ruthless and ambitious, but she hadn’t wanted to believe them. Was it true after all? Why couldn’t he see the way her father had been hurt?
He watched her unlock her car door. ‘Katie,’ he said quietly, ‘all of this happened a long time ago, and it was a dispute between our parents, not the two of us. There’s no reason why you and I can’t still be friends, is there?’
‘I have to be loyal to my family,’ she said. ‘I’m surprised that you can’t see that.’
‘Of course I see it. It doesn’t stop me from believing that we can at least try to put all the bad feelings behind us.’
‘I don’t think my family see it that way. Even after all this time they’re still suffering the effects. For us, it doesn’t stop.’
‘I’m sorry. I know it must be difficult for you, but I thought that as we had met up again we could at least spend some time together. I’ll be in the area for a day or two and I wondered if we might have dinner together, or maybe just a coffee.’
‘I don’t think that’s going to be possible. You have your meeting to go to, and I have to work over the next few days.’ She sent him a quick, troubled glance. ‘I am glad that we met up again, though,’ she said in a mollified tone, ‘and I really appreciate all your help this afternoon. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there.’
He made a wry smile. ‘I’m sure you would have managed very well.’
She pulled open her car door and he rested his hand on the rim of it. ‘Are you sure that I can’t persuade you to change your mind?’
‘I’m sure. I can’t,’ she said, and she was conscious of a tremor in her voice. She hoped he hadn’t noticed it, too. ‘I must go. I have to get to the pharmacy before it closes. I promised that I would collect my father’s prescription since I’m in town.’
‘All right. I’ll let you go.’ He made a rueful smile. ‘Perhaps we’ll meet up again soon.’
‘Perhaps,’ she said, but she knew that they wouldn’t. She put her key in the ignition, and as soon as he had released the door she pulled it shut and started the engine. As she drove away, she glanced in her rear-view mirror and saw that he was still standing there, watching her go.
She completed her errands and then drove to her parents’ home. Letting herself in through the kitchen door, she saw that her brother was there.
‘Katie...you’re here at last. Thank heaven for that. I was beginning to worry.’
Katie looked at her brother and frowned. She hadn’t expected to be pounced on the moment she walked into the room.
‘Why? What’s wrong? I’m not all that late.’ She slipped her jacket over the back of a chair and laid her handbag down on the pine table. ‘I’ve been to the pharmacy for Dad’s medication. Mum asked me to collect it on my way home.’
Luke looked faintly dishevelled, his black hair awry, as though he had been running his fingers through it, and his grey eyes were troubled. She asked quietly, ‘Is something wrong with Dad?’
‘He’s not too well. I wasn’t sure what to do. I wanted to phone for the doctor, but Mum said she was expecting you.’
Katie was anxious all at once. ‘Why didn’t you ring me—you know my mobile number, don’t you?’
‘Yes, but Mum thought you would be driving, and she stopped me.’
‘Where is he?’
‘In the living room. He had a funny turn and couldn’t get his breath.’
Katie was already heading that way. ‘Do you know what started it? What was he doing before he started to be ill?’
‘He wasn’t doing anything. We were talking about the business and I was telling him that I’ve been trying to get some new contracts.’ He sent her a guilty look. ‘I’m probably to blame. I shouldn’t have gone on about things, but it hasn’t been easy lately, trying to keep everything running smoothly, and I think he feels that he should be doing more to help out. He can’t, of course, and that makes him frustrated. That last bout of bronchitis must have taken more out of him than he realised.’
Katie pushed open the living-room door and glanced around. Her father was sitting in an armchair, looking pale and trying to disguise the fact that he was in pain.
Her mother was by his side, but she turned as Katie approached and gave her a swift, weak smile. ‘Katie,’ she said, ‘your dad’s not feeling very well. Can you do anything to help him?’
Katie knelt down beside her father. ‘Luke says you’re a bit breathless,’ she said. ‘Are you having any chest pain?’
Her father patted her hand. ‘Your mum and Luke both worry too much,’ he said in a wheezy voice. ‘I’ll be fine in a little while. I just need to rest for a bit.’
‘Let me just feel your pulse and check you over,’ she murmured, and he gave a faint nod and leaned his head back in the chair.
After a moment or two she said quietly, ‘I think you’re having another of your angina attacks. They seem to be coming on a bit more often these days, don’t they? Have you taken your medication?’
He nodded again, and her mother said quickly, ‘It didn’t seem to work very well. I told him he should go and see his doctor and tell him that he hasn’t been feeling too good lately, but you know how stubborn he is.’
Katie smiled. ‘Yes, I do know that.’ She clasped her father’s hand. ‘I think you need a painkiller, and another one of your tablets, just to calm things down. Mum’s right. You really should go back to your GP and get him to refer you back to the specialist.’
She went and fetched some tablets from the medicine cupboard, and gave them to her father with a glass of water. ‘Do you think you’ll be all right while Mum and I go and make you a cup of tea?’ she asked after a minute or two. ‘It might help to make you feel a bit better.’
‘I’ll be fine. Anyway, Luke’s going to sit and talk to me, aren’t you, Luke?’
Her brother nodded, and Katie gave him and her father a warning look. ‘There’s to be no talk about business. Am I making myself clear?’
Both men nodded, looking sheepish, and Katie went off to the kitchen to put the kettle on.
‘Luke was anxious about him,’ her mother said, following her in there. ‘He was getting quite agitated even though you were just a few minutes late. I think he’s finding it a strain, managing the business on his own.’
Katie helped to set the cups out on a tray. ‘Luke never expected to be running the business and concentrating on administration, did he? He had other things in mind when he left university—he always preferred the design engineering side of things—but he couldn’t just stand by and see Dad struggle. You have to give him his due...he made sure that he did the right thing.’
Her mother made a face. ‘Well, let’s face it, nothing has gone the way it should ever since Jacob Bradley took over Sherbourn Medical Equipment. It doesn’t even have your father’s name any more, and the
