Rose didn't seem that surprised as she watched him carefully feed her son while she went to get his sleepsuit and a nappy out of the baby bag.
Jack was still taking his time finishing his bottle, something he tended to do at bedtime. The baby then made a noise her friend Mickey would be proud of, Alec cracking a smile.
"Bet your daughter didn't do that?" Rose smiled as Alec put the baby over his shoulder, having handed him a towel first.
"Maybe not but better out than in as my mum used to say. Do you want to change him or shall I?"
"Well you two seem to be getting along just fine, I'd hate to spoil your fun."
Before Rose could stop him, Alec grabbed the disposable nappy and began to change Jack, Rose watching from the chair. Once the baby was in his sleepwear, Rose went to pick up a yawning Jack.
"I'll put him to bed, thanks for helping."
"I figured you needed a break if you have been travelling all day. Over dinner you can tell me what led you to your car breaking down."
"Ah, that could take a while, it's quite boring."
"I still want to know and tomorrow, I will introduce you to my DS, she has a two year old. You need more than one friend in the town. I can ask her if she has finished decorating her loft, it will be bigger than my spare room."
"Alec, it's bigger than my old bedroom me and Jack used to share at my mum's, trust me. I don't know how to thank you for rescuing me."
"No thanks needed, I was glad to help you. Looks like he won't take much getting to sleep," he pointed to the baby, who was already nodding off.
Rose took him upstairs and put him in the folding cot he'd been using for the last three months, since there was no room for his old one in her mum's flat. James had sold it to a friend and given her the money for it, in case she ever got a place of her own. The break-up had been amicable, there had been no arguments or fighting, James just admitted he wasn't dad material and Rose had gone quietly but disappointedly back to her mother's.
The only problem though was Mickey, pestering her to go back to him, which she didn't want to do, she would rather be on her own with Jack seeing his father every month. Downstairs, Alec was just serving their meals onto plates when Rose left the sleeping baby.
"Did you get him settled then?"
"Yeah, I left the bedroom door open. That food smells good."
"Well I am not much of a cook, ask my DS. The best I could offer her was ham salad. I am just recovering from heart surgery, I had to watch what I ate."
"Crikey and I let you heave all my stuff around, sorry Alec, you should have said. What surgery did you have, a bypass?"
"No, a pacemaker, that was where I had been, for a check-up since they decided to send me to Dorchester rather than where I had it done in Exeter. You were heading there, why?"
"Seemed as good a place to head for than anywhere," Rose admitted as they ate.
"Trust me Rose, my DS lived there, she hated it. She had a pokey one bedroom flat above a shop and it cost a fortune. She had it subsidised but she still had to pay towards it. She couldn't wait to get back to the house she had to leave here in Broadchurch. Think yourself lucky your car broke down near here, any further and you would have been in Devon."
"Yeah, then you wouldn't have rescued me. Let me do the dishes then I'll tell you why I was in such a hurry that I didn't get my car checked."
"You would still have broken down, radiators are not part of a service you know. You wash, I will dry, then you can tell me."
Sitting on the sofa together, Rose began to tell him how she had met Doctor James Smith, his doctorate being in history and science.
"I was in my final year in college, he wanted a research assistant and he said I was his brightest history student. We travelled around the world, just as friends but when we reached Norway, the hotel had made a mistake and there was only one room available. It was freezing so you can guess what happened?"
"Yes, I can imagine, no need to go into any details."
Rose tried not to look embarrassed. It had happened quite naturally as she and James had huddled together under the duvet that night, she was almost in tears and he had tried to assure her he'd been in worse places, without company and he had started kissing her cheek so she kissed his back which led to more, resulting in Jack Tyler being born nine months later.
James hadn't made it on time, she had been resting, the baby in her arms when he'd got to the maternity unit near where they shared a large two bedroom apartment but she had forgiven him since he had been in the middle of an exam for final year students. Things had been fine for the first six weeks, until James had gone back to work then he'd said he couldn't concentrate when the baby cried as he was preparing his student's papers for the next term.
He had said she was lucky having Jack during the long summer holidays but Rose was already suspecting he was now regretting getting her pregnant. After he had gone back to work, she was miles away from her mother so he had bought her a second-hand car so she could go visit but her mother, since Rose's departure, was taking more clients at home and she wasn't always welcome.
