thought. That simply wasn’t going to happen. Not while she had a breath in her body. She carried on, making her painful way inch by inch in the direction of the sound of the sea. But despite her efforts she seemed to be making no progress. It was possible even that she was moving further away.
Just when she thought she couldn’t force herself to go any further, she heard a faint sound in the wind. She stopped and listened attentively. She was so cold. So cold and so tired.
The sound came again. She hadn’t been mistaken. Someone was calling her name. She made herself get to her feet. In the near distance she could make out a familiar broad frame. It was Cameron! He was carrying a torch and sweeping the area from side to side. She called out and waved. And then finally he was coming for her. Running and calling her name. As he reached her, she felt her last bit of strength give way as she was lifted in strong, comforting arms.
‘My, God Meagan, are you all right?’ he was asking, and she could hear the fear in his voice.
‘My ankle,’ she managed. ‘I think it’s broken. I couldn’t find my way home. I was lost and I was scared.’ She felt her voice break as the fear she had been holding back threatened to overwhelm her.
‘You’re not lost any more, my darling,’ he said. ‘I’ve found you and I’m never going to let you go again.’
Meagan was barely aware of Cameron carrying her back to her cottage. She felt herself being lowered onto the sofa before being covered with a thick blanket. Then he took hands and was rubbing them vigorously between his.
‘Lie there for a moment while I rekindle the fire,’ he ordered.
‘Stop bossing me about,’ she mumbled grumpily, burrowing deep into the blanket. She couldn’t stop shivering.
As soon as he had the fire blazing, he returned to her side. She felt a sting in her thigh.
‘Ouch.’ She glared at him.
‘Just some analgesia,’ he said. His hands dipped under the blanket and before Meagan knew what was happening he was removing her sodden dress.
‘Do you mind?’ she said, trying to force his hands away.
He grinned at her feeble efforts, before slipping in beside her and pulling her naked body close, carefully avoiding her injured foot. Almost instantly she could feel the heat of his body begin to suffuse hers.
‘Just relax,’ he said. ‘Once we’ve got you warm I’ll have a look at that ankle.’
Meagan felt a welcoming lethargy steal over her body. Although there was so much she wanted to ask him, she couldn’t stop her eyes from closing. At last she gave in to sleep.
When she next opened her eyes, she was still held firmly in Cameron’s arms and light was beginning to trickle through the curtains. She lifted her eyes slightly and found his.
‘You’re awake, then?’ he whispered. ‘How does the ankle feel?’
Meagan tried to move it, but it was tightly bound. Cameron must have bandaged it while she’d slept. Although it throbbed, she thought with relief that it probably wasn’t broken after all.
‘It’s a little bit sore,’ she said, ‘but nothing a couple of strong painkillers couldn’t sort out. Do you think it’s broken?’
‘I can’t be sure until we have it X rayed, but I think you’ve got away with a bad sprain. Mind you, as you know, they can be almost as painful as a break.’
<
br /> ‘How did you find me?’ she asked.
He held her closer, resting his chin on top of her head.
‘With great difficulty. God, you scared me, Meagan.’
‘Does your fiancée know you’re here? she said suddenly. She lifted her face so she could see his eyes
‘She’s not my fiancée.’ he said, and he grinned. Meagan caught her breath. He looked just like he had that first night. Like a mischievous schoolboy. Or a fallen angel.
‘She’s called it off. She says she’s still going and I can keep Ian here with me.’
‘She what?’ Meagan said, her heart beginning to race. ‘Why?’
‘She said she suddenly realised that I truly didn’t love her. That I never could. She said she could see I loved you, and what sort of woman did I take her for if she thought she could marry a man who was in love with someone else?’ He pulled Meagan close. She could feel his lips on her hair. Her heart was beating wildly. She felt a rush of happiness that made her stomach flip.
‘And are you? In love with someone else?’
‘Don’t you know?’ Then he was kissing her and she was drowning. The blanket fell away as his hands searched frantically for her bare skin. He pulled her closer and she was left in no doubt of his desire for her. But he still hadn’t answered her question. Oh, she knew he wanted her. But that wasn’t the same as being in love with her. She had to know. Reluctantly she pulled away.
‘What is it you want from me, Cameron?’ she asked, her eyes searching his.
He stopped talking. Then he took a deep breath.
‘When Rachel and I finished talking I knew I had to tell you. I came down here straight away, but you weren’t here. I knew something must have happened. I was scared out of my wits. Especially…’ He broke off.
‘Especially…?’ Meagan prompted.
‘Especially when I knew how cold the night would get. And how dark. I knew something must have happened to you. My God, if I hadn’t come, you could still be out there.’
‘But you did find me,’ she soothed. ‘But what now?’
‘Don’t you see, Meagan? This means we can be together. I can stay with Ian and we can be together. You, me, Ian and the baby.’
Suddenly Meagan felt her blood run cold. She pushed him away.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Jessie told me,’ Cameron said, seemingly oblivious to Meagan’s reaction. ‘I know you made her promise not to, but she thought I should know. She hadn’t realised that Rachel and I had already agreed to part. And she was scared that I was about to make a mistake that would haunt me for the rest of my life. She was only thinking of our happiness.’
‘Well, she had no right,’ Meagan said through stiff lips. ‘It was up to me to tell you. If I ever did.’ Her heart felt leaden. Would he have come to her if he hadn’t known she was pregnant?
‘Of course I needed to know,’ Cameron retorted. ‘Oh, Meagan, I can’t believe you were going to keep it from me.’
‘And did she tell you there’s a chance that this pregnancy will not continue?’
Cameron lifted the blanket and stood. He was still dressed in his dinner shirt and trousers, although with his stubble he looked different from the immaculately dressed man of the night before. Somehow Meagan preferred him like this. He looked at her, puzzled.
