The Girl at Danes' Dyke - Margaret Rome

by Margaret Rome

  Wisely, she left him to seethe huddling as far away as possible from the red-haired giant whose rough overtures she had rejected, yet sobbing inwardly, regretful of being deprived of the warm teasing companionship he had so fleetingly extended. She stole a quick glance at the man crouched over the wheel, noting once again the incredible physical likeness between himself and his twin. His clean-shaven face was grim, but earlier she had been fascinated by cheeks slashed with deep, humorous clefts whenever he grinned. And for most of the day his mouth had been kind…

  Hair the colour of rich autumn chestnuts, groomed to perfection, tapering down the length of his cheeks into rakish sideburns, copied Britt's style so exactly she could not help but wonder if he had been purposely imitative. All his life he had lived in the shadow of his brother's charm, envying him his gift of easy assurance, his ability to attract admiration as easily as a flame attracts moths. Raine caught a sharp breath. Could it be that today Thor had set out to prove something to himself? Might not the roughness of his approach have had its origins in experience and could the reluctance she had sensed have been caused by frustration born of deep shyness?

  She screwed her eyes tightly shut to blot out the picture that had formed. Stamped on her mind was the image of a man—outwardly arrogant, inwardly shy—nerving himself to overcome his lack of confidence with the opposite sex only to be insulted and humiliated for his pains 1 Her remorse was so great she almost cried out, so intensely ashamed it was as much as she could do to withhold a plea for forgiveness and lack of understanding—a plea she had to hold back or else risk humiliating him further by betraying an insight into his innermost feelings…

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Vulcan, fiercely resentful, and with tear-streaked face and mutinous, accusing eyes, rushed to meet them when the car swung into the drive. 'Where have you been?' he stormed. 'You might have taken me with you, I've had a dreadful day!'

  At the sight of his quivering bottom lip Raine dropped her parcels and bent to give him a comforting hug. He responded by burying wet cheeks in her neck, his small arms tightening fit to choke.

  Before she could attempt to soothe him, a storm erupted when Janice and Britt rounded the corner of the house in hot pursuit of their delinquent son.

  'There you are, you horrible boy!' Janice raged, her cheeks an unbecoming red. Britt, his cool negligence completely routed, strode angrily forward, obviously intent upon administering punishment for some unknown misdeed, and Raine, feeling the small frame going alarmingly tense, immediately straightened and pushed Vulcan behind her for protection.

  Britt halted in mid-stride, his eyebrows winging, then after seconds of surprised appraisal emitted a slow, incredulous whistle. 'What a transformation! he murmured, his eyes kindling. 'I'm now beginning to understand my brother's haste to make you his wife.'

  Janice seemed too nonplussed to speak. Her hard glance raked Raine from head to foot, questioning her right to contrast so daintily cool, so femininely fetching, against her own heated dishevelment. Her look swung to Thor, and the jealousy she was feeling found release in a sneering taunt.

  'So once again you're attempting to imitate your brother! Will you never learn that to look alike is not enough? Britt's charm is inherited from his mother, whereas you, Thor, have too much of your father in your make-up ever to achieve success with the opposite sex.'

  Raine was slow to anger, but Janice's spiteful remarked provoked her into an action which in other circumstances she would not have dared to even contemplate. Thor was walking into the house, his set features gaining Janice no hint of satisfaction, when she ran forward and slipped a possessive arm into the crook of his elbow.

  'How well you hide your talents, darling! Luckily for me, otherwise I might spend half my life fighting off other women. I'm very selfish, I much prefer having you all to myself!'

  Her loving look caught him off guard. Green eyes flashed sparks as their glances held and for a long, breathless minute time stood still, the universe holding just the two of them—the only two that mattered!

  She drowned in his green eyes, surfacing only long enough to encourage with a smile his decision to play up to their interested audience. He began by squeezing her hand, then, just when she was expecting a follow-up of empty words, his arm whipped around her waist and he bent to kiss her, a sweet, long, lingering kiss of… gratitude? She Was shaken when he released her, far too shaken to relinquish his supporting arm, so they walked together into the house with Vulcan close on their heels, leaving Britt and Janice to stew in their own discomfiture.

