Authors: Shirley Wine
"What’s between you and Keir?" he asked once they'd crossed the stile and walked up to the trig station.
The blunt question caught her by surprise.
Why hadn't she guessed Keir's father would want some explanation for the simmering tension between her and his son.
"What do you mean?"
Victoria hedged. How could she possibly answer without revealing incriminating knowledge?
Caine leaned back against the trig, the rising sun highlighting the silver in his dark hair. He studied her with eyes as dark and shrewd as his son's.
"I witnessed your meeting with Keir," he said, a smile lifting one corner of his stern mouth, "and have had the chance to watch you dance around each other ever since that meeting. I'm not completely stupid."
"I never thought you were." She turned away and looked out across the mist shrouded countryside, seeking inspiration.
"What happened between you that summer, Victoria?"
"You heard Davina. I had an adolescent crush on your son." The words dripped with sarcasm.
Caine chuckled and his eyes twinkled with amusement. "Davina doesn't know what she's talking about. Her relationship with my son is too tepid to spark Keir's possessive jealousy."
Victoria took an uneasy breath. Caine didn't yet know Davina no longer had a relationship with his son.
That shit had yet to hit the fan.
"Of course she doesn't." Victoria met his gaze steadily. "What happened between us is our own private business, Mr. Donovan. And I'm certain Keir would say exactly the same."
After last night, she knew Keir could not suspect her of any deep emotional involvement with Logan.
She cursed the betraying heat memories of last night's torrid lovemaking brought to her cheeks.
Caine sighed, eyes narrowed as he studied her. "Okay, I know when I’m trespassing. You worry me."
"I worry you?" Victoria echoed, incredulous.
"Yes." His tone was stern and uncompromising. "Why did Logan bring you here this weekend?"
"I can’t second guess his motives," she snapped, turning her back and leaning on the stile. No way was she about to reveal the carrot Logan held in front of her. She didn’t betray her friends.
Like Logan shares my scruples?
The uncomfortable thought brought back the pressing urgency of her dilemma. She scuffed her boot in the sand at the edge of the stile, far too aware that this man was her son’s grandfather.
"What are you and Logan working so hard to conceal?" Caine asked very quietly.
Her head jerked up. Caine Donovan wasn't any sort of fool. He wanted answers to a troublesome situation.
Sure guilt was stamped on her forehead; she shook her head in mute denial, too afraid to make any comment.
She owed Keir at least this much.
He should be the first person to know she'd given birth to their son. It would be wrong on so many levels to tell Caine what Keir still didn't know.
And had she told Keir the truth when he came to her room that first night, she would not be in this untenable situation now.
"There’s only one obvious answer." Caine leaned a hand on the rail beside the stile chewing on a grass stem as he pondered out loud, apparently unaware of her discomfort. "You and Keir were lovers?"
It was too much!
Victoria spun on her heel, jumped over the stile and strode across to where the horses were tethered, her back rigid with anger.
Caine put a hand over hers, preventing her from untying the mare.
"I’m sorry. That was out of line. Can I explain something?" Caine leaned against the horse before mounting. "Ride along with me."
"About what?" she asked warily as they rode sedately back toward the homestead.
"Keir."
She let out a shuddering breath, and nodded.
"I should never have married his mother."
The admission was so unexpected her head snapped around and she stared at him. "Why?"
"A month before our wedding, Garth Ellison came home from Argentina to be my best man. Garth and Elizabeth took one look at each other and fell madly in love."
There was no emotion in his clipped voice. She didn’t dare interrupt. This was the key to understanding Keir.
"Like a fool, I persuaded Elizabeth everything would fine between us after the wedding. She succumbed to the combined pressure from me and her parents."
"And after Keir was born it all fell apart," she hazarded softly.
"The pressure only delayed the inevitable," Caine’s voice was harsh and grim. "Elizabeth rejected Keir, I did what I could but I had a greedy business to run. Our marriage was a total farce. I arrived home one day to find she’d left. Gone to Ellison and was demanding a divorce. A few years later I married Muriel."
"And she resented Keir." Anger burned her, as she was filled with sorrow for the small boy rejected by everyone who made up his world.
It was small wonder he’d grown into a hard, cynical man who thought nothing of contracting a loveless marriage.
"Yes." He gave a leaden sigh.
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked bluntly, trying to figure out his motives.
"You need to understand Keir and what motivates him or you’re going to end up being badly hurt," Caine replied grimly. "He will go ahead with his marriage plans even though it’s obvious he’s attracted to you. Stay away from him, Victoria. He’s not the man for you."
His blunt words had her swallowing convulsively.
How would he react to the revelation that Davina had broken the engagement, and of her own involvement in that break?
It didn’t bear thinking about.
She dug her horse in the ribs and the horse broke into a canter, freeing her from the necessity of answering. At least, she thought with grudging admiration, his warning came from concern, not interference.
When they reached the stables, two boys came out and took the horses and she walked toward the house, a few steps ahead of Caine, unwilling to allow the chance of more conversation.
She opened the door and landed smack in the center of a furious altercation.
Keir was going head to head with Davina and Muriel.
Victoria's heart plunged, she swallowed but the knot in her throat threatened to choke her.
The shit had well and truly hit the fan.
