by Linda Sole
Alice didn’t know if there was anything more between them, and she didn’t want to. She thought it was not very nice – not exactly incestuous because there was no blood tie, but Margaret had been married to Clay’s father. And now Robert was dead. Had he known that his wife and son had been kissing? Had he guessed there was something going on between them?
He would have been terribly upset, because he was a good man, a decent man – one of the finest, Alice’s father said. She hadn’t dared to breathe a word of this at home, because her mother would have stopped her going to Rathmere, and she liked helping out there sometimes. She saw a lot of wealthy people when Margaret had her parties, and she admired the elegant clothes they wore and their jewellery. She wasn’t envious of them, but she enjoyed seeing the things they had, and she wanted to keep visiting the house. Especially now that Daniel was home.
She liked Daniel very much. Her brother had been right about that. They had kissed the night he took her to the pictures, outside her house when he walked her home, but it was just a little peck on the lips. Not at all passionate or demanding, but then he was pretty done in by the time they said goodnight.
She had felt a bit guilty, because he’d gone to Cambridge with her at her suggestion, and she’d apologized for making him do too much.
‘Don’t be sorry,’ Daniel had told her. ‘I enjoyed every minute and I want to do it again soon. When can I take you to Ely for the afternoon?’
‘Perhaps next week,’ she said. ‘It depends what is happening – and how soon they tell me I’m officially a Land Army girl. I mostly help Dad with the pigs in the mornings, do a few chores in the house, and then I’m free in the afternoons unless Dad needs me on the tractor – or I come to your house.’
‘Margaret isn’t having a party next week as far as I know,’ Daniel said. ‘Let’s say we’ll go on Thursday if it’s fine, shall we?’
‘Yes, all right,’ she had agreed happily. ‘I like market day and we can do some shopping for Mum if she wants it.’
Alice looked around her mother’s small parlour. It all looked neat and tidy the way she liked to see it, and smelled lovely of lavender polish. She had finished now for the day and thought she might go for a little walk up the street. After all, you never knew who you might see. She might even bump into Daniel if she was lucky.
It was nice that he wanted to see her again so soon, Alice thought. It was much too early to be thinking of marriage, though she did like him quite a lot . . .
Three
Margaret smiled as she stepped into the steaming hot bath. The water was well above the Government’s recommended level, and perfumed with the expensive salts she liked. Robert had bought them for her when they met in London. They weren’t easy to find these days, but then money could buy most things under the counter if one was enterprising enough. It was that she’d liked about Robert at the start. He had seemed rich, powerful and capable. She had wanted to make Michael jealous, but the whole thing had gone wrong somewhere along the line. She’d quarrelled with Michael, married Robert and ended up in this dump.
Not for much longer though, not if Clay came through for her. He had been hot for her from the beginning. She’d seen the lustful look in his eyes the first time they’d met, but she’d still had hopes of making it work with Robert then. However, he had proved more difficult to manage once they were married and his first lust had waned. He had wanted her desperately at the beginning, but she thought now that he’d never loved her. For Robert the land came first, and his children – particularly Emily, Daniel and Connor.
Robert hadn’t trusted Clay, and he’d thought Henry a dull plodder. ‘Henry’s good on the farm but he’s not a businessman. Clay is much the same, though he’s sly and he’s got his eye out for the main chance. Daniel is the one I’d put my money on. Maybe Connor when he’s older.’
Daniel had been safely out of the way then. He was home now, but probably wouldn’t interfere. Besides, Clay would do anything to get into her bed. She knew the brothers wouldn’t consult Frances or Emily, and Connor was too young. So it was just Clay and Henry – and Daniel, of course.
Margaret wasn’t sure how he would react when he was told how much she wanted for her share of the land, and the house if she could get them to buy. She had no intention of mouldering in this wretched village for the rest of her life. She had considered leaving Robert just before he became ill. He had begun to bore her, as most things did in this place, and she’d started to flirt with Clay a little. She hadn’t intended Robert to see her, though.
