Penny Jordan's Crighton Family Series

‘She was in the churchyard,’ Joss informed them.

‘It feels rather scary to see those headstones with dates going back so far,’ Bobbie cut in... ‘I guess your family must have been in the town for centuries.’

‘Not really,’ Olivia responded. ‘The Crightons came originally from Chester, but our branch of it broke away at the beginning of this century. So far as putting down our roots in Haslewich goes, we’re relative newcomers.’ Then conversationally she asked, ‘Are you planning to stay in the area long?’

‘I wasn’t going to, but I’d booked myself into the Grosvenor as a small treat before I realised how expensive it was and I guess I’m going to have to look around for some kind of temporary work so that I can earn a little money before I move on.’

Olivia listened speculatively as she saw Bobbie’s rueful expression and then frowned as she glanced at her watch and told Caspar, ‘I’d better go and ring Aunt Ruth and check that everything’s okay. Our nanny left us unexpectedly—her mother isn’t very well and since I’m now back at work in the family law practice and Caspar goes back to university next week, we’re desperately trying to find a replacement. I don’t suppose you know anything about child care...?’ Olivia half joked.

Bobbie took a deep breath. ‘Well now, it just so happens that I do,’ she returned lightly. ‘I spent the last year of high school and nearly all of my college vacations helping out at a...at a special local crèche...’

‘Really.’ Olivia gave her a searching glance and asked her, ‘If you were serious about looking for a job, perhaps we could get together and have a chat?’

‘Sure,’ Bobbie agreed warmly.

‘I’ll be in touch,’ Olivia promised her as she hurried off to make her telephone call.

‘Wow, that would be great if you did stay on,’ Joss enthused.

‘Well, that’s up to Olivia to decide,’ Bobbie warned him. ‘I’m not a qualified nanny and—’

‘But I could tell that she really liked you and so did Caspar,’ Joss interrupted her enthusiastically.

‘Well, I kinda liked them, as well,’ Bobbie agreed—and meant it—but her conscience was beginning to trouble her a little.

Back home, the plans she and Sam had made had seemed perfectly logical, but now... She had liked Olivia and Caspar, and as for Joss... She frowned as she looked down and saw that he was scowling. A quick glance across the room told her why; Max was walking purposefully towards them.

‘Well now, young Joss, and who exactly is this?’

Bobbie sympathised with Joss as she watched the tip of his ears burning a furious red at his brother’s deliberately condescending manner towards him.

‘Hi, I’m Bobbie,’ Bobbie introduced herself calmly.

The dark eyebrows lifted. ‘An American... Oh dear, Joss, you will be popular with the old man. Our grandfather, I’m afraid to say, has an aversion to Americans,’ he told Bobbie.

Joss, Bobbie could see, was looking miserably embarrassed.

‘That’s okay,’ she responded easily. ‘My grandfather feels exactly the same way about you British.’

Max gave her a narrow-eyed look. ‘Hopefully not an aberration you’ve inherited,’ he suggested softly.

‘Who says it’s an aberration?’ Bobbie replied and had the satisfaction of seeing the extraordinary effect of his amazing physical good looks dimmed by the unpleasant expression in his eyes.

No wonder Joss was so wary around him.

‘Oh, Max, there you are. I—’

‘Oh, for God’s sake, Maddie, must you follow me around like an idiotic sheepdog?’ Max demanded irritably as he turned towards his wife.

Bobbie felt for her as the other woman’s face burned a painful dark red. Joss was chewing the side of his cheek and Bobbie herself had to suppress an urge to tell Max exactly what she thought of his arrogance and cruelty.

‘Your husband and I were just discussing our respective grandfathers,’ Bobbie informed Madeleine with a genuinely friendly smile.

‘Oh, I see.’ She had a shy, hesitant voice and a very uncertain manner, Bobbie noticed as Madeleine went on to tell her, ‘It’s a shame that Ben can’t be here tonight. He had a fall some years ago and it’s left him with a very painful and rheumaticky hip joint that the doctors say he should have replaced.’

Relief wiped the tense anxiety from Madeleine’s face. Poor soul, she obviously lived in fear and dread of losing her husband. She need not, Bobbie decided. Like the fancy icing on an otherwise repulsively unappealing cake, those good looks were all that there was to him.

She didn’t want to totally alienate Max, though, she acknowledged. He could prove to be a valuable source of information.

