Melting Fire Page 4

  He came up, pushing back his hair from his eyes, and she watched him warily. When he grinned, the lines that bracketed his mouth were erased, and she thought how good it was to be seeing his harsh features again. He was not handsome, she conceded, not like Jules, who was the idol of hundreds of French teenagers, but there was something about his heavy-lidded eyes and strong cheekbones, his nose which had been broken once in an amateur boxing tournament, that she could see now was equally attractive. Certainly, she knew, there had been women in his life, and beautiful women at that, women sometimes whose husbands had been unaware of their wives’ penchant for the sexy chairman of the Jenner corporation. But until now, Olivia had not really assessed him in that way, and it was disconcerting to realise that she did not like the sensation. He was her stepbrother, not someone she was attracted to, and she wished she could forget the way he had kissed her and resume their old relationship.

  ‘What are you thinking about?’ he demanded now, growing impatient with the delay, and hurriedly she sat down on the side of the pool and dipped her legs into the water. She was hardly thinking about what she was doing, and a gulp of dismay escaped her as he swam strongly back to her and caught her ankles, jerking her into the water.

  She floundered and came up choking, spitting her words at him. ‘You—you rotten pig!’ she gasped, threshing about wildly. ‘Oh, it’s icy. I’m chilled to the bone!’

  ‘Then get moving,’ he advised evenly, from the middle of the pool. ‘Come on—I’ll race you from end to end. You can swim to the side, and I’ll stay here so that you’ve got half a length start on me.’

  ‘Big deal!’ she muttered sulkily, twisting her hair into a coil at her nape. ‘I suppose you think you’ll win.’

  He laughed. ‘Yes,’ he agreed, and her pursed lips accepted the challenge.

  In the event, she beat him, but not convincingly. She suspected he had slowed his pace to suit her rather laborious crawl, and it was a hollow victory. Nevertheless, it did warm her up, and they swam and played in the water for another half hour before Richard said he had had enough.

  Afterwards they lay on adjacent loungers, and Olivia talked more fully about her work at the Academy. Her aptitude for languages pleased him, and he spent some time speaking to her in both French and German, assessing her ability in both. She was at ease with him again, and half tempted to tell him about Jules, and her decision to get a job, but she was loath to disrupt the harmony of the moment.

  The morning was soon over, and it seemed no time before Bella appeared to announce that lunch was ready when they were. Olivia’s flesh was feeling quite prickly by that time, the sun having dried the pool water on her, and without lotion to soothe it, her skin was burning. While Richard got to his feet to greet his old nursemaid, Olivia rescued her smock, and was quite glad of the protection it afforded.

  Lunch was a cold meal, and while Richard went to change, Olivia took a quick shower before applying some cream to her overheated arms and legs. She came down to the dining room feeling rather like a tomato oiled ready for frying, and resented the amused stare Richard subjected her to. He was annoyingly cool, black jeans clinging to his lean hips, a black sweat shirt accentuating his tan.

  ‘You’ve overdone it,’ he remarked impatiently, surveying the rosy picture she made with critical eyes. ‘Why on earth didn’t you ask me to rub some cream into your arms? You’re going to find it pretty painful at bedtime.’

  ‘Thank you, Dr Jenner!’ Olivia retorted sarcastically, ‘I am aware of the discomfort, you know. But as I’m the one who is suffering, I see no reason for you to get upset.’

  ‘Now, Olivia …’ Bella was already seated at the table beside an enormous platter of salad and dressing, colour-fully adorned with red and green peppers. Bella usually ate with the family, except when there were guests, and Alex Bishop was standing waiting for Olivia to sit down, a look of sympathy on his face. ‘Richard’s only concerned about you, you know. Now, do sit down so that the men can join us.’

  The dining room was cool. Bella had slatted the blinds, and as it was at the side of the house, the sun had not yet entered the room with any strength. Pale green walls added to the illusion of coolness, and the long polished table was very attractive with its slatted cane place mats, and wooden-handled knives and forks.

