Читать книгу Love's Duel - Кэрол Мортимер, Кэрол Мортимер - Страница 6

‘YOU!’ His eyes went black with recognition, his expression one of unsuppressed fury.

Leonie was deathly white, almost a sickly grey. It was like all her nightmares coming true in one terror-stricken minute. The chances of her ever meeting John Noble again had been highly unlikely, and yet here he was in Emily Dryer’s lounge, could in reality only be Emily’s dearly loved nephew Giles.

He looked much older, the wings of grey hair at his temples more pronounced, although at thirty-nine this was only to be expected; his eyes were more flinty than she remembered, his mouth more cruel, his face all strong angles, his body lean in the dark grey trousers and black fitted shirt. He was tall and powerful, and he towered over Leonie like an avenging angel.

He took a step towards her, the savagery in his face increasing as she flinched away from him. He caught hold of her arm, his fingers digging painfully into her flesh. ‘What are you doing here?’ he demanded angrily. ‘What are you doing in my aunt’s house?’

Her hope that perhaps there had been some ghastly mistake, that perhaps this wasn’t nephew Giles went crumbled into the dust. Nephew Giles and John Noble were the same man! If she could have said anything at all in that moment it would probably have come out as an hysterical laugh, but her voice seemed locked in her throat, only her eyes able to mirror her fear and shock, her utter terror.

‘Answer me, damn you!’ He shook her hard, uncaring of the bruises he was inflicting through the silkiness of her blouse.

Whether she would finally have been able to speak she never afterwards knew, for at that moment Emily bustled into the room, the tray of coffee in her hands. For all his fury John Noble was still able to move forward and take the tray from his ageing aunt, placing it on the low table that stood in front of the sofa.

‘I wasn’t long, was I?’ Emily chattered as she poured out the three cups of coffee. ‘Have the two of you introduced yourselves?’ She looked up enquiringly.

Leonie swallowed hard, sure that she must look terrible. ‘I——’

‘No,’ John Noble said tautly. ‘No, we haven’t.’ His expression was grim as it raked mercilessly over Leonie’s slender figure.

She twisted her hands nervously together under that insolent appraisal, wishing she could tell what he was thinking, but his thoughts were as enigmatic today as they had been in court four years ago. If anything he looked even more haughty, more arrogant.

‘This is my nephew Giles, Leonora,’ said Emily with a smile, unaware of the waves of antagonism passing between the other two. ‘He’s John really,’ she confided. ‘But as his father was also called John we’ve always called him Giles.’

Except in court! In court he had been John G. Noble. Well, at least now she knew what the G. stood for! This man, this hateful, sarcastically cruel man, was Emily’s beloved nephew. Either Emily was unaware of the harshness in him or else she knew of it and excused it. Knowing Emily it would be the latter, she always had sympathy and understanding for the unpleasant quirks in people’s natures.

‘And this is Leonora,’ she announced proudly.

‘Leonora…?’ Giles Noble raised an enquiring eyebrow.

‘Carter,’ Leonie supplied in a stilted voice.

His piercing gaze went to the simple gold band that encircled her wedding finger. ‘Ah yes,’ he drawled. ‘You’re a widow.’

‘Leonora lost her husband two years ago,’ his aunt supplied. ‘Such a shame for one so young.’

‘Yes.’ Giles took the proffered cup of coffee. ‘When you spoke of your widowed friend Leonora, Aunt, I naturally assumed her to be a—lady of your own age.’

‘Did you, dear?’ Emily said vaguely. ‘But I’m sure I mentioned how young and pretty she is.’

‘No, you never did.’ Giles Noble’s mouth twisted, his gaze rapier-sharp as it raked over every inch of Leonie’s body.

He was doing it again, but now he was stripping her not only of her pride but of her clothes too. She had never seen that insultingly familiar look in any man’s eyes before, never felt such degradation at a man’s glance. Her humiliation was complete as with a contemptuous twist of his lips he turned away.

‘Oh well, it doesn’t matter,’ his aunt smiled brightly. ‘I’m sure the two of you will be good friends.’

Leonie almost choked over her coffee at the unlikelihood of that happening. Her hand shook as she returned the cup to its saucer, her fear a tangible thing. This man was her tormenter, the evoker of all her night-time fears, and yet she could feel his magnetism as strongly as she had in the courtroom, knew that once again he was swallowing her up, absorbing her personality, reducing her to the naïve child she had still been four years ago when she first met him.

Giles Noble looked at her again. ‘My aunt tells me you’ve been to see your brother this weekend. I believe he has been—away?’ his voice taunted her.