When she came through the door, Keir crossed the space and caught her hands in his, expression searching, his grip warm and infinitely reassuring. "Are you okay? Where have you been?"
"Victoria and I have been riding." Caine stepped through the doorway, and seemed to take in the situation in a glance. "Good morning, ladies."
"I thought you'd gone home," Keir murmured softly, his clasp on her hand tightened, his other hand and gripped her shoulder.
"Believe me I wanted to," she said equally as softly.
"What’s good about it?" Muriel's strident voice cut across their low voiced conversation. "That little trollop has smashed Davina’s engagement. The wedding is off."
Caine glanced her way and Victoria crowded closer to Keir's side, glad of his reassuring bulk.
"I suggest we move this conversation into the library." Caine's voice was a masterpiece of control.
To Victoria's surprise, they all obeyed his calm authority. Keir's hand remained firm on her shoulder. Tension sat like a rock in her belly.
After Caine closed the door, he turned to Keir, eyebrows raised. "Would you mind explaining?"
"Davina asked to be freed from our engagement and I accepted. What else is there to explain?"
Victoria glanced up at him through the veil of her lashes but could read nothing from his expression.
"Only because I found that slut naked in your bed," Davina said, voice shrill, face flushed with anger.
"Not quite naked." Heat flooded Victoria in a fiery wave.
When Caine glanced at her she wanted nothing more than to sink through the floor with embarrassment.
"So my warning was a little late? I hope you can cope with the results of your impulsiveness."
"Is that all you have to say?" Muriel’s voice rose to an undignified screech.
"What point is there in saying more?" Caine, eyebrows raised, gave the two angry women a cool appraising look. "Davina ended her commitment and I can only hope Keir isn't stupid enough to renew it. Marriage between them would be a disaster."
Davina sucked in a shaken breath, staring at Caine as if she'd never seen him before.
The brutally frank words echoed in the sudden silence.
Davina shook her head as she looked from Keir to Caine, clearly stunned. Every vestige of color faded from her face. Her lips moved but no sound emerged.
For the second time within a few hours Victoria felt an inconvenient sympathy.
Had Davina honestly expected Caine to order his son to reinstate the engagement?
For a moment Davina remained glued to the spot, and then with an incoherent sound, turned and ran from the room.
Muriel made a sputtering sound, but both men ignored her.
"For once we’re in perfect accord, Father."
Keir's cynical observation had Muriel fluffing like an enraged bantam.
"I’ve had a lot of years to regret persuading your birth mother to go ahead with our marriage, son." Caine stepped closer and gripped Keir’s shoulder, ignoring his wife’s enraged gasp. "I should have let Elizabeth go when she begged me to. I’m so thankful you've come to your senses."
"I won’t have that woman’s name mentioned in my house." Muriel was almost vibrating with fury.
As she watched the other woman, Victoria remembered Keir's words.
There’s nothing charming about Muriel. Forget that at your peril.
The venomous look Muriel sent her way made Victoria shiver.
"Get over it, Muriel. Elizabeth was my wife and Keir’s mother. You knew this when you married me. You had no reason to be jealous of her."
"That’s easy for you to say," Muriel flared furiously, her skin sallow with temper and her mouth pressed in an angry line. "I resented being used as a substitute."
"That’s a figment of your imagination," Caine replied with weary contempt. "It’s difficult to love a woman who cringes from your touch and rejected her child because he was also mine. Your obsessive jealousy caused the rift between us, Muriel. Not Elizabeth."
Victoria wished herself anywhere but in the middle of this very private argument.
Keir’s hand tightened on her shoulder, and her heart ached for him. Every word had to wound him to the heart.
Muriel stared at Caine as if at a stranger, her face working horribly. She rounded on Victoria, seeking a more satisfactory target for her anger.
"How dare you abuse our hospitality?"
Keir stiffened and took a step forward but Caine was quicker.
"Whatever happened between Keir and Victoria is their business, Muriel, not ours."
Victoria inhaled a shaken breath.
In that moment her liking and respect for Caine Donovan grew. She glanced at Keir but gleaned nothing of his thoughts.
"If I understand this situation correctly, Davina also went to Keir’s room last night. Such an action is completely out of character but has the hallmarks of your ruthless scheming. Was it your idea, Muriel?"
Keir’s hand massaged Victoria's shoulder in silent support.
Muriel stared at Caine for several moments, anger radiating off her in waves. With an angry, incoherent murmur, she turned on her heel and stalked out shutting the door with a decided snap.
An oppressive silence settled.
From somewhere nearby a magpie warbled from a treetop.
Victoria's heart thudded in her ears as she glanced from Caine to Keir and wished the floor would open up and she could just disappear.
Embarrassment cloaked her from head to toe.
Then, as if some malevolent god heard and granted her wish, the door opened and Logan walked in holding a phone toward her.
"Tori? It’s your dad."
Muriel forgotten, Victoria’s breath caught in her throat. She pulled out of Keir’s arm and lunged for the phone.
"What does he want?"
Logan shrugged, disclaiming any information.
"Dad?"
"Victoria, I'm sorry, love." His grave tone sent fear spiraling. She laid a clenched fist over her thudding heart.
She knew instantly nothing trivial prompted this call. Her heart stopped and then raced, her breathing suspended. He was preparing her for—what?