  There was melon to begin with, juicy-sweet and sprinkled with ginger, and then Bella’s special salad, together with a cold meat pie, spiced with herbs and decorated with parsley. There were crisps, and potato sticks, and a variety of vegetables served in different sauces, with a delicious fruit salad to finish. They had wine with the meal, and for the first time Olivia was able to appreciate it, thanks to the course she had taken in wine appreciation during her stay at St Helena’s. It was a white wine, light and only slightly sweetened, but heady after the morning in the sun.

  ‘Did you give Mr Raynor his jam?’ Olivia asked, as she forked melon into her mouth, and Bella turned her attention from asking Richard what flight he had taken and what time he had got back to say:

  ‘Yes, and delighted he was with it.’ She tilted her head reprovingly. ‘Mrs Morrison asked how you were, and wondered why you hadn’t gone with me, but I explained that you were too tired after your journey.’

  Richard’s eyes twinkled as Olivia attacked her melon with more aggression than enthusiasm. ‘I wasn’t tired,’ she retorted, feeling herself assailed on all sides. ‘I just didn’t feel like answering the catechism today.’

  ‘Olivia!’ Bella was shocked. ‘That—that’s blasphemy!’

  Olivia hunched her shoulders. ‘No, it’s not. You know what I mean. She asks too many questions.’

  ‘She’s interested in you, that’s all,’ protested Bella, glancing to Richard for support, but it was Alex who chose to speak next.

  ‘I think Olivia has a point, Miss Ponsonby,’ he declared, earning himself a grateful look. ‘The vicar’s wife is inclined to gossip——’

  ‘What do you know about it?’ Bella was not in the mood to mince her words. ‘I’ve known Amy Morrison for eight years, and I’ve never had cause to complain about her—natural interest in the affairs of the village.’

  Richard poured himself more wine. ‘I gather you invited Olivia to join you, Bella,’ he observed, studying the contents of his glass with a critical eye, and she hastened to explain that she had ridden into the village to visit Mr Raynor.

  ‘Naturally, I called at the vicarage with some flowers for the church,’ she added, casting another injured look in the girl’s direction. ‘Olivia didn’t want to accompany me, and I understood she was tired after her journey. I didn’t know she was too ashamed to admit what an ungrateful girl she is!’

  Olivia gasped, and even Alex looked taken aback at this statement. But it was Richard who asked her to explain herself, the mildness of his tone not fooling Olivia for a minute. He was furiously angry, and she could have slapped Bella for deliberately landing her in this situation.

  However, now Bella chose to be obtuse, perhaps regretting the impulse to repay Olivia for her impertinence, and when Richard asked what she meant by ingratitude, she tried to evade the question.

  ‘After all I’ve done for her!’ she declared, urging Alex to try some of the potato salad, but Richard wasn’t satisfied with that.

  ‘You said—Olivia might be too ashamed to admit what an ungrateful girl she was,’ he reminded her tautly. ‘I want to know exactly what she’s done to warrant such a remark.’

  ‘Oh, Rich …’ It was Olivia who spoke now, still hoping to avoid the inevitable with an alternative explanation. ‘You know what Bella’s like. She always exaggerates. I may have said something to hurt her, I don’t know. Whatever it was, it’s not important, so eat your lunch.’

  She had never noticed how cold green eyes could become, with the glacier quality of packed ice. They stared into hers unblinkingly, and unwillingly she felt the betraying colour flooding her cheeks. Thank goodness for sunburn, she thought weakly, but it was a brief res
pite. Her interpretation of Bella’s remark was not accepted, and his voice was as icy as his eyes, as he said:

  ‘You might as well tell me, Olivia, because I mean to know. In what way have you convinced Bella that you’re ungrateful?’

  ‘Because I want to get a job!’ she declared with a rush, and then sat back, aghast, at the realisation that she had actually told him.

  There was a pregnant silence, like the one that had followed his anger with her that morning, and then, with immense control, he asked: ‘What kind of a job?’

  Olivia expelled her breath on a shaky sigh. ‘I—I’m not sure. It depends what’s available. I—I’m good at languages. I thought I might be able to use them in some capacity.’

  Richard nodded slowly, thoughtfully, almost as if he was considering her suggestion on its merits. Then he looked at her again, and although his eyes were still emotionless, the glittering coldness had gone.

