Seductive Stranger

by Charlotte Lamb

  'I'm sorry,' she said, drying her hands and trying to look busy. 'I haven't got time to talk, I'm off any minute to pick up David at the hospital!'

  'No, you're not!' His peremptory voice put her back up; she threw the towel down and glared at him.

  'Whatever you want to say will have to wait!' she muttered. 'They'll be ringing me any time now, and then I'll be driving to the hospital.'

  'Your fiancé has already left,' Josh said, his eyes hard and watchful.

  She stared at him blankly.

  'What?'

  'He left two hours ago.'

  Prue looked at the door, as if expecting David to walk through it any moment.

  'No!' Josh said in a flat voice. 'He isn't here.'

  'Where is he, then? What's happened? Why did he leave the hospital without letting me know . . .' Her voice died away as she stared into Josh's furious eyes, and she became afraid.

  'I don't know where he is—yet!' Josh said through his teeth. 'But I'll find him—and when I do, I'll break his neck!'

  The violence in his voice made Prue flinch away from him, her green eyes huge and troubled. 'What are you talking about?'

  'He's run off,' Josh said hoarsely. 'And he's taken my sister with him!'

  Frozen, Prue whispered, 'Run off? David? But where has he gone? I don't understand what you're talking about! What has your sister got to do with David?'

  'I told you,' Josh said, his dark eyes stabbing at her as if he blamed her for whatever had happened. 'They've gone off together . . . Lynsey and that bastard!'

  'I don't believe you!' Prue said, but she began to feel cold, her skin lost all its colour and her eyes darkened with fear.

  Josh gave a rough sigh of irritation, shrugging. '1 wish it wasn't true, too, God knows! But it is. Look, I only heard by accident—my shepherd cut his hand on a scythe early today, cutting back brambles, and his wife drove him to the hospital to have it stitched and to get tetanus jabs. When they got back, I went to their cottage to check that he was OK, and they mentioned seeing Lynsey driving away from the hospital. That rocked me, because she hadn't mentioned going to the hospital, so I asked if they were sure and they said yes, they'd know her car anywhere. It's an old banger of mine; I gave it to her for her last birthday, to help her pass her test. I'd had it for years, so they weren't likely to be mistaken.'

  Prue tensely interrupted, 'But you said she left with David!'

  'She did!' Josh irritably told her.

  'But how could your shepherd know that? He doesn't know David.'

  'He didn't know who the man was with her, he just knew there was a man in the passenger seat, but his wife, who had had to sit in the foyer while he was seeing the doctor, had seen Lynsey collect the man the from one of the wards.'

  'But why on earth jump to the conclusion that it was David?' Prue was disturbed, but she couldn't believe that any of this was true. After all, Lynsey had only met David once, and anyway, she was just a teenager! David wouldn't run off with some eighteen-year-old! '

  'I rang the hospital! They told me Henley had left with Lynsey,' Josh said harshly, and she stared at him, her stomach churning, and heard the clock ticking, heard water dripping in the kitchen sink, and outside a bird singing with melancholy persistence somewhere among the leafless wintry trees. Such small domestic sounds, yet they were like nails being driven into her flesh.

  'Then she's bringing him here,' Prue said in a thin, dry voice, through lips turned white and shaky.

  Josh watched her expressionlessly, shaking his head, and she picked up a flash of pity in those dark eyes, and it made her even wilder; her voice taking on an edge of desperation.

  'She must be . . . they'll be here soon . . you're crazy, jumping to conclusions…'

  'I know most of the staff pretty well,' Josh said flatly, interrupting.

  'My family built the original hospital…'

  'I know,' she said bitterly. 'I went to school here until I was thirteen, remember? I don't need a local history lesson about how the Killanes gave the money to build the cottage hospital. They told us all about it, and told us how grateful we ought to be!'

  Her very obvious lack of gratitude didn't seem to bother Josh too much, although he did give her a faintly wry glance.

