A Father For Poppy

‘So nothing changes, then?’

‘No, it would seem not. And now that he’s taken over at Horizons I’m just grateful that I’m not on the wards or in Theatre. With my job our paths won’t cross that much.’ She smiled and took a breath. ‘He’s living in the big house in the hospital grounds at present and not liking it all that much, which I can believe. He is too much of a socialising sort of person to enjoy living on his own in that sort of place, but once he gets into his stride we shall be seeing the real Drake Melford.’

Later that evening, sitting alone in the cottage garden with Poppy fast asleep upstairs, Tessa was watching the sun set over the hills that surrounded the town in a circle of fresh greenery and letting her mind go back to that other time when its golden rays had embraced her and Drake on their last night together.

She’d vowed then that never again would she leave herself open and vulnerable to that sort of pain and loss, and had kept to it, relying on a polite but firm refusal when other men had sought her company.

There had been no expectation in her to hear from Drake again so she hadn’t been disappointed. But a part of her was still hurt that he hadn’t even dropped her a quick line to let her know how the new job was going, if nothing else.

Then out of darkness had come light. Poppy had come into her life and she’d begun to live and love again, and nothing was going to interfere with that, she vowed as the sun began to sink beneath the horizon.

On Saturdays she took Poppy to see her maternal grandfather in the town centre. Tessa had met him at her bedside when the little girl had been brought into Horizons after the accident, and had been aware of his frustration at the thought of his granddaughter being taken into care because he was too old to look after her.

When Randolph Simmonds had heard some time later that the smiley blonde hospital manager loved Poppy and wanted to adopt her, he had been overjoyed and looked forward to their weekly visits.

He had an apartment in a Regency terrace overlooking one of the parks not far away from the town’s famous shopping promenades, and always on Saturdays insisted on taking them out for lunch and afterwards driving them up into the hills, where pretty villages were dotted amongst the green slopes.

Randolph was due for eye treatment soon in Horizons and his first question when they arrived on the Saturday was whether the new fellow had arrived yet, as he wanted Drake Melford to be in charge of any surgery that might be necessary.

‘Yes,’ Tessa told him. ‘He has been with us a week, but, Randolph, you need to be on his waiting lists, or do you have an appointment to see him privately? Drake is extremely busy.’

‘Oh, so it’s Drake, is it?’ he said, twinkling across at her. ‘You’re on first-name terms?’

‘I knew him way back before he was so much in demand, though he was already making a name for himself,’ she explained flatly. ‘I hadn’t seen him for quite some time until the other day.’ Then she steered the conversation on to a different topic. ‘Do you want me to sort out an appointment for you privately? Or you can see him through your optician or GP, if they think it is necessary.’

‘You could make me a private appointment if you would,’ he said immediately. ‘I’m getting too old to be shuffling around waiting rooms and clinics.’ With his glance on Poppy, who had gone out into the garden to play, he asked, ‘How is the little one? Does she still cry for them in her sleep?’

‘Not so much,’ she told him. ‘I’ve taught Poppy to call me “Mummy Two” so that your daughter isn’t forgotten, and she seems happy with that.’

‘And maybe one day there might be a “Daddy Two”, do you think?’ he questioned.

‘There might, but don’t bank on it,’ she told him. ‘The three of us are happy as we are, aren’t we?’

He sighed. ‘Yes, you were heaven-sent, Tessa.’

When they went for lunch to Randolph’s favourite restaurant Tessa was dismayed to see Drake seated at one of the tables. But, she thought, having already promised to speak to him on Randolph’s behalf, and not looking forward to any kind of one-to-one discussions with him, it seemed an ideal opportunity to put forward the old man’s request.

‘Isn’t that the man himself?’ Randolph exclaimed. ‘I saw his picture in one of the local papers.’

‘Yes, that’s him. I’ll introduce you while he’s waiting to be served and you could mention an appointment now if you like,’ she said, as they approached his table.

‘Yes, why not?’ he agreed.

Drake had seen them. He rose to his feet as they drew near and Tessa saw that his glance was on Poppy, who was holding onto her grandfather’s hand and looking around her.

‘This is a surprise, Tessa. I wasn’t expecting to see you here,’ he said, with a questioning smile in Randolph’s direction.

She ignored the remark and changed the subject by saying, ‘Can I introduce Randolph Simmonds, Poppy’s grandfather?’

