'It isn't my fault,' the woman told him recovering her equilibrium a little. 'Like I said, you shouldn't have parked here in the first place.
'Where are you passing through to?' she asked him curiously and then looked self-conscious as though her own interest in him was a betrayal she regretted.
'Wherever the road takes me,' Caspar told her, promptly adding, 'I'm trying to fulfil a teenage ambition I had to ride from coast to coast.'
'On a Harley-Davidson?'
'Yup,' he agreed, giving her a mischievous smile as he added, 'It's a pity you aren't a medic, I'd forgotten that a certain area of my body was a good deal more resilient at sixteen than it is now at close on forty!'
'Doesn't your wife mind you taking off without her? I can see that you're wearing a wedding ring,'
she told him, nodding in the direction of his hand.
'It's over... We... She's gone back to the UK with our daughters. She's a lawyer...a solicitor they call it over there and her parting words to me were that she wanted everything to be "legal." That's how we met...through the law. I lecture in it now and...' Caspar stopped, shaking his head. 'I'm sorry...I guess this is what happens when you've been riding the road solo for too long, you start boring every stranger you meet with your life story.'
'I'm a psychiatrist. We don't get bored,' she told him. 'I'll have to wait here for the garage but if you like, once they've been I could show you a really great place in town to eat—Italian...they have rooms as well.'
Caspar took a deep breath. His instincts warned him that he could be stepping into very deep water indeed but then why shouldn't he? He was a free man now, wasn't he? Olivia didn't want him....
'Sounds good to me,' he responded. 'I'm Caspar Johnson, by the way,' he introduced himself.
'Molly Reilly.'
Reilly, so that explained those wonderful Celtic eyes, the flawless skin, though the perfect teeth were pure American, Caspar acknowledged as he went to shake the hand she had extended towards him.
One of the worst rows he and Olivia had had, had ridiculously been over the girls' teeth. He had wanted them to have orthodontic work done on them and Olivia, he remembered, had been horrified.
'Why?' he had objected when she had refused.
'Look, all American kids get their teeth fixed.'
'Amelia and Alex are not American,' she had responded, 'And / do not want them growing up with a set of teeth that appear so perfect that they look...like they belong to...to a film star.'
Caspar hadn't understood either her passionate reaction or her argument then and he didn't now.
'It's taking away their natural character,' Olivia had protested. 'Remaking them, Caspar, and that will make them feel that they aren't good enough, that they have to be perfect to be worthy of being loved and I don't want that for them.'
'For God's sake, Livvy, we're talking about fixing their teeth, that's all,' he had exploded in exasperation.
'I THOUGHT you said it was over....'
Molly's comment caught Caspar off guard, making him change colour defensively.
'How did you know—?' he began and then stopped.
'I'm thirty-four,' Molly responded dryly, 'and I guess that's more than old enough to be able to recognise when a married man is thinking about his wife.'
'Actually, I was thinking about my daughters,' Caspar corrected her. 'Now, about this Italian...'
'COME ON, Jen, we're going to be late,' Jon exhorted.
'David said to be there for three and it's gone that now.'
Jenny shook her head. She hadn't wanted to go to David and Honor's party in the first place and she had told Jon so.
'Not go! We've got to go. David is my brother.'
'Yes, and he's also Livvy and Jack's father,' Jenny had reminded him simply. 'How do you think they're going to feel, especially Livvy when she hears about this baby?'
'Jen, Livvy is an adult,' Jon had expostulated. 'David's invited her and the girls.'
'She won't go,' Jenny told him positively.
'Do YOU THINK she will come?' David asked Honor anxiously. There was no need for Honor to question who the 'she' was he was referring to.
'Don't get your hopes up too high,' she advised him gently.
'Oh, God, Honor, I just wish... I wanted to tell her myself...before...before anyone else...to make it something special we could share—just as you did with Abigail and Ellen.'
Honor smiled sadly as she listened to him. The relationship she had with her daughters was a world away from the one David had with his, but even they had expressed shock and in Ellen's case, almost outright hostility to the news that she, their mother, was to have a child.
'But have you thought of the danger, the risks to both yourself and the baby?' Ellen had demanded practically, 'As an older mother...'
Abigail had reminded her sister, 'Don't forget, Mum knows a lot more about having babies than we do.
After all, she's had both of us.'
'Yes, but that was over twenty years ago,' Ellen had pointed out acerbically.
Now that she was over her initial shock, though, she had apologised for her original hostility.
If her daughters, who knew how much she loved them, could both feel slightly threatened and upset about the news that she and David were to have a child, then how on earth was Olivia going to feel?
It grieved Honor, not just that their child should be born into such a situation but that the birth of a child which should be such a joyful and hopeful event should be the cause of unhappiness and pain.
She had discussed the matter with Father Ignatius whilst they had been working together in the still room. She loved using the old-fashioned word to describe the room where she stored her herbs and made up her remedies with its connotations of mediaeval times and the skills of its herbalists.
'I just wish there was a herbal I could make for Olivia that would help her,' she had exclaimed ruefully.
'The answer to Olivia's ailment surely lies within herself,' the priest had responded. When Honor had looked questioningly at him, he explained, 'Her father's love is there for her and his sorrow and regret for the pain of her past, but David cannot force them on her, he can only offer them to her.'
.. and if Olivia continues to refuse to accept them?'
Honor had asked him.
Father Ignatius had sighed and shaken his head. 'If she does, and I am very much afraid she might, then both she and David will continue to suffer.'
And now, here she was, com
pounding that suffering for Olivia with the child she was carrying.
Honor's hand went to her stomach—still flat as yet—her pregnancy might have been unexpected and unplanned but her baby was already a source of great joy to her.
OLIVIA WASN'T going to come. David knew.
'We can't stay too long,' Jon was saying. 'Jenny's on grandparent duties tonight at Queensmead.'
Grandparent. He, too, was a grandparent, a grandfather, just like Jon but he doubted that his granddaughters even knew he existed.
As he took a sip of his drink he studied the room.
The priest, predictably perhaps, was chatting with Ben and Freddy. Honor was laughing at something Jon was saying to her. They had deliberately kept the numbers down, just immediate family.
'JENNY!' David exclaimed warmly as he walked into the kitchen and saw his sister-in-law there.
'I'm glad you could come. It means a lot to Honor.
I know how busy you are at the moment with everything. I just wish that Livvy could have brought herself to come.'
'Livvy can't go anywhere,' Jenny told him quietly.
'She's got two children to look after, she's working full-time and she doesn't have a husband to help and support her.'
'Do you really mean Livvy can't go anywhere?' David asked Jenny quickly.
'Surely you must be aware of the problems she's having,' Jenny insisted. 'Jon must have told you. Normally I'd help but... Jon's told Livvy to take as much time off work as she needs but, of course, she won't....
She's been trying to find the right kind of help...a nanny...although it's proving hard. But why am I telling you this, David? You're her father. You should know, but you don't care, do you? All you care about is your new life.'
'Jenny!' The horror in Jon's voice shocked Jenny into silence. She hadn't heard him come into the kitchen but there was no mistaking the anger and chagrin in his expression as he turned to David and started to apologise.