A Secret, a Safari, a Second Chance

by Liz Fielding

  It seemed as if everyone was giving the pair of them time to get to know one another. Kit worked on Hannah’s room in the morning while Eve went shopping, or took her to see her grandparents, or to play with Mary’s children.

  They had lunch together and after Hannah’s nap they spent the afternoon on the beach, or in the pool at the resort, where Hannah’s early swimming lessons proved their worth.

  ‘She’s a little fish,’ Laura said. ‘She should join Lucy’s Puddleduck sailing class.’

  Eve stiffened. Hannah had been desperate to get on a boat since that first day, drew pictures of them all the time, but as she hesitated, Kit said, ‘Why don’t I take both of you out? You’ll be able to see for yourself if she enjoys it.’

  She knew she was being selfish, that sailing was part of life on the island, in the Merchant blood, but she didn’t want Hannah to enjoy it.

  Kit was waiting, not pushing her, but this was about learning to trust. For three years she’d had sole responsibility for this little bundle of joy and each small surrender was terrifying.

  The first time she’d left him alone with Hannah was when she went shopping for a wedding dress. The first time she’d watched him drive away with her, just the two of them going for an ice cream. The first time he’d been the one she’d run to...

  ‘I’ve never been in a sailing boat,’ she said. ‘I’d just be a liability. Hannah will let you know soon enough if she doesn’t like it.’

  Afterwards, when Hannah was in bed and they were alone, he said, ‘The sailing thing. I know how hard that was for you.’

  She shook her head. ‘Maybe, when she’s going out on her first date, you’ll have some idea.’

  ‘She is never going out on a date,’ he said, then put his arms around her and drew her close, holding her as if he’d never let go. ‘I’ll take care of her, Eve.’

  ‘I know you will.’ She nodded. ‘Nothing in the world will stop me from worrying until you’re safely back on shore, but Hannah is as much yours as mine.’

  ‘I’m scared witless by the responsibility.’

  ‘Welcome to the club.’

  ‘Thank you.’ He brushed the curls back off her forehead. ‘Now, on the subject of dates, I’ve been thinking that we should try that.’

  ‘Dating?’

  ‘Dinner somewhere. Or maybe there’s something you’d enjoy at the arts centre?’

  ‘You want to hold hands in the back row at a movie?’

  ‘It’s been a while but I’m sure I remember how that goes. We can have dinner afterwards.’

  ‘I’ll have to organise a babysitter.’

  ‘Say the word and you’ll be fighting them off. I’ll check what’s on.’ His phone rang as he took it from his pocket. He glanced to see who was calling and then sent it to voicemail.

  ‘You could have answered that.’

  ‘It’s nothing that won’t wait. Okay, here we are,’ he said. ‘It’s a live screening from the Met tomorrow. Opera?’

  ‘Let’s just have dinner. If you want to hold hands you can walk me home along the beach.’

  ‘Tomorrow?’

  ‘Tomorrow. Why don’t you ask your mom if Hannah can have a sleepover?’

  ‘You are a peach, but she’ll think I’ll be staying over.’

  ‘Kit, she’ll be babysitting our daughter so I don’t imagine she’d be shocked, but if you think your macho reputation will be ruined if you go home, you are welcome to Nana’s room. However, I’m sure Hannah would be thrilled to have you there when she wakes up.’

  * * *

  Cloud had blown in and there was rain in the air so they missed out the beach, but dinner overlooking the harbour had been lovely.

  The food was doubtless perfect, but they’d talked so much that they’d scarcely noticed it. Even when Kit’s phone had rung, he’d turned it off without even looking to see who had called.

  He’d talked about his family, about being alone on the ocean, about his last holiday in France with Matt.

  She had talked about her mother, about the kids she’d taught, about the chance of a prestigious job that she’d had to let go when her grandmother died.

  ‘If she’d recovered,’ he said, ‘I would never have found you.’

  ‘I would have found you,’ she said. ‘Hannah would have insisted.’