  Vulcan poured out his troubles while Raine was unwrapping her parcels and stowing their contents into drawers and wardrobe. Seemingly, after breakfast, once having been notified of their absence, Janice had taken charge.

  'She refused to let me go down to the stables because she thinks they're smelly,' Vulcan informed her with disgust. 'And Britt agreed with her!' This to his mind was the greatest anomaly of all.

  Raine sighed. She had no wish to encourage the boy's attitude towards his parents, but the pair's selfishness did nothing to help further their cause.

  'Then how did you spent the day?' she asked absently, brushing a soft swathe of chiffon against her cheeks.

  'With stupid Plasticine, making stupid flowers an' stupid animals! Who wants to make clay animals when there are real ones outside in the fields?' he exploded.

  Sensing that the worst was yet to come, she prompted, 'So then what did you do?'

  'I skipped out when they weren't looking,' he admitted simply. 'Then we played a super game of hide and seek.'

  'Your parents being the seekers, no doubt,' she concluded, picking up a tissue to hide her twitching lips.

  He nodded. 'Right up until you and Thors arrived home. Why did you go without me?' His offhand question hid real hurt. 'I thought you liked me?'

  'Oh, I do, darling, I do, but today Thor and I had business to attend to and had we taken you with us you would have been hopelessly bored. Besides,' .she hesitated to voice the opinion, 'you ought really to be getting to know your parents better, they love you very much and you must learn to love them in return.'

  'You don't learn to-love, like-you learn reading and sums!' he scoffed with devastating logic. 'Love just grows!'

  'Then you must give it time to grow,' she returned hastily, feeling herself in danger of becoming bogged down in unanswerable discussion. 'But right -now it's time for your supper, run along downstairs, I'll pop in to see you when you are ready for bed.'

  Love just grows! 'Out of the mouths of babes…' Raine murmured as she sank down on the bed to examine at leisure her newly-discovered love for the Titian-haired giant. How had it come about, this great ache of tenderness, this desire to protect and cherish the man who hid his needs beneath a hide of tough aloofness? In any future confrontations she would need constantly to remind herself of his need of understanding; to soothe his arrogance with charm, to combat his anger with reason and to support him in every way she could against the abrasive qualities of his family.

  She pressed a hot cheek against cool sheets, the memory of the clumsy brutality of his first kiss erased by the storming gentleness of the second. Gratitude, of course, had motivated the impulsive embrace. By her display of loyalty, her hints of intimacy too cherished to be shared, by teasing him as only a loved one would dare, she had confused his enemies, thereby earning his passionless salute.

  'Thor!' she whispered, searching the painfully blank ceiling, 'how can you be convinced that you are truly loved?'

  She had almost finished dressing for dinner when there was a rap on the connecting door. A second later he entered, so assuredly that the suspicion grew that he was now regarding the favour more as a right than a privilege. Raine harnessed an impulse to smile, wary of betraying herself to the man she knew would shy from feminine advances as instinctively as a rabbit from a snare.

  Consequently she was cool, merely nodding briefly before continuing the task of arranging her hair. Through th
e mirror she watched him as he prowled, sailor's strides, firm, purposeful, but within the confines of her room, advancing nowhere. His thoughts, it seemed, were similarly frustrating, because he paused as if to speak, then snapped his jaw and continued his restless pacing.

  Her heart jerked, but she forced herself to ignore the brooding giant, unfamiliar in a dark dinner jacket that complemented perfectly his handsome, clean-shaven features and arrogantly held head.

  'There's something I had intended to give you in York, but the opportunity didn't arise…' The staccato words jerked from his lips, startling her around to face him. He was holding an object in his huge fist, and as her puzzled eyes questioned he thrust it towards her, then strode across to the window leaving her clutching two minute boxes bound in white leather.

  She knew what they continued before she opened them, but was not prepared for the breathtaking beauty of deep blue sapphires clustered around a diamond set in platinum and a wedding ring of broad gold inscribed 'Thor and Raine' followed by the date of her arrival at Danes' Dyke.

