Paige moved then, reaching Adam in a split second. "How did you know?" she sobbed. "How did you guess?"
His arms closed around her. "This isn't any way to conduct a romance, kaihana."
She buried her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. "How did you know?"
"I heard Rambo baaing. I was halfway down your road before I realized you wouldn't have left him outside and hungry so long. Then I knew something was wrong."
"And you brought Cornwall with you?"
He laughed humorlessly. "Cornwall was a bonus, I'm afraid. I always knew he wasn't a sheepdog. He's a guard dog. Your guard dog. He surprised me as much as he surprised Armstrong here."
"I'll buy him from you."
"He's a gift. Just don't give him back." His arms tightened. "Will you stop scaring me this way?"
She knew she was going to have to release him, but she wasn't ready yet. Time enough when Hamish woke up. "What are you going to do about Hamish?"
"I was going to the cop shop anyway. I'll just take him along for the ride."
"In the trunk?"
"Boot," he corrected her, tipping her face to his. "We've got to work on your vocabulary."
* * *
With surprising gentleness that Adam loaded Hamish's unconscious body into the back seat of his car for the short trip to town. On the front seat next to Adam, Paige fed Rambo and continued feeding him at the police station, ignoring the amusement of everyone who saw her.
Adam gave his statement; Paige gave hers. Rambo gave his, too, and it was Rambo's that hurried their departure from the station. Hamish was taken into Rotorua for formal booking and hospitalization, and although Adam and Paige were told they might have to clear up the details later, the case against Hamish was strong enough that justice was going to be swift, if not merciful.
"I was going to take a long, hot shower and change into something wonderful," Paige told Adam on the way back home. She didn't add that she had also planned to pack.
"I know what I'd like to see you wear."
"As little as possible?"
"Nothing."
"I won't need to stop at my house for that."
"Good."
The lights were off at Adam's. They settled Rambo in the kitchen next to Cornwall, who had arrived before them. "I have never allowed a dog in my house," Adam said, grimacing as Cornwall and Rambo snuggled together.
"The lion shall lie down with the lamb." Paige stooped to scratch Cornwall's ears.
"I want to lie down with you."
She followed him upstairs. It was a ritual she hoped to observe for the rest of her life. In his room, she held him at a distance. "I never had that shower. I still smell like the thermals."
His eyes glinted in the moonlight-flooded room. "Take off your clothes. I'll run a bath."
Her lips curved into a smile. Adam's water, like the water in her house, was piped in from a hot underground spring. To accommodate that wealth, his tub was huge, a luxury in a house that was otherwise comfortably simple. She stretched lazily like a cat about to get her nightly bowl of cream. "Am I going to have company?"
"I'll be waiting."
"Only as long as it takes to run the water."
When he was gone she undressed, pulling his robe from the closet and wrapping it around her. As she padded down the hall, the robe trailed behind her like the train of the gown she had worn to make her debut. Then she had been told her life was about to begin. Now she knew it truly was.
Adam was in the water when she arrived. The room was fragrant with the good smells of spicy soap and warm, clean man. She unwrapped the robe and let it fall to the floor, stepping into the water and his arms. She sighed as both closed around her.
"Don't ever let go of me again."
Adam said nothing. He just turned her so that her body was sliding wet and warm over his. And then he answered her.
Chapter 19
Paige was wrapped tightly in Adam's arms when she woke up the next morning. Sunlight streamed through the windows, and breakfast perfumed the air. Outside she could hear the baaing of sheep mixed with men's voices.
Still snuggled close to Adam, she fumbled for her watch on the nightstand. "Eight-thirty?"
"Go back to sleep." Before she could sit up, Adam pinned her close with one leg thrown over hers.
"Adam, we can't go back to sleep."
He cut her off. "We can do what we please. I'd say yesterday earned us both a day of rest."
She couldn't agree more, except for one thing. "My parents are going to be here in an hour."
She felt the change in his body as he went from supremely relaxed to ramrod stiff. "How do you know?"
Mentally she berated herself for not telling him the night before. But everything had been so perfect, and they had been too busy to talk. "Granny told me last night." She tried to make a joke of it. "Sometime in between your attempted murder and my kidnapping."
"And you didn't tell me?"
"Well, a few things were going on."
He pushed her away, a gentle push, but a push nonetheless. "I see."
"Apparently you're the only one who does." Paige sat up, brushing her hair off her face. "I'm sorry I didn't mention it, but I don't understand why you're so upset."
Adam swung his feet over the side of the bed and presented her with his back. He felt his world coming apart around him.
"You knew my father was on his way." Paige slid over to his side of the bed and leaned her cheek against his back. "Now we can get this over with and get beyond it."
"Over with?" He couldn't believe she could sound so matter-of-fact about the end of their relationship. On the cliff she had talked about forever.
"Adam, we have to get on with our lives. This decision couldn't be put off." She thought of all the tension there had been between them before he had gone into the thermals yesterday, and suddenly she thought she understood. "My love," she said, holding him when he tried to stand. "The things I said yesterday about the land...I was afraid. I sensed something terrible was going to happen, and I would have done anything to keep you here. Even though Hamish is out of the picture, Pacific Outreach will probably still want the land. I want to fight them for it. I want the land to stay with our people." She faltered on the last words, remembering that Adam had told her she had no Maori blood.