She'd been surprised James hadn't wanted to give the baby his surname but he'd not argued when Rose had put her own down when she went to register the birth. Then when Jack had reached three months, it had become apparent James no longer wanted to be a father and they reached an agreement he would support them financially and her mother had agreed to take them in until they found somewhere to live, reluctantly, which had never changed.
So after Alec briefly explained how he'd arrived in the town last year, got caught up in a young boy's murder, Rose was telling him her story, the cut-down version and he listened, feeling more sorry for her by the minute, it was plain to him she hadn't deserved any of this. What young baby didn't cry? He'd had sleepless nights when Tess had been on early duty and he'd stayed in Daisy's room to stop her being disturbed and what had it got him? Estranged from his teenage daughter, almost dying several times, a nagging DS and coming back to the town he'd hated on his arrival last year because he had nowhere else to go.
"Am I boring you?" Rose smiled as he'd got up to make some tea, seeing she was close to tears, remembering everything that had happened.
"Not in the slightest, I figured you needed a drink. So, he still sees the baby then?"
"Yeah, every month, he's due to see Jack in two weeks. I told him I was heading for Exeter so he could set off early in the morning, they normally spend the afternoon together, I used to take Jack to the apartment and go back later though I've only done it twice."
"So you'd had enough? It must have been cramped, in that tiny bedroom?"
"Yeah and there were women coming in all day, mum's hairdressing business had really taken off, she was properly registered to work from home and everything, while I was away and she wasn't about to give it up. She even had the nerve to charge me rent, James went crazy about it, he said he'd help me find a place but there was nothing in London for me so I told him I was leaving the city."
"He agreed?"
"Yeah, we never fell out over it, he gives me money every month but I have to find a cheap B&B somewhere until I find a flat, he's helping with the extra money for the deposit and agreed to drive over."
"Well, stay here until your car is ready, it will be next week now anyway, they will get nothing done tomorrow, being Friday so it will be Monday or Tuesday before they start working on it. I will talk to my DS tomorrow, she may be able to lend you a proper cot for Jack and maybe a high-chair, which will give you a break from constantly watching him. I can't say what she has left, her friend recently had a baby."
"I'll be grateful if she can lend me anything but Jack's used to sleeping in the portable cot."
"He's a growing baby, he needs a proper one. I will ask my DS if there is a hire shop around the town."
"Alec, I'll be gone when my car is repaired, if I can afford to get it done, it could be expensive. It'll be another two weeks before I get more money from James."
"If you don't mind me asking, where did the money go?"
"I do mind you asking, you'd say the same as he did. My mum charged me fifty quid a week rent, then I had to buy my own food, things for Jack, car insurance and running costs, need I go on?"
Being on his own for so long and not driving, he had forgotten how expensive the cost of motoring and bringing up a baby was.
"Sorry, I did not mean to pry but if you have not got much money left, should you even be contemplating being in such a hurry to leave when your car is fixed? I am out all day, I told you, you can stay as long as you want and on Saturday, if you agree, we will go down to the superstore in Dorchester and see how much a cot will cost if my DS has given her son's away already."
"I had money for a new one but I had to use it just to survive. I'll pay you back."
"No need. You look tired, when did you last get a good night's sleep eh? When did you last sleep in a room of your own either?"
"Before I left James, I moved out of our bedroom, since Jack was constantly waking up and it disturbed him, me getting in and out of bed all the time."
"Did he not help you?"
Rose shook her head. Why should she defend him to Alec? James had been the one to say it was over, not her.
"Rose, I brought my daughter up when her mum worked different hours to me, we shared mostly but that was not the cause of our break-up, that happened years later over something else, a case that overtook everything and destroyed our marriage. Could you not reconcile?"
"No, he said he's not cut out to be a dad."
"Maybe he will change his mind when the baby gets older?"
"Yeah? Fat lot of good that will do, when he's left me to bring Jack up on my own. My mother told me to accept it and get on with it, she raised me on her own, my dad died when I was a baby. That won't happen to Jack, he'll still know his father, which is more than I had so I can't force James to do anything or else he'll stop wanting to see us."
"I understand Rose, I really do, the boy needs to still see him. Look, don't take this the wrong way but you need a break from being in the same room, why don't you go get ready for bed and come into my room, we can talk for a while and you can go to sleep whenever you want, no strings. How about it? Have some adult company for a change, I will be on my best behaviour, I promise. You look like you need it."
"You won't take advantage of me?"
