Aunt Lucy's Lover

by Miranda Lee

  Common sense and her own survival demanded the latter solution.

  'Wherever did you get the idea I was desperate to vacate your company?' she asked lightly as they waited for the geese to complete their casual trek across the road.

  'Oh, come now. Let's not pretend.'

  'In the interest of civility and politeness, Sebastian, let's,' she said firmly. 'I understand your disappointment that Lucy's last wishes are not going to be fulfilled exactly as she planned. I fully understand I am everything you deplore in a woman. But let me assure you that—'

  'That's not true,' he broke in brusquely, moving ahead slowly now that the road was clear. 'At least, that last bit you said isn't totally true.'

  'Oh, come now,' Jessica drawled, echoing his earlier sarcasm. 'Let's not pretend.'

  His laughter carried real amusement, as did his sidewards glance. 'Very well. I confess. Underneath, I deplore you. Or at least, the type of woman you project sometimes. But in the interests of civility and politeness, and Evie's possible punishment, I'm willing to pretend if you are.'

  'Done!' she said, experiencing a weird stab of pleasure when he smiled at her. It had to be a sexual thing, she supposed, yet it didn't feel sexual. It was as though their secret conspiracy to feign friendship had sparked the beginnings of a very real friendship. For the first time since they'd met, they had agreed on something, and it felt surprisingly good.

  She smiled at him.

  Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect to the one she was looking for. His smile immediately faded, his eyes glittering with that old hostility. 'Don't pretend too well, Jess,' he said curtly. 'We don't want to give Evie false hopes, do we?'

  'False hopes?'

  'She's one of those romantic souls you despise. Smile at me like that too much and she might start thinking you've fallen in love with me, and Lord knows what complications that would bring.'

  Jessica stiffened, her heart going cold under his rebuke. God, but he was a right bastard. She wished she hated his body as much as she hated his spitefully nasty tongue. And he called her cynical!

  'Don't worry,' she retorted, pique firing her tongue. 'I don't think Evie will ever be under the misapprehension I've fallen in love with you, Sebastian. As much as you deplore my type of woman, I deplore your type of man. I like my men smooth and smart and sophisticated, both in their appearance and their lifestyle. I like them with ambition in their hearts, fire in their belly and passion in their eyes. For me!'

  Jessica might have tossed her hair over her shoulder at-that point, if it hadn't been slicked into a tightly controlled knot. Instead, she lifted her nose and chin in a disdainful gesture. 'I don't go for drop-outs who slop around in next to nothing, whose hair looks like it hasn't seen a barber in years, who think working for a living is dabbling at writing between labouring jobs. I especially don't like men who look at me like I was something nasty that had just crawled out from under a stone.'

  Her tirade over, an electric silence fell on the car as it moved slowly across a small stone bridge then through a narrow wooden gateway. The ruins of the gaol squatted on their left—-massive, bleak-looking stone walls behind which lay God knew what.

  Not much, she realised when she peeked through an archway. It looked like everything inside had been stripped and largely levelled.

  The outward shell of a smaller houselike building stood on a rise to their right, broken stone steps leading up to a gaping and empty doorway. A large stone monument of some sort stood in the middle of a sweep of lawn in front of them. Behind it were more old buildings, some in ruins and some not. The bay lay just beyond, a long concrete pier jutting out into the rough water.

  'Have you finished?' he said coldly as he swung the car to the left and towards the gaol.

  'Quite.'

  'Good, then shut up and listen.'

  She thought he was going to tear strips off her. Instead, he began a monotone commentary about the history of the gaol and the surrounding buildings. Jessica didn't hear any of it. All she heard were her inner churnings. What on earth possessed you to say all that, you idiot? He'll really hate you now. He'll certainly never look at you as you want him to look at you, with passion in his eyes.

  'Are you listening to me, damn it?' he suddenly snarled, and she jumped in her seat, the startled blankness in her face revealing her inattention to the history lesson.

  He swore and accelerated down the narrow tarred road, the car jolting over a hump, which proved to be an ancient convict-built bridge.

