Tender Persuasion

by Sara Wood

  'Yes, I will.' It would give her an incentive to work.

  'Keep out of my way today,' he snarled. 'I'm not in a good mood.'

  'Neither am I', she snapped. 'Don't forget it was you who threw me on the bed.'

  'You were ready for me,' he said huskily. 'Don't forget that.'

  CHAPTER NINE

  With a furious, indrawn breath, Jade marched out. For the next few days she worked in the library, making notes for the final three chapters. Mrs Love came in to clean and cook as usual, leaving a meal ready for Dane when he came in. Jade made sure she was never around when he returned, though a couple of times she'd not noticed the time and he drove past her as she was walking back home.

  Then one morning he startled her by walking into the library.

  'I've got something you might be interested in,' he said curtly.

  Jade raised one eyebrow, as if that was hardly likely.

  'One of my authors is working on a novel based on the Cluniac Priory at Lewes. She was showing me some manuscripts she'd unearthed and I had copies made.'

  He pushed the photostats on to the desk and Jade picked them up, scanning them in fascination.

  'As they refer to the village, I thought you'd be interested,' he said in a remote tone.

  'Yes, I am. Thank you.' she said politely.

  Inwardly, she was excited. The documents described how a huge rabbit warren was set up in the eleventh century, on Coney Hill in the valley, to supply the monastery with meat. Coney was one of two clay mounds which rose in the alluvial plain above the flood levels and which had always attracted interest.

  'Harriet is coming down tomorrow to use the library.

  You'll have to share it,' said Dane.

  'Harriet? I think I met her,' said Jade, remembering the woman at the flower show.

  'You did. She'll have more documents which you might want to use.'

  When he had gone, Jade studied the papers carefully, her brain mentally re-ordering her earlier chapters. Perhaps she'd better wait to see what Harriet brought before making any plans.

  Instead, she continued ploughing on with the final stages of the book, finding it heavy-going. Dane drove away, and she felt safer in the empty house. Knowing that she had a great deal of new work to do now, she stayed on working late and was just walking through the hall on her way out when Dane let himself in. He looked bone-weary, giving her a brief nod and making his way straight to the kitchen for his meal.

  Driven by the need to get on as fast as possible, Jade arrived early the following morning, entering with Mrs Love, and tackling her work straight away. Some time later she heard Dane driving off, presumably to meet the train in Brighton.

  Mrs Love brought her a coffee and departed to look after Billy, who'd developed mumps. Dane had told her not to worry about coming in till Billy was better, and that he'd manage without her for a while.

  Her eyes weary from reading, Jade took her cup to the window-seat and sat there, dreaming, her mind drifting aimlessly. Under Dane's instructions, the gardeners had made the garden into a paradise. The lawns stretched in a luxuriant green sward to the riotous rose garden, where the old bushes and ramblers had been tamed at last and encouraged to produce richly coloured blooms. Geraniums were banked high on the terrace walls, covering them with a profusion of salmon-pink flowers. Everything looked cared for and loved, from the neatly clipped yew hedges to the herbaceous borders, stacked thickly with delphiniums, lupins, and huge daisies of all shades.

  A knock at the door awoke her from her pleasant daze, and she prepared to meet Dane and his guest by arranging her face in a faint smile.

  He led forward the woman who had barely made an impression on Jade because she was so taken up with Dodo at the time.

  'Harriet, this is Jade Kendall. Harriet Jones. I'm going to leave you two,' he said, glancing at his watch. 'I have a call coming in from Tokyo.'

  'Give Soniver my love,' smiled Harriet, after shaking hands with Jade in a friendly way. 'Tell her I think she's right.'

  'What's that supposed to mean?' frowned Dane.

  'Never mind,' grinned Harriet. 'Do as you're told, young man.'

  Jade craned her neck a little to look at Harriet more closely. Fine lines marked her brow and the corners of her eyes. Despite the shine of her bobbed brown hair, and the freshness of her complexion, she must be older than she looked. She had a good figure, and the jeans and T-shirt made her look almost girlish, but now she could see that Harriet must be forty-five.

  'Can I get you a coffee?' asked Jade politely.

