by Lynne Graham
A tall, generously curved brunette with curly hair and long legs, flatteringly displayed by a short skirt, walked out of the kitchen into the hall. Bright blue eyes zoomed in on Kitty and narrowed to ice shards. ‘This is Kitty, Paula,’ Jake murmured.
Paula gave an affected laugh and barely touched the hand Kitty casually extended. ‘I hardly needed to be told. I shouldn’t think there’s a soul in a hundred-mile radius who wouldn’t recognise you after all the publicity you’ve had.’ She laughed again, immediately switching her attention back to Jake. ‘I must go up and check on Tina.’
His dark eyes rested consideringly on Paula’s brightly smiling face. ‘She’s asleep. Kitty managed to settle her.’
Kitty’s fingernails were biting painfully into her palm. Offended colour had raced into the other woman’s complexion. She wasn’t tanned, Kitty noted. His and hers matching tans would have turned her stomach over violently.
‘I must be going.’ She edged towards the kitchen, wishing she had parked at the front of the house.
‘I’ll see you out to your car,’ Jake asserted.
‘Is that old car out there yours?’ Paula gasped in not very convincing surprise. ‘Sorry, I hope you don’t think I meant to be rude.’
‘Now why would I think that?’ Kitty parried gently, tired of the brunette’s unsubtle barbs. The ‘little girl’ mode of gushing speech, employed by a female she suspected to be several years her senior, set her teeth on edge.
‘I thought you might be stopping for lunch,’ Jessie complained when she walked through the kitchen.
‘I’ll stay,’ Paula interposed in a high, bright voice. ‘It would be silly for me to go home again when we’re off to Scarborough this afternoon.’
Jake strode ahead of Kitty and tugged open her car door. ‘I didn’t quite get around to it before, but I want to thank you for being so kind to Tina.’
She threw his dark, inhibiting presence a careless smile. ‘I’d have done as much for any child.’
As she drove past the green saloon car parked beside the Range Rover, she was stabbed by a pang of guilty unease. Paula had every reason to be antagonistic. Paula knew that Jake and Kitty were not meeting with the harmless part indifference of former childhood friends. The other woman had made not the smallest attempt to disguise her hostility.
How long had Jake and Paula been together? Certainly long enough for Paula to walk into Torbeck with confidence and behave like a member of the family. She was extremely attractive. God, I hope thunder and lightning flash over Scarborough; I hope they get a flat tyre on the way home; I hope they have a rotten, lousy day together! Kitty pushed her hair off her damp brow, sickly dismayed by her vitriolic prayers.
Would Paula be staying while Mrs Tarrant was away? Someone had to be in the house at night for Tina. Who more natural than Paula? A tormenting vision of Jake’s lean, brown body entwined with Paula’s in the intimacies of passion provoked nauseous cramps in her stomach. Indeed, as she stumbled out of the car at Lower Ridge, she felt so sick she thought she might actually throw up.
It is none of your business. He made it my business. I didn’t ask for this to start. For what to start? A few stolen kisses, a voice clarified drily. But no, it was more, so much more than that. How could she pretend otherwise? Even years ago on that one reckless night it had never been as it was now between them…explosive, savage. She could have wept when she thought of the men who had tried to overcome her reserve with persuasive charm and practised compliments.
Not once had she been tempted. Not once had the physical needs she had denied for so long made demands she couldn’t cope with. But Jake dumped her on a heap of straw and she went crazy. He was the one man in the world she ought to be proof against. Instead she had behaved like the tramp he was so keen to make her out to be. But hadn’t she exerted herself to give him exactly that impression? ‘What do you want from me?’ he had demanded rawly, revealing the first subtle shift in his attitude. Jake was starting to ask questions.
In some dark secret reach of her subconscious, had she returned to Yorkshire seeking a confrontation with Jake? And if she had, what was she doing now? Hurting all over again, hurting for pointless ifs and buts and what-might-have-beens that had only ever had substance in her own imagination. Jake had never loved her, and yet once she had been so confidently sure of that love even before he had voiced it. It was that thinking, that stubbornly wrong reasoning that had brought her life down around her in broken pieces.
