by Diana Palmer
“You’re tanner,” she teased, looking up at him.
“You’re prettier.” He grinned. “Gosh, I’m glad you don’t look like what most of us think of as farm girls, no jeans, no dirty hands, no lace-up shoes. I’d hate to see you looking like a backwoods hick.”
She bridled but held on to her temper. They were outsiders, she reminded herself. They didn’t know the country as she did.
“Where’s Russell?” Belle asked suddenly.
“Out of town for a few days,” Tish replied tightly.
“Oh, on business?” Belle persisted, her disappointment obvious.
Tish met her eyes levelly. “With a woman,” she corrected and had the malicious pleasure of seeing jealousy sweep into the blonde’s sapphire-colored eyes.
“Is he engaged?” she asked.
“Not that I know of.”
Belle smiled smugly. “That’s fine, then,” she said, implying that nothing short of a set marriage date would deter her.
Tish led them to the car, and all the way home she wondered which was the real danger, the faceless Lisa or the blond tigress in the back seat of the Mercedes. Either way, she thought miserably, it didn’t affect her. After all, she was just a lovesick teenager hanging around Russell’s neck like a chain. She’d have given anything to be able to forget those words. As it was, she couldn’t forgive him for them.
The Tylers settled in, with cool politeness from Eileen and a strange dampening of spirits in Joby and Mattie. Tish could understand their dislike of Belle, who liked to sleep until noon and have a hot breakfast waiting when she dragged downstairs. But Frank was the perfect houseguest, drinking in the antiques and glassware and elegance of the towering house with an appreciation that lit up his whole face. He couldn’t ask enough questions. And he had copies made of some of the fixtures to put in Bright Meadows.
Tish had been with him to the rustic old brick house twice, and she was impressed with the renovation. It was going to be expensive, that was obvious. All the seals had to be replaced, the plumbing and wiring had to be redone. It was a nightmare of a repair job in every respect. But the expense didn’t seem to bother Frank at all, he just smiled and nodded at the workmen, a far-away look in his soft eyes.
That Eileen didn’t like him was patently obvious. She made excuses so flimsy they fell apart to keep out of his way. Her distaste for both of the family’s houseguests was conspicuous.
“She’d like to have me fried for supper, have you noticed?” Frank asked Tish one day when they were riding in the woods behind Eileen and Gus.
She slowed her gentle mare beside his roan and sighed, watching the younger couple trot along ahead.
“I’ll talk to her,” she said quietly.
“I hope you will, love,” Frank said matter-of-factly. “She’s making our visit hell. Poor Belle’s just about to blow sky high.”
She fought down her inclination to shove him off the horse and smiled instead. “She isn’t used to visitors,” she said.
“And that puts me in my place, doesn’t it?” he asked with a tight smile.
“Frank, I didn’t mean it that way….”
“Of course you did. It’s all right, mother does it to me all the time, why shouldn’t you?” He raised his head until his nose seemed out of mortal sight. “If you want us to leave, say so.”
“Of course I don’t want you to leave,” she said, exasperated. “I’ll talk to Eileen.”
“Well, if you insist. Let’s ride down to the creek, all right? This is fun!”
She studied him, wondering absently how she could be so unaffected by his astounding good looks and his charm. It would have hurt his pride to know that she felt nothing except a vague irritation. Three days had passed, and she was aware of being both bored and increasingly angry in his company. At the beach, they seemed to have a lot in common. Now there was nothing. And he seemed to be more and more antagonistic. Russell wouldn’t like that, she thought nervously.
As she thought of Russell, her eyes softened involuntarily. And as she remembered, the pain came back. There was Lisa, after all.
“Race you to the creek!” Tish called impulsively to Frank.
“Race?” He laughed. “These beasts don’t have seat belts, my love, and if I go much faster than this, I’ll fall on my embarrassment.”
“Sorry. I forgot you haven’t done much riding.” She slowed her pace, remembering how quick Russell always was to take up the challenge—and beat the reins off her in a fair race, even if she had the faster mount. His eyes would sparkle with it, and he was a pleasure to watch when he rode, so much a part of the horse that no motion he made was ever awkward or anything less than perfect….
