Читать книгу A Man To Marry - Кэрол Мортимер, Carole Mortimer - Страница 9

‘WHO on earth can that be?’ Kate sighed impatiently as the doorbell could be heard ringing as they were about to go outside into the garden. ‘Not Toby again!’

Cat smiled at her sympathetically. At the end of a long day, the children all safely returned to their parents, their own leisurely evening meal over and the clearing away completed, they liked nothing better than to relax in the privacy of their garden, making the most of the lighter nights, this evening being a particularly warm one.

The walled garden had offered two positive things when they’d first come to view the house: a safe place for the children to come outside and play in the daytime and complete privacy for themselves in the evenings and at weekends. This evening Kate had obviously been looking forward to a couple of hours’ relaxation, either with a good book, or just in gentle, meaningless conversation.

‘It’s all right,’ Cat assured her brightly. ‘You go ahead and I’ll join you in a few minutes. When I’ve got rid of Toby!’ she amended ruefully, as convinced as Kate that he had to be their unexpected visitor.

They both liked Toby, found him amusing company, but just lately he had taken to calling in on them uninvited, and too much of a good thing was just that—too much!

‘It’s you he’s come to see, anyway,’ Kate teased. ‘I’m far too bossy for him!’

Cat pushed back her tousled red curls, shaking her head. ‘Then he obviously hasn’t taken note of my fiery Irish temper! I’ll be five minutes behind you—max!’ she promised determinedly. It had been a long day for her too, and the last thing she felt like doing was fending off Toby’s obvious advances—especially as she was sure it was just a game to him.

Kate laughed softly, glowingly lovely, her hair loose about her shoulders. ‘I admire your optimism!’

Cat returned her smile before going in answer to the second ringing of the doorbell. The only positive thing about Toby’s impromptu visit this evening was that he had arrived after dinner; usually he contrived to arrive right at a mealtime, and expected to be fed!

‘The answer is no, Toby, so I’ll save you…’ Cat’s voice trailed off in embarrassed surprise as she opened the door fully and found not Toby standing on the doorstep but Caleb Reynolds!

A completely different Caleb Reynolds from yesterday, she noted, the short-sleeved open-necked blue shirt much more informal than the suit he had worn then, as were the faded denims. Somehow the casualness of his appearance made him seem younger, much less forbidding…

‘Mr Reynolds,’ she greeted awkwardly, wearing a striped sleeveless tee shirt and faded denims herself. Well, they hadn’t been expecting company…

‘And not Toby,’ he conceded drily, grey gaze lightly mocking. ‘Although, as you were saying a very firm no to him, perhaps it’s as well!’ He quirked dark, mocking brows.

Cat felt the warmth in her cheeks as she looked up at him; at only just five feet in height herself, this man towered over her. ‘Sorry about that.’ She grimaced. ‘Toby is very nice—’

‘But?’ Caleb Reynolds prompted.

‘But’ nothing she was about to regale this man with! Toby could be a pest at times, but he was also a friend, and she had no intention of discussing him behind his back with a virtual stranger. ‘What can I do for you, Mr Reynolds?’ she said briskly; he had seemed more than happy when he’d arrived to pick Adam up at twelve-thirty and found his young son sitting quietly in a corner with Kate doing a jigsaw puzzle. ‘There’s been no adverse reaction from Adam this evening concerning his morning at playschool, has there?’ She frowned concernedly.

‘Not so far, no,’ he said thankfully. ‘Hopefully there won’t be one. The thing that bothered me the most about it was getting him to stay in the first place.’

But that had been achieved quite effectively when Kate had taken Adam by the hand and offered to show him again the swings and slides he had been so interested in yesterday…

‘I was actually going to telephone you this evening,’ Caleb Reynolds continued, looking a little grim. ‘But the daughter of the woman I’ve rented the cottage from offered to babysit Adam this evening, and as he’s fast asleep— She seems quite reliable,’ he added distractedly. ‘And Adam doesn’t usually wake up once he’s asleep, so I—’

‘Jane is very reliable,’ Cat assured him, taking pity on him; it must be as difficult for him to leave Adam after what had happened as it was for Adam to leave him! ‘She helps out at the playschool part-time during the school holidays. She’s taking her A levels.’ And now, Cat realised self-disgustedly, she was the one babbling.

