The taxi at last. She sent a silent and fervent thank you to Cleo.
Giving her a quick, assessing glance, Gideon opened the door and stood, legs slightly apart, his air casual, his big frame effectively blocking the doorway.
She heard the slam of a car door, then Gideon explaining politely, ‘I’m afraid you’ve been called out unnecessarily. However, I’ll be happy to make it right with you.’
Sounding affronted, a man’s voice said shortly, ‘Surely you can see this isn’t a taxi?’
That voice, an authoritative one, used to speaking out, used to being listened to, was oddly familiar.
Paul!
‘I do beg your pardon,’ Gideon apologised with smooth mockery, ‘but as we were expecting a taxi it was a natural mistake. What can I do for you?’
‘I’ve come to take Anna home.’
‘How very kind of you. But I’m afraid you’ve had a wasted journey.’
‘What do you mean, a wasted journey?’
The air crackled with male hostility.
‘I mean she doesn’t want to go home.’
‘Look here, I insist on talking to Anna. Where the devil is she?’
‘It’s all right, I’m here.’ Anna made a determined effort to brush past Gideon.
He moved aside, but instead of allowing her to walk away, he put an arm around her waist and kept her there.
Facing the balding, heavily built newcomer, gratitude and confusion mingling, she said a shade breathlessly, ‘Thank you so much for coming, Paul. Though I really don’t understand why Cleo bothered you on Boxing Day.’
‘It seems she couldn’t get a taxi, and both she and Alan had had too much wine with their lunch to risk driving, so she called me…’
Paul was a teetotaller.
‘I’m sorry to have taken so long, but Cleo said you were in some kind of trouble, so in case there was a problem I thought it best to drop Sophie off at her house on the way here.’
Eyeing Anna’s coat and bag, he added briskly, ‘I take it you’re ready to leave? It’s starting to get icy, and the drive up to this place is tricky enough as it is.’
A quick glance at Gideon’s grim expression making her decide to abandon her case for the time being, she answered, ‘Yes, I’m ready.’
With an air of triumph, Paul opened the door of his Mercedes for her.
But when Anna would have stepped forward, with a sudden unexpected movement Gideon folded both arms around her and drew her back against his muscular body, trapping her there.
‘Please let me go,’ she said coldly.
Nuzzling aside the smooth fall of dark silky hair, he kissed her nape. ‘Don’t be mad with me, darling.’
‘Don’t call me darling,’ she snapped at him, trying to break free.
He held her easily, effortlessly.
‘I insist that you let me go,’ she said again. ‘I want to leave with Paul.’
‘Let her go this minute,’ Paul ordered, taking a step forward. ‘Otherwise—’
Gideon laughed softly, dangerously. ‘Otherwise?’
A tall, imposing figure, used to commanding respect in the courtroom, Paul looked put out by the other man’s refusal to be intimidated. ‘Otherwise I may have to call the police.’
Sounding cheerfully unconcerned, Gideon said, ‘Call the police by all means, but I doubt if they’ll be interested in a lovers’ tiff. And that’s all this amounts to.’
In a strangled voice, Paul began, ‘Are you trying to tell me—?’
‘That Anna and I are lovers? I’m not trying to tell, I am telling you.’
‘I don’t believe a word of it,’ Paul said stoutly. ‘I’ve know Anna for some time now, and I’ve never seen you before in my life. I don’t even know your name.’
‘It’s Strange. Gideon Strange. And you are?’
‘Paul Manley.’ Then, returning to the attack, ‘How long have you and Anna known each other?’
‘Quite a short time,’ Gideon admitted. ‘But the attraction was instant and mutual. Wasn’t it, darling?’ He rubbed his cheek against Anna’s.
‘No, it wasn’t,’ she denied sharply.
