Twice as Good

‘Is he keen on rugby, then?’ Jamie smiled.

‘Most people are when Crusader fever hits town. Everybody dresses in red and black and everybody gets sick of hearing ‘‘Conquest of Paradise’’. There could be a big game coming up next month if they get through to the finals. You’ll see what I mean then.’

‘Let’s hope Josh and Toni are back in time,’ Oliver put in. ‘Josh would hate to miss a big match.’

Jamie was adding a second spoonful of sugar to his tea. ‘They’re having a long honeymoon.’

‘They both needed a good break.’ Oliver’s glance included both Sophie and Janet, who nodded their agreement. Janet was pleased to notice Jamie’s expression, advertising his understanding of a bond of knowledge between the St Davids staff members that excluded the newcomer. She belonged here, her expression told him. He didn’t.

Sophie was peering into her mug with distaste. ‘I’ve gone right off coffee,’ she announced. ‘I think I’ll switch to tea.’

‘You should go home and put your feet up,’ Oliver advised. ‘You’ve had an awful day and it’s an early flight tomorrow.’ He looked worried. ‘This exam couldn’t be at a worse time for you. Maybe you should ask for a postponement.’

‘No way!’ Sophie decared. ‘All that swotting for nothing? I’ll be fine, Oliver—as long as there’s a toilet nearby. I wouldn’t mind heading home now, though. Do you think you can cope without me?’

‘Jamie’s doing a fantastic job already,’ Oliver informed his wife. Jamie shrugged modestly.

‘You’ve got a great set-up here,’ he complimented Oliver. ‘Your record-keeping is superb and you and Janet have been very helpful with my queries regarding prescriptions and so on.’

Oliver and Sophie exchanged glances. Then Oliver got to his feet. ‘I haven’t given you a proper tour of the place yet. Let’s do it while we’ve got a quiet spell. You’d better see where we keep the life pack and the oxygen and so on.’

Jamie nodded. ‘After your Mr Collins, I think that would be a very good idea.’

‘That sort of thing doesn’t happen very often.’ Oliver smiled. ‘Don’t expect too much excitement at St David’s.’

‘Och, I don’t.’ Jamie’s gaze landed on Janet. ‘But life has a way of throwing a few surprises at you.’

Sophie hadn’t failed to notice the direction of Jamie’s comment. ‘It has, indeed,’ she agreed happily. ‘Good luck for the next couple of days, Jamie. I’ll look forward to seeing you again when I’m back from Wellington.’

Sophie barely contained herself until the men left the room. She nudged Janet meaningfully. ‘Not bad. You must be looking forward to a chance to catch up.’ She wiggled her eyebrows. ‘Or reminisce, maybe?’

Janet rolled her eyes. ‘Give me a break.’ She ignored Sophie’s hopeful expression. ‘Oliver’s right, Sophie. You’d better go home and have a rest.’ She picked up the empty mugs the men had left on the table. ‘And I’d better get on. I’ve got some warts waiting to be done.’ Turning back to collect Sophie’s abandoned mug of coffee, Janet chewed her lip for a moment. ‘Sophie?’

‘Mmm?’

‘Could you ask Oliver …? I mean, could you and Oliver …?’ Janet paused uncomfortably.

‘Could we what, Janet?’ Sophie frowned in concern. ‘Are you worried about something?’

‘It’s just …’ Janet busied herself with the mugs. ‘I’d rather that Jamie McFadden didn’t find out about the twins.’ That was the understatement of the century! Janet glanced over her shoulder to see whether Sophie had read anything more into her attempt at a casual request.

She had. But not what Janet had feared. Sophie’s smile was understanding. The gleam in her eyes was knowing. ‘My lips are sealed,’ she promised. ‘And I’ll make sure Oliver’s are as well.’ She smiled broadly at Janet. ‘They have been known to complicate things in that direction, haven’t they?’

‘Mmm.’ Janet was wondering desperately whether correcting Sophie’s erroneous assumption would complicate matters even more.

‘What was it they called your last boyfriend? A dork?’ Sophie giggled. ‘Dennis the dork. No wonder he took off! Don’t worry.’ Sophie tapped the side of her nose. ‘As far as Dr Jamie McFadden will know, you’re single and unencumbered. It’ll be entirely up to you when you tell him.’

‘Thanks.’ Janet smiled tightly. She had no intention whatsoever of telling James McFadden about her children. It would be a disaster if he found out the truth and it was a disaster that Janet Muir was determined wouldn’t occur.

CHAPTER THREE

‘WHAT’S for tea, Mum?’

‘Bread and water,’ Janet told Adam sternly. She opened the back door of her small car and closed her eyes to the large clod that dropped from Adam’s shoe to be trodden into the carpet by Rory as he bounced into the back seat beside his brother.

Rory’s grin reassured Adam that he didn’t need to believe Janet’s threat of culinary punishment. Adam still looked worried.

‘Put your seat belts on,’ Janet ordered as she slid behind the steering-wheel. ‘Mrs Carpenter told me you were late again today.’

There was a short silence from the back seat. Mrs Carpenter lived only three doors away from their school. As the ideal position for an after-school care-giver, Enid Carpenter’s address had been a large deciding factor when Janet had chosen the older woman to care for the twins between 3 and 5 p.m. on weekdays. Along with the lower than average cost of five dollars an hour and Mrs Carpenter’s availability to care for the boys in the holidays and at home on the odd occasion when they’d been too sick to go to school.

It was an arrangement which had apparently worked well over the last eighteen months but recently Janet had detected less willingness on Enid Carpenter’s part. Janet sighed, slowing down for the roundabout near the shopping centre. The twins were becoming more of a handful for everybody, including herself, and she worried constantly about the level of supervision they actually received after school. Enid provided afternoon tea and was supposed to encourage homework. She was more likely to give the boys free run of her garden or unlimited television when the weather was wet. Janet wasn’t about to rush into criticising the caregiver, however. If Mrs Carpenter threw in the towel the boys would have to go to the same kind of day care facility she had used when they were toddlers and that would cost far more than she could afford. The early years had depleted her life savings to an alarmingly low level.

‘It shouldn’t take you more than five minutes to get to Mrs Carpenter’s house after school,’ Janet reminded the boys sharply. ‘She said it was nearly 4 o’clock when you arrived. She’d been about to go looking for you.’ And that was another worry. Janet would have been out looking for the twins within minutes of their non-arrival. Did Enid Carpenter really care about her sons?