So his grandfather had an aversion to Americans, did he? He wasn’t the only member of the Crighton family who felt like that as she had good cause to know.

CHAPTER THREE

TWO hours later, Bobbie broke off in mid-banter with Saul to whom she had been comfortably chatting very happily for the past twenty minutes or so, recognising guiltily that not only was it over half an hour since she had last seen Joss, but that she was also actually enjoying herself.

It had been Olivia who had introduced her to Saul and Saul himself who had explained ruefully to her that he was currently in Louise’s bad books. ‘She wanted me to partner her this evening, but as I told her, as a divorced man in my mid-thirties and her cousin to boot, I’m hardly the right partner for her.’

‘Which naturally makes you all the more attractive to her,’ Bobbie had agreed mock-gravely. ‘Come on, admit it,’ she had coaxed him humorously. ‘It must be quite some ego boost to have as stunningly pretty an eighteen-year-old as Louise crazily in love with you.’

‘Just occasionally, yes, it is,’ Saul had agreed openly, ‘but the rest of the time quite frankly it’s rather terrifying, which just goes to show how old I actually am getting.’

‘I really ought to go and find Joss,’ Bobbie now told Saul.

It was so frustrating having the opportunity to meet and mix with the family at such close hand and yet at the same time feeling restrained from asking what she really wanted to know just in case they should guess what she was up to.

‘The last time I saw him he was talking with Luke.’ He paused when he saw Bobbie’s expression. ‘You don’t like Luke? You’re in a minority,’ he assured her. ‘Most of your sex appear to find him extremely attractive.’

‘But I am not most women,’ Bobbie informed him firmly.

‘No, you aren’t, are you?’ Saul agreed softly.

Smiling at him, Bobbie shook her head and turned away. She had spotted Joss on the other side of the room, and as Saul had said, he was talking to Luke. Bobbie started to make her way towards them.

The evening had done nothing to improve Luke’s mood. Fenella had proved to be every bit as clingy and possessive as he had feared, subtly managing to create the impression amongst his family that they were something of an ‘item’ and making it impossible for him to refute her allusions without causing a public scene.

He had no intention of letting her get away with it, though. Before they parted company tonight, she was going to be left in no doubt whatsoever that the past was quite definitely over and there was no place for her in his present or his future, in any shape or form.

‘Oh, I’m staying at the Grosvenor,’ he heard her saying softly now to one of his aunts, giving him an adoring sideways look as she confided, ‘Luke thought it best in the circumstances. After all, officially I’m still married.’ She paused delicately whilst Luke watched his aunt’s head nodding sagely.

Ignoring Fenella, he turned towards Joss and joked, ‘So where did you find the quarterback, Joss?’

Bobbie, who was just within earshot, ground her teeth in silent outrage. She was used to comments about her height, of course, but there was nothing remotely unfeminine or gross about her—quite the opposite.

As he saw the look on Joss’s face, Luke cursed himself under his breath. It wasn’t fair of him to vent his irritation and fire at Fenella’s manipulative behaviour on Joss, even if there was something about the stately, almost queenly stunning beauty of the unknown woman he had brought into their midst that brought the tiny hairs on the back of his neck to prickle with atavistic awareness. Perhaps it was something about that thick, honey-coloured mass of glorious hair, or perhaps it was the way she carried her impressive height and her even more impressive body. Perhaps it was just something about her manner, or perhaps the reason lay much closer to home, within his own emotional consciousness that he couldn’t somehow dismiss.

She might not be the type to actively go looking for a fight, but she certainly wasn’t going to run from this particular one, Bobbie decided as she ignored the temptation in the face of Luke’s taunting overheard comment to pretend she hadn’t heard and simply walk away. Instead she stalked purposefully to where he and Joss were standing, bestowing on Joss the beneficence of a multi-watt smile whilst cleverly managing to angle her body so that she could also look Luke Crighton straight in the eye ... well, almost straight in the eye. Joss had not lied about his height and it was oddly disconcerting to be forced to tilt her chin upwards to meet his dispassionate gaze.

‘You must be Luke,’ Bobbie announced, taking the initiative before Joss could introduce them.

‘Must I?’ Luke asked her dryly. ‘Now why, I wonder, should you assume that?’

‘Oh, it wasn’t an assumption,’ Bobbie told him breezily. ‘I recognised you from Joss’s description...or rather his description of your addiction to a certain type of female accessory. I shouldn’t worry too much about it,’ she told him with a kind voice. ‘They do say it’s a phase that most men grow out of once they mature.’

