Nick moved on and saw Morenwyn in the parsonage garden playing with the four Thomas children, sheltered from the wind by the boundary wall. They were all wrapped up well against the cold and had two nurses in attendance. Nick leaned on the wall from the saddle and called Morenwyn’s name.
‘Nick! Nick!’ She came running, the nurses and the rest of the children following on her heels. ‘Are you coming in to play with us?’
Nick had an assortment of five small faces all looking up at him, the youngest child just about able to toddle on its chubby legs. Morenwyn had grown in height and was even more pretty. ‘Perhaps later, princess. Here, I’ve got something for you.’
‘What is it?’ a boy aged about six asked bluntly. He put his arm round Morenwyn protectively.
‘It’s all right, Barnabas.’ Nick grinned at him as Morenwyn’s nurse nodded her approval. ‘It’s Nick Nancarrow, remember? I’m Morenwyn’s friend. I’ve got something for her, from another friend, Charlie Chiverton.’
‘Has he made something for me?’ Morenwyn asked, standing on tiptoe to see.
‘Is it another animal for her?’ Barnabas demanded, reaching up his hand.
‘Aye, it’s a sheep this time.’ Nick passed it to the nurse who gave it to Morenwyn who was immediately surrounded by her playmates.
Morenwyn passed through them and dropped Nick a perfect curtsey. ‘Thank you for bringing it to me, Nick.’
Nick smiled to himself; he knew who had taught her to do that. ‘I’ll come back later, Morenwyn, and show all of you my new dog.’
He met Charlotte Thomas as she was leaving Trevennor House. ‘Nick! How good to see you. How are you? You’re looking well.’
Nick looked deeply at the attractive young lady. ‘I am, thank you, Charlotte. I’ve just been talking to Morenwyn and your children over the garden wall.’ He glanced discreetly at Charlotte’s swollen middle. ‘If it’s not indelicate to mention it, I see congratulations are in order.’
‘Again,’ Charlotte added emphatically with a twinkle in her eye. ‘I was just having a word with Mrs Christopher. She’ll be delighted to see you. I’m on my way home to tell the nurses it’s time the children were back inside.’
‘A bit of cold weather won’t hurt them. Never did me any harm.’
‘No, you’re the living proof of that,’ Charlotte replied with a smile.
Nick wanted to ask a question in his usual confident manner, but he had had too many searching and knowing faces peering back at him today and it came out all hesitantly. ‘Is, um, Isabel not at home?’
‘No, she is not.’ Charlotte watched Nick’s face closely and saw it fall. ‘But she’s not far away. She’s taking a walk along the beach. These days she’s just like you are, Nick.’
‘Eh?’
‘Always wanting to be outdoors. She’ll be back in time to take tea with Morenwyn.’
Nick looked down as he shifted his feet. ‘I’ll go in and have a word with Mrs Christopher then.’
More shouts of ‘Nick!’ and offers to fill him with food greeted him in the large busy kitchen. He relented because he knew he wouldn’t win and ate a yeast bun fresh out of the oven while being watched by all the adoring female staff.
‘I shall get as fat as a cat if I keep this up,’ he grumbled. ‘Aren’t you women satisfied unless you’re plying a man with food?’
‘No, but then,’ Mrs Christopher looked at him pointedly, ‘food is not the only way to a man’s heart. Miss Isabel is out walking.’
‘Mistress Thomas told me,’ he sighed heavily.
‘She never married that sea captain or whatever he was.’
‘I know that too.’ Nick felt the women he was with were beginning to close in on him.
‘She’s some good to us, Miss Isabel, we wouldn’t know what to do without her, would we, Cook?’
Wenna Sweet agreed and put another fat yeast bun on his plate.
Nick broke it in half, intending to give it to Cassie when he was outside again. ‘Morenwyn’s growing well and looking very happy,’ he said conversationally.
‘Oh, she is,’ Mrs Christopher said enthusiastically. ‘Miss Isabel is like a proper mother to her. Will make a good mother to her own one day.’
Nick looked all round the kitchen. He had a good idea what they were hoping he would say. ‘I might have enough time to see her briefly before I go on again.’
‘Oh, you haven’t got business elsewhere, have you?’
‘I thought I might ride over to Tehidy and see how the coach horses I was training are getting on. I did rather go off and leave them suddenly.’
