Читать книгу Her Boss and Protector - Joanna Neil - Страница 6

CHAPTER ONE

‘THIS is it, children. We’re here.’ Jade parked the car alongside the pavement and then went around to the passenger side to open the door and let the children out. ‘Will you help me with some of the bags? Connor, perhaps you could bring in the toys and, Rebeccah, maybe you could manage the schoolbags?’

‘Is this your house?’ Four-year-old Connor stepped out of the car and looked the place over. He was frowning, his lip jutting a fraction, as though he was trying to decide what to make of it.

‘Yes, it is, for the next few months, at least.’ Jade had only just moved in over the last few days, and she was still getting used to it herself. She glanced at the ivy-covered cottage and tried to see it through his eyes. The afternoon sun was warm and bright, its rays highlighting the yellow Cotswold stone where it peeped through the covering of ivy.

‘I know it might seem a bit strange to begin with, but this is going to be your home for a while. Try to remember the name of the street and the house number…Sweetbriar Cottage, Number three, Meadow Lane.’ It shouldn’t be too difficult for them to do that—in fact, they were fairly isolated out here, with only one or two buildings spread out along the country road.

Connor dutifully muttered the words to himself and she gave a wry hint of a smile. That had been her mother’s mantra when she had been a little girl—always remember where you live, in case you get lost and have to ask a policeman for help.

She didn’t share her thoughts with the children, though. They had been through enough already this afternoon, and she wasn’t going to be the one to pile any more uncertainties on their heads.

A brief flicker of pain shot through her as the worries came flooding back. Things had to work out—she couldn’t bear it if anything more went wrong. As to how she was going to manage these next few weeks, taking on the care of two young children—it was a daunting task. She pulled in a deep breath. She would make it work. She had to.

‘It’s not very big, is it?’ Rebeccah said doubtfully, and Jade looked down at her. At five years old, she was a pretty little girl, with brown hair that fell in a sleek line to her shoulders and grey eyes that reflected candour and the wide-eyed innocence of youth. She looked like a smaller version of her mother.

‘No, but it’s bigger than it looks inside, and at least you’ll be able to have a bedroom each.’

‘Who lives there?’ Connor pointed towards the house next door. He, too, had his mother’s grey eyes, but his hair was a little fairer, as though it had been kissed by the sun. ‘His house is ’normous…like a mansion. I bet he’s rich as rich, richer than anyone.’

Busy unloading the boot of the car, Jade stopped to look across at the neighbouring house. Connor was right. The house was impressive, built of honey-coloured Cotswold stone, a sprawling building, with deep gabled roofs clad with stone tiles, and dormer windows, with more windows nestling under the eaves. An overhanging roof covered the entrance porch. Altogether it was a pleasing house, and the front garden complemented it perfectly. It was well stocked, with flowering trees and shrubs that were looking a little overgrown now, and she wondered how long they had been left untended.

‘I don’t know about that,’ Jade said. ‘The man that lives there is away at the moment, so the house is empty.’

‘How do you know that?’ Connor was frowning again, his head tipped back to look up at her.

‘The agent told me…that’s the man who leased me this house,’ she added in explanation. He hadn’t said a lot about the man next door, just that she might not see a great deal of him because he sometimes worked unsociable hours, much like herself. ‘I needed somewhere to live that was close to where I’m going to be working, and he found me this little cottage.’ She collected the bags and cases together and locked the boot. ‘Shall we take all these things into the house?’ She started to lead the way up the path, and began to open the front door.

‘I think it’s haunted,’ Connor said in awed tones, looking back at the house next door. ‘I seed a ghost up at the window. It was staring at us.’ His eyes were growing larger by the minute, and his sister took advantage of his apprehension, starting to make wailing noises and bending her arms up in front of him like an apparition, backing him into a corner. Connor started to squeal.

‘It wasn’t a ghost. It must have been the sunlight playing tricks on you,’ Jade said.

Rebeccah let her arms fall back by her sides and studied Jade. ‘You’re going to work at the hospital, aren’t you? Is that where they took my mummy?’

‘That’s right.’ Jade made a face as a ripple of unease ran through her. She didn’t want to be reminded of Rebeccah’s mother lying injured in a hospital bed. It was altogether too heartrending. As to her work, she wasn’t ready for that either. Her new post, as senior house officer in A and E, was due to start the next day, and she had been feeling nervous about it from the first. She wasn’t experienced in emergency work, and it was going to be a challenge. Now, with everything that had happened, it was just one more problem to add to everything else that she had to contend with.

