After all the agony of waiting, Tilly dithered so long getting ready that she was one of the last to arrive in the ballroom where the ceremony was to take place. There was to be a champagne reception first, followed by dinner, and then some excerpts from the programme would be screened before the final winners were announced. All the participants would be there, along with representatives from the charities they supported, and Suzy had promised a good turnout from the celebrities who had been invited, too.

The room was crowded by the time Tilly arrived, but she had eyes for only one man.

Hesitating in the doorway, she let her eyes travel slowly around until they locked with a pair of familiar green ones, and her heart seemed to collide with something hard and unyielding as all the oxygen was sucked instantly from the huge room.

Campbell.

He looked amazing. He was wearing a dinner jacket that only made him look leaner, tougher and more devastating than ever.

Unsmiling, Campbell walked towards her. ‘You’re late, Jenkins,’ he said, and then he smiled into her eyes. ‘But you look wonderful.’

Tilly stammered some reply. She wanted to throw her arms round him and pat him all over like a dog to make sure he was real. Had he really said she looked wonderful?

She should ask him now, in case he had meant it, and before her mascara smudged and her lipstick wore off and she spilt something down the front of her dress. Would you like to come to my room later? she could say and get the question out of the way, but she hesitated too long. Maybe it was a bit crass to come straight out with it, before they had even had a token conversation.

The trouble was that it was difficult to have any kind of conversation when she was overwhelmed by his nearness. There was so much she wanted to ask him, so much to say, but Tilly was tongue-tied with nerves, and when a waiter passed with a tray of champagne she grabbed a glass and practically downed it in one.

‘Aren’t you drinking?’ she asked Campbell, seeing that he was holding a glass of orange juice.

‘Not yet.’

‘Keeping a clear head for your winning speech?’

The dent at the corner of his mouth deepened. ‘Something like that.’

There was a pause.

‘So…how are you?’ Tilly tried to get things going again.

‘Good. And you?’

‘Oh, fine, fine,’ she lied. ‘Is the new job going well?’

Campbell nodded. ‘I’d say so. We’re poised to win back a major contract, and if we can pull that off, then we should be able to start turning things round. Unfortunately, the meeting is on Monday, so I’ll have to fly back tomorrow.’

‘It must be important.’

‘It is. It could be make or break.’

‘For you or for the company?’

‘Both,’ said Campbell.

Tilly looked around the crowded ballroom. ‘It’s a long way to come for one night,’ she commented.

‘Some things are worth coming a long way for.’

Winning would always be worth the effort for competitive types like Campbell, Tilly remembered. ‘Beating Roger and his GPS?’ she enquired, and he smiled then.

‘Not just that,’ he said.

Tilly wanted to ask what else would matter enough to him to make it worth crossing the Atlantic for a night, two at best, but before she had a chance they were joined by Maggie, director of the hospice. She had been invited with some of the nursing staff and representatives of patients’ families, and they were all much more excited about the result than Tilly was.

‘You both came over wonderfully,’ Maggie told them, talking about the programme. ‘I do hope you’ll win, and not just for what it will mean to us. Thank you so much for everything you did, especially you, Tilly.’

‘That’s what I always want to say to you,’ said Tilly, embarrassed. ‘I’ll never forget what everyone at the hospice did for Mum, and for Jack. Besides, the competition turned out to be fun, so I got more out of it than anyone. I loved every minute of it.’

Campbell arched a brow. ‘What, even the abseil?’

‘Well, not those few minutes,’ she said, making a face at him, ‘but just about everything else.’

I loved being with you, she wanted to tell him, but there never seemed to be an opportunity. People kept coming up and saying how much they had enjoyed the programme. Keith, Campbell’s old PR Director, ribbed him about the pink apron, Suzy wanted to talk about what would happen when the winners were announced…Couldn’t they see she just wanted to be alone with Campbell?

Tilly was so jittery with frustration and nerves that she didn’t notice quite how often her glass was being refilled until the wooziness hit her with a vengeance. She was badly in need of some food to mop up the champagne, but it was already half past nine and there was no sign of dinner.

She had better try and clear her head a little or she would never make it through to the announcement of the winners.

Murmuring an excuse, Tilly slipped outside. The night air was cool and quiet after the hubbub of the ballroom and she took a deep breath. How was she ever going to get Campbell on his own with all these people around? Perhaps part of her had hoped that he would follow her, but there was no sign of him. Instead, she saw Jim, the cameraman, sneaking out for a smoke.

Jim was a chatty type and, if he noticed her, he would be bound to come over and talk. It wasn’t that Tilly disliked him, but there was only one man she wanted with her right then, and she made a show of digging out her mobile as if she was about to make an important call.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jim veer away but, having got that far, she thought she might as well switch the phone on. Cleo had said that she would text her to wish her luck, and Seb and Harry might remember what a big night it was for her, too.

Sure enough, there was a text message from Cleo, and another informing her that she had a message on her voicemail. Feeling virtuous without a glass of champagne in her hand, Tilly dialled up the service to listen.

It was Harry, and all thoughts of champagne were promptly driven from her mind. Horrified, she listened to his message and looked wildly round, instinctively seeking Campbell.

Campbell saw her hurry back into the ballroom and one look at her face had him striding towards her. ‘What is it?’ he asked sharply.

Tilly grabbed at him. ‘Oh, thank goodness I’ve found you! It’s Seb,’ she said, her voice threaded with panic. ‘I’ve just had a message from Harry. There’s been an accident and Seb’s in hospital…Harry said something about operating and needing me as next of kin.’

