Of course by the time the following evening came around Nick had more or less talked himself out of into going to Joanna's for dinner after all. He never found socialising easy these days and had to make a concerted effort. Eileen was sat at the kitchen table watching him in amusement as he reluctantly put his jacket on. As a sort of last stand Nick said desperately, "You said Katie had a bit of a sniffle?"
"Its not even a cold," Eileen said. "Katie is fine. Nick you have to go to Joanna's. You can't let her down, not at such short notice."
"Yeah I know."
"And if you let her down, she'll think its because you are still annoyed with her over that misunderstanding the other day, and that would just make things even worse."
"You're right, of course." Nick gave Eileen a weak grin. "I can't believe I agreed to go up there for dinner at all. Its nothing to do with Joanna of course, but -"
"I know Nick. But you need more than just work and Katie you know. You need some life for you too don't forget. You need to concentrate on that, get out more. I know its not easy."
He nodded and picked up his keys. "All right then. I'll go. I shouldn't be late."
"There's no rush, enjoy your evening."
Joanna felt oddly nervous as she opened the door in response to Nick's knock. "Come on in," she said brightly realising he felt as nervous as she did. "Make yourself at home. Oh thanks," as he gave her the bottle of wine he had brought with him.
Nick looked around the pretty sitting room of the cottage. "You've done a good job with this," he said, "it was pretty run down."
"Well, team effort. Dad had the builders in and Mum and I decorated between us. Here, sit down by the fire, dinner won't be long. Want some of this wine now?"
"Yeah, thanks."
He took the glass she gave him and Jo seated herself on the opposite side of the fire.
"Better day at school?" Nick asked.
"Much," Joanna said. "Nat came to school and didn't give me half as much trouble which is something! And the other children are lovely. I really don't regret coming here - well, I wish I hadn't been so silly the other day but apart from that..."
"Forget about that," Nick reassured her. "Yeah, I was pretty cross about it, but then again I know the Jacksons and they're sharp operators."
"They are! They certainly led me up the garden path!" Jo gave a smile. "Now I think that's dinner ready so I'll serve up."
"Want any help?"
"Not at all, its fine. Two ticks."
Back at the Police House in Aidensfield there was a quiet knock at the front door. Eileen went to answer it. It was Maggie.
"Eileen, hi," she said.
"Come on in! Cup of tea?"
"No thank you, I won't stop as it is getting late. I just wanted to know if Nick did go to Jo's?"
"He did. He very nearly backed out at the last minute but I persuaded him."
"I'm so glad he went. He needs to get out more."
"As I've been telling him for goodness knows how long!" Eileen said wryly.
Back at Brock Cottage Nick pushed away his empty plate. "That was really lovely, thank you," he said to Jo.
"No problem," she said. She smiled "Its about the only thing I can make to any degree of competency!"
"I'm sure that's not true," Nick replied. "Do you want any help?" as Jo began stacking plates.
"No, you go and sit back down and make yourself comfortable, I'll bring some coffee in."
Nick hesitated then, "Don't take this the wrong way but, well, I've really enjoyed myself tonight."
Jo looked at him amused. "Did you think you wouldn't?"
"Its not that. I'm just not great at getting out these days." Nick gave a slight grin. "Confession time, Eileen had to practically push me out of the door tonight."
"Well it must be strange, doing things on your own, when you're used to doing them as a couple," Jo said practically.
Nick nodded. "That's certainly part of it. And then when I'm not in work I like to spend as much time as I can with Katie."
"I'd really like to meet her," Jo said.
"Well you must," Nick said. "I owe you a dinner anyway. I might even have a go at making it myself rather than relying on Eileen - which I do too much of anyway!"
Rather unfortunately Maxwell Cartwright had decided to pay Joanna a visit that evening. He really could not believe Joanna had thrown him over. It didn't happen in Maxwell's world. What he wanted, he got and he was the one who did the throwing over, he certainly wasn't used to that treatment being doled out to him. He had decided Joanna simply did not mean what she said. She was probably just making him work for her or something Max thought. Well he was getting a bit tired of playing the game now. He wanted her to come back into line as it were. He wasn't having her make a fool of him amongst his County friends.
So he drove over to Joanna's cottage that evening. As he came up the lane to the cottage he slowed and stopped. Parked on the track adjacent to the cottage was a bright red MG Convertible. Max tapped his fingers on his steering wheel. It would seem Jo had company that evening.
Thinking for a moment, Max put his car back into gear then drove on past Brock Cottage. Some way down the lane was a rough track into woods. Max bumped his car a short way down this track so the car was not visible from the road. Then he got out of the car, getting his bearings. To his left a path snaked away in the direction of the cottage. Max would lay odds that path ran along the back of the house. Reaching back into the car he took a torch out of the glove compartment as the night was now drawing in and then he set off purposefully along the path.
In the cottage, relaxing over coffee, Nick was saying to Jo, "So is Aidensfield a long term plan?"
"I don't know really," Jo admitted. "I do like the idea of working in a village school, part of the community sort of thing. Of course I needed to get away from Maxwell but that wasn't the only thing which brought me here." She looked at Nick. "What brought you and Kate here?"
"London wasn't us," Nick said. "We weren't seeing much of other, Kate had a hospital job then and between her shifts and mine, getting some time together was pretty hard work. We knew it wouldn't be easy but it was more difficult than we thought. And working in the Met, well, lets just say I couldn't do the job the way I wanted to. Kate was brought up round here you see so when we talked about a fresh start, moving on, coming to Aidensfield seemed a good choice for us. And it was." Nick hesitated. "Of course, after Kate died, everything changed."
"Understandably."
"I wasn't in a good place," Nick admitted. "I'm embarrassed to say this now, but I reallly struggled to bond with Katie. It got pretty bad - even to the stage where Eileen was thinking of taking her to London to bring her up, herself."
"I don't think you can be too hard on yourself about that, " Jo said gently
"It wasn't just Katie. I gave Maggie a bad time as well as Kate's partner in the practice at the time. I blamed them you see for not picking up on Kate's illness. But given that she'd hid it from them, how could they have done?"
"Kate must have been so brave."
"She was. Totally selfless. She just wanted the baby to have the best chance." Nick put his coffee cup down. "But we're doing all right now I think Katie and I - mainly thanks to Eileen. She's been amazing. I don't know how I'd have coped without her. Wouldn't I don't think, wouldn't have been able to go on doing police work anyway. And Maggie's been a good friend too."
Maxwell had now reached the cottage but the curtains were pulled over the windows and he could not see inside. Well it didn't matter. He could wait here, he thought until the owner of that car left the cottage.
He was rewarded about an hour later when Nick finally left the cottage. The front door was illuminated with light from inside the cottage and Max recognised Nick clearly as the police officer who'd intervened the other day.
"So that's the way of it," Max muttered.
Unaware of Max, prowling in the shadows, Nick said to Joanna, "Thank you. I've really enjoyed myself tonight."
"Me too."
"I've a couple of night shifts coming up but after that, you will come round one evening won't you? I'll let you know what night's best."
"I'll really look forward to it Nick," Jo said with a smile. "I can't wait to meet Katie. And get to know Eileen as well."
"Good night then."
"Good night."
Nick walked round the side of the cottage to the car and Joanna shut her front door. Max was trembling with rage. He was tempted to go and bang on the cottage door there and then and have it out with Joanna. But he somehow fought back the anger. No, she would keep, he decided. Joanna Weston was going to pay for this. He wasn't being made a fool of.