  'Thor, why…?'

  'They're a necessary part of the charade,' he clipped without turning.

  'Perhaps, but much less expensive stones would have sufficed—these must have cost the earth, you'll not get back half what you paid for them when you come to resell…" She faltered at the thought, already in love with the twinkling baubles.

  His frown lightened fractionally as he approached. 'Let's see if they fit.' His fingers felt cool against her wrist as he slid the wedding ring on to her third finger. For an unbearably intimate moment they stood looking silently down at the plain band that was an emblem of togetherness, of love and deep, abiding commitment. She stifled a sob, feeling a weight of regret and not a little shame. Deceit was abhorrent to her, but she had pledged her support and could not go back on her word.

  'Thunder and rain,' he mused, 'two elements that have been wedded-together since earth began —do you think you could withstand my turbulence for a lifetime, gentle Raine?'

  To ease her constricted throat she choked out a laugh, grabbing at humour to protect her riotous feelings. He could be enjoying a jest at her expense, so a smoke-screen of unconcern was essential.

  'Rain has a reputedly devastating effect even upon stone, its constant dripping has been known to change the shape of mountains…'

  'Then there's hope for me yet,' he answered gravely, 'provided you are agreeable to attempting the impossible?'

  Her puzzlement required an explanation he seemed to find difficulty in framing. Clenched fists thrust deep into his pockets betrayed a nervousness completely alien, and a surge of colour accompanied �words that jerked from his lips with acute embarrassment.

  'What Janice said is quite true, I am an uncouth lout, at ease only in the company of men. I haven't known many women,' her heart lurched as he groped on, 'but what small experience I've had has taught me that they expect to be charmed and flattered and to have smooth courtesies extended by well-mannered escorts. Such things are beyond me,' he admitted simply. 'In the presence of women I become tongue-fled and clumsy—apt to spill drinks over dresses or tread on toes.' He paused, and Raine waited, unsure of the point he was trying to make yet loath to interrupt the heart-baring he was finding agonizing. That's why I'm asking for your help,' he rushed out the words, running a finger around the inside of his collar as if longing to rip the constriction from his neck..

  To. have -pretended to misunderstand would have been cruel, so , although uncertain of the exact nature of his needs, she did not hesitate. 'I'll be glad to help in any way I can.'

  His relief was tremendous. Immediately his large frame relaxed and the frown creasing his forehead disappeared as he sat down on the edge of her bed and smiled at her an invitation to join him. Cautiously she approached, wondering what further heartache lay in store, and discovered in the following seconds the enormity of the gulf between his feelings and her own.

  'I felt sure you would understand. You're the only woman with whom I've ever been completely at ease, and with your help I'm sure I can overcome this stupid awkwardness that's prevented me from finding a wife.'

  She went so still that he laughed, a self-deprecating sound holding no pretensions of mirth. 'Is the idea of my cherishing the same desires as other men son shocking?' he challenged. 'Believe me, the urge to feel the softness of a woman's body in my bed often keeps me awake at night! 'Desire is not confined to the Britts of this world—unattractive brutes such as myself are also blessed, or rather cursed, with sexual appetite.’

  Raiae.strove to appear calm. His confession had shocked, not because its- betrayed desire but because it betrayed lack of desire—for love: Carefully she chose her words. 'Is that all marriage means to you, a woman to share your bed, a means of satisfying an appetite? Don't you think…' she stumbled in her distress, 'you ought to seek more than physical compatibility from any woman with whom you propose to share your life?'

  She did not blame him solely for the puzzlement he portrayed. He had never known the influence .of a loving mother or felt part of a family united by happy, caring parents. His father had become embittered of the woman who had borne his sons and had sown seeds of contempt in the mind of a youth who, now a man, was left grappling with the bitter harvest.

  'I don't think so,' he frowned…

  She gave up. The issue was far too complex. "Oh, very well, what exactly do you want me to do?'