Her eyes were huge as she stared up at him. ‘I don’t know what to do. I know I should stay for the hospice, but I need to go to Seb. What if he’s really hurt? What if he’s…?’

Her voice broke, unable to finish the sentence, and Campbell gripped her firmly by both arms. ‘Tell me exactly what Harry said,’ he said, and Tilly drew a steadying breath as she felt the strength of his hands holding her, calming her, sending reassurance seeping through her.

‘Listen to his message,’ she said, holding out the phone, and Campbell put it to his ear. Harry was rambling rather than incoherent. He sounded shaken, but not desperate, and he had even ended by telling Tilly she wasn’t to worry. Campbell almost smiled at that bit. Harry clearly didn’t know his sister very well. There was no way Tilly wasn’t going to worry after a message like that.

‘Which hospital does he mean?’ he asked her, hoping to get her to focus on details rather than the unknown.

‘The local one in Allerby. They were both back this weekend to see friends. There was some party…’ Tilly ran her hands distractedly through her hair. ‘They’ll all have been out playing the fool…you know what boys that age are like.’

‘How are you going to get back?’ Campbell asked and she looked at him, grateful that he wasn’t going to waste time trying to dissuade her.

‘I suppose it’s too late to get a train…It’ll take too long to get to the station from here. I’ll have to drive,’ she decided wildly. ‘I’ll hire a car.’

‘You’ve been drinking.’

‘Taxi, then,’ she said with a touch of desperation.

‘I’ll drive you,’ said Campbell. ‘I’ve got a car for the couple of days I’m here, and I’ve been on orange juice all evening. You go and get your things.’

She stared at him, longing to put herself in his capable hands but horribly aware that she shouldn’t. She should be looking after herself.

‘You can’t,’ she said, fresh problems rearing their ugly heads. ‘What about the announcement?’

‘I’ll explain to Maggie. If we win, she can accept the cheque for us. This whole thing has been about the hospice anyway, so I can’t see there’ll be a problem. I’ll have a word with Suzy, too.’

‘But it’ll take hours to drive to Allerby from here!’ With a strangely detached part of her mind, Tilly noticed that she was actually wringing her hands. ‘You’ll never get back in time for your flight tomorrow.’

‘There will be other flights,’ Campbell said.

‘What about your meeting, though? You said it was really important.’

‘It’s not as important as getting you to Seb. Now, I’m not going to tell you not to worry,’ he went on without giving her time to react, ‘but you don’t need to panic. We’ll get on our way and you can ring Harry and find out what’s happening. You’ll feel better when you’ve got more information.’

Tilly let herself be persuaded. She knew she shouldn’t be relying on Campbell like this, but he was exactly what she needed. He was calm and competent and he was going to take her to Seb.

He dealt with all the practicalities, which meant that all she had to do was to bundle her things into her bag and hurry down to where he had the car already waiting. In a fever to get to the hospital, she hadn’t even taken the time to change and was still in her blue ball gown.

At first, Tilly sat rigidly staring ahead, too tense to think about anything except what might be waiting for her at the hospital, but, as the miles passed, she gradually succumbed to the quiet reassurance of Campbell’s presence and leant back inch by inch until she could relax into the luxurious leather seat.

Only then did she let herself think about the man beside her. Campbell hadn’t wasted time changing either. Like most men, the severe lines of a dinner jacket suited him beautifully. Tilly eyed his profile from under her lashes, and something about the angle of his cheek made her ache.

Be careful what you wish for. Wasn’t that the saying? She had longed to be alone with him, and now here they were, driving through the dark in the quiet, powerful car, but she was too consumed by anxiety to be able to say any of the things she had wanted to say to him. There would be no invitation to her room, no last night of passion, no kiss goodbye.

Tilly’s heart twisted at the opportunity lost, but then she immediately felt guilty. How could any of that matter when Seb was injured?

Campbell’s car was fast and comfortable and he drove it the way he did everything else, with an austere competence and utter control. He let Tilly sit quietly when she wanted to, and when she wanted to talk about her brothers, he listened.

‘They were always trouble, even as little boys,’ she remembered with a wobbly smile. ‘It’s not that they’re bad boys. They can be lovely, but they can be thoughtless and irresponsible like a lot of young men, too, and they egg each other on, just the way they used to do when they were toddlers.

‘You’d think they’d be growing out of it now.’ She sighed. ‘They’re twenty. I keep hoping they’ll settle down when they graduate and have to get jobs…’ Tilly trailed off as she remembered that Seb might never graduate and fear clutched at her afresh.

‘It’s not just Seb I’m frightened for,’ she confessed in a low voice. ‘It’s Harry, too. They’ve always been so close. If anything happens to Seb…’ She swallowed hard. ‘Harry won’t be able to bear it, I know he won’t.’

She was twisting her fingers in her lap, and Campbell reached out and covered them with one big, warm hand. It felt incredibly reassuring.

‘Harry will be with Seb now,’ he said. ‘His phone will have to be switched off in the hospital, and that’s why you can’t get through, but at least that means they’re together.’

Tilly often wondered afterwards how she would have got through that night without Campbell. He was a fast driver, but even so it took over four hours to get to the hospital. They stopped once to fill the car up, and he bought her some coffee and chocolate biscuits, which steadied her a little, and he didn’t try to tell her everything would be all right.

When they finally drew up outside the hospital, he let Tilly out so that she could run inside while he found somewhere to park. They still hadn’t been able to contact Harry, and Campbell hoped he would be there or Tilly would be frantic with worry about him, too.