The Taming of Dr. Alex Draycott, page 6
‘But suddenly you wanted to put down roots?’
She nodded. ‘I think so. I don’t know why. I really don’t know what came over me. Up to now, I’ve been so busy with work that I didn’t need anything more than a place to rest my head. Then I came here…’ She frowned. ‘Perhaps I thought it was time for a change. I had visions of this old farmhouse being lovingly renovated, and the orchard bursting with fruit—a kind of rural paradise, if you like.’ She grinned. ‘Now I’m beginning to wonder if I might have bitten off more than I can chew.’
Callum opened his mouth to answer, but he was interrupted by a horrible clanking and groaning sound coming from the water pipes as the children turned on the kitchen tap. No water came out.
‘Where’s the spanner?’ James asked, his face serious as he began to hunt around in the cupboard underneath the sink.
‘Isn’t it there?’ Alex frowned. ‘I must have moved it. Look on the shelf by the fridge.’
Callum looked from one to the other, clearly puzzled. ‘He’s not going to try to fix it, is he? Surely he’s too young?’
‘Nah…it’s easy,’ James told him, putting on his man-of-the-house expression. He found the spanner and bent down inside the cupboard, concentrating deeply on the task in hand. Then he gave the pipe a couple of hard whacks. ‘Try it now,’ he instructed Sarah.
She did as he told her, and obligingly water spurted from the tap.
Callum watched in wonder. ‘I’m impressed. Who needs a tradesman when you can do it yourself?’
Alex’s mouth curved. ‘It is annoying, though,’ she said. ‘The water pipes creak and groan and make an almighty noise a lot of the time. I’m going to have to do something about it, because one of these days banging on the pipe just won’t do the trick.’
The children finished washing and came to sit at the table. ‘I love pizza,’ James said, trying to cram a whole portion into his mouth at once.
‘That’s great, but slow down,’ Alex warned him. ‘I don’t want to see you choking on your food.’
James grinned amiably, and he and Sarah compared slices before James began to show his sister how to make faces with pieces he arranged carefully on his plate. ‘You just cut it with your knife, like this,’ he explained.
Alex turned her attention to Callum. ‘So how is Jane?’ she asked. ‘I looked in on her this morning, but it seemed as though she’d been overdoing things again. Her cheeks were very flushed, and I guessed her blood pressure was up. Has there been any news from the hospital?’
‘Yes, I talked to the specialist yesterday, and I gave her the news this afternoon. She said it was okay to let you know the result.’
‘And that is?’
‘She has Conn’s syndrome. It’s very rare, and that’s perhaps why it wasn’t picked up before, but the CT scan showed a tumour on her adrenal gland. It’s causing the gland to produce too much aldosterone, and that’s pushing up her blood pressure.’
Alex pressed her lips together briefly. ‘That must have come as a huge shock to her. Is she all right?’
‘I think so. She went to lie down for a while, but she seemed to take it well enough.’
‘And what about you? How do you feel about it? It must be a real worry for you.’
His mouth straightened. ‘I’m not sure. Generally these things turn out to be benign, so I’m trying to stay calm about it. I tried to paint a positive picture for my aunt, too…but she’s a hardy woman, generally. I think she’ll be all right. Things don’t normally knock her back for long.’
Alex pulled in a quick breath. ‘I’ll make sure to give her any help and support she needs,’ she vowed. ‘When will she be having the surgery? Is your friend going to operate?’
He nodded. ‘He said he’d do it next week. One of his patients postponed, because of unexpected travel plans, so he’ll fit my aunt in then.’
‘That’s brilliant news. She’s healthy enough otherwise, isn’t she, so there shouldn’t be any problem?’
‘Let’s hope so.’ He helped himself to salad, and then sent a cautious glance in the children’s direction before asking quietly, ‘How are your family doing? You said they were involved in a nasty accident and they must already have been in hospital for quite a while.’
Her eyes clouded. ‘It’s going to take some time before they’re back on their feet. Ross is still on a ventilator, but Beth is doing a little better. Even so, there were broken bones that need to heal, as well as the internal injuries.’
