Penny Jordan (24 page)

'I'm pregnant, Max,' she told him. 'I...I should have guessed, I suppose, but with being so busy and things never having gone quite back to normal after Jason's birth, I didn't...! wasn't... But I had to go for a regular check-up today and when I was there—'

'You're
pregnant
?' Max repeated, bemused.

'But—'

'We weren't planning for another, I know,'

Maddy interrupted him, 'but...well, I wasn't...

you didn't...and...' Blushing like a schoolgirl, she told him simply, 'When you touch me, I forget about being a sensible married woman and mother and I...Max, stop looking at me like that,'

she scolded him breathlessly, then gave a small squeak of protest as Max pulled her determinedly against him. He started to kiss her, one hand splayed against her back, the other resting tenderly on the small swelling of her stomach.

'Another baby,' he whispered. 'Oh, my God, Maddy. You know what this means, don't you?'

he demanded as he swung her round in his arms, his eyes alight with love and laughter.

'Mmm...we won't be able to move to a smaller house,' Maddy answered wryly.

'No, worse than that,' Max told her, bending his head to whisper in her ear as he said jokingly,

'First Jason and now this baby. Everyone's going to know we just can't keep our hands off each other.'

'Oh, Max.' Maddy laughed in protest. 'You—'

'I what?'

'You're teasing me, but are you sure you don't mind?'

'Mind? Why should I mind?
You're
the one who's going to be carrying it—for nine months.

All I have to do is look proud and accept everyone's congratulations. Mmm...I wonder what it is about knowing that your wife...your woman...is having your child that makes a man feel so very much a man. Something deep-rooted and atavistic, I suppose.'

'Whatever it is, it's something totally non-PC,'

Maddy added drily.

'Mmm...maybe. Anyway, that does it. I'm not having it.'

'Not having what?' Maddy asked him, per-plexed.

'I'm not having Gramps upsetting you. You can't be expected to care for him and four children, as well, Maddy,' he told her gently. 'I feel bad enough about the situation as it is.'

'But I like living here at Queensmead,' Maddy protested. 'And most of the time he isn't so bad.

He just gets grumpy because he feels so afraid and alone at times.'

'I'll have a word with Ma, I think. It's a pity we can't trace David. If Gramps changes his will and leaves Queensmead to David, we're going to be in one hell of a mess.'

'If we could trace him, I wonder if he would let us buy it from him,' Maddy said quietly.

'Does it really mean that much to you?' Max asked her.

'It's our
home,
Max, and it's a part of your heritage as a Crighton. So much of your family's history is here.'

'Well, if Gramps doesn't change his will, everything will be all right, but if he leaves it to David... Look, I don't want you worrying about that...I don't want you worrying about anything!'

He grinned at her. 'Can I tell the folks or is it something you want us to keep to ourselves for the moment?'

'You can tell them,' Maddy responded. 'In fact, I suspect that your mother has probably guessed that I'm pregnant. She came round the other week when I was being sick and hinted then that there might be a baby in the offing. I was so sure that she was wrong that I denied it I owe her an apol-ogy. Max, what are you doing?' she demanded as he took the oven mitts she had just picked up.

'I will sort out supper.
You
can rest,' he declared masterfully.

'Oh, Max, you can't, not in your suit,' Maddy protested, but nevertheless she allowed him to have his way.

DETERMINEDLY BLOTTING OUT
the sight and voices of Jack and her brothers, Annalise bent her head over her homework. Her heart had thumped so heavily when she opened the door to Jack half an hour ago that she had automatically put her hand up to try to steady it.

Even her father was showing an unfamiliar excitement about the new life the fish had taken on under Jack's expert care.

Irritably, Annalise frowned as she forced herself to concentrate, but she couldn't help register-ing and following the husky sound of Jack's voice. He really had a rather sexy voice if one was impressed by such things and, of course, she wasn't. No, she was off boys for good. She still dreaded going to school each day. Everyone knew about Pete dumping her by now. Automatically, her body stiffened, her head lifting proudly.