‘I—er—Yes.’ She stared down at her hands, her breath catching in her throat as she waited for him to speak again, for that cold clipped voice that could be silkily soft when he wanted it to be to rip into her once again.

‘Where?’ he asked finally.

She drew a ragged breath, raising her head slowly. ‘He’s been—working abroad,’ her eyes met his challengingly. ‘On an oil-rig,’ she added defiantly.

‘Really?’ Giles Noble drawled slowly. ‘How interesting—for him.’

Leonie swallowed hard. ‘Yes.’

‘Why don’t you both sit down?’ Emily asked from the sofa. ‘I don’t like you both towering over me like this.’

‘Sorry, Aunt. Mrs Carter…?’ He waited for Leonie to be seated before sitting himself, his long legs stretched out in front of him, his position relaxed.

Leonie sat in a daze, wondering why he didn’t just expose her to his aunt. He knew damned well Phil hadn’t been working abroad, he could do his arithmetic as well as he did everything else, and he knew very well Phil had just been released from prison. And yet he said nothing. What sort of cat-and-mouse game was he playing with her now?

‘I’m sure you can call her Leonie, Giles,’ Emily was still unaware of the tension between them. ‘Can’t he, dear?’

‘Leonie?’ he repeated softly. ‘But I thought your name was Leonora?’

She bit her lip. ‘It is. Emily just—prefers to call me that.’

‘It’s too pretty to shorten,’ Emily put in.

‘Most people call me Leonie,’ she said firmly.

‘Do they indeed?’ Giles slowly drawled.

‘Yes!’ she snapped, her tension almost at breaking point.

‘Then so shall I. You see, dear Aunt, I happen to think Leonie is a much prettier name.’

Thank goodness for that. She could still remember the contemptuous way he had called her Leonora in court. At least she was to be spared that.

‘Does your brother enjoy his work on the oil-rig?’ Giles Noble asked suddenly.

Leonie visibly jumped, the question unexpected—as he had known it would be. He was still the lawyer, throwing her off guard, tricking her. ‘He’s left now. He has a job in London.’ Why didn’t he just say that he knew it was all a pack of lies, that her stepbrother was a jail-bird?

He nodded, his expression mocking. ‘You’ll be able to see more of him, one presumes.’

‘Yes.’

‘That will be nice, for both of you. I’m sure it can’t have been all that comfortable where he’s been.’

‘Don’t be silly, dear,’ his aunt chided. ‘They have all the conveniences on those places nowadays.’

‘So they do,’ he gave a slight smile, even white teeth visible between those firm lips. ‘Except women. I suppose your brother was living it up this weekend?’

Leonie gave him a cold look, the memory of Wanda in Phil’s room still an embarrassing one. ‘We spent a quiet weekend together,’ she informed him resentfully.

Those firm lips tightened, the eyes glacial. ‘I’m sure you did.’

‘I don’t like to hurry you, Giles,’ his aunt cut in, ‘but it’s after eleven, and you have a long drive in front of you. I do wish you would leave it until morning, I don’t like to think of you driving all that way in the dark.’

Giles stretched his long legs. ‘I do it all the time when you don’t know about it, Aunt Emily.’

‘Well, I know, but the point of that is that I don’t know about it. I shall only worry,’ she added persuasively.

‘Actually, Aunt, I’ve been thinking of taking you up on your offer to stay an extra night. I don’t have to be in court until tomorrow afternoon, I could drive up after breakfast.’

‘Oh, that’s a splendid idea!’ his aunt clapped her hands together with pleasure. I’ll just go up and check that Dorothy hasn’t stripped your bed. She has a habit of getting things done before you want her to.’ She bustled out of the room, a worried frown on her brow.

Leonie gulped, glancing over at Giles Noble, hurriedly looking away again as she saw he was looking right back at her, his expression unreadable.

Suddenly he stood up, his movements restless. ‘Of course you know why I’m staying on,’ he said coldly.

‘Yes,’ Leonie didn’t attempt to prevaricate.

‘So your brother is out of prison now,’ he remarked quietly.

‘I’m surprised you remember us,’ she said tautly. ‘After all, you’ve prosecuted in much more important cases than ours.’

‘But I’ve never lost one that was quite so cut and dried,’ he told her contemptuously.

‘You didn’t lose,’ she gasped. ‘Phil went to prison because of you.’

‘And you walked away free.’ His eyes were narrowed.

‘But not because of you,’ she scorned.

