Sweet Seduction (23 page)

Thirty-Two

Jessy’s thoughts drifted back to the past.

“I knows they spent the night together at Sugar Hill. Nobody know exactly what went on, but it don’t take too much guessing. They sure weren’t playing dominoes or drinking cocoa."

"If that’s so, then Tamara, my mother, could have been Reuben’s child. That’s the crunch, Jessy. She might not have known it but she could have been pregnant when she went to her wedding."

There, Kira had said it aloud. It was out in the open, black and white. Tamara could have been Reuben’s child.

"Rightly so, she could have been," said Jessy, a disapproving tone entering her voice for the first time. "But she wasn’t. I dressed Miss Dolly for her wedding in that old ramshackle painter’s house of her father’s. I went up because she had no mother or bridesmaid to help her. When I got there, she was mortal upset."

"What do you mean?"

"There was blood running down her legs and she thought she was dying. She didn’t have no regular times of the month for her flow and she didn’t know what it meant. No mother to tell her and a father with his head in a paint pot. So I told her and fixed her up and she was terrified it was going to show through her wedding dress and everyone would see. She was so ashamed, but I told her it was natural and nothing to be ashamed of. No, Dolly weren’t pregnant on her wedding day. Just inconvenienced."

Kira knew Jessy was telling the truth and the relief was overwhelming. She felt careless and amazingly happy. She could hardly wait to find Giles and tell him the truth, to throw herself into his arms and make him love her again. But she did not know where he was or if his love had survived. He had gone away, that day of Hurricane Erica, and she had not seen him since; she was not sure of anything.

"Poor Dolly," said Kira. "What a dreadful thing to happen on your wedding day, but not the end of the world if the man really loves you."

"And Mr Benjamin loved her badly, so you see, he’s your true granddaddy. Tamara was his baby girl."

"But he was never sure?"

"No, how could he be? Because Dolly never told him or let him anywhere near her bed for days. Like she said, she was ashamed of the flow."

"Couldn’t you ever tell him what you’ve just told me?" Kira asked. "It might have helped."

"Lordie no, I wouldn’t talk to a gentleman about such intimate feminine things." Jessy was shocked at the idea. "It’s women’s talk. Sides, it wouldn’t be nice, Mr Benjamin being my employer and all.”

Kira sighed. If only Jessy had overcome her scruples all those years ago. But she wasn’t to know that such knowledge would have made the difference to so many people’s lives. Tamara would not have died, thousands of miles away, in poverty. Benjamin and Reuben might have been able to work together more amicably; Kira would have had a family when she most needed one.

But Kira did not blame Jessy. It was her upbringing, her sense of her place, of what was right and wrong to talk about. Nothing could change the past but Kira could now change the future.

Kira wiped her hands hastily on her old jeans. "I’ve suddenly remembered something else I must do," she said, hurrying away. "Thank you for the coffee."

She did not stop to tidy herself but hurried down the lane and towards the beach. It was unrecognisable, strewn with flotsam and jetsam, torn from the ocean’s depths in the storm. The beach had completely changed in appearance, even if the storm had calmed and the sea was as peaceful as if Erica had never happened.

She would have no scruples in telling Giles. It was too important. She was sure now about their rightness for each other. She loved him. A seed was growing out of the darkness and it would blossom in the sun.

Giles was at Copens. She knew he would be there. Something had told her, drawn her to his villa like a magnet, not aware of the pull. She hesitated in what had once been a lovely garden, wondering how he would greet her.

But she need not have worried. He flung his arms round her and held her tightly. Not kissing her, holding himself away from her mouth, but the closeness telling her everything she wanted to know. The moment was golden and still. They clung like survivors after a disaster.

"Darling, darling, are you all right? That stupid phone call, I’m sorry." He had not shaven for days and a dark stubble covered his jaw. His clothes were old and crumpled but he still looked every inch the man she adored. He was so strong, and the intensity in his eyes made her bones weaken.

"I’m fine. I’ve been clearing up. Fitt’s House and Dolly’s old home, the painter’s museum."

"So I’ve heard. News still travels fast. And now you’ve come to help me. Here’s a broom."

He was sweeping out the sand and the glass from the rooms. The sea had done a lot of damage, furniture sodden and chairs broken. But a sturdy cane fire was flickering and burning in the open fireplace to dry out the rooms.

"I’ve never used that grate before," Giles grinned. "It was purely for decoration."

"A fireside in Barbados," said Kira. "Whatever next? You’ll be filling hot water bottles for the bed."

"Talking about beds," he said huskily. "It’s a little damp but still intact. Would you care to try it for size?" His voice hovered on uncertainty.

"It doesn’t have to be for size," said Kira, not knowing how she was going to tell him. "I’ve been talking to Jessy."

"And can that lady talk."

"But not always the right things or to the right person. I have to tell you something about your father’s death, which only Jessy knew. However Reuben died, it was nothing to do with Benjamin. He’s innocent of any criminal intention. Benjamin couldn’t walk at the time; a leg injury. He couldn’t have climbed those steps."

"I never thought. It was a rumour. All those tongues wagging. But no-one ever knew the truth."

"Forget it, my darling. The truth is in the past and not for us, you and me, to carry as a burden. And again, for us, about Dolly’s wedding; Tamara was Benjamin’s true daughter and there can be no doubt about it. There’s physical proof. No doubt at all."

She heard his sharp intake of breath. Giles put his arms around her and she lay with her face against his chest, not moving. "Do you mean that? There’s no doubt? What do you know?”

