From Waif To His Wife

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THREE months later, Maisie nursed Susannah in her arms and sang softly to her on the patio at Raby Bay.

Wes was curled up at her feet and Susie was watching the pattern of light and shade the grapevine was creating. Then her lashes sank and she fell asleep.

Maisie rocked her a little longer, kissed her softly then she put her into her pram and adjusted the net. Susie didn’t stir.

‘There you go, Wes,’ Maisie murmured to the dog, ‘one contented baby! We’re getting pretty good at this!’

She got up and wandered to the edge of the patio where she stood looking out over the water but as if she was looking far, far away to a distant horizon…

That was when Rafe, who’d watched the little tableau of a girl and her baby unseen from inside, came to a decision.

Susie was thriving now and the ordeal of the neonatal clinic was well and truly behind them. Some complications had arisen but Maisie had been marvellous in the way she’d coped, refusing ever to lose hope.

Of course, it had been an anxious time when the baby had first come home, but once again Maisie had proved equal to the task.

And now she was a calm, relaxed mother and you could never doubt she adored her baby.

She was also looking well and slim again but there was something elusive about her; just occasionally, the smallest hint of a haunting sadness.

He had no doubt what it was, just as he had no doubt the time had come to release her. But how?

In stages, he thought, that’s obviously going to be the best way.

‘I took a bit of a liberty with your house,’ Rafe said that evening.

Maisie glanced at him across the polished surface of the dinner table. They were eating Grace’s superb rack of lamb studded with rosemary tips and basted with a blend of olive oil and sun-dried tomatoes. There were side dishes of cauliflower au gratin and snow peas.

It was just over seven months since they’d first met and summer had slid into autumn.

Maisie had a new hairstyle, a shorter, elegant bob but still curly. She wore a sage-green waistcoat over a long-sleeved ivory blouse and black velvet trousers.

‘You did?’

He nodded. ‘Remember you told me about the plans your father had to renovate it? Well, I went ahead and got it done.’

She blinked at him. ‘So-all the time I thought it was rented out and not being a financial burden on you the opposite was happening?’

He lifted his shoulders. ‘It’s been a drop in the ocean.’

She frowned suddenly. ‘What about the Amelie? I’ve just realised Jack never came back to me, so I suppose it’s still for sale?’ She looked a question at him.

He shook his head.

‘What does that mean?’

‘It never went onto the market but it’s in good shape.’

Maisie discovered she had difficulty with her voice. ‘Why?’

‘I got the impression it meant a lot to you. By the way, I’m off in a few days on a business trip for about a month.’

Maisie blinked again at this apparent non sequitur.

‘All business?’ she queried, and paused to ponder that his business lifestyle certainly wouldn’t fit in with a proper married life. She articulated the thought. ‘That seems rather a long time.’ She put her knife and fork down and took a sip of water.

‘All business, all the same.’

‘Poor you,’ she murmured and fingered the edge of her linen place mat before she took up her knife and fork again.

No sign of regret or even much interest, he reflected, but had he expected any? No, but that had to make it all the easier.

‘When I come back,’ he went on, ‘I’ll be moving into the apartment.’

She froze as she suddenly made the connection with her house and boat. ‘Does-does that mean you’re throwing me out of here?’ She closed her eyes immediately in frustration-what a thing to say!

‘No. I think we should stay married for a year at least, not only for Susie’s sake but also the comment it might cause otherwise. If you’re happy here that’s fine, and you should stay as long as you like.’ He gestured. ‘I just wanted you to know that somewhere you seemed to love is ready and available.’

Maisie sought desperately for composure. ‘Won’t it cause comment-me living here, you living elsewhere?’

‘Not nearly the comment a divorce after only a few months would. Anyway,’ he shrugged, ‘I often spend the night there when I’m flat out rather than driving here.’

It was true.

‘I suppose you’d like to be able to get on with your life? I mean, that’s quite natural, I’m not saying you shouldn’t or anything like that,’ she hastened to assure him, but, as the full implications of what this meant struck her, she pushed her half-full plate away suddenly.

