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Sweetheart?
The steely-tender endearment was as loaded a threat as she had ever heard. Honor gulped and summoned a weak smile.
‘Er—yes—I mean, no...’ Even to her own ears she sounded disgustingly feeble. She drew herself up and glared at Adam. ‘Not unless the friend had proved to be unworthy of the name. After all, trust works both ways, doesn’t it...darling?’
She was sorry that she had used the taunting appellation when she saw Sara Blake bite her lip hard and look down at her feet, her hand tightening on her father’s.
In her pin-tucked white blouse and tartan pleated skirt the girl suddenly looked younger than her years. It wasn’t fair that she should be made to suffer for Adam’s infuriating behaviour. Honor looked away, right into the spotlight of Tania’s hostile stare, and felt even more guilty. In the circumstances the family had every right to fear Press involvement.
Everyone except Joy, it seemed, who alleviated the suddenly sizzling silence by clapping her hands. ‘So you’re a writer, how delightful! Do you know, Adam used to be a bit of a wordsmith himself when he was younger? He always used to get top marks for his essays at school. He had such a marvellous imagination...’ She sighed. ‘I thought that he might be a famous author one day...’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Joy.’ Tania gave a dismissive little laugh. ‘Adam’s always been a man of action. He wouldn’t be satisfied sitting down at a desk scribbling all day. He likes being in the thick of the action. That’s why the farm couldn’t hold him—it wasn’t enough of a challenge. He had to go out and create his own.’
Joy Blake subsided like a pricked balloon and Honor felt a surge of sympathy. Her involvement with old people through the Talking Books scheme had taught her that of all the sins committed against the aged the most frequent and most damaging to their pride was the casual impatience with which their views and opinions were often brushed aside.
‘Adam’s imagination’s been put to far better use than it would have been as a mere purveyor of information to the masses,’ Tania continued to press her point in the same condescending tone. ‘If it weren’t for his ideas and urging, Zach never would have embarked on a diversification programme and the Blake companies wouldn’t be as profitable as they are today. Adam has achieved the kind of success that most people only dream of.’ The condescension deepened as Tania turned her critical attention back to Honor, her smile anything but kind. ‘Judging from the outfit Miss Sheldon’s wearing, I don’t suppose that writing is a very lucrative career...’
Ouch! Honor’s estimation of the woman went down another notch.
‘Actually this dress is a Paris original,’ she drawled with a fairly good imitation of Tania’s own haughty speech, and name-dropped the prestigious French designer that Helen had been wild about a few years ago when she had bought the dress. No need to mention that the cardigan was from the bargain-bin of a chain store!
Unfortunately her remark had the effect of drawing all eyes to her rounded figure and she stiffened uncomfortably, resisting the urge to pull the edges of the cardigan across her breasts like a self-conscious adolescent ill at ease with her body. But that was how she felt. Adam’s eyes were gleaming with a faintly lecherous malice as they drifted down past her hips and crawled slowly back up to her breasts. Her fingers twitched with the effort of restraint. He was doing it deliberately, damn it, and if he kept it up she was going to slap his face and to hell with what his family thought!
As if he knew what was going through her mind he stepped back out of range and politely suggested it was time they sat down, shepherding them all to their seats at the table. His harem, thought Honor darkly as dinner was served by yet another female—a cheerful, middle-aged woman whom Adam addressed as Rhonda. After transferring the dishes from the trolley to the table, Rhonda said goodnight and withdrew with a frankly curious glance at Honor, whom Adam had insisted on seating beside him.
Honor had expected that Joy would ease the tension over dinner with more of her delightfully artless chatter, but the older woman was subdued as her daughter-in-law effortlessly dominated the conversation. In very short order she chiselled out of Honor where she lived, whom she worked for and how old she was. When Honor fended off other enquiries with polite generalities, furious with Adam for abandoning her to the intrusive questioning, Tania talked about herself, painting a picture of domestic contentment that Honor found difficult to believe, given the woman’s air of restless discontent.
As she doggedly moved the chicken from side to side on her plate, Honor listened to how Tania had spent the last few days staying at Adam’s North Shore home while she shopped and attended several social events in the city.
‘Did the sales finish early, or are you off back to town again tomorrow?’ Adam finally put in drily. ‘We didn’t expect you back until the weekend.’
‘Perhaps I missed your scintillating company,’ Tania laughed back, not at all put out by his cynical implication. ‘Since I had to drop Sara off I decided it was silly to turn around and go all that way back for just another day or two. You know I love your house but it’s very lonely rattling around there by myself. I much prefer it when you’re there to keep me company.’
Honor didn’t need to be told that she was the target of the coyly pouting remark, rather than the man at whom it was ostensibly aimed.
‘Do you know Adam’s house?’ Tania’s eyes were cool with not-so-innocent enquiry. ‘Did he tell you he designed it himself? It really surprised everyone. Those sinful bathrooms. Why, you could get lost in them for a week!’
Having established her intimate familiarity with Adam’s life, Tania allowed herself a smug pause.
Honor was being warned off. It should have been amusing but for some reason it stung.
‘I wasn’t in the least surprised,’ she purred, casting Adam a melting look that halted him in mid-chew. He had described some of his home’s peculiarities in one of his letters. ‘I always knew that Adam was a man with hidden depths. I think his house is a reflection of his character—full of imaginative angles and impulsive fantasies.’
‘Adam is the least impulsive man I know,’ Tania corrected testily.
‘As I said, a man with hidden depths,’ Honor murmured with a shrug that was intended to annoy. She lowered her normally husky voice even further. ‘You and I obviously see very different sides to him.’
‘You obviously don’t know him as well as you think you do.’ Politeness no longer sheathed Tania’s curiosity. Her suspicion broke cover into open interrogation. ‘If this is the first time you’ve met Sara then you and Adam can’t have been seeing each other for very long, because we all know how he likes to show her off. Just when did you and Adam meet each other?’
Honor’s mouth was open to fend off the query when she felt a large warm hand close firmly on her knee.
‘It seems like aeons ago but it was actually only a few months,’ Adam interposed smoothly with the literal truth. ‘I’m afraid I’ve been totally selfish in wanting to keep Honor to myself, but thanks to Sara’s unexpected lapse in conduct I’ve now rectified the omission.’ He turned to address his wary
daughter. ‘On which subject I’ll only say I find it very strange that a straight-A student who has always been praised for her mature attitudes should suddenly be sent home in disgrace. You begged me to let you stay at the same school while we were living here, even though it meant making special travel arrangements for the extra distance. I hope this incident doesn’t indicate that I made a bad mistake...’
Honor realised that the tension she had encountered in the dining-room hadn’t been purely a result of her own arrival. It was something of a relief to find someone else on the receiving end of Adam’s disapprobation.
‘You’ve been expelled?’ Honor couldn’t help exclaiming. Adam had revealed himself to be so erudite in his letters that she was surprised he hadn’t instilled the same respect for learning in his offspring. The restraining hand slid away from her knee, leaving her with an unexpected feeling of abandonment.