  ‘Good,’ he said, and she almost sank through her chair in amazement, but her relief was also shortlived. ‘You can work for me. I need a social secretary, someone who can play hostess when I have guests, and speak their own language. It was a suggestion I was going to make, not immediately perhaps, but eventually, and now you’ve taken the decision out of my hands——’

  ‘No!’ Olivia stared at him across the table, her eyes wide and indignant. ‘No, Richard! I—I don’t want to work for you. I want to be independent. I want a job that I’ve managed to get on my own merits, not a position created by you to keep me occupied.’

  Richard’s fingers smoothed the stem of his wine glass. Their caress was almost sensuous, and Olivia’s eyes were drawn to their sensitivity and their strength. They could snap the stem with only the lightest of pressures, and intuitively she knew he could have snapped her neck as easily.

  ‘This is not a contrived solution, Olivia,’ he stated at last, and she knew that he was deliberately slowing his words to keep her in suspense. ‘It was my intention all along that you should become my hostess, and mistress of Copley. Bella knows as well as I do that I intend you should learn the management of the estate from every angle, so that when she retires in a couple of years you’ll be able to take over.’

  ‘No——’

  ‘Yes.’ He was adamant. ‘You don’t imagine I sent you to St Helena’s for the good of your health, do you?’ His lips thinned. ‘The girls who attend academies like St Helena’s do so to learn the art of entertaining, of being a good hostess. They learn about food and wine, and how to handle people—languages, too, if they have an aptitude.’

  ‘Richard——’ Olivia was conscious of Alex’s eyes upon them, as well as Bella’s, and his embarrassment was almost as great as hers.

  But Richard was undeterred. ‘Listen to me, Olivia,’ he said, ‘because I only intend to say this once; you owe it to me to stay here. For the past fifteen years I’ve been grooming you to this position. I didn’t spend all that money on expensive boarding schools and an even more expensive finishing school to have you go and waste it all in some pitiful little bid for independence! You belong to Copley, Olivia, and don’t you forget it. And to me!’

  CHAPTER THREE

  OLIVIA spent the rest of the afternoon in her room. In spite of the fact that it was a glorious day, and everyone else was sitting outside, either in the sun or out of it, Olivia remained in her room, hot and frustrated, and bitterly resentful.

  After Richard’s cold statement at the table, she had left the room without even finishing her lunch. She wasn’t hungry, indeed she felt she never wanted to eat another morsel that Richard had paid to put on her plate. He had let her go, even though she knew he could easily have shamed her into staying, and she had climbed the stairs with her head held high, hiding the wounds he had inflicted.

  But in her room the floodgates had opened, and tears of pain and humiliation had soaked the sprigged quilt on her bed. It was all so unreal, so unexpected, and she would never have believed Richard could speak to her that way. She had suspected he might not approve of her wanting to take a job, but not for those reasons, never for those reasons, and the idea that he had been educating her for his own ends left her feeling raw and abused. Lying on her back, impervious to the pain of the burned flesh of her shoulders, she had gone over everything he had said in minute detail. Yet still she found it difficult to accept that the loving stepbrother she had adored had in fact had only his own aims in view. She remembered with painful intensity the sports days he had attended when she was at boarding school in Sussex, the admiration he had inspired among her school friends, and her simple delight in knowing that she was the reason he was there. She had not realised he was only checking on his investment, she thought bitterly, rolling on to her stomach. Realising that his apparent affection for her stemmed from the satisfaction he felt that she was fulfilling all his hopes for her filled her with disgust, and she wished she could strip every shed of clothing from her back and walk out of his house this very minute.

  Of course, she thought unhappily, she should have guessed what manner of man he was. Anyone who could buy out a company and then write off their securities without a flicker of compunction had to have a different set of values from her own. She had known he was ruthless in business. She had seen him cut some arrogant competitor down to size, or deliver some succinct response to a newsman’s criticism that made the man a laughing stock among his colleagues, but she had never dreamed he might turn that savage blade on her. She was immune, she was his stepsister, the only person in the world he really loved.

  How foolish she had been! Richard didn’t have it in him to love anyone, and she was crazy if she imagined this was all some badly-tasting joke that would go away if she forgot about it. But what could she do?

