Читать книгу Mistletoe Magic - Кэрол Мортимер, Кэрол Мортимер - Страница 21

‘OKAY.’ Molly turned determinedly towards Gideon. ‘Exactly what is going on? And please don’t insult my intelligence by answering “nothing”,’ she added forcefully.

Gideon gave the ghost of a smile. ‘I wasn’t about to do that,’ he drawled. ‘But I think it might be better if we return to the house and I leave it to Sam to explain,’ he added grimly.

‘But—’

‘It really isn’t up to me, Molly,’ Gideon cut in firmly. ‘But maybe once he’s explained you’ll excuse some of my behaviour over the last couple of days,’ he added frowningly.

‘I wouldn’t count on it!’ Molly told him hardly, even as she turned and began to walk back to the house.

‘That’s what I’m afraid of.’ Gideon caught up with her after only a couple of strides, Merlin trailing along obediently behind him.

Molly gave a disbelieving snort. ‘You aren’t afraid of anything!’

‘Oh, but you’re wrong there, Molly,’ he answered softly, causing her to give him a sharp look. ‘I’m very much afraid you aren’t going to forgive me once Sam has made his explanations,’ he told her grimly.

She gave an exasperated shake of her head. ‘I’m sure any lack of forgiveness on my part isn’t going to keep you awake at night!’

His expression became even grimmer. ‘You’d be surprised!’

‘Yes—I would,’ she dismissed scornfully.

Gideon drew in a controlling breath. ‘I’ve really messed things up between us, haven’t I?’

‘There’s never been any “us” to mess up,’ Molly assured him.

His hands were painful on her arms as he pulled her to a stop before they entered the house. He turned her to face him, his expression harshly remote. ‘Will you at least agree to talk to me in private after the policeman has said his bit and gone?’

‘What would be the point?’ She sighed.

‘Will you?’ He shook her slightly.

‘If that’s what you want—yes!’ she agreed, impatient to be inside.

‘It is what I want.’ He nodded grimly.

‘Fine,’ Molly dismissed. ‘Now can we go inside?’

He gave an impatient snort before releasing her, following behind as she hurried into the house.

No one was asleep when Molly entered the sitting-room a few seconds later. Crys and Sam were sitting on the edge of the sofa now, and David and Diana were all attention, too, as they sat forward in their chairs. The policeman held all their attention as he stood in front of the fireplace, nodding acknowledgement of Molly and Gideon’s arrival in the room even as he continued with what he had been saying.

‘Unfortunately Miss Gibson was involved in an accident about two miles from here just over an hour ago,’ he informed them briskly. ‘She’s dead, I’m afraid,’ he added evenly.

Miss Gibson? Rachel Gibson? Sam’s ex-fiancée of twelve years ago? The woman who had told all those lies about Sam to the newspapers after he’d broken their engagement because he had realised she was emotionally unstable? The woman who had made all of their lives such a misery twelve years ago—so much so for Sam that he had moved to the wilds of Yorkshire in order to escape her vitriol?

‘Oh, no…’ Crys had gasped at the policeman’s news. ‘I hated what she was doing to us, but… How awful!’ She turned her face into Sam’s chest.

Sam’s arm closed protectively about his wife. ‘How did it happen?’ he asked the policeman quietly, his face ashen.

‘Her car went off the mountain road and down into a deep ravine,’ the other man informed him. ‘She was already dead when the rescue services arrived,’ he added apologetically. ‘I’m sorry to bring you such bad news over Christmas, sir,’ he added regretfully. ‘Although, in view of the charges against her, if we had caught up with her…!’ He trailed off pointedly.

‘Yes,’ Sam acknowledged heavily.

‘What charges?’ Molly turned to Gideon with wide, bewildered eyes. ‘Is that Rachel Gibson they’re talking about?’ she demanded disbelievingly.

‘It is,’ Gideon answered hardly. ‘Come on,’ he encouraged, his arm about her shoulders as he guided her out of the room. ‘You don’t need to hear any more of that,’ he told her briskly, and he took her into the library, sitting her down in one of the armchairs before moving to pour her some whisky from the decanter on the table. ‘Please drink some of it,’ he said, as he came down on his haunches beside her to give her the glass.

Molly didn’t need any prompting, totally numb from the shocking news she had just heard.

But though her emotions felt numb, her brain seemed able to coolly and calmly dissect the events of the last few days, to pick out all the incidents that at the time hadn’t seemed to make any sense.