Of course, there might be one special area of his life he wanted to get on with; women. Perhaps he’d already done so while she’d been so caught up with Susie so as not to even wonder lately?

‘The same,’ he paused and watched her for a long moment, ‘could be said for you, no doubt.’

Maisie blinked several times, as if it was a completely new concept she’d been presented with.

‘I…’ She stopped and cleared her throat. Then she propped her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her hands. ‘You know, I’ve been living from day to day with Susie, so it hadn’t really occurred to me.’

He finished his meal and placed his napkin on the table. ‘Well, there’s no urgency about it.’

She opened her mouth to say ‘So time has told you that being married to me doesn’t suit you, Rafe?’ but changed her mind because she really didn’t need to be hit on the head with it, did she?

‘Thank you,’ she said quietly instead. ‘I-Oh, there’s Susie. I’m trying out a new routine in the hope that she might just start to sleep through the night.’ She looked rueful.

He smiled briefly. ‘Just one thing, Maisie.’ He waited until he got her full attention. ‘Don’t disappear on me.’

Discomfort caused her cheeks to warm slightly but then she looked at him steadfastly.

And he had to acknowledge to himself that her brush with life in the raw had added maturity and character to her so that now there was a third persona, or perhaps only one now. A blending of Maisie and Mairead that was-well, he thought, he wouldn’t go into that.

‘No, I won’t, I promise,’ she said. ‘Will you excuse me? She’s really starting to sound desperate.’

The next two days were dreadful for Maisie.

She was forced to admit that she’d been living in another bubble for the last three months, cushioned, insulated, from her feelings for Rafe and the pain they brought her.

But that bubble had well and truly burst with this news and she was back on the rack. Even Susie sensed her agony and became fractious and weepy. And a new screw had been added to the rack-the thought of him with a mistress…

I’ve got to do it, Maisie thought desperately after a sleepless night walking the floor with Susie. I’ve got to somehow make him see I can’t go on like this. I need to confront my demons, I need to get out now. No long-drawn-out disengagement, I couldn’t stand it, and I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks.

To make matters worse, although at least Rafe had been spared that long, interrupted night because he’d stayed in the apartment, she was running out of time. He was due to go overseas the day after next which meant she only had one night left to talk to him.

As it happened, she didn’t even get that. She had a purely routine doctor’s appointment early in the afternoon the next day and when she got home there was a message from Rafe on the answering machine saying that something had come up and he’d had to advance his travel plans, so he wouldn’t be seeing her before he left. He’d added that if she had any problems to get in touch with Jack. His last words were, ‘Take care of you two, Maisie Wallis.’

She was galvanised into a flood of emotion as the machine clicked off. A thoroughly old-fashioned and wifely burst of temper for one. Something was always coming up and the man could never be a suitable husband or father because he was a machine! An emotion that conveniently ignored how it had worked in her favour in the past, how it had taken the burden of his presence off her…

But that was immediately replaced by a sense of panic. She couldn’t live the next month in the agony of indecision she was going through. She couldn’t go away, she’d given her word!

Perhaps he hasn’t left yet, she thought suddenly, and was galvanised into action rather than emotion this time.

She flew into the kitchen to find Grace and begged her to look after Susie for a couple of hours.

Grace, a great fan of the baby and with plenty of experience to call on anyway, was only too happy to oblige. She even advised Maisie to take her time. ‘I’ll make her a bottle if things get desperate. Off you go!’

Maisie flew, speed-dialling on her mobile phone at the same time.

But Rafe’s number, as often happened, was on the answering service. She cut the call without leaving a message and called Jack Huston.

‘Jack-has he left yet? Sorry, it’s Maisie here.’

‘No, I think he’s still at the apartment, Maisie. Is something wrong?’

‘No.’ She swallowed. ‘No! Just something I forgot to mention to him, Jack. I tried his mobile but it’s on answer. I-It’s not that important.’ She hoped she sounded convincing.