  'No thanks. I'm still reeling from the British Rail brew,' she said in her laughing voice.

  Jade liked her at once. A rapport sprang up between them and they began to discuss the Norman period and swapped local stories of the time. Harriet helped her to decipher one or two words she hadn't been able to read in the documents, and pulled out a great sheaf of material for her to use, laughing at Jade's groan.

  'I know,' grinned Harriet. 'You think you've mastered all the research and suddenly up pops something new that you have to include. Awful, isn't it?' she added sympathetically.

  'Ghastly. But exciting! Will it bother you, me being in here while you work?'

  'No. I could work in Oxford Street if I had to,' she laughed. 'When my head is stuck in a book I'm blind to everything around me. Dane says I give him less hassle than any of his women!'

  Jade winced. 'He might find it easier if he took on more men,' she observed tartly.

  'That would be a waste of his talent. I don't know if you've seen him in action, but he's incredibly sensitive and perceptive. He knows just when to coax and when to nag and when to listen. Mostly he listens. Poor love. He's working himself into the ground at the moment. Doesn't he look awful?'

  'I don't know what you mean,' said Jade warily.

  'Well, I hadn't seen him for ages till I came down for the village show. I had a shock when I first saw him. He's terribly run-down and drawn-looking. I told him he looked dreadful and he was too old to prance around like a young man any longer.'

  'What did he say to that?' asked Jade, her eyes wide.

  Harriet grinned. 'Normally he would have looked me up and down and remarked that I was hardly in a position to talk about getting old. This time he told me to mind my own business. That is not typical. He's under considerable strain. Mind you, I suppose he would be, with all the problems he has on his plate.'

  'Problems?' asked Jade, her heart in her mouth. Surely he hadn't opened his mouth to Harriet?

  'He's doing too much. That's not unusual, he's always generous with his time and emotional energy. Look at the way he opens his house to us! The poor man had hardly any privacy. When he lived in his London flat the place was alive with women needing comfort. People say he's lucky with his authors, but he knows how to care for them in a way that many other agents don't—or aren't prepared to. I can't tell you what strength he gave me when my husband died.'

  'Oh, Harriet!' Jade wished she didn't feel admiration for Dane. It wasn't helping her to forget him.

  'To be honest,' said Harriet in a confidential manner, 'pan of the reason I've come down here is to send Soniver a report. You see, he's negotiating for an agency in Japan through her, and she's had some very odd telephone conversations with him. He hasn't been able to make decisions, which is most unlike him. Once he snapped at her and refused to talk, and another time he said he was too exhausted.'

  'Oh, dear, I hadn't realised,' said Jade, guilty that her attitude had probably not helped. 'I wonder if I ought to stop working here?'

  'I don't think that's a good idea,' said Harriet quickly. 'He's very keen for you to finish your book.'

  'So he said.'

  Once she'd finished, she would be out of his life completely. The prospect filled Jade with despair.

  'Enough of this,' said Harriet briskly. 'Time we got down to work.'

  With Harriet pouring over the old volumes, Jade felt obliged to follow suit and managed to make a great many
notes. But all the time there was the nagging thought in the back of her mind that every word she wrote was bringing her closer to a final farewell to the manor and Dane.

  It was very pleasant working with Harriet. The older woman helped her a good deal and sometimes called Dane in, who gave curt, but sound advice. Under their guidance, Jade felt some shape come into the last few chapters and she found herself quite excited with her own writing.

  That was probably why she didn't notice for a couple of days that she was under the weather. Half-way through a morning in the library, she was suddenly aware of an ache in her throat and that she felt woozy.

  'My, you look flushed,' said Harriet, alerted by Jade's muttered exclamation.

  'My neck feels swollen. Oh, Harriet!' she cried, her eyes anguished. 'I can't have mumps!'

  'Silly. Why on earth should you?' Harriet felt her throat and frowned. 'Your glands are swollen. Have you had contact with anyone contagious?'

  'Yes! Billy Love, at the flower show!' she wailed.

  'Well, let's take your temperature. Stay there, I'll find out where Dane keeps a thermometer.'