‘No, you would have got life if I’d had my way!’

‘Life?’ she repeated dazedly. ‘Even if I had been guilty, which I wasn’t, I certainly didn’t deserve life!’

‘I happen to think you did.’

‘That was obvious,’ Leonie snapped.

‘You were guilty, Leonie.’

Her eyes flashed. ‘The court didn’t seem to agree with you.’

He shrugged. ‘Unfortunately they can’t always be right. Most of the time, yes, but not always.’

‘This time they were!’ she told him vehemently.

His look was dismissive of such a claim. ‘The wedding ring on your finger, is it real?’

‘Of course it’s real! You——’

‘You mean there was a Mr Carter?’ He sounded sceptical.

‘Yes, there was a Mr Carter!’

‘And he walked out on you.’

‘No, he died. You already know I’m a widow.’

‘You’ve lied before, you could be lying now. I had no idea my aunt’s friend Leonora was really Leonora Gordon, the girl who——’

‘Mr Noble,’ Leonie cut in stiffly, ‘my past is my affair. The fact that you happen to know about it shouldn’t make any difference.’

‘But it does,’ he said silkily soft. ‘Don’t you think my aunt is entitled to know that her trusted friend was once prosecuted by me on behalf of her lover?’

‘He was not my lover!’ she denied heatedly, her initial fear now fading to anger. She didn’t have to take this abuse from him, she was no longer on trial.

‘Wasn’t he?’ Giles Noble’s mouth twisted scornfully. ‘Jeremy tells a different story.’

‘I’m sure he does,’ she said disgustedly. ‘He has a reputation to maintain.’

‘You aren’t trying to tell me that he made all that up? Because if you are I should save your breath; he went into the affair in great detail. I probably know as much about you as he does.’

Leonie’s face blazed with colour and she felt sick. She had allowed Jeremy to touch her more intimately than any other man had done, might even eventually have slept with him, but she hadn’t. She hadn’t! That he had invented the details of their affair she knew, and it was obvious that Giles Noble believed every word.

‘Why should his story be any more believable than mine?’ she challenged. ‘It takes two, you know.’

‘So I heard.’ Once again his mouth twisted with contempt.

‘Mr Noble——’

Emily came back into the room, beaming at them both. ‘For once Dorothy hasn’t been quite so efficient. Your bed is still made up, Giles.’

‘Then I suggest we all retire for the night,’ he said smoothly, showing none of his animosity towards Leonie in front of his aunt.

Leonie was only too glad to go to bed, although she couldn’t sleep once she was prepared for bed, pacing the room as she wondered what Giles Noble’s next move would be. She was surprised he hadn’t given her away to his aunt at once, although his remark about his aunt being entitled to know seemed to point to him not being silent for much longer.

What would happen when he told Emily, dear kind Emily who tried never to believe a bad word about anyone? Well, she couldn’t be sacked, not directly, she was contracted by the publishing company and not by Emily herself, and yet things could be made so unpleasant for her here that she would have to leave. And if she left she would be in breach of contract. Because Emily couldn’t work without her illustrator in residence it had been written into Leonie’s contract that she had to live at Rose Cottage. At the time of signing the contract she hadn’t minded moving in here, but now it wouldn’t be possible for her to stay.

She still hadn’t got over the shock of seeing John Giles Noble again. She must have had a premonition of this meeting, why else had he been so much in her thoughts the last few days? He had it within his power to hurt her unbearably, to strip her of all the quiet happiness she had managed to attain for herself the last few years. All her security had been taken from her in a single moment. At the first glimpse of those steely grey eyes after four years she had known that Giles Noble wouldn’t let her escape without making her suffer all that humiliation once again.

She spun around as her bedroom door slowly opened, her eyes opening wide as Giles Noble quietly entered. He closed the door behind him, leaning back against it, his arms folded across his chest. Leonie pulled her silky bathrobe more securely about her, making sure the belt was firmly tied. Not that she feared any moves from him in that direction, he had made his contempt of her very clear. No, it had been an involuntary action on her part, and one that seemed to give him amusement.

‘What do you want?’ she demanded.

‘What sort of question is that to ask the man who’s just entered your bedroom?’ he drawled, moving to slowly look around the bedroom she had made her own.

‘This man, a very relevant one,’ she retorted in an angry whisper. ‘And could you lower your voice, your aunt may hear us?’

Giles shrugged, picking up her black lacy bra from the chair and putting it down again with a quirk of his eyebrows. ‘I don’t need to talk at all,’ he said softly. ‘Neither of us does—unless you’re one of those women who like to talk.’

