Knight's Possession. Carole Mortimer

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СКАЧАТЬ Reece, you’re an even faster worker than your father,’ Amanda chuckled. ‘At least he waited a week after we met before proposing.’

      ‘But I’ve already known Laurel for a year,’ Reece reminded.

      ‘And suddenly realised you were in love with her when you knew she was going to marry another man! That’s so romantic,’ Amanda sighed happily. ‘Do you realise that once you and Reece are married, Laurel, that our last names will once again be the same?’

      This time she ignored the warning look in the mirror, her mouth twisting derisively. ‘And it’s certainly been a long time since that happened,’ she rasped.

      ‘Has it?’ Amanda frowned. ‘Yes, I suppose it has,’ she nodded slowly. ‘You could have taken Frank’s name——’

      ‘I didn’t want it,’ she dismissed sharply, having disliked her mother’s second husband intensely.

      ‘No,’ Amanda grimaced. ‘You and Frank never did get on.’

      She had never felt the need to tell her mother the reason she disliked Frank Shepherd so much, of the advances he always made to her whenever she came home from the expensive boarding-school they had sent her to after their marriage. She had been on the edge of sixteen at the time, just budding into womanhood, a late developer physically, and Frank had obviously found the way that she was developing extremely erotic.

      ‘Frank was a——’

      ‘We’ll get straight off if you don’t mind, Amanda,’ Reece cut in tightly as he stopped the Jaguar outside the impressive Harrington home, several lights glowing welcomingly inside the house. ‘Laurel has to open the shop in the morning.’

      ‘Of course, darling.’ Amanda got out of the car as Reece opened the door for her, turning to push the seat forward so that Laurel could get out. ‘I’m sure you want to sit next to Reece,’ she said knowingly.

      As Laurel had been the one to insist her mother be the one to sit next to him on the drive here that assumption was completely erroneous. She reluctantly climbed out of the back of the car, receiving a hug from her mother before getting into the front passenger seat.

      ‘The two of you must come to dinner tomorrow evening,’ Amanda invited eagerly. ‘Robert will insist,’ she added firmly as Laurel seemed about to refuse.

      ‘And as Dad’s even more arrogant than I am we might as well give in gracefully,’ Reece accepted lightly. ‘About seven-thirty, okay, Laurel?’

      ‘Fine,’ she agreed drily, staring out the front window as Reece walked her mother into the house.

      ‘What did he do to you?’

      Laurel turned to give Reece a startled look, the question coming out of the blue after they had driven in silence for the last ten minutes. ‘Giles?’ she frowned her puzzlement. ‘You read the letter——’

      ‘Not Gilbraith,’ Reece dismissed harshly. ‘Frank Shepherd!’

      Her breathing suddenly became ragged. ‘I rarely saw him, I was away at school a lot.’

      ‘And when you weren’t?’ he persisted grimly.

      She shrugged. ‘I don’t know——’

      ‘Laurel, don’t lie to me; I could clearly see your face in the driving-mirror.’ His hands tightly gripped the steering-wheel, his body rigid. ‘What did the bastard do to you?’ he asked again.

      She swallowed hard, moistening stiff lips. ‘Amanda was only married to him for a year——’

      ‘Laurel,’ Reece cut in with controlled violence. ‘I could see the disgust in your face, a remembered fear in your eyes. Darling, tell me,’ he encouraged throatily. ‘It will be all right.’

      She sighed. ‘He didn’t really do anything,’ she shook her head. ‘Not really.’

      ‘Then tell me!’

      ‘He… it was just talk, mainly! About my body.’ She looked down at her hands. ‘I was just developing breasts.’ She swallowed again. ‘And he—he was offensive, Reece, that’s all,’ she dismissed impatiently.

      ‘Did he touch you?’

      She gasped at the bluntness of the query, glad of the semi-darkness to hide her flushed cheeks. ‘Only once or twice,’ she admitted in a pained voice. ‘Look, Reece, I don’t——’

      ‘Do you know why Amanda divorced him?’ Reece asked harshly.

      Laurel shrugged uninterestedly. ‘She told me they had realised they weren’t suited to each other.’

      He nodded. ‘That was part of it. She stayed with him to try and give you a stable life, the education you deserved. I’m sure that if she had any idea what he was doing to you——’

      ‘I didn’t tell her then, and I don’t want her to know now,’ Laurel gave him a warning glare. ‘I don’t blame her for it, Frank was careful always to be the loving stepfather whenever my mother was around.’

      ‘She had quite an unhappy time with him too, although it isn’t up to me to discuss that with you. What a damned mess!’ he ground out. ‘Has—did the experience put you off making love?’

      ‘No,’ she answered abruptly. How could she be put off something she had never been on! She had been prepared to be a wife to Giles, but he hadn’t been all that interested in the physical side of their relationship either, had never tried to make love to her fully. It had been something else about him that she liked and approved of.

      ‘Thank God,’ Reece sighed his relief at her answer.

      ‘Why didn’t you let me tell Amanda the engagement wasn’t a real one?’ she abruptly changed the subject.

      ‘I didn’t think you would want to be the object of her pity any more than you did anyone else’s,’ he rasped. ‘Less so than most!’

      She blushed at the truth of that. ‘Thank you. I—I don’t think I said this earlier, but——’

      ‘You didn’t,’ he mocked.

      Laurel glared at him. ‘You have no idea what I’m going to say!’

      ‘I don’t?’ He raised innocent brows. ‘I thought you were going to thank me for becoming your fiancé and so rescuing you from an awkward situation.’

      ‘I was,’ she snapped.

      ‘Well?’ he prompted as no gratitude was forthcoming.

      ‘I said I was; I changed my mind!’

      Reece began to laugh softly. ‘Laurel, has anyone told you that you’re adorable?’

      No one ever had. She hadn’t been a pretty child, a late developing adolescent, was now a capable lady rather than a sexy one. ‘Not lately,’ she drawled. ‘Although I’m glad you find me so amusing,’ she added with obvious sarcasm.

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