Margaret frowned, feeling a pang of guilt. The foolish man! It wasn’t her fault that he’d neglected the cut on his leg. She’d told him to go to the doctor’s but he’d turned his back on her deliberately, ignoring her as he had since that incident with his son.
‘It was your own fault!’ she said out loud.
Robert’s eyes haunted her sometimes. She had hidden his photographs in the drawer because she couldn’t bear to look at him. His eyes seemed to accuse her, which was ridiculous, because she hadn’t done anything that terrible. A little flirtation, a few kisses, were nothing, and she had no intention of taking it further. Even now, she was using Clay, stringing him along to get what she wanted. He thought she was waiting for a decent time to elapse, but as soon as she got her £20,000 she was off, back to London where there was a bit of life.
She had her eyes closed, enjoying the luxury of being alone in the house, and wasn’t aware of the footsteps coming upstairs. When the bathroom door opened, she was brought out of her reverie with a start. At first she thought it must be Clay, and wished she had remembered to lock the door, and then, as she realized it was Daniel, she smiled. He looked so embarrassed, and yet he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered. ‘I had no idea you were in here.’
‘My fault,’ Margaret said. ‘I forgot to lock the door. I thought everyone was out.’
‘I was. I came back.’
He seemed glued to the floor, unable to move. Margaret rose from the bath, her body soft, slender and glowing from the warm water.
‘Would you hand me the towel?’ She stood there unashamed, knowing it was probably the first time he’d seen a woman completely naked. He might still be a virgin, she thought, amused by his stunned expression. She took the towel from him, patting herself dry in a leisurely way before stepping out of the bath, then laughed softly. ‘It’s all right. You can look all you want – or you can use the water yourself. It’s still warm.’
‘I’m sorry. I should go.’
‘Why? It’s too late for my modesty. I don’t mind you staying, as long as you behave.’
‘I wouldn’t . . .’
Margaret was laughing inside. The poor boy was so embarrassed. He looked as if he might burst a blood vessel any minute!
‘Don’t be shy.’ She reached for his hand, carried it to her right breast, placing it over the firm, full, warm flesh. ‘Just so as you know what a real woman feels like.’
The spell was broken. She had gone too far. Margaret saw the horror in his eyes before he wrenched his hand back and turned away, slamming the door behind him as he left.
She frowned. She might just have made a mistake with Daniel. He was more like his father than she’d realized.
Daniel locked his bedroom door, leaning against it and breathing hard as he fought to control the surge of urgent need she had aroused in him. What the hell was the matter with him? It wasn’t as if he didn’t know how it was to have a woman that way; there had been a few, but most of them scrambled affairs in the back of a car or behind the shed on his father’s farm, and none of them naked.
It was the shock of seeing her there like that – his father’s wife – and the way she had just smiled instead of screaming at him or yelling at him to get out. And when she stood there, beads of water dripping off her, he had wanted to lick each pearl from her flesh with his tongue. Her body was so beautiful, soft and warm and very tempting. He had wante
d her. The need had been urgent and powerful, and for a moment he had actually contemplated making love with her – his father’s wife!
The feel of her breast had shocked him to sudden awareness of what he was doing and in that moment he had been sickened and disgusted by her behaviour and his own. He ought to have walked out the moment he realized she was in there, couldn’t imagine why he hadn’t done so. Yet his honesty forced him to admit that he had found her attractive from the first moment he’d seen her. Margaret was more than just attractive. She had that earthy sexuality that a lot of men found tantalizing, and he understood why his father, a widower for too many years, had fallen hard.
Daniel had been aware before this that he had pressing physical needs, which wouldn’t be easy to satisfy here in the village. He could buy Nora Roberts a few drinks and then take her for a walk up the banks, of course, but he didn’t fancy his chances with Alice much if he did – and he wasn’t that desperate.
Alice was a decent girl, pretty, warm and exactly the sort of girl he would probably marry one day. Not that he had any thoughts of marriage yet. It wasn’t right to marry while there was a war on; the girl might end up a widow before she’d hardly been a wife. Besides, Daniel had plans for his life, and he needed a few years after the war was over to get going.
