Buch lesen: «Gracious Lady»

CHAPTER ONE

‘HOW dare you?’ Sophie had cried with righteous indignation. ‘Stop this car immediately and let me out!’

And what had the heartless swine done?

Stopped the car immediately and almost pushed her out on to the grass verge beside the road!

Which was precisely why, at this moment, she was walking along that very same road at almost one o’clock in the morning, cursing all men, and Brian Burnett in particular. What a louse, what an absolute pig, leaving her out here in the middle of nowhere–even if that was exactly what she had ordered him to do. Men never–at least, not the ones she had experience of!—did what you asked them to do. Except Brian Burnett, obviously! Although she was aware he had acted out of pique and not through any desire to be obliging; she hadn’t been willing to give him what he wanted, and so he had been perfectly happy to stop his car and let her get out, driving off at great speed and leaving her there.

And he hadn’t come back, damn him. Most men would have realised, eventually, just what a swine they had been just to dump her here in the middle of nowhere, but she had been walking for almost fifteen minutes now, and there was no sign of car headlights returning towards her.

Swine. Pig. Swine. Pig. She muttered the two names alternately with each step she took.

She just hoped her aunt Millie had left the back door open for her, or she was really going to be popular, arriving at one-thirty in the morning, which she had calculated it was going to be by the time she got back, and having to drag her aunt out of bed to let her in!

Maybe she shouldn’t have gone out at all tonight, but her friend Ally had called, and it had been so long since she had seen her, and–God, how her feet ached in these high-heeled shoes she was unaccustomed to wearing. She couldn’t remember the last time she had worn them, or a skirt either for that matter–denims and T-shirts were her usual mode of dress. But Ally had said they would be going out for a drink in a local pub, and so she had made the effort and put on a green blouse, which she had tucked into the narrow waistband of her brown skirt.

There was a car coming! She could see the headlights clearly as it approached–from a direction opposite to the one it would have been if it were Brian returning for her after all. And she was all alone here, she reminded herself hurriedly, her first feelings of relief fading fast; what if the driver of this car were even worse than Brian had been? Of course, the driver of this car could always be a woman—— No, not the way her luck was running tonight, it couldn’t!

Too late; while she had been dithering about wondering what to do for the best, the car had already reached her, whooshing to a halt beside her as the driver must have seen her reflected in his headlights. Oh, God, let the driver be friendly!

‘Are you asking to be raped?”

Not that friendly, Sophie gulped. No woman asked to be raped. But this man, his face thrown into sharp, shadowed profile by the eerie green light given off by the dashboard of his car, his voice a harshly cold rasp of accusation, obviously believed that, by wandering about country roads in the middle of the night, that was exactly what she was asking for!

‘Or worse!’ he continued relentlessly, his eyes glittering in the darkness.

He was trying to frighten her–wasn’t he…? Well, he needn’t bother, because she was already frightened!

‘Get in the car,’ he ordered abruptly, his tone brooking no argument.

Get in the——! She might be slightly stupid, but she wasn’t completely witless. Once she got inside his car she would be completely at his mercy. ‘I think I should warn you——’ she raised her small pointed chin defensively, drawing herself up to her full height of five feet two inches ’—that I’ve studied karate.’ Hadn’t everyone seen at least one of the cult films on the subject? She only hoped she wouldn’t actually be put to the test of demonstrating just how much she had ‘studied’ it, because it certainly didn’t amount to much.

‘That’s nice for you–now get in the car!’ The instruction was repeated with harsh impatience, completely nullifying his initially mild tone.

Sophie swallowed hard, frantically trying to estimate how far she would get if she ran in the high heels that were already crippling her feet–she was sure she had blisters on her toes–before he could put the car back into gear and catch up with her. The alternative, of attempting to cross fields on a less-than-moonlit night, she had dismissed almost as soon as it entered her head. It would just be pure madness on her part even to try to get away from this man that way. But she didn’t think she was going to get very far by running either; the car engine sounded powerful even though it was only ticking over at the moment, and she would probably just antagonise this man even further by putting him to the trouble of having to come after her. Oh, God, she didn’t know what to do, and she could feel his impatience with her increasing by the second.