  'That's the old salt mill on the right,' he snapped, indicating a towerlike structure amidst some isolated pines :n a grassy point. 'And this is Emily Bay.'

  The road ran around the edge of the bay, with a thick : jrest of Norfolk pines behind it. Jessica lost sight of the water for a while till the car emerged on the other side on a bare rocky point, which boasted one rather straggly pine but a spectacular view.

  Sebastian parked, facing towards Emily Bay, apparently to allow his passenger a few minutes to soak in the postcard scene. Or maybe to regain control of his temper. Jessica wisely decided not to ask which. She stared silently through the windscreen at the bay, searching for something to say. Jessica's idea of beach heaven was Bondi, at home, with its high surfboard-riding waves and people-pounding promenade. She even liked the wall-to-wall bodies on the beach on hot summer days. Of course she didn't go there to swim. She went to feel the throb of life around her, to keep that awful feeling of loneliness at bay.

  So when she looked at the small reef-protected cove with its calm blue-green waters, one single swimmer and an almost deserted sweep of sand, she could appreciate its quiet beauty, but not the sense of solitude it evoked. When she looked at it, she thought loneliness, not peace. Boredom, not relaxation.

  But she knew to say as much would bring more scorn from Sebastian's lips.

  'It's very beautiful,' she said at last.

  She could feel his eyes upon her but refused to look over and see his scepticism.

  'Do you like to swim?' he said. 'I come down here for a swim most nights during the week before dinner. It's usually deserted by then. You can come with me, if you like.'

  The idea both terrified and fascinated her. To swim in that secluded cove in that warm-looking water with a near-naked Sebastian every evening. The scenario evoked erotic thoughts in her head and a fierce longing in her body.

  'You don't have to take your pretence that far, Sebastian,' she said stiffly.

  'Evie will suggest it,' he retorted. 'I was just getting in first. It's a large enough area. You don't have to swim anywhere near me.'

  'All right, then,' she agreed tersely while thinking she was insane. What was she trying to do to herself? 'Now, do you think we might go up to the shopping centre and the bank?'

  'No more sight-seeing this morning?'

  'Not today. We don't have to do everything in one day, surely. I'm going to be here a whole month.'

  'You could be here a year, Jess, and I doubt we'd do everything,' he said dryly.

  Jessica suspected she'd just heard a snide double entendre, but she treated his words at face value. 'I had no idea Norfolk Island offered such a variety of entertainment.'

  His expression remained bland, though the corner of his mouth twitched a little. 'I'm sure you didn't. Perhaps I'll be able to surprise you.'

  'I'll look forward to it.'

  He looked at her and laughed. 'I have to admire your capacity for pretence, Jess. I only hope I'll be able to keep up with you. So what are these personal items you are so desperate for?' he asked as he backed out of the parking spot and headed the way they'd come.

  'Nail polish and remover,' she admitted, then cringed at how pathetic that sounded.

  He glanced at her perfectly manicured and polished fingernails before lancing her with a questioning look. 'For my toenails,' she added. 'Their polish is chipped and I didn't bring any red with me. I always wear red on my toes.'

  'Chipped toenail polish,' he drawled. 'A true eme
rgency, indeed.'

  Jessica refused to let him niggle her, no matter what he said. 'So I don't like chipped toenail polish,' she answered lightly. 'Is there any real harm in that?'

  'I guess not. To town then, and the shops. I might buy myself a decent hairbrush while I'm there. I do have one but most of the teeth are missing. Can't have you leaving me for dead in the grooming department, can I?'

  'But what will Evie say,' Jessica mocked, 'if you come to lunch looking neat and tidy? She might think you'd fallen in love with me and are trying to impress me.'

  'I don't much care what Evie thinks. You'll know the truth, Jess, and that's all that matters.'

  'The truth?'

  'That there isn't a chance in hell of my falling in love with you. You see, I don't like my women tough and hard and ambitious. I like them soft and sentimental and obliging. Most of all, I like them to like me. I'm funny that way.' He flashed her a patently false smile. 'But you can pretend, if you like.'

  'Pretend what?'

  'That you like me. You could even try soft and sentimental and obliging, for a change. And I could respond with pretend passion in my eyes. Evie would be delighted.'

