‘Of course not.’ He stretched and winced slightly. ‘That reminds me, I’ve got a hospital appointment pending. I’d better check when it is.’ Since his discharge from hospital, Sam had to go for regular physiotherapy sessions, and these had now been transferred from the London hospital he had previously attended to a more local one. ‘Vanessa offered to run me there and back any time you were otherwise occupied, by the way.’ He grinned slightly shamefacedly at her. ‘I told her it could be quite awkward for you, now that you’ve got Carly at home from school. She’s bound to get bored hanging around the hospital waiting for me.’
It was unreasonable of her to feel this jealously and slight resentment against Sam, Sara told herself later as she prepared for bed. That it sprang from fear she already knew; she liked Vanessa and in other circumstances would have been pleased about the relationship developing between them, but now she felt betrayed and very much alone.
As always when she closed her eyes she conjured up Rick’s image, or at least she tried to do. Disturbingly, on this occasion his beloved features refused to form, and instead all she could see was Jonas’s arrogantly handsome face and mocking grey eyes.
She always looked forward to this part of the day, this secret communion with Rick when she allowed herself the pleasure of denying to herself that he was dead, but now it seemed that even that had been taken from her.
Cursing Jonas, she turned her face into her pillow and prayed for sleep.
* * *
‘Well, what sort of dog is it?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Sara told her niece as they walked hand in hand down the gravel drive that led to their neighbour’s house.
Following Vanessa’s instructions, she had driven along the main road, until she got to the impressive wrought-iron gates that marked the entrance to the house. They had been left open, the gravel drive curving away through massed rhododendron bushes and specimen trees set in immaculate lawns, and opening out at the front of the house. Sara had parked her car next to a pale green estate car which she guessed must belong to Vanessa.
From the front the house looked every bit as impressive as she had been told, although perhaps impressive wasn’t the right word, for it conveyed a cold hauteur the house did not possess. Rather it presented a warm, welcoming façade to the visitor, suggestive of a house that had known the happiness and warmth of many generations of busy family life.
The red brick was softened with age, ivy clinging to the walls. Elegantly proportioned white-painted sash windows looked out over the drive and grounds.
As she turned her head, Sara caught the glimmer of sunlight on water.
The door opened as she stood absorbing the scenery, and Vanessa came running down the steps to welcome them.
‘Right on time,’ she greeted them, pushing down the enthusiastic Old English sheepdog puppy who had jumped up at Sara. ‘Jonas’s dog,’ she told Sara with a smile. ‘Mum bought him for Jonas for his birthday to replace the old dog he lost last year.’
‘Where’s our dog?’ Carly asked Vanessa importantly, reaching down to pat the puppy’s curly head.
‘He’s in the kitchen at the moment. Why don’t you come in and say hello to him?’
Nodding eagerly, Carly let Vanessa take her hand and guide her up the steps.
‘I had planned for us to have tea first,’ Vanessa apologised to Sara as they headed straight for the kitchen, ‘but something tells me that Carly wouldn’t think that a good idea.’
As they walked through it, Sara noted the lovely proportions of the hallway, with its airy wrought-iron staircase and marble steps. Several portraits graced the walls, family ones, Sara suspected; her suspicions were confirmed when Vanessa commented, opening a thick, richly polished mahogany door, ‘The house has been in Jonas’s family for a long time, but gradually over the years the family has had to sell off more and more land, so all that’s left now is the house and its grounds. That’s why Jonas wanted to buy the paddock off Miss Betts. He could use it to expand the business. The cottage was once part of the estate, and it was sold to Miss Betts’s parents by Jonas’s great-grandfather.’
Vanessa stopped to let Carly and Sara precede her into the kitchen. A solid-looking Aga filled a brick alcove and the kitchen units had wooden doors, the wood looking heavy and old. A large refectory-style table filled the centre of the floor.
‘Unless we’re entertaining, we normally eat in here,’ said Vanessa. ‘Jonas needs a proper meal at lunchtime, but he never has time to sit down and eat properly, never mind getting changed, so we tend to eat here in the kitchen. Fortunately he’s having a bit of a lull at the moment. Obviously our season runs ahead of the retailers, and we should have a pretty quiet time from now until late summer when we have to start making up the orders for autumn planting. Mind you, with so much container-grown stuff these days, Jonas is always kept busy. It’s a very competitive and demanding business, and if we can’t satisfy a customer’s requirements, they’ll pretty soon go somewhere else.
‘Jonas should be in in about an hour,’ she added. ‘He normally has something to eat about five, and then goes out again to do some more work. We have to take advantage of the light evenings while we can. I’ll get him to show you round if you like. Sam said you were very keen to get to grips with the garden at the cottage.’
Fortunately, before Sara was forced to reply, Carly spotted the golden retriever basking in front of the Aga.
‘Is that our dog?’ she asked Vanessa eagerly.
‘Yes, that’s Simon,’ confirmed Vanessa, reaching up to push the tumbled curls off Carly’s excited face. If Carly had to have a stepmother she’d be hard put to find one who could love her more then Vanessa, Sara reflected, watching the emotion play over the other woman’s face.
‘She’s so lovely,’ Vanessa said huskily as Carly ran off and crouched down beside the dog, patting the golden head and crooning nonsense in the fluffy ear. ‘The cats are in the conservatory,’ she added. ‘We have a small goldfish pond in there, and they’re living under the illusion that one day they’re going to catch their own tea.’
Watching her ten minutes later as she took a glass of orange juice to Carly, Sara was again struck by the intensity of emotion the little girl seemed to arouse in Vanessa.
‘You obviously love children very much,’ she commented when Vanessa came back to pour their tea.
The blue eyes became shadowed, her mouth trembling slightly. ‘Yes…I do,’ she agreed huskily. She seemed as though she was about to burst into tears, and Sara felt slightly uncomfortable. Had she said something to upset Vanessa? She had already realised how
sensitive the other woman was, and she hated to think she had hurt her, however inadvertently.