She looked at Gideon with clouded brown eyes. ‘She’s been stalking Sam, hasn’t she?’ she guessed heavily. ‘She was the one making those telephone calls on Christmas Eve. And that night,’ she continued determinedly, ‘the noises outside that so disturbed Merlin… Even his getting shut in the shed in that way,’ she recalled dazedly. ‘It was all her, wasn’t it?’

‘We believe so,’ Gideon said grimly. ‘Although we’ll never really know now, I’m afraid,’ he added heavily.

Molly gave a shiver at the reason why they would never know.

Twelve years ago Rachel had been a blight on all their lives, her lies encouraging the press to hound Sam, and the whole family, until their parents had been forced to move out of their home. Molly had had to begin anew in another school, and Sam had isolated himself in the wilds of Yorkshire.

But, even so, Molly knew that none of them would have wished the other woman dead…

‘It was her,’ Molly said with certainty. ‘But how did she…? The newspaper article about Peter’s christening!’ she realised with a groan.

‘Sam seems to think so,’ Gideon confirmed gently.

‘But—it—I—it’s been twelve years!’ she gasped. ‘Twelve years, for goodness’ sake!’

‘Yes,’ Gideon acknowledged heavily. ‘But something happened over the weekend—something that seems to have sent her completely over the edge.’ He frowned grimly. ‘The police have been looking for her ever since.’

Those charges the policeman had mentioned…

‘What?’ Molly breathed intently. ‘What happened over the weekend?’

‘Molly, she’s dead.’

‘What happened?’ she demanded through gritted teeth.

Gideon drew in a deeply controlling breath. ‘She killed someone. The man she was living with,’ he continued firmly at Molly’s shocked gasp. ‘She discovered him with another woman and—she killed him.’ He frowned darkly.

Molly swallowed hard. ‘How?’

‘Molly, you don’t need to know—’

‘Tell me,’ she demanded harshly.

‘She stabbed him,’ he said flatly. ‘The woman he was with managed to escape, but unfortunately the man had died from his wounds before the police got there.’

Molly felt sick, waves of nausea washing over her as she realised that it could have been Sam—that if he hadn’t broken their engagement twelve years ago Rachel could have…

‘Bend down and put your head between your knees,’ Gideon encouraged gently, taking the glass from her hand as she did exactly that.

It took several minutes for the waves of nausea to stop, the light-headedness to dissipate. But they were minutes when her brain once again seemed capable of functioning without any help from her.

She straightened. ‘You knew about all of this,’ she said accusingly. ‘All this time you’ve known—’

‘I’ve known for precisely one day,’ Gideon corrected her firmly. ‘Since I mentioned my misgivings to Sam after you went to bed that night and he came clean on the subject. One of those telephone calls he had to return on Monday morning was to the police,’ he explained, as Molly would once again have spoken accusingly. ‘Rachel Gibson had been reported as being seen in the area, and, following investigations, they discovered that she and Sam had once been engaged…’ He shrugged. ‘The police wanted to inform Sam of the—incident, only as a matter of courtesy, because of their past connection. I don’t believe they really thought she would come after him here.’

‘Then they were wrong, weren’t they?’ Molly rasped. ‘Finally knowing where Sam was, seeing that photograph, seeing his happiness with Crys and Peter. My God, did Crys know about all this, too?’ She frowned as the thought suddenly occurred to her. She’d have a deeper respect for Crys if she had known; to all intents and purposes, apart from that scare with Peter, Crys had seemed caught up in the gaiety of Christmas.

Gideon smiled without humour. ‘Sam doesn’t have any secrets from Crys.’

‘Unlike you with regard to me,’ Molly snapped, picking up the whisky glass and downing the contents. ‘I suppose now you’re going to accuse me of being a lush again?’ she challenged, two fiery spots of angry colour in her cheeks.

It wasn’t logical, and she knew that it wasn’t, but nonetheless she couldn’t help her feelings of anger towards Gideon for treating her as if she were a child who couldn’t handle the truth. She felt the same anger towards Sam, too. But Gideon was the one here in front of her, and as such he was the one who would bear the brunt of her anger.

‘Molly—’

‘Don’t touch me!’ she told him fiercely, brushing past him to stand up.