It was just that Caleb Reynolds was the last person she had expected to see when she’d opened the door. Although she had a feeling Kate would have handled the situation better than she was; tact and diplomacy were not her fortes!

‘Would you mind if I came in for a few minutes?’ Caleb enquired. ‘I won’t take up too much of your time,’ he said bluntly as Cat looked at him blankly. ‘I’m sure, like myself, you have other things to do this evening.’

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to invite him in, she just wasn’t sure it was convenient at the moment. They had all been going out into the garden, and— ‘Please, do come in,’ Cat invited stiltedly, thinking fast. ‘I—I believe Kate is taking a bath,’ she added hurriedly, believing no such thing! ‘I’ll just go and war—tell her that you’re here—’

‘That won’t be necessary.’ He had followed her through into the same room as yesterday. ‘Unless you feel in need of the moral support?’ he commented derisively, his presence in this utterly feminine room with its chintz curtains and covers once again malely dominating.

Cat bristled indignantly at his mocking tone. Arrogant, patronising—! Her sympathy for him of a few minutes ago completely evaporated. ‘Not in the least,’ she dismissed scathingly.

Besides, she could imagine Kate right this minute, in the most secluded part of the garden, relaxing on a lounger, Kitty at her side. No, she wasn’t about to disturb either of them; she could deal with Caleb Reynolds quite well on her own!

‘Please sit down,’ she invited tersely, waiting for him to do so but maintaining her own standing position beside the unlit fireplace. ‘And if it isn’t a problem with Adam that brought you here, then what can we do to help you, Mr Reynolds?’ she asked warily. Because this man, with his arrogant disdain, didn’t give her the impression he was in the habit of paying social calls just for the sake of it!

He looked at her consideringly for several long seconds, the silence stretching awkwardly between them. ‘Miss Rourke—or perhaps I can call you Cat?’ he drawled, seeming amused by her continued formality.

And no doubt he was amused, Cat inwardly acknowledged, but she would bet that if she stepped even one inch over what he considered the line to intrusion into his private life, rather than the polite interest she had shown so far, he would step on it—and her!—very quickly.

‘Please do,’ she accepted distantly.

‘And I’m Caleb.’

How cosy! And yet she knew that it wasn’t. She would take a guess on this man squashing her like a bug if she got in his way! But what way did he want to go…?

‘That still doesn’t tell me what I can do to help you,’ she reminded him. ‘If there is no problem with Adam—’

‘I’ve already told you there isn’t—Cat,’ he returned evenly, that arctic gaze easily capturing and holding hers. ‘Adam—for all that I spent the best part of the morning pacing up and down worrying in case he needed me!—seems to have enjoyed his morning here. In fact, I think, if anything, he found the afternoon with just the two of us quite boring. It’s always the way with children, isn’t it?’ He grimaced. ‘We get the grey hairs, and they just grow bigger and stronger!’

Cat relaxed slightly at the paternal image of this man pacing up and down in worry over his son. It brought back to her the fact that no matter how arrogant and patronising she found him he did love his son. It was there in his intonation when he spoke of Adam.

‘I had never really thought of it in quite that way,’ she smiled. ‘But yes, I suppose they do. But you really have no need to worry any further about Adam while he’s here; the other children didn’t seem to mind at all that he didn’t actually speak to them. In fact, they seem to have a sort of telepathy with each other at this age!’ Considering the trauma Adam had suffered just six months ago, although he had stayed quite close to Cat and Kate during the morning, he had also, to their delight, played with the other children.