  Now she felt very odd. Jade slumped on to the desk, her head on her arms. After a few moments, she felt Dane's strong hands raising her so that Harriet could check her temperature.

  'Just over a hundred,' said Harriet. 'Now what?'

  'We get her to bed and call the doctor.' said Dane. 'The question is, whose bed?'

  'Hardly the time…' began Harriet.

  'Jade, have you anyone who can come and look after you?' he asked sharply.

  Her brain swung slowly into operation. 'No relatives.

  Mrs Love's got Billy ill. Everyone else around here works full-time. It's coming up to the busy season,' she mumbled.

  'Friends?'

  All her friends had lost touch with her when she'd married Sebastian. They'd lived such a different life to the one she'd known. Instead of a world of musicians and singers, all off-beat, creative people,-she had entered the world of high finance and double-dealing. Gradually her friends had drifted away, finding Jade's new life not suited to their tastes, and the quiet, subdued Jade uninteresting. And after Sebastian's death—well, all she had wanted was for peace and solitude to wash over her in all its healing balm.

  'Busy people,' she croaked, her eyes filling. No way would she admit to Dane King that her friends only existed in the village.

  'Damn!' Dane chewed his lip. 'She can't live alone in her cottage. She'll have to stay here,' he said. 'You'll be around a bit longer, won't you, Harriet?'

  'Two days, that's all,' she answered. 'After that, you're on your own.'

  'Can't you—'

  'No,' she said calmly. 'Take the week off. It'll do you good. You still look like death.'

  'Thanks,' he growled, looking at Jade's lolling figure helplessly. 'This is not very desirable. I don't have much choice, do I?'

  Jade groaned at his reluctance.

  'Not a lot,' grinned Harriet. 'Who knows? You might come to enjoy it!'

  He flung her a withering look and picked Jade up, carrying her to the guest-room. Harriet undressed her and they both fussed around in the room, trying to think of things she might need there. The doctor arrived, diagnosed mumps, warned them that it might be severe in an adult woman, and banned Dane from the room.

  'I've had mumps. Ten years ago,' he declared.

  'Hmmm. Any… complications?' asked the doctor delicately.

  'I'm not sterile, if that's what you mean,' muttered Dane.

  'Fine. You can help to look after her. Now, young lady,' said the doctor, 'do as you're told. Plenty of fluids, take these pills, and rest. You're going to be infectious for a week, so stay put. You might find other glands swelling and you could be quite uncomfortable. Any trouble, give me a ring.' He was about to leave when he turned as an afterthought struck him. 'You're not pregnant, are you?'

  Jade felt herself redden. 'No!' she said, embarrassed. Dane had taken that responsibility, thank goodness. She was aware of Harriet's interested face and blushed again.

  'Good. Cheer up. It's soon over.'

  Jade watched gloomily as Dane escorted the doctor from the bedroom. Harriet made her as comfortable as possible and sat with her till she said she wanted to sleep.

  It was evening when she woke, feeling terrible. Her glands were aching dreadfully and there was a dull sensation under her arms. From bleary eyes, she gazed at Dane, who was sitting by the bedside and working through a manuscript. She reached shakily for the glass on the bedside table.

  'Let me.' Dane plumped up the pillows and put his hands under her arms to lift her up, looking at her anxiously when she protested. 'Does it hurt there?' he asked gently.

  She nodded and took the drink of water from him gratefully.

  'What about something to eat?' he asked.

  'No.'

  'Harriet went out and bought some of those liquid diets. Fancy trying one?'

  'No.'

  'OK,' he said cheerfully. 'Anything you want?'

  'Polly!' she cried, suddenly realising. 'She…'

  His hands pressed her back to the pillows. 'Relax. I've taken care of everything. Harriet is walking her and then she'll feed her. Polly can stay here. She's used to being in the manor, after all. I've checked the hens and I'll feed them in the morning. I told the bees you were ill,' he said with a twinkle in his eye, 'and they seemed to think they could manage without you.'

  'The eggs.' Jade could only manage to say the essential words, her throat hurt so much.

  'I collected what there was and I'll do the rounds tomorrow,' he said. 'There's nothing for you to worry about.'

