‘MEGAN?’ HARRY’S TONE implied that he was expecting some kind of welcome. When she didn’t give it, he turned to Jaye.
‘I’m Megan’s uncle,’ Harry lied smoothly, holding his hand out towards Jaye. ‘I was just passing, and came to see what she’s up to.’
Jaye shook Harry’s hand, his face impassive. ‘Pleased to meet you. You’re very welcome here.’
‘And you are?’ Harry always liked to know whether the person he was talking to was worth his time.
‘I’m sorry… Jaye Perera. I’m the clinic’s director.’
Jaye never referred to himself as the director. He was happy with being the doctor, or peacemaker, or even temporary cook and bottle-washer if one was required. But he was on his guard, asserting his authority here.
‘Is Mum all right?’ A thought suddenly struck Megan and she blurted the words out.
‘Your mother? She’s fine. I called her last week and she told me you were here.’
When Megan thought about it, it wasn’t very likely that Harry would come all the way here just to tell her that something had happened to her mother. And it was just like her mother to discuss what Megan was doing with Harry, even though Megan had asked her not to.
‘She told you that I’d be back in London in a week?’ She tried to dislodge the lump in her throat. When it came to the crunch, her mother’s first loyalty was to Harry and Megan had to accept that. It was just one of the things that had driven her away from home as soon as she had been able to pack her things and go.
‘Yes, she did. That’s why I’m here now. There’s something I want to talk to you about. And since I was on my way over to Australia on business I decided to stop off on the way.’
It was something of a detour. Whatever it was must be important, though Megan thought that it would turn out to be important to Harry and not to her.
‘Aren’t you going to ask me inside?’ Harry smiled reproachfully, as if a welcome was something that might come naturally in this situation.
She supposed she should. Her bungalow was probably the best place to take Harry, so they could speak in private, but she hadn’t allowed him admittance to anywhere she lived for a while now.
‘Why don’t you take my office?’ Jaye spoke up suddenly, reaching into his pocket for the key. ‘I’ll rustle up some tea.’
‘Thank you.’ Harry beamed at Jaye again. ‘I’m sure I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble—’
Jaye cut Harry short. ‘It’s no trouble. Is that all right with you, Megan?’
She looked up into his gaze. Warm and protective. If she asked Jaye to turn Harry off the compound, he would have done it, but just knowing he was there meant she didn’t have to. Whatever had brought Harry here, she could face it.
‘Yes, thank you. Everything’s fine.’
‘Okay. I’ll see you later.’ Jaye flashed another look at Harry, which seemed to threaten bodily harm if he put one toe out of line, and walked back to his car to fetch their bags.
‘This way…’ She started to walk along the veranda to the door that led to the offices, and then stopped. ‘What about your driver?’
‘He’ll be all right in the car.’ Harry looked up at the sky. ‘Does it always rain like this here?’
‘No. Not always.’
* * *
She’d let Harry into the office and pulled up two guest chairs. Harry had ignored them and walked around the desk, sitting in Jaye’s high-backed chair.
‘How have you been, Megan? It’s been a while.’ He leaned his elbows on the desk and smiled, for all the world as if he were interviewing her.
‘Yes. It has.’ Megan wasn’t going to apologise for the length of time she’d managed to avoid seeing him. ‘I’m well, and enjoying it here.’
‘And working closely with Dr Perera, I see. Or does he prefer to use his title?’
Megan’s heart sank. Of course Harry knew exactly what the set-up was here. He had staff to do almost everything for him, including keeping track of her.
‘He prefers Dr Perera.’
‘He’s a good contact for you to make, Megan. That young man’s making quite a name for himself.’
Harry was fishing. There was no way he could know how close she and Jaye had become as she’d told no one, not even her mother. Particularly not her mother, because things always seemed to filter back to Harry.
‘He’s a very good doctor. And a good boss, too.’
‘I’m sure he is.’ Harry beamed across at her. ‘I always knew you’d come good in the end.’
Megan pressed her lips together, suppressing the urge to tell him that there were some people who didn’t think she’d totally wasted her life up till now, and that one of them happened to be Jaye. There wasn’t any point, and it would be better if they got whatever Harry had to say over quickly.
‘What are you here for, Harry?’
‘You could call me Father.’ Harry looked around the office. ‘We’re alone here.’
‘We’ve been through that. If you want to keep it a secret that you’re my father, that’s fine. But if I can’t acknowledge you in public, then I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to acknowledge you in private.’
Harry chuckled. It was always the first thing he did when Megan said anything he didn’t much like. Pretend that it was just a laughable quirk on her part.
‘I suppose Dad’s out of the question as well, then.’
She didn’t have to take this any more. It was ten years since she’d called him Dad and then only under protest, because her mother had told her that they both depended on Harry, and that he could throw them out of the house they lived in on a whim.
‘Yes. It’s out of the question.’
The hurt look on Harry’s face was no surprise. If he couldn’t pretend that Megan was joking, he’d revert to the What did I do to deserve that look.
‘It’s a bitter pill for me to swallow, Megan. You’re all I have now, and I haven’t been well.’
The flash of concern she felt almost brought tears to Megan’s eyes. She couldn’t ignore this, however much she wanted Harry to just go away and leave her alone.
