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  They watched as he was wheeled away to Theatre, and James took off his protective gloves and tossed them into the bin. ‘You did well back there,’ he said, glancing at Ellie. ‘It’s good to see that you have your confidence back.’

  ‘I suppose that’s true,’ she said with a small frown. ‘I didn’t even think about what I was doing. It was instinctive. And yet...’

  ‘And yet?’

  She pulled a face. ‘Earlier today I had some news that knocked me back a bit. Olivia told me she’d had a call from Mel this morning. She wants to come in and see me.’ Normally, that would have been enough to put her off her stroke, but perhaps with James returning to work she’d had other things to think about.

  ‘Did she say why?’

  ‘No. But I agreed to the meeting.’ She looked at her watch. ‘She’ll be here soon, in about fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Do you want me to be there with you?’

  She smiled with relief. ‘Would you? I’m really not looking forward to seeing her. What if she was the one who went to the tabloids with the stories about me? She knew me well enough back then after all, and she does have a grudge against me.’

  ‘We’ll try to find out.’ He looked at her, taking in the green scrubs and soft plastic overshoes she was wearing. ‘Maybe we should get ready to meet her?’

  She nodded. She wasn’t exactly sure of the reason, but her spirits had lifted as soon as he’d offered to stay with her. He’d seemed like a stranger to her at first today but now he was back, the man she loved more than any other, and no matter how much her head warned her to be cautious, it was being firmly overruled by her heart.

  ‘We’ll see her in my office,’ James said, when they met up again, dressed in normal, everyday clothes.

  She nodded and went with him, and almost as soon as they had entered the room, Mel knocked on the door.

  ‘Won’t you take a seat?’ James invited her with a reassuring smile. ‘I’ve just made coffee, so perhaps we should get comfortable and then you can tell us what the problem is?’

  ‘It’s not a problem,’ Mel said. ‘It’s more about a decision I’ve made.’ She was dressed in a businesslike fashion, as before, but her hair was styled more freely this time, with a slight wave to soften her appearance. She wore a dress with a matching three-quarter-length jacket.

  She sipped the coffee James gave her and seemed to be taking a moment to gather her thoughts.

  ‘A decision?’ Ellie prompted her.

  Mel took a deep breath. ‘I was very upset when my aunt died. I was angry and frustrated, because everything happened so quickly. One day she was talking to me, making plans to come with me on a weekend trip to the seaside, and within a few more days she had died. I couldn’t take it in. She was like a mother to me, and I loved her.’

  She reached for her coffee with a trembling hand and hesitated, as though she couldn’t go on.

  ‘Take your time,’ James said. ‘We know this is difficult for you.’

  She nodded. ‘I’ve been to see a lawyer,’ she said at last.

  Ellie’s heart lurched, and a wave of nausea rose in her as her stomach clenched involuntarily. She could see her career, everything she’d worked for, beginning to dissolve. Sitting across the table from her, James’s gaze caught hers. He knew exactly what she was going through.

  ‘He looked into the hospital records,’ Mel went on. ‘He talked to an expert about my aunt’s illness, and found out that there was an operation that could have been done, where a kind of window is made in the tissue around the heart to remove the infected matter.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Ellie told her. ‘It’s usually done if the illness is chronic and drainage hasn’t been successful. In your aunt’s case, the infection was overwhelming and didn’t respond to the antibiotics, but it was the fact that her heart was weak that was the biggest problem. Her heart stopped. She went into cardiac arrest, and I did everything I could for her, but unfortunately she wasn’t able to respond to the treatment. I’m sorry.’

  ‘I know.’ Mel grimaced. ‘I understand now. I think perhaps I didn’t want to see it before. I was devastated when my aunt passed away and I wanted someone to blame.’ She looked at Ellie. ‘I’m sorry I put you through all that. I know it wasn’t your fault.’

  Ellie exhaled slowly. ‘Thank you for coming to tell me.’