Leonie gasped. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Jeremy told me all about you, Leonie.’ He was advancing towards her like a predator after its prey, and for once those grey eyes were not icy but held a warm glowing invitation.

‘If he told you all about me then you should know whether or not I like to talk,’ she scorned to hide her fear. This was the last thing she had been expecting from this man, and she didn’t know how to cope with it—unless she was sick all over him. She couldn’t allow him to touch her, she cringed just at the thought of it.

‘He didn’t mention it.’ Giles’s eyes were on her parted lips. ‘But he mentioned a lot of other things.’

‘I’m sure he did. Did he also mention that he’s a liar?’ she said shrilly.

‘Oh, come on, Leonie, isn’t it time you stopped this game now?’

‘Game?’ she swallowed hard. ‘What game?’

‘Four years ago we were attracted to each other.’ He was standing so close to her now his thighs were touching hers. ‘Don’t make me wait any longer to touch you.’

‘T-touch me?’

‘Yes.’ His hand ran from her breast to her thigh. ‘You’re more slender than you were then,’ he looked down at her breasts, slowly raising his eyes to her face, ‘but just as beautiful. Leonie…’

She was galvanised into action at the sight of his dark head lowering to hers, flinching away from him, her disgust evident in her face. ‘Keep away from me!’ she spat the words at him. ‘Don’t ever touch me again! Attracted to you?’ she swallowed down the nausea. ‘I can’t bear you near me. You—you make my skin crawl!’

He was breathing heavily, his expression savage. ‘You might lie to yourself, Leonie, but don’t bother to lie to me. You wanted me before and you want me now.’

‘Never!’ Her eyes were wide with fear as he advanced on her yet again. ‘I don’t want you. I don’t!’ she cried brokenly. ‘If you touch me again I swear I’ll be sick!’

His eyes blazed at her challenge, his mouth twisted with cruel satisfaction. ‘Maybe you like to fight—something else Jeremy didn’t tell me,’ he drawled insultingly.

‘Do you know him so well he would discuss such things with you?’ she said disgustedly.

‘About you he told me everything.’

‘More than everything, by the sound of it! If you don’t get out of my room, Mr Noble, I’m going to scream so loud I’ll wake the whole household. Do you want that?’

He gave her a considering look. ‘Now why would you do a thing like that? We haven’t even discussed the details yet. I’ll make the same arrangements for you that Jeremy did. Satisfied?’

Leonie frowned. ‘What arrangements?’

Giles shrugged. ‘The apartment, the car, the monthly allowance. Of course, it will be a bigger allowance than he gave you—after all, nearly five years have elapsed since your affair with him.’

She gasped. ‘You really believe all that rubbish about the car and the allowance?’

He nodded. ‘And don’t forget the apartment.’

‘I never stayed at that apartment. Jeremy may have paid the rent on it, may even have taken other girls there, but I never even saw the place, let alone actually lived there.’

‘The maid said differently.’

‘A maid employed by Jeremy! Don’t you see, it was all made up, to blacken my character even more.’

‘Let’s forget about Jeremy, for God’s sake!’

‘Forget him!’ Leonie echoed shrilly. ‘Do you think I haven’t tried?’ And yet his handsome face was much harder to bring to mind then Giles Noble’s, it always had been; this man’s image was indelibly printed on her memory. ‘I despise him, and I despise you even more for listening to his lies. Now would you please get out of here?’

‘No,’ he replied calmly.

‘I shall scream,’ she threatened again.

‘Go ahead.’

She got no farther than opening her mouth, when his firm lips instantly clamped down on hers. Leonie had never known such faintness, everything started to fade into darkness, her body going slack, and still that mouth continued its punishing onslaught, moving over the softness of her lips with a savagery that bruised.

When she felt she could take no more he at last raised his head, his eyes searching her waxen features, her dilated eyes and shaking body. That she was suffering from a minor form of shock was obvious at a glance, and Giles’s features hardened angrily.

‘You really mean it about feeling sick, don’t you?’ he rasped.

Her breathing was shallow, her eyes dazed. ‘Yes,’ she choked.

‘Sit down.’ He led her over to a chair, forcing her to sit down. ‘Bend down. That’s it,’ he put her head between her knees. ‘All right?’ he asked a few seconds later when she had struggled back up to a sitting position.

She had broken out in a cold sweat now, the shaking was getting worse. ‘Could you please leave me? I’m sure I’ll feel better when you’ve gone.’

