Reece's parents rang his office to say they had arrived and later in the day Reece picked up Zoe and her grandparents and drove them to the hotel for dinner. Zoe wore a long green dress for the occasion, a pretty dress with a low, rounded neckline which complemented her soft green eyes and pale gold hair. Her grandparents already knew Reece's mother, although they hadn't seen her since she had married, but neither of them had met his father. When Zoe, unable to contain her curiosity, had asked her grandmother what Mrs Macadam was like, Janet had replied evasivelythat from what she could remember she was very nice.
As they entered the hotel Zoe felt quite proud of her grandparents. Janet wore blue, and with her silver hair softly waved was, in her seventies, still a very pretty woman. And Taggart, dignified and quietly dressed in one of his fine grey churchgoing suits, was still a fine figure of a man. If there was a coolness between him and Reece it wasn't noticeable, and Zoe was relieved. .She didn't feel like taking sides. She considered both men partly to blame for what had happened. The initial fault had been hers for stowing away, and her grandfather had been too hasty, but she was still convinced that if Reece had gone about things in a different way the subsequent turn of events could have been avoided. In rushing off to Edinburgh and publicly announcing their engagement, he appeared to have acted impulsively. This puzzled Zoe as he wasn't impulsive by nature. Usually he was so clear-sighted he had no need to be.
The Macadams were waiting in one of the lounges. Reece put his arm round Zoe's waist, drawing her towards them. She caught her breath as she met his lather. He bore little resemblance to his son apart from his eyes, where there was a marked similarity. It gave her a peculiar feeling to think that two men possessed the same penetrating gaze. His mother was elegant and smart, very sure of herself, a trait Zoe immediately recognised in Reece.
Everyone was shaking hands and Reece's mother was remembering Janet had taught her at school and there appeared to be a lot of good will around. Everyone lalked. No one noticed Zoe was quiet. She wasn't sure what to make of Reece's parents. They didn't scare her, but they obviously came from a different world. Surprisingly Janet and Taggart were more at home with them than she was. Her grandmother, especially, always took a great interest in everything and couldtalk well on many subjects which made good dinner table conversation.
Zoe felt Reece's mocking eyes on her frequently and was slightly indignant. No one was asking her anything, so was it her fault if she didn't seem to be joining in? She sat beside Reece, at his right hand, and, between courses, he often availed himself of her left hand, his fingers caressing her brand new ring.
She thought he was touching it absently until he murmured in her ear, 'I hope it always reminds you that you belong to me.'
Zoe shivered, and knew he felt the tremor which shook her, because he smiled with a cool satisfaction.
'Are you staying long?' Janet was asking the Macadams.
'A few days, no longer,' Fiona replied. 'I want to look up a few old friends, especially the Findlays.; Ursula, you know, sometimes stays with me in Edinburgh. A dear girl.' She glanced at Reece and Zoe fancied her eyes were slightly reproachful.
Zoe felt cold suddenly as she stared at her glass of wine. What's the matter with me? she thought, but she knew. She hadn't been aware that Ursula Findlay knew Reece's people so well. In fact she hadn't realised they were even acquainted. The feeling which consumed her was very like jealousy, but she refused to believe it.
'You must come and see us before you go. We must arrange a time?' Janet smiled.
'Of course,' Fiona agreed politely. Then, less en-thusiastically, 'I suppose there'll be the wedding to discuss. I expect, though, it will be quiet.'
The actual wedding hadn't been mentioned yet. Zoe noticed that Janet appeared rather at a loss.
Before she could speak, Reece intervened. 'That will be entirely up to Zoe. Whatever she wants.'
'When my younger son married, Karen's parents,Sir Malcolm and Lady Lauder, gave their daughter a beautiful wedding.'
'Yes, Mother,' Reece agreed dryly, 'but neither Zoe or I want anything like that. We might not be able to afford the glitter, but I'm sure we have something much more endurable and worthwhile.'
Fiona frowned but recovered quickly. She always would, Zoe thought, half admiring, half despairing. Fiona pointedly ignored Reece, addressing herself again to Janet. 'Our other son runs the family business now. He's been a great comfort since Reece deserted.'
Janet nodded but said nothing, while Reece's brows rose sardonically, without obvious remorse. A little later the party broke up.
Before they left, Fiona insisted Zoe joined her for coffee next morning. 'Reece can spare you, so you have no excuse,' she overruled, as Zoe began to protest. 'We must have a little chat and get to know each other.'
'Certainly,' Reece drawled dryly.
Reece ran the Kerrs home, but held Zoe back to say goodnight. 'Enjoy yourself?' he asked lightly.
'It was much easier than I thought it might be,' she .answered frankly. 'I don't know if your mother and I will ever be friends, but I think I could like her.'
'It's not important,' he shrugged, and she saw he meant it.
'You really have cut yourself off from your family,' she said wonderingly.
'We lead different lives.'
Then why had he gone to all the trouble of bringing them here? And everyone would soon realise they were here. If he had considered it so necessary that they should meet his bride-to-be, perhaps they were more important to him than he realised?