  'They still call one of the wards Killane,' he said. 'And I'm on several committees concerned with the day-to-day running of the place, so I knew that all I had to do was ring the head porter, Phil Maley—he knows everything that goes on in the hospital. I asked if Lynsey had arrived yet, and he cheerfully told me she'd already collected your fiancé.' Josh smiled; it wasn't a very pleasant smile and Prue winced.

  'He thought I knew all about it, of course! He knows your father is my tenant and it seemed very natural that Lynsey should drive over to pick your fiancé up.'

  'Well, isn't it?' Prue burst out.

  Josh shook his head. 'No, that…'

  She broke in angrily, 'Why not? Why shouldn't she have called in by chance, discovered that David could leave at once, and offered him a lift back to the farm? That must be what's happened.' Her voice picked up, she almost smiled. 'Yes, that's it! Probably, your sister is taking the long way round from the hospital . . . sightseeing . . . she may have called in somewhere else, on friends, not realising that David is still weak and should go straight to bed. I'd say that that is the most plausible explanation.'

  Josh gave her a wry smile. 'Plausible maybe, but it isn't true, I'm afraid!'

  'How can you possibly know?' she asked, dreading his answer.

  Josh pulled a crumpled letter out of his pocket and Prue's eyes focused on it blindly, her face growing even whiter.

  'Lynsey gave this to a nurse to post. When I went over to the hospital, they gave it to me.'

  He held it out but Prue didn't take it, shaking her head. 'I don't want to read your letter! What does she say?'

  'It wasn't addressed to me, and it isn't from Lynsey.'

  'You said Lynsey gave it to a nurse to post!'

  'She did, but she didn't write the letter. He did. They meant it to be posted, so that you wouldn't get it until tomorrow morning/ His mouth was cynical, distasteful. 'They wanted to make sure of getting away before anyone found out what they were planning.' He pushed the envelope at Prue, and this time she took it with trembling fingers and turned it over and over, staring down at it.

  'You've opened it!'

  'And read it,' said Josh coolly. 'I had to know what it said.'

  'You had no right to open a letter addressed to me!'

  'I was in a hurry. I didn't know what was going on, I just knew that my sister was up to something. I even wondered if you and your fiancé had both gone with Lynsey, if you were in some sort of conspiracy to spirit her away so that she didn't have to go back to university! But when I was given that letter, I realised they wouldn't be writing to you if you were going off with them, so I opened the letter and read it.'

  Prue unfolded the crumpled paper and stared at David's sprawling, untidy handwriting. She was in such a state that she could hardly make out one word in three, but the word sorry leapt out at her over and over again. She read it, and lifted her head, her face stricken.

  'He says they're in love . . .'

  'I know, I read it, remember!' Josh interrupted impatiently.

  'They're getting married right away, as soon as they can get a licence,'

  she said over him, as if he hadn't spoken, and then she laughed with bitter irony. 'We've been engaged for a year! For one reason or another, it was never the right time to get married, and we were quite happy to wait; after all, we had all our lives ahead of us.' She held up the letter, staring at Josh. 'But he wants to marry her at once!'

  'Not if I can stop it,' Josh said, watching her tensely.

  'But I don't understand any of it,' Prue said, her green eyes bewildered. .'They barely now each other! David's been in hospital ever since we got here - and I've been visiting him every day. How can they be in love?'

  Josh's face was d
ark with angry blood. 'Lynsey has been visiting him too, ever since that first time, when she took him those flowers. She obviously took one look and fell for him. My God, if I'd known I'd have packed her off to university again before her feet could touch the ground, but then she knew how I'd feel if I ever found out. She took great trouble to hide:, what she was up to!' Josh gave a thick groan.

  'She seems to have made the running, it may not be his fault as much as hers.' The admission was reluctant, irritated, and then he burst out,

  'Although how he could dump you to run off with an eighteen-year-old girl, God only knows.'

  The word 'dump' made Prue wince; her pallor growing more pronounced and her green eyes all dilated pupil; black with pain.

  'He was probably flattered,' Josh said, mouth twisting. 'Most men would be—Lynsey's beautiful, even if she is Just a kid. Having her throwing herself at him must have turned his head, not that that excuses what he's done. He should have known better, he's years older than her, and they hardly know each other, even if she has been visiting him every day for the last couple of weeks.'