She shot a look at the children. Thankfully, they were both still engrossed in seeing who could make the best pattern with what was left of the pizza. Sarah had added cherry tomatoes to her effort, along with a curved slice of red pepper for a mouth, and now she pronounced that she had made the best face.
‘She has curly hair, too,’ she said proudly, showing off the adornment of pasta spirals.
James pursed his lips. ‘Faces are easy,’ he said. ‘I’m making a tractor.’
‘Oh, is that what it is?’ Sarah squinted at his effort, tilting her head sideways so as to see it from a different angle. ‘You need some salami rings for the wheels.’
‘Yes, but I ate them,’ James said, frowning. He inspected her plate. ‘Can I have yours?’
‘No, you can’t.’ Sarah moved her plate out of reach when he would have swooped with his fork, and Alex closed her eyes fleetingly.
‘Try eating your food instead of playing with it. And when you’ve finished, you can go outside and play on the swing for a while. Get rid of some of that energy,’ Alex said to both of them.
‘I want to play football,’ James said, his grey eyes challenging her.
‘No more football today,’ she answered. ‘We talked about that.’
‘Well, then, why can’t we go to the seaside instead? You keep saying we’ll go, but we never do.’
‘Yes, but we’ve only been here a few weeks, James, and we’ve been busy. There’s been a lot to do, moving in here and getting everything shipshape.’
‘It isn’t a ship!’ James retorted, his brows shooting upwards. ‘I want to go to the seaside.’ He glowered. ‘Mum would have taken us.’
Alex hid a groan, and Callum’s mouth twitched a fraction. ‘They know how to hit where it hurts, don’t they?’
‘Too right they do.’ She glanced at the children, but by now James was making another attempt to steal salami from Sarah’s plate, and she decided it was time to intervene.
She picked up James’s plate and held it aloft. ‘Have you finished with this?’ she asked. ‘Do you want me to put this out for the birds?’
James scowled, but shook his head.
‘All right, then. Eat up. Any more messing about and I’ll take it away, and then there’ll be no strawberry cake.’
Both children began to eat, and Alex gave a faint sigh. ‘They’re like this all the while,’ she told Callum, with a shake of her head. ‘I don’t know how their mother used to cope. I feel as though I’m run ragged half the time, sorting out their disputes.’
‘I expect she lets them get on with it,’ he said, smiling. ‘By the time you’ve come around to playing referee, they’ll have moved on to something else.’
‘That’s true enough,’ she said with a laugh.
He glanced at the youngsters, who had begun to argue over which one of them had more cheese than the other, and added softly, ‘Of course, James does have a point about the seaside, you know. To a child, a day can seem a long while to wait for something, let alone several weeks—and the coast is only a few miles from here.’
A small line creased her brow. ‘I know I should have taken them—it’s just that the weekends are so full, and they haven’t really mentioned it much.’
‘Perhaps they were waiting for you to arrange it. Anyway, I can’t help sympathising with youngsters who want to spend time at the seaside…especially when their parents aren’t around to take them there.’
‘I know.’ She frowned. ‘I kept thinking we’d wait until I have some time off from work, in the summer holidays. As it is, I have a mass of work to do here. I’m halfway through painting the living room, I have to do something about the blocked-up chimney in the dining room, and the kitchen cupboards need stripping down to bare wood so that they can be restored to what they once were. And that’s not counting the roof tiles that need replacing and the plumbing that needs to be fixed. I just don’t know when I’m supposed to do all this.’
‘Later,’ he said. ‘All those things can wait. You need to get your priorities sorted out.’
‘Do I?’ She made a soft sound of exasperation. ‘That’s easy for you to say, isn’t it? You’re not involved. As far as I can tell, everything’s going smoothly for you, and all you have to do is make sure your aunt is safe and secure.’
‘Maybe, but I’d like to do what I can to help you. I’m sure we can find a solution.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean how about I take a look at the plumbing, while you clear the table and get everyone ready for a trip to the coast? I know a lovely little cove not far from here, where the children can fish in the rock pools.’