As they shook hands the old man said, ‘We have just been discussing my need for a private appointment with you, sir, which Tessa was going to organise, and here you are.’

It was a table for four and Drake pointed to the three empty seats and said, ‘Why don’t you join me for lunch and tell me what it is that you want of me.’ Beckoning a nearby member of staff, he asked them to bring a child’s chair for Poppy.

Tessa felt her heartbeat quicken. This wasn’t what she’d expected, but there was nothing she could do about it now, and while Poppy’s grandfather was engaged in explaining his eye problems to Drake she talked to Poppy and pretended that she wasn’t shaking inside.

Until Drake’s voice said from across the table, ‘I’ve just been explaining to Mr Simmonds that I’m going to do as my predecessor did before me and use the same facilities that he had put in place for his private practice in the big house in the grounds. So, yes, I will ask my secretary to get in touch with him first thing on Monday morning, if that will be satisfactory.’

This is ludicrous, he was thinking. Across the table from him was the woman he’d once romanced and made love to in a torrent of desire and had had it returned in full, and they were behaving like strangers. But he’d forfeited the right to anything else and was now paying the price. It was hellish, making polite conversation when he’d adored every inch of her way back in what seemed like another life.

Fresh menus were being brought to the table for the extra diners and as Tessa gazed at the selection of foods available the print blurred before her eyes.

She would have the fish with the creamed potatoes and fresh vegetables, she told them when they came for her order, with a child’s portion for her daughter.

Once they had eaten they would go their separate ways, and this would all be over. But soon it seemed that, like everyone else who met Drake, the old man had fallen under his spell and wanted to chat.

Yet Randolph had no problems about them moving on when she made the suggestion at the end of the meal, but to Tessa’s dismay Poppy had. She had wriggled down off her chair and gone round to the other side of the table, and climbing up onto Drake’s knee was sitting there, sucking her thumb. After a moment of complete astonishment on his part, his arms closed around her.

This is madness, Tessa thought wildly. Not only was Randolph impressed by Drake’s easy charm, but her beautiful Poppy must be seeing in him something she hadn’t seen in any other man since she’d lost her father. It had to be him of all people, him, for whom babies and mortgages were no-go areas.

Drake was reading her mind as clearly as if she was speaking her thoughts, and putting Poppy gently back onto her feet he led her back to where Tessa was sitting and said softly, ‘Yours, I think.’

‘You think correctly,’ she told him levelly, ‘and now, if you will excuse us, Poppy’s grandfather always takes us up into the hills when we’ve had lunch, don’t you, Randolph?’

‘Er, yes,’ he replied uncomfortably, and turned to their host. ‘It has been good to meet you, Mr Melford. Maybe next Saturday we could take you for a meal, if you aren’t too busy.’

Tessa noted that he didn’t say either yes or no, just smiled, and she thought, Please, let it be a no when next I see him.

When they were clear of the restaurant Randolph asked curiously ‘So what is it with you and the man back there, Tessa? What have you got against him? I thought he was most pleasant. We butted into his mealtime with our requests and interruptions and he never batted an eyelid.’ He looked down at Poppy’s dark curls. ‘Whatever you might think of him, our young miss took to him like a duck to water.’

‘Yes,’ she admitted. ‘I saw that. It is just that Drake and I had a misunderstanding a few years ago.’

‘And you still bear a grudge?’

Not a grudge, she thought. It was scars that she carried, mental and physical ones, but she wasn’t going to tell Randolph that, so she just let a shrug of the shoulders be the answer to that question, and he let the matter drop.

Randolph was very fond of both Poppy and Tessa, whose loving role of a second mother to his granddaughter took away some of the dreadful feeling of loss that he had to live with, and no way did he like to see her unhappy in any way.

But as he drove the last stretch homewards he was reminding himself that all he knew of her was what he saw now, in her early thirties and beautiful. There had to have been men in her life previously, if not at the present time, and it seemed that Drake Melford might have been one of them, though clearly not any more.

When the little family had left the restaurant after the uncomfortable moments when Poppy had been drawn to him, Drake sat deep in thought. It had been a mistake to come back to where his roots were, and where he’d had the mad fling with Tessa. Yet what was it he’d been expecting when he did? That nothing would have changed and Tessa would be waiting, patient and adoring, after the abrupt way their affair had ended?

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