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As she went up to bed, she refused to allow herself to think about him any more. She couldn’t help wishing, though, that he hadn’t telephoned. Hearing his voice had disturbed her, made her all the more intimately aware of the fact that she was now living in his home. It was a disturbing awareness, and one she would rather not have had. Much rather not have had!
CHAPTER SIX
HEATHER was up early, too keyed up about her father’s operation to concentrate on anything, and yet knowing that there was no point in ringing the hospital so early. He wouldn’t even be in the operating theatre yet.
She had sent him flowers and a telemessage, and although she ached to be with her mother she understood that this was a time when her parents wanted to be on their own.
They had always been very close, a wonderful example of how good and long lasting a relationship between two people could be.
At ten o’clock, when she was making her fourth cup of coffee of the morning, she heard a car outside and immediately rushed to the back door, just in time to see a small Ford car drive up.
The smartly dressed woman who slid from behind the wheel was around her own mother’s age; but, whereas her mother’s normal expression was one of cheerful enthusiasm, this woman’s face was set in rather harsh and disapproving lines.
She smiled thinly when she saw Heather, and introduced herself. ‘Vera Hartley. I believe you’ve already met my son.’
Heather had met enough possessive mothers in her time to recognise the breed, and even though she knew she was being unfair she couldn’t help mentally contrasting David with Kyle. Kyle
would never allow a mother, no matter how much adored, to run his life for him, where it seemed that David…but no, she was jumping to conclusions, based on information already put into her mind by Kyle. Perhaps it was unfair of her, but her original impression of David as a kind-hearted, attractive young man had been shadowed by Kyle’s disclosure about his illegitimate child.
She knew that Kyle would never have misled her on such a subject, and it was disquieting to realise that such an apparently open and friendly person had a very much darker side to their nature. Of course, she would hardly have expected David to disclose such personal information on so short an acquaintance, but she had, nevertheless, a feeling of being let down in her judgement of his character.
There could be a dozen or more perfectly reasonable explanations of what Kyle had told her, but she was old-fashioned enough to find it disquieting to learn that David had been so easily able to dismiss his responsibilities.
Now she suspected she knew why. Vera Hartley looked the sort of woman who would want to choose her only son’s wife herself, and weak men like David were notorious throughout history for involving themselves in liaisons that never gained that maternal approval.
‘David explained to me that your van had broken down, and I thought I’d better drive round and check that you had everything you need.’
More like drive round and check up on me, Heather thought wryly.
‘Yes, I’m fine, thanks. Please, do come in.’ She had learned from her father how to deal with the most difficult kind of clients, and she used that knowledge to good effect now, putting aside her own feelings and assuming a mantle of cool good humour.
‘Your father’s in hospital, I understand,’ Vera commented once they were both sitting down with mugs of coffee.
‘Yes. He’s undergoing surgery this morning. Naturally, we’re all very concerned about him.’
‘Mmm… And you and Kyle were virtually brought up together?’ Vera’s questions were beginning to ruffle Heather’s assumed calm.
‘My parents fostered Kyle, and he lived with us for a considerable number of years.’
‘Mmm…so there isn’t any actual blood tie between you, then? I must say I was surprised when I learned that you were coming to stay with him, but then I suppose your parents must know what they’re doing. He certainly isn’t the kind of man I’d want any daughter of mine to move in with.’
Before she knew how it had happened, Heather found that she was standing up, her whole body trembling with anger and resentment as she faced the other woman.
‘I’m not exactly sure what you’re trying to imply, Mrs Hartley,’ she heard herself saying in an angrily tight voice, ‘but quite frankly I think it’s time you left, before I say something I might regret.’
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell the woman that, whatever Kyle’s faults, he at least had never left a woman alone to bear his child, but just in time she caught the hasty impulse back.
She knew from the way Vera Hartley glared at her as she left that she had made a lifelong enemy, but she didn’t care. She was still trembling in the aftermath of her shock at her own daring, and it was only when the other woman had actually driven away that Heather realised exactly what she had done.
It was ironic, really, that she of all people should have leapt too quickly to Kyle’s defence. The woman hadn’t accused him of anything worse than Heather herself had thought about him at one time or another, and yet the resentment and fury she had felt at hearing someone else run him down and been so intense and real that they might almost have been as close as any true brother and sister.
Although she didn’t want to stray too far from the house in case the phone rang, Heather spent a brief half-hour exploring what she could of the lovely formal Elizabethan gardens, the box hedges now covered thickly in crisp white snow.
In the summer these gardens must be lovely. She caught herself up just as she found herself wishing she might be here to see it.
She had fallen in love with the house and its setting, she admitted as she went back inside. There was something so warm and homely about it, an air of having been well loved and lived in, that lingered almost as noticeably as the mingled scents of potpourri and beeswax that permeated the air.
It was gone three in the afternoon before she received the long-awaited call, and Heather knew the moment she heard her mother’s voice that the operation had been a success. Her mother cried and so did Heather; tears of thankfulness and gratitude.