  Suddenly, Jessica felt like she wanted to cry. Couldn't he see she wasn't cold or hard at all? If she was, he wouldn't be able to hurt her like this with his cruel barbs.

  'I'm not much, of a one for pretending,' she said thickly. 'So just shut up and drive me to town. I'm suddenly very bored with this conversation and with this tour.'

  'Oh, well, I wouldn't want to bore you.'

  He sped up the hill, doing more than fifty, she noted ruefully. But wild horses wouldn't have dragged a remark from her. Or a protest. Shopping was swift and silent. Lunch was swift and silent. The afternoon was not swift, nor silent.

  'I hate him,' Jessica muttered as she paced noisily around her room. 'Hate him. Hate him. Hate him.'

  'For pity's sake will you shut up in there?' Sebastian called through the walls.

  'I can't concentrate with you prowling around like a caged lion, mumbling away to yourself. Go for a drive or something, will you? Just be back in time for us to go for our swim.'

  Jessica stalked onto the veranda and along to his room. She stood in the doorway, hands on hips, glaring at him. The trouble was she was glaring at his back. He was seated at the writing desk in the corner, tapping away on the keyboard of a small PC. 'I don't know if you've noticed,' she snapped,

  'but it's begun to rain.'

  'So?' He swivelled round from his PC to look at her.

  'I don't want to drive around into the rain. I also won't want to go swimming in the rain.'

  'Why not? The water's lovely and warm when it rains.'

  'To be honest, Sebastian, I don't much enjoy swimming.'

  'Why not?'

  'I'm not very good at it.'

  'Practice makes perfect. Besides, you've nothing else to do except paint your nails.'

  'Thank you for reminding me. That should take me all of ten minutes.'

  'You could weed the garden, if you like.'

  'In the rain, with freshly painted nails?'

  'It won't rain for long. It never does. It's stopping as I speak. As for the nails, leave them till last.'

  She sighed. 'This is going to be a long month.'

  'Amen to that,' he agreed, and turned to stare at the screen of his PC. 'Just go and do something, Jess. Anything. But do it quietly.'

  Jessica glared at his steadfastly turned back, then whirled and stalked to her room. In the end, she did weed the garden, angrily at first, snatching the weeds out and swearing under her breath. But gradually, she began to quite enjoy the feeling of satisfaction that came with seeing each bed become clear of the offending and highly unattractive weeds. She couldn't do the whole garden in one afternoon, of course. So she set herself goals, deciding to do so much each day till it was done.

  After she'd finished her goal for that day she took her slightly aching but much happier body inside, where she showered at length to get the kinks out of her legs and shoulders, then lay down for a small rest before doing her nails.

  They never did get done, for she promptly fell asleep, not waking for a couple of hours.

  'Where's Sebastian?' she asked when she emerged, yawning, to find Evie preparing dinner in the kitchen. The clock on the wall said five-thirty. The delicious smell from the oven indicated a roast dinner.

  'He's gone for a swim. He said not to wake you.'

  'Oh.' Jessica wasn't sure if she was disappointed or relieved.

  'You know, I'm surprised you two haven't taken to each other more. Two smart good-looking people like yourselves. I would have thought you'd get on like a house on fire. And I'd have thought Sebastian would be glad of your company, instead of avoiding it. He's been very lonely since Lucy's death.'

  The thought of Sebastian being lonely, or missing her aunt, would never have occurred to Jessica. Yet it had occurred to Evie, who obviously knew Sebastian a lot better than she did, and had seen first-hand the nature of his relationship with Aunt Lucy.

  Jessica could have kicked herself. There she'd been asking Evie all sorts of questions about her aunt and her mother, and she hadn't thought to ask her the one question she was dying to know the answer to.

  'Tell me, Evie,' she began a little nervously. 'Were Lucy and Sebastian lovers?'

  Evie shot her a startled look. 'Have you been listening to local gossip?'

  'No. I just wondered. Has there been local gossip about them?'

  'In a place as small as this? Yes, of course, there was. Heaps.'

  'Well? Were they?'

