It’s Harry’s fault. He went for a walk in the winter without the right equipment.’
‘He was unlucky.’
‘No, he was lucky.’ Dino pulled off a glove and flexed his fingers. ‘You found him. Could have been worse.’
She was concentrating on the road but she could feel him looking at her. ‘It was Rambo who picked up the scent. I didn’t even know he was missing.’
‘We were about to call you when you called us.’
‘So how come you got to us so quickly and the others didn’t?’
‘I was about to head into the mountains myself. I guess we spend our free time the same way.’
‘So your date didn’t end the way you wanted it to.’
He smiled. ‘It ended exactly the way I wanted it to.’
Which meant what, exactly? He’d already said the brunette wasn’t waiting for him at home. Trying not to think about it, Meg pulled up outside her cottage. ‘Home, sweet home. And you’re still in one piece.’
‘Miracles do happen. Thanks for the lift. Are you working tomorrow?’
‘Yes. Look, Dino…’ She hesitated, torn between getting away from him as fast as possible and doing the right thing for Harry. ‘Don’t take the Lamborghini. We’ve had so much snow in the past few hours and your car isn’t good in bad weather. I’ll drive you to the hospital. If they’re as busy as you say, they could probably use my help as well as yours. Just give me time to explain to Mum and see Jamie.’
Meg slid out of the car and crunched her way through layers of snow to the front door of her cottage. She stood for a moment, looking at the lights burning in the windows and the rose bush groaning under the weight of snow by the front door. In a few more months it would be frothy with white blooms, turning her home into something from a picture postcard. The summer tourists who overran the Lake District like a million invading ants had been known to stop and take photographs of her house because it was so quintessentially English. To her it was home and she loved it. Now, with Christmas only two weeks away, there was a wreath on the door and scarlet berries on the holly bush. And mistletoe.
Meg frowned.
Who had added the mistletoe?
The door opened before she even started to delve for her key and her mother stood there, an apron tied round her slim waist, a mug in her hand. ‘I’ve made you hot soup, Dr Zinetti. You need something to warm you before you go back to the hospital.’
‘Molto grazie. You are truly a life saver, Mrs Miller.’ Dino emerged from behind her and took the mug in his gloved hand, the steam from the soup forming clouds in the freezing air. ‘I’m grateful.’
‘I’m the one who is grateful. You brought my girl safely home.’
‘I brought myself home, Mum. Do I get soup, too?’ Irritated, Meg dragged the hat off her head and immediately saw Dino’s expression change as he followed the crazy tumble of her hair with narrowed eyes.
She tensed, thinking that he was probably comparing her messy, tangled hair to the smooth, blow-dried version he’d stared at across the lunch table a few hours earlier. For a moment she wished she’d left her hat on and that thought annoyed her because she’d long ago come to terms with who she was. When other girls in her school had been learning about lipstick and moisturiser, she’d been learning to map read and use a compass. While they’d spent their weekends shopping for clothes, she’d been up on the mountains. Her only interest in clothes was whether they were wind resistant and weatherproof. She knew about wicking layers and the importance of not wearing cotton. She didn’t know whether grey was the new black or whether jeans should be straight cut or boot cut. And, more to the point, she didn’t care.
Meg turned away, irritated with him for looking and even more irritated with herself for caring that he’d looked.
What could have been a decidedly awkward moment was broken by her mother’s disapproving tone.
‘Megan, I found mouldy cheese in your fridge.’
Meg gritted her teeth and vowed never to let her mother babysit again. ‘Is Jamie still awake?’
‘Mummy?’ Right on cue a small figure dressed in a Batman costume barrelled into her, crushing her round the waist. ‘We decorated the house. We’ve put mistletoe everywhere.’
‘I’d noticed.’ Why was everyone suddenly so obsessed with mistletoe?
‘Grandma says the berries are magic. If you stand under them, exciting things can happen.’
‘Is that right?’ Meg dropped to her knees and hugged her son. Immediately she felt her mood soften and the tension in her limbs evaporate. He smelled of shampoo and bedtime and his smile was the best thing she’d seen all day.
As long as she had him, everything was all right with her world.
‘Hey there, Batman.’ Dino was smiling. ‘Have you saved Gotham City lately?’
‘Loads of times.’ Jamie wrapped his arms round Meg’s neck, shivering in the thin costume he insisted on wearing to bed but grinning up at Dino anyway. For some reason that Meg didn’t even want to think about, in the months that she’d been working alongside Dino, her son had developed a serious case of hero-worship for him. ‘Why? Do you need any help?’
‘When I do, you’ll be the first person I ask. I need to get back to the hospital.’ Dino retrieved his car keys from his pocket.
‘Did you drive the Lamborghini? Wow, that’s so cool. It looks like the Batmobile. Can I sit in it?’
Meg tensed. ‘No, Jamie, you—’
‘Just for a minute—pleeease?’
Anticipating Dino’s inevitable rejection and Jamie’s subsequent disappointment, Meg shook her head. ‘Dino has to go, Jamie. He’s a very important doctor and he’s needed at the hospital. And, anyway, I know you love cars but the temperature is minus five and you’re in your Batman costume. You need to get back inside.’
‘Batman doesn’t feel the cold.’
‘You heard Dr Zinetti, he has to get back to the hospital now. Another time, perhaps.’ Having made his excuses for him, she expected Dino to leave, but instead he handed his empty mug back to her mother.
‘Does Batman have a cloak or some sort of coat? Anything you could wear over your outfit?’
Jamie frowned. ‘I’m not cold. Batman is tough and strong.’
‘I know,’ Dino didn’t miss a beat. ‘But the neighbours might be watching and you don’t want them to know who you really are. A superhero likes to keep his identity a secret.’
Jamie turned his head and looked at the neighbouring cottages. ‘You think they might be watching?’
‘I think you can’t be too careful when you’re saving the world.’ Dino’s expression was serious.
