‘I should never have agreed to have anything to do with such a stupid trick,’ she said.
‘I should never have asked you,’ he replied evenly.
‘I suppose you’ve sent Veronica a big bunch of flowers by way of damage limitation?’
‘Flowers are just a bit too easy, a bit too glib, don’t you think?’
‘I suppose they are rather obvious,’ she agreed. And he never did anything obvious. ‘What did you do?’
‘Actually I called her late last night and told her that my uncle had agreed to offer her a seat on the board if she’d join us permanently.’
Something froze, deep inside. ‘I guess some mistakes are so big that they need the really grand gesture.’ And Nick had told her himself that a Jefferson refused to consider defeat. ‘Did it do the trick?’ she managed to ask, even managed to sound as if it didn’t matter. But then she was good at hiding her feelings. She’d had a lot of practice.
‘She didn’t exactly fall over herself to accept,’ he said, somewhat wryly. ‘She’s thinking about it.’
‘Thinking about it?’ Was the woman mad?
‘She runs her own consultancy at the moment. It’s a lot to give up, but she’d be quite a catch.’
‘Yes, I could see last night that she would be.’
‘Can we get back to the more immediate problem, Cassie? If I don’t help out with the camping trip how will you manage?’
‘Actually, since you mention it, that is a bigger problem than I had anticipated.’ She risked a look at him. He didn’t look quite himself this morning either. A bit crumpled around the eyes as if he hadn’t slept much. That surprised her. Surely even Nick Jefferson failed to score occasionally? And he still had the lovely Veronica to tempt with a directorship. Stop it, Cass! You said no. Forget it. She forced herself to concentrate on the matter in hand. ‘Matt was supposed to take the Alfa and leave the estate with me,’ she explained. ‘But that’s not your problem.’
‘No? I think you’re saying that when he saw me arrive with the minibus he jumped to the very obvious conclusion that you wouldn’t be needing it.’ He didn’t say that she could easily have disabused Matt of that impression, she noticed, which was tactful of him. She wasn’t sure she liked him tactful. She preferred him forthright, rude even, because that at least meant he was feeling something. Polite and tactful were just so…cold. ‘How about this, Cassie? Suppose I give you and the boys a lift to where you’re going as I promised—’
‘You promised me an eager young man to drive and put up the tent,’ she reminded him.
‘I might be past thirty but I think I can still handle a tent, Cassie.’
‘Yes, but—’
Apparently ‘buts’ were not to be entertained. ‘If the girls like it there, we can stay too. On the other side of the field if it makes you happier.’
‘They’ll hate it.’
‘Then you’ve nothing to worry about, have you?’ Dem, squeezing his bulk in through the catflap, gave Nick a sardonic look. ‘If they don’t like it I’ll bring them home and come back and fetch you whenever you want.’
Put like that there really could be no objection. The alternative was to hire a car and drive them herself. But that would take all morning and they wouldn’t arrive at Morgan’s Landing until late, when she’d have to put up a couple of tents, light a fire, get supper… And there was still the problem of her ankle.
Of course they could stay at home and she could take them out on day trips—one of her midnight solutions—but when they’d been promised camping in the wilds day trips would come a very poor second best. And Mike was already looking decidedly sullen. He had been putting on a couldn’t-care-less face for his father, but he cared. He was old enough to understand what was happening and he was scared enough to take it out on any adult within range. It would be a relief to share that burden.
Mike chose that moment to explode into the kitchen. ‘There are girls in that minibus! Four of them!’ he declared in disgust.
Nick turned a sympathetic look on him. ‘Approximately fifty per cent of the world’s population are female, Mike. You might as well get used to it.’
Mike glared at him. ‘Do we have to go with them, Cassie?’
‘Well, I suppose we could stay here for the week,’ she offered. ‘Take a few bus trips.’
‘Bus trips!’
His horrified expression clinched it and she lifted one trouser leg an inch off two to display her strapping. ‘I sprained my ankle, Mike, so driving is a bit of a problem. I didn’t want to spoil your parents’ holiday by telling them how much of one. I don’t think you do either.’ She waited.