‘Try the apartment landline,’ Jack advised.

‘Thanks, I will!’ She rang off and did just that. The line was engaged.

She ground her teeth in frustration then realised it meant he must still be there. She jumped into her car and set out for the city without much thought for speed limits.

She tried the number again while she was stopped at a traffic light but it was still engaged. Then she concentrated on her driving and pulled into the building forecourt with a screech of tyres.

The manager came out and she begged him to park her car for her. As she jumped out in a flurry of legs and red curls bobbing, he told her she’d just missed Rafe.

‘On his way to the airport,’ he added, ‘and in a hurry by the look of it. You might catch him, Mrs Sanderson, but,’ he raised an eyebrow, ‘you know that Ferrari.’

Maisie felt herself collapse internally like a pricked balloon. ‘Oh. Oh,’ she whispered and closed her eyes. She knew that under normal circumstances she wouldn’t catch him; she knew that even if, on the slenderest chance, she did, it would not be the time or place to explain herself.

‘Well,’ she opened her eyes to see the manager looking at her a little strangely, ‘I will go up for a while.’ She couldn’t think what else to do.

‘Fine. I’ll put your car down in the garage. You OK?’

With an enormous effort, Maisie turned on a full-voltage smile. ‘I am. I really am.’

Once upstairs in the penthouse, she sat down on the coral settee and looked around dazedly.

Then she took her mobile phone from her bag, stared at it then put it on the coffee-table as it suddenly occurred to her, from nowhere, that it was the same bag she’d taken when she’d left Raby Bay the night before Susie was born. And the letter she’d written to Rafe was still tucked into the zipped pocket, forgotten until now.

She pulled it out and read it, and for some reason it brought on a bout of painful weeping.

When the tears finally subsided, she pushed it back into her bag and she went to wash her face. She passed Rafe’s study on the way and something prompted her to linger in the doorway then wander in.

The desk was tidy but his personality was printed everywhere, the high-flying businessman who controlled two empires, upon whom many jobs depended.

The man who didn’t take those responsibilities lightly.

The man who had taken responsibility not only for her but also his cousin’s baby.

The man for her?

She picked up a business magazine from a side-table because his face was on the cover-and shook her head.

She stared at the picture. It was all there, everything that did so much to her, despite the formality of his suit and the background of the Sanderson Minerals boardroom. From his thick hair, his grey eyes and an unsmiling, eyes-slightly-narrowed expression.

It was like having an arrow plunged into her heart, and she felt tears threatening again as she held the magazine to her breast for a moment. Then she started to put it back on the table, but the file that had been underneath it caught her eye because it bore her name.

‘MAISIE’S HOUSE’, she read.

She put the magazine aside and opened the file to find all the details of the renovations that had been done. There was also a marina berthing bill for the Amelie and three keys she recognized-the RQ gate key, the boat’s engine key and its door key. They looked like the originals, so Jack must have had copies made, she guessed.

She stared at them mesmerised then took a deep, yearning breath. She would like nothing more than to be on board the boat, not going anywhere, of course, but sitting there, thinking…

She picked up the keys and slipped them into her pocket. She tidied the file and put the magazine back on top.

There was little activity on finger H at the marina. It was a windy weekday afternoon and there were even whitecaps in the harbour.

But the seagulls were active and the air was salt-laden as Maisie sat on the stern of the Amelie, shivering and with her hair blowing in the wind but not noticing as she thought long and hard.

Did she need to explain anything to Rafe? What would it achieve other than placing a burden on him?

Sonia’s excuse, she thought and flinched, but this was different…

This was a solution-her return to her former life-he’d proposed himself, anyway, and all she needed to do was accept it, although she’d work her way towards it as soon as she could.

It spelt out, so there could be no misunderstanding, Rafe’s intentions for her.

She shivered-she’d left Raby Bay in slim navy trousers and a light ivory jumper and hadn’t even thought to take a jacket.