Maybe it hadn’t been fair to start seeing Alice in the circumstances. He ought to tell her he had plans for the future that didn’t include marriage for a few years. Maybe he would speak to her after his sister’s wedding this weekend, make sure she understood it was just a casual thing.
‘You do look lovely,’ Emily said admiringly as she looked at Frances in her expensive satin wedding gown. ‘That dress is a dream. It’s a good thing you bought it when you did, you would never have found anything like it now.’
‘I know.’ Frances did a little twirl in front of the mirror. She’d bought her dress two months before war was officially declared. On a shopping trip to Cambridge, she’d seen it displayed in the window of an expensive dress shop in Regent Street, and, on impulse, tried it on. It was a simple design of satin, but heavily embroidered with beads on the hem and sleeves, and the lace over-skirt was exquisite. She’d known as soon as she saw herself in the mirror that it was the one she wanted. Marcus hadn’t even asked her to marry him then, but she’d bought it anyway, just in case. It had been covered with a sheet and hung in her wardrobe ever since, and now it was her wedding day. ‘At least that part of it fits with the dream, Emily,’ she went on, looking at her sister once more. ‘I always thought we would have a fantastic reception, with Dad giving me away at the church – and then a honeymoon in Paris.’
‘Well, at least you are marrying the man you want,’ Emily said. ‘And he has six days’ leave to take you away somewhere. The reception might not be all you’d hoped for, but everyone has done their best.’
Friends and family had baked and scrounged, and there was a decent buffet tea and some good wine from the cellars at Stretton Park.
‘Oh, I’m not complaining,’ Frances said, her eyes shining. ‘I’m happy just to be marrying Marcus.’
‘It must be wonderful to know exactly what you want and get it,’ Emily said. ‘I’ve never felt about anyone the way you do about Marcus.’
‘You will one day,’ Frances said, and kissed her cheek. ‘I thought you rather liked Simon Vane. You’re going to stay with his family after the wedding, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, I am. He asked me and I said I would, but I’m not sure now that it was a good thing. After all, I don’t really know him.’
‘You must have got on very well together that afternoon or he wouldn’t have asked.’
‘I suppose not.’ Emily wasn’t sure why she’d suddenly got cold feet – after all, she’d enjoyed her afternoon out with Simon, and he’d made her go tingly all over when he kissed her. ‘It’s just that things have changed. I’ll be going away somewhere when I get back, and everything seems . . . not the same anymore. You won’t be living here and—’
‘Nor will you,’ Frances reminded her. ‘I wonder if Daniel has thought about that. If he stays here it will be just him and Margaret – and Connor, of course.’
‘I hadn’t thought about that,’ Emily said. ‘That is a bit awkward for him, isn’t it? After all, this is his home – but you know how people talk.’
‘Well, I suppose they are both sensible adults,’ Frances said, dismissing the subject. She picked up the blue lace garter her sister had given her and slipped it on. ‘So, there’s my luck – the veil was Mum’s so I’ve got them all; something old, something borrowed, something new and something blue.’
‘You don’t need luck,’ Emily told her, and squeezed her waist affectionately. ‘Marcus loves you, you love him – what more do you need?’
‘I don’t know . . .’ Frances felt as if a cold wind had blown over her suddenly and her tummy lurched. ‘Wish me luck all the same, Emmy.’
‘Of course I do,’ Emily said. ‘All the luck in the world, dearest. We had better go now or you’ll be late.’
‘I’ve only got to walk over the road.’
‘You still don’t want to be late. I saw Henry arrive ages ago. He’s pacing about over there like a cat on hot bricks; that must mean Marcus and his family are already inside.’
‘I wanted to ask Daniel to give me away,’ Frances said. ‘But Henry expected it so I couldn’t say no . . .’ She sighed but neither sister said what was on their minds. ‘We’d better go then.’