Out of the corner of her eye, Bobbie could see Joss looking worriedly from Luke to herself. It wasn’t really fair of her to involve him, she acknowledged.

‘Come on, Joss,’ she invited him mischievously. ‘It looks like they’re serving the buffet and a girl my size needs one heck of a lot of feeding.’

Joss looked relieved as he heard the note of humour in her voice, but one glance at Luke’s steRN face warned Bobbie that he wasn’t deceived and that he certainly wasn’t about to overlook or ignore her comment about his girlfriend.

‘Well, I guess we can scratch Luke off our list,’ Bobbie told Joss ruefully as they headed for the buffet.

‘Fenella isn’t really his girlfriend,’ Joss informed her eagerly. ‘I heard James telling Dad that Luke was angry with him for letting Fenella trick him into bringing her. She and Luke used to go out with one another a long time ago, but she’s married to someone else now, although James says that she’s going to divorce him.’

Which would explain why Luke was so anxious to distance himself publicly from any kind of intimate relationship with her, at least until such time as the divorce was final, Bobbie realised. A man in his position would not want to have any hint, any breath of scandal affecting his reputation.

It had been immediately obvious to her that Luke had that particular brand of prideful male arrogance that she had always found aggravating and unappealing. Dominant Alpha-type men had never held any kind of attraction for her. She preferred men like those she had grown up closest to, gentle men whose strength lay in their ability to be kind and compassionate—to have emotions.

Katie and Louise had opted for an informal arrangement of round tables for eight for the buffet meal without any set table plan, and Joss and Bobbie had just settled themselves down at one of these, their plates satisfyingly heaped with a generous selection from the mouth-watering dishes being served, when they were joined by Olivia and Caspar.

Bobbie, who had been watching with amusement a small piece of byplay between Saul and Louise and mentally concluding that Saul was deceiving himself if he thought that Louise was going to give up on her determined pursuit of him, smiled warmly at them as they sat down.

Unlike Luke, these were two of Joss’s relatives she actively liked.

‘I hope you don’t mind our joining you,’ Olivia commented, ‘but hearing your voice has made Caspar feel positively homesick.’

‘No such thing,’ Caspar objected. ‘Not that it isn’t good to hear a familiar American accent,’ he added, turning to Bobbie.

‘He’s a typical Philadelphia lawyer,’ Olivia told Bobbie, pulling a wry face.

Caspar shook his head and informed them both that he was now a university lecturer and not a lawyer.

‘Technically maybe, but you did qualify in law and that’s the subject you lecture in,’ Olivia reminded him. ‘Honestly, you’d think that having come from a family that’s more or less obsessed by the law I’d have rebelled and picked a husband who did something else,’ Olivia mock complained to Bobbie, whilst Caspar laughed and tugged gently on her silky bob, teasing her. ‘Well, sharing a common career gives us something to talk about, and unlike other married couples, we’re never going to be able to complain that we find each other’s careers uninteresting.’

‘I would guess from your accent that you’re from New England,’ Caspar commented to Bobbie.

‘You guess right,’ Bobbie confirmed with a smile. ‘I was born and raised in a small town some ways north of Boston, but since my dad became involved in politics my folks spend a good part of their time in Washington.’

‘Do you come from a large family?’ Olivia asked her.

‘Some,’ Bobbie replied cautiously, ‘On Dad’s side...’

‘Do you mind if we join you?’

Bobbie tensed as she looked up and saw Luke and Fenella standing on the opposite side of the table.

‘No, of course not,’ Olivia answered when the small pause that followed Luke’s request had stretched just that little bit too far.

Deliberately avoiding any kind of eye contact with him, Bobbie turned to tell Joss approvingly how much she was enjoying the buffet.

‘This salmon is delicious,’ she told Olivia, forking up a second mouthful.

‘Salmon ...’ Fenella gave a fastidious shrug. ‘It’s terribly fatty. I only ever eat white fish and of course I always have it steamed. Some people just have absolutely no idea about the amount of calories they can add to their food by not cooking it the right way. You’ve put on weight recently, Olivia. You must be what...a good size twelve now?’ Fenella commented, eyeing Olivia assessingly.

‘Must I...? I have to confess I really don’t know,’ Olivia returned easily. ‘Since Amelia’s birth the last thing on my mind has been my weight although, if anything, before I became pregnant, I do feel I was a little underweight. However, if I’m honest, I have to admit that I’ve been taking full advantage of the fact that breast-feeding allows you to eat generously.’

