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‘A virgin?’ he said with explicit clarity, relishing the sight of her fiery blush and the embarrassed flutter of her guilty grey eyes. ‘Perhaps not physically but emotionally it was certainly a first for me.’
‘You were in love with her?’
‘I was flattered by the attentions of a very attractive, intelligent, older woman,’ he replied with exquisite evasiveness. He might want to slap her in the face with the raw facts of life, but he evidently wasn’t prepared to reveal the secrets of his heart.
Anya moistened her dry lips. ‘H-have you been able to see your daughter very often?’ She ventured onto what she thought was more conventional conversational ground.
‘Not since she was a baby. Lorna wanted it that way. She didn’t want any financial support and in exchange I agreed not to involve myself in her child’s life.’ He shrugged at her indrawn breath. ‘I was eighteen…what did I know? As Lorna pointed out, I had no money and at least four years of law school ahead of me. I wasn’t ready for parenthood—she was…’
There was more to it than that, Anya was sure of it; his whole attitude was simply too nonchalant. ‘So what’s Petra doing here now? Has something happened to her mother?’
‘No. Petra decided that it was time she tracked down her biological father. After an argument with Lorna about it she ran away from home, hopped a plane—booked with her mother’s credit card—and turned up on my doorstep last week.’
‘Good lord…!’ Climbing out of a second-floor window was probably a breeze compared with what she had already risked.
‘After some discussion Lorna and I agreed that since Petra felt so strongly about it she should stay here for a few weeks and get to know her paternal relations—as long as she doesn’t miss her schooling. History is one of her subjects and since you may find her in one of your classes I thought it might help you to know a bit about her background.’
‘Talking about me, Dad?’ Petra waltzed in with a laden tray which she set down on the coffee table with a cheerful rattle.
‘Who else? You are the current hot topic around here,’ said her father drily. He looked down at the tray and raised his eyebrows. ‘Three cups? Nice try, Petra. If you go back to your room right now we’ll only add—’ he checked his steel watch ‘—another half an hour onto your sentence to make up the difference.’
‘But Dad—I was rescuing someone. I should get time off for good behaviour!’ Petra had the grace to flush when she looked over and saw Anya’s lowered brows. ‘OK, OK,’ she amended hastily. ‘But this sucks. All I did was tell Sean what I thought of his brain-dead friends.’
‘In language I’m more used to hearing in police holding cells than at my own breakfast table. And throwing food is completely unacceptable.’ Anya looked at him through her lashes as he was laying down the law, hiding her amusement. He might know nothing about parenthood but he was obviously a fast learner. ‘None of us are used to living with each other, but if we act civilised and respect each other’s boundaries we can all get along. My house, my rules, Petra—and I don’t think a couple of hours of time out is unreasonable punishment. You spend more time than that plugged into the stereo in your room every day. In fact, why don?
?t you take up that book about New Zealand I was going to lend you? In a couple of hours you could learn some of the things you may need to know in school next week. Why don’t you pour Miss Adams’s tea while I get it?’
There was a small silence after he left the room until Petra rushed into speech.
‘Hey, thanks for not dobbing me in!’ She picked up the china teapot and poured out two cups, pushing one across the coffee table to Anya and carefully sugaring and stirring the other before positioning it within easy reach from the vacant chair.
Anya watched this small, telling act with a softening heart but she wasn’t going to be bamboozled by her emotions.
‘I fell for a good con job,’ she chided in her cool, clear voice. ‘But it won’t happen a second time. What you did today wasn’t reckless, it was just plain stupid, and really dangerous. The fright your father got when he saw me lying there was nothing to the anguish he would have felt if it had been you. You might not have died, but you could have had to live the rest of your life unable to function as an individual, with your father blaming himself for not taking better care of you. If nothing else, at least have consideration for the feelings of others before you give in to your selfish impulses.’
She found herself being regarded with unexpected awe. ‘Wow!’
‘What?’ she demanded.
‘Nothing.’ The girl shook her head, but then blurted: ‘You wouldn’t think to look at you but you’re real good at making a person feel bad.’ Her husky voice dropped into quiet sincerity. ‘I was just sneaking out to prove that I could—I won’t do it again, I promise.’ She pulled a wry face. ‘I knew as soon as I got out there that it was a dumb thing to do but I couldn’t get back in, so I figured it was better to go down as quick as I could so there was less far to fall. I thought it was too dorky to yell for help. I really am sorry.’
‘You had to yell for help anyway,’ Anya pointed out.
‘Yeah, but it’s cool to do it for another person,’ the girl pointed out with unarguable truth.
When her father came back with the promised book she was quick to beat a retreat.
‘She probably won’t even open it,’ he grunted, sitting down and reaching for his tea.
‘Uh, Petra’s already done that for you,’ said Anya when he ladled in a another teaspoonful of sugar.
He paused in his stirring. ‘Then why didn’t you stop me?’ he said, irritated.
‘I’m sorry my reactions weren’t fast enough for you,’ she replied astringently. ‘I didn’t know I was supposed to police the sugar bowl. For all I know you could need all that extra sweetening,’ she added in a dulcet tone, taking a sip of her own, unadulterated tea.
He shoved the over-sweetened drink back onto the tray and poured himself another in the spare cup, adding a sparse teaspoon of sugar, then sat back in his chair and regarded her with a threatening attentiveness.
‘So, to what do I owe the honour of this visit? Or were you simply strolling by and decided to “trip” in for a neighbourly chat?’ His ironic inflexion stressed the fact that she had never made any such neighbourly gesture before.