Where was the hatred she had been convinced she felt for Jake? Had it ever been real hatred? Or an amalgam of bitter loss and pain? That hatred wasn’t there now as a defence mechanism when she needed it. She had thought and reacted like a silly, emotional teenager ever since she had come back here.
Ties of childhood and a tragic first love were not so easily forgotten. A lovelorn adolescent seemed to be making her presence felt in these mixed up responses of hers. First love, that was all it had ever been. She liked the description. It took the steam out of her confused emotions, steadied her again. He attracted her still. That was all, absolutely all. And the problem was easily dealt with. Paula could keep her claws sheathed. Kitty would keep her distance.
The rain turned to sleet in the afternoon. Not the weather for a fun day out in Scarborough, she reflected, and was immediately annoyed with herself. The next morning she awoke to a white world, her body lethargic after a restless night. The bedroom was bitterly cold. Where was the old electric fire she remembered? The big cupboard in the corner went deep under the eaves. After she was dressed she explored the cupboard and found the fire tucked in a cardboard box. It needed a plug. She would fix it later. After breakfast she needed to go down to the village. Her fresh food supply had run out. And she wasn’t in hiding, was she? Out of The Rothmans and no longer connected with Grant, she doubted that her whereabouts would be of interest to anybody.
She had driven about three miles when the engine developed an uneven chugging noise. The accelerator lost power and the car rolled to a dead halt in spite of her frantic efforts to revive it. She cursed. She wasn’t dressed for a wintry trudge. Her flying suit was stylish but thin, and her raincoat no more sensible.
Her stiletto-heeled boots had no grip on the icy road surface. She had been slipping and sliding along the rough verge for about twenty minutes when she heard the approach of a car. Her sense of relief was short-lived when Jake’s Range Rover stopped beside her. Her smile died.
Thrusting open the passenger door, he leant out. ‘I saw your car back there. What happened?’
‘I don’t know but it sounded terminal,’ she muttered thinly through chattering teeth.
He angled a rawly amused glance over her, taking in the tangle of her wind-whipped hair and the dirty splashes on her pale coat. ‘Not exactly dressed for the weather, are you? I suppose you want a lift.’
Furiously aware of how ridiculous she looked, her quick temper surged. ‘I don’t. I’m perfectly capable of walking into the village on my own two feet,’ she assured him, stuffing her frozen hands into her pockets and turning away.
‘Don’t be so bloody stupid,’ Jake breathed impatiently. ‘Get in and I’ll run you to the garage.’
‘No, thanks!’ she slammed back fiercely at him. ‘Why don’t you mind your own business? Why can’t you just stay out of my life?’
His charcoal gaze rested on her impassively. ‘If that’s what you want.’
He drove off. Kitty stared after the disappearing vehicle. For several seconds, she couldn’t actually believe he had left her there. Icy snowflakes drifted down slowly on to her unprotected head. ‘Yes, that’s what I want,’ she muttered, a little dazed by her own behaviour.
She had trudged another endless hundred yards when the Range Rover returned. The door fell open silently in front of her. Biting her lip painfully, she slid into the warm interior.
‘I didn’t want your body turning up after the thaw,’ he said flatly.
‘I shouldn’t have lost my
temper like that.’ Every syllable hurt her bruised pride.
‘Let’s just concede that we both have a short fuse,’ he dismissed.
That was it. That was the entire conversation until they reached the garage. She handed her keys over to a dour, middle-aged mechanic and he suggested that she phone him late afternoon. As Jake swung back into the Range Rover, the breeze raked his thick black hair back from his hard profile and something painful tightened a knot in her stomach, making it impossible for her to breathe. Tautly she looked away again.
‘I’ve got some things to take care of at the surgery. I should be about an hour,’ he delivered. ‘If you can fill in the time, I’ll give you a lift back.’
He dropped her outside the post office. The chatter of the women at the counter died on her entrance and only picked up again slowly while she loaded a wire basket. She was walking up the hill, laden with carrier bags when the screech of brakes tore up the quiet.
Tina mounted the pavement and hurled herself at her knees. A van had been forced to an emergency stop by the child’s impetuous dash across the road. Through the windscreen the driver’s face was a pale blur of fright. He pumped his horn angrily, belatedly, before driving on. Jessie appeared then, breathlessly shaking her head in mute shock.
