Saving Katy Gray (When Paths Meet Book 3) Page 17

  Glad to be out in the sunshine, away from the emotional atmosphere of Oak Lodge, Katy took the long route to the aviary, passing the newly erected marquee as she did so. Jack, who was standing in the middle of a group of workmen, waved to her, while William ran across the grass to show her his new toolkit. Kneeling down so that she was on his level she admired it, and the piece of wood he was holding.

  “It my daddy’s,” he told her.

  “Did he ask you to look after it for him?”

  He shook his head. “Me give it Cora.”

  “Oh you mean your daddy wants you to give it to Cora.”

  He beamed at her. “She like it.”

  “I’m sure she will,” Katy pushed herself up from the ground as he ran back to Jack. Still smiling she made her way down to the aviary. Luke appeared from the storage area with a large sack of birdseed hoisted onto his shoulder. When he saw Katy he changed direction and disappeared behind the cages. With a frown she followed him.

  “I’ve come to help you with the birds Luke, just like I promised I would,” she called after his retreating back, and then stopped when he didn’t acknowledge her. When she had explained about his autism, Izzie had told her that although he could be difficult at times, he was never deliberately rude thanks to the hours her sister had spent helping him learn to communicate with the visitors who came to the aviary.

  “He understands that talking about the birds and the work he does on the estate is part of his job,” she said. “And so far he’s never let us down even though I know he finds it difficult at times.”

  “And does he talk about his art too,” Katy had asked as they stood in front of a wonderfully executed painting of a peacock, its every feather so detailed that the bird looked ready to strut right off the canvas and into the gallery.

  “Not often, although he’s quite happy for people to watch him at work. Probably because he is so absorbed in what he’s doing that he doesn’t even notice them.”

  Remembering the conversation and with nothing else to do now that Luke had spurned her company, Katy decided to visit the Art Centre again to look at his paintings. The visit she had made with Izzie had been a cursory one but now, with time on her hands, she could study his work in detail.

  When she arrived at the Art Centre she was surprised to find it empty. Guessing that most of the visitors were still inside Corley Hall or enjoying the sunshine as they wandered through the gardens and across the estate, she started her tour of the galleries. As well as the one dedicated to Luke’s paintings there was another one full of modern art, some of it by well-known names, others by hopeful newcomers, and there was also a much smaller gallery displaying Jack’s work. Unlike Luke’s, his paintings were full of people and animals: children splashing in the sea; Cora, his dog, leaping for a ball; mothers and children enjoying a picnic; and overseeing them all was the painting she had admired so much on her first visit, the one of Izzie’s sister, Jodie. It had a serious quality to it that was different from the rest of Jack’s paintings, which were colorful and fun, the sort of pictures that lifted the heart.

  When she reached the small shop at the far end of the building she saw that some of them had been reproduced as cards. The main feature of the shop was a large rack of postcards though, each one a reproduction of one of Luke’s paintings. There were also prints of his work for sale.

  Wishing she had her wallet with her so she could buy something, she slowly made her way back through the galleries to the entrance. Before she reached it, however, the picture of Jodie caught her eye again and she stood before it for a long time, wondering about the woman in it and why, despite her serene smile, there was a hint of sadness about her.

  “So you’re studying the family portraits again are you?” Izzie’s voice echoed through the empty gallery as she joined her.

  Katy turned and smiled at her. “Is your sister really that lovely or has Jack flattered her?”

  “She really is that lovely and she just seems to improve with age, which isn’t fair.”

  Looking at Izzie’s smooth skin and luminous turquoise eyes, Katy’s smile grew wider. “I guess it’s a family trait then.”

  “Flattery will get you anything you want, which right now is lemonade and cookies. William is in charge of them. He’s outside on the terrace with Luke.”

  “So he’s talking again is he?” Katy filled her in on Luke’s behavior earlier that morning as they made their way outside.

  Izzie nodded. “He was the one who told me you were over here and he seemed really keen to join us when I said I was bringing you a drink.”

  Surprised that Luke had noticed where she’d gone after he’d ignored her, Katy was still pleased that he wanted to spend time with her again. Somehow, being Luke’s friend felt like a real achievement, and she’d been upset by his rejection even as she accepted that it probably wasn’t personal.

  When she and Izzie joined them, he was watching William pretend to cut his piece of wood with the plastic saw from his new toolkit. He shifted along the bench so that Katy could sit next to him. Smiling, she did so, and then let out a startled cry as he reached out a hand and began to pull the hairclips out of her tightly coiled chignon.

  “Stop doing that Luke. You mustn’t touch Katy’s hair,” Izzie’s voice was sharp as she half rose from her seat.

  Ignoring her, he carried on releasing the clips and then laying each one neatly on the table in front of Katy. Not sure how she ought to react to such bizarre and uncharacteristic behavior, Izzie watched, frozen into inaction. Katy, her own eyes wide with surprise, nevertheless had enough presence of mind to tell her not to worry, because although Luke was invading her personal space, his fingers were gentle and there was nothing at all threatening about his manner.