Alec shook his head. He'd been on his own a long time now and Rose was the only female apart from Becca Fisher he'd asked to keep him company and the hotelier had quite rightly turned him down flat when he'd been on his last legs.
"Why would I do that eh? I am trying to help you Rose, stay here for now and save your money. I will take care of your car, you keep the house tidy, cook for us both and maybe do some grocery shopping and the rest of the time is yours, take your son for walks on the beach and spend some time outdoors with him, you both look like you need it. I will give you the spare key but be careful what you tell people who ask where you are staying. Just tell them you are an old friend I am helping out."
"Yeah, I can do that, I'll tell them I don't want to talk about it, which I don't. Thanks Alec but maybe I'd better sleep in my own room, I've not been with anyone since James."
"Is that a warning?" Alec asked, raising his eyebrows. "If you are telling me to back off, I will but you look like you need a shoulder to cry on."
Rose laughed.
"I meant it, come and keep me company for a while at least, you must be tired of talking to your mother or your son eh? You go use the bathroom then when I am ready, I will leave my bedroom door open for you, whenever you are ready just come in."
Rose nodded and leaned over to kiss his cheek and touched his beard. Alec smiled and kissed the back of her hand.
"I won't be long in the bathroom. I promise I won't dry my underwear and hang it on the shower rail."
"You can use the washing machine tomorrow, then take it across the road to dry at the laundrette but there is a clothes dryer in the shed out back, you can put it out and they will soon get dry, if you have to wash some of Jack's things."
"Yeah, ok, I'll do that, leave me the shed key."
"It's hung up by the back door, along with the door key, there is only one. Anyway, I'm not so sure I am in a position to cause you any concern, I have not had the all-clear from the hospital yet. I was coming back from there when I saw your car had broken down."
"How long ago did you have the pacemaker fitted?"
"About six weeks ago, I had several scares which made me realise I was living on borrowed time."
"I'm glad you're ok now, I can't imagine what it must have been like for you. Can I ask you something?"
Alec nodded and sat up.
"Why are you still on your own? Wasn't there anyone you could trust? I mean if you were ill and you were hiding it? Did anyone know?"
"Yes, the hotel owner where I was staying, she had to get me to the hospital, she kept her silence after I told her I would not pursue the fact she got some drugs for a couple who were staying, it was a mutual understanding. I had very little choice but as for taking up with someone, who would have wanted me in my state?"
"Don't be so hard on yourself Alec, what about me, with a young baby? That's enough to put any bloke off, even when it's your own partner."
"Is that why he made you leave? He couldn't accept the responsibility of getting you pregnant? What sort of man would do a thing like that?"
"Enough of the questions, quit being a detective will ya? Yeah, I suppose it all boils down to the fact we were just friends until that cold night in Norway, then our relationship changed overnight. We went back to London, I found out and I moved in with him. Everything was fine until a few weeks before I was due and I could tell then he was having regrets about the whole thing but we just carried on. Then it must have got too much for him and he didn't know how to tell me until one night when we sat down."
"So it was a mutual split then?"
"Yeah, no screaming and shouting, there was nothing to argue about. Oh, your divorce wasn't so amicable, was it?"
"You could say that, she found someone while I was working on a very difficult case. Then she lost some vital evidence and the whole thing fell apart, as did our marriage. I covered it up to prevent our daughter finding out she was having an affair but Tess gave the game away and told Daisy it was me that left. She later forgave me, after my surgery, I went to see her, I have only been back a month or so."
"I'm sorry, I didn't even know what had been going on here until you said, I had a bit of a bad time while I was having Jack. Speaking of him, I'd best go check on him. Hopefully he'll sleep through until around six or so. I'll try not to let him disturb you."
"Don't worry about it, I am used to waking up early, before I had my surgery. If there is anything I can do, just say."
"Thanks, I will. I'll go get ready for bed then."
"Aye, you do that and please, feel free to come into my room."
"I'll think about it, you may just regret it."
Alec sat a while after Rose kissed his cheek again and went upstairs. What had he been thinking? Did he want to put her off for good, doing a stupid thing like inviting her to his room? He may as well have just come out and asked her if she wanted to have sex with him, which he wasn't quite sure it had sunk in he could pursue such physical activities again. The specialist had said more or less he could get back to leading a normal life as long as he didn't overdo things but was having sex even one of the normal things?