‘Is Nanna there as well?’ Connor looked troubled.

Jade nodded and ushered the children into the cottage and along the hallway towards the kitchen. She wasn’t sure how to tackle this situation, and the truth was she was feeling completely out of her depth. Perhaps it was best just to let the children ask questions, and to answer them as simply as she was able.

‘Can we go and see Mummy?’ Rebeccah asked. ‘And Nanna? Will we be able to go and see them?’

Jade put their belongings on the worktop in the kitchen and then turned to face the children. ‘I hope so…when they’re feeling a little bit better perhaps. The doctors and nurses are looking after your mummy and nanna as best they can. We just have to wait a little while until they start to get well again.’

She said it confidently enough, but inside she felt sick with worry. When she had last seen Rebeccah’s mother, the medical team had been battling to save her life. They had been giving her intravenous fluids to keep her from going into shock, and they had been calling for the assistance of a surgeon. As to her own mother, they were still trying to find out whether she was suffering from any internal bleeding. It seemed as though the world had been turned upside down in a matter of minutes, and now Jade was left struggling to cope with the aftermath.

She went over to the fridge and brought out a bottle of milk. ‘Do you want milk and biscuits? They might keep you going until I get things sorted out for tea.’

Connor nodded and came over to the table. ‘Why can’t Daddy come and look after us?’ he said, climbing up onto a chair. ‘Then we could stay at our house.’

‘He’s away, Connor—he’s working on the oilrig out at sea. Don’t you remember?’ She frowned. ‘It won’t be so bad staying here with me, will it?’

‘No…but I haven’t got all my toys. I want my fire engine.’

‘It’s his favourite toy,’ Rebeccah said knowledgeably. ‘He even takes it to bed with him.’ She turned to her brother and said with a sneer, ‘He isn’t our dad, anyway. Not our real dad…and he’s hardly ever at home.’

‘So? I don’t care.’ Connor was scowling, and Rebeccah glared at him in return. Jade wondered whether she ought to intervene.

‘I think I picked up your fire engine and put it in one of the bags,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you two go outside and play in the garden for a while?’ She sensed that they were unsettled after what had happened, and were fizzing inside like a volcano that was about to erupt. Maybe they needed to let off some steam. With them off her hands for a while, perhaps she could take the time to phone her half-brother and let him know what had happened.

The children didn’t need a second bidding. They wolfed down the milk and biscuits and then they were off like a shot through the French doors and out into the wilderness that passed for a garden. Jade watched them go. Absently, she noticed that the grass needed cutting and there were weeds that needed to be pulled, but for the time being other things had to take priority.

She went over to the phone and dialled her brother’s number, aware of a hollow feeling in her stomach as she waited for the call to be put through. She could see the children through the glass doors, and she frowned when Connor came back into the kitchen and began to rummage through the bags on the worktop. Belongings were scattered far and wide until he found what he was looking for.

He looked at her in triumph. ‘Got my fire engine,’ he said, and ran outside once more.

Sounds of squabbling came from the garden, but just then her brother’s boss answered the phone and she tried to ignore what was going on outside for a while. ‘I need to talk to Ben,’ she told him. ‘Is he able to come to the phone? Something’s happened that he needs to know about.’

‘He was diving earlier today, checking the pipelines,’ the boss said. ‘Right now he’s undergoing decompression—is there anything I can do for you?’

‘There’s been an accident,’ she told him, ‘and his wife and our mother are in hospital. I was hoping that he would be able to come home.’

‘I’m so sorry. Of course I’ll let him know. How are they? Is it bad?’

Jade was watching the children as she spoke, and she saw that Connor had started to climb onto the shed roof, with Rebeccah close on his heels. Her stomach knotted. It was a lean-to shed, positioned up against the fence that separated their property from the one next door. She guessed that they were trying to get a better look at the tree in the next garden. Its branches overhung the shed a little, and it was probably a big temptation to them. The children looked safe enough for the moment, but she would have to go and get them down from there.

