Angel Kate (22 page)
Tom spread the rug in a bone-dry spot near the water's edge, almost hidden beneath the fresh green fronds of a willow tree, He took off his jacket and flung it carelessly aside. Kate stood watching him, her fingers playing with the warm pearls at her throat. Ella's words rang seductively in her head:
Horizontally speaking he's at his very best …
'Better just check things out,' said her escort nonchalantly. 'Make sure we're going to be comfortable in the long interval.'
Blow comfort,
he was thinking to himself,
I want to make sure we can't be spied on
. From his trouser pocket he produced a length of string from his trouser pocket, tied it to the neck of the bottle and lowered the chilled champagne into the lake.
Then he took off his jacket and threw it aside. 'Come here, you ravishing woman. I want to do an experiment.' As if hypnotised, Kate sank to her knees beside him and he reached for her, drawing her body down to lie beside him on the woollen plaid rug. Her eyes had a wild dazed look as he gazed down into their depths, the pupils large and black.
'Such an age,' he murmured, his voice rough with desire, 'since I've been alone like this with you.'
He pushed back the silken waterfall of her hair and took her unresisting head in his hands, his mouth reaching hungrily for hers. Kate's world spun. Under the fine poplin of his shirt she could feel the warm hard muscles of his back against her bare arms as she clung to him. Her heart thundered. Her world held only Tom. Kissing Tom … kissing Tom was beyond anything in her boldest dreams. They couldn't stop, couldn't get enough of each other.
It took the summoning of the opera house bell to tear them apart. Kate asked if the experiment had worked and Tom said yes, most satisfactorily, he'd been testing out his two arms on the woman he was going to marry.
'You're very sure of yourself, Mr Galvan,' she murmured softly, her eyes locked into his, telling him all he needed to know. It wasn't a proposal in the old-fashioned way, but then the predictable would never be Tom Galvan's style, her man of action, her one and only love. And he wasn't giving her the chance to refuse.
Waiting for the curtain to rise, they kept stealing glances at each other, as if neither could believe the other was real. But The Merry Widow refused to be ignored. It seemed the lovely lady had lost a husband but gained something of a fortune.
“Twenty millions!” exclaimed the guests at the Pontevedrian Embassy in Paris. “What a consolation for the loss of an elderly husband… Madame Glavari – here she is, the Merry Widow!”
On came Olwen in a big black curly wig and a sumptuous nineteenth-century Paris gown, surrounded by the attentive male chorus and singing “So many men admire me!” in her crystalline soprano.
Not until the dinner interval could they get back to their secret place, Tom glorying in the feel of her pliant body lolling intimately against his as they drank Bollinger from the same glass. They finished their strawberries and cream and sat huddled together by the lake, sharing Tom's jacket as the evening grew perceptibly chillier and dusk fell.
Kate couldn't hold back a hiccuping giggle. 'Didn't Ollie look amazing. She must be awfully hot in that enormous wig?'
'Bit of weight helps a singer.'
'Not on her head though!'
'Maybe she'll let you try that wig on when we go backstage.'
'There's a thought… Tom?'
'Mmm?'
'That late-night phone call from Diana after we got back from your birthday party. The one to say she'd booked you in for this medical electronics test. And I still don't understand how they could tell your fracture was fully healed.'
Tom began to explain the technology but Kate wasn't really concentrating. 'I was sure you'd gone to London to get married by special licence.'
'Good grief, you've got one hell of an imagination. Now Katie darling, Watch My Lips. I-do-not-want-to marry-Diana. You are the woman I love and the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. I think I fell a bit in love with you when you told me your name was Gertie and struggled about in those ridiculous specs to put me off the scent. Then day by day the little bit got bigger and bigger till I could hardly bear it when you weren't in my room.'
'Tom! I felt exactly the same!'
'So stern, so solemn. Such a
myster
y. And you looked after me as if I were the most important man in all the world. I did find that most endearing.'
'You are the most important men to me! You always will be.'
Kate pulled herself out of his arms and sat up, her eyes fixed on the ripples in the water where a fish had just popped up for air. 'Listen my darling, if Diana hadn't hustled you into being tested, you could never have operated. Shh! Let me finish. Olwen and I owe her a huge debt. I must know, Tom, if she's going to be terribly hurt about us. Because if she is …'
'We're not going to break her heart, my angel, I can promise you that. She and I will always be very fond of each other -'
'Like me and James.'
'Exactly. Ours was never a great love affair. I was useful and I knew it. Her trophy partner, someone she could show off at media events. That sounds as if I'm blowing my own trumpet, but Kate, I know my worth. To do what I do, I need to have that kind of confidence in myself. If I should lose that, then I'm useless to my patients.'
Interrupted by the interval bell they joined the sauntering throng, heading back to their seats in the front row of the stalls, and clapping like crazy when Olwen took five curtain calls.
It was a two-hour drive all the way back to Foxe Manor but they were both wide-awake. And at a very late breakfast next morning, the beaming Bess fried bacon and eggs before making herself discreetly absent with 'things to get on with upstairs.'