‘I’m sure you will,’ he agreed grimly. ‘But I’m not going anywhere just yet. Come on,’ he led her over to the bed. ‘I’ll help you in,’ he rasped as she just stood there in front of him.

Leonie stood motionless as he helped her off with her robe and slipped off her mules, tucking the covers in around her as if she were a little girl.

His thoughts seemed to be running along the same lines. ‘You may only be twenty-two, Leonie, but you’ve done a lot of living in your young life.’

She was in a daze, making no demur as he moved to turn out the light, half expecting the bed to give as he got in beside her. When she heard the door open and close as he left she heaved a sigh of relief, then turned over to sob brokenly into her pillow.

She stayed in her bedroom the next morning, asking Dorothy for the luxury of breakfast in bed. Not that she was particularly hungry, but not eating breakfast at all would cause even more speculation.

The Rolls was still in the driveway when she let herself out of the house at nine-thirty, her intention to go for a walk until Giles Noble had left to go back to London. She couldn’t face him again, not after last night’s insults. To think that he had actually offered to make her his mistress! She still shook at the thought of it.

She walked down the gravel driveway, wearing practical flat shoes, her denims old and faded, her cotton sun-top showing the creamy expanse of her shoulders, finishing abruptly at her waist. She intended cutting across the fields to the river, and would have done so if the plum-coloured Rolls hadn’t come to a silent halt beside her.

Giles Noble leant over and pushed open the passenger door. ‘Get in,’ he ordered grimly.

‘I’d rather——’

‘Get in, Leonie,’ he repeated tautly. ‘We have to talk, surely you can see that?’

‘If it’s about last night——’

He gave an impatient sigh and got out of the car to come round and forcibly push her inside. He was soon behind the wheel again, driving off at great speed.

‘Could you please slow down?’ she finally had to ask, her fingers digging into the edge of the seat as his huge car manoeuvred the small country roads.

His foot at once eased off the accelerator, his shoes of the finest leather, the formal suit he wore in that dark pin-stripe that Leonie remembered so well.

‘Don’t you ever wear anything else?’ she asked without thinking, at once biting her lip. ‘I’m sorry,’ her voice was stilted, ‘I didn’t mean to be rude.’

‘I take it you mean the suit. I have half a dozen made a year for wearing in court.’

‘But surely it doesn’t really show under that black flowing thing?’

He gave a wry smile. ‘That “black flowing thing” happens to be a dignified part of my profession.’

‘Yes.’ She repressed a shiver. The black gown he wore in court had often turned him into a bird of prey in her dreams, the gown appearing as wings, wings he wrapped about her before he devoured her. ‘Whose life are you hoping to ruin today?’ she asked bitterly.

His mouth tightened. ‘The man in question is as guilty as hell,’ he told her grimly.

‘It must be nice to always believe that,’ her mouth twisted. ‘I wonder how many of them were really innocent.’

‘As you were?’ he scorned.

‘As I was. There’s no point in this conversation, Mr Noble. I can’t prove my innocence, if I could I would have done so four years ago. Your friend Jeremy is much more believable. It’s easier to believe a Harley Street doctor than the young girl who imagined herself in love with him.’

‘You didn’t love him at all,’ Giles said tautly. ‘You and your brother used his infatuation with you to try and obtain money from him. How did you feel about seeing Philip Trent this weekend? Did you find you still love him?’

‘I’ve always loved Phil, but not in the way you mean,’ she told him resentfully. ‘Take me back, Mr Noble. I shall pack my belongings and leave immediately.’ Damn the contract, she wouldn’t live through this agony again, not again. ‘You can explain the reasons for my departure to your aunt.’

‘I don’t intend telling my aunt anything,’ he surprised her by saying.

Leonie gave him a sharp, suspicious glance. ‘Why?’

‘I never discuss my cases with her. I never discuss them with anyone.’

‘But surely this is different? Surely—You don’t want to tell her because you still plan to have an affair with me!’ she accused heatedly. ‘You’re hoping to use my past to force me into an affair with you. My God, you’re worse than any criminal you’ll ever meet in the courtroom!’

His mouth twisted. ‘You know damn well that isn’t how it’s supposed to happen, Leonie.’

‘Yes!’ she insisted. ‘But I won’t be forced. No man will ever use me again, not in any way.’

‘Not even Trent?’ he taunted harshly. ‘Didn’t you and he discuss using the same method on me that you used on Jeremy?’

‘You?’ Leonie’s eyes were wide, deep blue eyes the colour of pansies.

