‘Not at all,’ Annie protested indignantly. ‘Mrs Diamond has been very kind in her own way.’ She regretted adding the last comment almost as soon as she had said it, knowing she had given Rufus an opening she hadn’t meant to. She didn’t have to wait long!
“‘In her own way”,’ Rufus retorted. ‘I’ve known Celia since I was two years old—and I’ve never seen her be kind to anyone. Not without a damn good reason!’ He added cynically, ‘And nannies to my daughter do not come under that category.’
Annie wasn’t particularly interested in his scathing comments concerning Celia, had no intention of getting into any sort of in-depth conversation concerning the other woman. What did interest her was Rufus’s reference to knowing Celia since he was two years old... Of course, most children didn’t begin to learn things about their parents until they were a few years old, but in this case she didn’t think that was what was meant...
Rufus was watching her closely, well aware of her puzzlement, she was sure. The man seemed to miss nothing!
‘You really don’t know too much about this family, do you?’ he said slowly.
She knew she loved Jessica, that Celia lived her role as lady of the manor to perfection—and that Anthony was trapped in an engagement he shouldn’t be in! What else did she need to know?
‘Perhaps I should get back to my original question.’ Rufus spoke purposefully now, dark eyes watchful. ‘How well do you know Anthony?’
Not well enough, obviously. Because until this last weekend she hadn’t even realised he had a fiancée. He had been down for several weekend visits on his own, which was when Annie had found herself becoming attracted to his charm and good looks. It had been a shock—and a disappointment—when he had arrived on Saturday with Davina, to stay for a week. Then he had kissed her on Sunday... Now she was just confused about the whole thing.
‘I don’t,’ she answered honestly. Did you have to know a person well to be attracted to them?
Rufus was still watching her with those shrewdly assessing eyes. ‘In that case,’ he finally said harshly, ‘my advice to you is stay well away from him!’
She remained outwardly calm, but flinched inwardly at the force behind Rufus’s words. It had been obvious from the first that there was little love lost between the two brothers, and that the dislike was mutual. But once more Rufus Diamond was talking to her as if she were no older than Jessica. Maybe falling for the charm of a man who had turned out to be engaged to marry another woman wasn’t the most sensible thing she had ever done in her life, but, as Jessica had pointed out earlier, she was much older than her young charge—old enough to make her own mistakes, or otherwise!
‘Fatherly advice, Mr Diamond?’ she returned smartly.
His mouth tightened as her barb hit home. ‘I was only joking with Jessica earlier when I made that remark about your age.’ He easily guessed which comment of his she had taken exception to. ‘I also take back what I said down on the beach, about your being young and impressionable,’ he added at her bemused expression. ‘Young you may be, but you’re nobody’s fool.’
Annie drew in a sharp breath; she wasn’t so sure about that!
The fact remained that she hadn’t known about Anthony’s fiancée until Saturday, but even when she had found out she had still allowed him to kiss her. Wasn’t that foolish in the extreme, even if she did feel so deeply attracted to him?
‘Thank you,’ she accepted huskily, not quite able to meet the deep blue of Rufus’s gaze.
‘And whether my advice just now was fatherly or not,’ he continued briskly, ‘you would do well to take it!’
She bristled indignantly. Rufus had arrived here only a few short hours ago, and yet he seemed to have done nothing in that time but issue orders and upset people—mostly her! And, while she accepted he had a right to tell her what he required of her as far as Jessica was concerned, she did not welcome his interference in what she considered to be her private life!
Nevertheless, she chose her next words carefully. ‘You’re very kind, Mr Diamond—’
‘I’m no more kind than Celia,’ he cut in scathingly. ‘Anthony either, for that matter. In fact, we aren’t a very kind family,’ he concluded.
‘In that case, I’m surprised you leave—’ She broke off abruptly, warned by the sudden dark anger in his face that she would be overstepping the line with the observation she was about to make concerning Jessica. She looked up at him with wide, apprehensive eyes as he stood up forcefully, his size seeming to fill the room.
‘Not young and impressionable at all,’ he said with deliberation. ‘And for God’s sake take that scared-rabbit look off your face,’ he told her disgustedly, moving around the desk to perch on it in front of her. ‘I may not be kind, Annie, but by the same token I’ve never struck a woman in my life. And I don’t intend to start with you. Even if you do say the damnedest things,’ he added gratingly. ‘I leave Jessica here because there is nowhere else for her to go. Her mother is dead.’ It was a flat statement of fact, revealing none of his inner feelings concerning the loss. ‘And I can hardly take her with me when I go on an assignment!’
Annie could see the sense of that; she also knew that Jessica fared so much better than she had herself. Her own mother had died shortly after giving birth to her, and she had never even known who her father was, only the circumstances of her birth. Whereas Jessica obviously adored her father, for all his long absences.
Annie moistened her lips. ‘I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to criticise—’
‘Yes, you did,’ he said without rancour. ‘And I probably deserve it.’ He reached out to put his hand beneath her chin and gently raise her face so that she had no choice but to look directly into his. He didn’t look angry any more, his mouth curving into a smile. ‘You’ll do, Annie Fletcher,’ he told her huskily. ‘You love my daughter, that’s all the reference you need.’ He easily dismissed the two letters she had provided.
She was barely breathing, certainly not moving, very conscious of how very close they were, the deep cobalt-blue of his eyes so clear to her now—the only thing that was—as her gaze was held mesmerised by his, her face made immobile by the touch of his hand, his fingers warm against the softness of her throat.
She flicked her tongue over her lips again, colour warming her cheeks as she saw his eyes following the movement. She inwardly withdrew, then instantly moved back from the touch of his hand, gratefully drawing air into her lungs at the same time. What on earth was happening to her? She wasn’t that young and impressionable—so how, feeling the way she did about Anthony, had she also felt the pull of this man’s attraction?
She didn’t know herself under these circumstances. But she was sure that, even if the Diamond men weren’t kind, they were both possessed of an attractiveness she would be better off without!
‘Can I go now?’ she said abruptly, wishing he would move away from her—let her breathe a little!
Thankfully, he did, moving back behind the desk, although he didn’t sit down again, merely looked at her from beneath lowered lids. ‘No,’ he finally replied forcefully. ‘We haven’t talked about Jessica’s accident yet.’
Which was one of the things she was here to discuss; how could she have forgotten? This man, that was how; she was finding it difficult to keep up with his lightning changes of mood and conversation, knew she would look back on this time spent in his study with a feeling of exhaustion. She felt as if she had to constantly be on her guard, for one reason or another.
And the subject of Jessica’s accident was no different. She didn’t know how it had happened; one minute the little girl had been in the saddle, the next she had been on the ground. Annie was a novice rider herself; simply managing to stay seated in the saddle was a major