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‘You don’t really want to know.’ His finger lingered in the crease just behind her naked earlobe. He seemed to have a perfect genius for homing in on the most sensitive points on her body, thought Regan shakily—ones that even she hadn’t known were sensitive until he roused them to glorious life.
‘Most women deck themselves in jewellery when they dress up—you don’t seem to wear any…’
‘I’m allergic to gold,’ she said flippantly, thinking that lying was beginning to become second nature.
His eyebrows lifted over disbelieving eyes. ‘As well as diamonds?’ he mocked. ‘You don’t even wear a watch.’
‘It broke—I haven’t got round to replacing it yet.’ Even a cheap time-piece took second place to digging herself out of a mountain of debt.
The door to the library suddenly swung open and Regan jerked guiltily away from Joshua’s touch.
‘Hello, what are you two doing in here?’ Hazel Harriman’s head ducked around the door, her innocent brown eyes travelling from one face to the other.
‘Checking on the silver, Hazel?’ grinned Joshua easily.
‘Well, you know what Frank’s like about his blessed first editions! He should have locked the door if he didn’t want anyone coming in here, but he thinks that would be implying he can’t trust his neighbours.’ She opened the door wider and came further into the room, a picture of grace and dignity in her powder-blue chiffon and pearls, in spite of the wooden crutch propped under her right arm.
‘Are you talking about the wedding? I hope you’re not going to interfere as well, Joshua. I already have enough on my plate with Frank poking his nose in!’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it. I’m very happy to leave it all in your gracious hands,’ he replied. ‘Would you like to sit down and rest that leg?’
‘No, thanks, I’ve been sitting down all night. A little exercise is good for me—whatever Frank has to say!’
Joshua smiled. ‘He suggested that Regan and I get to know each other, but it turns out that we’ve met before…’
Hazel’s eyes brightened with enquiry. ‘Oh, really? Where?’
Joshua opened his mouth, and Regan didn’t trust the bland look on his face. Was he about to conduct some advance damage control?
‘It was only just the once—and not at all memorable,’ she cut in quickly. ‘Which is why Joshua’s name didn’t ring a bell when Sir Frank mentioned who Carolyn was going to marry.’
‘Oh, well, at least you’re not total strangers, so that makes everything much more cosy for all of us,’ Hazel approved complacently.
‘Indeed.’ Joshua’s blandness was even more pronounced.
‘Frank is very keen for Regan to feel at home. I know he feels guilty that he didn’t do more for you when Michael was killed—’
Regan was agonisingly conscious of Joshua’s sharpened interest. ‘Oh, really—he did more than enough for us when Michael was alive.’
But Hazel was unstoppable. ‘It’s such a tragic waste when people die with so much of life ahead of them,’ she sighed.
‘How long were you married?’
In front of Hazel, Regan couldn’t flatly refuse to satisfy Joshua’s curiosity, as he very well knew! ‘Just over four years.’
‘You must have married young?’
‘I was twenty,’ she admitted, with the thin end of her patience.
‘The same age that I was when I married the first time,’ he commented. ‘How old was your husband?’
‘Four years older than me. How old was your wife?’ Regan retaliated, before realising that it was hardly a polite question to ask in front of his future mother-in-law.
‘Twenty-four.’ He tipped his head in acknowledgment of her slight blink of shock. ‘I wonder how many other uncanny coincidences lurk in our pasts. Children?’
Her flinch was barely perceptible, except to a hawkish gaze. ‘No.’
‘A mutual decision?’ he murmured.
