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Max nodded, feeling himself relax more and more as Evie seemed to fall for the beauty of the place the same way he once had. It was like another small confirmation of how well matched they were.
‘It used to be Silvertrees itself before the hospital was built a mile out of town and all the housing sprung up around that. Then the hospital took the name Silvertrees and this place became the Old Town, or Outer Silvertrees,’ he explained. ‘How is it you’ve never been here?’
With a rueful smile, Evie lifted her shoulders at his light teasing.
‘I only ever came here to go to the hospital, either for work or for myself. I didn’t even know they had a funicular railway here.’
He arched his eyes in surprise.
‘Did you know it was built in the late nineteenth century?’
‘Oh, right.’ She only hesitated a fraction of a moment before following suit. ‘But it’s electricity-powered?’
‘Good eye.’ He nodded, impressed. ‘It was rebuilt in the forties specifically for that reason. And the original wooden cars were replaced with lightweight aluminium carriages. But the original line used a simple system of gravity and water. They pumped water into a two-thousand-gallon tank underneath the top car until it outweighed the lower car. Once the top car reached the bottom station they emptied the tank and pumped it back up to a tank at the top station.’
‘You know a lot about it,’ Evie remarked with a grin.
‘I originally wanted to be an engineer when I was growing up,’ he answered evenly. No need for Evie to know that she was the only person, outside his parents, who he’d ever told.
Still she glanced at him sharply.
‘What happened?’
Max opened his mouth; best to tell her that he’d changed his mind as he’d grown up.
‘My parents told me not to be so stupid. That I was going to become a surgeon like them, and that was all there was to it.’
He forced a smile as her eyes slid over him, assessing.
‘Oh. Well, for what it’s worth, there are thousands and thousands of patients out there who are very glad you were their surgeon.’
‘Thanks.’ He grinned wryly. ‘I appreciate you not trying to psychoanalyse me.’
‘At least out loud,’ she couldn’t resist. ‘For the record, though, I can also see you taking that funicular-style technology with you to some foreign country. And manually building one out there for them, if they needed it.’
‘Yeah, I guess that’s the geeky side of me coming out.’
‘I like it,’ Evie offered shyly before teasing him. ‘It’s better than being the demon of discipline.’
‘Oh, I see. Hitting below the belt, are we?’ he quipped as he stepped towards her, careful not to crush Imogen as he drew Evie into his arms.
The kiss was slow and thorough, and full of promise.
Something was changing deep inside him, something fundamental. It felt as though Evie was finally unlocking a part of himself he’d never even known existed, and he liked it.
More than liked it. He welcomed it.
Eventually they pulled apart with reluctance as Imogen made her objections known. Evie dropped a kiss on her daughter’s head before lifting her head to meet his gaze. Something indefinable clicked inside him, and Max slid protective arms around both of them.
‘I think I could live here.’
‘Sorry?’ He pulled his head back to look at her.
‘In Silvertrees,’ Evie clarified nervously. ‘Back at my brother’s house when you first talked about Imogen and I coming up here, I told you that I wouldn’t want to move that far away from him or Annie. But, if it meant you and Imogen having a closer relationship, then I could learn to love living here.’
None of the words that came into his head seemed to adequately express his emotions at Evie’s generosity of spirit. Instead, he just pressed a hard kiss to her lips, gratified when she smiled her relieved acceptance.
But that indescribable something still hovered on the periphery of his mind. What was it? And why was he finding it so difficult to express?
