Chapter 6
‘Everything’s fine, Bella.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course I’m sure. Where’s this coming from?’
There was a short silence on the other end of the line. ‘Um…’ It wasn’t like Bella to sound so unsure of herself. ‘It’s just a feeling I got the other night and it won’t go away. Like you’re hiding something.’
Kate froze. If Bella suspected something, how long would it be before Connor did?
She stopped sorting the papers on the desk in front of her and raised her head to stare through the glass windows of her office into St Patrick’s busy pathology lab.
No. She was sure Connor didn’t suspect anything.
His lovemaking last night had been the usual mix of raw masculine power and the gentleness that could bring her to tears if she thought about it.
Like now. Kate had to blink hard.
‘Kate?’
‘I’m here.’ Kate cleared her throat and tried to swallow, but her mouth felt strangely dry.
The person she loved most in the world after Connor had to be her niece.
The bond they had was unique and ran deep.
It went back to a time when Kate had had dark secrets to hide and Bella had been far too young to know about any of them.
She knew more now but she still didn’t know everything.
And she wasn’t going to, any more than Connor was.
Kate was starting a new life. A future that was more than anything she’d ever dreamed of. Marriage to a man she would die for. A man who, miraculously, seemed to love her just as much.
The past was gone. Or was it? Maybe that was why Bella was asking awkward questions.
She’d known Kate a lot longer than Connor had so maybe she was tuned in at a different level.
Something like panic opened its claws in Kate’s belly.
She had to stop the direction of this conversation urgently.
Before it did her head in and she said something that would blow the whole can of worms open.
‘I’m pretty busy, hon. Was there something in particular you wanted to talk about?’
She heard a sigh. ‘I’m not having a great day, I guess. I’ve been worried about you and—’
‘Well, you can stop worrying about me for a start,’ Kate interrupted firmly.
‘But…’ Clearly, Bella wasn’t going to be reassured that easily.
‘I don’t know what you think you’ve picked up on, but it’s probably just a bit of pre-wedding jitters or something.’
‘Jitters? How can you have jitters when you’re getting married to Connor? He’s gorgeous. And he adores you. You adore him. You’re perfect for each other. If I’m half as lucky as you, then I’ll be happy.’
‘It’s getting close rapidly, that’s all.’ Maybe there was a way forward to be found here. A means of buying time? Softening the final blow that had to come?
‘I’m just wondering if we’re rushing things a bit.’
There was a horrified silence coming down the phone. Kate had to think quickly and change the subject. Before something catastrophic happened, like her bursting into tears. Desperately, she grabbed a conversational lifeline.
‘Why else are you having a bad day? Apart from anything to do with me?’
‘What? Oh… I can’t find Lady Dorothy’s necklace.’
Relief flooded Kate. Here was her reprieve. ‘Oh, my God… Have you lost a string of priceless Dawson diamonds or something?’
‘Not diamonds. Garnets. And I haven’t lost it. I’ve just… misplaced it. Only it’s Lady Dorothy’s favourite and she’s kind of upset.’
‘Where did you last see it?’ Kate was idly sorting papers again, confident that she’d headed Bella off from dangerous territory.
Good grief, but these pathology results that needed her attention were piling up.
Some had been sitting on her desk for weeks and weeks now.
Well, that one could go. She screwed up a copy of a result that she’d made a note on about getting the calibration of a machine checked. The task had long since been done.
‘I took it off for her when we were in the spa pool the other day but I know I picked it up afterwards. We just didn’t stop to put it back on because she was a bit cold and I wanted to get her dressed again.’
‘So you must have dropped it somewhere. Retrace your steps.’
Always the best idea. Go back to the point you started from and find out where things had gone wrong. Bella seemed to be explaining that she’d done exactly that, but her voice was no more than a background buzz in Kate’s ear now.
She had unearthed a scrap of paper at the very bottom of that pile from the corner of her desk. The result that had her name on the top and the date that marked the point where things had started to go so terribly wrong.
‘I’ve got to go,’ she said, cutting Bella off. ‘Just keep looking until you find it. Focus, Bella. It’s not as if it’s the first time you’ve dealt with this kind of thing, and I really can’t sit here and talk about it. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now.’
