Yesterday's Sins (10 page)

"What did Alex tell you?" Luke stirred sugar into his coffee.

"So you
are
related to Alex." She spooned sugar and cream in her coffee, before taking a fortifying sip.

"He's my brother."

She inhaled coffee the wrong way and choked, coughing and spluttering. "Your brother?"

"Half-brother." Luke picked up his coffee and sipped, looking at her across the top of the mug. "My mother was Alex's father's pillow friend."

"Pillow friend?" Kate feared she sounded like and echo.

"Mistress or lover. Take your pick. It's a common enough arrangement." A wry smile touched the corners of his mouth. "Alex and I never knew each other existed until I was twenty."

While this explained the incredible likeness between the two men, it didn't explain his presence in the Howard family home. "Why are you living here?"

"You know Alex was trustee for Fraser's affairs?"

Kate glanced around, expecting her father to materialize at the mention of his name.

"He couldn't leave the house empty," Luke said slowly. "Neither did he want strangers here if you did decide to return. And as he'd undertaken to provide a home for my mother, he decided it was best to put all your family's effects into storage and my mother to move in."

Kate cup clattered in the saucer, she glanced around gripped by a sense of desperation. Was there nowhere, in this world she could escape Alex's influence?

She pushed the chair back with a loud scrape.

"I can't stay here," she blurted out as Luke rose to his feet and caught her by the shoulders, preventing her precipitate flight.

"Why not? It's your house. My mother will be back soon."

"I can't stay here."

"Running again, Kate?" Luke taunted softly. "You'll never banish your demons, until you have the courage to face them."

"What do you know about my demons?" she asked, rounding on him. "Or are you to be my jailer this time?"

His hands dropped from her shoulders and he crossed to the window, his back to her. After a few moments he turned to face her.

"To answer your first question, I assume you regard Alex as your demon. As for me being your jailer." He shook his head, white lipped with anger. "My mother is caretaker of your home. You're free to come and go as you choose, or ask her to move out if you wish. Do you?"

"No, of course not." She shrugged and spread her hands as she sank down into the chair, Luke's anger catching her by surprise.

Her anger wasn't directed at him, yet how could she explain? She shook her head, overcome by fatigue.

"You're exhausted, Kate." Luke extended a hand. "Why not leave all your questions until you're rested?"

"I am tired," she admitted, managing a smile.

"Mother has kept your bedroom ready for you."

Kate's heart beat out a panicky rhythm as he escorted her down the once familiar corridor.

He opened the door and as she walked into her old bedroom, the years tumbled backwards in a kaleidoscope of memories.

She stared around her with disbelieving eyes.

The room was exactly as she'd left it to undertake that fateful visit.

The wallpaper, with its overblown cabbage roses she'd helped her mother choose, the same wallpaper she'd refused to change after her mother's death.

Then she saw the photographs on the polished bureau. A small distressed sound escaped as she picked up a photo.

Chris stared back at her.

Her fingers shook as she traced his face through the glass.

"He's dead." She looked up at Luke, tears trickling down her cheeks.

"I know," Luke said very softly.

"Oh Chris…Chris…Chris…" Kate clutched the photo to her heart, sobbing as she crumpled.

*****

For days on end, Kate lay in a shadowed world of troubled dreams and high fever. She tossed and turned in her effort to escape the uneasy dreams of her exile.

With her resistance already so low, she succumbed to a chest infection. Worried, Emily Harder summoned the Howard family physician, Jeff Hart.

"We'd better call Alex Korda." Doctor Hart pulled his stethoscope from his ears and looked at Luke and Emily.

Luke was tempted to protest but there was no gainsaying Jeff Hart so, with a philosophical shrug, he left the room and rang Alex at his Sydney office.

"He's on his way." Luke walked back into the bedroom.

"She doesn't want to fight back." Jeff Hart stroked his chin, his old eyes shrewd and sad.

Deep seated anger blazed in Luke. "Alex has a lot to answer for."

"Luke," Emily protested. "You have no right to say that."

His mother's sharp rebuke did little to stem his anger. He felt used. Why had Alex asked him to go to Clevedon and visit Kate? Her reaction, her fear haunted him. He was left in little doubt she was afraid of his powerful brother.

"Oh, why do you say that?" The old doctor asked, eying Luke.

"It's his fault she's so ill."

"Is that so?"

Kate stirred and Jeff patted her hand. "It's okay, Catriona. Alex is coming."

Her restless movements stilled, as he checked her pulse.

"How long will he be?"

"He said it should be about half an hour, depending on the traffic."