'Having problems?'

She gasped as she realised that Jack had moved away from the fish tank without her knowing and that he was now standing behind her looking down at her work. Ineffectively, she tried to cover what she was doing, but it was too late. He had already read it.

'It isn't one of my best subjects,' she told him defensively, her face beginning to crimson a little.

To her surprise, instead of taunting her, he said quietly, 'You're doing fine,' he added gently, 'but if you do it this way, I think you'll find it a bit easier....'

She'd never felt she was any good at maths even though the teacher had encouraged her to take it for her A levels. The ease with which Jack deftly analysed and answered the—to her—complex problem she had been tussling with left her feeling bemused and breathless. Or was that more because of the way Jack was leaning over her as he wrote in her notebook than because of his mathematical skills?

'What do you hope to do when you finish your A levels?' Jack asked.

'Er...I'm not sure yet,' she responded. It was her secret, private dream to go to university and take an arts degree, but that would cost money—

money she already knew her father didn't have.

She suspected she would have to look for a job instead and perhaps take some more practical qualifications at college.

She was already taking a basic computer skills course at school and building on that seemed a sensible idea; the local motorway network combined with EU grants made the area popular with multinational industries. Several of them had their head offices outside the town, including Aarlston-Becker, which had an excellent record for taking on and training school leavers.

She didn't want to discuss any of this with Jack Crighton, though, and she certainly didn't want to tell him of her secret dreams of developing her artistic skills and eventually using them as a means of earning her living. So she simply shrugged dismissively and said nothing, earning herself a small look of rebuke from her father.

'She's got to get through her exams first,' her father told Jack grimly, 'and that means spending more time studying and less messing around with her friends.'

'Oh, Dad,' Annalise couldn't stop herself from protesting defensively.

'Well, don't try to tell me that you wouldn't have been given extra homework if you hadn't fallen behind,' her father pointed out sharply. 'I'm not that stupid.'

Mortified, she flushed and bit her lip. It was true that she had fallen slightly behind with her maths, but that was because...

'Maths has never been my best subject,' she reminded him.

'Maths can be very unforgiving,' Jack commented thoughtfully. 'It doesn't allow for any shadings or imaginative interpretations. It's either right or wrong and because of that people sometimes feel apprehensive and nervous about it If you're really having a problem with it, perhaps I could help,' he offered, looking not at Annalise but at her father, much to her furious chagrin.

Who did he think he was? She might not have his brains, but there was no way she was going to have him standing over her as though—

'Well, if you're sure you wouldn't mind,' she heard her father saying.

'Dad!' She began to protest in consternation, but it was too late. He and Jack were already discussing times just as though
she
wasn't capable of deciding anything for herself.

Annalise started to grind her teeth, but she had to wait until Jack got up to leave before she could vent her feelings on him in the privacy of the hallway as she opened the front door for him.

'Why did you have to say that to my dad about giving me some extra tuition?' she fumed. 'I don't need...' she began, then hesitated as she saw the way that Jack was looking at her. He was studying her mouth as though...as if... Nervous excitement began to flood through her. Her mouth had gone dry and her lips... Instinctively, she tried to wet them with her tongue and then flushed a deep, mortified scarlet, the scalding sheet of colour fir-ing her skin as Jack took a step towards her and grasped her upper arms.

He was stronger than she had imagined and up this close he seemed so much bigger, taller and broader, so much more excitingly male. The hot, hungry glitter she could see in his eyes was making her feel dizzy and—

She tensed as she heard her father calling her name. 'I've got to go,' she objected shakily.

'I...oh...' she gasped as Jack leaned forward and pressed a hot, hard kiss against her mouth. 'Oh...'

she gasped once more, flustered and flushed as he stepped back from her.

'I'll see you tomorrow,' he told her thickly.

He was walking away before she remembered that she had intended to tell him not to come round.