  ‘I saw the stories that were published about you,’ Mel said. She shook her head. ‘I thought it was really unfair. I remembered some of those times, the parties, the rowdiness. We were together a lot of the time, and you were never bad. You always wanted to help people, even though you were upset about what was going on at home. I hope your mother’s account has helped to put things right.’

  ‘You saw the article?’

  Mel nodded. ‘At least she realised that she was partly to blame. Perhaps, at the time, she didn’t understand what pain she was causing, but the truth seems to have come home to her now.’

  ‘I think we’ve both gone some way to freeing ourselves from the past. She helped a lot by explaining what had gone on, and it must have taken a lot of courage for her to do that. It made me feel better about her.’ She smiled. ‘We met up and talked and brought things out into the open, so at least we have some sort of understanding of one another now.’

  They talked for a while longer, and then Ellie went with her to the door. ‘Goodbye, Mel,’ she said. ‘Thanks again for coming to see me.’

  She went back into the office and closed the door, resting her spine against it for a moment as she absorbed everything that had happened. She hadn’t expected Mel to look at things from another angle, and it was a huge relief to know that she had withdrawn the complaint.

  As to her mother, it had been good to see her again and have the chance to talk things through.

  ‘I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,’ her mother had said. ‘I wanted to see you and try to put things right, but I wasn’t sure how you would feel about seeing me.’

  ‘I’m glad we’ve found each other again,’ Ellie had told her. ‘I feel as though a huge burden has been lifted from me. I know it took a lot for you to open up to the press like that, and I realise, now, that you had been ill for a long time. We were wrong to blame you.’

  ‘Thank you for that.’ Her mother had smiled. ‘I didn’t want to let you go. You and Noah were so young, but I didn’t have the strength to go on. I’m better now, though, and I hope we can make up for everything that’s happened.’

  ‘We can. We will. We’ll start afresh from here, Mum.’

  She came out of her reverie and became aware that James was watching her.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, and she nodded.

  ‘I’m fine. Everything’s good.’

  ‘I’m glad.’ His gaze was thoughtful. ‘But we are left with a small puzzle to solve. If Mel didn’t go to the press and start all the hoo-hah,’ he said quietly, ‘who did?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ She frowned. She was beginning to have a shrewd idea who might have been behind it, but she was going to keep that to herself for now. There was only one person who might have reason to sully her reputation after all, but James was close to Sophie and she wasn’t going to accuse anyone without proof.

  He came over to her. ‘Anyway, I’m glad all that business is over. You can get on with your life now without any worries.’

  ‘Yes. It’s a huge relief. Thanks for standing by me.’

  ‘I told you once before, I’ll always be there for you, Ellie.’ He looked at her steadily. ‘You can rely on me.’

  If only she could believe that. But he was going to be with Sophie, wasn’t he?

  ‘That’s a comforting thought,’ she said, moving away from the door, ‘but you didn’t seem too thrilled to be with me earlier. You were very tense, but perhaps there were things on your mind?’


  His dark brows drew together. ‘Maybe I was a bit preoccupied. The last time I saw you, you walked out on me. I’d been hoping you might stay over at the house. I wanted to be with you. But you left, and you didn’t call the next day. I couldn’t think why you would suddenly pull back from me, except you might have decided it was a bad idea to be involved with me.’

  ‘No.’ She sent him a quick, insistent glance. ‘It was nothing like that. Sophie told me that you and she were getting together, that you were going to be married.’

  ‘What?’ It was an explosive sound. ‘Good grief, how did she manage to come up with that idea?’

  Ellie was confused. ‘But you’ve been together for a long time—your father told me she was right for you, and he gave me the impression you would be marrying her.’

  ‘My father had lots of ideas about how things should go, but we didn’t always agree. And I certainly wouldn’t do something simply because it was what he wanted. I loved him and respected him, but we’re different people and I have my own way of going about things.’ He frowned as someone knocked on the door. ‘Not now,’ he muttered under his breath.