‘No, I suppose not,’ he said, capitulating with bad grace, but apparently prepared to accept the lesser of two evils.
‘Then let’s go.’
For the first part of the journey the boys kept to one side of the minibus and the girls kept to the other. Nick and Cassie kept conversation to a minimum too.
But by the time they had stopped for elevenses the ice had cracked sufficiently for the younger children to be making as much noise as a Women’s Institute outing. Only Mike was still doing the strong, silent thing, a personal stereo clamped firmly to his head. And Sadie hadn’t taken her big grey eyes off him since he’d climbed aboard the bus. Cassie suspected an embryonic case of hero worship and hoped it would soothe Mike’s feelings a little. Take his mind off adult worries.
Nick noticed the smile as Cassie turned back to face the front and he felt like smiling too. He’d been wondering what it would take to bribe four girls to spend a week in a field without running water, but it didn’t look as if bribery was going to be necessary after all. The younger children were getting on like a house on fire and he recognised the look on Sadie’s face. She wasn’t about to let Mike out of her sight.
He wasn’t kidding himself that Cassie was going to be such a pushover. Last night, after he’d rung Graham to tell him his plan for looking after the girls while he and Helen were away, he’d rung Beth and he’d put his heart on the line.
‘In love? You’re kidding.’ She’d laughed. He didn’t blame her.
‘I wish I was.’
‘Who’s the unlucky girl?’
‘Cassie Cornwell.’ There had been no more laughter, only an ominous silence. ‘Beth, please. I’ve made a complete mess of this and I need to know—’
‘What?’ She sounded cagey.
‘Anything. Anything that will help me. Tell me about her husband. What happened?’
‘If Cassie doesn’t want to tell you—’
‘Beth!’
‘She’s emotionally fragile, Nick. You can’t treat her like one of your casual conquests…’
‘Beth, I’m serious. I intend to marry her. But when I told her I loved her she seemed to clam up.’
‘Can you blame her? Your reputation goes before you.’
‘I’ve never lied to any woman about the way I feel, Beth. I’ve had a lot of fun but I’ve never told a woman I loved her before… With Cassie it just sort of happened…’
‘Hey. You’ve got it bad, haven’t you?’
‘It’s terminal. Will you help me?’ He didn’t wait for her agreement. ‘Tell me about her husband. Did he hit her?’
‘Hit her? Good grief, Nick, whatever makes you think that? Jonathan and Cassie were so in love it lifted your heart to see them. And they just couldn’t wait to get married. And for Cassie and Jonathan it had to be marriage.
‘I see.’
‘If her parents had still been alive it would have been the whole works, the cathedral, the bishop, but in the event they just got a licence and they were married at the register office.’
‘So why didn’t they live happily ever after?’
‘Because three weeks later he was dead. He’d been up north somewhere to a race meeting; he was in blood stock, you see.’
‘Blood stock?’
‘He bought and sold racehorses.’
‘Oh, yes, of course.’
/> ‘No one knows exactly what happened; he just lost control of the car and ploughed into a motorway bridge.’ Nick muttered something fierce beneath his breath. ‘I thought she was going to die of grief,’ Beth said. ‘It was only work that kept her sane, I think…the fact that she refused to let people down and just kept going. And then she met this girl at my wedding who asked her to do a spot on some daytime television show, she moved to London and now she’s a storming success.’
‘How long ago was this?’
‘Five years.’
‘And there hasn’t been anyone else in all that time?’
‘She says she’s a swan and apparently they mate for life, so if you’re not serious, Nick, leave well alone,’ she warned. ‘Please.’
Now he glanced across at Cassie. She was staring out of the window as if absorbed by the passing scenery, but she wasn’t really looking at it; she was lost in thought. He would have given anything to know what exactly was going through her mind.
‘We’ll be turning off the motorway soon,’ he said, and she gave a little shudder as she gathered herself and turned to look at him.
