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‘I’m sure he wouldn’t mind your putting Ryan up for a few days. Ray’s always had a helping hand for strays. In fact, didn’t he do the same for you when you arrived on Shearwater in very similar circumstances, hurt and with nowhere to go? Offer you a place to live until you sorted out what you wanted to do—which in your case was to stay on? Is he off at his daughter’s? If you’re worried about having his permission, why don’t you call him there and ask?’
Nina was beaten and she knew it. ‘I suppose you’re right,’ she said weakly. ‘It’s just that I’m really busy finishing a commission right now—’
Ryan, who had been letting Dave do the persuading, interrupted smoothly. ‘I won’t interfere with your work. You’ll hardly even know I’m here.’
Oh, she would know, Nina thought grimly. She had the feeling that every moment he was in the house she would be aware of him with every fibre of her being.
‘And it’s good to know that there’s someone on hand with some personal experience of what I’m going through,’ he added ominously. ‘Maybe you can give me some useful tips on how to cope.’
She went cold all over. ‘I don’t think so.’
He didn’t take the hint. ‘I heard you and Dave talking about your amnesia last night. How did it happen?’
Nina suppressed her welling panic. With this interested audience, she knew it wouldn’t do to overreact. She would satisfy his curiosity and hope he dropped the subject. ‘I fell down a wet companionway coming over here on the ferry and bumped my head on the stair rail,’ she clipped, gathering up the coffee mugs from the table. ‘Or so I’m told. It’s all rather hazy.’
‘Were you badly hurt?’ His voice was taut with a controlled emotion that she refused to recognise.
‘I wasn’t hurt at all, just dazed,’ she dismissed with a shrug. ‘All I got was a small graze on the side of my face—nothing to make a big fuss about—’
‘But you still have the amnesia.’
‘Look, it’s no big deal,’ she said impatiently, carrying the mugs over to the sink. ‘I was a footloose traveller and had all my worldly goods in a backpack. I’d obviously intended to stay on Shearwater for a while, so there was no urgency for me to get back to wherever I’d been before, especially when I discovered how much I enjoyed living here.’
Her green eyes suddenly lit with humour. ‘You might even say it was preordained because the ferry company was so relieved that I wasn’t interested in suing that they gave me a big fat cheque by way of apology, which I used to pay Ray for my first few months rent in advance. Then I started painting and never looked back. So you see, everything actually worked out perfectly for me in the end!’
She turned her back on his dubious expression and concentrated on washing out the mugs with overly meticulous care.
Behind her she heard Dave draw Ryan aside for some low-voiced counsel about his condition, and then he announced he should be getting back to his whip-cracking wife.
Nina quickly dried her dripping hands on a tea-towel. ‘I guess you’d better have your cell phone back,’ she said, handing it to him from the bench.
‘Maybe it’s time you talked Ray into having a phone line put in here,’ he commented, slipping it into the hip pocket of his trousers.
She shook her head. ‘It’s much more peaceful without. I like not being available to all and sundry at the push of a button. People think twice about interrupting you if they have to make the effort to do it in person!’
‘That’s definitely my cue to leave!’ Dave chuckled. ‘Well, good luck, Ryan.’ He clapped him on the arm. ‘Let me know how you get on. I’m in the green house at the end if you need anything else, and Jeannie and I are going back to Auckland the day after tomorrow, weather permitting, if you want company on your way back to civilisation.’
‘Thanks for the offer.’
‘Uh, are you sure you don’t want another cup of coffee?’ Nina blurted, suddenly loath to see him go. Nervous as he made her, she was much more nervous about being alone with her disturbing guest.
