скачать книгу бесплатно
Cocking an eyebrow at Raine, Nick suggested, ‘Perhaps you’d like to carry on?’
Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, she chose the latter, and, estimating the distance to the house, began at the part she didn’t mind telling.
‘Nick’s—’ she spoke the hated name with difficulty ‘—adoptive father and mine were twins. More than thirty years ago they quarrelled and lost touch. Then last autumn, quite unexpectedly, we heard from Uncle Harry. He had just been diagnosed as suffering from a terminal illness and he wanted to make up the quarrel while he could. Dad and I went over to Boston.’
Leading the way over the old crazy-paving into the house, Raine added, as though it didn’t matter, ‘And that’s when Nick and I met for the first time.’
Crossing the hall, she opened the door into the long, wood-panelled, black-beamed lounge. A comfortably faded chintz-covered suite and some lovingly cared for antiques stood on the polished oak floorboards. Bowls of autumn flowers glowed in dark corners, and a huge jar of bronze chrysanthemums filled the stone fireplace.
Ralph glanced up from the detective story he was reading. In the past he’d always been too much of a workaholic to relax, but whiplash injuries sustained in a minor road accident that year had left him with pains in his back and chest, and he’d been warned to take it easy.
For once in his life, Raine was pleased to see, he seemed to be obeying his doctor’s orders.
He took off his glasses, put down his book and smiled at the little group, revealing a gap between his two front teeth that gave him an endearingly boyish look.
He addressed his daughter. ‘Martha has just been in to ask how many there’ll be for dinner tonight.’ His enquiring glance at Kevin, though civil, lacked warmth. ’So if you’d care to tell her?’
Her voice cool and composed now, Raine asked, ‘Is Nick staying?’
Ralph’s hazel eyes showed his annoyance. ‘Of course he’s staying.’
‘Then there’ll be just the two of you.’ She moved closer to her fiancé. ‘We have other plans for the evening—haven’t we, darling?’
Her father frowned. ‘Other plans?’
‘When I’ve got changed we’re going in to Lopsley. Kevin’s taking me to Phasianidae.’
‘What the deuce is that?’ her father demanded irritably.
‘A new restaurant that’s just opened in Cheyne Walk.’
Ralph glanced helplessly at his nephew.
‘So you’ll have to forgive us for not joining you.’ Raine gave Nick a disdainful little smile. ‘I’m sure you and Dad can find plenty to talk about.’
‘I’m sure we can,’ he agreed smoothly. ‘But it’s you I need to talk to.’
Her face froze into a stiff mask. ‘Anything you want to say to me will presumably keep until tomorrow.’
‘Unfortunately it won’t.’ Turning, Nick clapped a hand on Kevin’s shoulder. ‘We’ve come up against something of a family problem that needs sorting out immediately. I know you’ll understand, and I’m quite sure that in the circumstances you wouldn’t want to...’ He allowed the words to tail off.
‘No...no, of course not.’ Reacting to the hint of cool authority that lay beneath the friendly tone, Kevin was already backing away.
Alarm made Raine dig her toes in. ‘I really don’t see what’s so urgent that it can’t wait until the morning.’
Catching Nick’s peremptory glance, Kevin said hastily, ‘Don’t worry, old thing. We can always go some other time. I’ll cut along now and come over early tomorrow, if that’s all right by you?’
Desperate to keep her fiancé as a buffer between herself and Nick, Raine appealed to her father. ‘But Kevin will soon be part of the family. Surely he can stay?’
It was Nick who answered. ‘He can, but...’ You won’t really want him to, the dark blue eyes warned her.
Brought up short, she hesitated.
As though he owned the place, Nick moved to shepherd Kevin out, adding in a jocular tone, ‘Perhaps it’s better not to know about the family skeletons until after you’re married. ’
In the doorway he glanced back, and Raine saw an odd look pass between him and Ralph before the latch clicked to behind him.
Fuming helplessly, a flush of colour lying along the wide cheekbones inherited from her mother, she turned to Ralph and asked in a choked voice, ‘What’s he doing here?’
