‘Well, I don’t care to look,’ she answered with haughty indifference.
‘Oh, yes, you do. You’re bursting with curiosity, just like I am about you. Why don’t you admit it? Human beings are far more similar in nature than we like to admit. We’re all prone to exactly the same emotions. They merely differ in proportion from one person to another. I mean,’ he said lazily, ‘let’s just say that, speaking purely hypothetically, you would dearly love to get to know me better…’
She gave a snort at that.
‘…you’d go out of your way to pretend that the feeling didn’t exist. Whereas another woman might pursue her interest a lot more openly… Right into the bed, in fact.’
If he hadn’t added that little postscript, she might have thought that he was being serious. The minute he brought the mention of bed into his little soliloquy, she knew that he was playing with her. He wanted to see what kind of reaction he would provoke, and the more she reacted with embarrassed horror at his forthrightness, the more tempted he would be to play his games.
‘Thank you for sharing that with me,’ she told him, hoping he would notice that she wasn’t even bothering to favour him with a look. ‘Also for informing me that I’m secretly dying to get to know you. Because until you said it, I had no idea that I was.’
He laughed, and was still laughing to himself when the driver pulled up at one of the entrances to the airport, inclining his body to listen to the list of instructions that Curtis was rattling off to him. As was often the case in London, the sky, which had gleefully threatened snow, had failed to deliver, although it was still freezing cold, and she wrapped her coat tightly around her, pulling the collar up against the sides of her face and hurrying behind Curtis. It was even chilly inside the airport, chilly enough for her to keep her coat on, although once he had checked in he removed his black trench coat and slung it over one arm.
‘We don’t have long to board,’ he informed her. ‘Anything you want to get before we fly? Perfume? Chocolates? Barbour to protect you from the biting cold when we go on our long nature rambles?’
‘Magazines.’
‘Why?’ He stopped walking and frowned, perplexed. ‘You won’t have any time to read them. Between the cross-country hikes, the trips to the kitchen overseeing the food and the nerve-racking mingling to make sure that everyone has a good time you won’t have a minute to yourself, never mind relaxing with a stack of magazines.’
‘Very funny.’ She ignored his remarks, browsed for a few minutes by the magazine racks, very much aware of him hovering behind her, and resisted the temptation to whack him across the ear with the copy of Cosmopolitan in her hand when he began making ridiculous remarks about some of the articles on the front covers.
‘What’s a G-spot?’ he asked her innocently, which attracted a few amused titters from the two teenage girls behind them in the queue.
‘Groin,’ Jade hissed back. ‘It’s the famous Groin Spot, and you’d better cover yours before it comes into contact with my knee!’
Her feathers firmly ruffled, he subsided into docility, and allowed her to read her magazine in peace as they settled into their seats on the plane. He reached inside his bag, which was big but had fortunately escaped qualifying for the hold, and pulled out a book. After a few sidelong glances, she finally rested her magazine face-down on her lap and said, ‘You’re reading.’
‘Oh, yes, so I am,’ he told her in a surprised voice, turning the book round in his big hands as though noticing it for the first time.
‘A novel.’
‘I know,’ he apologised. ‘I do sometimes take a break from reading work documents. It’s out of character for a top businessman, but there you have it. Once in a while, I read books.’
‘It’s a feminist novel,’ Jade accused. ‘I’ve read most of hers.’
‘So you read too? We have something in common. Isn’t that a reassuring thought?’ He leaned back and closed his eyes, a smile tugging the corners of his mouth. ‘It’s a bit tamer than your magazine, though,’ he murmured. ‘Not a single mention of any G-spots. I might just have to borrow that magazine from you when we get to Scotland.’
‘Why?’ Jade asked tartly. ‘You won’t have time to read it. You’ll be too busy taking long, bracing walks and mingling with all your guests.’ The smile grew broader and she took refuge behind the magazine, glancing up only to order a drink, then remembering, when she looked back down at what she was reading, that she hadn’t read a word for the past ten minutes. She hastily turned a few pages, but her mind was whizzing around in frantic circles.
