‘Now look here—’
‘It’s all right, Tim,’ she soothed him down, giving Jason a defiant look. ‘Maybe I was. It would have been so much better than having to sneak about the corridors in the early hours of the morning.’
‘Eden!’ Tim gasped, a puzzled frown to his brow.
‘Really, Tim, it’s all right,’ she forced herself to smile. ‘We don’t have to pretend in front of Jason. He knows very well that whether or not you have your own room you’ll be sharing my bed.’
‘But, Eden—’
‘I told you there’s no need for pretence,’ she insisted.
‘Too damned right there isn’t!’ Jason said savagely. ‘Just don’t let me catch you,’ he warned darkly, ‘or you’ll both leave here a lot quicker than you arrived. Tim has the room next to mine.’ He took the stairs two at a time, slamming out of the front door.
Tim frowned down at her. ‘What on earth was all that about? I realise Jason was jealous of my kissing you, and that he hit out because of that jealousy, but what I don’t understand is the things you said to him. Why did you—’
‘He expects it,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I was just making sure he wasn’t disappointed.’
‘But surely he doesn’t think we—’
‘Oh, but he does,’ she laughed. ‘He’s sure I’m trapping you into marriage.’
‘Arrogant devil!’
‘He’s more than arrogant, he’s insulting. The only retaliation I have is to bait him.’
‘You sound as if you enjoy it.’
‘I do,’ she grinned. ‘If only to see him get good and mad.’ She looked at her wrist-watch. ‘I’ll show you to your room and then change for lunch. We don’t want to be late for this afternoon.’
The funeral was a curiously distant affair to Eden. Isobel cried all the way through the service, leaning heavily on Jason, but Eden couldn’t shed a single tear. She had cried herself out on Tuesday and now had nothing left to cry.
She was conscious of the curious looks of the other people at the funeral, but Tim proved to be very protective and didn’t let anyone come near her. Fortunately only the four of them returned to the house, Isobel now near to collapsing, although she refused to go to her room when it was suggested.
‘I want to meet Eden’s friend,’ she said shrilly, almost hysterically.
‘I think you should go and lie down,’ Jason insisted softly. ‘You can meet Eden’s friend some other time.’
‘But he may not be here another time,’ Isobel gave a malicious smile. ‘According to you she changes her men with her nail-varnish.’
‘Isobel!’ his mouth was a firm line of disapproval.
‘Well, you did say that, darling.’ She gave them all an innocent look. ‘Or have I been indiscreet?’
Eden was very white. ‘You’re upset,’ she said tautly. ‘I realise that.’
‘Upset or not, you must learn to guard your tongue, Isobel,’ Jason snapped. ‘We all realise how traumatic this has been for you—David’s death, Eden’s arrival—but there’s no need to resort to insults.’
‘Jason!’ Eden was aghast. What Isobel had said had been insulting, and it had hurt, but now was hardly the time to reprimand her. ‘It really doesn’t matter.’
‘Yes, it does, damn you! I won’t let—’
‘I’m sorry, darling,’ Isobel said throatily, looking at him pleadingly.
‘It isn’t me you should be apologising to.’ He was unyielding.
‘Jason, please!’ once again Eden protested. ‘Let’s just forget it.’ Although the idea of his discussing her morals with Isobel didn’t appeal to her one little bit.
‘Let’s do that,’ Isobel agreed instantly, turning to look at Tim. ‘If no one else will introduce me I’ll introduce myself. I’m Isobel Morton, and you must be Gary. Jason has mentioned you—’
‘Gary?’ Tim cut in suspiciously. ‘Who the hell is Gary?’
Isobel looked genuinely surprised. ‘You aren’t Gary?’
‘I’m Tim,’ he told her grimly. ‘And I thought I was Eden’s boy-friend, possibly even future husband. Who is Gary, Eden?’
She swallowed hard, knowing that her explanation wouldn’t sound any better to him than it had to Jason—or be any more believable!
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘WHO is he, Eden?’ Tim repeated the question some five minutes later.