Emily walked up the aisle behind her sister. She was wearing a pale green silk dress that she’d bought in Cambridge especially for her sister’s wedding. It wasn’t really a bridesmaid’s gown, but a pretty afternoon frock that would be more practical afterwards. With all the regulations and shortages these days, she had been lucky to find something that would answer both purposes.
Simon Vane was Marcus’s best man and Emily her sister’s only attendant. They stood side by side, Simon giving her a smile of welcome as she joined him at the start of the ceremony. The sun was filtering through the stained glass windows, making patterns on the worn stone floor. It was a beautiful old church, peaceful and familiar. Emily was glad her sister had chosen the church and not gone for a register office affair, as so many did because of the way things were at the moment. It wasn’t as lavish a wedding as it might have been, but there were flowers in the church, and all their friends dressed in their best finery; a happy occasion. Except that her father wasn’t there to give the bride away.
Emily smothered a sigh. There was no point in wishing for the moon. Her father had gone and there was no way she could bring him back. She glanced to the side, thinking how smart Daniel looked in his uniform. At least he was home, and beginning to feel better if she was any judge. She noticed that he was sitting with Clay and his wife. She had thought Alice might be with him.
Alice had been at the house all morning, helping to prepare the food, but she’d said she was coming to church, and would leave when the ceremony was over to get back to the house and help out at the reception. If Daniel was going out with her – why wasn’t she sitting with the family?
Daniel could smell Margaret’s perfume. It was distinctive and expensive, and powerful. He knew she was sitting just behind him, and the sense of her was playing havoc with his libido. He was annoyed with himself, but images of her naked body kept coming into his mind. He had woken from an erotic dream the previous night, only to realize that the woman he had dreamed of was his father’s widow. Now, when his sister was being married, all he could think of was how enticing he found Margaret’s perfume.
Damn her! He was suspicious of her, especially since Henry had told him how much she was asking for her share of the land and the house. Apparently, she couldn’t bear to live there now that Robert was dead, and she wanted them to buy the house from her, but she wasn’t going to let them off cheap.
Henry was against the idea. ‘Put the damned place on the market,’ he’d said when they met that morning
just before the wedding. ‘That’s what I told Clay we should do. I wouldn’t give in to her blackmail – but she seems to have him eating out of her hand . . .’
Daniel glanced at his second eldest brother. Clay was the nearest to him in age, being just two years older. He had married young, probably because his wife Dorothy had already been carrying their first child. They now had three, one for each year of their marriage. Dot had been a very pretty girl before they married, but she had put on weight and she always looked harassed and a bit untidy these days, as though life was all too much for her.
Was Clay faithful to her? Daniel knew that his brother had had quite a reputation when he was younger, and he doubted that a few words said in church would prevent Clay from straying. He wondered if Henry was right . . . if Clay had been caught in Margaret’s pretty claws . . .
It wouldn’t surprise him if his brother fancied her. Daniel could understand that only too well. He was doing his best to shut out the images of her naked body and the smile in her eyes, which had seemed to invite, but Clay was different. Given the chance, had it been offered to him, what would his brother have made of it? He wouldn’t have gone rushing from the room like a green youth, that was for certain. Daniel was pretty sure that Margaret would be unwise to play with Clay the way she had with him.
Clay glanced at him sideways, an odd expression in his eyes. Suddenly, Daniel knew that he too was aware of Margaret’s perfume, and that everything Henry had told him was true. Clay was caught – but what was he hoping for? Surely he couldn’t be thinking of leaving his wife and children. What then? Did he just want to get Margaret into bed – or was she already sleeping with him?
Something was going on, he felt it instinctively. Maybe he would have a word with Clay later . . .
Alice thought Frances looked beautiful, and her dress was a dream – the kind of wedding gown that every girl wanted but few got. Frances was so lucky, but then the family was rich, or so everyone thought in the village. Alice’s mother had warned her about getting her hopes up too high only that morning, when she’d told her that she was just going to slip into church and sit at the back on her own.