LITMIR.BIZ

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drive you to A and E, just in case,’ said Vio. He couldn’t take his eyes off Abel. The kid looks exactly like me.

      ‘Who’s he?’ asked Abel, noticing the dark-haired man staring at him as Tish carried him across the playground. ‘Is he a taxi driver?’

      Tish looked embarrassed but Viorel laughed. Dorian was right: the kid was seriously cute.

      ‘I’m Viorel,’ he said, offering Abel his hand to shake. ‘I’m a friend of your mother’s.’

      ‘Viorel who? I’ve never seen you before.’

      Vio grinned. ‘Viorel Hudson. Why, how many Viorels do you know?’

      ‘Two,’ said Abel, ‘at my old school.’

      Vio’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Really? Where was your old school?’

      ‘Romania,’ said Abel.

      Vio felt the hairs on his arms stand on end. No wonder he looks so like me. And nothing like his mother. I wonder if he’s adopted?

      ‘My long name is Abel Henry Gunning Crewe,’ said Abel, abruptly changing the subject. ‘What’s your favourite dinosaur?’

      ‘Therizinosaurus,’ said Vio, not missing a beat. ‘What’s yours?’

      Abel looked at Tish, wide-eyed with admiration. Most grown-ups were embarrassingly ignorant on the giant reptiles of the Mesozoic Era. Mummy’s new friend was cool.

      ‘Mine’s Ceratosaurus, but in a tie with Fukuisaurus. My mum likes T-Rex, but that’s just because it’s the only one she knows.’ He rolled his eyes.

      Vio nodded in sympathy. ‘That’s girls for you.’

      ‘Tell me about it.’

      In the car on the way to the hospital, Tish told Vio, ‘You’re good with children.’

      He smiled. ‘You sound surprised.’

      She shrugged. ‘I suppose I am, a little.’

      ‘Why? Because I’m an actor?’

      ‘I don’t know. Maybe, yes.’

      Lifting his hand off the gear stick, Vio rested it casually on Tish’s leg. ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover, Miss Crewe. I’m actually good with all sorts of things.’ Slowly, infinitesimally slowly, he began stroking the ball of his thumb up and down the fabric of her jeans.

      It was a definite come-on. Tish felt a rush of blood to her groin that she hadn’t experienced since Michel. Oh Lord, she thought. He’s incredibly sexy. But he’s a film star. Do I really want to be another notch on his bedpost?

      ‘I’m sure you are.’ Gently she removed his hand.

      ‘But …? I’m sensing there’s a “but”.’

      ‘But I’m afraid I’m off romance at the moment,’ said Tish. ‘Sorry.’

      ‘Ah, yes. The frog doctor,’ said Vio dismissively. ‘Dorian mentioned it.’

      Tish looked mortified. When she’d spoken to Dorian about Michel, she’d assumed it was in confidence.

      ‘Oh come on, lighten up,’ said Vio, seeing her face fall. ‘For one thing he’s French. You can’t possibly want to date a Frenchman.’

      ‘Oh, really?’

      ‘Yes, really. And for another he’s an idiot. Any man who let you slip through his fingers is, by definition, an idiot.’

      Tish softened slightly. ‘You’ve got all the chat, haven’t you, Mr Hudson?’

      ‘I try,’ Vio grinned.

      The hospital trip took forever. As predicted, Abel was fine, as evidenced by his ceaseless chatter in the waiting room and quizzing of each doctor who examined him on the minutiae of Ben 10: Alien Force. By the time they left, Viorel’s jet lag was starting to kick in, so Tish offered to drive them back to Loxley.

      Abel talked for fifteen more minutes in the back seat before finally running out of steam and falling asleep, his little dark head slumped against the window. Tish thought Vio was asleep too, when he suddenly yawned loudly beside her.

      ‘So what happened?’ he asked her. ‘With your French doctor?’

      Tish sighed. She might as well tell him. Perhaps saying it out loud would help? ‘He met someone else.’

      ‘I’m sorry,’ said Vio.

      He sounded sincere. Tish thought, He’s a nice man. A flirt and a player and everything I don’t need in my life. But a nice man, nonetheless.

      ‘Is that why you left Romania? Abel mentioned he used to go to school there.’

      ‘No, no,’ said Tish. ‘It was nothing like that.’ She filled him in briefly on her life in Oradea. Her work with the orphans, how she’d come to adopt Abel and the PG-rated, synopsis version of her doomed affair with Dr Michel Henri. Finally, she told him about Jago and the squatters who had forced her home to Loxley.

      Viorel thought, This is quite a woman. It was a lot of life and responsibility to have packed into twenty-seven years.

      ‘So you’re really off men then, are you?’ he asked her. ‘You’re sure about that? No dating at all?’

      ‘For now I am,’ said Tish. ‘But it’s nice to be asked. Thank you.’

      ‘My pleasure.’

      ‘And thank you, for today. With Abel I mean.’

      ‘He’s terrific,’ enthused Vio, then suddenly shouted, ‘Jesus H. Christ!’

      Tish jumped out of her skin. Out of nowhere a recklessly speeding limousine flew around the corner and came within a hair’s-breadth of hitting them. Only thanks to Tish’s quick reactions were they able to swerve onto the grass verge and avoid a smash.

      ‘What the fuck was that?’ asked Vio as she slammed on the brakes. ‘Are you OK?’

      ‘I think so.’ Tish was still shaking. She turned to the back seat. ‘Abi darling, are you all right?’

      Wide awake again after all the commotion, Abel stared after the long black car as it disappeared into the distance. ‘That was so cool!’ he declared breathlessly ‘How fast do you think it was going, Vio? As fast as a jet?’

      ‘It was going much too fast,’ muttered Viorel. ‘Ridiculous on a little country road. We could have been killed.’

      ‘As fast as a rocket?’ asked Abel. ‘How about a jet-pack? Hey look! It’s coming back.’

      To Tish and Vio’s astonishment, they saw that the car was indeed coming back, marginally more slowly this time. Perhaps the driver had realized he’d run them off the road and was coming back to check that they were OK. As the limo came closer, it slowed down and stopped. Tish wound down her window, composing her features into what she hoped was a sternly disapproving attitude, and waited for the other driver’s grovelling apology.

      Instead, it was the rear passenger window that opened. The woman’s face was almost entirely obscured behind giant sunglasses, but her voice was imperious. ‘Loxley Hall,’ she barked. ‘I don’t suppose you know where the fuck it is?’

      Tish was livid. ‘Do you have any idea what speed you were doing just now? You actually forced me off the road! If I hadn’t swerved, you might have killed us.’

      ‘But you did swerve, didn’t you?’ The American accent was clearer this time, as was the arrogance. ‘Now do you know where this house is or not? I haven’t got all day.’

      Viorel leaned forward. He’d have recognized that voice anywhere.

      ‘Sabrina?’

      ‘Vio. Thank God.’

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