Desire (#4) (3 page)

I fiddled with the linen napkin at my place setting.

“What’s taking her so long?” I muttered.

“I’m sure she’ll be here soon,” Benjamin said.

I stared down at the silver cutlery. I’d better keep my eye on Tina tonight. I wouldn’t put it past her to slip some of the silverware in her purse.

As the clock struck eight, Tina waltzed into the dining room.

She had changed into a short, flame-red dress. She wore her hair loose, teased and back-combed. Her foundation was caked on to hide her bad skin, a legacy of her drug use.

Benjamin stood and pulled out Tina’s chair so she could sit down at the table.

“Why, thank you. You’ve caught yourself a real gentleman here, Kate,” Tina said and tittered in a way that made me suspect she’d helped herself to some of Benjamin’s bourbon.

The waitress poured our wine, and my hand shook as I reached out to lift my glass.

I felt Benjamin’s eyes on me, but I didn’t trust myself to speak. Instead, I took a large unladylike gulp of the red wine.

Tina wriggled in her seat, leaning forward to allow Benjamin a perfect view of her chest. “So, I hear you just returned from a European vacation. I’ve always wanted to go to Europe.”

Benjamin smiled politely and said, “We visited England. Unfortunately, it was for work rather than a vacation.”

“Still, I bet you stayed in a real fancy hotel, huh?” Tina raised her wine glass. “Cheers. Here’s to Kate. She always did find a way to land on her feet.” She giggled. “Me on the other hand, I always find a way to fall on my tush!”

I stared down at my wine glass and tried to relax my grip on the stem. If I wasn’t careful, I’d snap it.

After we finished our first course of poached salmon, Tina moved on to the real reason for her visit.

“I want to thank you, Mr. Easton,” Tina said, “for digging me out of a hole. Those money lenders were real nasty. I hate to think what they would have done if they had caught up with me.”

Caught up with her? What about me? She ran off and left me to face them alone.

I felt Benjamin reach out under the table and gently stroke my thigh. It wasn’t sexual, more soothing. I guess he could see the anger in my face. Tina, however, seemed oblivious to my reaction.

She carried on. “There aren’t many true gentlemen in this world. I think Kate is very lucky.” She looked at him over the rim of her wine glass and smiled.

My blood was boiling. Was she flirting with him? I wanted to throw that glass of wine in her face.

“The thing is, Mr. Easton – ”

“Call me Benjamin,” Benjamin said, coolly.

I felt his quick reassuring squeeze on my thigh.

“Okay.” Tina beamed. She obviously thought she was getting somewhere with him. Ha! She didn’t know Benjamin.

“The thing is, Benjamin, I messed up. Badly. I let my sister down and I’m sorry about that, more than you’ll ever know,” she said looking at me.

It took all my willpower not to roll my eyes. Like I hadn’t heard this a hundred times before.

“I want to get myself straight,” Tina said. “But to do that … I need money. I hate to ask, after you done so much already, but it’s for a rehab program, and I can’t do it on my own.”

I smirked. So this was her big reveal. I guess she didn’t realise Benjamin had already told me she’d asked for money.

“It’s up to Kate,” Benjamin said. “It’s her decision.”

I watched the satisfied look drop from my sister’s face. Ha! Nice try, Tina, but you can’t manipulate him.

“No,” I said. “You can’t have any more money, Tina. I won’t play this game anymore.”

Tina blanched. “Okay. I understand. I’ve let you down too many times.”

Guilt burned in my chest. No! I had to stop feeling guilty. I’d given her so many chances in the past. I had to put my foot down now.

I slanted a glance at Benjamin. Did he think I was cold-hearted?

His face was impassive, completely unreadable. I wished I could be more like that, more in control of my emotions.

But I felt my self-control ebbing away.

I pushed my chair back from the table, ready to go, knowing that if I stayed I would give in.

Tina’s lower lip trembled, and I didn’t see my adult sister, spilling out of a low-cut dress. I saw a six-year-old kid in denim shorts and green t-shirt, lip trembling after her ice-cream cone fell in the sand.

Crap. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t turn my back on her.

