Sweet Surrender (The Dysarts)

by Catherine George

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘Good.’

  This was torture. Kate drank her coffee down, and looked at him in appeal. ‘If I leave the car here could you get someone to repair it?’

  ‘Certainly.’

  It was like drawing blood from a stone. She took her phone from her bag. ‘Then if I could have your telephone directory I’ll ring for a taxi to take me back to Foychurch.’

  ‘No need for that. I’ll drive you back.’

  Kate looked up to surprise a gleam in the grey eyes before he schooled them to impassivity again. The wretch was actually enjoying her misery! ‘I couldn’t possibly let you do that,’ she said with hauteur, then had a depressing thought. Taxi drivers liked cash.

  ‘What now?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m afraid I need a lift to a bank,’ she said reluctantly.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I don’t have enough cash for a taxi.’

  ‘You could borrow some from me.’

  She’d walk home first. ‘No, thanks. A lift to a bank would do.’ Her eyes clashed with him. ‘Or you could just give me directions to one and I’ll walk there.’

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ said Alasdair for the second time, in a tone which made Kate burn to hit him. ‘I’ll get your car repaired tomorrow and I’ll drive you back to Foychurch later today. On one condition.’

  ‘What is it?’ she said suspiciously.

  ‘That you tell me why you’re here.’

  She looked at him in silence while she thought up various lies.

  ‘The truth, Kate,’ he said sternly.

  She sighed deeply. ‘Oh, all right, Alasdair. Last time we met you went off in a huff. I thought I’d come and mend fences.’ Her chin lifted. ‘It wasn’t an easy thing to do.’

  ‘You find driving hard since the accident?’

  ‘As it happens, I do. But that’s not what I meant.’

  ‘I know.’ His eyes held hers. ‘So what would have happened if I hadn’t turned up at that moment?’

  Kate shrugged. ‘I would have driven home.’

  ‘Are you with Jack Spencer now?’ he said conversationally.

  She gave him a scathing look. ‘I wouldn’t be here today if I were. He’s gone back to London. He builds a lot more houses than I thought, by the way. He’s the brains behind Aspen Homes.’

  ‘I know. I did some research about him.’

  ‘Why?’

  Alasdair’s mouth twisted. ‘To make sure he was good enough for you, Kate. When I found Spencer with you that night, I assumed he’d won at last. God knows he’d tried hard enough.’

  ‘It was quite the reverse, actually,’ said Kate, glad that she sounded so calm. ‘I’d just told him there was no possibility of a relationship between us.’

  ‘So why the devil didn’t you let me know that?’ he said with sudden violence. ‘When I found out he was worth millions, I assumed—’

  ‘You assumed what, exactly?’ she spat in fury. ‘That I’d pounced on him the minute I knew he was rich? Thanks a lot.’ She pushed back her chair with a screech on the stone flags and jumped up to make for the door, but Alasdair leapt to catch her and pulled her round to face him.

  ‘How would you have felt?’ he flung at her, his hands biting into her arms. ‘He was there, on your sofa, the room so full of bloody flowers they had to be from him, and you’d obviously just shared a meal. What the hell was I supposed to think? You’d thrown my ring back in my face—’

  ‘I didn’t throw it—’

  ‘Don’t split hairs!’

  Kate looked down at the fingers that were gripping her so hard the knuckles were white. ‘You’re hurting me, Alasdair.’

  He dropped his hands and moved back. ‘Right. Let’s get things straight. You don’t want Jack Spencer, you don’t want me, so what the hell do you want, Kate? The moon?’

  ‘No.’ She looked up into his angry face, and rubbed her arms. Oh, well, now or never. ‘I—I want to know if you still mean the things you said last time I was here,’ she said in a rush.

  He was silent so long Kate’s eyes fell to hide her despair.

  ‘Yes,’ he said at last, an odd note in his voice. ‘I still mean them.’