Gideon eyed her warily and slowly stood up. ‘Molly, there was no point in worrying you, too—’

‘Don’t tell me whether or not I should worry!’ she snapped furiously, her eyes glittering brightly. ‘I’ll worry if I want to—not when someone else decided that I should!’ she continued illogically. ‘God, you’re an arrogant—’

‘I advise you to stop right there,’ he warned coldly.

‘—pig,’ she concluded challengingly. ‘A chauvinist pig to boot,’ she continued wildly. ‘You were the one who stopped Sam from telling me the truth.’ She realised what had happened now, what it was Sam had wanted to talk to her about. But he had been stopped from doing so by Gideon’s warnings of caution. ‘I can hear it all now. “Don’t tell the little woman”,’ she mimicked. “‘It will only worry her”.’

‘It wasn’t like that—’

‘Yes, it was,’ she snapped hardly. ‘It was exactly like that! Well, do you know something, Gideon Webber? You can go to hell,’ she continued, without giving him an opportunity to answer.

She turned sharply on her heel and ran from the room, taking the stairs two at a time until she reached the sanctuary of her bedroom, where she threw herself down on the bed, her anger quickly turning to tears.

She cried for poor, sick Rachel, and the obsession for Sam that had never completely left her. She cried for the mess that was Gideon and her, for all the misunderstandings between them. But most of all she cried because in spite of everything she knew she still loved him.

‘Hey,’ Crys chided gently as she moved to sit beside Molly on the bed a few minutes later. Molly had been crying so deeply she hadn’t heard her friend enter the room. ‘Molly,’ she said firmly, ‘it’s over now. Come on.’ She pulled Molly into her arms, hugging her tightly as the tears finally began to stop. ‘Who are you crying for, Molly? Poor Rachel? Or Gideon?’ she added astutely.

Molly moved back to look at her friend. ‘Is it so obvious that I’m in love with him?’

Crys gave her an encouraging smile. ‘Only to me. Gideon doesn’t have a clue, I can assure you,’ she added ruefully. ‘In fact, from what he said to me just now, he seems utterly convinced that you hate him.’ She looked questioningly at Molly.

She swallowed hard, wiping the tears from her cheeks. ‘It’s him who hates me,’ she contradicted. ‘And all because—because… Crys, there’s something I should have told you long ago,’ she said huskily. ‘Something about James. And…and me.’

Crys frowned. ‘Yes?’

Molly closed her eyes briefly, taking a deep breath before she began talking, knowing it all had to come out now, and that Crys should have been told long ago. ‘Do you remember my disastrous love affair with Derek? Of course you do.’ She answered her own question with obvious self-derision. ‘You tried to warn me at the time about the dangers of falling in love with a man so recently separated from his wife—that very often they patched up their differences and were reconciled. I didn’t listen, as you know.’ She sighed heavily. ‘And I ended up getting very hurt when Derek did exactly that.’

Crys looked confused. ‘You don’t still love him, do you?’

‘No, of course not,’ Molly dismissed instantly. ‘I’m not sure I ever did,’ she added huskily. The way she now felt about Gideon made that other love pale into insignificance. ‘Maybe I was just flattered.’ She sighed again. ‘He was an internationally known actor, very good-looking, and it was me he wanted to be with! At least I thought it was at the time…’ She shook her head. ‘I was devastated when he returned to his wife.’

‘I know that.’ Crys nodded, still looking puzzled.

‘Yes,’ Molly said firmly. ‘But what you don’t know—what I’ve never told you—is that the night Derek went back to his wife I got very drunk—’

‘You were entitled,’ Crys replied. ‘He wasn’t exactly gentle about it, if I remember—just arrived at a party with her one night. A party where he was supposed to be meeting you,’ she recalled disapprovingly.

Molly winced at the memory. ‘The night I got dr—’

‘Alcoholically challenged,’ Crys corrected decisively. ‘You drank a little more than you would usually, that’s all. James assured me that you certainly were not drunk.’

Molly blinked, her mouth feeling very dry. ‘James did…?’

‘Of course,’ her friend dismissed. ‘I was glad that you went to him. Sorry I wasn’t there to help, of course, but James assured me he had done a good job of taking care of you.’

‘He did,’ Molly confirmed numbly. ‘But—I—you knew about that night?’

‘Well, of course I did,’ Crys assured her lightly.

She frowned dazedly. ‘But I… All this time…’ she shook her head ‘…and you’ve never said.’