‘You either get in the car and let me drive you into the village, or I call the police and put them to the trouble of coming out to pick you up,’ he warned in a dangerously soft voice.

‘Oh, yes!’ Sophie pounced eagerly on the latter suggestion. Not that she actually intended remaining here to get picked up by the police; Aunt Millie would have a fit if she was driven back in a police car! But if she could just get this man to leave, she could make sure she was well away from here by the time the police came along. ‘That sounds like a great idea,’ she encouraged enthusiastically. ‘There’s a telephone in the village——’

‘I have a car phone,’ he cut in derisively.

A car phone! Why hadn’t she thought of that? Damn modern technology! A few years ago it hadn’t been possible to telephone anyone from the confines of your car; now it seemed almost everyone had the convenience of a car phone. It was just her luck that this man should have one—— Perhaps that was just what it was… She could always call his bluff about using the phone, and that way she would know too whether he genuinely wanted to give her a lift to the village or if he was just using the idea of it as a way of getting her inside the car.

‘Then perhaps I could use it to call my aunt?’ she suggested lightly, not wanting to antagonise him–especially as her claim to being a karate expert had been pure invention!

She cursed the fact that the darkness prevented her being able to see him properly, but, even so, she could see he was a big man by the amount of space he took up inside the car, and his voice sounded strong and authoritative, as if he was used to issuing orders–and having them obeyed! She had probably already annoyed him intensely by not doing as she was told.

‘I’m a little later than I told my aunt I would be,’ Sophie explained ruefully. ‘And she’ll be worried about me.’ The truth of the matter was her aunt wouldn’t be worrying about her at all, because she would assume Sophie had come in and gone to bed hours ago. And she would be deeply upset to realise that wasn’t the case at all. But Aunt Millie’s displeasure seemed the lesser of two evils at the moment!

‘I would be worried about you too if you were my niece,’ the man told her disparagingly. ‘Here.’ The car phone was thrust up in front of her nose. ‘Just dial the number and wait for the connection,’ he instructed wearily as she hesitated.

‘Wait’ seemed to be the operative word, her assumption that her aunt had already gone to bed seeming to be the correct one as the telephone rang and rang unanswered at the other end of the line. ‘She’s probably fallen asleep waiting up for me,’ Sophie told the man hastily as she sensed his growing impatience.

‘I wouldn’t be in the least surprised,’ he murmured critically, condemnation in his voice.

Sophie didn’t know what gave him the right to be so critical about her; if he weren’t up and still out at this time of night then the two of them wouldn’t be having this conversation at all. And there were a limited number of reasons why one might be out this late in this area… Which was obviously why he seemed only too happy to make assumptions concerning her own presence here.

‘I’m sure she’ll hear the telephone ringing in a minute–Oh, Aunt Millie!’ she cried out thankfully as the receiver was at last picked up the other end and she heard the reassuringly familiar sound of her aunt’s voice on the other end of the line. Although her aunt’s reaction when she realised it was Sophie making the call wasn’t quite so reassuring–as she had feared it might not be!

‘What on earth——? Do you realise what time it is?’ her aunt demanded indignantly as she obviously came fully awake. ‘Where are you? What are you still doing out at this time of night; I thought you had gone to bed ages ago. Sophie, this is really too much——’

‘I realise how worried you are, Aunt Millie,’ Sophie cut in, her voice lightly cajoling, purely for the benefit of the man sitting inside the car so obviously listening. What she actually said was for his benefit too; at the moment her aunt was obviously more angry than worried about her. Not that she could exactly blame her; her aunt, whenever it was possible to do so, liked to retire early for the night, and had probably been asleep for hours before the telephone rang so intrusively. ‘I just wanted to let you know I’ll be home soon, and that——’

‘You got me out of bed at this hour just to tell me you’ll be home soon?’ Aunt Millie said incredulously. ‘Sophie——’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ she continued the act. ‘Um–Ally was delayed in town, and so I’m getting a lift back with–with another friend.’ This conversation was very awkward, to say the least. She wanted to reassure her aunt without actually alarming her, while at the same time letting this man know that someone knew where she was and was expecting her home within the next half-hour, which was the most it should take to drive back from town.