‘What’s the matter? Mum told me you’d had a pacemaker fitted six months ago but that you were doing really well.’
‘It was eight months. And it’s not right. I feel my heart thumping in my chest, and I’m sure there’s something wrong.’
‘Have you told your doctor?’ Atrial fibrillation wasn’t something that should be ignored.
‘He doesn’t take it seriously. He says my heart’s fine, but…’
Megan reached forward, laying her fingers over the pulse in Harry’s wrist. It was an automatic reaction, but the feeling that accompanied it was new to her. The feeling that Harry couldn’t die.
‘You care, Megan. No one else seems to.’
‘That’s not true, Harry, plenty of people care about you. So do I.’ However unexpected it was, it was the truth. And Megan had resolved to always tell Harry the truth, however uncomfortable it might be.
Harry’s heart followed the ticking of the second hand on her watch, a strong sixty per minute, regulated by the pacemaker. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t experiencing some irregularities, but it was something. Megan looked up at him.
‘What’s this all about, Harry?’
‘My wife left me. The boys have taken her side… Ungrateful kids…’
‘Like me? You always did say I was ungrateful.’
Harry puffed out a breath. ‘You were a lot like I was when I was young. I went my own way.’
Her mother had always told her that she was like her father, that she had his eyes and his determination. Megan let out an exasperated breath.
‘Harry… Look, I’m really sorry to hear that…there are obviously a lot of very stressful things happening at the moment.’ Megan had never spoken about Harry’s wife or sons, feeling that she had no right to even think about that part of his life. That she was the outsider, the child that should never have happened.
‘She went off with someone else. Can you understand how that makes me feel? She won’t get a penny, my solicitor will see to that.’
‘I can’t… I can’t talk about that with you. It’s not right.’
‘You were always the one, Megan. The boys are like their mother, but you’ve always been the one that was like me. Even when we argued, you were as stubborn as I am. I want you to come to Australia with me when I leave.’
A father. One that loved her. It was what Megan had always wanted, and Harry was dangling that prospect in front of her now. Of all the things he could have said, this was the cruellest. Megan blinked back tears, wondering what she could say to him. He was obviously upset and she couldn’t help but feel for him.
A knock at the door made them both jump, and Harry snatched his arm back across the table. Megan could see a shadow behind the glass, and she got jerkily to her feet to open the door. Jaye was standing outside, holding a tray with cups and a teapot.
‘You shouldn’t have brought the tea yourself…’ Harry’s voice behind her. That was one trait Megan didn’t share with him, she didn’t have the ability to conceal her feelings at the drop of a hat. That mercurial switch that allowed Harry to declare complete love at one moment and then pretend he hardly knew you the next.
‘The kitchen staff are busy.’ Jaye walked past Megan into the room, and set the tray down on his desk.
* * *
He had meant to deliver the tea and leave. But one look at Megan’s face changed Jaye’s mind. He’d seen her angry before, and he’d seen her wrestling with a problem. He’d seen her covered in mud, hot and dusty and wet through. But he’d never seen her like this. She was so pale that her cheeks looked almost hollow, and her eyes were dull, almost as if she were in shock.
Jaye poured a cup of tea for Harry and put it in front of him on the desk. ‘I’m sorry to intrude, but I wonder if I might borrow Megan for a couple of minutes.’
‘Of course.’ Harry seemed almost pleased with the idea. ‘It’s good to see that Megan’s indispensable. Good people are…’
Jaye nodded. Good people were indispensable, but not when they were obviously so upset that they could hardly frame a sentence. Megan had opened her mouth and then closed it again, as if she couldn’t find any words to say.
‘Thank you. Back in a minute.’ He bundled Megan out of the room, shutting the door behind them.
She looked around, as if she was unfamiliar with her surroundings. Jaye opened the door of Ranjini’s office and, finding it empty, beckoned her inside.
‘What’s the matter, Megan? Is everything all right at home?’
‘Fine.’ Megan was standing by the door, her gaze fixed on the floor. ‘Everything’s fine.’
‘But you’re not.’
She shook her head.
If they were going to carry on like this, it was going to take a good deal longer than the couple of minutes he’d promised she’d be away for. And this sudden reticence was so unlike Megan that he knew something bad had happened. Jaye took her by the shoulders and she looked up at him.
‘Megan, this isn’t a game of twenty questions. What’s the matter?’ Perhaps he didn’t have the right to ask. At this particular moment Jaye didn’t care.
‘Harry’s… He wants me to…’
‘What?’ Jaye waited, not moving. They could work it out. They were good together, and they could do this.
‘His wife’s left him, and he says that he’s not well. I don’t know if any of that’s true but… He wants me to be his daughter.’ A single tear rolled down her cheek. Tears would have been almost a relief at this moment, but her face was still inexpressive, as if she didn’t dare feel anything.
‘Let me help you with this.’ Jaye could feel her slipping away from him.
She shook her head. ‘I… You don’t want to be mixed up with it. It’s my problem.’
‘We’re friends, aren’t we?’ He’d dared to hope the future might bring something more, but right now a friend was what Megan most needed.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide and warm. ‘Yes.’
‘Then it’s my problem too.’