Lingering over coffee, Tom listed all the things he'd discovered about the mysterious Angel Kate. 'That you're Archie Wisdom's daughter and you grew up in Mayfair and hung about with that vacuous Chelsea set. Your mother fell in love with this German writer whose books she'd been translating and went off to live with him when you were only nine. Poor little Kate,' he said sympathetically, 'that must have been tough.'
'Well not really. It was a bit like having two homes, one here and one in Munich. They both tried to make it up to me, wanted me to be happy. And in fact I was. If we'd been poor, things might have been very different but I had two beautiful cities to explore and masses of friends.'
'So you lived with your father, and when you were eleven went off to board at Wycombe Abbey where you made a nuisance of yourself and left before A Levels because during the summer holiday you got discovered by - '
'Elite Model. My schoolfriend and I were walking down Sloane Street and this woman came up and gave me her card. I went along just for a laugh really, but they were so nice … and it was very flattering to tell the truth.'
'And you went on to be one of the top catwalk models. So you'd had quite some life before you came here to Lindminster to train at St Crispin's as an angel in disguise. Were you a naughty girl in those days?'
'You mean sex, drugs and rock'n'roll?'
'That kind of thing.'
'Well, the answer is no, I wasn't brought up to behave badly. Sure I had boyfriends,' she shrugged, 'but what girl doesn't.'
'I'll have to get my head around that,' he teased, tickling the back of her neck with his lips till she squirmed and spilled her coffee.
'You haven't mentioned the most useful thing about me. My inheritance. I want us to - '
'Aha,' interrupted Tom, 'I need to talk to you about that. What did you make of Frank and Mary's place up in the Cathedral Close?'
Kate looked up from buttering her toast. 'That lovely Georgian house?'
'Very convenient for St Crispin's of course. Their four children went to the cathedral school across the road and two of them sang in the Cathedral choir.'
'Oh yes?'
Tom could see the wary expression on Kate's face as she tried to work out where this conversation was going.
'Well how about this. Frank's not keen to retire but Mary's putting the pressure on. They've got a holiday place in France, just south of Bergerac and she thinks they should spend a lot more time there, come back here for the winter. Buy one of those waterside apartments down by the river.'
Kate nodded politely, wondering what any of this could have to do with her and Tom and their future life at Foxe Manor.
Tom took her hand and intertwined her fingers with his. 'You see they've offered us first refusal, Kate. Have you any idea how rare it is for one of those Close houses to come onto the market?'
He could see the thoughts racing behind those lovely dark eyes of hers. That pretty house with its big square rooms, high ceilings and light-filled eighteenth-century symmetry, the large gardens that surrounded it on three sides. But it was an urban house, with none of the remote countryside appeal of Tom's beloved Foxe Manor.
'I may have found a compromise. Have you ever heard of the Morton-Hunt Trust?'
Kate shook her head.
'They renovate small listed houses of historic interest. And they do it superbly well with close attention to historical detail and accuracy. What the Trust could do with the Manor is what you and I can only dream of.'
'You mean, buy Foxe Manor from you? Oh no Tom, no. Look this is what I've got in the bank. Surely it's enough to keep us going for a while.'
Kate named a figure and blushed as Tom whistled. Then he said what she feared he would say – that he wasn't poor and wouldn't touch a penny even if she was covered in diamonds.
'Don't worry darling, they don't want to
buy
the Manor but they do want a fifteen-year lease and permission to turn the house into three high-quality period apartments for letting.'
Kate bit her lip. It was really none of her business and she shouldn't interfere. 'Tom,' she said worriedly, 'you haven't committed yourself, have you?'
'No, not yet. But they sent their experts to take a look and I have to say they're most enthusiastic about helping us. In fact, they've already made contact with someone in the village who would take on the work of caretaker, organise the cleaning and changeovers. Apparently that's vital. Quite a commitment but very well paid.'
'My head's buzzing!' gasped Kate. 'But I hate the idea of you having to leave here, even for that lovely place of the Davy's.'
'Ah, but why leave? Remember that idea of yours? The one where you had me married to Diana and bringing up a bunch of kids in the cottage? No need to look so embarrassed, my darling!'
Kate was blushing, her hands pressed to her warm cheeks.
Tom pulled her up off her chair and sat her on his knee, nuzzling her neck as he spelled it out. 'So how does this sound for a plan of action. We buy Frank's lovely sensible house so that I'm close to the hospital. You carry on nursing if you want to - till the bunch of kids comes along. We do the cottage up for ourselves and turn it into a nice comfortable family weekend home without any of the worries about maintaining Foxe Manor itself.'
Kate was wriggling now with excitement. 'And Ben, Olly and Harry can come and stay? Often?'
'Let's give Ben lots of little cousins to play with so they can grow up together having as much fun as George and I did. Which reminds me, I must call George and invite him to a summer wedding.'
'Oh heavens – I'm going to need a dress. And there's so much to organise. Can it be here, Tom? Can it be in the village church? Imagine us all walking down in procession, there and back…'
There was a rustling silence. Then, '
No!
T
hat's so naughty!
What if Bess comes in… Tom Galvan, put me down.'
'Don't struggle, Angel Kate. I've got two strong arms and I'm carrying you back … upstairs … to my lair!'
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