Saving Katy Gray (When Paths Meet Book 3) Page 15

  She chuckled at Katy’s gasp of surprise as it came into view. “It’s amazing isn’t it? Jack took some convincing because he thought it would look too modern for the estate, but it doesn’t does it?”

  Shaking her head in admiration, Katy studied the building as they approached it. “It looks like an enormous sculpture.”

  “That was the plan, and it’s just as stunning on the inside. Not that I can take credit for any of it. Emlyn introduced us to the architect who designed it. She was his girlfriend at the time although I don’t think their relationship lasted long because it was at about the time he was segueing into his long-legged blonde stage.”

  Glancing at Katy with a mischievous grin she was just in time to see her expression change from one of animated enthusiasm to a dull blankness. Kicking herself for not following through on her own intuition about Katy and Emlyn, she tried to repair the damage. “Come on. Come and see Luke’s paintings, and Jack’s too. He trained as an artist you know but when his father and his brother died in quick succession, Corley Hall took over his life.”

  "Didn’t he mind?” Katy dragged her thoughts away from a mental picture of Emlyn making love to the architect who had designed the amazing building in front of her. After all it had happened a long time ago, probably when she was still a student nurse, and besides he’d never made a secret of his past conquests.

  Wishing she could interpret the expressions flitting across Katy’s face, Izzie carried on talking. “At first he did but that was mainly because he’d inherited a financial mess, plus his boyhood memories of life at the Hall itself weren’t the best. He loved the estate though, and that was what got him through; that and Emlyn. You remember I told you about the people who wanted to invest in English heritage and how Emlyn made him sign on the dotted line.”

  “Yes, I do.” Some of the animation returned to Katy’s face at Izzie’s words, and wisely Izzie expanded on them.

  “Without him Corley Hall would probably be derelict by now, either that or it would be an oversized club house for a golf course. Fortunately Emlyn overrode all of Jack’s objections and insisted he took the money.”

  As she finished speaking they entered the main gallery where most of Luke’s paintings were displayed. Katy, who had already admired the beautifully illustrated notices on the individual cages at the aviary, was nevertheless completely unprepared for the paintings that covered every wall.

  For several minutes she walked around in silence, then she turned to Izzie. “These are amazing. Every bird looks real. Where did he learn to paint like that?”

  Izzie shook her head. “He didn’t. If you wanted to label him, you’d call him an autistic savant, which means he has artistic capabilities that are far from normal, as well as an amazing memory for detail. Wonderful as those gifts are, however, they’ve come at a price.”

  “You mean his…um…erratic social skills?”

  “Very tactful,” Izzie grinned at her. “Not that you have anything to worry about because he made friends with you faster than I’ve ever known him accept anyone other than Jodie.”

  “Who knew budgerigars would be so useful,” said Katy. Then she stood stock-still, staring at a painting she could see in the neighboring room. Following her gaze, Izzie sighed as she led her through to a much smaller gallery.

  “Not you too! Every single person who comes in here does that. It’s a portrait of my sister. Jack painted it because he’s besotted with her.”

  “Not true. I’m besotted with her face my darling, as you well know, plus I also admire her more than anyone else I’ve ever met because she’s the only person in the world who has any control over you.”

  Katy smiled as Jack Corley joined them. “I’m not surprised you wanted to paint her, she’s so beautiful,” she said as they approached the painting, and then she wondered why she was whispering, and why the woman in the picture looked so familiar.

  Izzie laughed. “It took him years to persuade her to sit for him, and even now she won’t have the painting in her house. She just doesn’t see it, you see. She thinks she’s short and dumpy and totally without any redeeming features.”

  Staring up at the serene face in the painting Katy was amazed. “Surely she can see how lovely she is every time she looks into the mirror.”

  “You’d think so wouldn’t you, but not Jodie. Anyway you can judge for yourself when you come to the concert at the end of next month because she’ll be there. You are coming aren’t you? I already gave Emlyn a ticket for you, and one for Penny if you think she’s up to it.”

  Nodding her thanks Katy followed her back to the entrance. “He says it’s not to be missed although he also said it will be a bit different this year because of the baby.”

  “That’s because he believes everything my poor misguided husband tells him,” Izzie said dismissively, and then neatly eluded Jack’s attempt to pull her into his arms. “The concert will be the same as it always is except for the dresses which will all be a bit more floaty than usual.”

  Bidding them farewell, Katy left them to their good-natured bickering and made her way across to the row greenhouses. As she approached, Penny Brooks appeared. Waving, she hurried across the grass to join her.

  * * *

  It’s going to take a while, but he’s promised to come home. In the meantime I’m staying up here so I can get a few things sorted out. Emlyn’s voice was distorted by static but the message was clear enough. Wishing she’d been at Oak Lodge to take the call, Katy returned the phone to its cradle with a sigh. How long would he be away? She wished she knew. She wished, too, that she could forget that he was in London and staying with Paul in an apartment that was probably very similar to the one he’d owned himself before his mother’s illness drove him back to Corley.