  Olivia came into the room. ‘Sam Donnelly’s back from Theatre,’ she said. ‘His liver and spleen were ruptured, but the surgeon was able to repair the damage. I thought you might want to come and check on him.’

  ‘Thanks, Olivia.’

  She left the room and he turned back to face Ellie. ‘I need to go and see him. Look, Ellie, I’m going to talk to Sophie and get this sorted out. I’ll come and see you this evening, as soon as I’m done.’

  ‘All right.’ What was she to make of all this? From the sound of things, Sophie had been making it up as she’d gone along...because she wanted Ellie out of the way? Well, she’d succeeded in that, hadn’t she?

  But James had been disappointed that she hadn’t stayed with him. That was what had her heart singing. That was what sent her hopes soaring skywards. Was there a chance for them after all?

  She went with him to see how Sam was doing, and felt reassured that his blood pressure and heart rate were improving. It would take him some time to heal and recover, but thankfully his life was no longer in danger.

  She went home at the end of her shift, and stopped to say hello to her neighbour, Lily, who was just coming back from the shops with the baby and Jayden.

  ‘Hi, there. How are things going?’ Ellie chatted to Lily and admired Jayden’s toy car, and peeped into the buggy to coo over the gorgeous new addition to the family. ‘Hello, Amy. Aren’t you a tiny little thing?’ The only answer she received was a sleepy yawn and a delicate sucking sound as the baby pursed her pink rosebud mouth and went back to dreaming of creamy milk.

  Both women chuckled, and after a while Ellie left to go and make herself look presentable for when James arrived. She wasn’t sure what to expect. Would Sophie persuade him that she was only going on what he’d led her to believe over the last few years?

  She made herself a snack and then went upstairs to shower and change into jeans and a pretty camisole top. She put on a light smattering of make-up, adding a pale bronze blusher to lend colour to her cheeks, and left her hair loose. Then, feeling a bit more sure of herself, she went downstairs to wait for James.

  He turned up soon after, and she opened the door to him cautiously, not knowing what to expect.

  ‘I wasn’t sure whether you would already have eaten,’ he said in a quizzical tone.

  ‘Just a snack,’ she told him. ‘A couple of crackers and cheese. Why?’

  He produced a white plastic carrier bag that he’d been hiding behind his back. ‘I brought Chinese food. I’m starving, so I’m hoping you’re ready for this, too.’

  ‘I love Chinese food,’ she said, sliding plates into the oven to warm and breathing in the wonderful aroma. He slid the packages onto the kitchen table and she drooled over the contents. ‘Beef with green peppers in black bean sauce, special fried rice, sweet and sour chicken... Oh, I’m in heaven...’

  He laughed. ‘I’ll put the kettle on. Unless you want wine? I can go and get a bottle.’

  ‘That’s all right, I have wine in the fridge.’ She went to get it, while James took cutlery from a drawer and set the table.

  They sat down to eat and she tasted the sweetly battered chicken, following it up with a forkful of rice. ‘This is delicious. Yum.’

  He smiled as he speared a prawn with his fork. ‘Yes, it is.’

  They chatted about this and that, and finally she finished her meal and put down her fork. ‘I wish I had more room in my stomach,’ she said woefully. ‘It’s my favourite, and I can’t do it justice.’

  He laughed. ‘I’ll bring you some more, whenever you want.’

  ‘So you’ll be coming back?’

  ‘Do you think you could keep me away?’

  ‘I wouldn’t want to.’

  ‘That’s good. That’s what I really want to hear.’

  She absorbed that with a smile of contentment, leaning back in her seat. ‘Shall we take the wine and finish it off in the living room?’

  ‘That sounds like a good idea.’

  He went with her and poured more wine before coming to sit beside her on the sofa. Watching him, long and lithe and gorgeous, she was wistful and her expression became serious.

  ‘Did you go and see Sophie?’

  ‘I did.’ He frowned.

  ‘So, what happened?’