“Fine,” I snapped. “You get one more chance, then that is it, right?”

Tina blinked back tears. I had no idea whether they were genuine or not, but I really, really hoped they were.

THE FOLLOWING MORNING, BENJAMIN arranged the rehab program through Geraldine, his personal assistant. There was a residential program in Providence, which had an excellent reputation, and they could fit Tina in straight away.

I didn’t ask Benjamin how much it cost. I felt awkward, relying on his money like this. But how was I supposed to find the money to pay him back? My pride had already caused me to be forty-thousand dollars in his debt, even though he said he wouldn’t accept it.

It was all very well for me to say I would pay for it, but there was no way I could lay my hands on that kind of money. I had to swallow my pride and accept his generosity.

As Benjamin was working, I decided to spend the morning exploring the house. First I wandered around the bedrooms and managed to lose count. It seemed crazy to have so many rooms that were never used. I guessed that was why many of the other mansions around here had been sold or given to the Newport Preservation society.

I planned to go and have a look around Breaker’s, one of the famous Vanderbilt mansions, one day this week. I sighed. I would have plenty of time to do a tour as I didn’t have any work booked.

As I left the bedroom, I almost bumped into a middle-aged woman, dressed in a tight, pale blue maid’s uniform, carrying a pile of linen.

“Oh, sorry,” I said.

She smiled at me and said, “Good morning.” Then she carried on towards the end of the corridor.

Of course there had to be a huge staff to maintain a house this size. It must cost a fortune. I’d only ever seen Mrs. Wicker and Carter before, probably because Carter forced the other members of staff to use the tradesman’s entrance.

I decided to take a look downstairs.

I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place as I wandered from room to room. The library was still one of my favourites, but I discovered two further pretty sitting rooms, stuffed full of antique furniture and rugs and a games room complete with a billiard table. The room that really took my breath away was at the back of the house. I guessed it would be called the morning room. Perhaps, years ago, this was where the ladies of the Easton family would congregate to chat and socialise during the day. Floor-to-ceiling windows gave a perfect view of the Atlantic Ocean. An intricate mosaic of yellow, white and gold was set into the floor, and gold-veined marble lined the walls, reflecting the shifting colours of the sea.

Despite the beauty of the room, I felt inexplicably drawn onwards. I walked a little further down the corridor, until I found myself at the portrait gallery.

As an artist, I suppose it wasn’t surprising I was attracted to the artwork, but there was something about these particular portraits that intrigued me. Each one appeared to be painted by a different hand, yet they all had something in common. All of the Easton men in the portraits looked fierce. The artists had captured an untamed look in their subjects.

I shivered and looked around the room, wondering if there was a portrait of Benjamin’s mother, but there were very few portraits of women, and the ones with female subjects all appeared to be painted over a hundred years ago, judging by their clothing.

I moved closer to the portrait of Benjamin’s grandfather. His eyes seemed to follow me as I moved.

I smiled as I thought I recognised Benjamin, but as I drew closer to the painting I realised it was not him. There was a hardness to this man’s eyes, and the hint of a sneer played on his lips. It must have been Benjamin’s father, and the portrait next to it must be of Colin’s father. He had the same wispy, fair hair and ruddy complexion.

I stood back to get a better view when an overwhelming desire to leave the room came over me. The hard eyes stared out of the portraits. I shook my head. I was being ridiculous.

As I continued with my tour, I couldn’t seem to shake the ominous feeling. I decided to head to the library, where I searched for books on the history of the house.

I didn’t find anything about the house or the Easton family, but I did discover some intricate old plans for the gardens, dated 1904.

I hesitated at first, but I didn’t think Benjamin would mind, so I unrolled the huge sheets, settled in a high-backed leather chair and started to study the plans.

I didn’t realised how late it was, until the light started to fade. I stood up and stretched, then rolled the plans back up and put them back where I found them.

I smiled to myself as I walked up the winding staircase. Benjamin should have been back by now. I entered the master bedroom and saw Benjamin, sitting motionless on the bed.

He looked up at me when I closed the door and stared at me.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

He looked so pale.

“Where were you? I couldn’t find you.”

