Wolf at the Door

by Victoria Gordon

  Hiding in her work, Kelly was nonetheless totally aware when Freda’s helicopter throbbed into the sky about an hour later, and when the men began noisily filing into the dining room for lunch, she took great care to keep to her work behind the scenes. Seeking seclusion became more difficult after lunch, when even Kelly had to admit there was nothing left for her to do in the kitchen.

  Her two cooks were both surprised and delighted, albeit slightly suspicious, when she shooed them off for an afternoon’s fishing and took over the preparation of that night’s dinner herself, working with a single-minded intensity that brought strange, curious looks but no comments from Marie.

  Grey made an appearance at dinner, but apart from a mildly curious glance toward the kitchen when he saw the dishes on offer, he showed no sign of awareness about Kelly’s work.

  The cooks returned just before dark, weary after a long climb to the river below the falls and the seemingly longer climb up again under the burden of several very large Dolly Varden char. They received Kelly’s congratulations with somewhat guilty reserve, still unsure what had sparked their unexpected holiday, but brightened visibly when she offered to cook the fish for them in a special breakfast production.

  She was up at four, bustling about the silent kitchen as she prepared a special sauce and basting mixture for the fish, and had everything ready so the cooks could have their meal and still be on duty before the main camp breakfast.

  She had just admitted her fishermen to the dining hall, cautioning them to quiet so as to avoid waking the rest of the camp, when a light tap on the kitchen door brought her guiltily to her feet. It was no surprise to find Grey looking at her through the screen, one eyebrow raised in sardonic amusement as he surveyed the beautifully displayed fish, one baked and the other poached to a perfect texture in a creamy sauce.

  ‘So this is how you keep your cooks so happy,’ he growled, ‘little special treats and afternoons off to go fishing.’

  ‘I don’t see that it’s any business of yours,’ Kelly replied abruptly, mildly put out by his innuendo.

  ‘Obviously. Nobody invited me to share the feast,’ he replied with a grin, knowing that his authority would force an invitation from one or the other of the cooks.

  ‘There’s room for one more, but only if the chef doesn’t mind,’ Fred Griffiths replied softly, his patient, gentle eyes revealing his dislike at being trapped in such a position.

  ‘And do you mind?’ Grey asked quietly. ‘I’d just like to try a teensy taste, not do you out of your share or anything.’

  Kelly most assuredly did mind, but she also knew she didn’t dare reveal it too strongly. It was bad enough having Grey catch them at their feast, without bothering to go into vivid explanations about why they should appear to be being sneaky about it.

  Grey caught her hesitation. ‘I understand that you’re not allowed to serve wild game or fish as part of your catering to the camp,’ he said calmly. ‘Which includes me, technically, but I won’t tell if you don’t.’

  He understood only too well. It was perfectly all right for Kelly to serve the fishermen their own catch, but any hint that wild game was being included in the general catering at the camp could mean the end of her father’s business at worst and a heavy fine at best. Kelly would have had no compunction about using such an excuse if Grey himself hadn’t raised it; now sheer good manners prohibited such a move and they both knew it.

  ‘Since you were invited, I can’t imagine that being a problem,’ she said with carefully rehearsed graciousness. ‘Just sit down, then, and I’ll fetch another plate.’

  His appreciation of her culinary efforts surpassed even that of her two cooks, whose approval was based on technical merits and was, Kelly knew, well enough deserved. Even she herself was rather impressed with the fish, which was a variety she had neither cooked nor tasted before.

  ‘Ah, you’ll make somebody a wonderful wife some day,’ Grey sighed, lighting a cigarette and leaning back into his chair after the meal was done. His remark was a cliché, and the worse for being deliberate, but Kelly couldn’t help rising to the bait.

  ‘There’s far more to being a wife than just good cooking, I should imagine,’ she replied in tones that implied a distinct lack of interest in the topic.

  ‘And sarcasm isn’t part of it,’ he replied brightly. ‘No man should be expected to thrive on a diet of hot tongue and cold shoulder.’