‘So I’ve noticed,’ Caleb agreed. ‘My sister has a little girl of two, and she and Adam have no trouble communicating with each other at all.’

Slowly Cat was learning more about this man, though it was like getting blood from a stone! But she still had a feeling that was more than most people could get out of him. She knew he had been married, that his wife had died, that he had a sister, and a niece. It was probably more than he knew about her, Cat conceded. And that was the way it was going to stay!

Although she couldn’t help wondering why, with family obviously living somewhere close—Adam was able to play with his cousin—Caleb Reynolds had chosen to move to this area at all…? Unless his sister lived around here too? But if that was the case why rent a cottage? Why not just stay with his sister? There was still a lot about Caleb Reynolds they didn’t know!

‘I actually came here this evening,’ he said softly, ‘to ask you and Kate if I could look around your house.’

He had lulled her into a false sense of security by talking about Adam, and then—pow!—he’d hit her with what he was really here for!

Cat stared at him, green eyes wide. ‘I thought you were happy with our facilities when I showed you round this morning?’ She frowned. ‘I can assure you that we are inspected on a regular basis, and—’

‘I don’t want to look around the playschool again, Cat,’ Caleb cut in mildly. ‘As you say, I’ve already seen it, and I have no doubt that it passes inspection. It’s actually the rest of the house I’m interested in seeing.’

‘Why?’ Cat blurted out rudely, too startled for politeness.

‘Because it’s one of the oldest houses in the area and I have an interest in old houses?’ he suggested drily, dark brows raised at her bluntness.

She met his gaze unblinkingly. ‘And?’

He shrugged. ‘Does there have to be an and?’

She nodded abruptly. ‘I think so, yes!’

Why on earth did he want to look around this particular house? Admittedly it was almost one hundred and fifty years old, had originally been the manor house of the area, surrounded by farmland that was worked by the tenants of the cottages in the village. But the squire’s family had moved out of the area years ago, the farmland bought up by neighbouring farmers, and the village itself had expanded and grown, so that the nearest dwelling was now only a quarter of a mile away. In fact, it was the cottage this man was currently renting!

Again Caleb gave her that steady, steely-eyed look. But if he thought he was going to unnerve her he was mistaken; as a parent she would treat him with the same politeness she did all their other clients, but as someone wanting to invade the privacy of their home—! The same rules didn’t apply in that situation. So Cat met that level gaze with an intensity of her own.

‘Okay,’ Caleb Reynolds finally murmured, shrugging his shoulders, ‘you’ve guessed my secret.’ A charming smile accompanied this statement.

A smile that Cat had no intention of responding to, that put her even more on her guard instead. Charm was not something she particularly associated with this man, so it had to be there now for a reason…

‘There is more than just a mild curiosity on my part,’ he conceded grudgingly. ‘You see—’

‘Cat, what on earth is keeping you this long?’ Kate called impatiently as she could be heard walking down the hallway. ‘Really, Toby, it’s been a hard day, and—’ Kate was as surprised to see Caleb Reynolds sitting in the room with Cat as Cat had been earlier when she’d opened the door to him. ‘Mr Reynolds…?’ she greeted in a puzzled voice.

‘Miss Brady,’ he returned formally, having stood up at her entrance. ‘Although your friend and I have decided to dispense with formality and stick to first names,’ he added, once again with that charming smile.

If one were in the mood to be charmed—which Cat certainly wasn’t! Besides, that smile didn’t quite reach the hardness of those icy grey eyes…

‘Really?’ Kate gave Cat a sideways glance, obviously as confused as Cat had been by his presence here.

Although Cat was no longer as confused as she had been initially. If he thought she had forgotten his ‘secret’, he was mistaken!

‘Did you enjoy your bath, Kate?’ he enquired solicitously, his gaze mocking now.

Cat could easily guess the reason for his mockery, on two counts. Firstly, the pieces of grass that were both on the back of Kate’s top and entangled in her hair clearly showed she hadn’t been anywhere near the bath in the last few minutes. And, secondly, Kate’s blankly uncomprehending expression said she didn’t have a clue what he was talking about!

