The Tides of Time - Book 2, The Porth Kerensa Series

Chapter Fourteen

The news of Max’s car accident travelled through the village quickly and Ruth was flooded with cards and good wishes for him. The newspaper carried pictures of Jessie flying out from L.A so the village was rife with speculation as to whether Jessie Chapman was finally on her way home to visit her family. Ruth had gently deflected several questions designed to find out whether Jessie was on her way back to see Max. She swore Annie to secrecy and the child had brought tears to her eyes when she’d solemnly nodded and said of course Ruth, otherwise we’d have fans camped out on the front lawn. Ruth had hugged her tenderly and looked up to the sky through her veil of tears. She held the little girls warm body to hers and she thought ‘Please God, if not for me do it for Annie, she deserves a family, not more death, please God make Max well.’

   It would be too much heartbreak if Max didn’t get better and come home to this delightful child who needed to be loved. Ruth wiped the tears from her eyes with one hand and kissed Annie softly then she let the child go and turned away so Annie would not see the traces on her cheeks. Ruth knew she couldn’t afford to break down no matter how much she might want to. Max and Annie needed her to be strong and she had to keep believing that Max would pull through this and recover. But deep down she was scared. Jessie was on her way home, Jessie hadn’t been home for six years. Max might very well die, it was a strong possibility and Jessie coming home simply confirmed that fear.

Jace was making a cup of tea when Bryan got home and Bryan sighed gratefully as Jace handed him a mug of tea and instructed him to sit down and rest. The two men sat in silence for a moment and then Bryan told Jace what had happened and what the doctors had said. He kept his head down as he spoke and Jace made no comment about the tears that Bryan surreptitiously wiped away from time to time. Jace had watched his father die, he knew the tears that Bryan was crying well and he knew they needed no words.

   Bryan finished speaking and Jace poured them both a whisky. Neither had finished the tea but whisky seemed more appropriate as they each sat and thought about death and the way it sneaked up on you.

   “Jessie is on her way home” Bryan said quietly.

   Jace felt a frisson of something he couldn’t define. He felt sorry for Jessie to be coming home for such an awful reason but he was still angry with her for taking Kia from him. Yet he realised that he was also excited that she was coming home. He pictured her in his arms and he ached to taste her lips again. He almost jumped as he remembered he was supposed to be marrying Nancy in five weeks, the woman who was in a room six feet down the hall while he was imagining kissing Jessie.

   “I saw the picture of her at the airport in the newspaper but I didn’t read it. When will she arrive?” Jace asked striving to appear nonchalant.

   “This afternoon, she got into Gatwick last night in the early hours and I believe she and Kia checked into a hotel and are making the drive down today.”

   “I can’t believe she’s coming back” Jace said shaking his head. “It seems like another lifetime since she was here.”

   “Ruth spoke to Lee on the phone this morning. He got back to L.A and didn’t know where Jessie and Kia had gone. He told Ruth he’d catch the first flight over so he’ll be here by tomorrow at the latest too.”

   There seemed to be a warning tone in Bryans’ voice but Jace decided to ignore it. He would do the decent thing and he would let Jessie go and visit her father but then he would go and see her and she would have to explain why she had kept his daughter from his all these years.

I had forgotten how long the journey is to Cornwall, I’m not sure if that is a blessing in disguise or not. Kia and I landed at Gatwick shortly after one in the morning, I had slept most of the plane journey and felt surprisingly awake when we landed so instead of booking us into a hotel which had been the plan I hired a car and set off to Cornwall then. Kia slept all of the way to Porth Kerensa and I drove steadily refusing to think about all that waited for me when I arrived.