She said, ‘I don’t know all the details yet. They’re still doing tests at the hospital.’ She pulled in a shaky breath. ‘They were out on a shopping trip, and as they were crossing the road a car jumped the lights and hit them. My brother’s wife has a suspected pelvic fracture and head injury, and our mother is being treated for a shoulder fracture and abdominal trauma. We don’t know the full extent of their injuries yet.’

‘I’m dreadfully sorry,’ he said. ‘I’ll certainly get the message to Ben, and we’ll make sure that he’ll get back to you as soon as we can manage it. It might take some time—he’ll be in the decompression chamber for another day or so, and then we have to wait until conditions are right to fly him home. The weather isn’t always in our favour out here, but we’ll send him back to you as soon as is humanly possible.’

‘Thank you.’ She cut the call, and sat for a moment staring bleakly into space. She had desperately wanted to talk to Ben. He was her one point of contact, and now that had been denied her she felt devastated. It was as though she was totally alone in the world, and memories poured in, washing over her like a tidal wave…recollections of a bleak childhood spent waiting for a father who never came.

Shouts from the garden drew her back to the present. There was a cracking sound as a tree branch broke, but she could see that the children were safe. Hurrying out through the French doors, she went over to the shed to see what the fuss was about. ‘Come down from there,’ she said.

‘I seed the ghost,’ Connor shrieked. ‘He’s coming to get us.’

Rebeccah was pale. ‘I heard him,’ she said in a trembling voice. ‘He’s got a big deep voice, and he said he wants to talk to us.’

Jade frowned as she helped the children down. She had no idea what had upset them, but it was clear that they were both shaken. She looked around but there was no sign of anyone but the three of them. ‘There aren’t any ghosts,’ she said.

‘Is, too,’ Connor insisted. ‘We wasn’t being naughty. We was just trying to look at the tree.’

Jade turned her attention to Rebeccah, and Connor disappeared round the side of the shed. She thought that maybe he was trying to hide, but then she heard him scrabbling about. As she went to investigate what he was up to, a voice caught her unawares.

‘Could I speak to you for a moment?’

Jade turned to see where the sound was coming from, putting a hand up to her temple, brushing back her shoulder-length golden curls and shielding her eyes from the sun. The children were right. It was a deep, male voice, and she was pretty sure that it didn’t belong to any spectre.

The children weren’t hanging around to find out who it was, but took to their heels and fled into the house. Jade glanced after them. Connor was carrying something, but she couldn’t make out what it was, and at the moment she was more interested in finding out who the voice belonged to.

‘I’m over here, by the gate,’ the man said, and she turned to where the large wrought-iron side gate separated the back garden from the front of the house.

The sight of the man standing there gave her something of a jolt. He was tall, over six feet, with broad shoulders and lean hips, and he was dressed in a dark grey suit that screamed of expensive tailoring. He was also incredibly good-looking, with night-black hair and startlingly blue eyes.

Her heart had begun to thump discordantly but she wasn’t at all sure why he was having this effect on her. It was probably more to do with the shock of seeing him standing there than with anything else.

‘What do you want?’ she asked, dry-mouthed. ‘You’ve just given the children the fright of their lives. It’s a wonder they didn’t fall off the roof.’

‘That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,’ he said. ‘I really don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be letting them loose like that. They’re very young. Anything could have happened. They might have hurt themselves.’

‘I realise that. I was watching them.’

He raised a dark brow. ‘Were you? I don’t think you were making a very good job of it. They shouldn’t have been up there in the first place, but from what I could see they were out here on their own for several minutes before you decided to do anything about it.’

‘Yes, well—at least they didn’t come to any harm, and there’s no damage done in the end, so I think it probably best if we just forget about it for now. Thank you for your concern, but I’ll handle things from here on.’ She used a dismissive tone and hoped that would be the end of it, but he wasn’t about to be fobbed off.

‘I’d like to come round and talk to you,’ he said.

She shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’ At that moment she was thankful that there was a sturdy padlock on the gate. ‘I’ve no idea who you are, and I’m certainly not inviting you around here after you’ve just scared the living daylights out of the children.’

He gave a faint grimace. ‘I didn’t mean to do that. They took fright as soon as they saw me.’

‘I’m not surprised. You’re not supposed to be there. The owner of the house is away, and for all I know you could be a burglar.’ She had to admit that she had never seen a burglar dressed in a suit before now, but anything was possible.