"Absolutely, one hundred per cent. We are not related in any way at all, except by bonds of love. Truly Dolly loved Reuben and they made love that night, but he did not give her a child. Never, ever. On the morning of her wedding, she began a period and Jessy found her, crying, not knowing what it meant. She knew nothing about periods, poor girl."

“Are you sure?”

Kira nodded. “Jessy would not make it up. She’s an honest woman.”

“So Tamara was not my step-sister?”

“Never. She was Benjamin’s child.”

"Those sad lovers, Dolly and Reuben," said Giles, lifting her up in his arms and carrying her through to the bedroom. There was another fire burning in the grate, a gaping hole in one wall and through it she could see and hear the murmuring sea. "Their happiness was so short-lived. Ours will be different, Kira darling. Ours will go on forever."

His lips touched her soft skin and she felt her senses being aroused. Her hands betrayed the passion which had been dormant for so long. She felt the warmth of his body through the material of his shirt, breathing in the musky scent of his skin.

He drew her so gently to him, his arm supporting her, slow and silent. She seemed to be carried along in some delicious and heady emotion, his kisses touching her cheek, his warm breath on her face.

"I love you, my darling. Yes, I love you so much." His voice wrapped her in lightness and she ached for more.

She moved closer to him, asking him without words to take off her clothes. He drew the T-shirt over her head and unfastened her bra. With a small cry, she let his mouth touch her breasts, the surging so soft like a wild bird fluttering. She drew him nearer, moving together, loving him, amazed at their perfect harmony. She let him take what he wanted, to bear over her, hard and fierce.

But he was still careful, so tender, caressing her bare flesh, mindful of her tiny cuts and bruises. Her breath caught on a sob as his thumb brushed her nipples and there was no mistaking their growing, frenzied desire. His fingers went to the soft moistness between her thighs.

Kira could not deny this love. It came to her with a clarity that was electrifying. What was happening to her? This maddening, transcendent desire was beyond any coherent thought and she did not care. Winning and caressing, they were together. He was her destiny.

She could hear the sea washing the whiteness of the beach, see flakes of sunlight lanced across the ceiling. This was her island and she would never leave it.

She came to him with an eagerness as strong as his own. She glowed with her overpowering love for him and had a vision of a love that would last forever. It would take them together anywhere, like untouched souls. T
his would be a paradise indeed.

Hurricane Erica veered towards the sea, as capricious as ever. Her power was waning and she needed to feed on the energy from the temperature of the underlying ocean. The island had survived her battering. Erica took her savage winds into the vast Atlantic, eventually to blow herself into oblivion and be lost among the wind pattern of the upper hemisphere.

ABOUT STELLA WHITELAW

Stella Whitelaw began writing seriously at the age of nine. She was ill with measles when her father gave her an Imperial Portable typewriter. Covered in spots, she sat up in bed and taught herself to type.

At sixteen, she became a cub reporter and worked her way up to Chief Reporter. She was the first woman Chief Reporter, the youngest, and the only one who was pregnant.

After producing a family, she became Secretary of the Parliamentary Press Gallery at the House of Commons. Secretary then meant the original meaning, Secretariat, the keeper of secrets. She was awarded an MBE in 2001 but is not sure why.

Like Trollope, she wrote books on the train and in the recesses. The Jordan Lacey PI series is her favourite and the cruise crime books. Her big romances, No Darker Heaven and Sweet Seduction, were a marathon adventure.

Stella has won a woman’s magazine national short story competition and the London Magazine’s Art of Writing competition judged by Sheridan Morley. The Elizabeth Goudge Cup was presented to her at Guildford University.

Homeless cats find their way to Stella’s lifelong hospitality and she has written eight books of cat stories for those 7 – 70 plus.

• • • • •

Get in touch with Stella

Stella Whitelaw (http://www.stellawhitelaw.co.uk)

Tirgearr Publishing (http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Whitelaw_Stella)

• • • • •

Thank you for reading Sweet Seduction.

If you liked this story, please log into Tirgearr Publishing (http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com) and Stella’s website for upcoming releases.

OTHER BOOKS BY STELLA WHITELAW AT TIRGEARR PUBLISHING

LUCIFER’S BRIDE

ISBN: 9781301573219

ASIN: B00BTN9NJ6

Available: March 2013

A Cornish summer wedding with a deadly twist.

Fiona Kimberley was a spoilt, self-centred young woman, hungry for money and social status. So when she is found murdered on her wedding day - mere minutes after declaring her vows - it comes as no surprise to anyone in the small Cornish town of Porthcudden that there is a lengthy list of suspects. Fiona had alienated many people in her short life, all of whom were present at the wedding, and all of whom had the means, and the motive, to exact revenge on the beautiful bride. From an aged aunt to the best man, the family gardener to the groom's father - all had reason to want the young Fiona dead. The question is, who had the nerve to see it through?

NO DARKER HEAVEN

ISBN: 9781301737192

ASIN: B009AE7KS2

Available: September 2012

Lyssa Pasten is torn between loving two men -- Matthew Arnold, her new fiancé, and Jethro, Matthews often-absent father.

Lyssa and Jeth fight against their mutual attraction for Matthew's sake and the sake of her small daughter, Bethany, who has a very rare disorder called RAS (renal artery stenosis).

Hollow House, the Sussex family home, becomes the backdrop for drama and pain, passion and delight.

When Jeth suddenly goes missing, Lyssa knows she has to follow her heart and find him.