Cat had originally used the excuse of Kate being in the bath because she hadn’t wanted Caleb to suggest joining them in the garden. But Kate’s slightly dishevelled, obviously post-garden appearance simply made a liar out of her.

‘My mistake, I’m afraid,’ Cat put in sweetly, her expression deliberately bland. ‘I thought you had gone to have a bath, but obviously you haven’t finished in the garden yet,’ she said pointedly.

Kate gave her a frowning look before turning to Caleb. ‘Gardens take up such a lot of one’s time, don’t they?’ she said conversationally, her words neither confirming nor belying Cat’s statement. ‘As you’re going to find out while you’re at Rose Cottage. Unless you have someone coming in to take care of it for you?’

Cat knew that Jane’s mother always did the cleaning at the cottage, and with Adam taken care of as well five mornings a week she couldn’t help wondering what Caleb was going to find to do with his time if he passed the gardening on to someone else too. Besides coming here when he felt like it and making a nuisance of himself, that was! One male dropping in unannounced was bad enough; two was intolerable!

‘Actually, no,’ Caleb answered Kate lightly. ‘It was the fact that the cottage had such a large garden that appealed to me. We live in an apartment in London, and the doctors seemed to think that a complete change of scenery might be of benefit to Adam.’

‘So he’s going to do the gardening?’ Cat put in, with only a light veil over her sarcasm.

It was a veil that didn’t fool Caleb for a moment, and he looked at her consideringly for several seconds. ‘You don’t like me very much, do you, Cat?’ he finally murmured thoughtfully.

Like him—she didn’t even know him! But the habit he had of speaking his mind was a little unnerving, yes. Kept between the two of them, it wasn’t a problem, but with Kate present—Kate who now looked very uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken—it was a completely different matter.

‘Kate’s the diplomat in this partnership, Caleb,’ Cat returned ruefully. ‘I have better success dealing with children.’

‘As opposed to men?’ he returned softly.

‘As opposed to anyone!’ Cat snapped back, eyes flashing deeply green.

Give me a break, Kate, her expression silently pleaded with her friend; this man gave as good as he got—if not better!

‘You were about to explain your interest in seeing around this house?’ she prompted their visitor, deliberately not looking at Kate now as she heard her friend’s indrawn breath, but hoping that her friend now understood her own defensive attitude towards this man.

Caleb looked perfectly relaxed, seemingly unaware of the underlying tension in the room. ‘It’s quite simple, really,’ he replied. ‘I’m interested in this house because my great-great-grandfather was its architect.’

The two women couldn’t have felt—or looked!—more stunned if he had told them his ancestor had been Jack the Ripper!

Cat didn’t know what explanation she had been expecting, but it certainly hadn’t been the one Caleb Reynolds had just given. And poor Kate seemed to be having trouble keeping up with the conversation at all.

‘Clive Reynolds,’ he explained as their shocked silence continued. ‘The house was actually named after him. His name is carved into the stonework on the front of the house,’ he added as he still received no response from either of the two women.

Clive Reynolds… He was right, it was. But time and familiarity had dulled for them the awareness of that name and a date, 1850, etched into the stone directly above the front door. Clive Reynolds. This man’s great-great-grandfather…

The surname was obviously the same, and yet…

‘What a coincidence.’ Once again Cat’s barely veiled scepticism could be heard, and the sudden hardness of his grey eyes said Caleb Reynolds was well aware of it!

‘Not at all,’ he bit out crisply. ‘I’m in the area because I have some research to do at the museum in York, but I chose this village for my stay deliberately once I realised about the house. I’m curious to know whether or not my ancestor built any other houses in the area.’

‘Doubtful,’ Cat couldn’t resist snapping. ‘It’s hardly the sort of area that could have supported two such grand houses,’ she elaborated as he looked at her icily.