Why had he kissed her like that? Why had he...? She gave a small shiver of sharp excitement. What was happening to her? She couldn't be falling for Jack Crighton. She didn't even like him and besides...

After she shut the front door, Annalise leaned back against it and closed her eyes. What was falling in love, loving someone? She had thought she loved Pete. When he had singled her out for attention, he had made her feel so good, so proud, so able to hold her head up high at school. But he had made her feel so bad when he started to pressure her for sex, then criticise her and get angry with her.

Jack had made her feel angry when she first met him and she was also aware of the disparity in their social circumstances. The Crightons were wealthy, well-known and highly respected in the town, whereas her family... What did Jack want from her? The same as Pete? The panicky feeling inside her started to grow.

When he moved up close to her, something that was both exciting and frightening began to happen to her, something that confused and worried her. She didn't know if what he made her feel was love, but she knew that it was dangerous.

Someone like him could only want one thing from someone like her, and she knew what that thing was—sex! He would try to coax her into bed and then he would go off to university and forget all about her.

She licked her still-dry lips. They burned where he had kissed them, and with her eyes closed she could almost imagine she still felt him doing it.

She shuddered wildly. When he came round tomorrow, she would be all on her own. Her father would be out and the boys would be at a friend's.

Should she tell her father what she thought Jack was really after? If she did, he would soon put a stop to his visits. Was that really what she wanted or...? Shakily, Annalise made her way back to the living room.

'T
HAT LOOKS A LOT BETTER.'

From his position on top of the ladder where he was working on the window frame he had just repaired and replaced, David smiled down at Honor who was standing below looking up at him.

He was enjoying working on the house, and if he was honest with himself, the satisfaction he got from working with his hands was far greater than any he had ever received from working in the legal world.

As he finished what he was doing and made his way down to where Honor was waiting, he smiled a little to himself, imagining his father's reaction to what he had just thought.

'My cousin's just been on the phone,' Honor told him as she linked her arm through his and they strolled back to the house together. 'He's invited me over for dinner on Saturday evening.'

'Will you go?' David asked as he opened the kitchen door for her.

'Will
you
come with me?' Honor countered.

David gave a small sigh.

It was some days now since she had discovered his real identity—harmonious love- and laughter-filled days that had flown by. Days when Honor had lovingly refuted every suggestion he made that she might grow bored with his sole company.

Nights when, after they had made love and she was asleep, he had lain there wondering what the future held.

'Honor...' he began hesitantly, then stopped as he saw the quick sheen of tears in her eyes before she looked quickly away from him.

'I know,' she said brightly—so brightly that if he hadn't seen her tears, he would have been completely deceived. 'I'm being foolish and thought-less. Of course you can't go. He's bound to have other dinner guests and one of them could well recognise you and—'

'Honor,' he said gently, and this time she did look at him, her uncertainty showing in her expression as she searched his face for some clue as to what he might be going to say. 'This isn't going to work,' he told her heavily. 'I can't continue to hide away here like a recluse and I can't expect you to.'

'You've changed your mind. You're going to leave.' Her voice was totally steady, but her face was paper-white and her eyes...

There had been times in the years since he had left home when David had disliked, even despised, himself, but that self-hatred was nothing to what he felt now. He was hurting Honor, hurting her badly, and that was the last thing he wanted.

He saw her swallow, then to his disbelief heard her saying rustily, 'Would it make any difference if I said that I was willing to come with you? I could, you know. After all, there's really nothing to keep me here, not—'

'But you love this house. You've said so.'

'I love it, yes,' she agreed, turning her head away from him, but he could hear the emotion in her voice. 'But I love you more.'

'Would you really do that for me?' he asked gruffly.

'Yes,' she said simply.

'Then you're a fool,' David responded harshly.

'Can't you see what would happen if I agreed, if I
let
you? We'd end up living like two fugitives, constantly running, paranoid about being discovered and the paranoia would kill what...what we feel for one another. No. Besides,' he added a little shakily, 'I've had a better idea.'