‘No, we came here with Mum,’ Cameron put in. ‘Dad stayed at home.’ A momentary sadness washed over his thin face. ‘He’s not here any more, you know,’ he said earnestly. ‘Mum says he was hurt in the car accident and they couldn’t make him better, but he’s peaceful now.’
‘I know, sweetheart.’ Izzy wanted to put her arms around the children and make everything right again, but it was an impossible task. How could she begin to comfort them for the loss of their father? She contented herself instead with making them welcome, putting an arm around their shoulders and ushering them into the house. ‘Come into the kitchen. It’s warmer in there.’
‘Mummy’s not going to go away, as well, is she?’ Molly asked, her voice hesitant. ‘She was in the car with Daddy, and she was hurt.’
‘No, Molly. Your mother is getting better every day. It will take some time before she’s on her feet properly, but before too long she should be back with you.’
‘In the New Year?’ Cameron suggested. ‘That’s what Uncle Ross says…some time in the New Year.’
‘That sounds about right to me,’ Izzy said. Her cousin would recover well enough from the broken bones she had sustained in the car crash, but she had also suffered head injuries and internal bleeding that added substantially to her problems. The head injuries meant that she had no memory of the accident itself, though thankfully her faculties had been spared. It was hoped that in time she would make a full recovery.
She pushed open the door to the kitchen and showed them inside.
Cameron sniffed the air appreciatively. ‘Are you making breakfast?’ he asked in a hopeful tone, his eyes widening.
‘Yes, we are.’ Izzy nodded. ‘Looks like we have more people to share the sandwiches,’ she told Lorna. ‘Do you think we can run to a couple more?’
‘I think we can manage that. I’ll add a bit more bacon to the pan.’ Lorna smiled at the children, and then, as they stared about the room, taking everything in, she surreptitiously lifted questioning brows towards Izzy at their arrival so early in the morning.
Izzy hunched her shoulders in a bemused gesture before turning her attention back to the children. ‘Sit yourselves down by the table,’ she said. ‘So, your Uncle Ross knows you’re here, does he? Hasn’t he given you anything to eat?’
‘He’s asleep,’ Molly said, shaking her head so that her curls quivered. ‘I tried to wake him, but he didn’t even open his eyes…Well, just the corner of one, a tiny bit. Then he closed it again and made a sort of “hmmph” from under the duvet, and buried his head in the pillow.’ She lifted her arms to show the extent of her helplessness.
Izzy’s mind conjured up an image of Ross, his dark hair tousled from sleep, his limbs tangled in the folds of the duvet. It made her hot and bothered, and she quickly tried to banish the errant thought from her head.
‘And I’m starving,’ Cameron confirmed. ‘I couldn’t find the breakfast cereals in any of the cupboards, so I went to look for Maggie, but she wasn’t anywhere around.’
‘I imagine it’s a bit too early for the housekeeper,’ Lorna commented. ‘From what I’ve heard she doesn’t usually go up to the castle until after nine o’clock.’
‘Well, we didn’t know what to do, so we decided to come and see you,’ Molly finished triumphantly. ‘I remembered that you live at the bottom of the hill…and that you always have a cookie jar on the worktop. I remember it’s a yellow bear with a smiley face and a Tam o’ Shanter hat.’
‘That’s right.’ Izzy pointed to the corner of the room, where the ceramic cookie jar sat next to the microwave oven. ‘There he is, just as you said. Perhaps you could have a cookie after you’ve eaten your sandwich?’
Pleased, Molly nodded, while Cameron fidgeted in his seat and asked pertinently, ‘And me, too?’
‘Of course. I wouldn’t dream of leaving you out, Cameron.’
He looked suitably appeased at that, and Izzy concentrated on making them both a sandwich. Pushing the plates towards them, she looked from one to the other. ‘So your uncle doesn’t have any idea that you’ve come here?’
Cameron shook his head, looking uncertain, but Molly, after taking a bite from her sandwich, said, ‘I left a note for him on the kitchen table to let him know we’d come here. Mummy said we should always make sure someone knows where we are.’
‘Mmm, that’s good. That was the sensible thing to do,’ Izzy said with a smile. ‘I think I’d better give him a ring all the same, as soon as we’ve eaten, just to make sure he knows what’s going on, or he might be worried.’ She wasn’t going to let her sandwich go cold on his account, though. That was supposing he was even awake by now, of course. But if he wasn’t she would simply let the phone ring until he answered it. How could the man be so careless as to let the children run loose at such a young age? ‘Lorna and I have to go to work soon, you see, otherwise you would be able to stay here. Perhaps we’ll take you back home when we’ve all eaten.’
‘That’s okay,’ Cameron said. ‘I said you’d probably have to go to the hospital. I remembered from last time we were here.’
Izzy sat down to eat her toasted sandwich with Lorna and the children, chatting to them about life up at the castle. ‘Are you settling in all right?’ she asked.
Molly nodded. ‘It’s kind of exciting. There’s loads of rooms and we can go in any of them.’
‘And there’s a winding staircase that goes up and up,’ Cameron said. ‘And there are lots of doors. I nearly got lost, and Uncle Ross had to come and find me. He said I was in the pantry, but it was big—like a room.’
A few minutes later Izzy left them talking to Lorna while she went into the hall to phone Ross in private. It was a while before he answered.
‘Did I wake you?’ she asked.
‘No. I was some distance from the phone.’ His voice was deep, warm and soothing, and to hear him was a little like sipping at rich, melting chocolate. ‘I was checking the rooms to see where the children might be hiding. They’ve taken to disappearing of a morning, and usually I manage to find them in what used to be the servants’ quarters. They seem to like playing in the smaller rooms. I’ve never known such early birds. Where on earth do they get their energy from?’
‘The fountain of youth, I should imagine.’ She hesitated. ‘So I take it you’re still looking for them? Have you tried the kitchen?’
‘I’m heading there now.’ He made a soft intake of breath. ‘I should have taken time to dress properly—these stone floors are cold. I need to get some carpets in here…or install under-floor heating.’
She imagined him padding barefoot over the floor, but her mind skittered away from delving any further into what he might be wearing—or not wearing, as the case may be. ‘You should try living in my cottage,’ she said, her tone dry. ‘We don’t have the luxury of central heating at the moment, since your estate manager hasn’t attended to our requests for repairs, whereas you at least have the comfort of a range cooker in your kitchen, if I remember correctly.’ She had ventured up to the castle in search of her errant cousin one day years ago, and the memory had stayed with her ever since.
‘You’re welcome to come and share it with me any time, Izzy. I think I told you that once before, but you were reluctant to take me up on the offer, as I recall. I guess you were worried about what your father might think if he found you there.’ She heard a door hinge creak. ‘Nope, they’re not in here.’
‘I expect you’ll find a note on the table,’ she murmured.
He