‘I’m a historian, Cat,’ Caleb Reynolds told her evenly, deliberately seeming to keep all emotion from his voice. Although his eyes were a different matter: hard, glacial, narrowed to icy slits as he looked steadily at Cat. ‘But I specialise in architecture. Perhaps only naturally with an architect as an ancestor,’ he added almost confrontationally.

Cat didn’t see what was ‘natural’ about it at all; her own father trained and bred horses, but she had always been—to her father’s dismay—terrified of them. They were beautiful and powerful to look at and admire from a distance, but completely unpredictable in close proximity, she had found. Exactly like Caleb Reynolds…

She brought her thoughts up short. Really! Caleb Reynolds might be powerful and attractive, but he certainly wasn’t beautiful! What on earth was she thinking of? Or maybe she just wasn’t thinking at all… And, around this man, that could be dangerous!

He certainly didn’t look like any historian she had ever seen, on television or in the newspapers, most of them old and fusty-looking, as if they belonged in the past with their textbooks!

‘In the circumstances, I quite understand your interest in this house.’ Kate had recovered enough to be able to take over their half of the conversation.

Which was perhaps as well; Cat, with her usual forthright manner, only seemed to be antagonising Caleb Reynolds! His knowledge of at least one past owner of the house was now more easily explained, although why he couldn’t have told them all of this yesterday was still a mystery…

‘And I’m sure, at some convenient time to all of us, that it could be arranged for you to look round the house,’ Kate continued politely. ‘Although, as I’m sure you appreciate, the house has been completely modernised over the years!’

‘We even have mains sewage nowadays!’ Cat put in sharply, ignoring Kate’s pained wince. Damn it, the man was the one asking them a favour, and a damned inconvenient one at that.

She wished now that it had been Toby at the front door earlier; she wouldn’t have had any trouble saying no to any ‘secrets’ he might have wanted to share!

‘I’m sure you do,’ Caleb drawled drily, one dark brow raised questioningly at her continued aggression. ‘And don’t worry, I wasn’t asking if I could look round right this minute,’ he turned to tell Kate charmingly. ‘I more than appreciate the fact that I’ve rather sprung this on you. I also realise that you have other considerations to take into account.’

Cat looked at him sharply, not fooled for a moment by that charm which he seemed to be able to turn on and off at will—it was usually off when he was talking to her! ‘What “other considerations”?’ she enquired warily.

‘The playschool, of course,’ he returned easily. ‘I appreciate I couldn’t just stroll about during the day when you have all the children in your care.’

She had news for him; he couldn’t ‘just stroll about’ their home when the children weren’t here, either! He really was the most—

‘There’s also Kate’s grandmother to consider,’ he continued evenly.

Stunned didn’t even begin to describe their silence this time—more like electric. This man, completely unknown to them until roughly thirty-six hours ago, knew far too much about their home and them; Cat was absolutely positive that neither she nor Kate had mentioned her grandmother to this man yesterday! But Cat’s earlier summing-up of this man still stood; getting information out of him that he didn’t want to give was like getting blood out of a stone. Though he had just spoken readily enough about his reason for being in the area, about his great-great-grandfather being the architect of this house, which was the reason he wanted to look round it, all that information had been volunteered—making Cat wonder exactly what it was he wasn’t saying!

Cat glanced across at Kate now, seeing all too easily how the colour had faded from her friend’s cheeks, the way she looked at Caleb Reynolds in fascinated horror. Once again like the snake and its victim!

‘Don’t tell me,’ Cat put in scornfully. ‘Lilley at the post office, again!’ She gave a derisive shake of her head. ‘Really, Caleb,’ she taunted. ‘I would never have taken you for the gossiping kind!’

