Sweet Sanctuary (2 page)

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," he said, laughing. "I was beginning to think you incapable of humour. My name is Nicholas Adams, as I suspect you noticed when we were in the car-hire office. I'm an architect—my own office is in Maiden if you ever consider building a house in Essex."

"I'll remember that," she promised gravely.

He groaned. "Do I have to torture you to find out your name?"

"Kate Fox," she said, smiling.

He paused at a crossroads and looked at her, assessing the sleek brown hair, the colour of beech leaves in autumn; the eyes beneath their fine brows and the gentle, tender pink mouth. She had a sensitive, mobile face, responsive to every mood.

"It suits you," he said. "Short but compact, suggesting quick wits and a certain hidden humour."

"There's no answer to that," she riposted.

He grinned and drove on along a wider road which passed a deserted railway station. Suddenly he braked beside a parked white sports car. The driver, a girl with silvery-white hair coiled on top of her head, stared, then opened her car door and climbed out.

"Nick! What are you doing in that old heap?"

He wound down his window. "Hello, darling! Did you come to meet me?"

"I thought you were coming by train. I've been waiting for ages, but there hasn't been a sight of a train."

"There was some sort of trouble on the line—I hired a car for the day and drove here."

The heavily made-up eyes slid past him and focused sharply on Kate. A lifted eyebrow brought Nick's head up.

"Oh, this young lady was the only other passenger waiting for the train, so I offered her a lift." He sounded indifferent and the other girl's lovely face relaxed. The pale pink lips parted in a cool smile at Kate. The green eyes were unsmiling.

"How lucky for her that you hired a car," she drawled.

Kate flushed at something in the tone.

"Do you mind if I have a private word with my fiancé?" The green eyes dared her to mind. A long white hand touched Nick's arm. "Nick? Come over to my car for a moment. I want to tell you something very important."

He murmured an apology to Kate, his eyes a little angry, but followed the girl obediently. He murmured something to her. Kate, staring in the opposite direction, longed to be elsewhere.

Suddenly the other girl's voice rose sharply. "She ordered me off the land! I told her that it was your estate, not hers, and she just said that if I didn't go she would set the dogs on me!"

Nicholas Adams laughed. "Those mangy hounds? They wouldn't bite a hole in a cushion!"

"You're not taking this seriously, Nick. She's your aunt! She only lives there by your consent. How dare she speak to me like that?"

"She's eccentric," he said soothingly. "She probably didn't know who you were!"

"Oh, yes, she did! Because she said I could wait until she was dead before I made my alterations to the furniture."

He looked down at her, his face taut. "Sylvia, what did you say to her? What did she mean by that? I thought I told you we would take our time over persuading her to leave Sanctuary?"

Kate, shaken, sat up and turned to stare at them. Sanctuary? That was the name of the house in which Mrs. Butler lived! Were they talking about her new employer?

Sylvia was looking sulkily at him. "I saw some fantastic white velvet curtains in London last week. I wanted to check the drawing-room at Sanctuary to see how much I would need."

"After what I said to you?" His tone was incredulous.

The green eyes lifted to him, wide and innocent. "But, darling, I wasn't trying to get her to leave. I only wanted the measurements of the windows. Mother thinks we should start planning the new decorations."

"Mother thinks!" His tone was exasperated.

She wound her long white fingers over his arm, swaying towards him, the pink mouth raised invitingly. "Darling, don't be cross! I meant no harm! But how long must we wait to get our own home? Is it wrong or unnatural to want to live in our own house? It isn't as if you weren't prepared to help her find a new home!"

"I've bought her one," he said, smiling.

"No!" She looked elated. "Where?"

"I bought Rose Cottage," he said.

Her face fell. "Right at our gates? Oh, darling, is that wise?"

"It may swing her over to our side," he said. "After all, she can hardly claim she's being sent away when the new house is right outside the lodge gate."

"She'll never leave Sanctuary willingly," declared Sylvia. "I saw that today. She's an obstinate old woman and totally selfish."

He sighed. "You don't know her well enough, Sylvia. Wait until you do. Aunt Elaine is really very sweet." He hesitated. "I suppose you won't reconsider having her living with us?"