She was talking about the land, when the land suddenly seemed unimportant. Adam couldn't prevent his next words. "And what about you?"
She was confused, afraid. During the long night he had made such sweet love to her that she felt forever joined to him. And yet, not once, had he asked her for anything, not to stay with him, not to be his wife, not to share his life forever. He had never asked her for those things in all the times they had been together.
"Adam, what do you want from me?" She straightened, and her arms fell to her sides. It was the one question that had to be answered, but she had barely been able to say the words.
He heard the hesitation in her voice. She had to know what he wanted. She was telling him that he was asking too much. He took an unsteady breath, then another. He set her free. "I want you to be happy, kaihana. I want you to think of me sometimes."
She felt his words explode in the place inside her that he had filled. They emptied her until she knew there was nothing left. She gathered together what she could. "I see. Well, you'll get your wish. You can be sure I'll think of you." She swung her legs to the other side of the bed and stood, collecting her clothes from the floor.
"Will you be leaving with your parents?"
"I'm a grown woman, Adam." She lifted her head and realized that pride was all she had left. "I left with them once before. I won't be leaving with them again."
He couldn't keep the hope out of his voice. "Then you'll be staying?"
She blinked to slow the tears she didn't want to fall. "Once you fought to keep me here. Are you in such a hurry to see me go now?"
He felt as if he were swimming upstream, so busy wit
h the battle to reach his destination that he had passed it miles before. "Do you want to stay?"
"I want a shower." She slipped her arms into his robe and belted it around her. "I want some peace." She found her way to the door and closed it behind her.
Adam wondered whether, if he stopped battling and just drifted with the current, he would find enough peace for both of them.
* * *
Carter Duvall looked old and haggard. Paige didn't make a mockery of her feelings and go to him for a daughterly hug. She gave him a brief nod, noting the funereal black of his suit, the dull sheen of his silver hair, the ice in his brown eyes.
"I would say it's good to see you," she said coolly, "except that it isn't." She turned to her mother and gave her the hug that Ann Duvall always seemed to need. "You're looking well, Mother."
Ann nodded, as if she were incapable of speech. Paige stepped aside. "I'm sure you remember Mihi Tomoana," she said to both her parents. "She certainly remembers you. And behind her is Adam Tomoana, the man who's offering you the hospitality of his home for this meeting." Paige challenged her father with her eyes. "I believe he's grown since your last encounter."
"That will do, Paige." Adam stepped up beside Mihi, sheltering her beneath his arm. "Please come in," he said, nodding to the Duvalls. "You are both welcome here." He paused, then his lips softened. "After all, we're family."
Ann released a sound like a small sob, and despite not wanting to be, Paige was ashamed. She put her arm around her mother and felt how slender she was. Ann Duvall was too slight to carry any burdens.
"We are not family," Carter said. "We have not come here as family. I've come simply to take care of some business matters. Ann is here—"
"Because Ann wouldn't be left at home," Ann said, seeming to take courage from her daughter's support.
"I'm glad you're here, Mother." Paige gave her a hug. "And I'm glad we can get all this in the open."
"We have come on business," Carter repeated.
"Long overdue business, Father mine." Paige led her parents into the living room and waited until everyone was seated. Before anyone could say anything, there was a knock at the door. Adam came back moments later, leading Henare and Materoa Poutapu. Introductions were made, and they were seated.
Carter levered himself forward, as if he planned to take control. Paige had seen her father in action all her life. She knew what was coming, but she was also her father's daughter. She knew how to take control first.
"I've got some things to say," she began before he could. "First of all, I'm resigning my position at Duvall Development." She couldn't look at Adam, because she knew that if she did, she would hesitate, and Carter would take over. "Second, before everyone here, I'm claiming the heritage that's been denied me. I am Maori, my mother is Maori, and I am proud of who I am." She heard her mother's sob, but she went on. "Third, I'm topping Pacific Outreach's offer for the thermals. If you're in the mood for irony, the money will come from the trust fund you started for me, Carter."
She went on over his protests. "Fourth, once the land belongs to me, I'm giving it to the Arawa Tribal Trust Board to be administered as they see best."
Carter would be silenced no longer. "Who do you think you are to speak to me this way?"
Henare broke in, speaking Maori, and although Paige couldn't understand, she suspected that, strangely, he was agreeing with her father. She was breaching all rules of filial respect.
"I am your daughter," she answered calmly, although she felt anything but calm. "I love you."
Carter opened his mouth and let it fall shut again. Paige imagined that in all his years, no one had ever silenced him quite that way. "I love you," she went on, "despite the harm you've done here. I love you because I think you were afraid of something you didn't understand. I love you because I can't believe you ever wanted things to get so terribly out of control. I love you because you've always wanted the best for me and for Mother, even though you've never understood what that was."
"You don't know anything about it."
"I love you even though I know you'll never be able to admit that you've been terribly, terribly wrong."
Carter sat back, paler, sterner. "I'm going to sell to Pacific Outreach. Sentiment has nothing to do with this. I won't let you waste your trust fund this way."
