I can do, just say the word. And you are welcome to stay here until you are completely recovered.’
‘Thank you.’ I managed a smile through the lump that had formed in my throat, ‘I don’t want to impose on your hospitality, but until the roads are open or my memory returns, I think you might very well be stuck with me. Even though neither of us knows what you should call me…’
‘Ah, I’ve just remembered another miracle.’ He tentatively returned the smile. ‘I left a message on Adam Jenkins’s answering machine last night—he’s the local farmer who owns the field you collapsed in—and he called back this morning to say he’s got the cat you were talking about. Apparently she’s alive and well.’
My heart leaped with the good news. With all my possessions and memories gone, it was good to think that just up the road was a creature that might actually belong to me. She was the only link to my past. ‘Thank you so much,’ I enthused. ‘It really means a lot to know she’s safe.’
‘Sorry to break up your little celebration.’ Tara was watching us stonily from the doorway. ‘Maria from next door wants to know if you are still going round to dinner this evening.’
She was directing the question at Vincent, but her eyes strayed to me as I sank back quickly in my seat at the table.
‘I don’t think it’s a good idea.’ He seemed hesitant. ‘I never really wanted to go in the first place. Can’t you put her off?’
‘Now that is not a very neighbourly thing to say,’ a heavily accented female voice admonished from behind Tara’s shoulder.
Tara stood to one side, allowing a buxom dark-haired beauty into the kitchen. Maria pulled out a chair and sat down, crossing her suede-booted legs with a flourish. ‘You must come, Vincenzo, you promised!’
‘I didn’t promise anything of the sort.’ Vincent looked decidedly awkward. ‘I said I’d think about it.’
Maria’s face fell and for a moment I thought she was actually going to burst into tears. ‘But I have already begun the preparations.’
I noticed Tara rolling her eyes heavenward behind her, her lips pursed with obvious disapproval at Maria’s attempt to persuade him.
Vincent looked down at the table, his pale skin colouring slightly. ‘I don’t want to put you to any trouble.’
‘It is no trouble at all. And it would be good for both me and Michael to have some adult company for a change.’
‘Male company, you mean,’ Tara muttered under her breath.
‘I beg your pardon?’ Maria turned smouldering eyes on Tara.
Tara shrugged and Vincent shifted uncomfortably in his chair as the two women glared at one another. He looked across at me and his face brightened. My presence had given him the perfect excuse to refuse the invitation. ‘But I haven’t introduced you to our guest,’ he said. ‘This is a miracle worker who is staying with us at present. It would be very rude of me to go out while we have a visitor.’
Maria hesitated, giving me a curious glance up and down. Apparently satisfied that I was no competition for her, she held out a beautifully manicured hand. ‘I am pleased to make your acquaintance.’ She grimaced slightly as if the words were painful to her. ‘Of course the invitation includes you also.’
A look flickered across Vincent’s features that I couldn’t quite discern, but after a moment’s hesitation he nodded, turning to Tara, who was rather sulkily inspecting her own rather short nails. ‘You won’t mind babysitting for Jadie, will you, Tara? You’re pretty much stuck here anyway until the roads are cleared.’
‘I could cook for us here,’ Tara offered. ‘Then you wouldn’t need a babysitter.’
‘But then I would have to leave my own son all alone—and I have planned to make one of my speciality Sicilian dishes,’ Maria countered.
Vincent sighed and I could see he was finding the interaction between the two women tiresome. I found myself thinking once again that perhaps there was more to the relationship between Vincent and Tara than just the normal employer/employee one.
‘What do you think?’ He looked directly at me. ‘Fancy a night out eating home-made Sicilian food?’
All eyes were upon me.
‘Er…’ I spluttered awkwardly.
‘Say you’ll come.’
I stared questioningly at him and his handsome features broke out into a hopeful smile. ‘Maria’s cooking is not something to turn down lightly,’ he said.
I avoided Tara’s gaze. I had to admit I didn’t much want Vincent to go next door alone with the luscious and apparently single Maria any more than his housekeeper did, but I was even less enamoured of the prospect of spending the evening in Tara’s company. ‘I would be delighted,’ I said at last.
‘Excellent!’ Maria exclaimed, though she was looking at Vincent, not me. ‘I will expect you at eight thirty.’ She threw Tara a triumphant glance, pushed back her chair and rose to her feet.
Tara sprang up, obviously relieved she was leaving. ‘I’ll show you out,’ she said shortly.
When the kitchen door had closed behind them, Vincent glanced at me apologetically. ‘Thank you for coming to my rescue. I hope you don’t mind me dragging you over to Maria’s tonight. She waylaid me while I was out clearing snow yesterday and was most insistent that I join her.’ He gave me a rueful smile. ‘I know you’re not well with that head injury of yours, but you still need to eat, and she really does cook very well.’
My hand went to the plaster on my head; the cut didn’t hurt and I’d forgotten all about it. ‘It’ll be fun,’ I said graciously. I was still euphoric with the news that the cat I’d abandoned in the snow was alive and well. ‘It’s the least I can do.’
‘I hope you won’t think of the evening as a chore. You have already repaid any kindness by helping my daughter to find her voice.’
I looked at Jadie, who seemed busy cutting enough small bits of white paper from the pile her father had brought from his study to make her own indoor snowstorm. She was engrossed in her task.
As if she realised our eyes were upon her, she glanced up. ‘Why is Tara cross?’ she asked.
‘It’s nothing you need to worry your pretty head about.’ Vincent hastily made for the door. I noticed his daughter’s ability to speak had quickly lost its appeal for him with her first awkward question, and I could see why she had retreated behind a wall of silence if this had been his reaction to any questions she had had after the death of her sister. ‘I must get back to my work—’ he glanced apologetically at me—‘if you’ll excuse me.’
We listened to the sound of his feet disappearing down the passage.
Jadie looked more pointedly at me. ‘Why is Tara cross?’ she asked again, and after a pause where she seemed to be trying out a newly discovered word, she added, ‘What’s an adult company?’
I sighed and wished Vincent would come back and rescue me. It wasn’t my place
