Millionaire's Women Part 26

Her face set in determined lines as she put her painting paraphernalia away later. The solution was simple. If she was never alone with Jack again it couldn't happen. But that would mean no more impromptu suppers. Her shoulders sagged. It had been so good to spend time with him again and just talk. Quite apart from the unique physical chemistry between them, Jack had once been the best friend she'd ever had. She'd been madly in love with him, but she'd also liked him better than any man she'd met before or since. The loss of friend as well as lover had made the pain and disillusion even harder to bear when it all ended in tears.

The doorbell rang just as Kate was about to go upstairs for a bath. She opened the door to find a young woman proffering a flower arrangement.

'Kate Durant?' she asked. 'These are for you.'

'Thank you,' said Kate, surprised, and hurried inside to read the card attached to the basket.

'For Katie,' said the message.

Kate blinked hard as she looked at the delicate blend of freesias and miniature tulips. She set the basket of flowers on the table in the sitting room and stood back to admire, her new resolution wavering already. The subtle colours blended so perfectly with the room-Jack had obviously chosen them personally. Afraid to trust her voice she thanked him via a text message.

'We were going to offer to come and pick you up tonight,' Anna rang later to inform her.' But it occurred to me that you'd rather drive yourself. You might-' cough '-want to stay on for a bit after we've gone home.'

'I very much doubt that, but there's no point in coming miles out of your way to collect me,' said Kate tartly. 'I'll drive myself.'

'You sound a bit snappy!'

'Sorry, sorry. I've just finished the last wall in the dining room and I'm a bit tired.'

'For heaven's sake, Kate,' said Anna in exasperation, 'surely you could have taken the day off today of all days! No wonder you sound on edge.'

'Why should I be on edge?'

'I a.s.sume that it's dinner for six tonight?'

'I think so.'

'Then Lucy Beresford-the biggest gossip in town-will take it for granted that you and Jack are, or are intending to be, a couple too.'

'Oh, G.o.d! I hadn't thought of that.'

'Well, I had. Have you seen Jack lately?'

'We shared a Chinese here last night.'

'Does this mean you're getting back with him, then?' Anna demanded.

'No. At least not in the way you mean.'

'Pity. Now tell me what you're wearing so we don't clash.'

Kate had signed on with a doctor, and even with Anna's dentist, but had never made it to a hairdresser. She wished she had, later, when her hair refused to behave. Her intention had been a sleek, sophisticated knot to to wear with her sleek, sophisticated suit, but her slippery hair refused to stay up, and after a while she gave in and left it loose. But when she viewed the overall effect with the suit she wasn't unhappy. No cleavage or anything clinging tonight, not even jewellery, other than her gold watch .The mannish tailoring of her black velvet trousers and jacket was softened only by the gleam of a white silk camisole. And, because the weather was no more in party mood than she was, Kate pulled knee-length black boots over the velvet trousers to protect them from the pouring rain, belted on her trench coat, switched on the burglar alarm, locked the door behind her and stood under the shelter of the door pediment to aim the remote at her little two-seater.

When Kate reached Mill House the door was standing open and Jack, wearing a more casual suit than usual, came to meet her with a golf umbrella.

'Hi,' she said brightly. 'What a night! Am I the first?'

'Yes. Come and talk to Bran before I banish him to the boot room.'

'Hold on, I'm just collecting my shoes.'

When she slid from the car Jack shouted, 'Sit,' to the retriever as he came bounding towards her in welcome, and Kate bent to scratch Bran's ear, full of admiration when he obeyed his master instead of jumping all over her as he obviously wanted to.

'You are so gorgeous,' she told him, and Jack laughed.

'Just like his master.'

'You wish!'

The dog trotted happily beside them as they went inside. In the small outer hall Kate exchanged her boots for the silverheeled black silk shoes and handed her coat to Jack, her eyebrows raised when he stood looking at her in silence.

'You don't approve?' she demanded. 'Should I have worn a dress?'

'You look sensational and you know it,' he said gruffly. 'Your hair looks h.e.l.lish s.e.xy like that with the tailored suit.'

