AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gentle blood? Her feelings towards him at the moment were anything but gentle! This time, when he lowered their hands he didn’t stop at the table-top and Honor found the back of her hand trapped firmly against an iron-hard thigh.
She saw the two other women follow the motion with their eyes and was mortified. Did they think her hand was in his lap? Were they wondering what was going on under the table? Was Adam mad? Suddenly Joy looked up and Honor saw a wicked twinkle in her eye just as Tania let out an ear-splitting screech.
They all jumped, Tania overturning her chair as she backed away from the table.
‘What is it?’ Adam was on his feet, serious and instantly alert, his eyes going around the room. Honor’s own heart was beating rather rapidly as she realised that, however relaxed his façade, the threats he had received must never be far from Adam’s mind. She could almost see the adrenalin pumping through his veins.
‘A rat!’
‘A rat?’ His vigilance turned to relieved annoyance. ‘Is that all? You thought you saw a rat?’
‘I didn’t see it, I felt it!’ Tania wailed, looking put out at his lack of concern. ‘Something horrid and furry under the table. It bit me!’ Tania displayed a pretty ankle strapped into a high-heeled sandal, revealing an appreciable amount of leg in the process. There was a neat set of reddening indentations at the back of her ankle. ‘Look it’s made a hole in my stocking. For God’s sake, Adam—’ she hopped inelegantly further away from the danger zone ‘—it might have some horrible disease. Kill it!’
‘Kill what?’ Sara bounced back into the room in time to hear Tania’s bloodthirsty demand.
Horrid and furry? That rang alarm bells. Honor lowered her feet cautiously from their safe perch on the rungs of her chair and ducked her head to take a peek under the tablecloth. Sure enough there sat Monty, tail lashing, looking disgustingly pleased with himself for the havoc he had created. For one cowardly moment Honor wondered whether she could quietly shoo him away and pretend innocence, but Sara’s face had already appeared below the dangling tablecloth to inspect the culprit.
‘It’s probably the cat, that’s all—hey, that’s not Curry! It must be a stray. What are you doing under—? Ouch! It took a swipe at me!’ She backed out and scrambled to her feet, sucking a finger. ‘It’s really wild. You must have stood on its tail or something, Aunt Tania...’
Her aggrieved aunt was still anxiously studying her bloodless wound. ‘Now you know why I don’t approve of animals in the house,’ she snapped. ‘If it’s a stray it’s probably brought fleas and who knows what disgusting diseases with it...’
‘Monty, get out from under there,’ Honor whispered urgently, taking a swipe at him with her foot to set him in motion before addressing Tania apologetically. ‘I’m terribly sorry, Mrs Blake. It’s my fault; I should have made sure my cat was—uh—secured in the kitchen. But he’s very clean. He just has this habit of begging for left-overs—’
‘Your cat?’ If anything Tania was even more incensed. ‘Adam, you mean to say you not only invited your...friend to stay without telling me, you also let her bring a menagerie—’
‘One cat is hardly a menagerie,’ Adam cut in, eyeing the furry friend now strolling nonchalantly out from his temporary lair. Unerringly Monty sought out his best chance of an ally, arching his back and purring innocently as Joy bent to pat and scold him fondly. ‘Although on second thoughts I must admit that Monty does seem to cause as much trouble as a cartload of wild animals,’ he added wryly.
‘Is Monty the wildcat who gave you that scratch?’ Sara guessed intuitively. The fresh indication of her lively intelligence made her dumbfounded initial reaction to Honor seem all the more inexplicable.
Adam grinned an acknowledgement at his daughter and he was suddenly the man from her letters again, warm and good-humoured, at ease with his feelings. The man she had instinctively trusted. Honor’s confusion deepened, her instinct warring with her reason. She didn’t really know him at all, she reminded herself.
‘Adam, I said—’
‘I heard what you said, Tania, and I suppose I assumed that as family I didn’t need permission to make myself at home here. If we’re going to quibble about triviali
ties, I might point out that you didn’t ask if you could use my place this week while you were in town. You merely informed me that that was the most convenient thing for you to do.’
‘The situation is hardly the same—’ began Tania, haughty in her frustration.
‘Quite. Technically I don’t actually have to ask your permission for anything I choose to do here, since Zach saw fit to leave the house and farm property unconditionally to me.’
Tania hadn’t inherited her husband’s home! Had it been entailed in some way? Honor held her breath for an explosion. Adam’s words had seemed like an unnecessarily cruel reminder of how much Tania had lost, but instead of exploding she seemed to soften, fluttering her impossibly long lashes at Adam’s sardonic face.
‘He knew how hopeless I was at managing things,’ she said, smiling wistfully. ‘He always said that if anything happened to him you’d take care of me. He trusted my future happiness and security to you, and so did I. So do I. It’s just that I sometimes forget how much things have changed. That this is our home, not just mine any more...’
Honor admired the performance, as performance it undoubtedly was. Adam had just been skilfully reminded of his family obligations and sweetly dipped in guilt for his good fortune at the expense of the beautiful, helpless widow.
However, she noted that Adam looked remarkably guiltless as he glibly murmured an apology for his thoughtlessness.
‘As a matter of courtesy, I would certainly have let you know about Honor’s visit in advance—if I’d known about it myself. But it wasn’t planned. I find that Honor is a very effective jinx where well-laid plans are concerned.’ His eyelids drooped suggestively. ‘The only way to circumvent the jinx is to take her by surprise. I didn’t want her being alone in her house right now so I swept her off her feet and brought her here, where I knew she’d be safe under my protection. You might say I was overcome by my chivalrous instincts.’
That was too much for Honor. ‘Chivalrous!’
He deflected her scorn with wicked amusement. ‘All right, my passionate instincts, then.’
Honor was about to say something cutting about his passion when she remembered the tender ears tuned in their direction. Before she could rephrase her insult in suitably euphemistic terms Adam had moved to her side and grasped her elbow in the excruciatingly gentle hold with which he had earlier controlled her and began guiding her towards the door.
‘As for your other uninvited guest, Tania, I’m afraid that Monty’s every bit as assertive and unpredictable of temperament as his mistress, so I’d advise you to steer clear of him. Mum, perhaps you can coax him back into the kitchen, since you seem to be the only one he respects. Honor and I have some business to discuss in the study.’