  Needing a distraction she let her mind drift back to her conversation with Izzie. She still couldn’t believe she had told her something she’d never even shared with her parents. She couldn’t believe, either, that despite her nurse training she still hankered after the career that had once been her dream…a dream that was now reduced to reading historic novels and visiting museums whenever she had the chance. Wondering what had prompted her to break the habit of a lifetime and confide in somebody made her to think about her parents and she decided, for no other reason than a need for distraction, that now was the right time for her to attempt to uncover the history of her own birth.

  Waiting until Mrs. Brooks was safely tucked up in bed, she opened up the new laptop computer Dorothy had delivered a few days previously and clicked on the search engine. Typing in the word adoption she was overwhelmed by the number of links that appeared on the screen in front of her. Picking one at random she learned that it was possible to forcibly adopt in the UK, that at any given moment there were more than six thousand children needing homes, and that trying to find her own parents was like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

  “Maybe I’ll start with adoption agencies,” she muttered, and then jumped when the telephone rang. It was Connie, inviting her and Mrs. Brooks for Sunday lunch as a thank you for that week’s table decorations.

  “It’s the least we can do,” she told her when Katy protested that it really wasn’t necessary. “Besides, I know Penny loves a roast dinner and I don’t suppose you bother to cook something as elaborate as that for just the two of you.”

  Glad to have something to look forward to while Emlyn was away, Katy thanked her and then returned to her search of the Internet. An hour later she had admitted defeat. Without her birth mother’s name or any details of the adoption agency involved it was going to be impossible to find out anything about her past life. More in hope than expectation she scribbled down the telephone number of the government agency responsible for adoption records and then, worn out by the emotional upheaval of her thoughts, she went to bed.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Keeping herself too busy to think, Katy continued to push Mrs. Brooks into a routine that occupied every minute of
her day and made her so tired that she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow each night. As a bonus she stopped wandering about the house in the early hours of the morning in search of her husband, and her thought processes were clearer too. When she talked about her children she mostly knew who they were and where they lived even if it took her some moments to work it out. She knew her husband had left too and one day, over breakfast, she told Katy so.

  “He kissed me goodbye,” she said, as the memory of his last moments in the house returned. “I thought he was angry but he wasn’t…he was…I think he was crying. Why was he crying Katy?”

  Remembering that she had promised to answer all of her questions truthfully whenever she asked them, Katy took hold of her hands to keep her attention focused and told her about his illness.

  “He knew he was ill and that he was going to get worse and he didn’t want to upset you,” she said, once she was sure the older woman understood.

  “But I would have looked after him,” Penny Brooks’ eyes filled with tears. Then she shook her head so that they trickled down her cheeks unchecked. “He left because he knew I couldn’t do it, didn’t he? He knew I’d just make things worse, like I make everything worse. He knew, too, that if he stayed it would be one more thing for Emlyn to cope with.”

  Surprised by the lucidity of her reaction, Katy nodded.

  Gripping her fingers tightly, the older woman started to cry in earnest. As she sobbed she carried on talking, her voice thick with tears. “Tell him he’s wrong Katy. Tell him I need him and that he can come home now because you’re here and you’ll look after both of us. You will do that won’t you?”

  “Of course I will, and that’s why Emlyn has gone away, and Paul. They’ve both gone to find him and they’re going to bring him home as soon as he’s well enough to travel.”

  “But they’re meant to be working,” Penny Brooks’ tears stopped abruptly. “Emlyn especially. People depend on him, lots of them. People who are being accused of things they didn’t do.”

  Katy smiled at her, glad that for once she was concerned about her eldest son. “A few days off won’t hurt, and you can talk to them this evening when Emlyn phones. In the meantime you have a garden to check.”

  Distracted, as always, by the mention of flowers, Penny Brooks picked up the secateurs that were always close at hand and hurried out onto the dew spangled lawn. Watching her through the window Katy sighed. If only she could be distracted as easily. Instead she couldn’t get the thought of Emlyn visiting his old haunts in the city out of her head.

  She knew he was catching up with friends and colleagues because he told her so when he called, the same as he told her that his father had agreed to sell his partnership in Brooks, Brooks & Leighton Solicitors.

  “So you’ll soon be moving back to the city then.” Although she had tried to sound enthusiastic, Emlyn heard the misery in her voice.

  “Don’t say it like that Katy. I’m not going yet, I’m just thinking about it now that Paul has persuaded me it will be kinder to move my parents to somewhere where they can both be cared for. If I do decide to return to my old job though, I promise you’ll be coming too.”

  She hadn’t bothered to reply because she didn’t want to ask him how someone with her reputation could find a job in a place where a hundred other people were applying for every position available. He had enough to worry about at the moment without having to think about her.

  “How much longer will you be away?” she’d asked him instead, and then wished she hadn’t when she heard the despair in his reply.

  “I don’t know. He’s very ill Katy, so much so that the doctor isn’t prepared to let him travel at the moment.”

  Knowing there was nothing any of them could do until Mr. Brooks rallied, as the doctor had assured Emlyn he would once he was over the worst of his treatment, she had changed the subject, telling him instead how busy his mother was.

