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“Neither am I.” She clung to him and listened to the steady, comforting beat of his heart, knowing she could face anything the future had to offer, as long as she was with the man she loved.
“Then, next month. Or sooner.”
She smiled against the coarse denim of his jacket. “We have plenty of time,” she whispered as tears of happiness pooled in her eyes.
* * *
Two hours later, after breakfast, the first reporter called. Trevor took the call, declined an interview, referred the reporter to Everett Woodward and slammed down the receiver.
“Well, it’s started,” he said, his piercing blue eyes holding her gaze. “If you want out, you better make a hasty exit.”
“Not on your life.”
Quickly she called Mrs. Deveraux to explain the situation, in case any reporters started looking for her. The fussy old woman burst into tears of happiness when Ashley mentioned that she and Trevor were going to be married.
“And here I was worried about you,” Francine exclaimed, clucking her tongue. “I should have guessed that you never got over that man.”
“It’s not quite like it appears in the papers,” Ashley stated, hoping to start rectifying the damage to her reputation that the Morning Surveyor had wrought.
“Of course it isn’t. Who would believe a story like that?” Francine asked indignantly.
“No one, I hope. Look, I’ll come back to the house later in the day and pick up a few of my things.”
“Good. Then you can tell me all about it. Oh, I almost forgot,” the housekeeper stated as an afterthought. “Your cousin has been calling this morning—”
“Claud?” Ashley asked, and Trevor, overhearing the name, whirled to face her. Every muscle on his face was pulled taut.
“He needs to talk to you.”
“Isn’t he still in Seattle?”
“Oh, no. He got back into town sometime last night, I think.” Ashley was sure that Claud wasn’t due back into town until the day after next, and from the deadly look in Trevor’s eyes she felt instant dread.
“Did you tell him where I was?”
“Oh, no. I explained that you had gone shopping for the day and that I would give you his message.”
“How did he take the news?”
“As usual. Not well.”
“So things are normal,” Ashley thought aloud, though the darkness in Trevor’s eyes warned her that just the opposite was true. “I’ll see you later.”
After Ashley hung up, Trevor switched on the answering machine and began to pace from room to room like a caged animal, alternately surveying the telephone as if in indecision and then looking carefully out the windows to the long, asphalt drive.
“I take it that Claud’s
back in town,” Trevor said, his hands pushing impatiently through his coarse hair.
“He’s looking for me.”
Trevor stopped midstride. “Damn! I knew I couldn’t trust that bastard!”
Ashley put a hand on Trevor’s forearm and found the muscles rigid. “What’s going on?”
The telephone rang and the recorder automatically took the call. “You know, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that Claud called all the papers in town,” Trevor remarked with an undertone of vengeance.
“You can’t blame him for everything,” Ashley replied with a frown.