‘What friend?’ her aunt said sharply. ‘Sophie, you’ve only been here a day,’ she continued exasperatedly. ‘And already you’re causing chaos!’

‘What friend…?’ Sophie repeated slowly, thinking fast, knowing she was just making the situation worse with her half-truths and evasions. ‘His name is——’

‘Maximilian Grant,’ the man supplied quietly from inside the car.

‘Ma–Brian Burnett!’ Sophie frantically replaced, staring inside the car with horrified fascination. Oh, my God, Maximilian Grant. Of all the people who could possibly have stopped, it had to be him! Thank God she hadn’t just blurted his name out to her aunt; that would really have put the cat among the pigeons. ‘Er–Brian Burnett,’ she repeated in a calmer voice, turning away from the car now. ‘You remember him,’ she spoke quickly, desperately trying to think of a way out of this situation–there wasn’t one! A hard knot of misery formed in the bottom of her stomach; she could never remember outstaying her welcome in a matter of hours before. ‘Ally’s brother,’ she added vaguely.

Maximilian Grant! She still couldn’t believe her luck. Anyone else and it wouldn’t have mattered; but him? Oh, lord!

‘Of course I remember him,’ her aunt answered impatiently. ‘He’s been——’

‘Look I’ll have to go, Aunt Millie,’ Sophie cut her off quickly. ‘I’ll be back soon, and we can talk then.’

‘I am going to bed, Sophie,’ her aunt told her in no uncertain terms. ‘We will talk in the morning.’

And Sophie knew her aunt well enough by now to know that when she said they would talk in the morning, what she actually meant was that she would talk and Sophie would listen. And learn. Or else. It was ridiculous that at twenty-two she should still be in awe of her aunt Millie and the undoubtably sharp edge of her tongue, but it was a lesson she had learnt the hard way during long summer holidays with her aunt’s family when she was a child. If anything, her aunt had become sharper over the years, not mellowed! And she didn’t have her cousin Arlette to act as a buffer between her aunt’s impatience with her impetuosity this time either, Arlette being away in Germany at the moment.

‘Er–I don’t have a key to get in,’ Sophie muttered reluctantly into the mouthpiece of the telephone, her mind racing all the time as she wondered exactly what she was going to do about the man sitting inside the car, impatience emanating from him now at the delay.

But her panic concerning him was of a different kind now, for she no longer feared his motives in stopping; this man certainly wasn’t about to attempt to rape or murder her. However, he did have a power over her life that——

‘Well, really!’ her aunt said incredulously. ‘You really are the limit, Sophie. I would have thought you would have matured the last few years, given all that’s happened to you, but I can see from your behaviour tonight that you’re just as irresponsible as you ever were! I should never——’

‘You’ll wait up for me,’ Sophie feigned gratitude for the non-existent offer, at the same time wondering why it was that these things did happen to her.

She had gone out tonight to meet Ally in all innocence, had looked forward to seeing her old childhood friend, and because of that her plans for the next week could now all be lost. And she had needed that week. Hell! It was all Brian Burnett’s fault. This would teach her to wonder if she still had the crush on him that she had at thirteen. Three years older than Ally, Arlette, and herself, he had seemed like a god all those years ago. He was a god that had matured to have feet of clay. He—— She frowned as she saw another car coming, in the opposite direction this time, headlights blazing in the darkness.

