Joanna Neil - Emergency at the Royal

‘Haven’t I? I feel as though I’m a lot older and wiser.’

He smiled. ‘Maybe, but you still look the same. Your hair is still glorious and untamed and glowing like fire. I always thought there was such a contrast between that fiery auburn and the calmness of your eyes. They’re such a soft, peaceful green.’

‘They don’t necessarily reflect how I feel.’ She watched the ambulance pull away and hoped that the people inside would be all right. There was nothing more that she could do for them.

‘I should go now,’ she said. His words had unsettled her, made her think of things that could not be. He was just passing through, and even if that hadn’t been the case she couldn’t have stayed with him and chatted as though all was well. Things would always be fraught between them. ‘Time’s getting on and there are some things I need to do.’

‘Is your car nearby?’

She nodded, and he said, ‘I’ll walk with you to it.’

‘If you like.’ She was feeling a little shaky after the events of the afternoon, and for all her conflicting emotions it wouldn’t do any harm to have him accompany her for a bit longer, would it? She turned and began to head towards the parking bay.

‘Do you still live with your family in the old farmhouse?’ he asked.

She shook her head. His question troubled her. Didn’t he know that they had been forced to sell the house? ‘I decided that I needed a place of my own. The farm cottage came up for sale a couple of years ago, and it seemed just about the right size for me, so I snapped it up when I had the chance.’

‘The one near to your family home?’

She nodded. ‘That’s right. It isn’t the family home any longer, though. My parents moved away and bought a smaller place near the sea.’

He frowned. ‘I hadn’t realised that. I thought the house had been in your family for some generations. It was a beautiful old place and they loved it, didn’t they? I didn’t think they would ever want to move.’

‘They decided to go for something more manageable.’ It hurt to remember that the family home had been sold. No one had wanted to see it go, and even though it had been put on the market again recently by its new owners, there was no chance that they would be able to buy it back. It would cost far more than they could afford.

There wasn’t any point in telling Drew what had really happened, that they had been left with no choice but to sell. It would only serve to rake up old wounds and it was highly unlikely that she would be seeing see him again after today.

‘How is your father these days?’ he said. ‘I was worried about him. His health was never good, was it? And I know he took a turn for the worse just before I left.’

Her mouth made a bitter line. ‘What did you expect? As you said, he was ill to begin with and what happened came as a complete shock to him. He built his business up from nothing, and then your father came along and took it from him and everything he’d worked for was destroyed. It was bound to make him ill.’

‘I don’t think that’s fair. It wasn’t my father’s fault. By the time he came along your father had already opened his company up to shareholders. They were the ones who made the decision to sell out.’

‘It was your father’s board of directors that voted him out after the new company took over. My dad hadn’t been prepared for that to happen. It was a hos tile take-over from start to finish. He founded the business and in the end he was left with nothing. Everything he’d worked for his whole life was taken from him.’

‘He was well compensated. He didn’t walk away with empty hands.’

She glared at him, her green eyes flashing contempt. ‘Do you think money is all that matters? His health was so bad afterwards that for a long time he couldn’t work. He was a broken man, and it took him a long time to recover, and when he was well enough he had to start again from nothing.’

Drew stopped walking and reached for her, grasping her shoulders in a gentle but firm embrace. He made her look at him and she was so taken aback that she forgot to struggle, and the warmth of his palms seeped through her thin cotton top and heated her flesh and took her breath away.

‘Katie, I’m sure my father didn’t mean for any of that to happen. He acted in the best interests of his company, as any businessman would. He didn’t intend to hurt anyone.’

‘Didn’t he? My father wasn’t the only one to suffer, was he? The workers were laid off, too. They weren’t prepared for the new owners to simply asset-strip and then move on.’

She shrugged off his hands and moved towards her car. Drew could still see nothing wrong in what happened. All those years ago, people had said to her that he was like his father, ruthless and ambitious, but she hadn’t wanted to believe them. Was it true after all? Why couldn’t he see the way her father had been hurt?

He watched her unlock her car door. ‘Katie,’ he said quietly, ‘all of this happened a long time ago, and it was a dispute between our parents, not the two of us. There’s no reason why you and I can’t still be friends, is there?’

‘I have to be loyal to my family,’ she said. ‘I’m surprised that you can’t see that.’

‘Of course I see it. It doesn’t stop me from believing that we can at least try to put all the bad feelings behind us.’

‘I don’t think my family see it that way. Even after all this time they’re still suffering the effects. For us, it doesn’t stop.’

‘I’m sorry. I know it must be difficult for you, but I thought that as we had met up again we could at least spend some time together. I’ll be in the area for a day or two and I wondered if we might have dinner together, or maybe just a coffee.’

‘I don’t think that’s going to be possible. You have your meeting to go to, and I have to work over the next few days.’ She sent him a quick, troubled glance. ‘I am glad that we met up again, though,’ she said in a mollified tone, ‘and I really appreciate all your help this afternoon. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there.’

He made a wry smile. ‘I’m sure you would have managed very well.’

She pulled open her car door and he rested his hand on the rim of it. ‘Are you sure that I can’t persuade you to change your mind?’

‘I’m sure. I can’t,’ she said, and she was conscious of a tremor in her voice. She hoped he hadn’t noticed it, too. ‘I must go. I have to get to the pharmacy before it closes. I promised that I would collect my father’s prescription since I’m in town.’

‘All right. I’ll let you go.’ He made a rueful smile. ‘Perhaps we’ll meet up again soon.’

‘Perhaps,’ she said, but she knew that they wouldn’t. She put her key in the ignition, and as soon as he had released the door she pulled it shut and started the engine. As she drove away, she glanced in her rear-view mirror and saw that he was still standing there, watching her go.

She completed her errands and then drove to her parents’ home. Letting herself in through the kitchen door, she saw that her brother was there.

‘Katie...you’re here at last. Thank heaven for that. I was beginning to worry.’

Katie looked at her brother and frowned. She hadn’t expected to be pounced on the moment she walked into the room.

‘Why? What’s wrong? I’m not all that late.’ She slipped her jacket over the back of a chair and laid her handbag down on the pine table. ‘I’ve been to the pharmacy for Dad’s medication. Mum asked me to collect it on my way home.’

Luke looked faintly dishevelled, his black hair awry, as though he had been running his fingers through it, and his grey eyes were troubled. She asked quietly, ‘Is something wrong with Dad?’