you ring me—you know my mobile number, don’t you?’
‘Yes, but Mum thought you would be driving, and she stopped me.’
‘Where is he?’
‘In the living room. He had a funny turn and couldn’t get his breath.’
Katie was already heading that way. ‘Do you know what started it? What was he doing before he started to be ill?’
‘He wasn’t doing anything. We were talking about the business and I was telling him that I’ve been trying to get some new contracts.’ He sent her a guilty look. ‘I’m probably to blame. I shouldn’t have gone on about things, but it hasn’t been easy lately, trying to keep everything running smoothly, and I think he feels that he should be doing more to help out. He can’t, of course, and that makes him frustrated. That last bout of bronchitis must have taken more out of him than he realised.’
Katie pushed open the living-room door and glanced around. Her father was sitting in an armchair, looking pale and trying to disguise the fact that he was in pain.
Her mother was by his side, but she turned as Katie approached and gave her a swift, weak smile. ‘Katie,’ she said, ‘your dad’s not feeling very well. Can you do anything to help him?’
Katie knelt down beside her father. ‘Luke says you’re a bit breathless,’ she said. ‘Are you having any chest pain?’
Her father patted her hand. ‘Your mum and Luke both worry too much,’ he said in a wheezy voice. ‘I’ll be fine in a little while. I just need to rest for a bit.’
‘Let me just feel your pulse and check you over,’ she murmured, and he gave a faint nod and leaned his head back in the chair.
After a moment or two she said quietly, ‘I think you’re having another of your angina attacks. They seem to be coming on a bit more often these days, don’t they? Have you taken your medication?’
He nodded again, and her mother said quickly, ‘It didn’t seem to work very well. I told him he should go and see his doctor and tell him that he hasn’t been feeling too good lately, but you know how stubborn he is.’
Katie smiled. ‘Yes, I do know that.’ She clasped her father’s hand. ‘I think you need a painkiller, and another one of your tablets, just to calm things down. Mum’s right. You really should go back to your GP and get him to refer you back to the specialist.’
She went and fetched some tablets from the medicine cupboard, and gave them to her father with a glass of water. ‘Do you think you’ll be all right while Mum and I go and make you a cup of tea?’ she asked after a minute or two. ‘It might help to make you feel a bit better.’
‘I’ll be fine. Anyway, Luke’s going to sit and talk to me, aren’t you, Luke?’
Her brother nodded, and Katie gave him and her father a warning look. ‘There’s to be no talk about business. Am I making myself clear?’
Both men nodded, looking sheepish, and Katie went off to the kitchen to put the kettle on.
‘Luke was anxious about him,’ her mother said, following her in there. ‘He was getting quite agitated even though you were just a few minutes late. I think he’s finding it a strain, managing the business on his own.’
Katie helped to set the cups out on a tray. ‘Luke never expected to be running the business and concentrating on administration, did he? He had other things in mind when he left university—he always preferred the design engineering side of things—but he couldn’t just stand by and see Dad struggle. You have to give him his due...he made sure that he did the right thing.’
Her mother made a face. ‘Well, let’s face it, nothing has gone the way it should ever since Jacob Bradley took over Sherbourn Medical Equipment. It doesn’t even have your father’s name any more, and the last I heard, Bradley wasn’t with the company. He just took what he wanted and moved on.’ She was silent for a moment, musing on things. ‘I wonder what happened to him and his family?’
Katie hesitated, wondering if she should say anything about her meeting with Jacob’s son. Perhaps it would be better coming from her than from another source, though. Someone might have seen them together. She poured milk into a jug, and then said cautiously, ‘I saw Drew Bradley this afternoon.’
Amy Sherbourn stopped what she was doing and looked at Katie. She appeared shocked, her face pale against the dark auburn of her hair. ‘How did that come about? I hope that doesn’t mean the family are going to be close by.’
‘I don’t think so, though they still live in the area. I don’t suppose we’ll run into them.’ She couldn’t be sure, though, and it was probably better that it was out in the open. At least this way her mother would be able to prepare her dad for anything unforeseen. ‘We both stopped to help out at the scene of an accident.’ Katie told her mother what had happened that afternoon.
As she was speaking, Luke appeared at the kitchen door. ‘You’re saying that he’s back?’ he said, sounding incredulous. ‘I heard something of what you were saying to Mum. I can hardly believe it.’
Katie swung around to look at him properly. ‘He’s only here for a short time, as far as I know,’ she said, ‘and it doesn’t necessarily mean that his family are going to be moving closer.’ She studied his face briefly. ‘Is Dad all right?’
‘He’s OK. I think the painkiller must have begun to kick in. He asked me to find out what’s happening with the tea.’
‘That sounds as though he’s feeling better.’ She poured the tea and set some biscuits out on a plate on the tray. ‘It’s ready. You can take it in to him.’
Luke’s mouth set in a taut line. ‘Drew was every bit as bad as his father. He wouldn’t hear anything wrong about him. None of them cared that we lost everything, including the house.’
‘I don’t think they realised that happened,’ she said, ‘and you can’t hold Drew responsible for what his father did.’
‘No, but he’s like him in a lot of ways. Not that you could ever see it. You’ve always been ready to stand up for him. He could never do anything wrong in your eyes, could he? You were sweet on him.’
‘That was a long time ago. What happened affected me badly, too, you know. I didn’t like what happened either, and it hurt me as well when we had to sell the house.’
Luke winced. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go on at you. It was just hearing that he’s back that set me off. In my head he’s tarred with the same brush as his father. Anyway, I expect he’ll go away again, like he did before. He didn’t bother to make any contact then, did he? You’d have thought he would if he had cared about you.’
Katie flinched. ‘I’m sure he had his reasons. Anyway, we parted on bad terms after what hap pened. I don’t imagine he would have wanted to meet up with any of us after that.’ Luke’s bitterness stemmed from having to stand in for their father and take over the family business, and it was understandable that he felt the way he did.
As for herself, it had hurt that Drew had gone away, and when she had recovered from the initial sting of bad feeling she had inwardly hoped that he would get in touch. He hadn’t, though, and she had got on with her life and tried to put him out of her mind.
Now, in the space of a few short hours, all those emotions had been stirred up once again, and she felt the heartache every bit as much she had before. The repercussions of the dispute between their families went on and on.
CHAPTER TWO
AT LEAST her father was feeling better by the time Katie left her parents’ house. She was still worrying about him, though, as she made her way to her own cottage.
It was getting late by now, and there were chores she had to finish before her time was her own, but that wasn’t such a bad