‘Yes, me,’ he confirmed tautly. ‘Last night I was just trying to make things easy for you, see how far you were prepared to go at our first meeting. You’re an even better actress now than you were four years ago, your outrage seems quite genuine.’

‘Maybe that’s because it is genuine! You mean you came to my room last night hoping to trap me, trying to make me attempt to blackmail you?’ She was incredulous at the deviousness of this man’s mind.

Giles gave her a sideways glance. ‘Don’t tell me it never crossed your mind.’

‘But it didn’t!’

‘If you had agreed to my suggestion last night I would have been disappointed,’ he drawled insultingly. ‘I have you marked down as much cleverer than that. I was supposed to be really desperate for you before you agreed to come to me.’

‘Come to you…?’

He shrugged. ‘I’m a prominent barrister, third generation. I would want to protect my reputation and family name at all costs. And it would be a fitting revenge, wouldn’t it, Leonie?’

She swallowed hard. ‘Revenge…?’

‘Don’t tell me you never thought of revenge.’ His mouth twisted.

‘Yes, I thought of it!’ Her eyes sparkled with hatred. She had thought of revenge many times, until Tom had reasoned that John Noble was just doing his job, that if it hadn’t been him it would have been someone else. But he hadn’t had to enjoy it, hadn’t had to be quite so cruelly sadistic!

Giles gave a mocking smile. ‘I knew you would. Those huge blue eyes of yours can be so candid on occasion. I saw the hate in them every time I looked at you, saw the anger burning there. You may have changed outwardly, Leonie, assumed a sophisticated veneer, but those eyes are unmistakable. I would have recognised them anywhere.’

‘There’s no reason why you shouldn’t,’ she said tightly, trying to take in all that he was saying.

‘But you didn’t think I would.’

‘I didn’t?’ She wasn’t even listening to him any more, her head was aching, her temples throbbing. She would leave here today, would get as far away from him as possible, and would try to build a life for herself—once again.

‘You said so yourself last night,’ he reminded her. ‘Different name, different look—oh no, my recognising you wasn’t part of the plan at all. I could see the shock in your face when I showed straight away that I knew you were Leonora Gordon.’

‘I was shocked at seeing you, not at being recognised!’

‘Oh yes?’ he scorned.

‘Yes,’ she insisted heatedly. ‘I had no idea you were Emily’s nephew.’

‘You’re saying she never spoke to you about me?’ he derided. ‘Even though I know she takes great pride in telling every new acquaintance of how proud she is of me.’

‘She wouldn’t if she knew what a bastard you are!’

He shrugged. ‘She knows, she just chooses to ignore it. You may have noticed, she sees no wrong in anyone.’

‘I’ve noticed,’ Leonie muttered. ‘But I had no way of knowing that Emily’s nephew Giles, and John Noble, were one and the same man. They certainly didn’t sound like the same man.’ Emily’s glowing accounts of her nephew had no bearing on the man Leonie had met in that court four years ago.

‘It won’t work, Leonie,’ Giles drawled mockingly. ‘I would never get caught in a trap like that.’

‘Too intelligent, I suppose,’ she said sarcastically.

‘You could say that. Of course, I could have let this charming little charade take its course, and then told you the truth, but that would just be a waste of your time and mine. I’ll take you back to the cottage now, I’ll even drive you back to London if you still want to go.’

‘I don’t.’ She suddenly came to a decision. She liked it at Rose Cottage, enjoyed her work, and she loved Emily’s company, so she wasn’t going to be driven away. Tom had taught her to stand firm when she believed in something, and she believed in her right to live her life without interference from Giles Noble.

He raised dark eyebrows. ‘Do I take that to mean you’ve changed your mind about leaving?’

‘You can take it how you like, Mr Noble,’ she said with saccharine sweetness. ‘But I am contracted to work with Emily, and that’s exactly what I intend doing.’ She looked at him challengingly.

‘And if I tell her about you?’

Leonie faced him unflinchingly, suddenly very calm and in control. This man couldn’t hurt her any more, and she intended showing him that. ‘I’m sure that in her usual fashion she’ll skip over the more unpleasant parts and see me only as a girl caught in the force of circumstances. Yes, you go ahead and tell her, Mr Noble. I really couldn’t give a damn any more what you do.’

‘Couldn’t you?’

‘No! If I have to leave this job I’ll just get another one. You can’t touch me any more.’

‘We’ll see, shall we?’ he smiled, a smile without humour, like a cobra about to strike its victim. ‘Yes, we’ll see,’ he repeated softly.