‘Breast-feeding...?’ Fenella’s voice squeaked, her eyes almost popping. ‘Oh, but surely...’ Her eyes dropped betrayingly to the soft, womanly curves of Olivia’s body before she bit her lip and looked away again. ‘When I had Crispin I was adamant that I couldn’t possibly feed him myself. I’m afraid I’m just not the earth-mother type.’ She gave a small tinkly laugh, the expression in her eyes making Bobbie feel compassionately sorry for the unknown Crispin.

The easy atmosphere of friendly warmth had vanished from the table with the arrival of Luke and Fenella to be replaced by one that was guarded and slightly strained, and as she looked around the table, Bobbie knew that she wasn’t alone in feeling this. Caspar’s mouth had thinned as he listened to Fenella’s comments. Olivia looked as though she wanted to respond more forcefully than she had but was trying to restrain herself.

‘Oh, Luke, you know-I said I didn’t want any wine,’ Fenella protested, nonetheless taking a delicate sip from the glass she had picked up and giving Luke a flirtatious glance from beneath her lashes as she demanded coyly, ‘You wouldn’t be trying to get me tipsy, would you?’ then giving him a meaningful look.

Bobbie nearly choked on her food as she heard Caspar muttering exasperatedly under his breath, ‘Not if he’s got any sense,’ and then had to fight to restrain her mirth as she saw the acid look Luke was giving her.

‘It’s a pity Aunt Ruth isn’t here,’ Joss mourned, oblivious to the adult melodrama going on around him. ‘Salmon is her favourite, as well,’ he informed Bobbie.

Bobbie put down her fork, the food on it untouched.

‘Yes, you must meet Ruth before you leave the area,’ Olivia broke in warmly. ‘If you’re really interested in learning more about the family, then Ruth is the best person for you to talk to.’

Luke was frowning as he looked at her, Bobbie realised.

‘Is there any particular reason why you’re interested in our family?’ he asked Bobbie.

‘No particular reason,’ Bobbie countered calmly, unable to resist challenging him, ‘Is there any particular reason why I shouldn’t be?’

Fenella, obviously unwilling to share Luke’s attention with anyone, gave Bobbie a baleful look as she leaned across the table between them, putting her hand possessively on Luke’s arm and demanding, ‘Let’s dance, Luke. We used to dance so well together,’ she told him huskily.

‘Did we?’ Luke grimaced. ‘I must confess I don’t remember.’

‘Er...we really ought to go and talk to Saul and his parents, darling,’ Olivia intervened quickly, pushing back her chair as she spoke.

‘Yes. I shall have to be leaving soon,’ Bobbie told Joss. ‘But before I go, I must thank your parents.’

She, too, stood up, unwilling to witness the scene she could sense was about to follow as they all left Luke and Fenella at the table. Out of the comer of her eye, Bobbie could see Fenella pouting sulkily.

‘Phew, poor old Luke,’ Olivia commented once they were all out of earshot.

‘He obviously must have found her attractive once,’ Bobbie couldn’t resist pointing out coolly.

‘Well, yes,’ Olivia agreed, ‘but he was very, very young, only twenty-two, and I think he was disillusioned pretty quickly. You don’t seem to like Luke very much,’ Olivia stated with a lawyer’s directness.

‘Not much,’ Bobbie agreed cheerfully.

‘I’m sorry that Luke called you a quarterback,’ Joss told Bobbie softly five minutes later when Bobbie had said her goodbyes to Olivia and Caspar.

‘Well, I guess it’s a kind of compliment,’ Bobbie responded wryly. ‘I reckon a major league quarterback gets paid a heck of a lot more than I’m ever likely to earn.

‘Look, I can see your folks over there.’ She directed Joss’s attention to the gap in the dancers crowding the floor through which she could see his parents.

‘I wish you didn’t have to go,’ Joss mourned as she made her way determinedly towards Jenny and Jon. ‘But you’re still going to be here for a while yet, aren’t you?’ he asked her, brightening.

‘For a while,’ Bobbie agreed cautiously.

There were things she had to do, information she needed to gain, which would be better accomplished out of sight of Joss’s shrewd young eyes.

‘Thank you for allowing me to gatecrash your party,’ Bobbie said after reaching Joss’s parents.

‘You didn’t gatecrash it,’ Joss objected indignantly. ‘I invited you.’