“Oh, I was in the library, looking at some old plans for the garden…” I flinched at the furious expression on his face.

“I didn’t think you’d mind,” I said. Jeez, what was eating him? They were only old drawings.

He ran a hand through his dishevelled black hair. “I thought you’d left.”

I blinked up at him. Left?

“Why would I have left?”

“You talked about leaving the other day.” He waved his cell phone at me. “And you weren’t answering your phone.”

My phone. Crap. I’d left it up here. I moved across to the dresser and picked up my phone. Six missed calls, all from Benjamin.

“What’s the emergency?” I asked, getting annoyed. He couldn’t expect to keep tabs on me every minute of the day.

He sat down on the bed. “There isn’t one. I just … I didn’t expect to feel…” He threw up his hands. “Dammit, Kate. I thought you’d gone.”

I put my hands on my hips. “I think you might be over-reacting just a little.”

He bowed his head for a minute then looked up. “I don’t know what the hell is the matter with me. I’ve never acted this crazy before.”

I smiled. “That’s because you’re crazy about me,” I said, teasing.

He stared back at me, straight-faced. “I think you might be right.”

OVER GRILLED STEAK AND salad we talked about the garden plans I found in the library.

“You could implement the plans if you like,” Benjamin said.

“Seriously? You mean put in the stone arbour and everything?”

He nodded. “Sure. You’d have to employ a garden designer, a good one, but you could be in charge of the project. Kind of an artistic director.”

I smiled. I liked the sound of that, and it would keep me busy until I got more work.

“Great,” I said, stabbing a piece of lettuce with my fork. “I’ll start looking into it tomorrow.”

The first few designers I consulted with didn’t match my needs. They didn’t share the belief that we should stick to the original plans. They tried to tell me how outdated that design was and how I’d be better to go with a more modern layout, which wasn’t what I wanted at all.

The fourth designer I spoke to on the phone, Lauren Bradshaw, seemed perfect. She loved the idea of sticking to the original plan and was very enthusiastic, so when we arranged to meet the next day, I was optimistic.

I smiled when I saw an old truck, very similar to mine, rolling down the driveway. That had to be a good sign. I walked down the stone steps, eager to greet her, but when a tiny, blonde clambered down from the driver’s side of the truck, my optimism disintegrated.

She looked as if a strong gust of wind could blow her over. How would she cope, working on a garden this size?

She strode up to me confidently and held out her hand. “I’m Lauren.”

“Kate.”

She hooked her thumbs in the pockets of her jeans and grinned at me.

“This is an amazing place you have here.”

“It’s not actually mine,” I said. “It’s my … Well, it’s complicated.”

“Sure. I didn’t mean to pry. So, do you think we could take a look at the area you’re planning on using for the garden?”

I nodded and we walked around the side of the house. As we approached the view of the ocean, she gasped.

I smiled, warming to her. “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

She nodded. “Wow. Just wow. It must be amazing waking up to that view every day.”

When we arrived at the area of the garden I wanted her to work on, she knelt down feeling the soil and peering at it closely.

She made a grunt of approval. “I think we’ll be fine. We’ll have to bear in mind that the salt might affect things a little, but we can choose the plants accordingly.” She grinned up at me. “I don’t see any problem.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said. “But are you sure you can cope with a job this size?”

“I’m stronger than I look,” she said. “Besides I can always hire some muscle.”

She winked at me, and I laughed.

“So do we have a deal, Kate?” Lauren asked.

I hesitated for a moment then held out my hand. “Deal,” I said.

After she had been in rehab for a week, Tina called me at the estate. She said the program was going well. It wasn’t easy, but she was making headway. I was incredibly pleased for her and allowed myself a spark of optimism that perhaps this time it might really work.

“My counsellor thinks it would be productive to have a family session…” Tina said.

Oh, hell.

“With me?” I asked, even though I already knew what she meant.

“Yeah. He thinks it might help me delve into some of my deeper issues.” She paused for a moment then continued. “You’ve already done so much for me, Kate. I understand if this makes you feel uncomfortable and you don’t want to do it.”

I took a deep breath. “No, it’s okay. I’ll do it. When do you need me to be there?”