  Relief made Kate giddy. ‘I hoped you did,’ she said gruffly.

  Alasdair caught her in his arms. ‘What are you saying, Kate?’

  She leaned against him, feeling the thud of his heart through his sweater, and shivered at the thought of what she might have lost by being too pig-headed to face the truth. That she loved Alasdair. Always had. Always would.

  ‘You’re cold, darling,’ said Alasdair huskily, and took her by the hand to hurry her into the small sitting room he’d made into a study since her last time here. He scooped her up and sat down with her in his lap. ‘Now, tell me what you mean. Exactly.’

  ‘I wasn’t lying, Alasdair. I’d convinced myself I was over you.’ She smiled wryly. ‘After you made love to me I knew very well that I wasn’t. But I still wouldn’t give in. Pride, I suppose. Then I had the accident, and you were so shocked at the sight of my hair the same pride made me push you away.’

  ‘All that mattered to me was that you were alive. I didn’t care a damn about the hair,’ he said fiercely, and kissed her at last, and she responded so fiercely he went on kissing her until neither of them could breathe. ‘So why did you keep me away?’ he demanded at last.

  ‘Pure vanity, Alasdair,’ she said breathlessly, and buried her face against his shoulder. ‘I wanted—needed—to wait until I was less of a fright to look at. I was going to invite you to Friars Wood over Easter, once I’d had my hair done in London. But you went to New York to see Amy instead.’

  He put an ungentle hand under her chin and jerked her face up to his. ‘I went to the States for meetings at Healthshield,’ he said, and kissed her roughly. ‘I had no intention of seeing Amy.’

  Kate kissed him back. ‘I was so jealous, Alasdair. I couldn’t sleep for thinking of you making love to her!’

  ‘I’m glad. I hope you suffered the way I did when I found you with Spencer!’ He shook her a little, then frowned. ‘Which reminds me. There was no sign of his Cherokee that night. If there had been I’d have gone straight home again.’

  Kate gave a little gurgle of laughter. ‘He parked it somewhere else to preserve the schoolmarm’s reputation!’ She sobered suddenly. ‘But you should be grateful he came to see me that night. I watched you storm off down the path and out of my life, as I thought. And when the subject of a relationship with Jack came up the penny dropped at last. This famous brain of mine finally solved the equation. There was no hope for Jack for the simple reason that he wasn’t you, Alasdair.’

  He crushed her close, and suddenly all the pent-up feelings of the past few weeks overwhelmed them simultaneously. They slid to the floor, too desperate for each other to waste time in finding a bed. The first time they’d made love Alasdair had played her like an instrument until they made music together. This time there was no thought for either of them beyond the basic need to come together in a passionate celebration of love and need and ultimate, gasping rapture, and when, all to soon, their short, sweet mating was over Alasdair held her close as their breathing slowed.

  ‘Does this mean you’ll marry me?’ he demanded, when he could speak.

  Kate shook her head, glorying in the shock in his eyes before she relented. ‘One day. But not yet. You have to come a-courting for a while first, Mr Drummond.’

  ‘Witch!’ He shook her a little. ‘Whatever you say. But don’t make me wait too long, darling.’

  Kate gave a wry glance at their scattered clothes. ‘I didn’t make you wait at all.’

  ‘I didn’t give you the chance!’ Alasdair laughed, and ruffled her hair. ‘I like the new haircut, by the way,’ he said, kissing the fading scar on her forehead. ‘You look delicious.’

  ‘I’m glad you think so.’ So glad she hugged him convulsively.

  ‘Stay with me tonight,’ he commanded. ‘I’ll drive yo
u back in the morning, in good time for school.’

  Kate nodded happily. ‘I can’t go until you drive me anyway, so I’m in your hands.’

  ‘Damn right you are,’ said Alasdair promptly, ‘and from now on, physically or metaphorically, that’s where you’re going to stay.’

  ‘Forever and ever, amen,’ she agreed. ‘Where were you this morning, by the way?’