  The retort drew a chuckle of appreciation from the two cooks, who were silenced just as quickly by a glare from Kelly. Then, realising how silly she must look, she countered with a line of her own. ‘A diet that’s too bland will only make you fat and complacent,’ she retorted, unsmiling eyes directing the remark squarely at Grey.

  ‘Fat, maybe. Complacent, never,’ he replied laughingly. ‘I couldn’t stand to live with a woman who made me complacent.’

  Too true, Kelly thought. Living with Grey Scofield would be likely to include just about anything except boredom. Living with Grey Scofield ... For just an instant she shivered deliciously at the thought, but then she met his laughing, mocking eyes and retreated.

  Fred Griffiths wisely interrupted with a comment that changed the line of the conversation, and the talk stayed on safe ground then until the arrival of Marie Cardinal warned them it was time to start preparing breakfast for the camp. Kelly instinctively headed back to her supply room, but was halted by Grey’s hand on her shoulder.

  ‘Can you spare me a minute in your office?’ he said. ‘There are things I’d like to discuss before I head into town this morning.’

  Kelly wanted to refuse, knowing she really didn’t want to be alone with Grey under any conditions, but she couldn’t very well say so with other people around, so she merely nodded. When his fingers left her shoulder to hold open the door for her, she could still feel the tingle of their touch as she walked across the gravelled compound towards her own trailer.

  Once inside. Grey flung himself idly into the depths of a convenient armchair, but Kelly perched herself alertly on a stool behind the counter, feeling vaguely more secure with the structure between them. He sat quietly observing her as he lit up a cigarette, then finally spoke.

  ‘First off, I honestly do want to apologise about that misunderstanding over the documents,’ he said.

  ‘There’s nothing to apologise for,’ Kelly retorted almost angrily. ‘Actually I thought you must have forgotten about it; I certainly did,’

  Grey nodded, not bothering to hide the growing amusement in his eyes. ‘Okay,’ he said finally. ‘We’ll consider it forgotten along with your rather rude treatment of Freda Jorgensen.’ Kelly bristled at the mention of the name, then quickly calmed herself She had been rude, perhaps, but nothing like the rudeness Freda had shown during their first meeting. But then Grey knew nothing about that, and nothing she could say would ever explain the innate hostility that existed between her and Freda.

  ‘No comment?’ Grey didn’t look overly surprised, and Kelly immediately thought he was baiting her.

  ‘No ... should there be?’ she replied. ‘I thought it was all ... forgotten ... not brought up for comment.’

  Grey shook his head. ‘Okay, you win. But you were rude, and you damned well know it, too. Frankly I couldn’t care less, except that it’s so out of character for you it bothers me just a little.’

  ‘Well, I certainly shouldn’t let it if I were you,’ Kelly replied tartly. ‘Especially considering that you know absolutely nothing about my character in the first place.’

  ‘Hah! I wouldn’t go so far as to say that,’ he replied with a knowing grin. ‘I probably know far more about your character than you imagine. 1 surely know how you react to certain ... physical stimuli.’

  ‘Which has nothing whatsoever to do with character, as someone like you should know all too well,’ she retorted. ‘And now if you’re finished chastising me, I have quite a lot of work to—’

  ‘Ah, come off it,’ he interrupted. ‘We both know you’ve got this place so
organised it could run without you lifting a finger, so stop kidding around. You don’t want to be alone with me, and that’s all there is to it.’

  ‘Whatever you say, Mr Scofield, sir,’ Kelly replied. ‘I have far better things to do than argue with you.’

  ‘I doubt that too,’ he said, grinning mischievously. ‘Unless of course you count early morning treats for the cooks. Almost enough to make me wish I’d taken up fishing myself.’

  ‘Since it isn’t something I intend to make a habit of, I expect you’d be wasting your time,’ Kelly replied. ‘Besides, I’m rather choosy about whom I select for what you call treats.’

  ‘And so you should be. Which brings me to my second point of this little discussion,’ Grey replied. ‘This top cook of yours—Griffiths—how good is he?’

  ‘Fred? Why, he’s ... he’s very good indeed,’ she said. ‘Your own stomach should tell you that.’ And then, very tartly, ‘But then of course you’re so seldom here to eat that maybe you hadn’t ...’

