Saving Katy Gray (When Paths Meet Book 3) Page 7

  “I must be the world’s worst mother. When I left William with Tommy I promised him I’d be back soon and yet here I am, nearly an hour later, still talking to you.”

  As she intended, her words brought a smile to Katy’s face. “I doubt he’s missed you at all if Mrs. Tomlins has had anything to do with it. She adores him doesn’t she?”

  “Yes, and even better she likes to babysit him. I don’t know what we’d do without her, which is why we are so grateful for the way you looked after her when she fell and hit her head.”

  Then, seeing the slightly shocked expression on Katy’s face, she gave a peal of laughter. “I don’t mean we’re grateful because we can’t do without a babysitter, I mean we’re grateful because she’s special. She more or less raised Jack you see. His mother died when he was young and it was a long time before he learned to love his stepmother, or to understand his father, so there was only Tommy. She stood between him and abject misery when he was a small boy, and he’s never forgotten it.”

  * * *

  Watching Izzie walk away, her stride still unencumbered by the slight swell of her pregnancy, Katy's spirits lifted a little. It would be good to have a friend again even though she had no intention of ever telling Izzie about her past. Until she’d arrived in Corley she hadn’t realized how lonely she was and how much she missed the few people who had stuck by her. It had taken Mrs. Tomlins and Izzie to show her that she really could start again, and Emlyn to persuade her that the future might not be as grim as she had feared, so now it was up to her to meet them all halfway, at least on the surface. They didn’t need to know that she was never going to trust anyone again, not completely, which was why she hadn’t told Emlyn her whole story, and why she was never going to. With that thought in mind, she went in search of Mrs. Brooks so they could start to move the surplus furniture from the dining room into the garage.

  By the time Emlyn found them they were both disheveled and hot and Katy had cobwebs in her hair. He chuckled at the sight of them. “Well I must say this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I suggested you had a live-in companion.”

  Mrs. Brooks scowled at him. “Don’t laugh at Katy, it’s rude.”

  He held up his hands apologetically. “I’m not laughing at her, truly I’m not.”

  Katy, who could still see the twinkle in his eyes, scowled as well. “If you want to make yourself useful you can help us by carrying the remaining things outside.”

  Without a word he followed her back inside the house and did as he was told. Finally, once most of the furniture had been cleared, they managed to shift the heavy oak dining table into the middle of the room. Then, while Katy positioned the matching chairs, Emlyn pushed the one remaining dresser into place. When they’d finished he stood back and looked around admiringly.

  “This is how it used to be when I was small. I can remember playing with my toy cars underneath this table while the grownups sat around it and talked.” His voice was wistful.

  When Katy didn’t answer, he looked at her. “Is something wrong? Has mother been difficult today?”

  She flushed with embarrassment as she shook her head. “She’s fine…better than fine in fact…she’s in profit because she made Izzie pay for some flowers when she visited earlier. It’s my fault because I told her the greenhouse and the garden is a replacement for her shop and she’s taken me literally.”

  For a moment he didn’t say anything then he broke into loud guffaws of laughter that lasted long enough for a smile to begin to tug at the corner of Katy’s lips.

  “When Izzie telephoned earlier to ask me to bring you both up to the Hall on Friday, she said mother had given her some flowers, but she didn’t say she’d had to pay for the privilege.”

  “That was very tactful of her considering how much your mother charged her. She got upset about Penny’s Posies again you see, and about the car, so in an effort to distract her I…um…told her she worked here now, instead. It calmed her down so quickly that I soon forgot about it. She didn’t though, and when Izzie arrived she went into full flower shop mode, even arranging the blooms she chose into an elegant bouquet and tying them together with ribbon.”

  He stopped smiling. “My father really did her a disservice when he sold the shop didn’t he?”

  “Yes. I think she would still manage now, with help, and she’d be a whole lot happier too.”

