‘Yes,’ said Annelise, ‘it was good of that man to help clear the road.’
Edmund’s only response was to give the windscreen another wipe.
When they reached their destination, and before Romily had switched off the engine, Edmund was out of the Land Rover and all but running across thesnow-covered parking area. Annelise stayed where she was.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Romily.
‘What if Hope remembers my confession and asks me about the baby in front of everyone?’
‘I suggest we cross that bridge if we need to,’ Romily replied.
‘Nice driving from you,’ said Red, after he and the others had clambered out of the back of the Land Rover and Kit, Evelyn and Annelise went on ahead. ‘I hardly felt a skid or a bump.’
‘I’m relieved to hear it,’ she said. ‘It couldn’t have been very comfortable for you. How’s your leg?’
‘Hey,’ he said, putting a hand on her arm just as they reached the shelter of the entrance porch to the old Victorian hospital. ‘You’ve gotta stop worrying about me.’
‘I ask because I care, is that so very wrong?’
‘It’s wrong if you think I’m ahas-been who needs fussing over.’
‘I don’t fuss,’ she said indignantly.
‘Yes you do. I’ve been here less thanforty-eight hours and I’ve seenfirst-hand how you fuss over your family.’
She frowned at his perception. ‘Is that such a bad thing?’
‘The only fussing I want from you is when you’re lying next to me in bed. Then you can do all the fussing you like!’
Smiling, she shook her head at him. ‘You Americans are all the same, only ever happy when dishing out the orders.’
‘Like you Brits are never slow to do the same thing.’
‘But we always ask so politely.’
He laughed. ‘We’re gonna drive each other nuts, aren’t we?’
‘You’re certainly giving it your best shot,’ she said. Then: ‘Come on, let’s catch up with the others and hear what the latest is on Hope.’
‘Before we do,’ he said, ‘I think you should know that things were getting pretty intense on the way here.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Kit asked Evelyn several times what she thought about Isabella and Max marrying.’
‘And?’
‘Let’s just say to begin with she wastight-lipped, very reluctant to give her opinion. But when she did, boy, the floodgates opened. It was quite something. Is there some kind of history between them?’
Romily knew what Red was really asking and saw no reason not to be honest with him. ‘Evelyn is the one I told you about, who made the mistake of growing too close to Max some years back.’
‘Yeah, I guessed as much.’
‘It was before she married Kit,’ she added.
‘And does Kit know?’
‘No. And it must stay that way.’