“How’s Angela?” she asked brightly and settled back in the saddle to listen.
It was almost dark when they got back to the house. They drove up at the front steps, and a strange sense of forboding made Tish’s pulse run away when she noticed that the den lights were on. That room was dark, always dark, except when he was home.
“You’re shivering, love,” Frank remarked as they went up the steps, and he pulled her gently closer to his side. “What is it?”
“I forgot my sweater,” she lied, pressing against his thin body for comfort, for support. “I’m a little chilly.”
She stood back to let him open the door and, bracing herself, she went through it.
The hallway was brightly lit, but there was no activity. The den door was open, and with an audible sigh of relief, she noticed Belle Tyler’s back at the entrance. She was just looking at the room, Tish thought giddily.
“Oh, there you are!” Belle laughed, turning, and there was a new brilliance in the heavy-lidded blue eyes.
Then, suddenly, Tish saw the reason. Russell moved into view at Belle’s side, and she found herself looking up into eyes like polished mahogany. Her heart stopped. He was dressed in a pale brown suit with a cream silk shirt and patterned tie that set off his darkness, a masculine darkness that seemed almost satanic combined with the hard set of his jaw and the black scowl over his eyes when he looked straight at her. There was an unfamiliar flame in his eyes that burned as his gaze swept over her.
She lifted her chin proudly, not forgetting for one instant those painful words he’d thrown at her before he left for Florida. “Welcome home, Russell,” she said in a coolly polite voice.
One corner of his mouth went up, but his eyes didn’t smile. There were new lines in his face, too.
Belle caught his arm possessively. “I’ve been telling your brother how much we’re enjoying our visit,” she told Tish. “I could just stay here forever!”
Tish felt herself burning, but she smiled. “We’ve enjoyed having you,” she said politely.
Belle ignored her. “Russell, you remember my brother, Frank?” she asked.
“I remember,” Russell said, and extended his hand to the younger man with an arrogance that wasn’t lost on Tish. “How are you, son?”
Frank winced as he shook hands with Russell. “Good to see you again, sir,” he said, making a lie of the words even as he spoke them.
“Same here.” Russell pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and bent his head to light it, his hair burning with a black sheen under the light of the hall chandelier. “How are your repairs coming along?”
“Slowly,” Frank told him. “The contractors have been slowed down on the outside work because of the rain. They’re starting to catch up now.”
“So Belle told me,” he replied, with a wisp of a smile in the blonde’s direction. “Where’s Eileen?”
Tish’s eyebrows went up. She hadn’t thought about the young girl until right now.
“She went into town with Gus,” Belle said carelessly. “They were going to pick up a saddle.”
Russell’s eyes jerked up, and they were angry. “I told her that she wasn’t to leave this house without permission on a school night,” he reminded Tish. “It was your responsibility to see that she didn’t.”
“S
he didn’t bother to ask me,” Tish returned, locking her jaw for battle. “I have guests, Russell.”
“Which is supposed to be an answer?” he shot back.
Tish glared at him. “I can’t be everywhere. Frank and I have been riding…”
“Please,” Belle broke in with a nervous laugh. “I…I told her to go ahead. I was sure you wouldn’t mind. After all, she’s seventeen,” she added on a gulp when she saw the fury in Russell’s dark eyes turned on her.
“Just another teenager, hanging around your neck,” Tish said meaningfully, bitterly, and regretted it almost immediately when it brought his furious eyes shooting into hers.
“Careful, baby,” he said in a deceptively soft voice. “Remember what happened the last time you pushed too hard?”
She flushed uncomfortably and tore her eyes away.
The front door began to open slowly before she could answer him. A small, black head peeked around it and nervous, wide brown eyes surveyed the small group in the hall.
“Uh, hi!” Eileen called uncertainly, a smile that didn’t quite convince on her face. “Has…anyone been looking for me?”