"I'll set afternoon tea." Emily left the two men alone.

Luke felt heat crawl up his cheeks under the old doctor's shrewd scrutiny.

"I want to talk to you. Alone." He motioned Luke to precede him from the room and with a resigned shrug Luke led him into a small sitting room, shutting the door behind them.

"You're young Luke. You have your life and career ahead of you."

The old doctor pulled his pipe out of a baggy jacket pocket and scraped the tobacco out of the bowl before painstakingly filling it again. He struck a match and held it to the bowl between his cupped hands. Luke fidgeted under his shrewd, knowing look.

"There's no point in you hankering after that young woman in there."

Luke stared at him, a pugnacious tilt to his jaw. "Why?"

"Rivalry over a woman is destructive, whether between friends or brothers."

Luke fought down an irrational anger, and then gave a deep shrug and turned away. "Alex and I have never had a brotherly relationship."

"I'll grant you that." The older man conceded. "But the same passionate blood runs in your veins."

Luke spun around and faced the other man, eyes blazing with anger and frustration. "Alex has hurt Kate badly. Why should I stand back and let him do further damage?"

Jeff took his time answering.

"We have no right to make that judgment. We're doctors, Luke. Not arbiters of our patient's affairs." He paused before continuing grimly. "You should have called him when she first got sick. He trusted you to care for her."

For several moments Luke looked at his older colleague with a baffled expression. Jeff's eyes narrowed as he read the younger man's expression.

"For God's sake, don't be a fool." He gripped the younger man's shoulder hard. "Korda's powerful enough to destroy you and your career if you attempt to come between him and his—" he hesitated "—Catriona. Step into this unholy tangle at your own peril."

Luke's eyes narrowed as he caught the older man's hesitation. What had he almost said? Jeff heard the door bell and then Alex's deep voice.

"Get a grip on yourself, man," Jeff hissed before walking out to meet Alex.

"Where's Catriona?" Alex barked, not waiting for any formal greetings. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's run down and has a bronchial infection." Jeff gripped Alex's shoulder. "I've called you because she's making no attempt to fight it."

He led the way to the invalid's room. Alex shouldered past him, striding to the bed.

"She won't eat or drink." Emily fluttered nervously beside the bed.

"Get me some yogurt and fresh squeezed orange juice," Alex ordered, grim. "She loves those."

Emily returned with the requested food and drink.

"Cat, you have to eat." Firm hands lifted her, holding her.

With the desperation of the very ill she fought against the helping hands. "No Alex," she pleaded, opening glazed eyes. "It hurts."

"Hush," he soothed, holding a spoonful of cold yogurt against her cracked lips. "A few mouthfuls and its gone."

Kate stopped fighting and ate, too weak to fight him. She drank the fresh juice.

"You're always making me eat," she grumbled after she'd finished, resting her head against his chest.

"It's time someone did." He stroked the hair back from her gaunt face, an unnatural flush standing out in stark and unhealthy contrast to her pallor.

"Alex?"

"Hush. I'm here," he murmured as she nuzzled her face into the fabric of his shirt with a small soft sigh. "Everything's going to be okay."

On these soothing words she sank into a fitful doze. Alex looked up into Emily's worried face. "How long has she been like this?"

"She fainted when she saw the photo of Chris."

Alex's lips tightened as she stirred against him

"Hush," he murmured, laying the cool flannel Emily gave him against her forehead.

"I've missed you."

Luke caught the anguish in the soft words.

"Did you, kitten?" Alex's voice was barely audible as he stroked her hair. "Why didn't you come back?"

"I couldn't," she faltered, opening eyes heavy with fever.

"Why?"

"You paid me to leave." Weak tears escaped and rolled down her cheeks.

"No, Catriona." Alex put a hand under her chin and holding her face up where he could see it. "I knew nothing about that money until you told me. Surely you couldn't believe that I would do that to you?"

"Why should I?"

There was a moment of tense silence and then Alex let out a soft long-suffering sigh. "You're still a stubborn, pig headed little minx, aren't you?"

"So speaks the autocratic despot," she responded with a shaky giggle.

"Dr Hart said you've given up fighting. Is that true or are my hopes about to be dashed again?"

Luke stiffened as he caught the heartless words. He was about to protest when Jeff laid a restraining hand on his arm.
 

"A big tough lion?" She giggled weakly as she buried her face against his chest again. "You're a big, soft pussy cat."

Alex chuckled at her sally. With shaky fingers, Kate unbuttoned two buttons of his shirt and put her hand inside and pulled out the gold medallion suspended on a gold chain, and held it against her cheek. "You still wear it?"