"I'll take this to the board," Paige said reasonably. "Then who will they accuse of sentiment? Me, or the man who's turning down a sizable profit?"
"They will accuse no one, because the land doesn't belong to Duvall Development. The land belongs to me." Ann Duvall sat forward in a graceful imitation of her husband. "Have you both forgotten something? The land is mine."
Out of the corner of one eye, Paige saw Mihi nodding complacently. It was almost her undoing. "Go on, Mother."
Ann ventured one look at her husband, then turned her face away from him. "The land is mine," she repeated. "Not Duvall Development's, not Carter Duvall's. The land came to me in an inheritance. It is mine to dispose of, and I'm giving it to the Arawa Trust Board."
"You don't know what you're doing!" Carter's words were an explosion.
"No," Ann said softly. "I haven't known for years. I'm not sure I will again. But now, I know this is right."
Paige was on her feet in an instant; then she was kneeling beside her mother's chair. She looked up into the face that was so like her own. "Why?" she asked. "Why did you let it go this far? Why all the wasted years?"
Ann reached out and touched her daughter's cheek. "I was young, spoiled. I wanted to be someone different than who I was. All these years, darling." Her hand faltered. "All these years I wanted to come home again and bring you with me. But I didn't have the courage."
"I'm not going to listen to this." Carter Duvall stood and strode toward the front door.
"You've made me ashamed of who I am," Ann said to him, lifting her eyes to stare at his back. He stopped, but didn't turn. "You are the one who should be ashamed, Carter."
He stood, a cast-iron statue; then, without turning, he made his way to the front door. He closed it quietly behind him.
Paige looked around the room. There were many feelings in evidence. Embarrassment, tears, family loyalty. And in Adam's eyes there was unspeakable loneliness. In the silence, she heard the questions he had never been able to ask.
"I'm going to my father," she said, her eyes still locked with Adam's. "Will you take care of my mother for me?"
He nodded, and she rose.
Carter Duvall was on the front porch, gazing out at the meadows of Four Hill Farm. "I hate sheep," he said when he heard Paige behind him.
Tentatively she touched his shoulder. "But you try so hard to make sheep of everyone you love."
Surprisingly he didn't disagree. "I've never been afraid of anything except losing your mother. I came here, and it was a world I didn't understand. She was pulled by it, I could see the hold it had on her." Paige leaned against him, and his arm encircled her waist. "And then I was afraid of losing you."
"You're a real bastard, Carter," she said with a sniff. "But you haven't lost me."
His arm tightened convulsively. "You're staying, aren't you?"
"You've heard of jets. I think you even own one."
"I won't be coming back here." He didn't sound convincing, just older, sadder.
"You're going to be a lonely man if you don't. Mother's going to be spending time here now, I think." Paige paused. "What if I promise you a grandson?"
"You drive a hard bargain, don't you?"
"I've had the best of teachers." She kissed his cheek. "You're going to have to talk to Mother. You know that, don't you? You've got to talk to her, Carter, and let her tell you how she feels. Don't let her find her answers in a bottle this time."
He released a long, harsh breath. "Ann wants to stay in New Zealand for a while, maybe travel around a little. We'll have to talk. What else can we do in this godforsaken place?"
They stood together, surveying emerald-green meadow
s. Paige hoped a start had been made.
* * *
Her parents had gone. After a morning exploring some of Ann’s inheritance, they had gone to rest and, Paige hoped, to talk. Ironically they were staying in the same hotel in Rotorua where Hamish had stayed, and Paige had watched them drive away with a mixture of emotions.
Her mother had still looked too fragile, her father too stern. But as they walked toward their car from Paige's house, Carter had reached over and taken Ann's arm, and Ann hadn't pulled away.
Now the house seemed too quiet. Rambo was still at Adam's, and Cornwall was off chasing birds, protecting her, Paige supposed, from magpies and mynahs. She had come to New Zealand for this kind of silence, but now she didn't want to listen to her thoughts.
She wanted to listen to Adam's. But Adam wasn't here. He was home, and if he was thinking anything at all, she didn't know what it was.
They were alike in many ways, too many ways, perhaps. They were both stubborn and proud and easily hurt. They both hid what they felt and denied the feelings that showed. They both had loved and suffered for it before, and both of them were afraid of suffering again.
Did he want her in his life? She wanted to believe he did, but she was too insecure to trust the loneliness and longing she had seen in his eyes. She wanted him to ask her to stay. She wanted a proposal. She didn't want to be told that he hoped she would think of him when she was gone.
"Are you ready?"
Startled, she turned to find Adam behind her. She didn't have to ask where he had come from. The back door was open, and his footsteps were always silent. "Ready for what?" She wanted to throw herself in his arms, demand that he tell her what he was thinking, demand that he marry her. But a lifetime of reticence made that impossible. She stood and waited.
"I've got something to show you."
"Will it take long? I'm meeting my parents for dinner."
"We have time."
She walked with him past spreading trees that grew denser as they reached the forest that bordered the thermals. She went that far without a word, but not a step farther. When Adam crossed the boundary she stayed behind.
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