  But she did. She worried that he looked exhausted and, whenever she woke during the next two days and caught sight of his face before he noticed her, he seemed as drawn and strained as Harriet had claimed.

  Knowing that Harriet was due to leave, she didn't like to mention how awful Dane looked and how much he was doing, because it might seem as if she was trying to make Harriet feel guilty about leaving. And when she did go, Dane took the brunt of the work, driving himself relentlessly.

  Tossing restlessly in the early hours Jade saw that he was leaving the house just after dawn to see to the hens and that he hardly seemed to stop all day, constantly checking that she was all right, running up and down the huge flight of stairs far too often. Jade tried to manage her own needs as much as possible, but she grew gradually worse, and one day she was very feverish, her body on fire.

  'A hundred and three,' frowned Dane. 'You'd better take an extra dose of the pills, as the doctor said, and I'll cool you down.'

  He went off and reappeared with towels and a large bowl of water. Up to now, Jade had sponged herself down. She realised she hadn't the strength today, but wasn't prepared to let him touch her!

  'No, Dane,' she mumbled.

  'Don't be stubborn,' he said cheerfully. 'Doctor knows best.'

  'No…' Her hot, sticky hands swept over her sweating brow. 'Leave me alone.'

  'Not yet, you can do your Greta Garbo act later,' he said, still in the same brisk tone. 'Up we come.'

  'We're not going anywhere,' she glared.

  'All nurses talk like that,' he said. 'It makes the patients feel comforted.'

  'Makes me furious,' she muttered, flinging an arm above her head. 'Open a window, please, I'm hot.'

  'No. I went and had a chat with Mrs Love today,' he said in a conversational tone. 'She gave me all sorts of tips. You're having the bed-bath treatment she recommended. If you object, you can take it up with her later. Now, I haven't done this before, so it might take a while. But you'll feel a lot better afterwards.' He paused, eyeing her doubtfully as she flung her head restlessly from side to side. 'Whatever it might do to me,' he muttered under his breath.

  'Go away.' Her head ached and she wanted peace.

  'Yes, of course,' he said, ignoring her.

  Gently he bathed her fevered brow, pushing her hair up and over the pillow, away from her neck.
The cool flannel felt marvellous. Jade shut her eyes, revelling in the slow, soothing strokes. He dried her face, and then she felt fresh air on her breasts and looked down to see that she was naked to the waist. Her huge eyes gazed mutely at Dane, whose jaw was clenched tightly as he concentrated on cooling her down. He lifted her arms gently and Jade gave herself over to his administrations.

  She was too weak to protest as he washed her hips, thighs and legs, and allowed him to turn her over without demur. After, she lay refreshed and glowing, an odd, hazy sensation in her head and a tingling throughout her body where he had touched her.

  'I'll change the sheets tomorrow morning,' he said curtly. 'I think that's enough for now.'

  'Thank you.' He seemed unable to tear himself away. Jade felt her head swimming and fought for sanity. 'How's my animals?' she croaked.

  'Fine. I'll give Polly a run now. Will you be all right?' He turned haunted eyes on her, dark-circled and distant.

  'Yes.' She wanted to apologise for being such a nuisance, to ask him to find someone to do all this instead, but he had stalked out.

  That night, she became worse. Dane spent half the night holding her, bathing her and trying to help her to cope with the pains near her breasts. His voice and his light touch did a great deal to help, and she must have fallen asleep in his arms, because she woke to find herself sharing the bed with him as he sprawled in a heavy sleep across her.

  Hazily she stroked his tumbled hair, cradling his head on her breast, daring to kiss his forehead lightly and run her hands down his broad back. He'd flung off his shoes but was still wearing his shirt and thin cotton jeans, and Jade's heart flooded with love at the boyish way he slept, taking the whole bed with his splayed legs, one fist doubled up fiercely, his mouth sulky with sleep.

  In the distance, her cockerel crowed and she turned lazy eyes to the clock. Seven. Dane began to mutter into her skin, his lips moving in tantalising sweetness. Then his whole body grew rigid and he moved away from her warily, leaving Jade with a terrible emptiness.