The Amelie was in great condition-she’d checked it all out, and she had no doubt the house would be the same, yet it depressed her terribly. Rafe Sanderson never did anything in half-measures, not even the way he made you fall in love with him, not even the way he parted from you.

She stood up abruptly and locked the boat. She climbed down onto the jetty and started to walk away but turned to look back. The berth beside the Amelie was empty, so there was a clear stretch of water between her and it, and as she leant against a concrete pier pole she was partially obscured.

She sighed. There was nothing for it but to spend at least the next month at Raby Bay until Rafe came home-and that made her think of Susie, so she reached into her bag for her phone to give Grace a call. It wasn’t there. She froze then clearly remembered leaving it on the coffee-table in the apartment.

‘Damn,’ she whispered and whirled round to run up the finger towards the gate, only to bump into a man coming in the opposite direction-Rafe, looking impossibly tall and immeasurably dangerous in the moments she had before the impact caused her to topple off the finger into the water.

He did everything he could to save her but it was no use, then he dived in after her.

‘I-can-s-swim,’ she tried to say as she came up spluttering and he surfaced next to her.

He took her in a lifesaver’s grip. ‘Have you ever tried climbing out of a marina berth? It’s an invitation to get scratched to pieces on barnacles. So just shut up and do as I tell you!’

A few minutes later they were standing on the back of the Amelie, having used its ladder to pull themselves out of the water, and history was repeating itself as Maisie tried to catch her breath and push her streaming hair out of her eyes.

‘You idiot!’ he stormed at her, ignoring his soaked condition entirely. ‘You also promised you wouldn’t do this!’

‘D-do what?’ she stammered. ‘It was an accident, maybe I wasn’t looking where I was going but-’

To her amazement, he took her dripping figure in his arms and held her so close, she could feel his heart beating heavily.

‘Not that! I mean taking flight so no one knows where you are but they do know you’re upset about something.’ He held her away as water streamed down his face, and continued savagely, ‘Remember the last time it happened and the consequences?’

Her throat worked. ‘That was entirely different. I was-I was running away, I’m not-’

‘I know you were,’ he overrode her. ‘I know you got a terrible shock because you can never forget Tim Dixon, and the way he died probably brought back the best of him for you. I know I should never have left you.’

She stared up at him. His hair was plastered to his head, there were droplets on his eyelashes, but nothing hid the grimness in his eyes.

‘You-you believe that?’ she asked with her eyes wide and shocked.

‘Of course. What else is there to believe? But while I know I have to let you go, it’s going to be on my terms, Maisie, so no more frights.’

Her voice sounded strange to her as she said, ‘You got a fright?’

‘Yes. Grace, when she stopped to think about it, thought there was something a bit odd about you. Jack was convinced you were distressed about something-he virtually pulled me off the plane. You weren’t answering your phone.’

She closed her eyes. ‘How did you find me?’ she whispered.

‘I couldn’t think of anywhere else to look but the house and your boat, since we were talking about them only a couple of days ago, so I took a chance. What set you off this time?’ he queried harshly.

‘Rafe,’ her mind was whirling but it swooped on one of the things he’d said that didn’t make sense, ‘what did you mean when you said you knew you had to let me go?’

‘Maisie…’ For the first time it was no longer the hard, angry man in charge, as the lines and angles of his face settled into lines of weariness.

And he released her suddenly. ‘Someone once wished this on me so it could be poetic justice, but you, of all people, should know what it’s like to want someone you can’t have.’

She froze. ‘But-but you can’t! I mean-what about your cousin, what about the kind of person that made me, what about-?’

He smiled drily. ‘In the end, none of that mattered. Only you mattered. What kind of a person did it make you?’ He shook his head. ‘I suspect there was wonderful material to work with anyway but it fired you into solid gold for me. Your spirit, your endurance through what life threw at you, that spark of vitality that I only ever once saw quenched in you…’

He paused then went on with an effort. ‘I was watching you the other day while you were on the patio with Susie. And it struck me that if anyone had told me a girl and her baby meant more to me than anything in the world, that she was the difference between darkness and light for me, I wouldn’t have believed them. But it happened.

