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‘Luce, I was talking about John,’ she managed to intervene gently, ‘not Jake.’
Too late Lucianna realised her own mistake and just what she might have betrayed.
‘Have you and Jake quarrelled?’ Janey questioned her softly.
Lucianna shook her head, unable to give her any answer, and wisely Janey did not pursue the subject.
CHAPTER NINE
‘I APPRECIATE your advice, Jake.’ David thanked his friend gratefully as he stood up. He had spent the morning over at Jake’s house discussing with him the pros and cons of a new pension plan he was considering taking out.
‘The farm provides us with a reasonably good income, but you never know what the future is going to bring.’ David shook his head. ‘And with the baby to consider…’
‘You and Janey must be looking forward to your holiday,’ Jake commented. ‘Not long to go now before you’re off.’
‘Yes, we can’t wait. Thanks for agreeing to move into the farmhouse to keep an eye on things whilst we’re gone. Luce is capable enough, but neither of us likes the idea of leaving her there on her own. In fact…’
He frowned and paused before saying self-consciously, ‘Janey’s a bit worried about her at the moment. She seems to think the two of you might have quarrelled and…well, Luce certainly does seem to have been unusually subdued. I know, of course, that she’s worrying about this business of having to see Rory Simons from the bank—she took out an overdraft when she first set up to equip her workshop and, well, to be quite frank…’ David shook his head. ‘It’s like I keep telling her: it’s not that she isn’t a first-rate mechanic—she is—but men just don’t like the idea of a woman tampering with their c
ars…’
‘You mean men don’t like the idea of a woman knowing a good deal more about what goes on inside the engine of their cars than they do themselves,’ Jake corrected him dryly.
David gave him a wry look and advised him, ‘You try telling that to Luce. You know what she’s like…it’s like a red rag to a bull, and she’s off like a firecracker…Or at least normally she would be. As I said, she’s been very subdued recently. How are the lessons going, by the way?’
‘They aren’t,’ Jake told him grimly, and then added, ‘A mutual decision…’
‘So Luce said,’ David said.
He and Jake had virtually grown up together but, close though they had always been, there were times when Jake made it uncompromisingly clear that certain areas of his life, certain things, certain subjects were not open for discussion. And, whatever had transpired between him and Luce to provoke their mutual silence, this was obviously one such subject. David knew better than to pursue a lost cause or provoke Jake’s ire by continuing to press him.
‘Janey said to remind you that you’re always welcome to join us for supper,’ was what he said instead as Jake accompanied him to the door.
‘Thanks,’ Jake returned, frowning before he asked abruptly, ‘David, Lucianna’s business…just how bad are things?’
‘Pretty bad,’ David told him. ‘She’s just about managing to keep her head above water but only because she lives rent-free with us. I’ve offered to help her out but you know what she’s like, how stiff-necked and proud she can be…It’s like watching a kid trying to cross a flooding river swimming doggy-paddle,’ he told Jake feelingly. ‘You just ache to jump in and give them a hand, but Luce…
‘She lost another customer this week…a woman whose car she’s been servicing…Apparently her husband is buying her a new model and the distributors have told her that it will have to be serviced by a nominated garage. It’s the same when someone brings a car to her that’s been involved in an accident. She can do the work easily enough, and at a highly competitive price, but because she isn’t on any of the insurers’ lists of accredited garages she doesn’t get the work.
‘Janey says Luce has reapplied to a couple of the big dealers in the city for an apprenticeship and she’s even been talking about looking further afield, moving away.’
‘Moving away?’ Jake questioned sharply. ‘Why would she want to do that? John’s due back at the end of this week, isn’t he?’
‘Yes, he is,’ David agreed. ‘And to judge from the number of phone calls Luce’s received from him these last few days it seems as though we were wrong in thinking that he didn’t want her.’
Luckily David was looking away from Jake as he spoke and so didn’t notice the spasm of pain that crossed his friend’s face.
What the hell was he doing punishing himself like this? Jake asked himself savagely once David had gone. Why didn’t he just sell up and move somewhere else—somewhere as far from Lucianna as it was possible for him to get? But you couldn’t simply turn your back on two centuries of family history and family tradition just because you couldn’t bear the thought of seeing the woman you loved with another man…At least, you didn’t if you were a Carlisle, and his great-uncle had passed the house on to Jake because he had trusted Jake to take care of it.
But a house, no matter how beautiful, couldn’t compensate for not having the woman you loved, had loved, did love, would love.
Would Lucianna remember him when she lay in John’s arms? Would she think about how it had felt to be with him, in his bed, her body possessed by his, her womanhood totally responsive to his manhood? Would she?
What was the point in torturing himself with such thoughts? Jake asked himself bitterly. Torturing himself wasn’t going to change things…How could it?
God knew, he had had time enough over the years—and to spare—to grow accustomed to the fact that Lucianna didn’t love him. But just why in hell did she have to go and give her love, herself, to a man like John who quite plainly neither appreciated nor valued her? And why the hell had he, Jake, ever been moronic enough to agree to help her reveal herself to him as the precious, sensual, loving woman Jake had always known she could be?
Well, he might not have been totally successful in getting her to value herself, or to realise how unworthy of her her vain and weak boyfriend actually was, but there were still other ways in which he could help her, protect her…