  ‘Would it bother you if I said I would have liked you to have found me for you?’

  ‘Maybe I’d been waiting for the excuse.’

  Kit drove her home and walked her to her door. He took the keys from her, unlocked the door and Mungo strolled over and rubbed against Kit’s legs.

  ‘He likes you,’ she said.

  ‘He may change his mind when I bring home that puppy.’ He looked up. ‘No objections?’

  ‘I’ve never had a dog.’

  ‘We’ll choose it together. Something with a soft mouth.’

  She nodded. ‘Are you coming in for coffee?’

  ‘If I come in, I’ll stay and I don’t think you’re ready for that. But I’ll take a kiss.’

  And he kissed her on the doorstep just as if it were an old-fashioned girl/boy date with her dad waiting on the other side of the door. Breathtakingly sweet and leaving her desperate for more.

  * * *

  The sea was quiet with the slightest breeze. It was very early when Kit took Hannah down to the dock before anyone was about.

  Eve, having given him her trust, would have been on edge, transferring her nerves to their little girl.

  He wanted her to experience that same thrill that he’d felt when his grandfather had taken him on the water for the first time. To have that same never to be forgotten moment of shared joy.

  She was glowing with excitement as he smoothed sunblock on her face and hands, fitted her with a life jacket, talking her through what they were going to do, stressing on her the importance of listening to him and doing exactly what he said.

  Half an hour later, as he brought the boat into the dock, Eve was standing on the dock, waiting for them.

  She looked white, and when he lifted Hannah out of the boat and she ran to her exclaiming with excitement, she picked her up, kissed her.

  ‘Did you enjoy that?’ she asked, her voice perfectly calm, but she turned her back on him, walking away.

  He lowered the sail, tidied everything away and went to face her wrath.

  She was waiting on a bench and he sat beside her. ‘I didn’t expect you until after breakfast.’

  ‘I found Hannah’s toothbrush.’

  ‘Bad timing.’

  ‘No.’ He saw her swallow and then she reached out and grabbed his hand. ‘I’ll be fine, just give me a minute.’

  ‘The rest of my life.’

  She leaned against him and he put his arm around her. ‘My red hair, your seafarer’s genes.’

  ‘Our little girl. Where is she, by the way?’

  ‘Gone to tell her grandpa how she’s going to be a sailor like her daddy.’

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  LUCY SIGHED. ‘You look stunning, Eve.’

  The mirror reflected the image of a bride. Still, solemn, her hand against the scalloped lace necklace that settled just below her collarbone, the rubies on the ring Kit had given her a deeper shade of red than her hair.

  ‘Mom said it’s as if Kit had a piece missing for the last few years,’ Laura said. ‘Now he’s found you and he’s complete.’

  Except they all knew he wasn’t.

  He had closed his phone half a dozen times when she’d walked into a room, as guilty as if he’d been texting with a secret lover and, in a way, he was.

  Finally, she’d called him on it.

  ‘You don’t have to hide it from me, Kit. It’s natural to want to know what’s happening with your team. When do the yacht trials begin?’

  ‘N
ext week.’ He’d looked back at the screen. ‘The weather is a concern.’

  ‘They won’t go out in bad weather, surely?’

  ‘We’re—They’re behind. The keel wasn’t performing as well as we’d hoped. I’d suggested adjustments to the design, but it hadn’t been tested.’

  ‘You should be there.’

  ‘I’m needed here.’

  There had been nothing she could say that wasn’t a cliché; she’d just rested a hand on his arm.

  ‘I don’t suppose cake tasting would take your mind off it?’

  He had covered his hand with her own, acknowledging her concern, but had said, ‘Could you and Hannah handle that? The new carpet is coming for her room tomorrow and there’s still stuff to finish up here. Unless you want to spend your wedding night in Nana’s room?’

  He’d been kidding—they would be spending the night at one of the resort guest cottages—but his eyebrow, lifted in a way that suggested all kinds of pleasure, hadn’t convinced.

