Kingfisher Morning

by Charlotte Lamb

  Judith yawned. 'Dear Emma, I must buy you a white stick and a guide dog. You're the blindest girl I've ever met.' She rose. 'I'm off to bed. Goodnight.'

  Emma stared after her, confused and incredulous. What on earth did she mean?

  She bent and attended to the fire, shovelling ash over the flames to make sure that they would not entirely consume the coal during the night, keeping the room warm so that in the morning they would get up and find the temperature comfortable. It was already beginning to be chilly in the early morning. Autumn would be upon them soon.

  Then she went upstairs to bed, feeling depressed and weary. She was just getting in between the sheets when she heard a sound downstairs which alarmed her. Someone was moving about down there!

  She tiptoed out and crept down the stairs. A light showed beneath the kitchen door. She got the poker from the sitting-room and crept slowly up to the kitchen door, paused, taking a deep breath, then flung it open and burst into the room, poker raised ready for use.

  Ross was at the stove, frying himself an egg. He swung round, stared and burst out laughing.

  'What's this? The Charge of the Light Brigade?'

  Furiously she said, 'I thought you were a burglar! You're lucky I didn't break your head open with this!'

  'I believe you,' he said mockingly. 'I know how you lay about you when roused, remember? What a terrifying girl you are! Fists one minute, pokers the next…I hate to think what married life will be like with a virago like you!'

  She opened her eyes wide, flushing. 'That's never likely to concern you, so you needn't worry about it.'

  'Oh, but it does,' he said, returning cheerfully to his cooking, his back towards her so that she could no longer see the expression on his face.

  She bit her lip. Was he teasing her? 'It does?' she asked in faltering tones.

  'I intend to marry you,' he said in a voice so casual that for a full moment she thought her ears were playing tricks.

  Then her temper flared at the maddening self-confidence that could give birth to such a statement. 'Oh, you do?' Her voice quivered with rage. 'I presume that my opinions and wishes have nothing to do with the matter? You've decided to marry me, and that's that? Well, let me tell you something—I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man in the world! I know why you've decided to marry me, you know!'

  He finished his cooking, served the food on to a warm plate and slid it into the oven to keep warm. Then he turned and surveyed her, eyes mocking.

  'So why do I want to marry you?'

  'To irritate your father!'

  He laughed out loud.

  Furiously, she burst out, 'Judith told me about the row you had with him! It had never entered your head to marry me until he said he wouldn't permit it. Then, with typical obstinacy, you made up your mind to go ahead and do just that, to annoy him.'

  Ross caught her shoulders and pulled her close, his eyes smiling into hers. 'Silly girl! The notions you get! What sane man would behave like that? My father doesn't fool me. He wants me to marry you, that's why he warned me off…I'd already hinted at the possibility, and in his cussed fashion he was delighted, but he would hate me to know that, so he pretended to be annoyed. He knew I'd do just what I wanted to in the end. He likes you—I could tell by the way he spoke of you.'

  'I must be going out of my mind,' she said dazedly. 'You talk about marriage as if it were an inevitable fact, yet you know very well that you and I are a million miles apart. We've never been on marriage terms…'

  'We kissed, didn't we?' His eyes challenged her to remember it. 'Why, we even shared a bike! How much closer can you get?'

  'Oh, don't be absurd,' she snapped. 'You kissed me to work out a fit of temper.'

  'I kissed you because I'd been wanting to do just that for days,' he said tightly. 'And I want to do it again. Now.'

  She instinctively moved back, but his hands were too strong, holding her firmly as he bent his head. His kiss this time was gentler, but just as compelling, drawing her emotions upwards until she shook with answering passion, her arms sliding round his neck to touch the hair at the back of his head.

  When he drew back a little they were both shaken. Ross smiled down at her. 'Will you marry me, Emma?'

  'Ross,' she whispered, putting her face against his chest to hide the burning heat of her cheeks for a moment. 'What about Amanda, Ross?'

  He laughed. She felt the quiver of it in his chest muscles. 'Oh, Amanda…' he murmured. 'You can't seriously have believed I would fall for Amanda's corny old line? I've known her for years, remember. She's a distant cousin, a poor relation who came to live with us when her family broke up. I know her—only too well! She's always been an opportunist; unscrupulous, malicious, ambitious and a lot of other unpleasant things! My father kept her around because she was a decorative hostess. He paid dearly for the service. She charged everything—clothes, jewels, anything that took her fancy.'

  'You always seemed amused by her…'

  'She can be an amusing companion,' he admitted. 'She's easy to look at, after all.'

  'You did find her attractive, then,' she flared.

  'Jealous?' Ross was amused, his eyes mocking her as he grinned at her.

  'You must have been drawn to her once,' she said with pain. 'I sensed it, an intimacy between you.'