Crys gave a rueful smile. ‘What could I have said? Derek was a very selfish man, and he hurt you very badly; there was no point in my bringing up the subject again when you obviously didn’t want to talk about him.’

‘But the night I stayed at your apartment—’

‘What of it?’ Crys asked. ‘Look, Molly, you’re my best friend and I trust you implicitly, just as I trusted James, so what was there for me to say about that night? Without reminding you of Derek’s duplicity, that is,’ she added grimly.

Molly shook her head dazedly. ‘I can’t believe you’ve known all this time that I stayed at your apartment with James when you were away…’

Crys smiled. ‘I’ve known and never for a moment thought there was anything wrong with it. Why should I have done?’ she said unconcernedly.

‘Well, Gideon certainly thought there was something wrong with it!’ Molly snapped disgustedly.

‘Gideon did?’ Crys looked more puzzled than ever, and then her brow cleared in understanding. ‘Oh, you mean because he called in to see James that morning and saw you there? Molly, Gideon didn’t think that you and James were having an affair, did he?’ She gasped as the idea suddenly occurred to her. ‘No! He can’t have done. Can he?’ She frowned dazedly. ‘He did, didn’t he?’ she realized incredulously. And then she began to laugh.

‘Crys, it really isn’t funny,’ Molly told her disgruntledly. She was relieved that Crys had known the truth all along, but utterly bemused by her friend’s reaction to knowing what conclusion Gideon had come to concerning Molly’s presence in Crys and James’s apartment that morning.

‘No, it really isn’t,’ Crys agreed, sobering slightly. ‘You and Gideon are incredible, do you know that?’ She stood up. ‘You think he’s in love with me—which he most definitely is not,’ she added firmly as Molly would have spoken. ‘And Gideon thinks you had an affair with James—which you most definitely did not. You know, for two very intelligent people, you’ve both been incredibly stupid.’

‘Thanks!’ Molly grimaced, not sure she agreed with Crys’s summing up of the situation at all.

‘You’re welcome,’ Crys assured her dryly. ‘Not completely stupid, of course,’ she continued conversationally. ‘Somewhere amongst all this confusion the two of you have managed to fall in love with each other anyway, so I suppose I can forgive you.’

‘Gideon isn’t in love with me,’ she cut in dismissively.

‘Oh, yes—he is,’ Crys said with certainty. ‘Who do you think sent me up here because you were so upset? Who do you think is even now pacing up and down my kitchen wearing out the flagstones as he waits for me to go back downstairs and reassure him that you’re okay?’

Molly swallowed hard, suddenly still, a slight hope beginning to burn somewhere deep inside her. ‘Gideon…?’ she said hopefully.

‘The one and only.’ Crys nodded, pulling her to her feet. ‘Come downstairs with me—’

‘I can’t!’ Molly resisted, jerkily shaking her head. ‘I really can’t, Crys,’ she added, as her friend gave her a look of reproof. ‘What if you’re wrong?’

‘I’m not,’ Crys assured her.

‘But if you are?’

‘I’m not,’ her friend repeated firmly. ‘Although maybe the kitchen isn’t quite the place for…’ She paused, obviously thinking. ‘Okay.’ She nodded as she came to a decision. ‘You stay here and I’ll send Gideon up—’

‘He won’t come,’ Molly told her with certainty.

‘We’ll see,’ Crys murmured speculatively. ‘Just don’t stay up here together all afternoon—otherwise, knowing Sam, he’s likely to come looking for the two of you and demand that Gideon make an honest woman of you!’ She grinned.

Molly frowned. ‘I wish you would stop making a joke out of all this, Crys.’

‘Can I be chief bridesmaid?’ Crys asked conversationally. ‘I’ve never been a bridesmaid, you know, and—’

‘Oh, go away!’ Molly told her irritably.

‘I’m going,’ her friend assured her. ‘But no attempting to climb down the drainpipe after I’ve gone,’ she warned on her way out of the room. ‘You won’t look a very elegant bride with your leg in plaster!’ She grinned again as she made her parting shot.

Molly gave an exasperated shake of her head once she was alone, thinking that Crys was turning into as much of a tease as Sam.

Although that didn’t change the fact that even now Crys was probably down in the kitchen talking to Gideon.

Was Crys right? Would Gideon come up here to see her once he had spoken to Crys?

She would have the answer to that question in the next few minutes.