‘And it happened,’ he went on, ‘with a girl I’d barely ever laid a hand on.’

Maisie swayed a little where she stood. ‘But you still believed I was in love with Tim?’

‘Who wouldn’t?’ he said tiredly. ‘When the news of his death came as such a shock it sent you into early labour.’

‘No.’ She shook her head so droplets flew. ‘It could have been the accident or-it could have happened anyway.’

‘Stress can-’

‘Perhaps,’ she interrupted, ‘but I’m the only one who knows what was really stressing me out.’

He searched her eyes with a frown in his. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I’m the only one who knows that I said goodbye to Tim Dixon in a little hut in Tonga because I was no longer in love with him, because I never had been. Yes, it came as a shock, his death, and it was sad.’ She tipped a hand. ‘Sad for Susie, sad because it was an untimely death, but devastating? No, not for me.’

‘So what…?’ His words hung on the air.

‘It was you I was stressed about. I-it hit me that day that I just couldn’t go on any longer, living with you, loving you but knowing there was no hope.’ Her throat worked.

‘But,’ he paused, ‘that night in the Tree House, you seemed to be looking for excuses for Tim. I’ve never forgotten that and what it could mean.’

Her mind flew back and she saw the candles again, their wine glasses, and heard the murmur of the sea on the beach. ‘I was, but only because whether I liked it or not he’s always going to be part of Susie so I wanted some mitigating circumstances for him. Something so as not to view him with utter contempt for her sake, that’s all.’

His face didn’t change. ‘When?’

She hesitated. ‘When?’

‘Did you fall in love with me?’

She closed her eyes. ‘When it was the last thing in the world that should have happened to me-almost from the beginning.’ Her lashes lifted. ‘When I loved nothing better than to be with you, when I felt safe, yes, but so much more, yet all the time I kept saying to myself-this can’t be happening to me, but not only that, he could never want me.’

‘Oh, Maisie,’ he breathed.

But she went on, ‘And that same day, the day Tim died, was the day Sonia told me all about why she was the way she was, because of your parents’ marriage, and it seemed to explain why you could be cynical about love and all the trimmings. It just-it was too much on top of the misery I was already going through.’ Tears beaded her lashes.

‘Maisie,’ this time he reached for her but only took her hand, ‘yes, I was cynical. That’s why I was starting to suspect only an arranged marriage was going to work for me. My parents put themselves through hell, and Sonia and I followed.’ He sighed. ‘But you gave no sign of distress until I told you about Tim. You were-bright and breezy.’

She managed to smile but twistedly. ‘If you had any idea how exhausting it was, keeping myself bright and breezy…’ She shook her head. ‘I think that might have been another factor. I was mentally so tired.’

‘Maisie-’

‘No, please let me go on,’ she begged. ‘I could never find the words to explain to you-I didn’t even know if it mattered to you-but Mairead was me responding to my music, the one area where I could shut everything else out…then I found in-in-’ she rubbed her face ‘-in dire circumstances like Sonia’s soirée, well, the only way I could cope was by extending that bubble a bit. I don’t suppose I’m making any sense but-’

‘You are,’ he said very quietly. ‘Can I tell you how it happened for me?’

‘Yes, please,’ she whispered.

‘Everything that had ever plagued me disappeared when I saw you in that hospital bed. That’s when I knew none of it carried any weight at all. That you were paramount to me and it was going to be sheer hell living without you.’

He raked a hand across his jaw. ‘In fact, everything came together, Maisie, Mairead, they merged and became,’ he paused, ‘the only girl in the world for me. But that’s when the agony really began.’

‘Rafe?’ She lifted her face to his and her eyes were green and incredulous. Her lips were trembling and she was shaking like a leaf in a gale. ‘Tell me I’m not dreaming?’

He smiled fleetingly at last but he sobered immediately and touched her face with his fingertips. ‘When I’m away from you I can’t get you out of my mind, when I have you in my arms it couldn’t feel more right. When I think of losing you, my whole world falls down and the only way to right it is to know that you belong to me and I belong to you.’ He closed his eyes briefly. ‘You could have no idea how ironic that is but it’s true.’