Isobel had taken that five minutes to escape from the situation she had just created. Jason had accompanied her, either through a desire to be alone with her or as a way of evading listening to Tim’s questioning. Whatever his reason he had left Tim and herself alone.
‘Gary, you mean?’ she delayed.
‘You know damn well who I mean,’ he snapped. ‘So?’
‘He—he’s just someone I met over here.’
‘Does Jason know him too?’
‘Er—no.’
‘Then how did you meet him?’
She sighed. ‘Jason would tell you I let him pick me up. But it wasn’t like that,’ she added hastily.
‘Then how was it?’ he asked coldly.
She could see his face darkening with anger as she explained how she had met and talked to Gary, the same anger and disgust that Jason had displayed.
‘And why didn’t you tell me about him?’ Tim demanded.
‘Because he wasn’t important. And I—’
‘He may not be important to you, but he’s important to me,’ Tim interrupted fiercely. ‘And thinking about it, Jason could be right about the amount of men you’ve had in your life. I seem to remember seeing you with at least half a dozen other men before we started dating, and none of them lasted very long.’
‘That was because—’
‘None of them had any money.’ He looked at her with dislike. ‘I timed my proposal all wrong on Saturday, you said so yourself. You’d just learnt that you were going to get all your grandfather’s money, so you didn’t need a rich husband any more. What you didn’t know was that Jason would have control of the purse-strings. I can see it all now, your eagerness for me to come to England when you realised you weren’t going to be the little rich girl you had imagined you would be. Telling Jason you were going to marry me wasn’t a defence at all, it was a trap, for me.’ He shook his head. ‘And I nearly fell for it!’
Eden was very pale. ‘Is that what you really think?’ she asked chokingly.
‘What else is there?’ he said savagely. ‘It’s all been a game to you, hasn’t it? I bet if Jason could be caught in the matrimonial trap he would be your number one choice of a husband. After all, it would be so convenient, and as his wife you could bring him round to your way of thinking about the money.’
‘I’m sure I could,’ she retaliated, stung by his words. ‘And what makes you think he isn’t my number one choice anyway? I could just be using people like you and Gary to bring him to heel. He wouldn’t be an easy man to capture, and I would want marriage, not an affair.’
‘You really would marry him if you had the chance?’
She shrugged. ‘You said it, I didn’t.’
‘You calculating little—’.
‘Stop it, Tim,’ she said wearily. ‘This isn’t getting us anywhere. Either you believe me or you believe Jason. You have to make your own choice about that.’
‘Well… there is this Gary. How did—’
‘You obviously believe Jason. Now just for the record I’ll tell you about the other men I dated before you. They didn’t last for the simple reason that they weren’t men, they were still boys, and they bored me. I thought you were different. I thought wrong.’
Tim’s face flushed with a ruddy hue. ‘Are you saying I bore you?’
She had obviously hit him on the raw. ‘What’s wrong, Tim? Does it hurt all that Channing pride that I don’t just swoon at your feet? No, you don’t bore me,’ she answered his question. ‘Your moods are too erratic for you to ever do that. Your Mr Nice Guy image is at war with your Channing influence, and sadly the latter is w
inning. You’re still a little boy, Tim, a boy who has no idea what he wants except that it has to be the things he can’t have.’
‘Meaning you?’ he sneered.
She nodded. ‘Meaning me.’
‘According to Jason you’re for sale to the highest bidder,’ he said nastily.
‘You aren’t the highest bidder,’ Eden told him in a bored voice, hiding her pain with effort.
‘I suppose Jason is that?’
‘And if he is?’ she challenged.
‘Then I wish you luck,’ he taunted. ‘Because Jason is definitely a man, a man who’ll never be faithful to any one woman. If you want that sort of life then that’s just great, but if you don’t….’ he shrugged. ‘If you want him to be a one-woman man you’re going to be disappointed.’
‘I have to completely eliminate the beautiful Isobel first.’
‘That should be quite easy, you have the advantage of sharing a house with him. It should be easy for you to sneak along to his bedroom whenever you want. And I intend removing myself as quickly as possibly, so you’ll have a clear field in that direction.’