'What if your mother should discover the truth?' she asked, doubtful if she could bear it.
'By the truth, I presume you mean what happened on Monday evening?'
'Yes.'
'She isn't likely to. If she did hear anything it would only be a rumour, and I think she would tackle me first.'
Zoe could tell by his tone that he was irritated that she couldn't just forget all about it. How like a man! How could she forget about something like that? Unhappily she persisted. 'But if she asked me, I should have to tell her the truth.'
'Refer her to me,' he retorted indifferently. 'My skin's thick enough, I'm not sure yours is.'
'I couldn't put her off just like that!' Zoe protested, wishing she could.
'Oh, God!' he muttered, hitting a tight fist on the steering wheel. 'Heaven preserve me from an honest woman! But if the contingency does arise, and I don't believe it will, make very sure you know the whole truth before you begin.'
'Could you explain that, please?' Her smooth brow wrinkled.
'Another time,' Reece put her off, taunting enigmatically. 'If I could be sure of getting more than just a goodnight kiss I might be willing to go to a lot more trouble.'
'You aren't even getting that!' she replied tartly, turning to leave him.
'Never challenge a man,' he mocked, his dark face hardening, 'especially your future husband.'
'Don't be so sure,' she snapped back.
'I'd like to make very sure.' He drew her back against him ruthlessly, taking his kiss in such a way as to leave her gasping. His eyes went over her trembling, weakening figure intimately and tauntingly, his meaning very clear. 'If a car was constructed differently, and the consequences were less risky, I would make you eat those words, Zoe Kerr!'
CHAPTER EIGHT
Reeceapproved the softly styled skirt and silky blouse she wore to have coffee with his mother, the slender-ness of her legs and narrow feet encased in fragile, strapped high-heeled sandals.
'You look very nice, Zoe,' he said, with a slightly wicked grin. 'It makes a nice change from jeans.' Before she quite realised what he was doing, his hand went out to release the top few buttons of the blouse. 'That's better,' he murmured, his eyes lingering on the white skin of her throat appreciatively. 'Not so constricted-looking.'
Feeling scorched by the touch of his fingers, Zoe flinched. There was nothing in his behaviour she could really take exception to but she distrusted the de
epening blue of his glance, his drawling tones. 'I'm not sure your mother will approve,' she retorted, her pulses racing. Where had he learnt to be so deft?
'My father's spending the morning with me, so you'll be entirely at her mercy,' Reece grinned, again with a little amusement as she stared at him glumly, a' moment before he dropped her off at the hotel. It surprised her that he considered her up to it.
Mrs Macadam was waiting, obviously feeling up to anything. As she and Zoe surveyed each other warily over coffee cups, she smiled sweetly. 'You and Reece might suit each other, of course. Years ago I faced up to the fact that he might marry a girl like you, but I'll admit I'm disappointed.'
Zoe admired Mrs Macadam's frankness if nothing else. 'Had you hopes in another direction?' she asked innocently.
'I had thought of Ursula Findlay,' Mrs Macadam broke a sugary biscuit with an impatient sigh, as if it should all have been so simple. 'I've known her parents all my life. Reece knew Ursula even before he came here, but I always told her if she wanted to catch him she should show more interest in boats and such things.'
What were—such things? 'Miss Findlay doesn't care for getting wet and dirty.'
'No, but she likes Reece,' Mrs Macadam frowned, 'and I thought Reece was in love with her. I don't know what went wrong, but I suspect it had something to do with his business. He doesn't have enough time to devote to her and he'll never be a millionaire.'
'Is being a millionaire important?' Zoe asked in astonishment.
'To a girl like Ursula it is,' Mrs Macadam nodded admiringly.
Zoe thought of well-worn cliches she might have quoted, but stirred her coffee instead.
'Where will you live when you're married?' Mrs Macadam asked next, as if they had merely been discussing the weather. 'In that monstrosity of my late brother's on the hill, I suppose?'
'Yes.' Zoe forgot all about her coffee and looked up sharply, feeling oddly defensive. 'I think it's very nice.'
'That was something else against Ursula,' Mrs Macadam said. 'She hates it, always has. Not that I can blame her. If I were you, my dear child, I should insist on having the whole place done out from top to bottom before I set foot inside it.'
Zoe was secretly relieved when the Macadams returned to Edinburgh, but did her best to show some enthusiasm when they promised to come back for the wedding. The worst part of their visit had been when Mrs Macadam brought Ursula to the office one mornnig and the girl had flirted with Reece until Zoe had felt near to tears.
Why was Reece so sure Ursula didn't love him? She certainly made no pretence of being pleased that he was marrying another girl. Despairingly she watched them laughing together, Reece's dark head bent over Ursula's even darker one. What did all these women see in him? she wondered, wishing she didn't know. Carol Vintis had rung earlier, asking if it was true, what she'd just heard about Zoe and Reece being engaged? The other girl had been frankly dismayed when Zoe had reluctantly confirmed it.
'I was falling in love with him myself,' she'd groaned. 'Just my luck!'