He looked nonplussed. ‘I wasn’t aware that you had ‘taken’ me at all, Cat,’ he returned mockingly, satisfaction gleaming in his eyes at the way her cheeks suddenly burned. ‘But you’re right about the gossip,’ he continued before she could make any reply to his innuendo. ‘When I made my initial enquiries about Clive House I was told that a Miss Brady and a Miss Rourke lived here with Miss Brady’s grandmother.’

Innocent enough. It certainly wasn’t a secret that Kate’s grandmother lived here with them. It was just thoroughly disconcerting that this man should know so much about them! And not just from Lilley at the post office, either… So where had he got his information? And why? So far he had been very cagey about his reason for being in the area. And if he should turn out to be a reporter…! Cat had allowed one reporter too close to her once, no matter how unwittingly, and she wouldn’t let it happen again!

He looked at them both with assessing eyes. ‘I wasn’t aware I was saying something out of turn…?’

‘You didn’t,’ Kate answered him with a return of confidence. ‘Kitty—my grandmother—does live here with us. But she isn’t in the best of health, has few visitors, and goes out even less, and I would rather talk to her before you look round the house. I think you’ll be quite impressed when you see all of it,’ she assured him. ‘It’s really been very well looked after, with a lot of the original features kept in place—’

‘He doesn’t want to buy the house, Kate,’ Cat snapped. ‘Just look at it!’

‘I can see I’ve taken up enough of your time for one evening,’ Caleb put in sardonically, moving to the door. ‘So I’ll leave you all in peace.’

Peace? The man didn’t know the meaning of the word!

‘I’ll see you out.’ Kate followed him.

‘Cat.’ He paused at the door to nod abruptly in parting.

‘Mr Reynolds,’ she returned tersely.

She hadn’t moved when Kate returned to the sitting-room a few minutes later, looking up at her friend with bright green eyes. ‘He’s right,’ Cat told Kate fiercely, ‘I don’t like him!’ Her eyes flashed angrily.

‘He’s—unsettling,’ Kate acknowledged more cautiously.

‘Kate, the man is arrogant and condescending—and I don’t trust him one little bit!’

‘Let’s not get all of this out of proportion,’ Kate warned. ‘Admittedly I was a bit surprised when he said he would like to look round the house, but as his great-great-grandfather designed it—’

‘So he says!’ Cat snapped, scowling darkly. ‘Reynolds isn’t exactly an uncommon name, Kate,’ she pointed out scornfully as her friend looked at her questioningly. ‘And he mentioned nothing yesterday about his ancestor having designed this house, only came up with that idea today—when the name is engraved on the front of the house for all to see!’

Kate looked bewildered. ‘You don’t think Clive Reynolds was his great-great-grandfather…?’

‘I think it’s all just a little too much of a coincidence,’ Cat said firmly. ‘But I’m going to find out the truth,’ she added determinedly. ‘There are bound to be records, some way I can actually find out if he’s related to Clive Reynolds. In the meantime, I suggest we say nothing to Kitty about this. There’s no point in bothering her with it until we know for certain.’

‘I agree,’ Kate said slowly, momentarily closing her eyes. ‘Will it ever stop, do you think, Cat?’ she added wearily as the two of them strolled back out to the garden.

Cat squeezed her arm reassuringly. ‘Of course it will. We’ve all lived here in relative peace for the last few years; there’s no reason why that shouldn’t continue.’ Caleb Reynolds would be dealt with very firmly if he should turn out to be any other than what he claimed to be. She would see to that. And enjoy doing it, she realised.

‘Hello, darlings.’ Kitty beamed at them both; Kate’s grandmother, who supposedly wasn’t in the best of health, at this moment was down on her hands and knees as she weeded a flower bed!

In her early seventies, Kitty nevertheless looked years younger than that, shoulder-length blonde hair swept back from her face, her face relatively unlined by the years, her figure still youthfully slim as she stood up.

Despite the fact that she hadn’t performed in public for twenty-five years, she was still, to anyone who had admired and known her—as Caleb Reynolds obviously had!—instantly recognisable as the opera singer, Katherine Maitland!