‘You mustn’t leave us yet, Nick, you’ve only just got here.’ Mrs Christopher was looking outside. Your dog is getting restless. I think she’d like a run along the beach. What do you think?’
Nick got up suddenly. ‘Oh, very well, I’m going! I’m beginning to feel crowded in here and I’ve had enough ear-bashing for one day.’
‘Shall I give the order for the stable boys to see to your horses?’
Nick gave Mrs Christopher a long thoughtful look. ‘Better not. I might be riding off again quite soon.’
As soon as he’d gone, Mrs Christopher turned to the maid. ‘Dorcas, tell the stable boys to put Nick’s horses in their old stalls.’ Then she and Wenna Sweet went to the larder to prepare a feast.
Nick ordered Cassie to lie down and keep quiet. He watched Isabel at a distance from behind the security of a sand towan. Gwithian’s beach was much longer than Crantock’s but straight and wide and he had spotted her instantly. She was at the water’s edge, moving back as the tide rolled in more and more with each thundering wave, her hair streaming out in a honey-coloured mass. Cassie edged forward and Nick put up a restraining finger. What was Isabel thinking about? Her times spent here with Laurence? Regret that she had not married Richard Grenville? The time spent with himself on that fateful journey that had changed her life so much?
Isabel was thinking about Nick. She thought about him every day and every night. Mostly she thought about the two nights she had slept with his arms round her, strong and warm, making her feel safe.
She hadn’t seen or heard from him for over a year now, and she still felt the biggest part of her life was missing. If only she hadn’t fallen in love with him. Phoebe Antiss would have said, ‘Granted he’s tall and handsome and possesses brilliant eyes and some wonderful wild ways, but he’s not the only man in the world, dear heart. You’ll soon meet another.’ Isabel had given herself time to see if this was true, but her feelings for Nick had only grown stronger, her need for him cutting into her with a deeper longing.
There had been a steady stream of young gentlemen flocking to Trevennor House when news of her broken engagement had got round the social circles. She was an heiress and after her enforced adventures something of a curiosity. When she had not returned their interest, many had still clamoured at her door besotted by Kitty, not caring about her background and profession, and Kitty had taken a fancy to one in particular and agreed to marry him. Kitty wanted to settle down and have a family. So did Isabel, but only one man could fill that need.
One day Nick would come back to Gwithian… wouldn’t he? He always had before. He had grown very fond of Morenwyn, surely he would come back to see her. No one seemed to know where he had gone and what he was doing, not even Charlie Chiverton. Why didn’t he write? Send just a little note to tell someone he was keeping well? It was such a long time. Surely he would come… She had waited for him before like this out on the beach and cliff.
Isabel didn’t hear the small white dog yapping its way towards her. A big wave rushed in and soaked her feet and she ran backwards, splashing her cloak and dress. ‘Oh dear, what will Mrs Christopher say? She’ll scold me for getting my good shoes wet.’
‘Tell her ’tis none of her business.’
She spun round and got another soaking as she stood and stared.
‘’Tis good manners to say goodday to a body.’
She didn’t want to speak. She just wanted to run into his arms and hold him tightly to be certain he was really there.
‘Well, if you won’t speak to me, say hello to my little dog. Cassie, say hello to Miss Isabel Hampton, the lady of Trevennor House.’
Isabel glanced at the dog who was diving at the incoming waves. ‘It’s… it’s a much better name than Gutser.’
‘So you remember that name. Is that all you’ve got to say?’
Isabel blinked, but Nick was still there. She had looked forward to this for so long that now he was here she didn’t know what to say. She felt shy and awkward, the way only a man like Nick Nancarrow can render an otherwise strong and confident woman. She thought she would have seen him trotting up the village or striding towards her, his wild hair spilling behind him. But here he was and she had practically walked backwards into him.
She moved out of the cold water and onto firm sand. ‘Have you been back long?’
‘Not long in Gwithian but I’ve called on Kitty, Mundy and Charlie since I’ve been back round here.’ He lowered his head, stern-faced. ‘Aren’t you pleased to see me?’
‘Oh, y-yes, of course I am. Morenwyn will love to see you, she talks about you a lot. I hope you can stay, Nick.’
‘Do you, Isabel? For how long?’
