For Christmas, Forever: The Yuletide Engagement / The Doctor's Christmas Bride / Snowbound Reunion

‘But now you want us to leave?’ Patrick guessed ruefully.

It was almost one o’clock in the morning. She was incredibly weary from the worry over Toby, and her head ached from the circles her thoughts were going round and round in. So, yes, she wanted him—and his sister—to leave now.

She glanced at the younger woman, Teresa, sitting dejectedly at the kitchen table staring into a cup of cold coffee, her face pale.

Ellie could see a faint family resemblance between the brother and sister now—both were dark, with those magnetic grey eyes—but where Patrick’s face was all ruggedly sharp angles Teresa’s was softened into gamine beauty.

Why hadn’t she seen that resemblance on Saturday evening?

Because she hadn’t been looking for it! Because no one had told her that Toby’s girlfriend Tess was Patrick’s young sister!

That was what really bothered Ellie about all this; why had no one told her of the relationship?

Until she had the answer to that, she felt the more distance she put between Patrick and herself the better.

‘If you don’t mind,’ she answered Patrick evenly. ‘I wouldn’t expect Toby in to work tomorrow either, if I were you,’ she added dryly; she doubted her brother would be strong enough to get out of bed in the morning, let alone anything else!

‘I wasn’t,’ Patrick dismissed impatiently, looking down at her frowningly. ‘Ellie—’

‘Patrick, I don’t think now is either the right time or place for the two of us to talk,’ she bit out abruptly, moving sharply away from him, at the same time giving a pointed look in the direction of his sister.

Not that Teresa looked as if she were taking any notice of their conversation. She was completely wrapped up in the misery of her worry over Toby. Which probably meant that the affection Toby obviously felt for ‘Tess’ was reciprocated.

Why had no one told her that Toby was dating Patrick’s sister?

But perhaps someone had, Ellie realised slowly, as she recalled Gareth’s enigmatic conversation of yesterday…

Gareth had seemed to be under the impression that Toby, as well as herself, was no better than he was. Because he believed them both to be dating the McGrath brother and sister for the same reasons he had become engaged to Sarah—wealth and ambition? He was totally wrong, of course—on both counts. But—

‘Ellie?’

She looked up to find Patrick watching her concernedly. ‘Perhaps you should take your sister home now,’ she suggested stiffly. ‘She looks as if she’s had enough for one evening,’ she added, with a rueful glance at the younger woman.

‘I think we all have.’ Patrick nodded grimly. ‘I’ll call in tomorrow and see how Toby is.’

And continue this conversation, his words seemed to imply. Well, Ellie needed time and space to form her tangled thoughts into some sort of order. She wasn’t sure twelve hours was long enough for that!

‘Of course,’ she accepted smoothly. ‘Now, it really is late…’

He gave her another searching look before turning abruptly to his sister. ‘It’s time to go, Teresa,’ he told her briskly. ‘I’m sure Ellie will call us if she needs us,’ he added as Teresa looked about to protest.

Considering the only telephone number she had for Patrick was his business one, that wouldn’t really do a lot of good. Although Toby would have Patrick’s mobile number.

‘Of course I will,’ Ellie assured the younger woman as Teresa gave her a distressed look.

Teresa stood up, very tall and slender. ‘I’m really sorry we’ve had to meet for the first time under these circumstances.’ She grimaced.

Yes, it might have been better—it definitely would have been better for Ellie!—if the two of them had met before now.

‘I don’t suppose Toby will feel like this for long, and then perhaps he can bring you here for a drink one evening,’ she consoled.

Once he had given Ellie an explanation as to exactly what was going on! Because something was going on—Ellie was just too tired at this moment to be able to make sense of it all.

‘Maybe the four of us could go out to dinner together at the weekend,’ Patrick put in smoothly.

Ellie turned to give him a cool look. ‘I think it would be better if we took one step at a time. Besides,’ she added firmly as she saw Patrick was about to argue the point, ‘I doubt Toby will feel up to eating anything for several days.’ It was a valid point—one she could see Patrick would have a problem arguing with.

Thank goodness. She didn’t want to tie herself down to a definite time for seeing Patrick again. Not until she had some answers to a few pertinent questions. Answers that only her brother could give her.

‘I’ll ring you in the morning, if that’s okay,’ Teresa McGrath told her a few minutes later as she stood in the doorway preparing to leave.

‘Of course,’ Ellie accepted, deliberately avoiding looking at Patrick as he stood at his sister’s side. ‘Brr, it’s cold out here.’ She shivered from the icy wind blowing around them.

‘Yes, it does seem to have turned a little icy,’ Patrick murmured softly.

Ellie looked at him sharply as she sensed his double meaning, and those raised dark brows told her she hadn’t been mistaken. ‘The forecast is for snow,’ she returned, deliberately meeting his gaze.

‘Luckily it never settles for long in our climate,’ he came back, just as deliberately.

Ellie shrugged. ‘The forecast is for a long-term cold front.’ Two could play at this game. And, until she knew exactly what was going on, a cold front was exactly what she intended showing Patrick McGrath.

He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘Ice and snow eventually melt.’

‘Eventually,’ she echoed evenly.

‘Patrick, you can discuss the weather another time; we really should go, and let Ellie get back inside out of this biting wind,’ Teresa prompted her brother, obviously having no idea of the double-edged conversation that had been taking place between her brother and Ellie.

To Ellie they had sounded like a couple of secret agents in a B-rated movie, talking in a code only the two of them understood!

‘So we should.’ Patrick nodded abruptly before bending his head and lightly brushing Ellie’s mouth with his own. ‘But I will be back in the morning, Ellie.’

A threat if ever she had heard one, Ellie decided irritably. Well, if, as the doctor had implied, Toby was better by the morning, Patrick would arrive here to find Toby recovering on his own and Ellie at work!

But not before she had spoken to Toby herself…

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, sis.’ Toby shook his head, his face still very pale as he lay back on the pillows. He had slept well through what had been left of the night, and the nausea seemed to have completely abated, although he had been left with a severe headache.

Join the club, Ellie thought, and gave a deep sigh before sitting on the side of her brother’s bed. ‘Okay, let’s start this off simply: why did you omit to tell me that the Tess you have been dating the last few months is actually Teresa McGrath, Patrick’s young sister?’

‘I—’

‘Please, don’t tell me that you didn’t think it was important,’ Ellie advised him dryly—she sensed he was about to tell her exactly that. ‘Because you know very well that it is. That it always was. That it still is,’ she concluded pointedly.

‘I’m not sure you should be badgering a sick man in this overly strident way.’ Toby shook his head before lying back to close his eyes, having just risked consuming a cup of weak tea and a dry piece of toast, both of which seemed—so far—to have stayed down.

‘It could get worse, Toby,’ she warned him. ‘If what I suspect is true, I could actually end up strangling this “sick man”—and so put everyone out of their misery!’ Her eyes glittered dangerously.

She had had plenty of time to think during a rather sleepless night—and some of the conclusions she had come to had been less than reassuring!