‘I am the owner,’ he said. ‘I’ve been away on a course, but I arrived back just a short time ago.’

‘Anyone could say that,’ Jade said. ‘The agent assured me that the owner would be away for another fortnight at least.’

‘There was a change of plan.’ He studied her. ‘Perhaps it would help if you take a look at my driving licence. Would that satisfy you as to my identity?’ There was a thread of sarcasm in his voice, and he probably expected her to refuse the offer, but Jade wasn’t giving in to intimidation of any sort.

‘It might,’ she said.

He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a thin wallet, handing it to her through the wrought-iron bars of the gate. She read the name on his licence—Callum Beresford—and winced. It was the name the agent had mentioned to her. She handed the wallet back to him.

‘I had to make sure,’ she said. ‘I hope you understand my concerns.’

‘I do.’ His mouth made an odd shape, his expression halfway between cynicism and a grimace. ‘Perhaps I should even be grateful for your vigilance.’ He frowned. ‘I’ll go around to the front of the house, shall I? I really think we should talk some more.’

Jade guessed that it would be less than neighbourly to refuse his request. After all, he had at least been concerned for the children’s welfare. She hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. ‘All right, give me a minute, and I’ll let you in.’

She started to walk back to the house. She wasn’t looking forward to prolonging the conversation with him, and she wasn’t at all sure what awaited her as far as the children were concerned. Given everything that had gone on today, they were totally wound up and she was dreading to discover what they might be getting up to next.

Going into the kitchen, she saw that they were bent over something on the floor. Connor was busily pouring milk into a saucer, spilling most of it in the process, and she frowned, wondering what was going on.

‘We found a kitten in the garden,’ he said, looking up at her. ‘He’s hungry. We’re going to give him some milk.’

Jade glanced around and caught sight of a pathetic-looking little black kitten that was staring at them with large eyes and trying unsuccessfully to blend in with the kitchen units. She gave herself a mental shake, and didn’t even think of making an issue of it. By now, she was just thankful that they were both over their fright and she was busy trying to work out how she was going to get along with her new neighbour. They hadn’t had the best of beginnings.

She opened the front door to Callum Beresford and stood back to let him into the hallway. He made an imposing figure on her doorstep and she was more than a touch wary of him. His blue eyes studied her assessingly and seemed to miss nothing.

‘We’re in the kitchen,’ she murmured, waving him through. ‘You’ll have to excuse the mess. We’ve not long arrived home.’

He walked ahead of her as she indicated, and stopped at the doorway into the room, looking in on the scene of devastation in there. Standing beside him, Jade’s heart sank. It was worse than she remembered. There were toys strewn all along the worktops where Connor had abandoned them, and the rest of the bags were where she had left them when they had first come in. Added to that, there were puddles of milk all over the floor, though the kitten was doing his very best to lick them up.

Callum’s features were impassive. She had absolutely no idea what he was thinking. He probably had her down as the worst housekeeper in the Cotswolds. The children stared up at him, open-mouthed. Connor was the first to recover, and looked up at him, his eyes dark with suspicion. ‘Who are you?’ he said.

‘I’m the man who lives next door,’ Callum answered.

‘In the big house?’ Rebeccah asked.

‘That’s right.’

‘No one lives there,’ Connor said doubtfully, still giving him that mistrustful look. ‘Is you a ghost?’

‘I don’t think so. At least, I wasn’t the last time I looked in the mirror,’ Callum answered, straight-faced. Seeing the children’s worried expressions, he quickly added, ‘No, I’m not. I’ve been away from home for a while, but now I’ve come back.’

Connor was clearly still unconvinced, and Jade said, ‘This is the man who was trying to talk to you in the garden. He’s not cross with you, and there’s no need for you to be frightened.’ She hoped that was true. She glanced at her neighbour, her expression willing him to agree with her.

‘That’s right,’ he murmured, but when he looked back at her niece and nephew his expression was serious, and Jade began to wonder whether he had ever had much contact with children. These two were a handful, to be sure, but his manner with them was verging on cool. ‘I do want a word with you, though,’ he said. ‘I think you have something of mine, don’t you? I would like to have it back.’

Jade stared at him. ‘I don’t understand. I didn’t see them take anything.’

