Rumours: The Legacy Of Revenge. Cathy Williams

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СКАЧАТЬ untoward is going on between us, now can we, Miss Winwood?’

      She gave him a look that would have withered marble. ‘As if I would stoop so low.’

      Jaz came breezing in with a tray loaded with nibbles. She looked at Kat’s glowering expression and then at Flynn, who was smiling like a cat with an empty bowl and whiskers dripping with cream.

      Jaz gave him a cheeky grin. ‘That Carlyon charm not quite hitting the mark, eh, Flynn?’

      ‘You know me,’ he said. ‘The harder I have to work for something the more I enjoy the victory.’

      ‘Looks like you might’ve met your match,’ Jaz said. ‘I haven’t seen you so hooked on anyone since Claire.’

      The atmosphere changed as if an unpinned grenade had been dropped.

      Flynn’s expression turned to stone, his eyes to flint and the atmosphere to freezing. Kat glanced at Jaz but if Jaz was put off by Flynn’s demeanour she showed no sign of it.

      Miranda came in at that point and gauged the stiff little tableau with a worried flicker of her gaze. ‘What’s going on?’

      ‘I mentioned the C word.’ Jaz took one of the nibbles and crunched into it loudly. Defiantly loudly. He-should-get-over-himself loudly.

      Flynn reached for his crutches. ‘Excuse me, but I’m going to give dinner a miss.’

      Kat stood back as he limped past without once glancing her way. But she didn’t have to see his face to know it was as tense as the muscles in his back and shoulders. Interesting. She waited until he was well out of earshot. ‘Who is Claire?’

      Jaz handed her a platter of nibbles. ‘His ex-fiancée. Eleven years ago, to be precise. He’s been gun-shy about commitment ever since.’

      ‘Jaz, you really shouldn’t have said anything,’ Miranda said. ‘You know how he hates anyone reminding him.’

      Jaz shrugged off her friend’s reproach. ‘So, what’s he got to be so uptight about? I’ve got three ex-fiancés and you don’t see me getting upset if anyone mentions them by name.’ She gave a twinkling grin and reached for her drink. ‘Anyway, I’ve just about forgotten their names now I’ve got Jake.’

      ‘How long was Flynn engaged?’ Kat asked.

      ‘Only a few weeks,’ Miranda said. ‘But he must have really loved her. He was devastated when she broke it off. He wouldn’t talk about it, not for ages. I don’t think he even told Julius or Jake all the ins and outs of what went wrong. He can be pretty tight-lipped at times.’

      ‘I think it comes from him being adopted,’ Jaz said, and at Miranda’s cautionary look added, ‘What?’

      ‘You know he doesn’t like everyone knowing about that,’ Miranda said.

      ‘It’s all right,’ Kat said. ‘He told me he was adopted.’

      Miranda’s eyes went wide. Not saucer wide. Satellite-dish wide. ‘Did he?’

      Jaz gave Miranda another little conspiratorial nudge. ‘See? What did I tell you? He’s got it bad.’

      ‘Have you met his family?’ Kat asked, trying to ignore the traitorous little flutter of excitement Jaz’s comments evoked. ‘I mean, his adoptive one?’

      Jaz bent down to give Cricket a snippet of smoked salmon. ‘I met his mother last year when I was in Manchester for a bridal show. She was nice in a standoffish way. I got the feeling she didn’t really get Flynn. I think he intimidates her with his intelligence. Not that it’s his fault he’s so smart and has done so well for himself. He’s always been driven and superfocused.’

      ‘He said he has no interest in meeting his biological parents,’ Kat said. ‘Do you know why?’

      ‘I think a lot of men who’ve been adopted are like that,’ Miranda said. ‘I guess they find it hard to understand what it’s like for a woman to have to make that impossibly difficult decision to relinquish a baby.’

      ‘Maybe he’ll tell you since you’re getting on so well,’ Jaz said to Kat with a spark in her gaze.

      Kat gave her a speaking look. ‘Don’t hold your breath.’

      * * *

      The girls left after an hour of eating and chatting on lighter topics. Kat found it a surreal experience to be on such familiar terms with the two young women she’d spent the last three and a half months actively avoiding. She even felt a little sad once they’d left. Their tight unit reminded her of all she had missed out on as a child. She hadn’t had close friends growing up, or at least not as close as Jaz and Miranda were. She had moved around too much when her mother had changed jobs or relationships. It had been hard to create a bond with friends when in the back of her mind she knew it wouldn’t be long before she would be taken away to some other place where she would have to start all over again. Her friend Maddie was the only exception, but even then they had met as adults, when Kat had visited Maddie’s beauty salon when she’d first moved to London, and their friendship had grown from there.

      She wondered if she would see Miranda or Jaz again or if by seeing them it would bring her into contact with her father. She wasn’t ready to meet Richard Ravensdale. She didn’t think she would ever be ready. How could she stand in front of a man who had wished her existence away?

      But the thought of meeting her half-brothers was tempting. Miranda had spoken so highly of them. What would it be like to have twin older brothers to watch out for her? To have a family who included her in their lives?

      Who actually wanted her in their lives?

      * * *

      Kat put some food on a tray and carried it upstairs with Cricket at her heels. Flynn’s door was closed so she had to put the tray on a hall table outside before she could knock. ‘Flynn? Are you awake? I brought you some dinner.’

      There was no answer so she opened the door. Flynn was lying on his back with his foot elevated, his eyes closed, but she could tell he wasn’t asleep. There was too much tension in his body. She could see it in the terrain of his face: the twin lines running down either side of his mouth, the groove between his brows, the in and out flare of his nostrils, as if he was carefully measuring each breath. Was it his foot giving him grief or had Jaz’s mention of his ex-fiancée done that to him? Eleven years was a long time to be bitter over a relationship break-up. She tried to imagine him as a man in love. He didn’t seem the type to let his emotions rule his head. He was charming and laid-back, but always in control. Or was his bitterness anchored in the fact that Claire had been the one to walk out? Some men found rejection hard to take. Perhaps his being adopted had made him even more sensitive to it.

      Kat came and sat on the edge of the bed feeling a bit like a kitten approaching a lion. ‘So, I take it Jaz struck a raw nerve?’

      ‘Not raw. Dead and buried.’ His tone was flat, emotionless, but she could hear a speed hump of hurt. ‘I hate having it exhumed. It stinks.’

      Kat hadn’t realised how close her hand was to his where it was resting on the bed. If she moved her pinkie a few millimetres it would come into contact with his. Something shifted in her belly at the thought of his darkly СКАЧАТЬ