‘You mean because of your previous history? I admit I hadn’t thought about that. My poor love. You must be worried. But there is no reason that this pregnancy won’t be normal. We can scan you up at the hospital, then we’ll know for sure.’
‘Is that why you came here? A second woman pregnant with your child? Are you determined to do the right thing by me, too?’
‘What do you mean?’ Cameron narrowed his eyes at her. ‘If you are suggesting that I want to marry you simply because you are carrying my child, you are mad. I did that once—and look at the consequences. I’m hardly likely to make the same mistake twice.’
‘What if I don’t want to marry you?’ she said.
For a moment Cameron looked floored. He frowned.
‘Don’t you want to get married?’ he said. ‘I thought…’
‘Thought what exactly? That I would be so relieved that you wanted to be my protector and the father of my child that I would be flattered, even grateful for your proposal? It’s a whole new world now, Cameron. Two people don’t have to get married just because they have conceived a child together. And what if I lose this baby? How will you feel then? Trapped?’ She laughed, but it was a strangled sound that held no joy.
‘I could never feel trapped married to you,’ Cameron protested. ‘And if by some awful chance we lose this baby, we’ll try for another.’
‘But this could be my last chance. If I they take out the other Fallopian tube, I’ll never be able to conceive naturally.’ She shook her head. It was no use. It had all happened so fast. Meeting Cameron again, finding that her feelings for him had never truly gone away, fighting it and then finally giving in and accepting that there would never be any one else for her, despite the fact that he belonged to some one else. Then the pregnancy and mixed emotions of joy and fear that had come with the knowledge. She was terrified, she admitted to herself. She had never been more scared in all her life. Not even out there on the moors. If she dared even think that this child growing inside her was a possibility, maybe she would jinx it.
She looked at Cameron. In the faint glow of the dying fire his eyes glinted as he waited for her to say something else.
‘You were right back then that first day on the hill,’ she said finally, with a faint smile. ‘Our timing has always been wrong. I don’t know what to do any more. And when I don’t know what to do, I find the best thing is to do nothing. At the very least let us wait. We will know about the baby one way or another soon enough.’
‘But I have already told you, I want you regardless. I love you—I realise I have never loved anyone the way I love you. You are the only woman I imagine myself growing old with, the only person I can see by my side. With you life will never stop being an adventure. You know as well as I do that we were meant to be together. We have wasted enough years as it is.’ Cameron grabbed her by the shoulders, her fingers biting into her. His eyes blazed with his need to make her believe him.
‘And Ian? What about him?’ Meagan asked. ‘I can’t imagine he’ll be too happy to have a stepmother.’
‘Ian will be happy as long as he knows that he is loved. I wouldn’t be proposing to you if I didn’t think you cared for him. You do, don’t you?’
Meagan smiled, thinking of the little boy. ‘I can’t imagine anyone not caring for him.’
‘Then it’s settled? You’ll marry me? As soon as possible?’
It would be so easy, Meagan thought, to give in to this man. She wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life with him. But could she take the risk? What if she lost this baby and they drifted apart—just like she and Charlie had? It would break her heart. And it wouldn’t be fair on Ian. The child had known enough disruption as it was.
‘I…I don’t know. Cameron, you have to give me time. I can’t…won’t make any decisions. Not until I know about the baby.’
Cameron looked down at her, defeated.
‘Get some sleep, Meagan. We’ll talk again later. Right now you need to rest.’
When Meagan opened her eyes again the sun was shining weakly and Mrs MacLeod was making up the fire.
‘You’re awake, I’ll just let Cameron know. He told me I had to phone him the minute you woke up. My, my,’ she went on, ‘I don’t think I’ve seen him this agitated since he was sent away to school.’
Meagan had a sudden glimpse of a young boy in short trousers being taken away to school. She could almost see the resolute line of the mouth and the young Cameron’s determination not to show any fear.
‘You have known him a long time, then?’
‘All his life. I have been at the house ever since he and Simon were born. Speaking of which, the news is t
hat Simon has just gone and proposed to Jessie. And she’s accepted him.’ Flora gave a satisfied nod of her head. ‘And that’s exactly as it should be. She says to tell you she’ll be down soon, but Cameron has forbidden visitors until he says otherwise.’
Meagan sat up, taking the cup of tea Flora was passing to her.
She was delighted for Jessie. She guessed her friend would be down to tell her all about it soon.
‘Speaking of which, I gather the wedding at the house is off. Not that I am surprised.’ She gave Meagan a shrewd look. ‘I’ve suspected for some time his affections lie in another direction altogether.’
For a moment, Meagan felt her heart lift. She raised an eyebrow in the housekeeper’s direction. ‘Oh?’ She couldn’t help herself. She had to know what Flora meant.
‘Oh, don’t you go pretending that you don’t know that he’s smitten with you. I had given you more credit than that. I don’t think you’re the kind of woman to play games with a man’s heart.’ She looked sharply at Meagan, making it clear that any woman who played around with her beloved Cameron’s heart would be answering to her.
Meagan’s own heart was beginning to beat faster. Could it be true? Could Cameron really want her—not because she was carrying his child or because he needed a surrogate mother for his son?
Just then the man in question opened the door and strode into the room. At the sight of him, Meagan’s breath caught in her throat.
Mrs Macleod took one look at his expression and decided to beat a hasty retreat. ‘I’ll be down later with your supper, dear,’ she said, before closing the door behind her. Cameron looked as if he hadn’t slept all night.
After a quick examination of her foot and pronouncing himself satisfied with his earlier diagnosis, he glared down at Meagan. Seeing his expression—challenging, demanding but just a little bit scared—she knew the truth. He loved her!