His gaze flicked over her, skimming her jeans-clad figure and taking in the snug fit of her cotton top. ‘Perhaps that’s because you weren’t taking too much notice of what they were getting up to.’ He kept his voice low, but his tone was curt, condemning, and her mouth quivered slightly at the unfair criticism.

He turned back to the children. ‘When you leaned over to look at the tree, I think one of the branches broke off, didn’t it? Did you pick up the little birdhouse and feeder that was attached to the branch? It’s important to me. It belonged to someone who was in my family, and I wouldn’t like to lose it.’

Connor gave him a sombre look, but said nothing, and Jade guessed that he was too overwhelmed by the presence of this tall stranger to admit to anything. Rebeccah, wanting to do the right thing, spoke up for both of them. ‘We didn’t mean to take it. We just wanted to look at it.’

‘Do you still have it? It belonged to my grandparents, and it’s very precious to me. I would like to have it back.’

Jade decided that it was time to take control of the situation. ‘I’m sorry about this,’ she told him. ‘I had no idea that this happened, but I’m sure they meant no harm. They’re a little overexcited today.’

‘Yes,’ he said in a dour tone, ‘I gathered that.’

She ignored the implied censure. Glancing at Connor, she said, ‘Do you know where the birdhouse is?’

He nodded solemnly.

‘Then go and fetch it for me, please.’

He did as he was told, but hesitated before handing over the bird box. He held onto the branch from the tree, looking up at Jade. ‘Can I keep the stick?’ he said. ‘It’s a well good whacker.’

Stifling a smile, she said, ‘That’s up to Mr Beresford, I think.’ She sent her new neighbour a quick glance. ‘What do you think?’

He looked at the boy. ‘I imagine that will be all right,’ he said, ‘as long as you promise that you won’t go breaking anything with it. I don’t want to look out from my house and find that you’ve smashed a window or broken down the plants in the garden.’

‘It’s not up to you,’ Connor said. ‘We live here. It’s not your garden.’

Callum made a wry face. ‘Actually, it is, in a way. I’m your landlord. Do you know what that means?’

Connor shook his head, giving him an uncertain look.

‘It means that the house belongs to me, but I’m letting you live in it for a while. I want you to enjoy staying here, but there’s to be no more climbing on the shed. It’s dangerous, and you could hurt yourself. Do we understand each other?’

Connor nodded.

‘Good. Then perhaps we can be friends.’

Connor clearly wasn’t so sure about that. It was something he would have to think about. Giving the stranger a look from under his lashes, he sidled away, putting the stick in a safe place in a gap between the side of the fridge and the kitchen wall. He probably thought Callum wouldn’t bother trying to remove it from there.

Going over to the kitten, Connor coaxed it up into his arms. Then he stood and watched the man from a corner of the room, silently weighing him up, until Rebeccah whispered to him and led him outside.

Jade studied her new neighbour. ‘I didn’t realise that you owned both properties,’ she said. ‘I hope that’s not going to be a problem while I’m living here. I prefer to deal with the children in my own way, and if you have any issues with them I would rather you spoke to me about them than to them.’

He nodded. ‘That’s fair enough. At least now we both know where we stand.’ He picked up the birdhouse and feeder. ‘I’m glad that we’ve had the chance to talk,’ he said, ‘but I should go now. I have a lot of things to be getting on with.’

She nodded and started to move towards the hallway.

‘You don’t need to trouble yourself,’ he said. ‘I’ll see myself out.’ He glanced towards the garden. ‘I expect you’ll want to go and keep an eye on the children.’

‘They’ll be fine,’ she murmured. She went to the front door. Opening it, she said, ‘I’m sorry that we had such a bad start, but I’m sure you won’t have any cause for complaint from now on.’ She fervently hoped that was true. The last thing she needed was to be embroiled in a battle with her landlord.

He gave a brief smile. ‘I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.’

As soon as he had gone, she went back to the kitchen. The children were playing with the kitten on the lawn, and she watched them, thinking about her mother and her sister-in-law, and feeling sad inside for everything that had happened. She was all that the children had for the moment, and she would do all in her power to see that they were safe and happy.

Picking up the phone, she called the hospital and asked for news. The encounter with Callum Beresford had unsettled her, but she had to let it go. She had enough problems on her plate, without worrying about her dealings with her aloof, unsociable neighbour. She would try to put him out of her thoughts, and with any luck they would be able to avoid running into each other for the foreseeable future.