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To her intense fury his despicably attractive mouth quirked, as if he suddenly found the horrible situation amusing. ‘All right, I won’t honour you, but don’t blame me if you don’t like the consequences.’
Her chest puffed up in rage, an effect that he then had the gall to study openly. It was very difficult to cut a man down with a glare when all his attention was fixed on her breasts. No doubt he thought them too large. Helen had actually suggested a breast-reduction operation, but then Helen considered anything larger than thirty-four A to be grossly inflated! Suddenly realising where her thoughts were leading—as if she cared what a married man thought of her breasts—Honor whipped herself up to fresh fury.
She wished there were some physical flaw of his that she could stare rudely at, but unfortunately even the slight crookedness of his nose was singularly attractive and the rest of his body was shrouded in a sports jacket and trousers of casual but impeccable cut. She checked his feet. To her frustration his socks matched and his dark shoes gleamed. Her chin went up as she resorted to verbal insult to cut him down to size.
‘How dare you treat your wife with so little consideration? Have you no shame, you...you roué?’
It was an absurdly old-fashioned word, but one that fitted him perfectly. Unfortunately she had forgotten to keep her voice down.
‘Wife?’ Tania caught his arm, her voice rising from cultured haughtiness to a strident shrill, her blue eyes glittering with distaste. ‘My God, Adam, you haven’t gone and got yourself married to this...this person?’
Honor blanched. If Tania thought he was married to Honor, then that must mean...
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Tania,’ said Adam, shaking off her clutching hand. ‘Do you really think I’d get married again without asking Sara’s permission?’ He looked down at his daughter’s anxiously upturned face and his voice softened. ‘You know I wouldn’t do that, don’t you, honey?’
His daughter nodded jerkily, her glance swivelling back in wide-eyed curiosity to Honor.
‘Well, what did she say about a wife, then?’ Tania said sharply, her manicured fingers curling into his sleeve again. ‘Something is going on and I demand to know what it is!’
‘You can ask all you want, but you won’t necessarily get a reply. As Zachary’s widow you deserve respect and consideration, not chapter and verse on my business and private affairs.’
Adam plucked her fingers from his arm for a second time as he pointedly emphasised their relationship, not taking his eyes off Honor’s face as she realised what he was telling her.
Her complexion went from pale anger to fiery embarrassment in the space of a single heartbeat. Tania was his sister-in-law. Oh, no!
‘Perhaps you’d care to rephrase some of your remarks now, Honor?’ said Adam silkily, enjoying her obvious mortification so much that her pride rebelled against the necessity of apologising.
‘I...it was a natural mistake to make in the circumstances,’ she mumbled defensively.
Tania didn’t give the impression of being a grieving widow. Not that Honor would expect her still to be wearing black or walking around with red-rimmed eyes months after her husband’s death, but feminine intuition told her that that electric-blue dress was designed—and worn—to achieve maximum male impact. And the only male around here within impacting distance was Adam.
‘Was it?’ He was unrelenting. Hadn’t she faced enough tough questions and moral dilemmas already today?
‘Well, I...you...’
He nodded and said sardonically, ‘I’m a roué, a conscienceless bully and a kidnapper...so it follows therefore that I’m also completely amoral.’
‘Kidnapper?’ Tania’s beautiful face hardened with frustrated curiosity at the increasingly cryptic nature of the conversation. ‘Whom have you kidnapped? What’s going on?’
‘Where did you get that scratch on your face, Daddy?’
The Adam who so effortlessly ignored his beautiful sister-in-law gave instant attention to his daughter.
‘A wildcat got me,’ he smiled, touching the dark golden strands which almost hid the mark on his forehead. Even Honor, who knew it was there, had to look for it. His daughter was obviously extremely observant.
‘A wildcat!’ Sara’s freckled forehead wrinkled. ‘You mean, like a tiger or something?’
‘Well, not quite that kind of a wildcat,’ her father told her. He turned his amused gaze
to Honor who unaccountably blushed. Joy looked amused, too, while Tania’s mouth twisted with haughty distaste. Oh, no, surely they didn’t think that she...?
Adam put his arm around Sara, pulling her close into his side. Two sets of brown eyes regarded Honor’s vivid embarrassment. Two against one. ‘Why don’t we ask our guest to explain? She works for the local free newspaper. Words are her stock-in-trade.’
God, he was really determined to rub it in!
‘A journalist,’ Tania burst out stridently. ‘I thought you told me you didn’t want anyone from the Press here. Even if she only works for a hick weekly she’s still a reporter—’
‘Bi-weekly, actually,’ Adam interrupted pedantically, ‘but as it happens Honor isn’t here in a professional capacity and she would never dream of betraying the confidence of a friend for the sake of a quick buck, would you, sweetheart?’