  ‘Enough, enough! I know he’s a good cook, but that wasn’t really what I meant. How is he on the admin side? Like, could he take over here for, say, a week on his own?’

  ‘I don’t see why not, provided there was somebody to make the supply runs for him,’ Kelly answered. ‘I shouldn’t want to expect him to take quite the responsibility I do for no financial reward.’

  ‘Good!’ Grey looked down at his cigarette and took a thoughtful pull at it. ‘Want to spend a week in Calgary?’

  ‘I’m afraid I don’t understand.’ Kelly understood only too well what he seemed to be implying, but she didn’t dare risk a blatant accusation. It would be too like Grey Scofield to have just the answer to make her look totally ridiculous.

  ‘I want you to come to Calgary with me for a week, that’s all,’ he said, eyes twinkling in barely-suppressed amusement as he correctly read her consternation.

  ‘I’m afraid I couldn’t do that,’ she finally replied after an uncomfortably long hesitation.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Well, for one thing your offer doesn’t especially interest me,’ she said, choking back a growing anger at his suave, mocking attitude. ‘And for another I don’t feel that I warrant such a holiday. After all, I am responsible for the catering here, or had you forgotten that?’

  ‘How could I possibly forget?’ Grey smiled. Then he was silent for some time, his eyes drinking in Kelly’s swiftly diminishing serenity.

  ‘So you don’t want to come?’

  ‘I don’t think I should, no.’

  ‘That isn’t what I asked. Do you want to come or not?’

  ‘Not!’ She forced determination into her voice.

  ‘Okay.’ Grey shrugged as if it no longer mattered to him. ‘What do you want me to tell your father?’

  ‘What has he got to do with this?’ Kelly could feel the beginnings of an awful suspicion.

  ‘Well, I’ve got to give him some reason for you not coming with us. Although I suppose he’ll settle for the fact that you just don’t like my company.’

  ‘It would be no more than the truth,’ Kelly replied with growing anger. ‘And that’s considerably more than you’re giving me. Why, may I ask, would you be thinking of taking my father to Calgary, of all places?’

  ‘Well he’s sure as hell not coming down here when they let him out of hospital,’ Grey replied. ‘And I don’t like the idea of leaving him alone in Grande Prairie; he’d only be trying to get back to work before he should.’

  ‘Surely not!’

  Grey looked at her with undisguised amusement. ‘You really don’t know your old dad all that well, do you? If it wasn’t for a deal I made with some of the nurses there, he’d already be trying to get back to work from his hospital bed. Here, he’d be impossible.’

  ‘At least here I should be able to care for him,’ Kelly said sternly.

  ‘He’d walk all over you and be back running the show within a week,’ said Grey. ‘You’d have no more chance of keeping him properly subdued and resting than fly to the moon.’

  ‘And just who is supposed to subdue him in Calgary, may I ask?’ she responded.

  ‘My own dear old mother, that’s who,’ he replied with a grin. ‘And don’t knock it, dearie. My old mom could keep your dad, you, and me in line without even breathing hard.’

  ‘You’re ... you’re taking him to your home, then?’ Kelly was becoming increasingly confused by Grey’s attitude and his apparent refusal to give her any more details than he thought she needed to know.

  ‘That’s right. He and Mom are old friends, and she’s got nothing much else to do anyway. She’d love to have him and it’ll make things easier all around. I’ve got enough troubles worrying about you, without having your dad on my mind too.’

  He was teasing her, and she knew it, but she couldn’t hold her tongue. ‘You have absolutely no business worrying about me, Mr Scofield,’ she said scathingly, ‘and I’m more than capable of looking after my father and administering the affairs of his business as required."

  ‘That’s your story, you stick to it,’ he growled, ‘but your dad’s going to Calgary whether you like it or not. What I want to know is whether you’re coming for a week or so just to see him properly settled in.’

  ‘Of course I am,’ she cried angrily.

  ‘Good. I knew you’d change your mind.’ He grinned at her engagingly. ‘Sure took you long enough, though.’

  ‘What! You ... you deliberately misled me about the whole thing,’ Kelly retorted. ‘You deliberately made me think ... oh, never mind.’

