‘Not long?’
‘Can it wait, my dear?’
Carly gave Benson a frustrated look.
‘I’ll take care of him,’ Dare said and got a flash of disgust from her moss-green eyes for his efforts.
Rachel touched Carly’s arm. ‘Why don’t we have tea in the sunroom? I can show you what I bought at the market.’
Carly hesitated. ‘Okay, but... I need to change first,’ she said, skipping up the front steps and disappearing into the house.
‘Nice wheels,’ Benson noted, gazing at Dare’s bike.
Dare grinned. ‘She does a hundred kilometres an hour in two point six seconds.’
‘If only I were younger,’ Benson bemoaned, climbing the steps.
Dare followed him and five minutes later yelled for Roberts to bring Carly as quickly as possible.
Dressed in white jeans and a simple green T-shirt, Carly knelt beside the sofa, her black leather bag at her side.
‘What happened?’
‘I don’t know.’ Dare’s heart thundered inside his chest. ‘We were talking and then he collapsed.’
Carly listened to his heartbeat.
‘Was he agitated? Upset?’
‘No.’
His grandfather had obviously been expecting news that Beckett was somehow involved in his company’s problems and, while disappointed, had seemed to take it in stride. He stabbed a hand through his hair. ‘But he wasn’t completely happy either.’
‘We need to get him to a hospital. In London,’ Carly said.
‘I’ll call triple nine.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
HOURS LATER, CARLY stared tight-lipped at the white double doors leading to the operating theatre. Benson had been in there for four hours now, add that to the two-hour flight and it was going to be tough for a patient of his advanced years to survive.
It left Carly feeling quite emotional because the reclusive old guy had grown on her these past weeks, and she hated to see his time with his daughter cut short.
Carly had done everything she could to ensure that didn’t happen and she had to admit her job had been made easier by Dare’s calm competence at her side. He’d done everything she’d asked of him without question and even organised the best surgeon in London to be on hand when the helicopter flew in.
At one point she was sure he would have put Benson on the back of his superbike if he’d been able to.
Carly knew he’d done it all for his mother, but he’d been slightly grey when Carly had entered the library back at Rothmeyer House and she wondered if there wasn’t some level of caring for his grandfather involved deep down.
Regardless, she was glad Dare was on hand because the press were already hounding the hospital to get a story on what had happened to the figurehead of BG Textiles. Not that there was anything anyone could tell them. It was a waiting game from here on in.
‘I don’t understand why it has to take so long,’ Rachel complained.
Carly glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘He should be out soon,’ she murmured.
Dare looked into the bottom of his coffee cup. ‘Who wants coffee?’ he asked grimly.
Carly grimaced. Even she couldn’t stomach any more hospital-grade coffee. ‘No, thanks.’
‘Me either, darling,’ his mother said.
‘DMR,’ Dare said.
Rachel blinked up at him. ‘Sorry, Dare, what did you say?’
Carly gave him a wan smile. He returned it.
‘Nothing, Ma.’
Rachel heaved another long sigh. ‘I’d just like news,’ she said softly, standing to stare out of the window at the building opposite.
Dare went and put his arm around her, swamping her small stature with his height and the width of his broad shoulders.
‘I’m taking my mother for a walk,’ he directed at Carly. ‘Will you be okay here?’
Carly nodded. ‘I’ll call if I hear anything.’
Dare thanked her and directed his protesting mother out of the door, grateful that Carly had stayed but not sure if she had done so because it was her job or...or what? Because he liked having her there?
Not likely. She owed him nothing and the way he’d gone at her when he’d spotted her in that bikini... He sighed.
‘He’ll be okay,’ his mother reassured him, misinterpreting his heavy mood. Which was a good thing because he wasn’t about to spill his guts about his feelings for Carly Evans. Especially when he had no idea what they were.