  She didn’t even feel nervous when he removed the last clip, letting her hair fall about her shoulders in the tumbling curls she made such an effort to hide. Instead, she ran her fingers through them, smoothing them into some semblance of order while Luke stared at her. Wondering what was going on in his head, she stared back at him while Izzie began to chide him for doing something so utterly inappropriate. Although Katy could hear the worry in her voice, she felt entirely safe. She knew there was nothing sexual in his actions. It was something else entirely; she just wished she knew what it was.

  She soon found out when, with no more than a grunt and a gesture, Luke indicated that she should follow him into the gallery. Ignoring Izzie’s protest, she did as he asked. Izzie, who was worried out of her wits by her step-nephew’s bizarre behavior, called Jack on her cell phone and then hurried inside after them with William trotting at her heels.

  She found them in the gallery dedicated to Jack’s paintings, staring at a picture of two little girls playing on a beach. One of them was wearing a red spotted dress and had a red kerchief tied over her hair. The other one, who was smaller, was wearing an acid yellow bathing suit decorated with daisies, and on the sand behind her was a matching sunhat that had obviously blown off in the wind because her hair was a mass of dancing black curls. Her dark eyes were full of mischief as she stared out of the painting.

  When Izzie joined them, Luke pointed at the child in the painting and then gently turned Katy around so that the two women were facing one another. “Maria,” he said.

  The color draining from her face, Izzie’s gaze flicked between the little girl and Katy, and back again. Then, with her hands clutching protectively at her stomach she almost staggered as she made her way across the gallery to a bench situated on the far side. With a cry of distress, Katy forgot Luke’s bizarre behavior as she knelt beside her.

  “Izzie, whatever is the matter? Is something wrong with the baby?”

  “No, the baby’s fine, it’s nothing like that, it’s…”

  Jack interrupted her explanation as he came running through the Art Centre in search of them.

  William trotted across to the archway that separated Jack’s small gallery from the larger one full of Luke’s painti
ng, keen to explain to his father that everyone was staring at a painting of his big cousin. He didn’t know why they were so interested because she didn’t look like the same anymore, not now she was bigger, but as it seemed important to Luke and to Mummy he was going to tell him anyway.

  Scooping his son up in his arms Jack came into the small gallery in a rush. “What on earth’s going on,” he asked, and then he panicked because Izzie was hunched over on the bench and Katy was kneeling beside her.

  “It’s all right Jack. I’m fine. Please just look at the picture you painted of Annetta and Maria, and let Luke explain.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Back at Corley Hall and with coffee bubbling in the machine behind them, Katy and Izzie sat at the kitchen table staring at one another while Jack went in search of his laptop computer. When he returned he put it in the centre of the table where they could all see it, and turned it on. A few moments later an assortment of photos filled the screen. Slowly scrolling down until he found the one he wanted, he clicked on it. Immediately the image of the girl in the painting smiled out at them.

  She was older now, with a gap where her front teeth should be. Her hair was still blowing in the wind though, and she was still laughing at the camera. Without a word Jack set the album to slideshow and then sat back while they watched picture after picture scroll across the screen. Some were of the little girl on her own, others were of her with Jodie and a tall man with gray hair and blue eyes that Katy assumed was her father, but most of them were of her and her sister, who was slightly older and had her father’s blue eyes instead of the dark ones Maria had inherited from Jodie.

  When the slideshow finished Katy gave a choked little cry as she reached for the bag she’d left behind in Izzie’s kitchen when she went down to the aviary. Slowly she pulled out the wallet that had once belonged to her father and searched for the photo he’d kept in it for as long as she could remember. When she found it she held it out with trembling fingers.

  Taking it from her, Jack stared at it, and then he smoothed the corners that had started to curl over the years and handed it to Izzie who, after one glance at the child in the photo, dropped it onto the table and leaned forward and took hold of both Katy’s hands.

  * * *

  “What do you mean, you and Izzie are going to have a DNA test?” Emlyn was trying, without much success, to make sense of the garbled story Katy had just told him.

  She tried again but the words wouldn’t come. Instead she burst into tears. Forgetting that he had promised to keep his distance, Emlyn lifted her up from the couch where she was sitting and held her in his arms, and she was still there when Alice walked into the room in search of her mother a few moments later. With an embarrassed apology she began to leave but before she could, Emlyn stopped her.

  “This isn’t what it looks like. Katy is upset.”

  “So I see,” his sister maintained a solemn expression for about ten seconds as she acknowledged Katy’s tearstained cheeks, then she burst into a peal of laughter.

  “You didn’t really think you had us fooled did you…either of you? Dad and I have had a bet on who would crack first for days now, and guess what, I’ve won.”

  Hearing Alice’s laughter, Paul, who had returned from a business trip the previous day, came into the kitchen. When he saw Emlyn with his arms still holding Katy close, he grinned. “So you got her in the end did you? Well done big brother. I didn’t think you had such good taste.”

  His grin widened when Emlyn shook his head. “Come off it, you can’t deny anything, not now we’ve caught you both red handed.”

  With an irritated growl Emlyn tightened his grip on Katy’s waist. This wasn’t how it was meant to be, and from her heightened color and stiff body it was obvious she felt the same.