  ‘Oh no, you don’t get off that easily. What did I do to deliberately make you think? That I wanted you to spend a week with me in Calgary? What’s wrong with that? Or did you put something extra into the invitation, little Miss Priss? Like maybe I’m after your fair virgin body? Is that it? Come on, admit it.’

  Kelly couldn’t quite meet his eyes, mostly because he was so aggressively right, but also because in retrospect she realised that she had found the idea far more attractive than she must ever let him realise.

  ‘When shall we be going to pick up my father?’ she asked in a deliberate change of subject.

  ‘I don’t know yet. Probably tomorrow or the next day. That’s if I decide to let you come along. You did refuse, after all.’

  This time she had to meet his eyes, but the mockery she was expecting didn’t make itself obvious. Instead there was a chilling seriousness in Grey’s eyes that Kelly found distinctly unnerving. ‘But ... but you have to take me. You just have to,’ she stammered.

  ‘Have to? Let’s get something straight, little red fox. I don’t have to do anything of the sort. Matter of fact, maybe I should just forget about the whole thing. It might teach you not to take people for granted so quickly.’

  ‘But I ... I...’

  ‘But you nothing! You know damned well you thought I was trying to organise some kind of seduction attempt, and I should point out that I’m rather capable of less clumsy approaches than that. You thought a lot of things, but you haven’t yet thought that maybe an apology is in order.’

  ‘An apology? Why, you ...’

  ‘Now, now; Temper! You don’t want to upset me, remember, Because if you do I might get really firm about not taking you. As it stands, you can still convince me, if you want to go badly enough.’

  Kelly battened down her temper. Everything inside her was screaming angrily at the audacity of this tall, hard- eyed man, but he held the whip hand and they both knew it. ‘What... what must I do to convince you?’ she asked in a meek, barely audible voice.

  She was looking down at the floor, afraid to meet his eyes lest he see the mixture of rage and confusion in her own, so his lithe movement in rising surprised her. One instant he was lounging relaxed in the chair; the next he was standing tall in front of her, one hand reaching to lift her chin.

  ‘Well, a kiss would be a nice start,’ he drawled quietly. And before she could answer, his lips descended upon he
r own with a solid mastery that obviated any possible reply.

  As his lips met hers, Kelly felt him drop his hand from her chin, removing any restraint upon her. But she didn’t move, just stood there and let his lips move strong and searchingly over her mouth. He would think she wasn’t responding, she thought, but he could never know that her stillness was not to keep from betraying displeasure, but to keep from revealing how much she wanted his arms to close around her, his mouth to begin a pattern of ravishment into which she could enter wholeheartedly.

  The kiss went on and on and on, and although only their mouths touched, Kelly could feel the sexual tension as it flowed like electricity between them. Her body was rigid, hands clenched into tiny fists at her sides as she resisted the desire to fling them around Grey’s neck. He began to raise his head and she couldn’t help but raise herself on tiptoe, clinging to his lips as if held by a magnet.

  Until he lifted his head too far, and she felt his lips release her even as they twisted into the slightest of mocking sneers. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘a rather nice beginning indeed. Now where do we go from here, I wonder ... into the fair maiden’s trundle bed, perhaps?’

  His attitude, and the look in his fierce eyes, told her he wasn’t jesting. Worse, he had no look of loving, even liking in his eyes. He wanted her, desired her, but nothing beyond that. And he would have her if he pleased ... whether she wanted it or not. Kelly shook her head in approaching panic.

  ‘No … no, please,’ she whimpered.

  She wanted Grey, wanted him in every possible way that any woman could want a man. But not like this, not with no semblance of mental rapport, not as a form of emotional and physical blackmail.

  And yet, she knew, if he were to take her in his arms and carry her to the bed ... with even a hint of love, caring ...

  ‘Hmmm!’ he grunted. ‘Ah well, I suppose I shouldn’t have expected you to be suitably co-operative.’ And then, to her horror, he did exactly what she had been thinking of. Strong hands clasped themselves about her upper arms as he turned her before lifting her into his arms as he strode towards the looming shape of the double bed.