Gideon sighed. ‘I’m afraid she’s still angry with me. But use your eyes, man. If you know Anna well, you’ll know that’s her car…’
As Paul glanced at the Vauxhall, Gideon added, ‘As you can see by the amount of snow on it, it’s been parked here since Christmas Eve, when she drove both of us home. Apart from a brief visit from my sister and nephew, we’ve been here alone the whole time. You can ask Anna if you don’t believe me.’
‘Is this true?’
‘Well, yes, but—’
‘And, while you’re at it, ask her whether we’ve shared a bed for the past two nights.’
Anna flushed scarlet.
Paul, who was no fool, and used to drawing his own conclusions, said, ‘That may be true, but it doesn’t necessarily mean she wants to stay with you now.’
‘I think you’ll find she does… At least, when she’s got over her pique… Otherwise why would she have accepted my ring?’
Briefly, Gideon displayed the ring, before covering Anna’s hand with his own.
‘But that’s only—’ she began.
‘Believe me, this is all a storm in a teacup,’ Gideon broke in firmly.
Then urgently, to Anna, ‘Stay and listen to what I have to say, and I give you my word that when you’ve heard me out, if you still want to leave I’ll take you home myself.’
‘In what?’ she asked tartly.
‘I’ll borrow Arthur’s BMW. The keys are in one of the dresser drawers. Please, Anna…’
She hadn’t expected a man like him to beg, and it threw her totally.
As she hesitated, he released her and stepped back.
Free to leave, she stood quite still, biting her lip, undecided.
Looking more than a little exasperated, Paul said, ‘It’ll soon be dark and it’s starting to freeze, so I’d like you to make up your mind one way or the other.’
‘She’ll stay,’ Gideon said.
‘Anna?’ Paul queried.
She nodded.
Mouth tight, he turned away.
He was a nice man and, grateful for his concern, she said sincerely, ‘Thank you, Paul. I really do appreciate all the trouble you’ve gone to. Will you please thank Cleo for me and give her my love? Tell her I’ll see her soon.’
‘Quite sure you want to stay?’
Wondering what Cleo would think, what conclusions she would draw, Anna said, ‘Quite sure.’
Paul raised a hand in salute, and she waved as he drove away, snow crunching beneath the tyres.
In truth she was anything but sure, she admitted to herself, as Gideon closed the door against the cold and accompanied her back to the warmth of the kitchen.
A seething mass of doubts and uncertainties, in some ways she would rather have said finis to the little episode and walked away with what remained of her pride intact.
But she had been unable to, and now she was trapped here, while Gideon dragged up things she had no wish to resurrect.
The fire was burning merrily, the crackling logs smelling of pine. Discarding her coat, she sank down in the chair that she’d come to think of as hers, and held out slim hands to the blaze.
He sat down opposite, and, his eyes on her face, said, ‘I’m glad you decided to stay. I need to talk to you.’
The only thing she needed, Anna decided wearily, was to forget the whole episode, wipe out these last three days as though they’d never been, and with them all recollection of Gideon Strange…
No, that wasn’t true. In the first wave of hurt and anger she had wanted to do that, but now she’d had a change of heart.
Before she had met him she’d never known such happiness, such joy and delight, never known what it was like to really be in love. They were precious gifts, even if fleeting, and well worth remembering.
She had accepted the fact that Gideon didn’t love her, so surely sh
e could accept the fact that he’d thought her unprincipled without letting it sour what had been a wonderful experience…?
As though following her train of thought, he asked, ‘Shall we start with the more personal aspect?’
Her soft lips firmed. ‘There’s no point in raking over the ashes. It’s too late to alter anything.’
‘Just tell me one thing… Why, when everything had been sorted out, were you so desperate to escape?’
‘By sorted out, I suppose you mean when you no longer believed I’d stolen your father’s manuscripts?’
‘So it still rankles?’
‘What rankles is that you used me.’
‘Used you?’ He sounded staggered.
‘You took me to bed out of revenge, thinking I was a thief and a liar, feeling nothing but contempt for me—’
‘That’s not true,’ he broke in urgently. Then, with a sigh, ‘Perhaps I was wrong. Suppose we leave the emotional side for the time being? Take a look at the strictly practical.’