  Prue had been thinking about that, and a sudden wave of violent hot colour ran up her face. 'Oh, she really meant to get him, didn't she?'

  Josh shrugged, his mouth indented. 'She's the age for obsessions; for seeing things just from her own angle.'

  'Don't blame her age!' Prue said bitterly. 'She's a Killane—that's why she did it!'

  Josh looked at her sharply, eyes narrowed.

  'She's her mother's daughter,' Prue flung at him. 'It's the same pattern, isn't it? Your mother stole my father, even though she didn't really want him at all. And David was mine, so your sister had to have him!

  I don't suppose this is even the first time she's gone after another girl's man. With some women it just makes it more exciting, knowing they're stealing a man from someone else. He's been very ill and he still isn't back to normal; he doesn't know what he's doing, she's bewitched him into going away with her . . . it isn't David's fault, any of this, it's hers.' She was talking in a high, shaking voice, her eyes feverish and her body trembling, and Josh was staring at her fixedly, his brows black above his black eyes.

  'You're hysterical; stop talking like that!' he said curtly, but she wouldn't stop; the words kept pouring out of her in a molten lava, and she felt confused about why she was so sick and angry. She didn't know if the pain was over her father or over David, only that the echo of an old betrayal was sounding in her ears like surf in a sea shell.

  Talking helped her to stave off tears, so she kept talking.

  'I know now how my mother felt!' she said huskily, swallowing.

  'When I remember how fed up I used to get with listening to her . . .

  but I hadn't been there then, I didn't know!' She broke off, biting her lower, lip to stop it shaking. 'I should never have come back here, but it never entered my head that I'd lose David, that it might all happen again. I remember being surprised that day she took David flowers, it seemed an odd thing to do, but I misunderstood, I thought she did it to score off me, make me feel thoughtless and stupid because I hadn't thought of giving him flowers, and all the time she had made up her mind there and then to steal him from me, the way your mother stole my father . . .'

  Josh slapped her face and the wild, hoarse words stopped in a gasp.

  She stared at him, green eyes huge and blank for a second, then the tears welled up in them and Josh grabbed her, his arms round her, while she began to cry, shaking and sobbing.

  She let him hold her, her face buried in his chest, the ribbing of his sweater pressing against her skin, although she wasn't aware of it at the time. His hand cupped the back of her head, slowly moved over her hair, gently stroking it, comforting her, while she cried out all the rage and pain which had made her close to hysterical.

  She gradually stopped crying but she didn't move, her body still quivering with the hurricane of emotion which had swept through it.

  Face hidden against Josh's chest, she fought to control her breathing, sneaked up a hand to brush over her wet face, gave a shuddering sigh.

  Then the hand stroking her hair suddenly clenched on a handful of it and pulled her head back.

  'Don't!' she protested. 'That hurts!'

  Josh didn't let go; his hand ruthlessly enforcing pressure, he made her look up at him, his dark eyes probing her face.

  'Isn't it time you were honest with yourself?' he asked, his mouth sardonic, and she frowned, the tear-wet lashes drooping to hide her eyes from him.

  'Don't you talk to me about being honest. One of your family has no business mentioning the word honesty to one of mine!'

  'You don't love him!' Josh said tersely and she drew a sharp, appalled breath.

  'Let go of me!' She fought him breathlessly, her hands curled into fists, punching him, and Josh had to let go of her hair, but only to put both arms around her again, making it impossible for her to get her hands free.

  'You . . . you . . . Killane!' she raged. 'Stop touching me like that—I hate it!'

  He put his head down close to hers and she hurriedly averted her face, but could not stop his cheek touching her own, or silence his whisper against her ear. 'No, you don't—and you don't love him, either!'

  Her face burned, then went white again. 'Do you - think I don't know what you're doing?' she muttered, staring at the kitchen window over his shoulder, watching the sun shine through the leafless branches of a thorn tree, and hating Josh even more than she hated his sister. 'You want me to give David up without a protest. Your little sister wants him, so I must be convinced that I never loved him. We must make it easier for Lynsey, mustn't we? She's a Killane, and the Killanes must always get what they want!'