‘I sent for him.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me he was coming?’
‘Because last time I told you he was coming you bolted.’
‘I didn’t want to see him,’ she said defensively.
‘Damn it, girl,’ Ralph exploded, ‘have you any idea how furious you made him? He hung around here for over a week—a week he really needed to be in Boston.
‘You made him look a complete fool, and you ought to know he’s not a man to tolerate that sort of treatment. Why hadn’t you the decency to stay and listen to him?’
‘I didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. I stil don’t.’
Almost wearily, Ralph said, ‘Well, you can’t keep or avoiding him. He’s here now, and you’ll have to face him.
CHAPTER THREE
RAINE shook her head, silently repudiating that statement. As far as she was concerned she didn’t have to do anything of the kind. It had been her fixed intention never to see him again.
In spite of her father’s pleas, and to her everlasting shame, she had even chickened out of going to her uncle’s funeral because he’d be there.
It would be a relief when she was safely married, she thought fervently, while her stomach remained tied in a knot of tension. Though it would mean leaving her father and the home she loved, at least she wouldn’t have to risk coming face to face with Nick out of the blue like this.
But it wasn’t really out of the blue. Her father had asked him to come. Suddenly, without knowing why, she was scared stiff. ‘What made you send for him?’
Looking uneasy, anything but comfortable, Ralph said, ‘The doctor advises that I don’t go back to the office for at least three months.’ Involuntarily, his hand had gone up to touch his chest.
‘Your heart...?’ she whispered.
‘There’s nothing wrong with my heart. I’m as fit as a fiddle,’ he said testily. ‘But I...well, I’m not getting any younger, and I...’
‘Oh, Dad...’ She went down on her knees by his chair.
‘Don’t be a fool, girl.’ He patted her hand. ‘Now, get up, and believe me when I tell you that I’m not ill. I’d just like to take it easy for a while. That’s where Nick comes in...’
‘How do you mean?’ But already a cold chill was raising the short hairs on the back of her neck and running down her spine.
‘I mean he’s going to take the reins temporarily.’
‘But couldn’t I do that?’ she protested, rising to her feet.
Shaking his head, Ralph reminded her, ‘You’re getting married soon, and if Kevin doesn’t want you to work...’
‘Well, can’t David Ferris cope? He’s been with you for years and he’s absolutely trustworthy...’
‘David’s got enough to do,’ her father said shortly. ‘And I want someone up front who isn’t soft—someone with initiative and drive.’
‘But how can Nick look after your business affairs without neglecting his own?’
Ralph answered in a roundabout way. ‘He told me once that, having watched his father work himself into an early grave, the most important thing he’d learned was how to delegate.
‘Under Finn Anderson, his right-hand man, he’s built up an efficient team who are quite capable of carrying on in his absence.
‘Added to that, his business interests are varied and worldwide—so he can keep an eye on everything just as well from England as he can from the States.
‘I’m well aware that things haven’t gone right between you...’ he said gruffly.
And that had to be the understatement of the century, thought Raine.
‘But he’s doing us an enormous favour. So try to be pleasant to him,’ Ralph finished firmly.
Raine gritted her teeth. When her father spoke to her in that tone of mild reproach it made her feel as though she were a child again, instead of a woman of twenty-four.
‘I know you were intending to take next month off to organise the wedding,’ Ralph went on, ‘but if you could spare a day or two to go into the office with him...?’
‘No! I . . .’ Fighting down blind panic at the thought of having to come into close contact with Nick on a daily basis, she managed more moderately, ’I’m sorry, Dad, but I won’t have time.’
Hardening her heart against her father’s disappointed face, she went on hurriedly, ‘In fact, I won’t be here. Because the wedding reception is being held in Mayfair, Lady Somersby has suggested that I stay with her in Manton Square until the final seating plan and all the last-minute details have been decided on...’
For the past two weeks Raine had been politely resisting the suggestion, but now it seemed the lesser of two evils.
‘So when Kevin comes tomorrow, I intend to go back to town with him.’