  “Mmm…that’s more or less what Izzie’s been saying ever since it happened, which is one of the reasons she wants you to take her up to the Hall. Jack has some wonderful greenhouses on the estate as well as an orangery and acres of flowers and shrubs. He has gardeners too, of course, but Izzie thinks mother might enjoy spending time working there, not for set hours or anything like that, just as and when she feels like it.”

  Katy’s eyes widened as she took in the implications of what Emlyn had just told her. Although it was exactly the sort of opportunity she had been looking for, she suddenly wondered where she fitted in. Was Izzie just being friendly because she wanted to help Emlyn and knew that Katy was the key to getting Mrs. Brooks to Corley Hall, or was it for Katy herself? She wished she knew, and she wished too that the thought that it might be a second-hand friendship hadn’t caused her stomach to tighten back into the bitter little knot that the past weeks of living in Corley had begun to unravel. Noticing her expression Emlyn frowned.

  “You don’t look very impressed. Is it a bad idea, because if you think it is then say so? The last thing we want to do is to upset her new routine.”

  Trying to ignore the fact that his question immediately bracketed him with Izzie and turned Katy back into the professional companion he’d hired and whose opinion he valued, but who wasn’t really a friend, she shook her head. “No, it’s fine, in fact I think it’s a very good idea as long as she doesn’t overdo it.”

  “Good. Well in that case I’ll pick you both up immediately after lunch on Friday.”

  Chapter Nine

  As Emlyn’s car approached Corley Hall Katy gasped. He glanced at her in the driving mirror and grinned. “Not expecting this were you?”

  She shook her head speechlessly, unable to believe that anyone who lived in such grandiose surroundings could possibly want to be friends with her. Just driving in through the huge double gates – open, because the estate was open to visitors every day but Monday from March to December according to the sign on the wall - had been enough to impress her, but now, as Emlyn ignored the car park and drove on up to the house, she was stunned by the beauty all around her. Every twist and turn opened up a new vista of trees and gently rolling lawns, while the deer grazing in the distance were seemingly oblivious to the visitors who studded the landscape with color and movement.

  “It gets better,” he told her as they rounded the final curve and drove up the long avenue that led to Corley Hall itself. Built of a warm, golden stone, it was elegant and welcoming, and the huge stone urns beside the main entrance added color with an overflowing tumble of pelargonium, fuchsia and ivy. Emlyn, however, didn’t stop. Instead he drove his car around the side of the building until he reached a private gateway. Tapping a code into the keypad, he waited until the wooden gates swung open and then drove into a sunny courtyard and cut the engine.

  “Don’t look so dazzled. The Hall is beautiful and so is the estate, but it’s taken Jack and Izzie a long time and a lot of hard work to get it like this. Neither of them grew up wealthy, either, not even Jack despite living here as a child, so they both have their feet planted very firmly on the ground. What you see is what you get with them because too many bad things have happened in their lives for them ever to be complacent about the good times, so just embrace it Katy, and enjoy yourself.”

  He climbed out of the car as he spoke and within minutes he, Katy and Mrs. Brooks were making their way across the courtyard to where a heavy door was propped open with a quirky doorstop in the shape of a frog. Splashes of sunlight dappled the wooden floor inside. William appeared in the doorway before they r
eached it and, recognizing Emlyn, launched himself at him with a shriek of excited laughter. With a grin Emlyn lifted him over his head and settled him onto his shoulders.

  “He horse,” the little boy told Katy as he buried his hands in Emlyn’s untidy thatch of tawny hair.

  “So I see,” Katy’s smile widened as Emlyn, smothering an expletive, tried to loosen William’s clutching fingers. Taking pity on him, she told William that horses didn’t much like having their manes pulled.

  “I not pull, I do it like Auntie Jodie do it,” he explained patiently.

  Emlyn chuckled. “You can’t win Katy. William’s main aim in life is to have a horse of his own. In the meantime he’s decided, for reasons best known to himself, that I’m the next best thing.”