  Evie shrugged. 'I don't really know. If they were, they certainly hid it well. If you want my guess, I'd say not.'

  'Wouldn't Lucy have told you?'

  'Oh, no. Lucy and I were friends, but she never was one to confide personal details. Or even to gossip. Of course, there's always talk when a handsome young man is staying in the same house as a good-looking widow. And believe me, Lucy was a fine-looking woman when Sebastian first arrived. She looked many years younger than her age back then. It was the cancer that aged her.'

  'I see,' Jessica said slowly, her disappointment acute. She'd been hoping Evie would clear up the matter one way or another. 'What do you think of Sebastian, Evie? Do you like him?'

  'Yes, I do,' she said firmly. 'I didn't at first. But he's changed a lot over the past three years. For the better, I might add. He was very good to Lucy after she became ill. Very kind and caring. Nothing was too much trouble. Many's the time he sat with her all night when she was in pain. I can't speak too highly of him. I'm only sorry he hasn't chosen to show his good side to you. Perhaps he's upset that you're going to sell,' she finished with a reproachful glance.

  Jessica didn't know what to think.

  The sound of a car coming up the drive put paid to any thinking at all.

  'That will be Sebastian now,' Evie said. 'You could always ask him yourself about his relationship with Lucy, you know? Though on second thought, perhaps not. He certainly hasn't taken to you, has he?'

  Jessica had to laugh. 'You could say that.'

  'Surprising. You're such a good-looking girl.'

  'I'd better go freshen up for dinner,' Jessica said hurriedly when she heard the car door slam. The thought of Sebastian joining them in nothing but a wet swimming costume was unnerving in the extreme.

  The white cheesecloth outfit made a reappearance for dinner, not because she was trying to attract Sebastian this time—difficult to attract a man who despised you— but because she didn't want him to make some sarcastic comment about her wearing a different outfit every day. She waffled over leaving her hair down and in the end put it up in a sleek French roll. Sebastian presented himself at the dinner table wearing those appalling jeans again and a navy blue sleeveless T-shirt which darkened his eyes to midnight blue in the dimly lit dining room. Another bandanna—navy this time—kept his hair out of his eyes.

  He looked utterly gorgeous. It was i
mpossible for her to keep her eyes off him. His opinion of her appearance was not similarly admiring, if the curl of his top lip was anything to go by as he sat down.

  'I see you managed not to come swimming with me after all,' he remarked sourly. 'I'd prefer you to say you don't want to come rather than pretend to be asleep every afternoon.'

  'Very well,' she said with a weary sigh when she realised he was going to keep the antagonism going between them. Jessica fell unhappily silent and began playing idly with her cutlery.

  'What's wrong with you tonight?' he snapped abruptly. 'Are you sick, or something?'

  Jessica's chin lifted, her jaw clenching. 'Not at all.'

  It was a struggle from that point to keep the conversation from deteriorating into a sniping match, though to control her temper, Jessica drank most of the claret Evie served with the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. She toyed with the thought of apologising to him for all the rotten things she'd thought about him, but in the end abandoned the idea. What was the point? Come the end of the month she would be gone from here, never to return. Sebastian would be a thing of the past, nothing but a bad memory.

  'At least your sleep seems to have done your earlier mood some good,' he drawled over dessert—another fat-producing pudding complete with custard.

  'I wasn't in a mood earlier,' she denied.

  His eyebrows lifted. 'You mean you're usually like a cat on a hot tin roof?'

  Jessica stared at him across the bowl of pink hibiscus. Was she so obvious? Surely he hadn't guessed he'd reduced her to a state of acute sexual frustration the like of which she'd never known before.

  The cold gleam in his eyes gave him away. He was just trying to stir her. It came to Jessica then that whilst Sebastian might not be a callous fortune hunter, he was still a bit of a bastard.

  'It might have escaped you, Sebastian,' she said shortly, 'but all this hasn't been easy for me.'

  'Really? I haven't seen you suffering in any way.'

  The bitter laugh escaped Jessica's lips before she could stop it. She'd never known such suffering, such torment. Even looking at him across the table had become torture, she wanted him so much.