Zoe didn't know why she couldn't find the courage to tell Ursula and Carol, and all his other lady friends, that she had no intention of marrying him. It should have been easy, so why allow a certain glint in his eye, each time she was brooding on the subject, to deter her? It was as if he read her thoughts and was daring her to do it. She felt a terrible coward that she was looking for a foolproof excuse, and she looked in vain. Until the day Ian Graham provided her with one.
Reece was out. Ian strolled into her office and closed the door. 'All alone, darling?' he smiled.
Giving him a wry glance, Zoe didn't reply. Her fine feathery eyebrows merely rose a fraction.
'Ask a silly question,' he shrugged.
'Exactly.'
He laughed, sitting on the edge of her desk. 'You sound so prim when you say that.'
Something tightened in her cautiously. 'And you sound as though you don't believe it's true.'
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he fiddled idly with one of her pens. 'I've been hearing things, darling.'
'What?' she enquired slowly, horrified to feel her cheeks burning hot.
'Oh,' he said softly, 'just this and that.'
'Ian!' she exclaimed, her heart thumping with a strange apprehension, 'I hate people who beat about the bush, hiding behind stupid innuendoes. Just what have you been hearing?'
Again he paused. 'Just something which makes me want to know more. Such as why you and Reece weren't in the office all day Monday, a week last Monday, that is, and why he was in Edinburgh the next day with a bandage round his head.'
Zoe stared at him, all her colour fading. Reece had been hurt, but he had insisted he wasn't. He'd said it had only been a light blow, even though it had knocked him out. Anxiously she asked Ian, 'Did you say his head was bandaged?'
'Surprised, sweetie?' Ian's sceptical glance challenged her to say yes.
'No.' Bewildered, she shook her head. 'But you'd better ask him . ..'
'Ah!' Ian pounced triumphantly. 'So you do know! I heard a rumour that there's been some strange goings-on.' He bent nearer, smiling persuasively. 'Come on, darling, spill the beans. I'm eaten up with curiosity. Reece with a sore head, surprise engagements and everyone clamming up as if they were guarding a state secret. When I asked down there,' he threw a derisive hand in the direction of the yard, 'all I got was wooden silence.'
'What did you expect?' Zoe muttered indistinctly, relieved beyond measure when the telephone rang in Ian's office and he had to go. He wouldn't get anything out of the men, but she was still uneasy.
Reece ran her home when he returned, but it wasn't until they were having dinner together later in the evening that she mentioned Ian.
'I think he knows something.'
Reece, ruggedly handsome in a dark blue suit and lighter, toning shirt, glanced at her quizzically, not obviously disturbed. 'What makes you think so?'
'He asked me about it today,' Zoe stammered, wondering indignantly why he had to treat her like a child who needed humouring. 'He appears to have got hold of some sort of story. He knows, apparently, that we were both away somewhere together, a week last Monday and—and you were seen in Edinburgh with a—with your head bandaged.'
'Our friend Ian's missed his true vocation,' Reece drawled. 'Had he not been so keen on boats, he might have made a good sleuth.'
'It isn't snooping, surely, just to see someone?'
'Not until you begin trying to ferret more out, the way Graham's doing. However, there's nothing to worry about. If he did manage to uncover everything, which is unlikely, he's going to be very disappointed.'
Zoe wasn't so sure, but she had more important things on her mind. 'I knew about Edinburgh, of course, but not the bandage!' She stared at him accusingly, her eyes too bright. 'Where did that come from—or go to, for that matter?'
Reece viewed her tears curiously but merely said, 'I woke that morning with a headache no aspirin could cure, so I popped in to see my doctor before leaving for Edinburgh. He wanted me to go for an X-ray, because of the bump I'd had, but I didn't have time. He gave me a shot and insisted on a bandage, which I must admit made me feel better.' -
'I didn't see it.'
'No,' he sounded bored. 'When I returned that evening, I went to the office to check up. It was late and I'd had a long day and suddenly having my head bandaged irritated me. I was actually busy taking the thing off when Donald came in and caught me.'
'You must have been mad!' Zoe exclaimed.
'Donald thought so, too.'
'Did you have an X-ray?'
'No.'
'Oh!' Zoe glared at him, her green eyes pools of angry frustration. 'Obviously that blow on the head didn't knock any sense into you!'
'You can say that again,' he taunted. 'I haven't been
the same since.'
'As good a reason as any why we shouldn't marry,' she said quickly. 'I told you you didn't know what you were doing. In fact, I'm not going to marry you!'
she added, mistakenly brash because of his thoughtful expression.
In an instant his face was cold with self-derision. 'Sometimes I really believe I do need my head examined for allowing you to torment me as you do. If I do need a wife,' he snapped, 'you're certainly not ideal for the position, yet come hell or high water I'm determined to marry you.'
'You can't drag me to the altar!' She was as determined to defy him.
'There are more ways than one of doing that,' retorted, his glance running over her deliberately, and in such a fashion as to turn her cheeks a fiery red.
'Opportunity is a fine thing,' she choked. 'I'm quite capable of shouting for help.'
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