“Get in here,” Russell said in the low, soft voice that indicated his fiery temper was barely leashed.
Eileen swallowed hard and came the rest of the way in, her hands folded in front of her as she approached him. “Russ, I can explain….”
“Please do.” He lifted the cigarette to his chiseled lips with one eye narrowing dangerously.
“Gus said he was going into town to pick up that saddle Grover ordered,” she said in a rush, “and he invited me along. Belle said…”
“Never mind what Belle said,” he replied curtly. “You were told not to go out at night when I wasn’t home, weren’t you, Eileen?”
“But it isn’t dark yet.”
“It most certainly is.”
“Russ, I’m almost eighteen,” she wailed.
“So you remind me at every opportunity.”
“Will it help if I apologize?”
“Not a hell of a lot.” He took another draw from his cigarette. “I’ll excuse you this time because of Tish’s company, but next time,” he added darkly, with a cool, dangerous smile, “I’ll have your hide, or Gus’s, or both. Do you understand?”
Eileen’s eyes glazed with tears. “Yes, Russ.”
“All right. Now, come here and say hello properly.”
Pouting, she went to him. But he smiled and caught her up in his big arms, planting a brief, affectionate kiss on her lips, and she melted. Wrapping her thin arms around his waist, she let the tears come, and he held her until they stopped.
Tish bit back her own anger at the sight of brother and sister. It was always like that with Russell. He could be cruel when he was crossed, but the anger was always quick to come and go, and was always followed with kindness.
“Oh, Russ, you’re such an unholy tyrant,” Eileen murmured against his shirt.
He chuckled deeply. “Flattery,” he replied, “will get you nowhere.”
“I’ll vouch for that,” Tish murmured, oblivious to the puzzled looks Frank and Belle were exchanging in the aftermath of the argument.
Russell’s eyebrows went up as he moved away from Eileen. “Later,” he replied, and his eyes narrowed with a threat, “you and I are going to have a talk, Miss Sarcasm.”
“Oh, I’ll look forward to it,” she said with mock enthusiasm, her eyes spitting at him.
“I know brothers and sisters are supposed to fight,” Belle said huskily, “but you two make an art of it, don’t you?”
“Tish isn’t my sister,” Russell said flatly, and watched the shock filter into two pairs of blue eyes. “In case she’s forgotten to tell you, I will. I brought her here when her father was killed in a farming accident, and I raised her. But for all that, there’s no blood between us.”
Tish wanted to hit him. It was there in her eyes, in her whole look, although a small part of her was glad that he hadn’t told the whole truth.
“Come and get it!” Mattie called suddenly, stepping out into the hall, “or I’ll throw it out!”
Forcing herself to laugh, Tish took Frank’s arm, tight. “You heard her,” she said. “We’d better hurry.”
“Would you really throw it out?” Frank asked, puzzled.
“She’s been known to,” Russell said. “And once, she threw it at my father when he made one remark too many about the amount of onions she fried with his steak.”
“It was Baker’s fault,” Tish had to agree. “He and Mattie never agreed on seasoning.”
“Once,” Russell corrected as they moved toward the dining room. “The time they conspired to put half a bottle of pepper sauce on your peas when you weren’t looking.” He chuckled deeply, the sound pleasant and familiar. “God, the look on your face!”
She had to laugh, too, remembering.
“What’s pepper sauce?” Belle asked.
“A very, very hot sauce made with hot peppers and vinegar,” Eileen told her. “And if you’re not used to it, it can burn your tongue up. Poor Tish. She drank water for an hour trying to put out the fire.”
“Two hours,” she corrected. “But I got even.”
“How?” Frank asked.
“I…” She hesitated, wondering how uncouth it would be to tell her straight-laced guests that she’d made a string of Baker’s undershorts and tied it to the bumper of his Cadillac for his weekly trip to Atlanta. He hadn’t noticed it until the State Patrol pulled him over, and he came home with a face as red as his hunting cap, screaming for blood….
“Go ahead,” Russell taunted. “Tell him.”