‘I’ll see you soon, Aunt Millie,’ she added quickly, ending the call before her aunt could protest at the suggestion.

She had no doubt her aunt was going to be furious when she did get back, but one awkward situation at a time; she had Maximilian Grant to deal with first! How to get herself out of this situation, she just didn’t know. Once he realised who she was…

‘Now get in the car,’ he instructed tersely as she handed him the portable phone, revving the engine of the car in preparation of leaving.

She hadn’t been able to see who he was in the darkness; she would have recognised him instantly if it had been daylight–his harsh good looks, blond hair shot through with silver, ice-cold blue eyes, photographed often in the newspapers. But now that she knew he was Maximilian Grant she felt even less inclined to get in the car with him! If she hadn’t been able to see him well enough to recognise him, maybe if she could evade spending any more time in his company he wouldn’t recognise her when he saw her again either. When. Because they would meet again. And in very different circumstances. If only——

The car that had fast been approaching from the opposite direction suddenly dazzled her with its headlights. Oh, God, so much for her being in the darkness and so unrecognisable; her hair now, she knew, would appear like a red flame in the bright lights. Completely distinctive. Unforgettable. The other car was stopping too now; not one ‘gallant knight’ wanting to help a ‘lady in distress’, but two! But she couldn’t see this second driver any better than she had Maximilian Grant, could just make out a bulky outline seated behind the wheel of the car.

‘Sophie, I’m sorry.’ But she recognised the male voice only too well this time. Brian! He had come back for her after all. ‘I behaved like a fool before.’ He had switched off the engine of his car, got out of the car, and was crossing the road towards her now. ‘I got all the way home before I realised how stupidly I had——’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ she cut in hastily, moving forward to grasp hold of his arm and stop him before he could reach the side of Maximilian Grant’s car. ‘What matters is that you’re here now. Get back in your car and I’ll join you in a minute. I just have to thank this kind gentleman for stopping, and then I’ll be right with you.’ She had turned Brian in the direction of his car as she spoke, pushing him towards it now.

And he didn’t want to be pushed! ‘But——’

‘Wait in the car, Brian,’ she instructed tautly, anxious the two men shouldn’t meet. Then it would be all over for her.

‘But–but——’ Again he did a good impression of a stalled engine.

‘I said wait in the car, Brian.’ Her near-desperation was barely controlled this time.

‘All right, all right!’ He shrugged off her hands, as if he didn’t know what all the fuss was about anyway. ‘God, I only came back to apologise,’ he could be heard muttering as he returned to his car. ‘Women!’ he added disgustedly as he climbed in behind the wheel, slamming the door behind him.

He had better not drive off again now! Because if he did, the next time she saw him she would strangle him, Ally’s brother or not!

‘Your lover appears to be still somewhat irate,’ Maximilian Grant drawled mockingly from the interior of his car. ‘Are you sure you want to go with him?’

The arrogant——! ‘Brian isn’t my lover,’ she told him indignantly–and then wondered why she was bothering. She was just prolonging the conversation, and increasing the possibility of recognition when they met again; she should just have thanked him politely for stopping, and made a dignified exit.

He was looking up at her in the darkness now; she could almost feel that penetrating gaze on her. No wonder he was so successful in business, if the power in his eyes could be felt under these circumstances; it must be quite wilting for business associates to feel the full force of those icy blue eyes upon them.

‘No?’ he drawled sceptically in reply to her claim. ‘I gathered from the conversation between the two of you just now that your walking alone along this road at this time of the night is the result of a lovers’ tiff,’ he added harshly, having continued determinedly on when Sophie opened her mouth to protest once again at this description of Brian’s role in her life; she hadn’t even seen Brian for years until tonight–that had been partly why his behaviour earlier had so outraged her! ‘I would give serious thought,’ Maximilian Grant told her grimly, ‘as to whether or not you want to continue a relationship with a man who threw you out of his car in the middle of nowhere at half-past twelve at night!’