‘Yes!’
‘Yes!’
Alex looked round in astonishment as James and Sarah both shouted gleefully, whooping with delight. ‘Say yes, Auntie Alex…please say yes.’ Sarah turned pleading blue eyes on Alex, and James’s face was lit up with joyful expectation.
Alex was stunned to find that they had both been listening to her conversation with Callum. She turned to him. ‘Now look what you’ve done.’
Callum’s expression was bland. ‘Who? Me? I didn’t do anything. I just offered to try and fix the taps for you. If you want me to leave it, that’s fine by me.’
‘No, no…Auntie Alex, don’t let him leave it…’ Sarah was beside herself with dismay. ‘You keep saying how you’re going to…knock that pipe into next week if it doesn’t stop playing up. Now you don’t have to. I know he can fix it for us…or at least he can try.’
‘And then we can go to the seaside,’ James finished.
‘Yeah!’ They both added the chorus.
Alex melted at the sight of the children’s eager faces. ‘I don’t see how I have any choice.’ She looked at Callum and gave a faint shake of her head. ‘There are a thousand and one jobs I should be doing, but now it looks as though I’ll be spending the afternoon by the sea.’ She gave him a mischievous look. ‘Maybe you could help out in other ways,’ she suggested with a wry smile. ‘Perhaps you’d like to come and do my laundry while you’re about it, and mop the floors?’
His mouth twisted. ‘Sorry, but I don’t do domestic. I come from a household steeped in tradition—Aunt Jane did all the homely things, and my uncle ran the show from his study. He always had lots of advice on how things should be done…but leave it to the women, he used to say.’
Her mouth curved. ‘Well, let’s hope at least you can fix the plumbing,’ she said. ‘That would be a definite bonus.’
He nodded. ‘I’ll need a carrier bag and a sponge of some sort if you have one?’
She stared at him blankly. ‘Those aren’t the usual plumbing tools, are they? I can offer you spanners, a wrench, hammers…pliers or grips…’
‘A carrier bag and sponge will be just fine, thanks…and some plastic adhesive tape if you have it.’
She frowned. ‘Okay.’ She studied him briefly. ‘Are you quite sure you know what you’re doing?’
He nodded. ‘I hope so.’
She went to fetch him what he needed, and then sent the children upstairs to get ready for their outing. ‘You’ll need a spare set of clothes in case anything gets wet,’ she told them. ‘And you’d better hunt out your swimsuit and trunks.’
‘Seaside! Yay!’ James ran up the stairs, followed swiftly by Sarah. ‘Can we take the fishing nets?’ he called back.
‘I’ll get them,’ Alex told him. She stopped to think about that for a moment or two. Last time she’d seen them, they’d been at the back of the shed, along with buckets and spades from previous years…years when they’d gone with their parents to spend time by the sea, digging in the sand and making spectacular sandcastles, with moats and drawbridges, and all sorts of embellishments made from shells and pebbles that they’d found lying about. She’d seen the photos, and heard all about it from Ross and Beth.
The memories brought sudden tears to her eyes. How could she ever hope to replace all that love and commitment, even for a short time? Would things be the same for them ever again?
‘Are you all right?’ Callum was looking at her oddly, and Alex blinked, trying to stem the tears that threatened.
‘I’m fine,’ she said, her voice a little choked. ‘I was just thinking about Ross and Beth…it caught me unawares. I suppose I’ve been a bit wound up lately, trying to work out how to deal with everything.’
He wrapped his arms around her and drew her close. ‘You’re bound to feel that way,’ he said softly. ‘So much has happened in such a short time.’ He ran his hands over her shoulders, her back, gently soothing her.
‘I’m just afraid I’ve let them down.’ Her voice faltered. ‘It’s as though I’ve been suffering from tunnel vision lately, trying to form order out of chaos. I’ve concentrated so hard on dealing with day-to-day life…it all seemed so important at the time.’
He rested his cheek against hers. ‘Perhaps it was the only way you could cope. But what really matters is that they should be happy. You can’t make up for this awful thing that has struck down their parents, but you can do something to help the children.’