  She was not a prisoner at Copley, and she doubted even Richard would stop her if she determined to walk out, but where could she go? If she denounced Richard and his possessions, she was penniless. Her father hadn’t even left her mother enough to live on, that was one of the reasons why she had married Matthew Jenner so soon after her husband’s death, and her bank balance, such as it was, had all been contributed by Richard. It was useless saying she had earned her keep. She hadn’t. Her life had been incredibly easy, and the only reason she knew how to boil an egg and make a bed was because she had enjoyed helping Bella on occasion. But that was an amusement, nothing more. She had done nothing on a regular basis, and while Richard was right when he said that St Helena’s had taught her how to entertain, it had not encompassed the more menial arts of actually preparing a meal herself.

  No, whichever way she looked at it, Richard had a point, a heartless point it was true, but a point nevertheless. She did owe him something, but how much was his pound of flesh?

  Leaving her bed, she padded restlessly to the windows staring out moodily on to the smooth grass of the soft court. She had hoped to challenge Richard to a game of tennis this afternoon, and afterwards they could have swum again, and had afternoon tea beside the pool. It was hardly possible to believe that it was only a matter of four or five hours since his arrival. It was even difficult to recall her excitement at seeing him again, and the easy camaraderie they had shared. All she could remember were those flint-like green eyes, gazing into hers and chilling her with their coldness. He had seemed like a stranger, a terrifying stranger, and she had run from him like the frightened child she was.

  A knock at her door made her stiffen automatically, and her hand went to the sill for added support as she called: ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Me!’

  Bella’s voice was suddenly amazingly reassuring, and with a little gulp, she shouted: ‘Come in.’

  Bella came into the room cautiously, closing the door behind her, her eyes going at once to Olivia’s puffy eyes. Her own gentle features softened in compassion, and it was all Olivia could do to prevent herself from darting into Bella’s arms, as she had done so many times in the past when things had got too much for her. But now she steeled herself to remain where she was
, guessing that Bella had to have a hand in this, and realising she had to be self-sufficient from now on.

  ‘Oh, my dear …’ Bella was clearly distressed, as she advanced across the room, but something about Olivia’s stiffly held figure warned her not to try to comfort her. ‘Won’t you come downstairs and have some tea?’

  ‘I’m not hungry,’ replied Olivia, moving away from the windows, putting the width of the bed between them. ‘Where’s Richard?’

  Bella sighed, halting and folding her hands in front of her. ‘He’s downstairs,’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘He and Alex are working in the summerhouse.’ She paused. ‘Won’t you come and have a cup of tea, at least?’

  ‘I don’t want anything.’ Olivia was abrupt. ‘Why have you come up here? Did he send you?’

  ‘Richard?’ Bella shook her head. ‘Of course not.’ She made a helpless gesture. ‘Olivia, I wish you wouldn’t take this all so seriously——’

  ‘Seriously!’ Olivia stared at her. ‘Seriously? How else am I supposed to take it?’

  ‘You know Richard,’ exclaimed Bella persuasively. ‘You know how angry he gets sometimes. When he’s angry he often says things he doesn’t mean.’

  ‘Oh, yes?’ Olivia was unconvinced, an uncontrollable bubble of hysteria swelling inside her. ‘What didn’t he mean then? That he didn’t really spend his money on me to turn me into something he wanted? Or that I don’t really owe him anything?’

  ‘Olivia, listen …’

  ‘No, you listen: I loved Richard, I really loved him. And I thought he loved me——’

  ‘He does!’

  ‘No!’ Olivia shook her head. ‘He doesn’t love anybody but himself. And that—that grotesque corporation of his! That’s all he really cares about. Not love, or compassion, or loyalty—or people!’

  ‘You’re wrong.’ Bella tried to reason with her, but when she made a move to come round the bed towards her, Olivia stepped back towards the bathroom. ‘My dear, stop being so emotional. You know it need never have come to this. You love Copley, you know you do, and what more natural but that you should become Richard’s—hostess? You like meeting people, you like entertaining. You’ve said yourself that you enjoy composing menus——’