Jenny laughed. ‘You’re more than welcome,’ she assured Bobbie warmly. ‘I just hope that Joss hasn’t taken up too much of your time or made a nuisance of himself,’ she said, ruffling Joss’s hair and smiling lovingly at him as she gave him a brief hug.

‘No way,’ Bobbie replied. ‘I’ve enjoyed talking with him and hearing all about the Crighton family.’

It had been a long night, Bobbie acknowledged tiredly as she reached the sanctuary of her hotel bedroom and locked the door. She made her way to the bathroom, then stripped off her clothes whilst she ran a bath.

Half an hour later, she decided regretfully that she had soaked in the deliciously deep and steamy depths of the huge Edwardian-style tub for long enough, and besides, there was one last thing she had to do before she could finally go to bed. She dialled the number and then waited until she heard the familiar voice so very like her own.

‘Can we talk? I couldn’t wait until Sunday to talk to you,’ she asked conspiratorially.

‘Just,’ came back the answer. ‘They’ve just gone out. Okay, give. What have you found out?’

‘Nothing much, other than the fact that certain members of the Crighton family are unbelievable, obnoxious and arrogant.’

‘You had to travel all the way to England to discover that?’ Samantha questioned cynically. ‘I thought we already—’

‘Yes, I know. I’m sorry,’ Bobbie apologised. ‘It’s just that...I’m not sure that what we’re planning is a good idea, Sam. Tonight, talking with Olivia and Caspar, I—’

‘Olivia and Caspar—who the heck are they?’

‘Joss’s cousin and her husband. He’s an American from Philly, and—’

‘Hey, have you any idea how much this call is costing? I knew I should have gone over there myself. The trouble with you is that you’re just so darned soft-hearted and sentimental you’d find excuses for the devil himself. Bobbie, you know what the doctor...what happened last year ... we may not have much time left and—’

‘Dr Fraser said that she was fully one hundred percent recovered,’ Bobbie protested, but underneath her fierce protestation she knew that her voice was betraying her anxiety and fear.

‘Yes, I know,’ Samantha agreed. ‘But...we’ve got to see this through, Bobbie. We’ve got to do it. I just wish that I could be over there....’

‘You can’t, not if you’re going to get your master’s and you are going to get it.’

‘I know... I know. So come on, what have you managed to find out?’

‘Nothing much. According to Joss and Olivia, Aunt Ruth is the person to talk to about the family’s history.’

‘Aunt Ruth?’ There was a long pause and then Samantha’s voice grew slightly fainter and huskier. ‘Aunt Ruth, eh. Well now... So are you going to talk to her?’

‘I don’t know, Sam.’ Bobbie’s voice took on a troubled tone. ‘To be honest, I just don’t think that she’d be the right person.’

There was a long pause before she heard Samantha saying, ‘Well, I guess you’re probably right.’

After she had finished her telephone call, Bobbie poured herself a glass of Perrier water from the minibar and padded barefoot across to the window. The hotel bathrobe unexpectedly was just a little too long for her and certainly far too wide and had, she suspected, been found from somewhere by the eagle-eyed maid, who must have noticed how much taller she was than their average female guest. Full marks to her for her observation. There was something very comforting about wearing something so obviously too big; it made her feel positively fragile and dainty, Bobbie reflected ruefully, frowning as she heard someone knocking on her door.

She went to open it, her mouth rounding into a startled ‘Oh’ of surprise as she saw Luke Crighton standing in the corridor, holding her wrap.

‘You left this downstairs,’ he informed her.

‘Yes...I did,’ Bobbie agreed distantly, giving him a frosty look as she added, ‘But there was no need for you to go to the trouble of returning it to me. I could have collected it in the morning.’

‘I’m sure, but Jenny was anxious to get it back to you,’ he told her smoothly.

He was standing well away from the door, too far away for her to reach out and take the wrap from him, forcing her to step out of the room and into the thankfully deserted corridor. She held out her hand for the wrap as she did so, having carefully made sure the door was on the latch beforehand. The last thing she wanted right now was to be locked out of her room wearing only a towelling robe, especially with someone like Luke Crighton to witness her potential embarrassment.

‘My wrap,’ she demanded crisply as she stepped towards him, but instead of handing it to her, to her astounded disbelief, Luke stepped up to her, catching her completely off guard as he skilfully caught up both her hands behind her back with one of his whilst using his free arm to force her into a parody of a lover’s intimate embrace.