Six months ago, if someone had told her that she would be sitting on a plane, on a flight to Glasgow, next to a man who could make her hackles rise and have her heart leapfrogging all in the space of one minute, she would have shaken her head in disbelief. Whether she cared to admit it or not, it was becoming clear that her trance-like preoccupation with herself was splintering into more and more pieces with every passing day. She still thought of her sister, but the thoughts were now more focused on the glorious things they had done together before she had become ill, and less on the black times when her diagnosis had left them both facing the certainty of her premature death.
Was this what her counsellor had referred to as picking up the pieces of her life? If it was, then she was torn between resenting the feeling and thriving on it, like someone relearning the painful process of walking after a terrible car accident. Each step hurt, but as she sat there, not reading the article on Men After Divorce, she realised, with surprise, that the steps were getting less and less painful with every passing day. She folded shut the magazine with trembling hands and turned her head away from Curtis. She half expected him to interrupt the silence, but when she sneaked a glance at him it was to find him reading, his brow creased in thoughtful concentration.
She resumed her mental pacing, but she knew that her thoughts were going nowhere. Every time she tried to grasp one long enough to analyse it, it skittered away out of reach and she was left holding thin air. In the end she closed her eyes and thought about her art. She hadn’t had as much success as Andy, but she knew that he needed it far more than she did. The success of an artist was an intangible mixture of talent and luck. As an illustrative artist, she would be far more commercially secure when her course was completed. Her tutor had said as much. It was just as well, because she, unlike Andy, had no cushion of family wealth to fall back on. Taking time out was going to be an expensive enough venture as it was, without having to tackle the prospect of unemployment when she emerged, qualified.
She was beginning to doze off on her thoughts when she felt the plane begin to dip and the announcement came on that seat belts were to be fastened.
Then another announcement.
It was snowing.
‘I knew it,’ Jade said, peering around Curtis’s bulk to stare out of the window—a pointless exercise since all she could make out was the dense grey of the clouds. They were still too high up for her to see what the weather on the ground was like, but a mental calculation of what she had packed was enough to convince her that her jumper quotient was not up to any severe weather conditions.
It now occurred to her that perhaps the house wasn’t centrally heated. Lots of roaring open fires, but no central heating. Old houses, especially ones with wings, were notoriously lacking in the essential comforts. Hadn’t she read that somewhere? Twenty Londoners, politely trying to play down the chattering of their teeth, with only the odd log fire and glasses of brandy to keep them warm. Not only would they not get along, they would also spend the entire four days in a state of semi-permanent inebriation from drinking too much brandy.
The plane began to descend, and it was only when they were safely on the ground that Curtis turned to her and said, with a Gallic shrug of his massive shoulders. “You got your snow, it seems!’
‘It’s…it’s a blizzard!’ Jade squeaked, when they were outside the airport.
‘It’s not a blizzard,’ he said, glancing around hi
m. ‘I arranged with Jack to leave the Land Rover at a very good hotel in the city centre…’ The snow was collecting on his coat, fine, white and persistent, and he carelessly brushed some of it off. ‘I thought we might have a bite to eat before we begin the drive to the house. We need a taxi.’
We need snow suits, Jade thought, looking at the pelting snow worriedly. Within a few minutes they got their taxi, which was blessedly warm, and Curtis relaxed with a deep sigh.
‘It’s a beautiful city. Did you know that it was voted the City of Culture in 1990? It’s had its bad times, of course, but it’s pulled through remarkably well. I’ve always tried to make it up here when I’ve been in London. Occasionally, when I’ve needed a rest, I’ve bypassed London completely and just headed up here to crash out. This is reputedly the finest Victorian city in Britain. Course, I’m biased. Most of my formative years were spent in Scotland. I know the area we’ll be going to like the back of my hand, and, believe it or not, I’ve kept in touch with quite a few of the locals. Always make sure that I visit them when I’m over.’