She cleared her throat and avoided Frank’s curious eyes. “Later maybe,” she said quickly. “Let’s eat, I’m starved!”
Five
Mattie served them a tempting variety of foods, with country fried steak and homemade rolls, and fresh turnip greens and rutabagas from the garden topping the list. The Tylers seemed to be delighted with the little woman’s efforts, and even finicky Belle was complimentary—or maybe, Tish thought maliciously, it was just to impress Russell.
The sultry blonde managed to seat herself in Tish’s old place at his side, and she barely took her eyes off him long enough to eat. Tish forced herself to concentrate on Frank’s restrained conversation, although her gaze occasionally wandered doggedly to Russell’s dark, roughly handsome face. He caught that gaze once and held it with such a raw power that her face flamed and she dropped her eyes to her plate. She hardly looked up for the rest of the meal and barely heard Frank’s quiet voice as he attempted to inquire about the color in her cheeks.
Once Eileen ventured a question about Russell’s trip, only to have him abruptly change the subject with a hard stare that challenged her to pursue it. He asked Frank about his plans for Bright Meadows, listened to Belle’s animated nonsense, and played the perfect host. But there was a static undercurrent that Tish could feel, and when she noticed the drawn muscles in Russell’s hard face, she knew that he felt it, too. Oddly, none of the rest appeared to be affected, and that puzzled her.
When they finished eating, they went to the living room for coffee, but in a few minutes Tish excused herself to help Mattie clean up the kitchen. Watching Belle sit beside Russell on the sofa, almost clinging to his muscular frame began to bother her so much that she felt she had to leave.
“You don’t need to help me,” Mattie fussed, trying to chase her out of the kitchen. “Go talk to your company.”
“My company’s doing most of the talking.” She smiled and went right ahead making the coffee. “Why don’t you go home and spend a little time with Randall before he has to go back? He’s just down for the weekend, isn’t he?”
Mattie’s dark eyes sparkled. “Until day after tomorrow,” she said. “You know, he’s the first one of our family to get past fifth grade except for me. Now he’s a doctor, and I’m so proud. Joby and I both are proud.”
Tish untied the little black woman’s ap
ron with firm hands. “Go home,” she said. “While Mindy’s gone, it’s my kitchen, and I’m throwing you out for the night, okay?”
Mattie laughed and shook her gray head. “I always did think you were impossible, sugar cane. All right, I thank you, and I will go home.”
Impulsively, Tish hugged her. “I kind of like you, you know,” she teased.
Mattie winked. “I kind of like you, too. Good night.”
When she went out the door, Tish started up the dishwasher and was just setting a tray with cups and saucers when Russell walked in the door.
She froze at the counter, fighting down a burning urge to turn and run. Her gray eyes met his dark ones accusingly across the length of the room and everything that had been said between them rushed back into her mind and seemed to separate them like a stone wall.
He stuck his hands in his pockets and leaned back against the doorjamb, just watching her. “Nothing to say, Tish?” he asked. “You were vocal enough in front of witnesses.”
“Is there anything that’s safe for me to say, Russell?” she asked quietly. “I’m afraid to open my mouth. If I tease, it’s provocation. If I touch you, it’s attempted seduction. If I hang around you, I’m…”
“I never meant to cut you like that,” he said gently. His voice was soft and slow, although there was nothing of apology or humility in his brief statement. “But you started it. It doesn’t sit well to have a woman I raised tell me she hates me. It stung. I retaliated.”
She dropped her eyes, and deep inside she admitted that he might have had some justification, but it still hurt. “All you do lately is yell at me,” she said flatly.
“If you’d open your damned eyes, you’d see why,” he growled.
She turned away, puzzled. “How was Lisa, Russell?” she asked curtly, with thinly veiled sarcasm. “Well hidden, I hope?”
She could taste the contempt in the very air around her, and regretted the petty insult even as it left her lips. “That’s one subject you don’t breach with me, little Miss Piety,” he said, his words cold as ice. “It’s the one part of my life I share with no one. Is that clear?”