When she said nothing, he went on, ‘I expect that after the holiday you’d like to get back to work?’
‘If you mean start the job you offered me, the answer’s no. I don’t want to work for you.’
‘That’s not what I meant.’
‘Of course not. How stupid of me. The offer wasn’t genuine. You wouldn’t have asked a woman you thought you couldn’t trust to work for you…’
Patiently, he said, ‘If you’d just listen to me for a minute?’
‘Very well.’
‘Tomorrow we’ll open up your shop and see that all the stock is replaced on the shelves, including the manuscripts you bought in good faith.’
‘As I’ve already told you, all the money you paid for it has gone to settle my debts. I’ve nothing left to buy back the stock.’
‘You don’t have to buy it back.’
‘I don’t want your charity,’ she said coldly.
‘Charity doesn’t come into it. I paid a lot less for that stock than it was worth, as well you know.’
She started to shake her head. ‘It’s no use—’
‘Don’t be stubborn. I owe you. Look, Anna, I’m deeply concerned about the way I treated you, and where possible I intend to put things right.’
‘Thanks, but I don’t want either your concern or your good intentions.’
‘All I was offering was a just solution.’
‘It wouldn’t work.’
‘Why wouldn’t it work?’
‘Because the lease is up and I can’t afford to pay the higher rent that Deon Enterprises are asking.’
‘Suppose they weren’t asking such a high rent?’
‘But they are, and there’s no chance of them lowering it.’
‘I’m quite sure there is.’
Something about his certainty made her look at him sharply. A sudden suspicion taking shape, she asked, ‘Do you happen to know who owns the company?’
‘Yes.’
‘Don’t tell me. Let me guess… You do.’
‘That’s right.’
‘I take it that’s not a coincidence?’
‘No, it isn’t.’
‘Surely you didn’t buy the whole complex just to give you control over my rent?’
He shrugged. ‘I like to hold all the cards.’
Her voice not quite steady, she asked, ‘How long have you been hovering, waiting to pounce?’
‘Since the detective I hired managed to trace you to Rymington.’
A shiver ran down her spine. ‘What exactly were you planning to do?’
‘Apart from making sure your business didn’t succeed, I wanted to find some way to punish you for the way you’d treated David. I decided, in order to do that, I needed to get to know you, to see what kind of woman you were.’
‘I thought you already knew,’ she said with some bitterness.
‘While I was stupid enough to believe most of what David told me, I like to check things out for myself. With that in mind, I timed my homecoming to coincide with the closing of your shop. I intended to make contact somehow, and offer you a job—’
‘So you lay in wait for me and faked the accident! It was faked, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes. It was a last-minute idea that worked. You see, I wanted to get you to the Manor and, if possible, keep you here for a day or two. The weather was an unlooked-for bonus. It might have proved a great deal more difficult if it hadn’t been for the snow. As it was, luck was on my side all the way. Though you were going to your friend’s, she wasn’t actually expecting you… The phone lines were down—’
‘And my car wouldn’t start.’
‘Well, there I had to help luck along a bit.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘You tampered with it!’
‘While you were looking at the library,’ he admitted unrepentantly.
‘You said you didn’t know much about machinery.’
‘I don’t. Apart from cars. While I was working my way through college, I got a part-time job in a garage.’
‘All that planning and scheming just to keep me here. It was an awful lot of trouble to go to…’
‘It was worth it.’
‘So from the word go it was part of your plan to seduce me?’
‘No, it wasn’t, not at first. I hadn’t meant to bring sex into it at all.’
‘Then why did you kiss me at the door?’
He sighed. ‘That was pure impulse. I guess I just wanted to, and I was curious to see how you’d react. Originally all I’d hoped to do was pressure you into admitting what you’d been up to, and make you pay in some small degree for what you’d done.’
