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A derisive incredulity slashed his taut features. ‘On the men you have known? You’d be wiser keeping your mouth shut.’
He didn’t remember the stories she used to scribble in her teens. He didn’t remember a dream she had been too shy to share with anyone but him. ‘Don’t worry, Jake. You won’t even get a footnote.’
Simmering with pain and indignation, she dug her shaky hands into her pockets.
In the charged silence he grated, ‘I’ll buy the farm from you. The money can be raised fast. You don’t need to hang around up here.’
‘No, thanks. You don’t like the idea of me as a neighbour much, do you?’
His teeth glimmered white against bronzed skin and it absently occurred to her that not even prolonged outdoor exposure to the elements had given him that depth of a tan in a Yorkshire winter. ‘How do you expect me to feel about it?’
Her violet-blue eyes stayed steady. ‘I don’t expect you to feel anything.’
Once she had paid the price of exile for him. Never again. He wanted the farm. It wouldn’t suit him if she began getting ideas of keeping it on as a holiday cottage. Of course he didn’t know that she could afford to entertain ideas of that nature. He didn’t know that if she wanted the land to be put to profitable use, she could place it in the hands of a highly professional outfit not so very far from where they were sitting. How would he react to the news that she owned the Grange and most of the original Tarrant estate?
Grant had bought it for her as a surprise. Her father was a multimillionaire, who had enjoyed a large financial stake in the profits of his own films. What had struck her as a shatteringly costly purchase had been no more than a flamboyant gesture on his part. He had termed it a superb investment for her future security. But that wasn’t why he had bought the estate for her. Grant had honestly believed that she would receive a venomous kick from owning Jake’s former family home.
They were now travelling up a concrete lane. A long black and white farmhouse sat on a pleasant rise among a grove of stark winter branched trees. In spring, Torbeck was probably very attractive, she allowed grudgingly.
‘I’m sorry if I was rough on you back there, but you’re a complication I can do without,’ he admitted shortly.
Climbing out of the car, she said, ‘I’m not your complication.’
‘You stir up things I’d prefer to forget.’ His well-shaped mouth twisted. ‘I don’t think you’ll stick Lower Ridge longer than a week in this weather. I’ll stay clear while you’re there though.’
As he pressed open the porch door, she chided, ‘Promises, promises.’
A child was sitting on the bottom step of the stairs in the spacious hall. An instantaneous freezing coldness encased Kitty from neck to toe. Amazingly, she had forgotten about the existence of Jake’s daughter. Mousy hair, freckles and thick-lensed spectacles contrived to make her a surprisingly plain little girl. The Tarrants were without exception a physically very handsome bunch. This one wasn’t.
‘Why aren’t you at playgroup?’ Jake demanded in surprise. ‘Tina?’
‘’Cos I’s waiting for my lift and it didn’t come.’
Jake frowned darkly. ‘I’ll take you. Sorry, Kitty, this is Tina.’
‘Hello, Tina.’ Kitty just about managed to glance in the child’s direction.
‘You’re pretty,’ Tina mumbled and nervously eyed her father. ‘I don’t wanna go to playgroup.’
‘You’re going.’
Without warning Tina burst into floods of tears. A phone started shrilling somewhere. With a muffled curse, Jake swept Tina off her perch in a mixture of frustration and sympathy. ‘Please, Daddy, please,’ she sobbed.
‘Tina…for crying out loud.’
The phone had stopped ringing. A large, plump woman clad in a floral pinny came into the hall. ‘You didn’t grow up aways, did you?’ Jessie noted bluntly as she studied Kitty, quite indifferent to the racket Tina was making. ‘And you’re skin and bone.’
Kitty laughed, her coolness vanishing. Jake’s features hardened as he watched the vibrancy flash back into her lovely face.
‘You won’t be getting your breakfast yet,’ the older woman angled at her employer. ‘That was John on the phone. Starlight’s foaling. He wants someone to hold his hand.’
‘It looks as if you’ll be eating in peace after all,’ Jake breathed. ‘I’d better get changed. By the way, what happened to Tina’s lift?’
‘Mrs Crummer’s kids are down with that flu that’s doing the rounds,’ Jessie delivered with the gruesome air of the hangman. ‘You’d best hope it stops there.’