Too much. Kate hung up the phone, ignoring how hurt Bella’s farewell had sounded after the brush-off. Her niece had no idea how lucky she was having a stupid piece of jewellery to worry about. Her own problem was a hell of a lot bigger.
Big enough to ruin her life.
Worse, it was big enough to ruin the life of the man she loved so much.
* * *
The house felt oddly empty.
Oliver checked his watch: 6.15 p.m. He wasn’t late. He was home earlier than usual, in fact, because he’d promised to spend some time with his mother before attending an engagement on her behalf later this evening.
The event was the annual gala of her favourite children’s charity, and Oliver was going to present the main award on Lady Dorothy’s behalf.
She was anxious to make sure he knew exactly which people he couldn’t omit spending time with, probably because they included members of the country’s ‘rich list’ and were being groomed to become future sponsors.
But Lady Dorothy wasn’t in her sitting room.
Neither was Bella. Why was that so disappointing?
Oh… that’s right. Oliver had caught up with Wally’s progress today and the chemotherapy her old patient was receiving seemed to be shrinking his brain tumour to the point where surgery might be possible without causing too much collateral damage. Bella would be thrilled to hear that.
In fact, it had been Bella that Oliver thought of instantly, when he’d been in the MRI lab scanning the latest results on Wally.
He could imagine the joy dawning in her eyes and then spreading to the rest of her face and he knew it would culminate in one of those smiles that could light up the darkest of rooms. He couldn’t deny that he was really looking forward to telling her the news.
But she wasn’t there.
Oliver went swiftly back down the sweeping staircase and headed for the kitchen area.
Yvonne, the housekeeper who came during the day, prepared meals amongst her other duties and left them in the kitchen.
Bella was now in charge of reheating and serving his mother’s dinner and Oliver knew she was also in the habit of eating with her employer now.
Unorthodox but perfectly acceptable when it gave him the freedom to stay at work for as long as was necessary without the worry of upsetting a routine that was more important than ever given his mother’s health status.
Oliver decided that was probably where they both were right now.
Maybe his mother’s blood sugar was a little lower than it should be after her evening dose of insulin so Bella had decided to serve dinner earlier than usual.
Except that the kitchen was also empty.
Very strange. Unsettling.
Oliver wandered from room to room on the main floor of the house, the silence pressing in on him and somehow making him more aware of the size of his family home than he’d ever been. It was huge by any standard. Ridiculous that only two people lived here.
Three, if you counted Bella, he supposed.
And who wouldn’t count Bella? Oliver’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. Given the size of Bella Graham’s personality, she probably filled as much space as three ordinary people would.
The smile faded but Oliver found himself wishing for the faint strains of some foot-stomping country music to be coming from one of these vast, deserted spaces.
Like the drawing room. The library. The conservatory…
Was his track taking him there automatically because he remembered the last time he had been in there?
With the awful music and that glow of happiness and pride in his mother’s face?
And Bella, making the very air in this house feel like it had more oxygen or something in it?
There was nobody in the conservatory but there was a half-drunk cup of tea on a glass-topped table that was part of a suite of cane furniture screened by oversized potted palm trees.
Beside the cup and saucer was a blood-glucose meter that still had a testing strip poking out of the end.
Beside that lay an empty insulin syringe.
Oliver’s breath left his chest in an exasperated huff. The syringe might have a needle that was small enough to be virtually invisible but it should have been put in a sharps container the instant it had been finished with.
Bella should know better.
Where the hell was she?
Raising his head as if to look for her, Oliver saw that the French doors of the conservatory were open and beyond them he could see a figure standing in the middle of the lawn. His mother, apparently caught by the shimmer of the sea in the soft light of dusk.
With a surge of relief, Oliver strode outside.
‘Mother!’ he called as he got closer. ‘How are you?’
Lady Dorothy didn’t answer. She didn’t even turn her head.
‘Where’s Bella?’ The inflection on the query faded as if Oliver didn’t actually expect a response.
Maybe he had instinctively known there wouldn’t be one.
He was still operating on autopilot, however, bending to kiss his mother’s cheek.
Well before his lips brushed her skin, he knew something was wrong.