There were dark smudges beneath her lovely golden eyes, which held a wary expression that tugged at something deep inside him. He wanted to stop the minibus and take her into his arms and tell her that he loved her more than life itself, that he would die for her if necessary, that he wouldn’t let anything hurt her ever again. But he didn’t. And it wasn’t just the prospect of seven children as an audience that stopped him.
Before he could risk such a declaration he had to regain her trust. He had to show her that she could believe in him. No matter how long it took.
‘Have you got that map handy?’ he asked.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MORGAN’S LANDING was unexpectedly beautiful. Sheep-cropped grass sloped down to a small lake where a small wooden jetty stretched out into the water, with a dinghy tied up alongside. Across the water a small island seemed to shimmer in the heat of the early afternoon and around them the mountains seemed close enough to touch.
And despite her worst fears about lack of sanitation Cassie discovered that there was a small building housing a couple of showers as well as toilet facilities.
‘We’re lucky to have this to ourselves at this time of year,’ Nick said, looking around.
‘I think Matt arranged it that way. He knows the owner.’
‘Oh, I see.’ He nodded towards the dinghy. ‘What about the boat? Can we use it?’
‘Matt hired the dinghy when he thought he was going to be bringing the boys. I suppose he forgot to cancel it.’
‘You don’t sail?’ She shook her head. ‘Mike?’
‘I’ve done a bit,’ the boy said grudgingly, but his eyes, fixed hungrily on the dinghy, betrayed him. ‘Dad said he’d give me some lessons.’ He kicked at the grass. ‘He’s a really good sailor. He won cups.’
‘Well, I don’t suppose I can compete with that, but I’ll do my best.’
‘I’d like to learn, Uncle Nick,’ Sadie put in, a touch too eagerly and earned herself a look of disdain from Mike.
‘Me too, me too,’ the smaller children shouted, clamouring excitedly around him.
‘Well, that should keep us all out of Cassie’s hair.’ Keep me out of your hair if that’s what you want, he offered silently as their gazes met briefly over the children’s heads. She should, but she didn’t. So it was perhaps as well that he didn’t hang around for an answer. ‘But first things first. We’ve got to get this camp up and running before we can do anything else and if everyone helps it won’t take long.’ Within minutes the children were eagerly unloading the minibus; even Mike was joining in with some enthusiasm. Cassie was still watching Nick when he turned back to her and caught her. ‘I find that carrots work better than sticks, don’t you?’
‘Every time. I don’t know what I would have done without you today, Nick.’
‘Hold onto that thought,’ he said as he saw something wistful in her expression. Regret? Could it possibly be regret? Or was he just fooling himself? Maybe she was just thinking about the way it might have been for her if her husband hadn’t been killed. And yet the way she had come into his arms, responded to him… He decided to risk a smile, anyway. ‘It looks as if you’re stuck with us for the duration.’
His smile was answered in the most perfunctory way. ‘I just hope you don’t live to regret it.’
‘Not for a… George! Not that one, it’s too—’ he didn’t make it to the van before the boy staggered back with the box containing the eggs ‘—heavy,’ Nick finished as it fell to the ground. The child began to cry but before Cassie could rush to comfort him one of the girls had put her arm around him, given him a hug and started to help him gather up the spilled groceries. ‘Not for a minute,’ Nick finished, but quietly, to himself.
Four days of perfect sunshine finally broke with squalls of rain at lunchtime on their last full day. The temperature dropped sharply and the lake, until now a millpond on which Nick had seemed to spend most of his time teaching even the youngest of the children the rudiments of sailing, was now an angry, churning slate-grey.
‘We could pack up now,’ Nick suggested as they took shelter in one of the bigger tents to drink the tinned tomato soup that Cassie had warmed through to go with their sandwiches.
‘No, we can’t—’
‘Not until tomorrow—’
Mike and Sadie spoke as one and the little ones took up the clamour. ‘The weather forecast says this rain will pass,’ Sadie added, as if that settled the matter. ‘I heard it on my personal stereo radio.’