‘Oh, Tim,’ she sighed; ‘This isn’t the way I planned your visit at all. I wanted—’
‘I know what you wanted,’ he told her coldly. ‘You wanted Jason, this Gary, and me, all on a bit of string until you decided which one to pull in. Well, I’m breaking loose. I’ll let Jason and Gary fight it out between them’
‘As Gary doesn’t have any money I don’t have much of a choice.’ She watched him stride towards the foor. ‘Where are you going?’
‘To collect my things,’ he said distantly. ‘I’ll be gone by the time you return with Jason.’
‘But I came with you!’
‘I’m going back to the States, Eden. Today.’
‘But—’
‘Goodbye, Eden!’ The room seemed to shake with the vibration as he slammed the door after him.
Eden hurriedly collected her handbag, intent on getting a taxi back to Jason’s. How he would love it when he found out Tim had walked out on her!
She was just congratulating herself on her success when Jason spoke from behind her. ‘Don’t you think it bad manners to just leave?’ he asked coldly, stopping her in the process of opening the front door.
Eden turned to face him, clutching her bag defensively in front of her. ‘I—I wasn’t sure how long you would be,’ she offered lamely.
‘You must have known I would be down soon. Today is hardly the time to even consider staying here.’
‘I wasn’t to know that,’ she flashed.
‘Try using your common sense,’ he came to stand beside her. ‘Isobel has taken one of the pills the doctor prescribed for her, she’s fast asleep.’
Eden bit her lip. ‘I see.’
Jason looked about them pointedly. ‘Where’s Tim?’
‘He—he had to leave.’
A mocking smile tilted his mouth. ‘Did he now?’ he mused. ‘I take it he didn’t like being mistaken for your friend Gary?’
‘Would you?’ she snapped.
He laughed. ‘I don’t usually have those problems.’
‘I don’t suppose you do, everyone knows the notorious Jason Earle.’
‘I’d advise you to guard your tongue,’ he told her tightly. ‘I’m not the best person to antagonise at the moment, not as far as you’re concerned.’
‘What will you do, stop my allowance?’ she scorned.
‘I may just do that, so in future remember.’
***
Eden had to remember a lot of things the next few weeks, the main one being to stay out of Jason’s way. His mood and temper were unpredictable, their arguments numerous. She found it easier to stay out his way wherever possible, although even that seemed to cause him to flare up angrily. Nothing she did seemed to be right, the main thing being his disapproval of her renewed acquaintance with Gary. He had telephoned her as he had said he would and they had met several times these last few weeks.
Gary was working in earnest for his exhibition, and Eden visited his flat/studio to see his paintings. Most of them she didn’t understand, abstract art not to her taste, but there were some landscapes and portraits that she rather liked. Gary was talented, of that she had no doubt. But he wouldn’t be a success just on his talent alone; he needed rich patronage, an influential client who would bring publicity to his work. He needed someone like Jason Earle.
‘Jason….’
He scowled at her over the top of the papers he had spread before him on his desk in the study. ‘Yes?’ he asked tersely, uninvitingly.
Eden entered the room anyway, used to his taciturn nature by now. ‘I’ve been thinking….’
‘Oh yes?’ He sat back in his chair, watching her through narrowed eyes. ‘And just what have you been thinking?’
‘Well….’
‘Yes, Eden?’ he prompted impatiently. ‘Hurry up, girl! I have work to do. Couldn’t you have spoken to me about this over dinner?’
‘You—you seemed preoccupied then.’ Oh dear, perhaps this wasn’t the time to discuss Gary’s paintings with him.
‘I’m preoccupied now,’ he indicated the papers on his desk. ‘Or can’t you see that?’
‘Anything I can help you with?’
His mouth tightened. ‘No.’
She sighed. ‘Perhaps you’re right, perhaps this isn’t the time to talk to you.’
‘About what?’ he snapped. ‘For God’s sake, Eden, tell me what it is and then go. When I’ve finished this work I have to go and see Isobel,’ he added grimly.
‘How is she?’