  “It’s your own fault because you never say no. You don’t have to give him a piggyback every time he asks for one you know,” Izzie appeared in the doorway shaking her head.

  “Hmm. Do we agree with that William?”

  “Noooo…gallop Emlyn…gallop.”

  “Sorry but I’m not up to galloping today. You can take me to Daddy though and then later, if you’re very good, we can trot down to see Luke.”

  “Okay…I good. Move on.” William settled himself more comfortably on Emlyn’s shoulders and then made a clicking noise with his teeth.

  Izzie watched them go with a grin. “My sister has a lot to answer for. The first word William said was horse and most of his vocabulary has a distinctly equine flavor.”

  Satisfied that Mrs. Brooks was busy checking out the various planted urns and pots in the courtyard, Katy turned to Izzie with a smile. “Does she live near here, your sister?”

  “Sadly no. It’s quite a trek to get to her but we do the best we can. William loves it when we visit because Jodie runs a horse therapy centre and everyone in her house is mad about horses, even Marcus who should know better.”

  Seeing Katy’s confusion she laughed. “Sorry. I forgot you don’t know anything about us. Marcus Lewis the composer is my brother-in-law, and instead of riding horses he should be looking after his hands because he can’t play the piano with broken fingers.”

  As she spoke she led the way inside, pausing only to check on Mrs. Brooks and tell her they would be in the kitchen when she’d finished inspecting the flowers. Responding entirely rationally the older woman nodded and said she’d join them in a few minutes.

  “She’ll be fine,” Izzie told Katy. “Nobody can get in or out of the courtyard unless they know the code for the keypad, and the doors that lead out onto the estate are all locked. Once upon a time we used to unlock them after the visitors had gone but now we don’t because of William. He’s much too small to go wandering about on his own, although when he’s older I know he will if his father has anything to do with it. Jack spent most of his childhood skinning rabbits and camping as far as I can make out. Emlyn, and Tony from the Corley Arms, were part of it too. They had some sort of pact…all for one and one for all…like the three musketeers.”

  Katy remembered Tony and how he’d welcomed her to the Corley Arms the evening Emlyn had taken her and his mother there for a meal. She hadn’t realized he was friendly with Emlyn though. She’d thought he was just being a sociable landlord. Instead it appeared that he, Jack and Emlyn shared a history that went way back into their childhood.

  Izzie smiled at the quizzical expression on her face. “They still think like that now you know. They wouldn’t admit it if you asked them, but they do. They’re always there for one another in a crisis, which is why Jack and Tony both worry about Emlyn.”

  She paused for a moment while she reached for mugs and plates from a cupboard and set them out on the kitchen counter. Then, as she poured boiling water into the teapot, she added an intriguing footnote. “He helped Jack save Corley Hall you know. He was running out of funds when Emlyn discovered a charitable organization that invests in historic buildings and made him accept its money. ”

  “But surely you would…” Katy’s voice trailed off in embarrassment as she realized how presumptuous her thoughts were. Izzie, however, merely glanced across at her, shrugged, and continued the conversation.

  “…have lent him money, yes of course I would, but he wouldn’t take it. He was determined to save the estate on his own even though it meant borrowing money at a very high interest rate instead of using mine for free. Without Emlyn’s timely discovery he might not have made it, but even when he was faced with failure he was still too proud to use my money, and because pride was all he had left, I couldn’t do a thing about it.”

  Wondering if she’d have to start answering questions about her own life now that Izzie had shared so much, Katy sipped her tea in trepidation. Mrs. Brook’s sudden appearance in the kitchen doorway saved her.

  “I need secateurs,” she told Izzie as she dropped a handful of geranium petals onto the kitchen table. “And a watering can. You’re not looking after your pots.”

  “Can’t help I’m afraid,” said Izzie cheerfully. “The pots are Jack’s responsibility and he keeps all his gardening paraphernalia in the barn next to the greenhouses.”