He sighed with contentment, and Jade tried very hard not to notice that the snow seemed to be getting heavier. The beautiful Victorian architecture was laced with white, and progress in the taxi was painfully slow.
When they finally reached their temporary destination, the first thing Curtis did was ensure that the Land Rover was parked in the hotel car park.
‘How far do we have to drive?’ Jade asked, hurrying behind him into the hotel.
‘Not too far. An hour or so.’
‘An hour! An hour!’
‘No need for alarm. The car and I are quite used to these rugged conditions. That’s the problem with you Londoners. You’re just too soft.’ He began walking towards the foyer, and she tugged his sleeve urgently.
‘I think we should get going,’ she said firmly. ‘Look at the weather!’ He duly looked out of the revolving doors. ‘You might be used to these so-called “rugged conditions”, but I’m not, and I don’t fancy a drive out of the city centre in it.’
He sighed and shook his head. ‘Well, if it would make you happier…’
‘I would be as chipper as a cricket.’
‘…although Land Rovers can tackle most weather conditions. They’re designed for hard driving.’
‘I don’t care if they’re designed to cope with avalanches. I’d just feel better if we got there in one piece.’
He gave her an amused smile, but she was relieved when he nodded his head.
After one and a half hours, during which they had left the bustle of city life long behind and were now travelling at a snail-like pace through a landscape of white, with the snow getting heavier by the second, he said, under his breath, ‘Not too far now.’
‘How far?’
They could be anywhere, she thought. The moon. The snow made nonsense of landmarks, but for some reason she trusted him utterly not to get lost.
Another hour later they finally drove into a village, and he said, with relief, ‘Almost there now. This is the local village. The house is just fifteen minutes along. I’ll just pull into old Tom’s guest house and catch my breath for half an hour. My eyes feel as though I’ve been up for ten hours after a hard night, and we can grab something to eat.’
At least they only had a few more minutes of this snow, because Jade, personally, didn’t think they could go much further. At times the snow had impacted so thickly onto the windscreen that he had been obliged to get out of the car and manually clear it away before continuing.
He gingerly parked the car outside the guest house, which was a Victorian detached house, noticeable as a guest house only because of the sign outside.
‘Tom and I go back a long way,’ Curtis said, as they made their slow way up the path. ‘He used to do odd jobs around the house when business was a bit low and his wife could keep the place going without him. Old Tom and I have spent many an illuminating hour talking about life.’ There was a smile in his voice that made her smile as well.
‘Dare I ask what the subject of these illuminating conversations was?’
‘Sex,’ Curtis murmured gravely. ‘A very important topic to a teenage boy.’
She felt a tingle at the single word, which could generate so many split-second erotic images when Curtis said it.
‘He’ll be pleased to see us.’
‘Curtis Greene! Ye old rogue!’ An old man with grey hair and the dapper appearance of someone who still enjoyed shopping for clothes emerged from behind the reception counter. His eyes had lit up into two bright slits of friendly welcome. ‘The good lady and I thought that you might stop here, and thank the heavens you did, laddie!’
‘Don’t tell me you got Rose to cook my special steak and kidney pie, Tom!’
‘And a bit more!’
‘A bit more?’ Jade, who had sidled into the background during this hearty interchange, now scuttled out a little, smiling as introductions were made.
‘Aye, wee lass.’ He nodded. ‘You’ll be sampling some fine Scottish fare here for the next few days.’ He cackled and shook with laughter. ‘Road to the house is completely blocked! So you and your bonny lassie will have to make do with the room here tonight, and I shouldn’t get too excited about leaving in a hurry! More snow on the way!’ He beamed as though he had just imparted the good news that they had won the Lottery. ‘You have to admit, son, that this Scotland of ours never changes!’
CHAPTER SIX
‘THIS is ridiculous!’
Jade stood with her back to the closed bedroom door and her hands on her hips.