Kitty bent down to Tina. ‘You should always look to see if a car is coming, Tina. That car could have killed you.’
‘I s’ought you’d gone away and then I saw you,’ Tina mumbled tearfully. ‘Now you’re cross.’
‘I was cross because you might have been hurt.’ Tina looked up at her with drowning eyes and a shaky mouth. With a groan, Kitty gathered her into her arms. ‘You mustn’t ever do that again, Tina.’
‘She’ll be the death of me yet,’ Jessie complained irritably.
‘I need looked after. It’s a lot of work,’ Tina whispered guiltily in Kitty’s ear.
Kitty told the older woman about her car. ‘If he said an hour, he’ll probably be two,’ Jessie said confidently. ‘This is my day off. You can come home and have a cup of tea with me.’
Five minutes later they walked into a small pin-neat terrace at the top of the hill. Jessie held out a hand for Kitty’s coat, casting an impatient glance down at Tina, who was clinging possessively to a corner of the fabric.
Kitty gently detached the small hand. ‘It’s only because she’s seen me on TV. I’m a novelty.’
Jessie sat the child down with a jigsaw in the lounge. ‘You stay here while Kitty and I make the tea.’
‘I wanna stay with Kitty,’ Tina whispered.
Kitty’s ‘I won’t be a minute,’ was matched by Jessie’s ‘Do as you’re told and no nonsense!’
Kitty was shown to a seat in Jessie’s scrupulously tidy kitchen. ‘Little pitchers have big ears,’ she said meaningfully.
‘Why do you have her on your day off?’
‘Merrill’s supposed to be keeping her, but she’s got a hospital appointment today.’
‘It must be awkward for you when Mrs Tarrant’s away,’ Kitty remarked.
‘She didn’t mean to smack Tina that hard, you know.’ Jessie spoke abruptly. ‘She’s got no patience with her. She’s not used to kiddies…had a nanny and boarding schools for her own, didn’t she? She can’t help the trouble she has with her nerves.’
Kitty nodded understandingly and Jessie’s anxious look cleared. ‘I don’t mind her being away. A break at her sister’s does her good.’ She paused before continuing, ‘She doesn’t know that you’re staying at Lower Ridge.’
Kitty shrugged. ‘Why should she?’
‘I would have said if Jake hadn’t told me not to mention it. Funny, I thought.’ Jessie’s gimlet gaze, brimming with curiosity, rested on Kitty’s perplexed face. ‘What Miss Sophie doesn’t like, she’s always had to live with. Jake goes his own road.’
Tina sidled in and attempted to inch on to Kitty’s lap.
‘Can you not give Kitty peace?’ Jessie scolded, and Tina fled in tears before Kitty could intervene. Jessie sighed. ‘There’s no sense in letting her get too attached to you. She’s done nothing but talk about you since you brought her home.’
‘Surely she’s more attached to Paula?’
‘Paula’s not got your soft way with her.’
Unable to stand Tina’s sobs from the next room, Kitty went through to pluck the child from the settee.
‘See what I mean? Soft.’ Jessie stared at her intently. ‘Don’t hurt him.’
‘Hurt?’ Jake, she was talking about Jake, Kitty registered in disbelief. Hurt Jake, she reflected incredulously as she sipped at her tea. Jake was invulnerable. She might annoy him, she might have made a few unwelcome ripples in his well-ordered existence, but that was the height of her influence.
Jessie had an air of stubborn purpose. ‘I’ve known both of you since you were children,’ she pronounced. ‘I see what I see. There’s a bond between you and there always will be.’
‘Maybe…when we were very young. But it’s a long time gone.’ Lowering her head, Kitty was stabbed by a pang of painful regret for the child she had lost. That last bitter blow had concluded her obsession with Jake…hadn’t it? Tina requested help with her jigsaw and provided a very welcome distraction from her uneasy thoughts.
Kitty only had to cross the road to the veterinary surgery. She followed the sound of voices coming from the waiting-room. The slim redhead in the doorway gasped, ‘Kitty! I’d heard you were up here but I couldn’t believe it! How long are you staying? For heaven’s sake, don’t you know me, Kitty?’ Round blue eyes hardened with annoyance. ‘We went to school together for years and years.’
