By Request Collection April-June 2016. Оливия Гейтс
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Название: By Request Collection April-June 2016
Автор: Оливия Гейтс
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon e-Book Collections
isbn: 9781474050081
isbn:
When she opened the front door an icy blast of air hit her and the sky looked grey and low although it was only three in the afternoon. She filled the scuttle to the weight she was happy to carry now she was pregnant and took it inside, before going back for some logs. She took an armful in and then went back for some more, and it was only then she noticed a slight movement close to the fence behind the stack of wood.
Petrified it was a rat—one or two of the neighbours had mentioned seeing the odd rat or two, courtesy of the farmer’s barns, no doubt—Melanie hurried back inside the house, her heart pounding like a drum. As soon as she had closed the door she knew she had to go back and make sure what it was, though. What if a bird had somehow got trapped or some other creature was hurt? Situated as the cottages were in a small hamlet surrounded by countryside, it could be anything sheltering there.
Wishing with all her heart she hadn’t gone out for the logs and coal and were still sitting watching TV in front of the fire, she put on a coat before opening the door again. The temperature seemed to have dropped another few degrees in just a minute or two. There was no doubt excited children all over the country were going to get their wish of a white Christmas, she thought, treading carefully to where she’d seen the movement. She bent down, her muscles poised to spring away if a beady-eyed rodent jumped out at her.
But it wasn’t a rat that stared back at her. Squeezed into the tiniest space possible, a small tabby cat crouched shivering in its makeshift shelter, all huge amber eyes and trembling fur.
‘Why, hello,’ Melanie whispered softly, putting out her hand only for the cat to shrink back as far as it could. ‘Hey, I’m not going to hurt you. Don’t be frightened. Come on, puss.’
After several minutes of murmuring sweet nothings, by which time she was shaking with cold as much as the cat, Melanie realised she was getting nowhere. She could also see the cat was all bone under its fur but with a distended stomach, which either meant it was pregnant or had some kind of growth. Praying it was the former because she was already consumed with pity for the poor little mite, she stood up and went to fetch some cooked roast chicken from the kitchen, hoping to tempt it with food where gentle encouragement had failed.
The cat was clearly starving, but not starving enough to leave its sanctuary, roast chicken or no roast chicken.
‘I can’t leave you out here. Please, please come out,’ Melanie begged, close to tears. It was getting darker by the minute and the wind was cutting through her like a knife, but the thought of abandoning the cat to its fate just wasn’t an option. And if she started to move the pile of logs it was sheltering behind they might fall and crush the little thing. She had tried reaching a hand to it but was a couple of inches short of being able to grab it.
‘Nell? What the hell are you doing out here and who are you talking to?’ said Forde’s voice behind her.
She swung round and there he was. Whether it was because she was frozen or had moved too quickly or was faint with relief that he was here to help her, she didn’t know, but the next thing she knew there was a rushing in her ears and from her crouched position beside the cat she slid onto her bottom, struggling with all her might not to pass out as the darkness moved from the sky into her head and became overwhelming.
IN THE end Melanie didn’t lose consciousness. She was aware of Forde kneeling beside her and holding her against him as he told her to take deep breaths and stay still—not that she could have done anything else. She was also aware of the wonderful smell and feel of him—big, solid, breathtakingly reassuring. It was when he tried to lift her into his arms, saying, ‘I’m taking you indoors,’ that she found her voice.
‘No. No, you can’t. There’s a cat, Forde. It’s in trouble,’ she muttered weakly.
‘A cat?’ The note of incredulity in his voice would have been comical under other circumstances. ‘What are you talking about? You’re frozen, woman. I’m taking you in.’
‘No.’ Her voice was stronger now and she pushed his arms away when he tried to gather her up. ‘There is a cat, behind the wood there, and it’s ill or pregnant or both. Look, see for yourself.’ She allowed him to help her to her feet but wouldn’t budge an inch, saying again, ‘Look, there. And I can’t reach it and it’s terrified, Forde. We can’t leave it out here in this weather—’
‘All right, all right.’ Thoroughly exasperated but less panicked now she was on her feet and seemingly OK, Forde peered into the shadows where she was pointing. At first he thought she must be imagining things and then he saw it—a little scrap of nothing crouched behind the logs. ‘Yes, I see it. Are you sure it won’t just come out and go home once we leave it alone?’
Her voice held all the controlled patience women drew on when the male of the species said something outrageously stupid. ‘Quite sure, Forde. And I don’t think it has a home to go to. Whatever’s happened to it, it isn’t good. The thing’s absolutely scared stiff of humans, can’t you see? And it’s starving.’
Forde narrowed his eyes as he tried to see in what was rapidly becoming pitch blackness. ‘It looks plump enough to me,’ he said eventually. ‘In fact quite rotund.’
‘That’s its belly. The rest of it is skeletal, for goodness’ sake. We have to do something.’
‘Right.’ In a way he was grateful to the cat. He’d come here tonight because he’d heard the weather was going to get atrocious and it was the excuse he’d been looking for to see her for weeks. While she’d gone to see Miriam as promised he hadn’t wanted to do anything to rock the boat, and her demands had been very explicit—no contact. But, he had reasoned to himself on the drive from London, she could hardly object to him calling to see if she was well stocked up with provisions and ready for the blizzard that had been forecast for some days. He’d bought half of his local delicatessen just in case, as well as a few other luxuries he could blame on the festive season. He’d been hoping she would be mellow enough to ask him in for a drink, but he hadn’t expected to be welcomed with open arms like this—even if it was due to a homeless moggy. But beggars couldn’t be choosers.
‘What are you going to do?’ she said. ‘We have to help it.’
He glanced at her. She was literally wringing her hands. Feeling that chances like this didn’t come that often, he gestured towards the cottage. ‘Go and open the door and get ready to close it again once I get the thing in the house.’
‘But you won’t reach it,’ she almost wailed.
‘I’ll reach it.’ If there was a God, he’d reach it. Once she was in position in the doorway to the cottage, he reached into the narrow void between the fence and the logs. He heard the cat hiss and spit before he felt its claws but somehow he got it by the scruff of the neck and hauled it out so he could get a firm hold. He realised immediately Melanie was right, the poor thing was emaciated apart from its swollen stomach, which, if he was right, was full of kittens.
He had grown up with cats and a couple of dogs and now he held the animal against the thick wool of his coat talking soothingly to it and trying not to swear as it used its claws again. But it hadn’t bit him. Which, in the circumstances, was something. Especially as it was СКАЧАТЬ