  He pushed aside her vexing poser to concentrate on an explanation. 'Being a woman you're bound to be aware of my shortcomings, and what 'I’d like you to do is point out where I go wrong. For instance,' he edged nearer, warming to his subject, 'this afternoon when I kissed you —— what was it that caused you to turn on me like an outraged virgin?' Noting her sweep of confused colour; he hastened to add, ‘I’m casting no reflection on you, you were probably perfectly justified in reacting the way you did, but I'd like to understand why. What is it about me that women find repulsive?'

  'You're not repulsive!' she gasped, indignant, on his behalf.

  'Then what?' he persisted with such blind helplessness she was forced to be truthful.

  'Your:… your approach is all wrong,' she stammered, wishing he would stop, willing her to continue.

  Yes, I've gathered that much, but how is it wrong?'

  'It's rather difficult to explain,' she floundered.

  'Tell you what!' He shifted nearer and with dead-pan seriousness slipped an arm around her waist. 'I'll proceed exactly as I did this afternoon, then when I reach the point where my tactics begin to offend you call a halt and we'll begin dissecting from there.'

  Raine stared, unable to believe her ears. With any other man she would immediately have suspected an ulterior motive, but Thor was so unpractised in the art of seduction that such a theory was rendered unthinkable.

  With nautical thoroughness he proceeded step by step to duplicate his actions. Tentatively, he ruffled her hair, seeming to find much pleasure in fingering the soft dark cloud framing piquant features brushed by sudden shyness. Slowly his head lowered until his mouth, wearing the suspicion of a smile, was hovering above her lips as hesitantly as a bee over the fragile petals of a flower. 'May I…?' he breathed, awaiting her permission.

  She nodded and closed her eyes. His arm tightened, pulling her nearer and nearer until her heart was pounding against his muscular chest, but still the kiss was delayed.

  Shyly her arms crept upwards until her fingers found and entwined around strands of fiery hair. She lifted her lips, hungry for contact, every nerve straining for release from the tension built up by his insistence upon this form of clinical analysis. His breath fell hot upon her cheek, his touch seared through her flimsy dress, igniting passion from her and from him a quick, muffled imprecation against the sound of the dinner gong intruding its summons from downstairs.

  The width of the room was between them when she opened her eyes. Bemusedly she watched him thumbing his empty pipe, too overwrought to wonder at the fact
that his knuckles were standing out white on hands far from steady.

  'So far so good!' His hearty cheerfulness shoot her quivering nerves. 'At least we now know that the preliminaries were not at fault, the rest of our investigation must wait until later.'

  Raine managed to nod as she walked towards the door. She never wanted to find herself in the same painful situation again, but to tell him so would arouse his curiosity and she felt she would rather die than allow him to suspect her senseless infatuation.

  Pride made her appear more beautiful than she knew. In a dress pink as spring buds, she swirled passed him and was held, teetering on the toes of silken slippers, when his hand shot out to grip her slender wrist.

  'You're not regretting your promise to help groom me for matrimony?'

  The question was almost her undoing, but she weathered his gimlet glance, feeling sudden affinity with a harpooned whale. 'I'm not altogether certain you're in need of help,' she countered, 'nevertheless, my promise still stands.'

  With much satisfaction, Thor stowed away his pipe, then hooked her arm into the crook of his elbow to escort her downstairs. 'You're a real sport!' The accolade caused her a pained wince. 'Not many women would accept the role of guinea-pig in such an experiment. However, the course I've' plotted should yield some compensations. I've decided that the experience I need can't be gained here at Danes' Dyke, we must move farther afield. Courtship—or in our case, the practising of it— calls for an atmosphere of soft lights, music, exotic food and secluded alcoves conducive to exploratory skirmishes, don't you agree? I believe there are one or two such places in the vicinity, I'll find out their exact location, then perhaps tomorrow evening we can dine out?'

  The statement was framed as a question but needed no answer, so she did not bother to reply. She was a mere pawn in the game he had devised to capture himself a wife. Captain Thor, master-mariner, had charted a course through dangerous waters and would heed not one word of warning about the folly of sailing through unfamiliar shallows. She knew exactly the type of woman that would appeal to him—beautiful, sophisticated, superficial and completely without depth. The sort of woman his brother favoured, the sort his father had favoured. Would Halden men never learn?