  “Izzie’s even asked her to help with the floral arrangements for the music festival,” she said, and then she told him about her own burgeoning friendship with Luke, and he laughed and teased her for her inconstancy.

  “Well he’s better looking than you,” she said trying, unsuccessfully, to forget what the sight of Emlyn’s face and body did to her every time he walked through the door.

  Pushing the memory of their conversation to the back of her mind she started to plan the day ahead as she cleared away the breakfast things. Today was Wednesday, the only day of the week she and Penny spent at home, and so it would be a good day to start preparing a room for Mr. Brooks’ return, especially now that she could involve his wife.

  * * *

  By the end of the afternoon they had turned the smaller of the downstairs reception rooms into a sick room complete with bed, rocking chair, two upright chairs for visitors, and a small side table. Bob Mickelson, who had come over with Luke to help carry the bed downstairs, stood in the doorway and looked around him with satisfaction.

  “Once he comes home he’ll feel better in a trice,” he told her. “Anyone would with that beautiful garden to look at and two nurses to care for him.”

  Katy gave him a grateful smile while she listened to Penny Brooks tell him for the umpteenth time that her husband was sick and in hospital but that he’d be home soon so she could look after him. Then she saw how hot he looked and suggested they all go into the garden while she fetched cold drinks. He nodded and went outside. Luke, however, followed Katy into the kitchen and stood in the doorway watching her while she collected glasses, cans of lager and a jug of lemonade, and hunted for crisps and nuts in the larder. He was still watching her when she piled them all onto a tray.

  “Please carry this outside for me Luke while I replenish the ice in the icebox,” she gestured towards the kitchen counter.

  Without a word he did as she asked and when she joined everyone in the garden she saw he had put the tray onto the garden table. With a smile of thanks she began to pour drinks. He accepted a glass of lager and took a handful of crisps without saying thank you. Instead, he just kept on staring at her.

  Feeling slightly uncomfortable she directed her attention to Bob Mickelson, thanking him for helping out at such short notice. She had dithered for a long time before she had phoned Izzie for help, and it wasn’t until she had rationalized that the favor she was asking was actually for Mrs. Brooks and not for herself, that she’d been able to make the call. When she finally did so, and explained the situation, Izzie had agreed immediately, her sympathy for Emlyn’s family clear in her voice.

  “Jack’s not here,” she said. “But Luke is standing beside me right now and I’m sure he’ll be glad to help once I’ve explained what you want. I’ll get Bob Mickelson to drive him over because you’ll need both of them to carry a bed downstairs.”

  Grateful that the two men had been able to dismantle the bed so effortlessly and then carry it downstairs and reassemble it, she thanked them again as they drained their glasses. Telling her that it was a pleasure, Bob Mickelson stood up, ready to go. When Luke failed to join him, he gave him a puzzled look.

  “Come on Luke, its nearly time to feed the birds.”

  Reluctantly, Luke rose to his feet. At well over six feet tall, he towered over all of them, and his face, reflecting the light from the setting sun, was breathtakingly handsome. Wondering anew at the fate that had partnered so much talent and beauty with a personality that struggled to fit into everyday life, Katy smiled at him.

  “You too Luke. Mrs. Brooks and I are both so grateful that you took time out of your busy day to come over and help.”

  Without answering, he turned away and walked across the lawn and through the gate to where Bob had parked his car. With a frown the older man apologized.

  “I don’t know what’s got into him today.”

  “Maybe it’s the heat or just the fact that coming over here has interrupted his routine,” Katy was anxious to excuse Luke’s strange behavior.

  Bob shook his head i
n exasperation. “Who knows? He’s a strange one. He spent the entire journey over here talking about that stepmother of his, and his sisters, and how they’re all coming down to visit for the festival. Quite excited he was, different from usual. Then we arrived here and he clammed right up. I don’t think he’s said more than two words the whole time we’ve been here has he?”

  Katy admitted that he hadn’t as she accompanied him to his car and then she forgot all about it as she heard the phone ringing and hurried back inside.

  * * *

  It was Emlyn, and he had the news she most wanted to hear. “We’ll all be home by the weekend, and Alice is flying over too. She’ll be arriving early Friday morning so she might get there before we do. Can you cope with that or do you want me to book her into a hotel?”

  “Of course I don’t,” she was indignant that he had even thought of it. “She needs to be here with her parents Emlyn, the same as you and Paul. If anyone needs to go to a hotel it should be me.”

  He chuckled. “Now that is a really good idea because then I can make a dishonest women of you without worrying that my mother or some other member of my family will walk in on us.”

  “Sorry to spoil your fun but Oak Lodge has plenty of room for everyone,” she said, trying to make her voice sound prim and failing dismally.

  “So it does. I’d forgotten about all those bedrooms. Now I’m just going to have to come up with a better idea aren’t I?” The teasing laughter in his voice was having an effect on Katy’s libido that she didn’t want to think about so she told him what they’d been doing that day instead. When she finished he sighed.

  “What would I do without you? You’ve thought of everything and you have helped my mother to understand what’s happening too. Do you think she’ll be okay Katy or will it all be too much for her?”