‘Tell me,’ she whispered.

‘I will one day but-’

‘Excuse me.’

They both turned convulsively to see a man standing on the jetty, regarding them a trifle awkwardly.

He said, ‘I heard the splashes and came running but you did the right thing climbing onto the boat. Then you seemed a little-um-preoccupied so I retreated but-uh-would this be your bag, though, miss? I found it on the jetty.’

‘Oh, thank you!’ Maisie breathed and Rafe reached over to take it. ‘Thanks, mate,’ he added.

‘Are you both OK?’

‘Fine, never better,’ Rafe assured him. ‘We actually make a habit of doing this.’

The stranger stared up at them then shrugged. ‘If I were you I’d get dry and warm before you catch pneumonia.’

‘Not a bad idea,’ Rafe said gravely and turned to Maisie, who was rather desperately trying not to laugh. ‘You wouldn’t have the keys for the boat in that bag by any chance, my love?’

‘Y-yes,’ she said a little unsteadily and pulled them from her bag.

They laughed together, standing in the middle of the Amelie’s shipshape little saloon, standing in the circle of each other’s arms, still dripping.

‘He must think we’re mad!’ she said.

‘He could be right. I’m certainly mad about you. I’ve done this once before without permission but I think it needs to be done again.’ And he started to undress her.

She put her hand over his with a sudden cloud in her eyes. ‘Susie…’ And she told him what had happened to her phone. ‘I should check in.’

‘She’s fine. I was talking to Grace only minutes before I bumped into you, just in case you’d checked in with her. Susie’s had a bottle and she looks set to sleep for hours.’

Maisie relaxed. ‘I love you too,’ she told him and helped him out of his sodden jacket. ‘We could have a shower-we should have a shower, and not only to continue a tradition we once established, and properly this time, but also to get warm and clean. See that little gas heater up on the wall there?’

He’d removed her sweater and he looked in the direction she was pointing. ‘Uh-huh,’ he said but distractedly because what he’d revealed was a pale lemon bra patterned with forget-me-nots.

‘Well, it provides instant hot water.’

‘Wonderful.’ He turned his attention back to stripping her trousers off. ‘Since,’ he looked into her eyes, ‘we’ve established that, may we proceed?’

‘Please do,’ she invited and a little glint lit her eyes. ‘I was only keen to-set the scene.’

He paused and looked at her narrowly. ‘You really want us to take a shower?’

‘I really do. I had an amazing fantasy once about…showers-boat showers to be precise-so-’

He put his fingers to her lips. ‘Say no more.’ He ripped off the rest of his clothes, turned away to prime the gas heater then picked her up in his arms and carried her into the Amelie’s bathroom.

It wasn’t as large or as grand as the Mary-Lue’s but the jet of water, after a few preliminary splutters, was warm and wonderful as it streamed over them.

Maisie took her bra off and her knickers and stood revelling in it. Then she looked into his eyes and saw a question in them. She turned the water off, wound her arms around him and pressed her breasts against the hard wall of his chest as she offered him her mouth.

The result was dynamite. Their kiss was everything she’d fantasised about. His hands on her sleek, slippery body were everything she’d dreamt about as tremors of desire rose from deep within her.

The hard months slipped away and she felt at last as if she’d reached a safe shore, a haven, but not only that, one shot with rapture and pure pleasure.

When he lifted his head at last it was to ask her if she still believed she was dreaming.

‘No,’ she gasped. ‘Oh, no! But-would you mind not stopping? Because that was pure magic.’

He laughed softly. ‘There’s actually no stopping me now but we need a bed. Come.’

The double bunk on the Amelie was also in the aft berth and, again, not as luxurious as the Mary-Lue’s, but perfectly adequate for two people who were setting each other alight.

‘Do you have any express wishes in this instance?’ he queried as he stroked her from head to toe and all the sensitive, wonderfully erotic places in between.