‘I wouldn’t say that…’ Curtis looked around the bedroom slowly, then tested the bed with his hand. ‘I agree it’s not very big, but I think it’s quite tastefully furnished, and there is an en suite bathroom. The mattress feels all right as well.’
‘You know what I mean!’ she burst out, absolutely refusing to see anything funny about the situation.
His response to that was to flop onto the bed, kick off his shoes and lie back with his hands behind his head. With his eyes closed, he looked the picture of sleeping innocence. Anyone would think that the man hadn’t a care in the world.
‘And you can stop looking so…so relaxed!’ she spluttered furiously.
He opened one eye to look at her. ‘Well, there’s not much we can do about the situation, is there? So what’s the point getting worked up about it?’
‘You could have made more of an effort not to land us in this situation, then we wouldn’t be here now, getting worked up about it!’
‘You’re the only one who seems worked up.’ He rolled to his side to look at her, propping himself up by his elbow.
‘Can you blame me?’ She took a couple of steps into the room to glare down at him. ‘This is hardly what I expected!’ On the sofa by the bay window their luggage stared back at her, an insolent reminder of what lay ahead unless she did something to change the situation.
It had been bad enough to discover that there was no way forward to the house, and that with weather reports promising more snow the party would have to be cancelled, but from that point things had rapidly gone downhill.
With a great deal of suggestive remarks, Tom had revealed that he could put them up in a room, but there was no chance of separate rooms because the remaining four were taken. More unfortunate travellers who had ventured this far but could go no further. Jade’s expression of speechless horror had been lost on him, not least because he had blithely assumed that she and Curtis were together, in every sense of the word, an impression which Curtis had not hastened to dispel.
‘It’s no good you lying there. You’re going to have to go and sort something out, because I’m not sharing this room with you. And this is all your fault. We should have stayed put in the city, checked into some rooms at the hotel, but, oh, no, you and that Land Rover could tackle any amount of snow, couldn’t you? Arctic conditions? No problem! Just an everyday affair for a big, sturdy, four-wheel drive car at the hands of a
macho hulk! And it’s not funny!’ she yelled, when she saw that his shoulders were shaking with mirth.
‘I got you here, didn’t I?’ he sobered up enough to point out. ‘Many more wimpish men than myself would have shrivelled up under the challenge, but you have to admit that, macho hulk that I am, I did barge my way through blizzards to make it here safely and in one piece.’
‘Well, you can barge your way downstairs and sort some alternative sleeping arrangements out!’
‘You can hardly expect Tom to chuck someone out to fit in with what you want,’ he said with implacable calm. ‘Besides, he would find it very odd that you want to sleep in a different room. He might jump to the conclusion that we’d had a lovers’ tiff, and then you’d have to fabricate something to keep the lie going and it would all get very tedious and complicated.’
‘You should have told him from the start that we weren’t…weren’t… When I tried to explain, you could have backed me up instead of talking over me!’
‘I could have…but Tom mentioned that he had already turned away two couples, directed them to the local rectory to see whether the vicar could put them up somehow…which means that he held this room for us as soon as he realised that we might need it. If I’d told him that we needed two separate rooms, it would have thrown him into a tizzy.
‘He’s a good man, good enough to do something stupid like bring their teenage son into their room with them to oblige me, and I wasn’t having anything of the sort.’ His face was hard. ‘And I’d better make it clear to you that you keep your prim scruples to yourself. As far as Tom and Rose are concerned, you and I are lovers, and they’ve done us the most enormous favour by saving this room for us. Which, incidentally, they have.’
‘Maybe we could try and make it to the house,’ she suggested, clutching at one final straw, and he gave a bark of laughter as though she had suddenly and mysteriously taken leave of her senses.
‘Make it to the house? Are you completely mad?’
‘Well, if it’s only a few minutes’ drive away…!’ Jade retorted heatedly, feeling a fool for having suggested it in the first place.
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