  ‘She confessed that she’d lied to you. She also admitted to leaking the stories about you to the tabloids.’

  ‘I thought she might have been behind it.’ She was puzzled, though. ‘But how did she know about me when I was a teenager?’

  ‘She quizzed my father about your family being at the lodge and what happened after you left. He told her about the newspaper articles, so she passed that information on to the papers.’

  She was still for a moment, taking it in, and then pulled herself together. ‘She must have been very insecure,’ she said.

  He nodded. ‘I’m sure she was.’

  ‘So you never intended to marry her?’

  ‘I didn’t ever have a relationship with her, apart from a couple of dinner invitations with friends, never mind want to marry her. She just let it be known to anyone who would listen that she and I were together. I think that’s where your brother came by the idea that we were a couple.

  ‘I warned her that I didn’t share her feelings,’ he went on, ‘but she didn’t listen. Perhaps she thought I would change my mind. Either way, she must have been living in a fantasy world and it didn’t help that she managed to work her way into my father’s affections. She was always there for him.’

  He thought about that for a moment. ‘To be fair, she looked after him really well, making sure he had his medication, driving him around when he couldn’t manage it himself and I wasn’t available. But I think, all the time, she was working on the idea that we would be an item.’

  ‘I almost feel sorry for her.’

  He nodded. ‘Of course, when you came along, she must have seen you as a threat. Anyone with half an eye could see that I’d fallen for you.’

  ‘Had you?’ She sent him a quick glance, her heart beginning to thump heavily. ‘I don’t know about that. I wasn’t sure what you really felt for me. I mean, I know you wanted me, but you said you weren’t ready for commitment and I started to realise that I didn’t want to settle for anything less.’

  His grey eyes homed in on her face. ‘Are you saying you wanted to be with me?’

  ‘Yes, I did. I do. But your father had such expectations for you. I felt as though my name had been tarnished, and he would never accept someone like me being involved with you.’

  He gave her a rueful smile. ‘It wasn’t his decision to make. Anyway, after he got to know you better, and especia
lly after you saved his life, he thought of you with affection. He told me he wished he could make it up to you and your family for the way he’d treated your father.’

  ‘I’m pleased about that.’

  He wrapped his arms around her, making her feel cosseted and cherished. ‘I should never have doubted you,’ he said. ‘But I was afraid Lewis might persuade you he needed you, and somehow turn your head, and even though I knew you weren’t the kind of person who would break up a marriage, I was consumed by this insane jealousy every time I saw you with him. It was total madness. I know Lewis would never do anything to hurt Jessica.’ He frowned. ‘Perhaps it was because I wasn’t sure of your feelings.’

  ‘I was just as guilty,’ she said softly. ‘I kept thinking you were dating Sophie at the same time that you were seeing me. I should have had more faith in you.’

  ‘I don’t want any other woman, Ellie. Only you.’ He kissed her tenderly, his hands stroking her and bringing her closer to him.

  ‘Is it really true?’ She was desperate to believe him. ‘You said you didn’t want commitment and I was so afraid I was falling for you. I knew I would be devastated if you didn’t feel the same way I did.’

  ‘It’s true, believe me. I never thought it would happen to me, but when we spent that time together on the boat I realised that I wanted to be with you all the time. It hit me hard, like a thunderbolt. I’m only really happy when I’m with you. I feel as though I’m at peace with the world and myself.’ He kissed her again. ‘It’s as though I’ve found my soul mate. I love you.’

  ‘Oh, James, I love you so much. I didn’t know it could be like this.’ She lifted her arms and let her fingers trail through the silky hair at the back of his head. ‘I’ve been longing to hear you say you feel the same way, too.’

  She kissed him lovingly, thrilled by the way his body meshed with hers, as though he couldn’t get enough of her. With every part of her being, she yearned for him.

  ‘Ellie, will you marry me?’ he said huskily. ‘I need to know that you’ll be with me through everything, for all time.’