  'You must be fond of him, I'm sure you are,' said Josh coolly, ignoring her accusations. 'But love is very different, Prue—you know that, so don't lie to yourself, even if you feel you must lie to me.' His cheek was against hers, his flesh warm, his skirt rougher than her own as he rubbed his face backward and forward against her cheek. She could smell the musky scent of his aftershave, and hear his breathing, feel his chest rise and fall against her breasts as his lungs drew in air and exhaled it. Their bodies were breathing in the same rhythm, their hearts beating with the same over-rapid excitement.

  'Don't talk to me about love!' she broke out, angry with herself as much as him because he was getting to her, just as he always had, right from their first meeting The violence of her reactions to him scared her as much now as it had then, and she was desperate to stop him saying any more. She didn't want to hear the things he was saying; she didn't want them to be true.

  'Why not?' he asked softly, a thread of mockery in his voice, turning his head a little so that his mouth moved on her earlobe, the warmth of his breath and his lips making her shudder. 'Why mustn't I talk about love, Prue? Why are you so scared?'

  'You're all the same, you Killanes, aren't you?' she said thickly, shifting her head to escape the teasing brush of his mouth.

  'Sooner or later you've got to face the truth.' His lips touched her neck, as gently as a feather gliding over her skin, making her shiver. The kiss drifted slowly down her throat towards her cheek, inflicting pain and pleasure, coming closer and closer to her quivering mouth; insidious, seductive, tormenting. She tried to wriggle free but couldn't; his hands held her prisoner.

  Josh was stronger and he had no scruples about using his strength. He wasn't hurting her, she almost wished he was, it would make it easier to bear, make it easier to fight. As it was, she had to force herself to struggle, to free her arms. She was struggling to free her senses, too, from the spell he was weaving around them, but she hoped he didn't know that. She would hate Josh to know he had almost beaten her.

  Tensing herself from head to foot, she said furiously, 'Let go! I don't want you touching me, I don't want you kissing me or flirting with me—any of it! You're just like the rest of your family!'

  He stiffened, his hands releasing her for a second and t
hen catching hold of her again, gripping her shoulders so tightly that she winced.

  'What are you accusing me of now?' he asked with a kind of weary impatience.

  'Don't think you fooled me for an instant, not even at the start!' she said, her green eyes full of hate. 'You were very obvious! Once you knew I was engaged, you started chasing me, the way your little sister chased David . . . you're all the same, you Killanes—the grass is always greener on the other side of the wall! You only want what other people have!'

  'That's not true,' he said, his face all angles and those dark eyes filled with angry heat, and a sort of surprise, but then he hadn't expected her to work it out, to realise why he had made passes at her even though he knew she was engaged.

  'Oh, yes, it is! I suppose you thought I was too dumb to realise what you were doing? Well, I'm not! You didn't take me in, not for a second.'

  'Stop talking nonsense!' Josh said, through tight lips.

  it isn't nonsense; it's the truth and it's no good denying it! Your mother flirted with my father, but she hasn't married him. You knew I was engaged, but you've flirted with me. Your sister knew David was engaged, but she flirted with him. The only difference was that David fell for it—he took it seriously and she's had to take it seriously, too.

  She's run off with him. But how long will it last? Will she get bored with him before they've actually fixed a wedding day?'

  'What if she did?' Josh asked, his eyes narrowing on her.

  'What if she did?' Prue repeated, staring back with distaste. 'Who cares, is that it? She'll have her fun, and then she'll get bored, she'll walk out on poor David, and she'll come home . . . wagging her tail behind her!' She began to laugh wildly, her eyes wide and glistening with unshed tears, and Josh watched her, his face grim.

  'That wasn't what I meant! If she does leave him, will you take him back? That was what I wanted to know!'

  Prue hadn't even thought of that, but she thought of it then, eyes shadowed, and knew that she wouldn't, that it was all over between her and David. She never wanted to see him again; he had humiliated her, betrayed her, just as her father had betrayed her mother. It might be David who had jilted her, but it was she who felt the shame and the guilt. She could never look him in the face again.