  He hesitated, then his lips twitched and he began to laugh. ‘I went to Foychurch.’

  Kate stared incredulously for a moment, then dissolved into laughter with him. ‘You mean we passed each other on the way?’ she gasped at last.

  ‘Must have. I drove back like a bat out of hell, then lost ten years of my life when you hit that gatepost.’

  ‘Why were you in such a hurry to get back?’

  ‘Because your neighbour said you’d gone to Gloucester. Of course I was in a hurry!’ Alasdair kissed her, and she kissed him back for a blissful moment then pushed him away.

  ‘But why did you wait so long before coming to Foychurch?’ she demanded wrathfully. ‘I’ve been miserable.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it. So have I.’ His eyes lit with a wry gleam. ‘If you want the truth, Katharine Dysart, the chauvinist in me wanted you to come to me first.’

  She gave him the kind of shove usually reserved for Adam. ‘Which I did, Alasdair Drummond!’

  He shook his head. ‘No, you didn’t. I caved in first. I drove over to see you yesterday. But you were out.’

  Kate’s eyes rounded with surprise. ‘You came yesterday, too? Why didn’t you ring first?’

  ‘A question I asked myself when I found the bird had flown again today! But I needed to see you face to face, Kate, not talk on the phone.’ He smiled crookedly. ‘I had this really mature idea about throwing you over my shoulder and making off with you if you were difficult again.’

  She smiled smugly. ‘Jack was right, then. He said you wanted to the night you stormed out of my cottage.’

  Alasdair looked dangerous for a moment. ‘Forget about Jack Spencer,’ he ordered, ‘and concentrate on me from now on!’

  She nodded. ‘OK. Can I have the ring back, then?’

  ‘No, you can’t. I returned it.’

  Kate stared at him in such dismay Alasdair grinned.

  ‘You can choose another as soon as we can get to a jeweller. After you turned it down I took a dislike to that one.’

  ‘Good. I’m not keen on diamonds.’

  ‘Neither am I, now.’ He pulled her to her feet. ‘Come on. Time for breakfast.’

  ‘Haven’t you had anything to eat yet?’

  Alasdair smiled. ‘I was in too much of a hurry to get to you.’

  ‘Then you really love me! When a man puts a woman before food he must be serious.’

  ‘Damn right I’m serious,’ Alasdair assured her. ‘Now let’s eat.’

  ‘Fine by me,’ said Kate, then her heart skipped a beat at the smile he gave her.

  ‘What shall we do for the rest of the day?’ asked Alasdair. ‘Read the Sunday papers, take a trip to the cinema?’

  Kate shook her head. ‘I read my paper while I was waiting in my car for you, and I went to the cinema yesterday. So let’s just stay home and watch television. You must have bought a set by now?’ she added hopefully.

  ‘I certainly have.’ His eyes gleamed suggestively. ‘But it’s in my bedroom.’

  Kate received the news with such unashamed delight Alasdair caught her close, kissing her with a passion she returned in full measure. Held so tightly she couldn’t breathe, she managed to free her mouth for a second to tell him something important. ‘Alasdair,’ she gasped, ‘I think maybe I could wait a while for breakfast.’

  His eyes gleamed. ‘You mean you want to watch TV?’

  ‘You know exactly what I want!’

  ‘First,’ he said sternly, ‘you have to tell me you love me.’

  Kate took in a deep breath and looked deep into his demanding eyes. ‘Of course I love you, Alasdair Drummond. I always did. I always will.’

  Alasdair let out his own breath and rubbed his cheek against hers. ‘For that, my darling, you get breakfast in bed later. If you’re good,’ he added huskily.

  ‘I’m always good.’ She batted her eyelashes at him. ‘But with a bit more coaching I could be fantastic!’

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-8334-7

  SWEET SURRENDER

  First North American Publication 2003.

  Copyright © 2002 by Catherine George.

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