Kitty smiled. ‘Isabel.’
‘Isabel Stevens that was. I’m a Hollister now.’ Isabel preened herself on the announcement.
Kitty had to plumb her memory to recall that the Hollisters owned a chain of hotels on the Yorkshire coast.
‘Look, we’re having a big party tomorrow night. I’ll absolutely die if you don’t come,’ Isabel gushed.
‘I really don’t think—’
‘George and I throw terrific parties and we’d adore to have you,’ Isabel interrupted insistently. ‘But I simply can’t stop to chat now. I’ll see you tomorrow night, then. Dress formal, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that these days.’
With a wave of a hand glittering with rings, Isabel and her cat-box surged out to the white Porsche parked outside on double-yellow lines.
‘Isabel and hit-and-run drivers have a lot in common.’ Drew Matcham strolled forward, grinning. ‘I recognise that dazed look on your face. She has the same effect on me.’
Kitty laughed. ‘You never could get a word in edgeways with her. Is Jake here?’
‘He’s outside. I’ll give him a shout, shall I?’
From the window Kitty could see Jake and Paula standing talking in the rear car park. She shook her head. ‘I can wait.’
‘You really should go to the Hollisters’ party. I’m going myself. On my own,’ he admitted cheerfully. ‘If you like…’
Kitty’s attention was still helplessly pinned to the window. Paula’s hand rested on Jake’s sleeve, unconcealed urgency in her upturned face, an intrinsically feminine and yielding quality in the curve of her body into his. Kitty turned her head away sharply, swallowing back the sick fullness closing up her throat.
‘I could pick you up at eight,’ Drew was saying.
‘Eight?’ she echoed.
‘For the party. No sense in both of us going solo,’ Drew pointed out lightly. ‘Well, what do you say?’
Kitty was seized by a sudden impulse. Her smile was blindingly bright. ‘Why not?’
A phone rang and Drew grimaced as he went to answer it. Jake strode in. ‘Sorry. Have you been here long?’
‘A few minutes.’ Kitty was unable to kill the defensive ice in her voice.
‘My apologies, milady.’ He was unconcerned by her tone; mockery gleamed in his assessing gaze.
Just outside the village he swerved to avoi
d a dog. The movement threw Kitty against him and she flung out a hand. It landed on lean, supple thigh. His muscles contracted to steel and she snatched her fingers away again, hot, burning awareness shock-waving through her tensed frame.
A desperate need to break the silence forced her into speech. ‘Do you think the snow’s here to stay?’
He flung his dark head back and laughed with rich appreciation, shooting her a brilliant glance of acute understanding. ‘Why don’t you talk about what you’re thinking about? For a woman who freely admits that she enjoys making love, you’re strangely reticent all of a sudden…’ Heat flamed below her cheekbones. His animal-direct dark eyes issued an invitation that was rawly sexual, underplayed by the sardonic line of his sensual mouth. ‘And oddly silent.’
‘We’ve got nothing to talk about,’ she snapped.
He drew up outside the cottage. ‘At least, nothing that you could feel safe talking about,’ he completed, lazily provocative.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE same clothes Kitty had brought from Los Angeles had travelled north with her. For the party, she selected a sapphire-blue and black Valentino that would have been a disaster on anyone with a less than perfect figure. It screamed expense and daring and Kitty donned it like a suit of armour, brushing her hair into a mass of burnished silk and dabbing Giorgio to her pulse-points.
The Hollisters lived in a split-level, ultra-modern house on the other side of the village. Isabel and her plump, balding little husband pounced on Kitty just inside the door. ‘I’ve simply got to introduce you to everybody. What a ravishing dress! Valentino, isn’t it? I’m into Saint Laurent this season.’
The party was an elegant crush, kept afloat on champagne and carefully selected mood music. Kitty was conscious of abrupt little silences and bursts of speech as she was carried deeper into the room by her determined hosts. She smiled and chatted until her jaw ached, radiating the scintillating allure that had enabled Heaven Rothman to steal every scene on camera.
In the end it backfired on her. She found herself circling the floor, gripped in an over-enthusiastic embrace by George Hollister. He had had too much to drink and her temper was sparking when Jake appeared out of nowhere and cut in. ‘Excuse me, George.’