  As she spoke she filled a third mug with tea and cut a slice from the fruit loaf she’d already offered to Katy. Then she hooked out a chair with her foot. “Come and sit down and drink your tea, then we’ll all go down to the greenhouses so you can show Katy the flowers.”

  Mollified, Mrs. Brooks turned her attention to the fruit loaf. Katy looked at Izzie with admiration. “You’re a natural. You know exactly what to say and how to say it.”

  “It’s because I’ve had a lot of practice. I grew up around horses so I helped out on the Riding for the Disabled program way before my teens. It taught me how to communicate with all kinds of people when I was very young. Then Luke came along and…well you’ll see for yourself soon enough because I expect he’ll be in the barn when we get down there, measuring out the bird seed for the aviary.”

  “An aviary?” Katy was suddenly transported back to her childhood as a memory washed over her. “My father had an aviary. He bred budgerigars and I loved helping him. He used to let me measure out the seed and go into the enclosure too, as long as I promised to be quiet.”

  Hearing the enthusiasm in her voice Izzie grinned. “Something tells me you’re not going to have any trouble communicating with Luke so come on, let’s go and see him. Are you ready Mrs. B?”

  * * *

  Walking through the garden that surrounded the family’s private wing was a revelation to Katy. Although it was protected from the public by high walls and dense hedges, these didn’t spoil the view because the house was built at the top of a steep incline. From the terrace she could see acres of lawn dotted with stately trees, while beyond was a meandering river, a curve of dark woodland, and finally, the vastness of the county with its church spires and picturesque villages shining in the sun.

  “It’s beautiful, really beautiful,” she said. “I already love Corley but I had no idea the surrounding countryside was like this. I didn’t know about the Corley Estate either, not until I read about it in a leaflet.”

  Izzie smiled. “You’re seeing it at it’s best. It’s not so good when it rains for so long that the lower fields are flooded, or when Jack has to take fodder down to the deer on a sled because the truck is snowed in.”

  “It must still look amazing though, with all the trees covered in snow and the fields white and stark.”

  “It does, and I wouldn’t swop it for anything, not even the sunshine of Los Angeles where I lived and worked for several years, even though I tell Jack I miss it on an almost daily basis when the weather is cold.”

  “Do you ever go back?”

  “Not often nowadays. I’d rather be here with William and Jack. I still record things though, and write my own songs, and of course the annual Corley Music Festival and concert keep me busy, which reminds me, you must get Emlyn to bring you along. It’s at the beginning of next month and it’s the time when Corley village a
nd Corley Hall really come alive.”

  The way Izzie seemed to be pairing her with Emlyn gave Katy a sudden jolt. She’d have to put a stop to it before it embarrassed him.

  “Um…Emlyn’s my employer Izzie. I know he brought me here today but that was only because you asked him to. I don’t expect to be part of his social life. I’m sure he has plenty of friends he’d rather bring to the concert while I look after his mother. After all that’s what I’m here for isn’t it, to relieve him of some of his burden?”

  “Emlyn doesn’t have a social life Katy and that’s half his problem. When he lived and worked in the city he used to play hard as well. Jack says that in his younger days he brought a different girl to Corley every time he came to visit his parents. He drove a high-powered sports car then too, with girlfriends to match. He travelled a lot as well and generally lived the life of a good time bachelor. Now though, his whole life has been reduced to Corley, and thanks to the rest of his family bailing out he never has a chance to get away.”

  “Well maybe he can now I’m here,” Katy struggled hard to keep the bitterness out of her voice. She wasn’t about to become a consolation prize for Emlyn however attractive she found him and the sooner Izzie understood that, the better.

  If Izzie noticed her irritation she didn’t show it. Instead she nodded as she unlatched the gate at the bottom of the garden and led them through to the greenhouses. With a cry of delight Mrs. Brooks grabbed Katy’s arm, pulled her inside the nearest one, and walked her between the long rows of plants, explaining the different species and why Jack was growing them as she did so.