âYou walk around, your head in the clouds.â
Lucius laughed softly. âWhy do you think of yourself as a staid old woman whoâll never see forty again? Youâre twenty-seven and you look ten years younger. And Iâm not paying complimentsâI know you too well for that.â
âWhat are you going to do?â asked Katrina, not liking the sound of that laugh.
âDo? Why, call your sisterâs bluff. I shall turn my attentions to you, Katie. In due course we shall become engaged, and when youâve had time to gather together whatever it is that girls gather before they marry, weâll be wed. Here in Upper Tew.â
For a big man he was very fast on his feet. Before she could gather her wits to answer, he had left her, closing the door very quietly behind him.
THE WINTRY SUN, shining in through the wide windows, gave the room a false warmth, for there was no fire in the handsome steel grate and there was a decided chill in the air; a chilliness strongly echoed by the two people in the room, facing each other across the handsome Soumak carpet, a young woman with pale brown hair and beautiful brown eyes in an unremarkable face, sitting very upright in a Victorian balloon chair, and a man in his thirties, dark-haired, grey-eyed and with a high-bridged nose which didnât detract from his good looks. He was a tall, well built man and the armchair he was leaning against creaked as he folded his arms along its back.
âWhat a silly girl youâre being, Katrina,â he observed in a voice tinged with impatience. âAnyone would think that it was you whose heart had been broken!â He grinned at her and she made a small indignant sound.
âI can find no possible excuse for youâ¦â she began. She had a nice quiet voice, waspish at the moment though.
âMy dear girl, Iâm flattered that you should try to find excuses for me.â
She shot him a furious look, her black brows drawn together in a frown.
âDonât be ridiculous,â she begged crossly. âItâs the last thing Iâd do. Youâve broken Virginiaâs heartâ¦â
He came round the chair and sat down stretching out his long legs in comfort. âNow whoâs being ridiculous?â he wanted to know. âVirginia hasnât got a heart, from the moment she could toddle you know as well as I do that she made a point of twisting everyone round her thumb. She did it charmingly too.â He eyed her thoughtfully. âYou never did that, Katrina.â
âMuch good it would have done me.â She was matter-of-fact about it. And then, her voice cold with anger again: âSheâs in her room, cryingâ¦â
She was interrupted: âOf course sheâs cryingâspoilt girls who canât have their own way always cry. Sheâll stop presently.â
âYouâre heartless, Lucius.â Her eyes searched his face and saw nothing but mockery there. She got to her feet. âWill you go away? I donât want to talk to youâthereâs nothing to say anyway.â
He sauntered to the door. âNot while youâre in this silly sentimental mood.â As he went through the door he said: âI passed young Lovell on my way here, so Virginia had better repair that broken heart pretty quickly.â
âYouâre unspeakable!â declared Katrina, and heard him laugh as he shut the door.
She went to a window presently and watched him make his leisurely way across the lawn, taking the short cut to the side gate which would lead him to the stables where Gem, his mare, would be. It was a pity, she thought sadly, that they could no longer be friends. She had a sudden vivid memory of him, a ten-year-old schoolboy sitting his pony patiently holding the leading reins of her own fat Shetland. She had been three years old and Virginia wasnât even thought ofâ¦
And they had stayed friends, and even when Virginia, the spoilt darling of the family had made a threesome, they had neither of them minded; indeed, as the years passed, Lucius and Virginia spent more and more time together, naturally enough, for by then Katrinaâs talent for drawing and painting had got her a job illustrating childrenâs books. Her father had had one of the attics turned into a studio for her and she had worked there contentedly, making a tolerable income for herself, although that was quite unnecessary. But she had been glad of it when her parents were killed in a car accident, for a good deal of money died with them and the pleasant quite large house and its several acres of ground absorbed a lot of the income which was left. All the same, she had contrived very well; Virginia had finished her expensive education, had all the clothes she wanted and ran her own small car. Now at twenty she was the darling of the neighbourhood, as pretty as a picture and taking it for granted that every man she met would fall in love with her. Which, more or less, they did. Katrina, a year earlier, used to Virginiaâs constant brief love affairs, but anxious that at nineteen she should turn her hand to something useful, had roped in Lucius. âLook,â she had said, âVirginiaâs got so many boyfriends she canât remember their namesâI donât mind, it must be fun,â just for a moment she had sounded wistful and he had given her a long thoughtful look, âbut I wondered if she would train for something, meet older men perhaps. What do you think?â