Jake started upstairs carting Tina. Her mournful little face stabbed guilt knives into Kitty over his shoulder. Swiftly she looked away.
‘And don’t go out without ringing Paula!’ Jessie rolled her eyes heavenward. ‘That phone hasn’t stopped ringing this morning.’
Kitty followed her into a sunny pine kitchen. ‘You weren’t surprised to see me.’
‘His nibs phoned. Get yourself sat down. We don’t stand on ceremony here.’
Shedding her jacket, Kitty slid uncertainly behind the table in the alcove. ‘Perhaps Jake ought to drop me back again now.’
Jessie slapped a mug of tea down in front of her. ‘The meal’s ready for you. He shouldn’t be long. John Thornton’s a fusspot. He probably doesn’t need him at all.’
‘Thornton? The auctioneer?’ A plate piled high with bacon, sausage and egg was withdrawn from the oven and placed before her. ‘Jessie, I couldn’t possibly eat all this!’
Ignoring her startled plea, Jessie replied, ‘Young John, not old John. He went into farming. Jake and him are partners. He’s Merrill’s husband. She’s expecting her first this summer.’
Kitty lifted her knife and fork. ‘What happened to Jane?’ she asked, referring to Jake’s older sister.
‘She married an American, did well for herself. He’s one of those fancy private doctors—plenty of brass,’ Jessie emphasised in case she hadn’t got the message.
Kitty smiled. The housekeeper busied herself down at the dishwasher, giving her peace to eat.
Tina sidled out from behind the cupboards to stare at Kitty wide-eyed. ‘I know you. You’re the witch on TV,’ she whispered, half fearful, half fascinated.
Charming, Kitty thought, idly wondering who in the household might have alluded to her in the child’s hearing with a similar-sounding word.
‘None of your silly nonsense.’ Jessie bent a stern look on the little mite just as Jake reappeared.
‘I won’t be long. Tina!’ A hand jerked meaningfully. He barely broke his stride on his passage to the back door.
In ten seconds both father and daughter were gone. His terse manner had annoyed Kitty. ‘What’s up with him?’
‘Woman trouble.’
Kitty buttered a piece of toast, her appetite improving. ‘What’s this Paula like?’
‘Divorced. She took one look at him and set her cap,’ Jessie informed her while she noisily stacked dishes. ‘Not that I’ve anything against the lass, but chasing him up hill and down dale isn’t the path to take to the church door.’
‘Serious, then, is it?’ Kitty pried helplessly.
‘I reckon she is. I can’t speak for him. He doesn’t wear his thoughts on his sleeve. The wee one could certainly do with a mother. Miss Sophie’s got no time for her at all. It would suit all round if he did get wed again,’ Jessie pronounced with practicality. ‘Miss Sophie could go and live with that sister of hers in York. She’s forever visiting her. It’s too quiet up here for her.’
‘Then why does she stay?’
Jessie sighed. ‘I don’t live in now. My brother’s pushing seventy-five. Since his wife died, I’ve been keeping house for him. Jake has to have somebody in the house at night for the child in case he’s called out.’
Kitty glanced up. ‘Called out where?’
‘He’s one of the local vets. Didn’t you know that?’
Kitty shook her head. ‘Las
t I heard, he had to leave university.’
‘You’ve not been doing a lot of talking, have you?’ Jessie remarked drily. ‘He was near the end of his training. Once he had this place going, he went back and finished it. He can only manage part time though. What with building up the farm…well, he stretched himself in all directions. He had to in the beginning. His father owed all round him when he died.’
‘He hasn’t had an easy time of it,’ Kitty muttered.
Jessie gave a vigorous nod of agreement. ‘He hasn’t. Miss Sophie took losing her husband very hard. She had one of those breakdowns and she’s not been the same since. She never took to Liz either. That didn’t help.’
Kitty bit her lip and bent her head to eat. A good five minutes passed before her companion spoke again.
‘Like a lot of folk round here, I’ve often wondered what went wrong between you and Jake,’ Jessie confided brusquely.
Kitty tensed. ‘I can’t think why. I was just a kid when I left. Jake and I never even went out together.’
Jessie gave her a strange look, turned aside. ‘Happen not.’
Crimson rose in Kitty’s cheeks.
