being cooped up in the house, and since she was cooking with the children today there were probably traces of flour in her hair where she’d pushed it off her face with the back of her hand. ‘If I look less than on top of the world, I guess it’s because I was up till all hours last night, painting the walls in the living room. Sit down and I’ll pour you some tea. We were just about to have a cup.’
‘Sarah’s going to paint our bedrooms next,’ Sam put in eagerly. He was using a cutter to make gingerbread shapes, and he paused now to assess his handiwork. ‘She said we can choose the colours—’cept for black. She won’t let me have that.’ His bottom lip jutted and he frowned as he thought about that for a second or two. Then his eyes lit up. ‘Purple would be good, though—or bright red.’
‘We helped Sarah with the living room,’ Rosie put in. ‘Well, I did. Sam kept going off and playing on his game machine.’ She looked at her older brother and shook her head.
‘You were both a great help, all the same,’ Sarah said, her eyes crinkling at the corners. ‘It’s going to be a long job, though,’ she admitted, glancing at Murray as she went over to the worktop at the side of the room. She lifted up the sunshine-yellow teapot. ‘I knew there would be a lot of work when we moved in here a fortnight ago. This place was in a pretty wretched state when I bought it.’
Murray pulled a face. ‘I guessed it was bad—the old man who used to live here wasn’t able to do much in the way of maintenance—but I knew he was looking for a quick sale once he’d decided to go and live with his son and his family in Somerset. I did what I could to help him out with things, but there was a limit to what I could do, with company business getting in the way. There were orders for goods coming in thick and fast and supplies from the warehouses were delayed and so on. There’s been a lot to sort out over the last few months.’ He frowned. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have pointed the house out to you,’ he finished on a thoughtful note.
She poured his tea and came towards him once more, placing the mug in front of him. ‘You did the right thing,’ she told him, laying a hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. ‘I’m really glad you told me about this place. I don’t know what I’d have done otherwise. It was exactly what I needed.’
‘Hmm … Well, I suppose a lick of paint here and there will work wonders.’ He glanced at the children, busy laying out gingerbread men on a baking tray. Rosie’s were perfectly symmetrical, with raisins placed in exactly the right place to represent eyes. Sam, on the other hand, was far more slapdash in his approach, and his men looked like cross-eyed vagabonds, with bits missing here and there. Sarah suspected he’d been surreptitiously tasting the uncooked mixture every now and again—the greasy smears around his mouth were a dead give-away.
Murray looked at Sarah once more as she placed the first batch of gingerbread men in the hot oven. ‘How’s the job going? Is it working out for you?’
She sat in a chair opposite him, leaving it to the children to finish rolling out the remains of the gingerbread mix on a pastry board.
‘I think so. It’s early days yet. My boss is watching my every move.’ She gave a wry smile. ‘I think he’s worried I might slip up and inadvertently kill off one of our patients.’
James had not made it obvious that he was concerned about her ability to make the grade, but for the last week he’d checked everything she did, going over her charts and medication logs with a keen eye. Every now and again she would be aware of him assessing her actions, scrutinising the way she handled various procedures. She’d no idea why he was concerned about her abilities as a doctor, but in the past she’d always been headstrong and haphazard in her actions, and maybe he thought she’d breezed her way through medical school on a wing and a prayer.
Murray laughed. ‘As if!’ Then he sobered, glancing at the children, and added in an undertone, ‘Seriously, though, are you finding it all a bit much? You have a whole lot on your plate these days.’
‘It’s okay. I’m beginning to get used to the new routine. It’s just that …’ She broke off, her expression rueful. ‘I don’t know,’ she said, after a moment or two. ‘I don’t seem to have time to sit and think at the moment. Everything seems to be going at a breakneck pace—moving in here, the new job, finding a school for the children, taking on the internet work. It’s all come about in a short space of time.’ She straightened up and sipped at her tea. ‘I’m sure things will sort themselves out, though. Like I said, these are early days.’
‘Maybe it would help if I took the kids out for a while. That would give you some time to yourself—unless you’d like to come with us?’ He gave her a thoughtful look. ‘I need to head into town to pick up some hardware for my computer and I thought about dropping into the pizza place while I’m in the area.’
Sam’s ears pricked up at the mention of pizza. ‘When are you going? Can I go with you?’
‘Sure.’ Murray laughed. ‘If Sarah thinks it’s okay, that is.’ He glanced at her and she nodded. She’d known Murray for years, ever since they’d both taken part in a rock-climbing course at an outdoor pursuits centre. He ran his own internet company, working from home most of the time, selling sports equipment and accessories, advising people on how to keep fit, and setting up weekend sporting activities. She’d always found him to be reliable and trustworthy. The children would be safe with him, that was for sure.
‘That’s fine with me. I think I’ll give it a miss, though, if you don’t mind. I think I need some time to get myself together.’ It had been a stressful week, one way and another, and being with James every day had been harder to handle than she’d expected. She’d always known she should keep her distance from him, but now that she’d taken the job that was never going to happen. Every instinct warned her that whatever way she became involved with him, she might end up being hurt. He alone had the power to affect her that way. Emotionally he could leave her bereft.
She dragged her mind back to Murray’s offer. ‘I have to go and buy some groceries from the village store, and I could do with a walk along the clifftop and maybe even along the beach.’ She smiled. ‘Rosie and Sam never seem quite as keen on doing that as I am.’
Murray nodded and turned to look at Rosie. ‘How does pizza sound to you, Rosie? Are you in?’
‘Yes, please.’ She looked at Sarah and said hesitantly, ‘I don’t mind going for walks … not really … It’s just that …’ She broke off, her shoulders wriggling. ‘Mum used to take us along the seafront in Devon. Now … I get. I get all sad now when we go to the beach.’ Her eyes were downcast, and her lower lip was beginning to tremble.
‘Oh, Rosie …’ Sarah’s heart swelled with compassion, and she quickly stood up and went over to her. ‘I know how you must be feeling, pumpkin.’ She put her arms around the little girl and held her close. ‘I do understand. It’s hard … but you’ll see, it’ll get easier with time.’
‘We used to play football on the beach with Dad sometimes,’ Sam said, a wistful, far-away look in his blue-grey eyes. ‘He used to dive for the ball and then he’d fall over and we’d wrestle him for it.’
Sarah reached out and gently stroked his hair. She didn’t remember her father ever playing rough-and-tumble games like that with her when she’d been younger, but obviously he had changed, grasping a second chance of happiness after he had found her stepmother and started his new family. She felt for Rosie and Sam. They were going through something that no child should ever have to bear, but she was doing whatever she could to make life easier for them. It was difficult, though, because memories would come flooding in at unexpected moments, like this, putting