'I wasn't aiming for s.e.xy,' she protested.

'Then G.o.d help me when you do!'

'Did you get my message about the flowers, Jack?' she said hastily. 'They were lovely. Thank you.'

'I aim to please.' He clicked his fingers to the dog. 'I'll hang your coat in the boot room. Come and meet Molly.'

Two women turned round from the range, smiling, as Jack led Kate into the kitchen.

'Ladies, this is my friend, Kate Durant,' he announced.

'I'm Molly Carter,' said the young one, surprising Kate. 'This is my mum, Hazel. She's helping out tonight.'

'Nice to meet you,' said Hazel, a neat figure in a white lawn ap.r.o.n over a black dress. 'I'm just the help. Molly does the cooking.'

'And it's wonderful,' Kate a.s.sured her. 'I tasted some of it the other night!'

Molly smiled, pleased. Small and st.u.r.dy in jeans and vast white ap.r.o.n, with blonde hair in a braid down her back, she was much younger than Kate had expected. 'I hope you like the menu for tonight. It's simple because the boss thought it best not to be too adventurous, but I hope it will suit everybody.'

'No doubt about that,' Kate a.s.sured her, as Jack came back from exiling Bran.

'Right then, Kate,' he said briskly. 'Let's have a drink before the others arrive. Any bits and pieces, Molly?'

'Cold ones on the coffee table, Boss, hot ones to follow when the others arrive,' she informed him, and went back to stirring something in a saucepan.

Kate followed Jack to the main room and stopped in her tracks. Spring flowers in a shallow creamware bowl sat between the promised dishes of canapes on the big rosewood table, but the sight that brought a smile to her face was the pile of large suede cushions stacked either end of the sofa.

Jack's lips twitched. 'Forster isn't the only one who can take advice,' he said smugly. 'You mentioned something about cushions and a flower arrangement, I believe?'

She gave a snort of laughter. 'I wasn't serious, Jack!'

'Now she tells me. What do you think? The official colours, I was informed, are caramel and mocha.'

'You bought them here in town?'

He nodded as he removed the cork from a bottle of champagne. 'And I ordered the flowers the same time as yours, but Molly did the arranging.'

'Your Molly's quite a star, isn't she? But she looks so young!'

'After catering college she couldn't find a job which paid enough, so she answered my advertis.e.m.e.nt. She's saving to open a place of her own one day.' Jack filled two gla.s.ses and handed one to Kate.

'Then I hope you pay her well!'

'I do. And will pay more like a shot if someone tries to steal her from me.' He touched his gla.s.s to hers. 'Let's drink a toast to my first dinner party.'

'I've eaten dinner here before,' she reminded him.

'That was just family supper with Dad. Tonight's entertainment is more ambitious-a first at Mill House.'

'Why now?'

Jack shrugged. 'I decided it was time to repay hospitality at home.'

'You may regret it,' Kate said ruefully. 'After tonight, according to Anna, Lucy Beresford will be convinced we're a couple.'

'Don't worry,' he said casually. 'At the Maitland party I told her that we'd known each other in the past. As far as she's concerned, I've merely invited an old friend to make up the numbers.'

'Thanks a lot!' Kate chuckled. 'More flattery like that and I'll get above myself.'

Jack grinned and offered her the canapes. 'Lucy needn't know your support was vital to calm my nerves.'

'Nerves, my foot!' Kate bit into a delicious combination of shrimp and meltingly light pastry. 'Yum, these are delicious! Molly made them herself, of course?'

'As you say, she's a star-and, don't worry, I'm paying her a bonus; Hazel, too.' Jack looked at his watch. 'The others should be here any minute.'

'Let's wander into the hall, then. My sole reason for being here is to see the reaction when your guests arrive.'

'Is that true, Kate?'

She sipped some of her drink and threw a smile at him over her shoulder as she strolled across the hall to the fireplace to look up at the portrait. 'No, of course not.'

He followed her and stood so close she felt his breath on her neck. 'Am I forgiven for last night, Katie?'

'No forgiveness necessary or required, Jack.' She turned to smile at him as tyres crunched wetly outside. 'Show time.'