"Even if I would agree, she wouldn't," Sylvia snapped. "She hates me."

He kissed her. "Nonsense! How could anyone hate you?"

Her lashes fluttered appealingly. The white hands were lifted to touch his dark head, then fell.

"I must go, Sylvia," he said. "I shall have to deliver my passenger. I'll call in at your house before I go home."

"Who is she?" Sylvia asked, looking over at Kate, who flushed and looked away quickly.

"I don't know," he said. "She's a secretive little creature."

"Mousey," agreed Sylvia. "Those appalling clothes! She looks like a refugee."

"Don't be unkind," he said indulgently. "I think she must be rather poor."

"What's she doing in this district? I've never seen her before and I thought I knew everyone for miles around."

"I think she's visiting some relative. Or perhaps she's got a job. Didn't Colonel Lewis say he was expecting a new housekeeper this week?"

"That girl is far too young for a job like that! She can't be more than eighteen."

He shrugged. "Well, I must go."

Sylvia stood waving as they drove away. Kate stared ahead, every particle of feeling tingling with wrath and wounded pride. There was a roar, a flash of white and the sports car suddenly shot past them, at a fantastic speed. The horn blared. Sylvia waved, laughing, and then was gone.

"Silly girl," murmured Nicholas.

"She'll get killed doing that one day," Kate said coldly. "In narrow country lanes that sort of driving is criminal."

"Thank you, Mr. Justice Fox," Nicholas retorted. "Where can I drop you? We're just coming into Abbot's Marsh."

"You can take me to Sanctuary," she said huskily.

"What?" His head swung. The car lurched violently and there was an ominous scratching along the side as it ran into the hedge. He swore under his breath and drew back. There was a moment's silence, then he demanded, "Did you say Sanctuary?"

"Yes."

"You're going to Sanctuary?"

She gave him a cold look. "Must you keep repeating the same question? Yes, I am going to Sanctuary."

"But that's my house!"

"I gathered as much from your conversation."

"You didn't know until then?" Then he pulled up and stared at her. "Were you listening to my conversation? Eavesdropping?"

"I was in full view," she pointed out. "If you didn't want me to hear you, you should have kept your voices down. It wasn't my fault that I heard. I would have had to wear ear plugs to avoid hearing every word. Your fiancée has a very penetrating voice."

He glared at her. "There's no need to be catty about Sylvia!"

"I was merely stating a fact."

"I've noticed that other women always dislike her. A girl who looks like that has to get used to being the object of jealousy and spite, I suppose."

"I'm not jealous of her! Nor, I hope, am I spiteful." Kate tried not to sound as chagrined as she felt.

"Why are you going to Sanctuary?" He was staring at her with a sort of incredulous dismay.

"I've got a job there."

"A job?" His voice hardened.

"Do stop repeating everything I say!"

"What sort of job?"

"Companion-secretary," she said smugly. "To Mrs. Butler."

"Aunt Elaine? I knew she was up to something when she went up to London so suddenly. I might have known! And I understand her very well—this is the gauntlet,"

"What?" Kate was bewildered.

"You," he said impatiently.

"What about me?"

"You are the gauntlet, of course. Thrown down— defiance. I should have expected it."

"I'm sorry," she said weakly. "I don't understand
what
you're talking about."

"Aunt Elaine has been asked to leave my house because I'm getting married, but she refuses to go. To consolidate her position she has chosen to employ you. You're to be her ally. She feels she needs one. Also the very fact that she has engaged you makes her position somehow stronger, makes her a permanent fixture."

Kate sighed. "Oh, dear, it sounds most unpleasant! Are you going to tell me to go away?"

He looked at her in surprise. "Well, what do you think? You must see that your own position will be untenable! I own Sanctuary. I've allowed Aunt Elaine to live there rent-free for years—she isn't even my aunt, really, just an aunt by marriage. Now I want her to leave, and she's perfectly able to buy her own home. She has a private income—money her husband left. It wasn't much ten years ago, but she hasn't had to use it while she lived with me, and she has quite enough to live on for the rest of her life. She is nearly seventy, after all."

"So old?" Kate was astonished. Then, reproachfully, "And you mean to turn her out of her home at that age? It might kill her!"