  He was worried. Not about her or Hannah or his family, but about his yacht and his crew.

  * * *

  The wedding ceremony took place in a gauzy pergola sparkling with fairy lights. Hannah, Cara and Lacey led the way, sprinkling rose petals in her path.

  Hannah, until this moment the centre of attention, looked up at Kit, expecting him to pick her up, tell her how clever she was, how pretty she looked, but Laura and Lucy shepherded the girls into their seats and then it was just the two of them. Kit looking at Eve as she walked on her own towards him. Given away by no one. Giving herself with a whole heart and a clear head.

  He smiled as she reached him and, once she’d handed her bouquet to Lucy, took her hand, mouthing a silent Thank you. Not the usual greeting of a groom to his bride, but she knew his mind was elsewhere.

  The sunset ceremony was simple, their vows the old, traditional ones in which Christopher Harrison Merchant and Genevieve Bliss promised before witnesses to love, comfort and honour one another for as long as they both should live.

  Maybe they should have thought that through, written promises that avoided that dangerous four-letter word. Too late now, but it was debatable which of their hands was shaking the most as they exchanged rings.

  Kit, unusually clumsy, fumbled the moment when he slipped the plain gold band on her finger. Aware that it was badly done, he looked up and said, ‘This is scarier than a force nine gale...’ raising a laugh from their guests, and then lifted her hand to kiss it and there was an audible sigh.

  Eve slipped the second ring on his finger and then took his hand and was still holding it as the minister pronounced them man and wife and invited Kit to kiss his bride.

  He took her face in his hands and murmured something, but his words were lost in the mayhem of clapping as his lips touched hers.

  Later, after they had cut the cake, kissed and been kissed by all their family and friends, Kit took her hand.

  ‘Will you dance, Mrs Merchant?’

  She hadn’t thought about a first dance; the incredibly efficient woman who had planned the whole thing hadn’t mentioned it. As she hesitated, a guitarist began to pick out a familiar melody and, as Kit took her in his arms, the man began to sing.

  ‘How did you know that I love this song?’ she said, laying her head on his shoulder as, oblivious to those who had formed a circle around them, they stood, holding one another, barely moving.

  ‘I’ve been working to your playlist as I decorated Hannah’s room and the words were so perfect. The first time I saw you, kissed you, felt your heart beat...’ The music had finished and they were standing, looking at one another, but then Hannah raced over to them and Kit bent to pick her up.

  ‘Hello,’ he said. ‘Who is this little princess?’

  She giggled, then said, ‘Uncle Brad says that Mama has to throw her flowers away. Right now.’

  Kit looked at her and grinned. ‘How good is your aim?’

  ‘I will do my best.’

  With her bouquet safely caught by a blushing Lucy, Eve placed her tiara on Hannah’s head, told her to be good for Grandma, then kicked off her shoes, carrying them, her lace hem trailing in the sand as they walked along the beach to the guest cottage.

  The stars were thick and bright over the sea. ‘Sailors used to navigate by the stars,’ Eve said. ‘Can you do that?’

  ‘Second star on the right and straight on until morning.’

  ‘That’s the way to Neverland,’ she said, and shivered, as if a goose had walked over her grave.

  ‘Hey, kidding. You do know that we use GPS these days?’

  ‘But suppose it broke down? No radio, no satellite tracking device, far out in the ocean, out of sight of land. You would be back in the Dark Ages.’

  ‘Fifteenth-century sailors travelled the globe,’ he reminded her. ‘Drake, Vasco da Gama... And you might have heard of an Italian guy called Columbus?’

  ‘I’m being serious.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I do know how to use a sextant,’ he assured her. ‘I could bring us home using the sun and the stars...’ He stopped, looking south, for a moment lost to her but then the breeze whipped at her dress, bringing him back to her. ‘Why did you want to know?’

  ‘Just checking,’ she said, as they moved on.

  The veranda of the guest house was lit by candles in elegant glass jars. There was champagne in an ice bucket and the scent from a bank of creamy roses, mingled with the sea air.

