Starting Over

'It's got one of Honor's potions in it,' David told her. 'She says it will help bring down your fever.'

'My fever! I've got a cold...that's all,' Olivia objected.

'You've got flu,' David corrected her firmly. 'I've called the surgery and the doctor's coming round later.'

'You've done what? You had no right...I don't want you here....' Olivia began, but her voice started to trail away as the fever returned. She felt so ill that it was impossible for her to continue to speak, to even continue to think. All she wanted to do was to lie down and close her eyes. Even the thin grey light seeping into the bedroom hurt her eyes and as for the pain in her head and her body... She couldn't remember ever feeling so ill.

'The girls...' she managed to croak.

'They're fine,' David assured her immediately. Although she was trying to fight it, he could tell that she was slowly losing her hold on consciousness, her breathing laboured and shallow as she finally gave in.

She looked, David reflected sombrely as he watched over her, more like the little girl he remembered than the woman she now was and it made his heart ache to see her looking so frail and vulnerable.

Once he was sure that she was asleep he went back downstairs to check on the girls and make them something to eat.

When he went into the sitting room to call them in for their food Amelia asked him seriously, 'Grandpa, can Grandma do proper magic spells like in Harry Potter?'

David frowned. He had been reading the books to the girls every afternoon after school.

'Grandma Honor is a herbalist,' he tried to explain.

'Is that like being a witch?' Alex and Amelia pressed him.

'We want her to be a witch,' Alex interjected excitedly, 'because if she is, then she can—'

'Shush,' Amelia began anxiously, but Alex was in full flood and refused to be deflected.

Thoughtfully David looked from Amelia's guilty face to Alex's defiant and excited one.

'Then she can what?' he questioned calmly.

Ignoring her elder sister's agitation Alex told him eagerly, 'Then she can make a spell that will make our daddy come home.'

David didn't know whether to smile or cry. On balance he suspected that crying might be the more appropriate response.

'You both miss him very much, don't you?' he said gently instead, sitting down with them.

'Yes.'

There was no need for them to answer his question.

He could see how they felt in their expressions.

He didn't really know Caspar, his son-in-law, but from what he had heard about him, David had gained the impression that he was considered by the family to be a good and loving father.

'He and Olivia were so much in love,' Jon had told him, shaking his head in bewilderment. 'I never imagined that they would split up.'

IT WAS LATE in the afternoon before the doctor arrived looking harassed and exhausted.

'Yes, it's the virus,' he confirmed.

'She's got a very bad sore throat,' David informed him.

The doctor frowned. 'Yes, I'll have to give you a prescription for that She's going to need to stay in bed for the next three or four days,' he grimaced as he told David. 'If she was in her sixties and not her thirties I'd be thinking in terms of trying to find her a hospital bed—not that there are any to be found locally. This thing has struck like the plague. There doesn't seem to be a single household without someone affected by it. If there's anyone available to look after her...her husband...'

'I'm her father. I'll be here,' David informed him quietly.

In the end the regime the doctor had prescribed was very much the same as the one recommended by Honor, as David told her when he telephoned her to update her on what was happening.

'I'll have to stay here tonight,' he said ruefully. "I can't leave her.'

'Of course you can't,' Honor confirmed robustly.

'In fact, I should be very cross with you if you tried to.'

'The doctor has said it could be three or four days,'

David added. He paused then continued, 'There's your hospital appointment coming up.'

Honor took a deep breath. Although she hadn't said so to David she was secretly dreading the test which was one which could reveal whether or not the baby she was carrying was likely to have any abnormalities.

As much as she had tried to reassure herself about the health of their baby she was still aware of her age and the risks connected with it. Of course she wanted David there with her when she went to hospital even though, logically, she knew his presence would make no difference whatsoever to the outcome of the tests, the results of which they wouldn't know immediately anyway. But just as much as this child she was now carrying, Livvy was also David's child and now she, too, needed him.

Only when she was sure she had both her emotions and her voice completely under control did she answer as confidently as she could.

'Oh, don't worry about that. You concentrate on Livvy. Right now she's the one who needs you, David.'

'Well, if you're sure... I have to admit I don't like the thought of leaving her.'

'I'm perfectly sure,' Honor replied, surreptitiously crossing her fingers behind her back. 'You stay with Livvy.'

'SARA, my dear...what a lovely surprise.'

Sara smiled wanly at her grandfather. Frances had not unnaturally been shocked when Sara had informed her that she was going to have to leave, but nowhere near as shocked as she was when Sara had explained to her who she was and the mistake which had led to her taking the job in the first place.

'I should have told you before,' Sara had admitted,

'But...it was difficult....'

'I can appreciate that,' Frances had comforted her.

'Conflicting loyalties always are. We shall be very sorry to lose you, Sara.'

'I have to go,' was all Sara had been able to say.

Tania was complaining that Sara's arrival was delaying them from going out to dinner and as she listened to her and witnessed her grandfather's attempts to placate her, for the first time Sara could see why her father was not a big fan of his father-in-law's second wife.

'It's okay, I'm not staying.' She managed to smile at Tania. 'It's just a brief visit.' She took a deep breath.

'I'm going to fly out to join Mum and Dad.'

'Oh, you really are the most lucky girl,' Tania told her enviously. 'I wish I had had your opportunities at your age, Sara dear. Your father is so lucky to have an apartment in suc

h a prestigious place. All those wealthy men... If you play your cards right I'm sure you could end up with a millionaire for a husband.'

Sara closed her eyes swallowing down the nausea Tania's comments were evoking. The mere thought of any man, any man at all in her life and her bed who wasn't Nick made her skin crawl with horror and her heart ache with a pain so unbearable it made her want to scream that there would never be a husband for her now... nor a lover, either...

She knew that both her parents, but especially her father, were against her desire to work for one of the overseas aid agencies.

'It will break your body and your spirit,' her father had already told her brutally. 'Take it from me, Sara, you're far too soft-hearted. Even if you manage to escape going down with some debilitating and potentially life-threatening disease, you've still got to overcome the emotional trauma you're bound to suffer.'

But she had to do something and the only thing she could think of was to lose herself and her pain in the hardest and most gruelling kind of work she could possibly find.

But the reason she was flying out to the Caribbean wasn't simply to persuade her parents to accept her plans for her future. If she stayed at home she wasn't sure she could trust herself not to weaken and get in touch with Nick. Crawl to him...beg him...plead with him to take her back in his arms and back to his bed....

'JENNY, is that you?'

'Caspar.' Jenny's voice betrayed her surprise as she recognised Olivia's husband's voice. Why on earth was he telephoning her?

'I just thought I'd ring to see how Livvy and the girls are,' Caspar told her answering Jenny's unvoiced question.

'They're fine—so far as I know,' Jenny responded cautiously, unable to resist adding, 'why don't you ring Olivia yourself, Caspar. I'm sure—'

'No. No,' Caspar cut her off abruptly, adding, 'and, Jenny, please don't tell Livvy that I rang. I don't want her to think that I'm—'

'...worrying about her?' Jenny supplied gently for him.

'Interfering in her life,' Caspar corrected her firmly.

'Look, I've got to go,' he told her and then, before Jenny could say anything else, he had ended the call.

'Who was that?' Jon asked Jenny, walking into the kitchen just as she was replacing the receiver.