He was a forty-something single again man, Rose looked a lot younger, maybe her late twenties, he had no business inviting her to his room even if it was only to 'talk' but he had to start somewhere after being alone for so long. Maybe it wasn't fair he should try to find out with her, she'd had a tough time by the sound of it. No wonder she'd asked him about taking advantage of her but that wasn't what all this was about.
It was about helping out a young vulnerable woman with a six month old baby and she was right, who would want to take up with her when no-one had wanted to take him on. They could maybe help each other get over it, if he was lucky and why her partner had decided he didn't want the responsibility, well he certainly didn't deserve someone like her.
It was quite obvious to him the man had wanted her, not a child and since it was just about an accident, maybe that had changed things between them but it happened all the time. He switched out the lights and went upstairs, seeing the other bedroom door open and Rose standing over the baby. He watched from the top of the stairs, Rose unaware he was there until he moved.
"Sorry, did I make you jump?"
"No, he woke up so I just changed him, he's gone back to sleep. I should get the nappies that stay dry all night but I switched to a cheaper brand, maybe I'll go back to them though. Sorry, you use the bathroom if you want?"
"Then on Saturday, we will go shopping and now you have no rent to pay, go back to the better brand."
"Is there a supermarket close by? I need to get more baby food and some milk for him."
"There is just the mini-market, well two of them about an equal distance walk but if you can manage until I get back tomorrow night, I will take you."
"Maybe we'll just take a walk and leave the rest until Saturday."
"Aye, I will try and ask my DS if she has anything she can lend you, then she can drop them off tomorrow evening."
He went off to the bathroom, here he was getting all domestic with a stranger he'd rescued a few hours ago, at least she was more civilized than Tess had been towards the end, their break-up had been anything but amicable.
Rose had closed the door and changed into her pink pyjamas, thinking they were more suitable if she changed her mind and went to his room, which she wasn't planning on doing but an hour later, it was all she could think about after tossing and turning then getting up, she put her dressing gown on and opened the bedroom door, Alec's was closed. She thought maybe he had changed his mind and the invitation no longer stood so she went back and sat on the edge of the bed.
Alec was still awake, wondering if she would knock on his door or think he was no longer inviting her. He got up, put on a t-shirt and opened the door, in case she changed her mind but as he opened it, he noticed hers was open and he could hear her crying. He opened her door to see her sitting on the edge of her bed.
"Rose," he whispered. "Tell me what's wrong?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Yes it does, come to my room."
"Your door was closed."
"Yes, sorry but you could have knocked. Shush before you wake him eh?"
He held his hand out to help her up, Rose allowing him to do so and putting his arm out to steady her, left the bedroom door open and went into his room, helping her take her dressing gown off and putting it on the chair for her. When they got into bed, Rose lay on her side as he lay on his back.
"I don't know where to start," Rose declared as Alec put his hands behind his head.
"Then start with why you can't find someone else, just because you have a baby. There are a lot of men who would be happy to take the role."
"Well there was an old boyfriend who offered to take me back, even to say Jack was his but I was over him a long time ago."
"Well that was a start."
"You have room to talk, why didn't you find anyone to trust with your secret? Well maybe except that hotel owner?"
"She was also the town's gossip, she surprised me she never told anyone I was ill."
"Well lucky for you she didn't. You could have anyone you wanted Alec, if you tried."
"You mean tidy myself up and stop being so grumpy?"
"I never said that, I don't know you well enough but I do know women should be queuing at your door."
"Then you could keep them away, I am not ready to fend women off."
"Well I'm not ready to fend men off either. Maybe I should just tell everyone I'll be gone soon."
"You don't have to leave. Where will you go eh? To another city and be on your own in a tiny apartment? You really need to talk to Miller, she was on her own after I arrested her husband and she had a really bad time, she only had her sister and her nephew. Is that what you want Rose?" he asked, turning to face her.
"No. I don't know what I want Alec."
"You need someone, a friendly face. Stay here, I ask only you look after the house."
"You think I didn't have enough of that, after James? If I'm gonna stay, I don't want to be treated as the hired help."
"I never meant that, we can be friends, at least you won't have to find a job and I'm not asking you to keep to your room or be the hired help, if that's not what you want."
"Then what are you asking me Alec?"
Alec Hardy always was a believer in actions speaking louder than words, the worse she could do was slap his face, go back to her room and be gone in the morning so he took a gamble, hoping it would pay off.