A peal on the doorbell brought m.u.f.fled barking from Bran in the boot room as Jack went to admit his remaining guests, Hazel following to collect umbrellas and raincoats. 'Good evening, everyone,' Kate heard him say. 'Welcome to Mill House.'

The Beresfords came in first, George balding and fifty-something with twinkling eyes, his wife forty going on eighteen in a pink prom dress. Lucy's eyes widened as she took in her surroundings, then narrowed in swift speculation when she saw Kate standing near the fireplace.

'How nice to see you again,' she said, rushing to join her. 'Isn't this the most marvellous house? What a romantic driveway, Jack.'

Kate said the appropriate things and turned to kiss Anna. 'You look ravishing in your new blue, Mrs Maitland.'

'Thanks, friend. Clever of you to wear black with this background,' Anna murmured. 'What a place!'

Ben came to kiss Kate and Jack ushered them all into the main room, avoiding Kate's eyes as Lucy went into more high-decibel raptures. Jack provided champagne; Hazel came in with a platter of hot canapees and Kate stood with George near the fireplace, answering questions about the house she'd inherited.

'I've been dying to see your house.' Anna smiled demurely at Jack. 'Kate's told me so much about it.'

Lucy glanced across at Kate, sharp-eyed. 'You've been here before?'

'My father knew Kate when she lived here in the town as a child,' said Jack blandly. 'He insisted I invited her to kitchen supper to talk about old times.'

Anna choked on a mouthful of pastry and Ben proffered a napkin.

'Steady the buffs,' he murmured, smiling at Kate.

Conversation grew general with the second gla.s.s of champagne, and by the time Hazel returned to announce dinner Jack Logan's first guests at Mill House were in mellow mood.

The dining room was smaller and more intimate than the main room, but Jack had kept to his white theme for the walls, with a large pencil drawing of Bran as the only artwork. The furniture was modern and very plain, the table set with white porcelain and gleaming crystal, which reflected flames from thick white candles in heavy gla.s.s holders. Once everyone was seated, Hazel came into offer a choice of lobster ravioli or pears with Stilton for the first course.

'Molly thought the lobster might not suit everyone,' said Jack, smiling. 'Being a mere male such things never occurred to me.'

'You need a woman in your life, Jack,' said Lucy, and gazed at her husband in wide-eyed innocence when he frowned at her.

'Anna says you've finished your decorating, Kate,' said Ben swiftly.

'I certainly have.' She smiled at him. 'My garden's the next thing on the agenda.'

'You're so self-sufficient!' exclaimed Lucy. 'Anna tells me you've painted your entire house yourself. Amazing. I wouldn't know where to start. Did you go on a course?'

'No, I just cheated a bit. I had the ceilings, cornices and gloss paint done by a professional before I moved from London. He relined the walls too, ready for me to start painting. I finished the last room this very afternoon,' said Kate.

Anna smiled at her affectionately. 'Thank goodness for that. I hate the smell of paint.'

'No wonder, in your condition-' Lucy bit her lip, eyeing Ben in contrition. 'Sorry. My big mouth.'

'Not to worry,' said Ben easily, and smiled across the table at his wife. 'This is as good a time as any to make the announcement. We're expecting our first child in the autumn.'

Jack sprang up to shake Ben by the hand, careful to avoid Kate's eyes as he asked permission to kiss the mother-to-be. 'Congratulations. Let me give you some more champagne.'

Anna shook her head regretfully. 'I've had my quota for tonight. Mineral water from now on, please.'

It was a very animated gathering who went on to eat hot glazed ham with spinach souffle, followed by simple, perfect apple pie and local cheese served with Molly'ssavoury biscuits. When they went back to the main room the fire had been replenished and a dish of pet.i.tfours pet.i.tfours placed beside a coffee tray. placed beside a coffee tray.

'Marvellous meal,' said Anna, sitting by Kate with a sigh. 'My compliments to the chef, Jack.'

'I'll pa.s.s them on to her.' He smiled at Kate. 'If you'll pour the coffee, I'll pa.s.s the cups round. Hazel's helping Molly clear up.'