Sophie gasped indignantly. ‘He didn’t throw me out, I made him stop the car and let me out! And if I hadn’t been defending——’ She broke off with a self-consciously indrawn breath as she realised what she had been about to say.

‘Nevertheless, one presumes he gave you reason for such an action, and the result was totally irresponsible–on the part of both of you, it would seem,’ Maximilian Grant rasped critically.

She winced at his use of the word ‘irresponsible’. The last thing she wanted this man to think her was irresponsible.

‘You could have lost a lot more than your “honour” wandering around deserted roads this time of night,’ he warned impatiently, showing her immediately that he had drawn his own conclusions about what she had been about to claim she was defending earlier. And as it happened he was completely wrong; she would have had no trouble ‘defending her honour’ with Brian, and certainly wouldn’t have ended up walking back because of it! ‘I would suggest that in future, you choose your friends a little more carefully,’ he added harshly.

It sounded more like an order than a suggestion, actually, but as it appeared to be his parting comment, he putting the car into gear now and driving off with smooth efficiency, Sophie didn’t particularly care how it sounded. She was just glad he had finally left. She could breathe again now, felt as if she had been hyperventilating since the moment the man had revealed his identity as Maximilian Grant. ‘Of all the cars in all the world’; not quite the original quote, but it was apt. So very apt!

‘Sophie, could we get moving now?’ Brian had wound his car window down to prompt impatiently. ‘I know it’s the weekend tomorrow, but I still have to go to work, and it’s late——’

‘Well, lucky old you!’ she ground out furiously as she marched across the road to wrench open the passenger door–such a gentleman to get out and open the door for her, she didn’t think!—and got in beside him. ‘Thanks to you I–oh, never mind.’ She glared across the width of the car at him. ‘Just drive, will you?’ She hunched down in her seat. ‘I’m no more anxious to spend any more time in your company than you are in mine!’ She scowled unseeingly ahead of her.

‘I didn’t say—— Oh, all right,’ Brian sighed wearily as the fierceness of her glowering glare was turned on him. ‘But it seems to me you’re making an awful fuss about this whole business,’ he muttered to himself as he accelerated the car forward. ‘I made a mistake. I’ve apologised. I don’t know why we can’t just forget the whole incident,’ he added in a disgruntled voice.

That was the whole point; he had no idea that she would probably not be allowed to forget it! Aunt Millie, waiting up for her at home, wasn’t likely to let her forget it in a hurry. And to her mind, much more significantly, there was Maximilian Grant…

‘Ally is going to kill me,’ Brian sighed wearily as Sophie didn’t confirm or deny his previous suggestion.

Remembering the fiery temper of her friend from childhood, Sophie wouldn’t be in the least surprised! ‘It’s no more than you deserve,’ she told Brian now, although her tension had already started to diminish. ‘I should just let Ally have you,’ she added teasingly. ‘But I won’t!’ She gave a rueful smile now at the thought of it. ‘It would be a little like throwing you to the lions!’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t actually see any reason why Ally has to know about this at all.’ The fewer people who knew anything about tonight, the better; too many people knew about it already as far as she was concerned.

‘Thanks!’ Brian said with obvious relief for the reprieve–his gratitude having the effect of making Sophie feel somewhat guilty now, when she was just as anxious that the incident should be kept between the two of them. ‘My sister can be a real nag when she wants to be.’ He frowned at the thought.

Talking of nags …she had better start thinking of what she was going to say to Aunt Millie when she got back!

Sophie fell silent again just at the thought of it, her return of good humour fading too. By the time Aunt Millie had finished with her, she doubted she would have much to smile about!

And so it was no surprise at all, as they approached the house, to see it ablaze with lights. ‘Just drop me off here,’ Sophie told Brian as they turned in the driveway, the house still some distance away. ‘Ally has nothing on my aunt Millie when it comes to the “outraged dragon",’ she explained with a grimace at his questioning look. ‘And as you can see by the lights, she’s still up!’

