“No!” Maddie shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m here to work.”
“Then make us a drink and we’ll both take a break,” she suggested.
As they sat at the kitchen table five minutes later, sipping coffee in companionable silence, Cass looked across at her with a puzzled frown. “So...what happened? The accident, I mean.”
Unused to such a direct line of questioning, Maddie hesitated. “I was cycling to work one morning, and someone knocked me off my bike,” she eventually began. “To be honest, I can’t remember much about it, and I’m okay now...except that my leg sometimes aches.”
Cass stirred sugar into her mug then met Maddie’s gaze with sympathy in her eyes. “And that’s all?”
Unable to bear seeing the same sad expression everyone gave her back home, Maddie gritted her teeth. Before she knew it, the Munros would be talking about her in lowered voices, going quiet the moment she walked into a room. Poor Madeline, her whole career ruined...and she was doing so well.
“It’s hardly anything, really,” she said, forcing a bright smile onto her face. “Just a bit of a nuisance. It doesn’t hold me back at all.”
She stood and went back to peeling carrots, pretending she hadn’t seen the concerned look on Cass’s face.
At midday Jake, his dad, Bill Munro—a tall, thin man whose current project was fixing up the holiday cottages—and Jed, the young lad who helped Jake back the youngsters, came in to eat. They sat at the large kitchen table, laughing and joking and talking about their plans. Maddie handed out food and poured tea, desperately trying not to limp as she moved around the large, homey kitchen.
“Sit down and join us, lass,” said Bill, smiling in Maddie’s direction. “You have to eat, too.”
Jake nodded in agreement, pulling out a chair, and she sat, feeling awkward.
“I already told her,” Cass told them. She turned to Maddie. “Get your lunch—I can see to dessert.”
“It’s okay,” Maddie insisted, not wanting the fuss.
“Sorry, lass, you’re overruled,” Bill said, stroking his neat, white beard, his eyes crinkling in a smile. She settled into the chair with a sigh as Jed passed her a plate.
When the talk turned to horses, Maddie found it difficult not to join in. This was so stupid. Maybe she should just come clean and let them all in on the truth, tell them about her ambition to ride again. They’d help her; she knew they would. She didn’t want help, though, did she? She didn’t want people to make allowances, to see the pity in their eyes as they watched her struggle to be even half of what she used to be. She wanted to be respected for what she’d achieved on her own merit; that was why she’d come here—to be treated like a normal human being again.
“Have you done any riding, Maddie?” Bill asked, right out of the blue. She couldn’t lie about that.
“Some,” she told him. “Not for a while, though.”
“Well, then,” Cass said, placing an apple pie and jug of cream on the table. “You can start again while you’re here. We’re always looking for exercise riders.”
“As soon as we get a suitable horse in for you, we’ll get you on board,” Jake agreed. “At the moment, they’re all only half-broken, or too difficult for a novice.”
Novice! Something deep in Maddie’s chest curled in objection. “I’m not—” she began before biting her tongue, “that bad. Just rusty, I guess.”
“I started on Carlotta,” Cass said. “She’s the best. Unfortunately, she’s in foal right now, or you could have tried riding her.”
“In foal to Grand Design,” Jake added, excitement rising in his voice. “We’re going to have one very special foal, I reckon.”
“I know that stallion!” Maddie exclaimed without thinking. “Big bay...quite tricky to handle, but so talented...” She trailed off as she realized her mistake.
Jake frowned. “How do you know that?”
Cass hesitated. Here’s another chance to tell the truth, her conscience told her. “My dad,” she blurted.
Jake sat back, hands behind his head. “Ah, into racing, is he?”
“Kind of.” Maddie got up to start clearing the table, remembering the elation of riding the big bay stallion out on exercise, when he was one of the three she used to “do.” Tears pressed against her eyelids, and she blinked to try to clear them. She had lost so much more than just the riding. She had lost the companionship of her charges, too.
“You okay?” Cass whispered as they bundled pots into the dishwasher.
Maddie nodded. “Yes...thanks.”
“Well, you might want to go a bit easy on my crockery,” she suggested, and suddenly Maddie was smiling again.
“Sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking.”
When the men had disappeared out into the yard again, Cass eased herself down onto a comfortable chair beside the stove. “My back aches a bit,” she groaned. “I’ll just sit for a second.”
“You need to rest,” Maddie said. “How long is it now?”
“Just a matter of weeks,” Cass told her dreamily, touching her stomach. “Look, she’s kicking.”
When Maddie hurried over, Cass grabbed her hand and placed it next to hers. “See?”
“And it’s definite...that it’s a girl, I mean?”
Cass nodded, puckering her brow. “To be honest, I didn’t really want to know, and neither did Jake, but...”
“But what?”
“Well...” Cass let out a big sigh. “Robbie’s twin sister was killed in a road accident, along with his grandma. It was before I even came here, but obviously it’s had a huge effect on Rob. We wanted him to know what to expect...no surprises.”
“And was he pleased to find out it was a girl?”
“He was—is—over the moon about having a sister again.”
“And do you have a name for her yet?”
Cass nodded. “We’re going to call her Gwen, after Jake’s mum.”
As the unborn baby’s frantic movement slowed, Maddie withdrew her hand. “That’s lovely,” she said. “Like a brand-new start.”
“A brand-new start,” Cass echoed, her eyes gently drooping.
Maddie moved quietly away, not wanting to disturb her. There was so much love in this house where once there must have been so much pain. Jake Munro had gotten past his heartache, and that was what she wanted to do. Learn to live with the past and forge a new future. Would hers hold a family one day? She couldn’t help but wonder. It might, she decided, but not for a long time yet. She had to straighten herself out before she could include anyone else in her life...and anyway, look what happened the last time she started to dream of a future...with Alex. No, it was definitely just her and her demons, for the next few years at least.
ROSS CLICKED OFF his phone with a heavy heart. So Maddie had been telling the truth after all; she had paid for the cottage. Seemingly the solicitors hadn’t informed the rental agency of Anne Maddox’s death, and they’d rented it out, not knowing... So now what?
He’d felt so positive, coming back here to Little Dale, more positive than he had been since Jenny died. In those early years after her death, dealing with the