"We would never have thought of it if she'd been prepared to accept Sylvia, but from the start she set her face against my marriage. We've been engaged for six months, and Aunt Elaine just will not compromise at all. I meant to have her live with us at first, but she quarrelled with Sylvia on sight. They're like a couple of cats. Life would be intolerable. I've done everything I can to reconcile them."

"Perhaps Sylvia doesn't wish to be reconciled?"

He looked irritably at her. "I don't know why I'm discussing this with you. We might as well drive on to Sanctuary as we've come so far. You can stay the night. You must leave in the morning."

Kate said nothing. He drove on in silence, frowning. The hedge-lined lane gave way suddenly to a rough flint wall. Then they came to a high wooden gate. A row of cats sat along the top, staring down at them.

Kate started in surprise. Seeing her face, Nicholas laughed.

"They belong to Aunt Elaine. Didn't you know? She runs this place as an animal sanctuary. I think the name gave her the idea—it's always been called Sanctuary since the Middle Ages when it was a monastery! The house has been in my family for a hundred years."

They passed through the gate and along a road lined with slender silver birch. The spring sunlight rippled through the new green leaves on the branches. Beyond the drive a sloping green lawn led to a calm ring of silvery water, ringed with young willows, whose slanting newly minted leaves swayed in the breeze. Beneath them glinted the gold of crocus and primrose. Behind stood the house, built of the same grey stone and flint as the encircling wall.

"They built the house from the remains of the monastery in the sixteenth century," Nicholas told her, watching her face with deep interest.

She stared in sheer delight, her mobile features revealing every flicker of thought and emotion.

The house was built on a slight curve, like a drawn bow, and at the south end stood a tower, battlemented, with slit windows on all levels.

"A wealthy nabob built the Gothic tower in the eighteenth century," she was quickly informed. "He dreamed of living in a romantic castle. I had it modernised inside—I live there myself and leave Aunt Elaine the rest of the house. My bedroom is at the top there—that Norman arched window."

Kate looked sideways at him from beneath her lashes. "Did you dream of living in a romantic Gothic castle, too?"

He laughed, flushing. "I loved the tower as a boy —always wanted to sleep there. But it was in a state of decay. It was too dangerous for anyone to go up the stairs. They were crumbling away. I've had them renewed and walled in—I did a lot of the work myself. It's fun working with stone."

Cushions of green moss sprouted on the uneven pink tiles of the roof. Wisteria had been trained along the lower wall. A white-painted dovecot stood on the lawn beside the house, doves cooing on the roof, their soft breasts puffed with satisfied complacency.

"Where are all these animals?" she asked.

Nick pointed to the grass behind the house. "Two acres of good paddock there," he said. She could see several horses, a donkey and some tethered goats grazing on the grass. "None of the horses is worth riding," he said. "They're all in an advanced state of decay. Aunt Elaine only takes in very old horses."

"Poor darlings," said Kate.

"Ye gods! I might have known it!" He looked at her in acute dislike, his eyes accusing. "You're another damned animal-lover!"

"Is that a crime?" She lifted her nose in defiance.

He started to laugh. She looked at him with flashing eyes.

"What's so funny?"

"You looked like a little brown mouse when you did that… your nose positively twitched." He flicked it gently with one finger. "All you need is whiskers!"

He drove round the back of the house to some old stables. The stableyard was clean and swept. Stacks of sweet-smelling hay were piled in one stall, but there were no animals here. Nicholas parked the car and climbed out.

"We'll find Aunt Elaine in the garden, no doubt," he said.

He called loudly as they walked towards the back of the house. At last a voice replied faintly from behind a waist-high privet hedge. Nicholas led the way to a gap in the hedge, and Kate found herself in a large kitchen garden.

Mrs. Butler was digging vigorously among some cabbages. She wore old brown corduroy trousers and a bright yellow sweater. It seemed unbelievable that she was nearly seventy. Her eyes were so young and bright, her smile as she saw Kate was radiant.

"My dear, you got here! How splendid! You can feed the ducks for me before tea!"

"Aunt Elaine," said Nicholas ominously, "what's all this nonsense about giving this young lady a job?"