‘You’re running away again,’ Ralph accused her, a kind of anxious irritation in his hazel eyes.
‘I’m doing nothing of the kind,’ she denied. ‘I—I need to be on the spot to help complete the arrangements and cope with any possible hitches...’
Some slight sound made them both look up.
Nick was standing there, his broad shoulders filling the doorway. Judging by his derisive expression, he’d overheard enough to put him in the picture.
When he spoke, his manner was as cool and hard as ice-clad marble. ‘Before you make any further arrangement, we really should have that talk.’
Managing to sound distant and haughty, Raine informed him,—‘I’ve just talked to Dad. It’s kind of you to help him out, and I’m grateful, but...’
Nick’s handsome eyes glinted as he warned, ‘Don’t patronise me, Raine.’
Flushing a little, despite herself, she ploughed on, ‘But it doesn’t involve me, and—’
‘Don’t be too sure about that. Though your father’s put you partly in the picture, you’ll understand much better when you’ve heard what I have to say.’
The eyes of the two men met.
‘If you’ll excuse me.’ Ralph got to his feet. ‘I’d better let Martha know how many there are for dinner, or we won’t be getting any.’
With calm effrontery, Nick said, ‘I was intending to take Raine out for a meal, if that’s all right with you?’
‘Fine by me,’ Ralph agreed genially.
For a moment she was speechless, then, as the door closed behind her father’s tall, spare figure, she turned on Nick furiously. ‘I wouldn’t have dinner with you if you were the last man on earth.’
‘Not a very original remark,’ he taunted.
‘Original or not, I mean it. I don’t know how you’ve got the nerve to suggest such a thing after you’ve completely ruined the evening...’
‘The evening’s not over yet,’ he pointed out, a strange note in his voice. Then, watching her involuntary shiver, he added in a bored tone, ‘Now, do go and get ready, there’s a good girl.’
‘This late on a Saturday night you won’t get in anywhere without a reservation.’ She made no attempt to hide the triumph. ‘We’ll end up eating in the local snack-bar.’
He merely smiled. ‘I’ve already booked a table for two at the Priest House.’
The Priest House, a beautiful old building dating from the fifteen-hundreds, was the most expensive and exclusive restaurant in the neighbourhood.
‘How dare you do such a thing without even asking me?’ she burst out. Then, realising that by losing her temper she was playing into his hands, she drew a deep breath and went on more calmly, ‘I’m afraid you’ll be eating alone. I’d rather starve than accept your invitation.’
Nick’s face hardened. ‘My dear Raine, you don’t seem to understand... It isn’t an invitation. It’s an order.’
Furiously, she demanded, ‘What makes you think you can give me orders?’
With a smile that showed the gleam of his white teeth but failed to reach his eyes, a smile that was a danger signal, he said with terrifying confidence, ‘Because I hold the whip hand.’
She wanted to deny his assertion, to protest that he was joking, or mistaken, or mad, but, knowing the man, she was suddenly convinced that he was none of those things. That he somehow did hold the whip hand.
Feeling as though she’d been punched in the solar plexus, Raine stared up at him mutely, her clear green eyes startlingly beautiful.
‘My, what big eyes you’ve got,’ he murmured mockingly.
Finding her voice, she said through stiff lips, ‘If you think I’m going to take orders from you just because you’re helping Dad out...’
But it didn’t need his silence to convince her that his autocratic statement was based on a great deal more than that. In exasperation, she cried, ‘Well, if it isn’t that, what is it?’
‘I’ll tell you after we’ve eaten. Now, suppose you go and get changed?’ Though phrased as a suggestion it was undoubtedly an order. And he wanted her to know it.
As she turned blindly away he cautioned, ‘Oh, and Raine, until you know exactly how things stand, it wouldn’t be wise to worry your father.’
On legs that shook a little, she hurried up the dark-oak crimson-carpeted stairs to the pleasant, lattice-windowed room she’d had since childhood.
“It wouldn’t be wise to worry your father...” While she showered the quiet warning kept ricocheting around her mind, making her wonder if Nick knew something her father was keeping from her.