  'I've known her for years,' he said, shrugging. 'She was a beautiful cannibal, all teeth and claws—I was wary of her, but at the same time I was able to admire her beauty.'

  'She certainly expected to marry you!' Ross looked stern, brows a dark line. 'I never encouraged such hopes—far from it! You mustn't be sentimental about her, Emma. She felt nothing for me, you know—it was all pretence, and I knew it. She's an ambitious girl, Amanda. I doubt if she's capable of a genuine emotion.'

  'I wonder if you are either,' Emma said, the words wrung from her out of her pain and uncertainty. He had kissed her, he had asked her to marry him. But those three little words had not passed his lips.

  'What?' He stared at her, going pale. 'What is it? Emma, I thought…'

  'You thought that the wonderful, irresistible Ross Daumaury only had to snap a finger for any girl to fall swooning at his feet, I suppose?' She looked at him scathingly. 'Well, you were wrong.'

  He caught her close, his arms an unbending prison as she struggled to break free. 'What are you talking about, you halfwit?'

  'You're altogether too sure of yourself,' she said bitterly, relinquishing the attempt to get away. 'Just because you think yourself irresistible… saying you knew how I felt!' She snorted scornfully. 'You know nothing of the kind!'

  His face cleared. 'You're talking about what I said this morning? But I thought you were going back to Guy, then. I was furious. I wanted to wring your neck. When I said that I knew how you felt about me, I meant that I thought you detested me. I thought I had no chance at all…'

  'But now?' she asked.

  'After I'd kissed you this morning, I felt much more hopeful,' he admitted. 'I knew you weren't going back to Guy by then, and your response had been pretty terrific. I began to have high hopes again. Then Amanda said something…'

  'I can imagine,' said Emma drily.

  'Yes, she was her usual charming self—said you were in the throes of a schoolgirl crush on me, nothing more! She meant to be beastly, but it made me feel marvellous!'

  'Oh, did it?' Emma asked him sarcastically.

  He grinned. 'I'm afraid so!' He lifted her chin with one finger and gazed into her eyes. 'Tell me the truth, darling. Do you love me?'

  'I haven't heard you saying those three magic words yet,' she pointed out.

  He looked blank. 'What? But you know I love you…I've said so in twenty different ways already.'

  Her heart thudding, she murmured, 'Say it again, just once. I'm a simple-minded soul. I like the old-fashioned words said the old-fashioned way. Just…I love you…'

  He said the words, in a deep, shaken voice, and she repeated them after him, then flung her arms around his neck
.

  'Oh, Ross, I do love you so,' she underlined.

  For a while there was a silence so thick and dark it was like a starless midnight, then Ross lifted his mouth reluctantly from hers and said abstractedly, 'I must eat my supper. I'm starving.'

  'Well, really, Ross!' giggled Emma. 'How very unromantic of you!'

  'I haven't eaten since teatime,' he said. 'I couldn't touch food while I was worried about my father.' He looked at her with anxiety. 'Will you be able to face living at Queen's Daumaury? I know how much you love the simple life.'

  She gave a little sigh. 'Must we go there at once? Your father may recover completely. We could stay here then.'

  'Eventually we must live there, though,' he said. 'It's a very beautiful house, and I'm rather fond of it. Amanda knows that and she played on my feelings for what they were worth. Her own devotion to the house is skin-deep.'

  'I thought it very beautiful,' Emma admitted. 'But rather cold.'

  'You would bring it back to life,' he said. 'Queen's Daumaury has lacked a soul ever since my mother died. It needs you. My father needs you, too. Now that he's reconciled to Judith's marriage, the house will always have children in it…first hers, then ours…'

  'Hold on,' she said, blushing. 'We aren't even married yet!'

  'We will be soon,' he said. 'I'm not a patient man. I want you too much to wait for you. I've waited long enough already. I never hoped to find a girl like you—one who genuinely did not care about my money, one who loved me for myself. That was why I tried to stop you finding out who I was. I think I knew I loved you from that first meeting. I was afraid to see your face if you knew about my father. I was afraid things would change between us. But that was only in the beginning. I hadn't known you very long before I became sure that my money would not attract you, in the least. It might put you off, but you would never chase me because of it.'

  'It's a big responsibility,' she said gravely. 'I'm afraid I do rather wish you didn't have it. I haven't been brought up to that sort of life. I may not be suitable to act as a hostess at Queen's Daumaury. I'm no Amanda, you know.'

  'Oh, I know that, my funny darling,' Ross said, laughing. 'That's what I love you for…your honesty, your directness, your integrity.'

  'Oh, and I thought it was for my lovely face,' she said, pretending to be hurt.

  He pinched her cheek. 'Don't be pert! There are other things about you…'

  Emma lifted her face for his kiss, clinging passionately. 'Mmmm, that's nice,' she whispered. 'Tell me more…'

  'We've got all our lives to talk,' he said. 'Just now I only want to kiss you.'