‘That’s right,’ Mike put in.
‘Really?’ Nick flicked a lazy grin over the two of them. ‘Were you two sharing a headset?’ he asked.
Mike flushed. ‘Of course not!’ He threw a glance at Sadie. ‘She told me.’
‘Cassie, what do you think?’ he asked politely.
‘Well, I had planned a sort of camp feast. I suppose it would be a shame to miss it.’
‘Whatever you say.’
He was still being polite, Cassie thought, and a cold spot of misery that had settled somewhere about where her heart should be seemed to chill another degree or two. Four days of politeness had brought it almost to freezing point.
Not that she could complain about anything. He’d done more, far more, than she had ever asked of him. He’d run the camp, dealt with wasps, spiders and earwigs without a murmur. He’d taken the children on wood-gathering trips and kept the fire pit blazing at night when they’d all sat out with their mugs of cocoa, even produced marshmallows to float in them. He’d been a perfect uncle for the boys as well as the girls. And a perfect gentleman to her.
There had been no more stolen kisses.
And the only time he had touched her had been when they had walked up to the farm for the milk and eggs. Usually Mike and Sadie did this chore, but the farm dog had had puppies and the little ones had been invited to visit and see them.
At the top of the field there was a stile. Nick had gone first and as each of the children had climbed up and over he’d caught them and swung them to the ground.
He’d taken her arm to steady her as she’d climbed up and then, as he’d held out his hands to lift her down, her ankle had given way and she had practically fallen into his arms. He’d held her for just a moment longer than had been quite necessary, his arms tight about her as she’d clung to him for support, her heart pounding, her head just a little dizzy from his closeness.
His heart, too, had seemed to be beating with a rather hectic rhythm. After endless moments she’d dared to look up and for just a moment, a breathless moment, she had thought he was going to kiss her, right there in the field with all the children looking on. Instead he’d tucked her arm beneath his and walked with her up the path to the farm. A perfect gentleman.
But ever since then she had been reliving not only the stolen kisses, but the ones that had been freely given, fantasising about them, yearning for
more. But the only indication that he might be having similar feelings had come when, unable to sleep, she had walked down to the lakeside just after dawn and seen him swimming far out in the lake, slicing through the freezing water as if some Celtic relative of the Loch Ness monster were after him.
She must have been mad to agree to stay on when she had the chance to leave. The sooner she went home to reality the better. ‘What will you do this afternoon if it stays wet?’ she asked, in an attempt to drive out thoughts of Nick Jefferson.
‘We’ll think of something,’ Sadie said, giggling. ‘Come on, everyone, let’s go to the other tent; I’ve got an idea.’
‘Haven’t you forgotten the washing-up?’ Nick reminded her.
‘Let them go. It’s their last day.’ Cassie began to gather the mugs and plates.
‘It’s our last day, too. Leave those, Cassie, I want to talk to you.’
‘What about?’ She continued to gather the dishes busily until he put out a hand and took hold of one of hers, stopping her. She looked up. His face was intent, almost desperate. ‘What is it, Nick?’
‘Beth told me. About your husband.’ He hadn’t known what he was going to say, only that he had to say something. ‘She warned me. She said if I wasn’t serious I shouldn’t think of getting involved with you. I have to tell you now that I’ve never been more serious about anything in my whole life before.’
‘What about Veronica?’
‘Veronica?’
‘You’re giving her a directorship; I would have thought that was pretty serious.’
‘I didn’t want her—’
‘Making a fool of you?’
‘Good God, I didn’t care about that. When you behave like an idiot you have to take the consequences. It was your reputation I was thinking of, Cassie. The directorship was going to be offered to her anyway. I told her about it because I knew she would think twice about indulging the typing pool’s love of gossip if she was going to be a permanent fixture. And when I told her about the directorship I also told her that I intended to marry you. If you’d have me.’ She was staring at him, her face shuttered and barred so that he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. ‘Look, leave those.’ He got up. ‘Let’s get out of here and go for a walk.’
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