Her lip curled. ‘So that’s why you told me about Sir Roger, and tried to frighten me.’
‘I’m not proud of myself,’ Gideon admitted quietly.
Harking back, she said, ‘But then, presumably, you changed your mind? About bringing sex into it, I mean?’
‘I couldn’t resist the temptation to play a few games, to tease you a little, to find out what made you tick. Then suddenly I was hoist with my own petard; all I could think of was how much I wanted you.
‘From your reactions I was sure you wanted me too, but for some reason—and I could only presume it was because I was David’s uncle—you seemed determined to hold out.’
‘So you plied me with brandy to lower my resistance.’
‘My only excuse is that I thought you were…shall we say…a woman of the world. I thought your innocence was just a pretence. David had given me the impression that you were easy, and for a while I believed he was right.’
‘Christmas afternoon, when you kissed me and I responded, you looked at me with a kind of contempt.’
‘I had no right to—’
‘Why not? I was easy,’ she broke in, ‘at least as far as you were concerned.’
He shook his head, ‘You were no such thing. Even when I knew you were aroused, you fought your desire every step of the way—which, I must admit, surprised me. You see, David had told me you and he were living together, and your own story seemed to confirm it… That’s why I was so shocked to find you were still a virgin.’
‘Didn’t you think it strange that he’d lied to you?’
‘I presumed he’d been saving face. Reluctant to admit that a woman he’d spent so much money on was still holding out on him. David’s always been a Casanova, not only able, but eager, to seduce any female who came along.’
‘It seems to be a family trait.’
Gideon’s mouth tightened ominously. Then he said quietly, ‘I suppose in my father’s case the accusation’s justified.’
‘But not in yours?’
‘No, not in mine. I have many faults but that doesn’t happen to be one of them. I don’t mean there haven’t been women in my life, but I’m certainly no Casanova. I’ve never gone in for one-night stands or cutting notches on the bedpost. I’ve never had more than one partner at a time. And I’ve never, until now, seduced an unwilling woman.’
/> Hearing the shame and regret in his voice, she felt a pang. Knowing she must ease his conscience, she said, ‘But I wasn’t unwilling.’
He sighed. ‘Thank you for that.’
‘I’m not just being kind. I don’t think any woman can be seduced who isn’t, to some extent, willing to be. I accept that what happened was my own fault. You’re not to blame.’ Flushing a little, she added, ‘I was a consenting partner. I’m a grown woman, and I wanted you to make love to me.’
‘Why? After keeping all your would-be lovers at bay until now, what was different about me?’
I loved you. The colour along her high cheekbones deepening, she spoke less than the truth. ‘I found you very…attractive.’
‘You must have found David attractive, in fact you told me that he turned you on, yet you held out against him.’
‘As you remarked last night, I’m twenty-four now. Perhaps I decided it was high time I stopped being a virgin. In any case nothing can be changed.’
‘I agree that it’s too late to change anything, and I can’t give you back your virginity, but—’
‘As I’ve already told you, I wouldn’t want it back… And I certainly don’t want your kindness.’
‘I’m not offering you kindness. I’m offering you marriage.’
For a moment she was stunned, then she laughed incredulously. ‘Marriage! Isn’t that taking “making amends” a little too far?’
‘It has nothing to do with making amends. You’ve just admitted that you find me attractive,’ he pursued levelly, ‘and I’m happy to give you the kind of commitment you’ve been looking for.’
Lifting her chin proudly, she said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’
His jaw tightened. ‘Don’t refuse until you’ve thought about it.’
‘I have thought about it,’ she told him dismissively, ‘and I don’t want to marry you. You’ve done the “decent” thing, by offering, and I’ve refused. So now your conscience should be clear. There’s no need to give it another thought.’
‘There may be every need. Have you considered the possible consequences of what happened?’
‘The possible consequences?’ she echoed.
‘You could be pregnant,’ he said bluntly. ‘Last night, thinking you were experienced, I presumed that you’d be protected.’
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