Maisie drew a shaky breath because Rafe was looking down at her with tenderness and laughter as if it was a private joke only they could share.

‘I have had one overriding wish for a long time now.’ She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder.

He put his fingers beneath her chin and tilted her face to his. ‘Tell me.’

‘Just to be openly in love with you and relaxed and happy about it.’

His eyes softened and he kissed her. ‘Still?’ he queried against the corner of her mouth.

‘Mmm…Do you have any express wishes?’

‘Yes. You’ve just put it into words.’

‘Oh, Rafe.’ She felt herself melt beneath her own rush of tenderness and she cupped the side of his face in her hand.

And that was the mood that claimed them as they kissed and made a timeless exploration of each other.

And although they could have been anywhere, Maisie began her own journey into a sea of delight.

He told her things she would never have guessed. Such as how he’d been almost unbearably tempted to make love to her after Sonia’s soirée. Such as the iron discipline he’d had to exercise the night they’d slept in each other’s arms at the muster camp.

‘No,’ she breathed.

‘Yes,’ he contradicted as he cupped her hips and cradled her to him. And she looked into his eyes to see he was looking at her with heavy-lidded desire, and, just as she’d once anticipated, it sent her to the moon…

And all the pent-up hunger she’d suffered, to have his hands on her, his body on hers, was released, making her move in his arms, making her offer her body to him with sheer pleasure and an urgent desire to please.

Until they were moving as one more and more urgently as their desire peaked and the sensations she’d never experienced before started to wash through her, filling her with the incredulous delight that she couldn’t hide.

He saw it in her eyes just before they came together and he was moved beyond words as they shuddered simultaneously in the ultimate release.

She was the first to break the rapturous silence.

‘Rafe?’ she whispered with her eyes closed. ‘You were wonderful.’

He kissed her eyelids. ‘We were, Maisie.’ He touched everything he loved about her-her red curls, her smooth skin now damp and dewy-and, with a little growl in his throat, he pulled her very close again.

‘I should have known right from the start that this was the way it should be. You always felt as if as if you were made to be right here.’

Maisie breathed deeply as she felt his heart beating heavily again and could only believe every word he’d said.

‘I’ll never want to be anywhere else,’ she murmured.

‘I’ve had an idea.’ He smoothed some wayward curls behind her ear. ‘Let’s get married again. We can call it a reaffirmation.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘A good idea?’

She smiled then looked apprehensive. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be away for a month on business?’

‘That was a business trip I didn’t really need to make. It was an excuse because I was going crazy trying to keep my distance from you.’

She relaxed. ‘It’s a lovely idea.’

They smiled into each other’s eyes then they clung together as if they could never get enough of each other…

Two weeks later, together with Sonia and Liam and their children, and, of course, Susie, as well as Grace and Jack Huston, Maisie and Rafe reaffirmed their vows in Vava’u.

The day before they’d hired a boat and cruised to the spot, in a sunlit calm sea, where Tim Dixon had died a hero, to scatter his ashes.

And the two weeks leading up to it had been a revelation for Maisie. The depth of Rafe’s passion for her amazed and delighted her and brought forth her own passion.

But it was just as much the little things that delighted her. Their mental unity, the little things they laughed over. Susie’s sudden discovery that there was a man in her life-Rafe-who always needed to be greeted with her most charming smile, was one of them.

Being able to hold hands for no reason other than they wanted to, waking up at night with his reassuring presence beside her, and knowing she was no longer alone…

It was a simple ceremony on the beach. Maisie wore a long sleeveless sea-green dress that matched her eyes; Rafe wore a black shirt and cream jeans.

Most of the staff of The Tongan, who were choir members of the church on the hill behind the resort, sang a joyful hymn unaccompanied, their voices soaring skywards.

And as they faced each other, her hands clasped in his, Rafe and Maisie looked deep into each other’s eyes and said these words to each other-

There was hardly a dry eye amongst the onlookers as they went into each other’s arms.