Sophie could envisage her aunt right now, seated at the wooden table in the centre of the kitchen, the belt to her pink towelling bathrobe neatly tied at her ample waist, her rosy face bare of make-up, even the powder and lipstick she usually wore during the day, and there would possibly be rollers in her hair, depending on whether or not tonight was a hair-wash night; Sophie wasn’t sure about the latter, had left too early in the evening to know one way or the other. But she did know her aunt wouldn’t be reading or writing, or doing anything else for that matter, as she waited. She would just be waiting.

Brian didn’t need any further discouragement, stopping the car while they were still well away from the house, turning in his seat to look at her. ‘If you’d like me to come in with you, I will,’ he offered bravely.

Sophie laughed softly. ‘Now I know why I had a crush on you when I was younger! It’s a nice offer, Brian, and I do appreciate it.’ She squeezed his arm gratefully. ‘But I believe Aunt Millie is best faced alone.’ Mainly because, in this instance, Brian was more likely to drop her further into trouble than she already was if he should say the wrong thing at the wrong time!

As it was, Sophie was still trying to work out what she could say to her aunt–if she had a chance to say anything!

‘If you’re sure that’s what you’d prefer…’ Brian accepted with some relief. ‘I’ll call you in a few days, shall I, and–no?’ He winced as he saw she was already shaking her head at the suggestion.

‘We’re friends again, Brian; let’s just leave it at that,’ Sophie dismissed evenly. ‘And don’t try this on anyone else, hmm?’ she advised as she pushed the car door open in preparation of getting out onto the gravelled driveway. ‘You aren’t very good at it!’

‘Thanks!’ he returned drily. ‘A man’s ego certainly couldn’t become inflated with you around, could it!’

She chuckled softly before shutting the door and setting off down the driveway, grateful to Brian as she did so as he deliberately kept the car headlights brightly shining in that direction until she reached the door; it was a black, moonless night, and shadowy bushes edged the driveway in eerie silence.

She turned and waved once she reached the door, vaguely registering that Brian was turning the car around and leaving now even as she saw, from the light streaming from the kitchen window, that sleek car of bottle-green parked outside. Sophie’s nervousness returned anew at the sight of that car, and she entered the house on leaden feet.

As soon as she entered the kitchen she could see she was wrong on all four counts concerning her aunt; she wasn’t seated at the table but stood beside it putting a cup and saucer on a tray, she wasn’t dressed for bed but wore one of her usual blue dresses with the pristine white collar, and her powder and lipstick looked newly applied, and, although Sophie could see her aunt had washed her hair, it certainly wasn’t in rollers but neatly brushed into style.

Oh, well, here goes, Sophie groaned inwardly. ‘Aunt Millie?’

Her aunt was so startled, obviously not having heard Sophie’s entrance, that she almost dropped the sugar bowl she had been about to put on the tray with the cup and saucer. She glared across at Sophie impatiently at the same time she slammed the sugar bowl down. ‘I didn’t hear you get back,’ she accused unnecessarily, her attention almost immediately returning to the tray, adding a coffee-pot and a jug of cream before nodding her satisfaction that everything seemed to be in place.

‘Just now,’ Sophie nodded warily. ‘Brian brought me back.’ And this time she wasn’t lying! ‘Aunt Millie, I want to explain about——’

‘Not now, Sophie,’ her aunt dismissed irritably, picking up the tray. ‘Can’t you see I’m busy?’

Of course she could see her aunt was busy, but it was imperative she explain to her about——

Her aunt frowned. ‘If you want to do something useful, Sophie, then open the door for me so that I can——’

‘Mrs Craine, I’ve decided I will have that sandwich you offered, after all.’ The door to the main part of the house had been thrust open from the other side before Sophie could reach it, a man now standing in the doorway.

A man with harshly hewn good looks, blond hair shot through with silver, and ice-cold blue eyes…