‘Suicidal most of the time. Of course it could all just be an act, but I’m not willing to take the risk. Now what do you want to talk to me about?’
He did look tired, and if Isobel was being difficult….’ Are you sure that work is nothing I can help you with?’
His harsh laughter rang out. ‘Are you by any chance trying to find out my private business?’ he taunted.
‘Certainly not! I just thought I might help—secretarially. I wasn’t trying to pry,’ Eden added resentfully.
‘I forgot you’re a qualified secretary,’ he said wearily. ‘Okay, I accept that you weren’t trying to pry. But I don’t need your help, I have a perfectly adequate secretary at my office.’
‘The girl who’s never sick!’ Eden remembered bitterly.
‘That’s right. Now what were these momentous thoughts of yours?’
She flushed at his derision. ‘They aren’t momentous.’
‘They aren’t?’ His eyebrows rose. ‘I felt sure they had to be, the way you forced yourself in here.’
‘I didn’t force myself anywhere!’
‘Like hell you didn’t. Well, you can take yourself back out again if you don’t soon say what you came to say. I think I’ve wasted enough time on you already.’
‘I’m sorry!’ she snapped. ‘I’ll go. I don’t want you to waste any more of your valuable time on me!’
Jason was out of his chair and standing in front of the door before she even reached it. ‘I can think of a way time spent with you would be far from wasted,’ he said huskily.
Her eyes were deeply golden. ‘Jason….’
‘Mm?’ He moved to run one hand caressingly across her cheek and throat.
‘Jason’, Her tongue seemed stuck to the roof of her mouth. Jason hadn’t attempted to touch her like this since before her grandfather’s funeral, since the night he had presumed they would one day have an affair—since the night he had decided they would have an affair. ‘I wanted to discuss the house with you.’
‘The house?’ he frowned, stepping back. ‘What house?’
‘This house. I think—’
‘My house?’ He sounded astounded.
‘Yes. You see—’
‘What the hell does my house have to do with you? What say do you think you have in anything that goes on here?’
She recoiled. ‘I don’t. I just—’
&nbs
p; ‘You were just about to give me some helpful suggestions,’ he sneered. ‘Little helpful suggestions about the decor, I suppose?’
‘Not—not actually about the decor.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘About what, then? It’s my house, Eden. You may be a guest here, but that doesn’t mean it gives you the right to start organising the household for me.’
‘I didn’t think it did!’ she said indignantly. ‘Stop twisting everything I say!’
‘You must admit that what you’re saying does sound a little suspect. If you want to take an interest in any of the house I would prefer it was my bedroom.’
‘I wanted to discuss some paintings with you!’ Eden snapped. ‘But if all you want to do is be insulting we can just forget about it.’ She turned to leave.
Jason swung her round. ‘What paintings?’ he demanded suspiciously.
‘Some of the rooms are a little bare. I just thought that you could buy one or two paintings to brighten the place up.’
‘What sort of paintings?’
‘Oh, abstracts, landscapes,’ she said carelessly. ‘Anything to make the rooms more attractive.’
‘I’ve always thought they were attractive enough. They were designed by an expert.’
‘Maybe that’s the trouble, they need a more homely touch. At the moment they look like something out of a furniture showroom.’
‘Why this sudden interest in how my home looks?’
She gave a casual shrug of her shoulders. ‘I was just trying to take an interest.’
‘Not considering moving in permanently, were you?’
‘No, I wasn’t! Don’t worry, Jason, I’ll be moving out soon. It was just that I saw some paintings the other day that would be ideal for the lounge.’
‘Where?’ He sounded indulgent.
‘Er—Gary has some—’
‘Gary?’ he echoed sharply. ‘What does Nichols have to do with this?’
Eden was surprised at him remembering Gary’s surname. ‘He—he paints. And he—’
‘My God!’ he gave an astounded laugh. ‘You want me to buy paintings from your lover? Does he need paying for his services to you?’
‘Jason!’ She had gone very white.
‘Jason what?’ he snapped. ‘Isn’t your allowance enough to keep him in the fashion to which he’s not accustomed?’
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