She nodded. ‘You’re right. I know you’re right.’
He smiled. ‘Anyway, you could do with a break yourself. It’s time to step off the treadmill—so, if you’ll pass me the sponge and tape, I’ll get on.’
He carefully released her, easing back from her a little, and she took a moment to get used to being on her own once again. She missed his warm embrace. She missed his closeness.
But she needed to pull herself together, so she went to find the things he needed.
She handed them to him a minute or so later, and then watched curiously as he placed the sponge inside the carrier bag and taped it firmly beneath the outlet of the tap.
‘First we switch on the cold tap,’ he said, ‘then the hot. Wait for the gurgling to stop…then turn off the hot tap.’ He waited a moment or two, leaving the cold tap running, and then abruptly removed the bag and sponge. Water spurted out.
‘We’ll try that one or two times more,’ he murmured, ‘and see if it does the trick. It’s just an airlock that’s causing the trouble.’
A minute or two later, the water was running freely, and Alex watched and marvelled. ‘Thank you for that,’ she said. ‘I would never have guessed it was something so simple. I can see I’m going to have to get myself a book on how to fix things around the house…or find a decent internet site that explains everything in layman’s terms.’
‘As opposed to having a man around the place?’ He sent her an oblique glance, a smile playing around his lips. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer your own handy-man on the premises?’
Her mouth curved. ‘Are you putting yourself forward for the job?’
‘Oh, yes.’ His glimmering gaze skimmed over her. ‘With perks, of course…’
‘Oh?’ She looked at him warily. ‘And they would be?’
‘Well, let’s see…you could pay me with tea and pizza, or maybe a slice of strawberry cream cake…’
‘That sounds reasonable enough,’ she said with a smile. ‘I think we could manage both of those.’
‘Hmm.’ He dried his hands on a tea towel and then turned to face her once more. ‘Though there are other far more interesting ways I could think of.’ His gaze lingered on the pink fullness of her mouth, and she simply stood there for a moment, lured by the sheer invitation in those incredible blue eyes and wondering what it would be like to be kissed by him. Somehow he was so close that it would only take a breath of movement, and his lips would be touching hers. She felt heady with the intensity of the moment, lulled by the spell he was weaving around her.
‘James wants to take his snorkel and flippers,’ Sarah said, coming into the kitchen at that moment. ‘I told him we’re not going swimming, but he won’t listen. And he thinks we’re going to take the dinghy and his wooden boat as well as the beach ball.’
Alex came back down to earth with a bump. She gave Callum one last, cautious glance, and saw that his mouth had curved into a resigned smile. ‘Tell him the beach ball and his wooden boat are fine,’ she said, trying to keep her voice on an even keel. ‘And we’d better get a move on if we’re to have plenty of time at the beach.’
She turned to Callum, breathing in deeply to calm herself. ‘Will your aunt be okay while we’re out? It seems like the wrong time to leave her.’
‘I’m sure she’ll be fine. Martha from across the way is coming over to visit her this afternoon, so at least she’ll have company. Anyway, she knows to ring me if there’s a problem…but I’ll go and have a word with her right now, and then we’ll set off.’ He paused a moment, then added, ‘You might want to ask Martha about looking after the children during the school holidays, if my aunt’s going to be out of action for a while. She used to foster children, so I know she’d like the opportunity.’
‘Really? That’s great. I’ll talk to her about it.’ She marvelled at his thoughtfulness. She’d been trying to work out what to do for the best, and he had come up with a solution. Having him around was turning out to be a boon.
‘Good. And as to what we were saying before…I’ll come round and give you a hand with some of the jobs you have to do around here. I’m quite handy with a paintbrush and I’m not too bad on fixing roof tiles either. Between us, we should soon have this place looking good.’
‘Oh…that’s really thoughtful of you.’ The words left her on a soft breath of surprise and, impulsively, she reached out to touch his arm. ‘That’s a wonderful offer, but you don’t need to do that. I took it on, and it’s my problem. I’m the one who should deal with it.’