  Kit picked up the glasses and champagne bottle, holding them in one hand. The other he kept for her, leading her along the candlelit path to the bedroom.

  ‘Did I tell you that you look beautiful, Eve?’

  ‘Um, let me think...’

  ‘You look so lovely in that dress that I can only think of one way in which you would look even more beautiful.’

  ‘And how is that?’

  ‘Turn around and I’ll show you.’ She turned. ‘Lift your hair...’

  She swept her hair up with one hand and he began to unfasten the hooks that held the lace together, kissing her nape and every exposed inch of her spine.

  Hooks done, he took his time lowering the zip, continuing his kissing game, unclipping her bra when it impeded his progress, until the dress slid with a gentle sigh to the floor.

  * * *

  Kit stirred. Eve was sleeping, her face in the pillow, her hair a wild red tangle of curls across the pillow. For a moment he watched her; in a while he would wake her but even as he thought about how he would do that an alarm sounded, not on his phone, but on hers.

  ‘You put in an alarm call?’ he asked, grinning.

  ‘I did and it’s time you were up and in the shower.’

  ‘If that’s an invitation—’

  ‘No. It’s a fact.’ She rolled out of bed, tugged on a robe and headed for the kitchen. ‘I’ll get the coffee on.’

  ‘Hey. Don’t I get to sleep in on my honeymoon?’

  ‘No, you get a helicopter out of here in just under half an hour. You have a plane to catch.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Lucy told me that the team director has been calling you repeatedly. That, despite the fact that you want more than anything to be with them, you’ve been saying no.’

  ‘She shouldn’t have done that. She knows I can’t go. The wedding, Hannah, Dad—’

  ‘The wedding is cake crumbs, Hannah has a whole new family, and Brad and I talked to your dad. He knows this is your life, Kit, and so do I. He was scared he’d die and you wouldn’t be here, but you came when you were needed and he knows now that you’ll come back, spend more time here.’

  ‘I’ll stay as long as he needs me.’

  ‘I really hope it was true when you said you didn’t want to sit behind a desk running a resort complex because he’s going to name Brad CEO today. Not acting. The whole deal. You
are free.’

  ‘Once you have a child, freedom becomes an irrelevance.’

  ‘I know that Hannah will bring you back like a bungee rope, but it’s not a chain, Kit. Live the life you have. It’s my wedding gift to you.’

  ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘You don’t have time for speeches. Travel clothes are in the wardrobe. Your bag is packed. Your flight is booked, so get in the shower while I fix your breakfast.’

  Ten minutes later his ride landed on the resort’s helicopter pad and as he appeared, hair still wet from the shower, Eve put a travel mug of coffee in his hand and tucked a pastry into his jacket pocket.

  ‘I’ll call you when I get there,’ he said, pausing for one last kiss before picking up the bag with his sailing clothes and the battered leather backpack that were waiting by the door. ‘Tell Hannah I love her.’

  Eve stood on the veranda, waiting for the helicopter to take off, watching until he was no more than a black spot in the sky heading towards the mainland, then she took a deep breath in and sat on the kitchen stool, clutching a mug of coffee.

  She wouldn’t cry. Tears never changed a thing.

  It was what it was.

  She was doing pretty well until her phone rang. She checked the caller and saw that it was her fellow conspirator.

  ‘Hi, Lucy.’

  ‘I saw the helicopter take off. Do you need company?’

  ‘I’m going to pick up Hannah later and take her to the beach. I know Brad will be super busy, so if you’d like to join us, you’re welcome.’

  ‘That would be fun, although I was wondering how you feel about sailing lessons.’

  ‘For me? Is that Kit’s idea?’

  ‘No, but it might help you deal with the fact that Hannah is daddy’s little girl and it will give you something other than a missing bridegroom to think about.’

  ‘I... Can you teach me how to use a sextant?’

  ‘Kit is the expert,’ she said, ‘but I can explain the basics.’

  * * *