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‘I was just wondering whether another policeman was going to come barrelling out of the shrubbery at me,’ Honor lied, unwilling to admit that one of the reasons she was hanging back was because she felt nervous at what she was going to find inside the house. Would she face more hostility and suspicion? Who were the inhabitants and what, if anything, had Adam told them about her?
‘In other words you want to know what our security arrangements are,’ he said caustically. ‘Forget it. I’m not that stupid!’
‘Really? That’s funny—you certainly give that impression!’ Honor snapped back, stung by the fresh evidence of his mistrust, and marched ahead of him up the wooden stairs to the railed veranda which wrapped around three sides of the house.
She had to wait, straight-backed, as he sorted through the bunch of keys he had carried from the car, but before he inserted the correct one in the brass lock he answered one of her unspoken questions with a terse, ‘I don’t want my mother upset.’
‘What?’
‘My mother. Her health hasn’t been the best since Zach’s death. I don’t want her involved in any of this. If you have anything to say, say it to me, not to her. Understand?’
She understood an order when she heard one. She reacted instinctively, bristling. She had lost one too many battles today to kowtow to someone who had no authority to make demands. She looked up at his grimly handsome face, thinking that it was too bad somebody had already broken his arrogant nose for him.
‘Or...?’
His eyes darkened to pure gold menace. ‘Or I’ll make damned sure you regret it.’
Her thick dark brows lowered in what she liked to think was a threatening glower, the smattering of freckles on her smooth, winter-pale forehead jumping to attention as she rumpled it into soft pleats. ‘You can try!’
He blinked at her pugnacious challenge, as if disconcerted by the novelty of opposition. Then he took a step closer, squaring his impressive shoulders, and Honor might have weakened and cringed but for the fact that the door suddenly whipped open between them.
‘Adam, you’re back! I thought I heard voices out here. And who’s this you’ve brought to see me? Well, well...come in, come in, don’t stand out there, you might catch a chill...’
Still chattering delightedly, the elderly woman in oddly mismatched clothing drew Honor into the lighted hallway with a gnarled hand on her wrist, ignoring Adam’s attempted explanation as he followed them inside.
‘This is Honor Sheldon, Mother. She’s going to stay with us for a few days—’
‘How lovely to see you, my dear!’ His mother overrode his curt statement with a gushing welcome. To Honor’s bewilderment she was swept into a warm and surprisingly powerful hug from an old lady who was supposedly in frail health. She was tall and very thin, her white hair permed into a wild fluffiness that seemed to billow about her lined face as she beamed into her guest’s confused eyes.
‘I just knew that one of these days Adam was going to bring his girlfriend to see me,’ she said gleefully, the fine network of lines on her face deepening with her smile as she barely paused for breath. ‘He’s been so elusive I knew he had to have someone very special tucked away and now here you are! You must be very good for him, Honor, because I can see he’s looking very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.’ She cast her incredulous son a teasing look before her beaming brown eyes moved back to Honor’s flushed face. ‘And don’t you two look good together—Adam so tall and husky and you so feminine—heart-high and lovely and curvy...’
It was certainly a very kindly and diplomatic way of calling someone short and fat, thought Honor wryly, knowing that her baggy jeans and faded shirt weren’t very flattering, let alone feminine. She opened her mouth to correct Mrs Blake’s disastrous first impression but Adam got there before her.
‘She’s not—’
‘Now, Adam, don’t try and pretend that this is just a casual visit,’ his mother scolded him. ‘You know you’ve never brought any of your lady-friends to stay before. You can’t tell me that Honor isn’t different. Why, I can see she is. And she’s blushing...’
‘That’s because you’re embarrassing her—’
‘Nonsense, dear! You’re not embarrassed, are you, Honor?’
Shocked, confused, even amused—but no, Honor wasn’t embarrassed. She was enjoying the sight of Adam’s angry chagrin too much. Why should she help the surly brute out of the hole he had dug for himself?
‘No, of course I’m not.’
‘There! You see, Adam, the girl knows that she doesn’t have to stand on ceremony with family.’ She tilted her head confidingly towards Honor but made no attempt to lower her voice.
‘My son is quite ridiculously protective, you know. He has this odd idea that I live in quite the past and don’t know what sort of thing goes on in the modern world. But I know that young men and women have a great deal more freedom than they did in my day. Not that I approve of young people living together willy-nilly...’
‘Honor and I are not living togeth
er—’ Adam began firmly.
‘You will be while you’re both here, dear,’ his mother pointed out with inescapable logic, and Honor almost giggled at the frustrated expression on Adam’s face.
‘We’re just—’ Adam faltered and looked at Honor, as if she might provide him with a suitably innocuous explanation of her presence.
She raised her eyebrows at him.