‘For as long as you like.’ She was still staring at him, as if she believed he wasn’t really there with her.
He loved the warm smokiness of her wonderful eyes but he wasn’t sure how she felt at him being there. ‘I’ll probably stay for a while…’
‘If you haven’t got somewhere to stay you’re welcome to sleep in the stables like you used to do,’ she added quickly lest he think she was playing the lady. ‘You would be very welcome to stay in the house but it wouldn’t be seemly.’
‘I’ll find a place to lay my head if I stay that long. I must say I didn’t expect to come back and find you unmarried.’
‘There was no reason for me to marry Richard Grenville and I would have made him very unhappy eventually.’
‘No reason, Isabel? I find that a curious thing to hear you say.’
‘Will you ever realize that I’ve changed?’ she said almost desperately. ‘That the time we had together gave me different outlooks and values? At the end I saw I didn’t need to marry someone I didn’t love just for position or because he made a desirable husband. Oh, you make me so mad sometimes, Nick Nancarrow!’
His face darkened. ‘I only asked you a simple question. I didn’t come here to be told I’m stupid, Isabel Hampton.’
‘Then why did you come here?’
‘I’m damned if I know!’
‘Oh, that’s definitely the Nick Nancarrow I know. Pig-headed and rude.’
Nick’s patience was on a short fuse. He had not wanted this to happen. A verbal tug-of-war. But then things had never been put right with Isabel from the time Kitty had disturbed them in her kitchen. They had both felt embarrassed and Kitty had added guilt to the feeling. Guilt probably on Isabel’s part that she was betrothed to another man, guilt on his that he was only going to use her. But that wasn’t true. Being with her would have meant the world to him.
He asked softly, ‘When did you decide that you weren’t going to marry Richard Grenville?’
Isabel was feeling crushed at their argument. She frowned. ‘Does it matter, Nick?’
He touched her hair and all her hopes came tumbling back. ‘I think it does, for both of us.’
‘It was from the day I first spoke to Benjamin. He made me see how I really felt.’
‘Then when you agreed to make love with me you didn’t feel you were betraying Grenville?’
‘No, I knew I could never feel anything for Richard. I knew you cared a little for me, you were so kind and attentive in the creek. I wanted to give myself to you and I wanted to take from you too. I had hoped and dreamed that something might have come out of it, but I felt at that moment that I could have lived on the memory for ever.’
Nick put his hands firmly on Isabel’s shoulders and looked right into her. ‘I felt more for you than just caring for you, Isabel. But Kitty came back and made me feel I was about to cheapen you, that I was only looking for a casual encounter with you. Believe me, it would have been more than that.’
Isabel’s eyes were full of hope as she looked back at him. ‘Kitty made me feel underhand and ashamed, as if by behaving that way with you I was somehow being ungrateful to her.’
‘Dear Kitty, she thought at the time she was doing the right thing, bringing up Richard Grenville as an uncrossable bridge between us, but it wasn’t true. I don’t believe we would have come together without there being something wonderful and lasting between us. I love you, Isabel.’
‘Oh, Nick,’ she cried and flung herself into his arms. ‘I’ve spent all this time since you left me longing for you to come back and say that.’
Nick rested his chin on her head and told the ocean, ‘All that wasted time…’ Then he brought his lips to Isabel’s and kissed her as though he was trying to make up for all that lost time in one moment.
They strolled along the shore, holding one another tightly as if they never wanted to let go.
Isabel said, ‘I thought you would have fought to the last breath to stay independent.’
‘That’s not independence, Isabel. Being afraid to love and commit yourself to someone, that’s only running away. Besides,’ and he looked at her, grinning cheekily, ‘I’d be a fool not to marry the woman with the best legs in Cornwall.’
Isabel laughed and reached up to kiss him. ‘I wonder what Uncle Laurence would say? To us falling in love.’
Nick nodded his head in satisfaction. ‘He’d be absolutely delighted, I reckon, and he’d approve of us getting married as soon as possible.’ He picked Isabel up in his arms and whirled her round. ‘We’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for and I want to provide Morenwyn with another garden full of children to play with.’
‘Nick Nancarrow!’ She kissed him, overwhelming him with her passion and urgency. Then let’s hurry up and tell Morenwyn and all the others that you’re staying.’
‘For ever!’
‘For ever…’