  “Come on,” taking her hand he led her out into the kitchen and through to the garden beyond, ignoring the peals of laughter that followed them. He didn’t stop until Oak Lodge was out of sight and the river that flowed down through the Corley Estate and into the village was in front of them. Then, pushing through the long grass that grew along its banks, he found a place similar to the one he’d taken her to on that day so many weeks ago when he’d first revealed how he felt about her.

  “Sorry about my tactless siblings,” he apologized as he searched for a place to sit that would hide them from anyone who might be passing.

  With far more on her mind than being discovered in Emlyn’s arms by his brother and sister, Katy just shrugged as she sat down. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “It was probably a silly idea trying to hide how we felt about one another in the first place.”

  He paused in the process of sliding his arm around her shoulders. “I thought you were upset about them finding out like that.”

  “No, I wasn’t, especially as they were going to find out eventually anyway, weren’t they. I’m upset about this Emlyn.” She handed him the two photos she’d been clutching when he first found her in the dining room.

  Mystified, he took them from her. “Who are they? Hang on. This is one of Izzie’s nieces isn’t it? I think its Maria although it might be Annetta. I always muddle them up. This is the younger one I think.” Then he looked at the other photo, a black and white snapshot of a small child with her parents, and frowned. “Why have you got a picture of Izzie’s sister as a child?”

  “It’s not Jodie, it’s me. It’s a picture of me when I was small.”

  He stared at her, then back at the photo. “So what are you saying?”

  Swallowing a sob, she pointed. “Those people in the picture with me are my parents…my adoptive parents. I was about seven years old I think. It was taken when we were on holiday in Wales and for some reason my father always kept it in his wallet.”

  “But you can’t be related to Jodie, even though I must admit you look a bit like her and her daughters, because she doesn’t have family. I remember Jack telling me that Jodie had to give up her career to care for Izzie when their mother died because there was no one else.”

  Shaking her head impatiently, she didn’t wait for him to finish. “I already knew about all that because Izzie told me ages ago, when I first visited her. What she didn’t say, until today when she saw that photo, was that they have another sister. When their mother died in a car crash she was eight months pregnant. A doctor delivered her baby by emergency caesarian at the side of the road and then paramedics rushed her to hospital. Izzie says it took Jodie years to find out what had happened to her, and when she finally did, she discovered she had been adopted and that her adoption records were closed, which means…”

  “A court order is needed to open them,” he said slowly. “So you think you might be that baby, a little girl who was adopted at birth because there was no one in her family able to care for her.”

  “Maybe, but it might just be wishful thinking mightn’t it, because nearly everyone has a doppelganger somewhere in the world, which is why I need a DNA test,” she wailed, her face screwed up in desperation. “Until my father died I thought I was Katy Gray and that my parents were Ellen and Thomas Gray. I didn’t suspect a thing until I had to clear out everything at the nursing home and I found my adoption certificate hidden amongst my father’s papers.”

  He stared at her, horrified. “So you’ve been trying to cope with this at the same time as you’ve been coping with all the financial problems he left behind.”

  She gave him a tremulous smile. “Not quite. I put everything about my adoption on the back burner until the other night because it was just too much to think about, but when I finally began to look, it made me feel even worse because I didn’t know the answer to any of the questions on the forms I had to fill in if I wanted to search for my birth mother. I don’t know her name. I don’t know the name of the adoption agency that placed me with my parents. I’m not even sure if I know my true date of birth.”

  All the time she had been talking, he’d been staring at her in much the same way that Luke had earlier, and w
hen he finally spoke, his voice was husky. “Have that DNA test Katy because although I don’t really believe in fate, you do look a lot like Maria, especially in that childhood photo, and, now I come to think of it, you look a lot like Jodie too.”

  She shook her head. “I wish…but I’m nowhere as beautiful.”

  He smiled then and tilted her chin until her lips were inches from his. “You are you know. You just need to believe it.”

  With a sigh of relief that at last there were no more secrets, she laced her arms around his neck, and for a long time after that they were just two anonymous lovers kissing on the riverbank while people walked along the path behind them.

  * * *

  “So when were you going to tell us,” Alice demanded as she handed first Katy and then Emlyn a drink.

  Katy blushed and Emlyn shrugged. “We didn’t have a plan,” he said. “I was trying to protect Katy because I didn’t want people to think I was taking advantage of her just because she’s living here.”

  “And that included us?”

  “No, that was my idea,” Katy said before he could answer. “I thought you had enough going on in the family without the added complication of having to deal with a relationship between Emlyn and me, plus I didn’t want to confuse your mother.”

  “Too late because she already thinks you’re married,” Paul grinned across at her from his perch on the window seat.

  She stared at him. “No she doesn’t. She knows that Emlyn lives in the apartment over the office and that I live here.”

  “Sometimes she does, I agree, but not today, so here’s to both of you.” He raised his glass in a toast.

  With a sudden shout of laughter Emlyn joined him. Then he put down his glass and, standing up, pulled Katy to her feet. “Come on my darling, no more secrets. I’m going to take you for a meal at The Corley Arms so that everyone in the village can see how I feel about you.”