Edge of Temptation

by Anne Mather

  Edge of Temptation

  By

  Anne Mather

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EDGE OF TEMPTATION

  The peaceful Welsh valley where Catherine had come back to live was threatened with destruction when lead was discovered there—and it was largely up to the squire, Rafe Glyndower, whether or not the scheme would go ahead. It was also up to Rafe to decide what was going to happen about his relationship with Catherine—and about his relationship with his wife…

  Books you will enjoy by ANNE MATHER

  SMOKESCREEN

  On the face of it, after her tycoon husband's death Olivia had the world as her oyster: a rich and powerful widow, she could do anything she wanted. Anything—except have the love of the only man in the world she could ever love.

  DUELLING FIRE

  Left alone in the world after her father's death, Sara was glad to accept her 'aunt' Harriet's invitation to become her companion—at any rate for the time being. But there were problems, chief among them the mysterious Jude. What exactly was his relationship with Harriet?

  INNOCENT OBSESSION

  Because Sylvie's selfish sister refused to go to Greece to live with her husband Leon and her small son who needed her, Sylvie found herself persuaded to go instead. And all she got by way of thanks was the hostility and suspicion of Andreas Petronides, Leon's unbending brother, who refused to think anything but the worst of her!

  CASTLES OF SAND

  Little Hussein was Ashley's son—but she had not seen him since his birth seven years ago. Now his formidable uncle Alain had offered her a job as Hussein's governess in his home in the Middle East. But Ashley must never let the child know who she was—and she must put up with all the suspicion and hostility of his relatives, who had taken the child from her all those years ago…

  First published 1982

  © Ann Mather

  ISBN 0 263 73844 2

  CHAPTER ONE

  It was surprising how small the valley looked from the helicopter. Perhaps it was the fact that it was a valley that accounted for that feeling of compression, of compaction, of hills giving on to hills with little between but the restless waters of the Llanbara. The sweeping slopes where he had ridden all his life, the high pastures where Powys herded his sheep and Meredith had his forestry plantation, were telescopically condensed into narrow bands of green and brown, the trees so close the sun could not penetrate. It was an illusion, of course. As the blades of the propellers swept them lower, the rocky outcrop of Morfa Crag could clearly be seen, the sun-dappled hillside a patchwork of shifting shades and shadows, with the roofs of farm buildings clustering together in settlements dotted about the valley floor. Penwyth. His home, and his heritage. And what was it worth?

  'Lead has always been in demand, of course,' Sir George Marland was saying now, 'but really, it's only during the last few years that we've turned back on our own resources. I think the oil crisis in 1974 alerted the government to its dependence on other countries for its essential needs, and awakened a kind of national determination to avoid any exploitation of that kind in the future.'

  Rafe nodded. In all honesty, he was not paying a great deal of attention to what Marland was saying. Marland was a government official, and like all government officials, in Rafe's opinion, he said what he had to say in as many words as possible, instead of as few.

  'Man is a hungry individual, Glyndower—some might say greedy. He's a consumer, and in this day and age, he consumes more than he has ever done before. World mineral deposits are running low. Even the oil we're presently pulling out of the North Sea may not see us to the turn of the century. We must constantly be on the alert for new sources, new deposits, and lead is a very valuable commodity.'

  Rafe glanced at John Norman, his eyes expressive. What did Marland think he was? A moron? He knew the state of the world's economy—who better, when it was brought home to him constantly in the day-to-day demands of the estate. He knew that cash was in short supply, and that any substantial deposit of ore on his land would benefit him and the country both. Ever since they lifted off, Marland had been expounding in this vein, and quite frankly, Rafe was sick of the sound of his cultivated tones. He didn't need some pompous bureaucrat implying where his duties lay, explaining the situation to him as if he was some ignorant schoolboy, not conversant with the simple mathematics of economics.

  'I think Mr Glyndower understands your position, Sir George,' Norman interposed now. 'However, Penwyth has belonged to his family for many generations, and the farmers—the tenant farmers, that is—'

  'Farmers!' Marland's tones mirrored the contempt he felt for such an interruption. 'My dear John, the wealth accrued from such land is negligible. What is it? Sheep country at best! There's your equation. In my view, there is no problem. And let us not forget that it's Lord Penwyth's decision, not Glyndower's.'

  'My father has put the affair into my hands,' retorted Rafe tersely, pulling a case of the narrow cheroots he smoked out of the pocket of his tweed hacking jacket. When both men declined his offer of the case, he put one of the slim cigars between his teeth, and added: 'Conversely, I'm of the opinion that there are conflicting interests here. Interests of humanity, and ecology. This country of ours—and I mean Wales, not England, or Great Britain, as it sometimes suits the government to call us—has been torn apart by mining of one sort or another. Pits, spewing slag and slurry all over our hillsides, belching black dust into air that was once clean and pure. Is that an equation, Sir George? Is that what you mean by mineral wealth?'

  Marland's plump shoulders stiffened. He was not used to such plain speaking. His heavy jowls above the starched white collar of his shirt visibly stiffened. Brushing an imaginary speck of dust from the ironed crease in his pin-striped trouser leg, he adopted an air of frosty forbearance.

  'I trust you're not about to enter that as a serious point of opposition, Glyndower,' he observed sourly. 'With your apparent concern for humanity, you should be the first to realise that without the coalmines, the people you so staunchly defend would have starved.'

  Rafe put away the lighter he had used to light his cheroot and drew deeply on the tobacco, exhaling a cloud of aromatically-flavoured smoke into the enclosed cabin of the helicopter. He supposed it was impolite of him to smoke in such a confined atmosphere, when neither of his colleagues was doing so, but right now he needed the sustenance it gave him. Lucy would not approve, he knew that, but then there were a lot of things he did of which Lucy did not approve, and at the moment her approval was not in question.

  Of course, he knew he had been a fool, bringing up the subject of coalmining. Marland could cut any argument he might make to ribbons, and the humane aspects of rheumatic diseases and silicosis were more than compensated by the rewards offered. Or so it seemed. There were still plenty of men willing to risk life and limb to bring up the energy-bearing carbon, and his own ancestors had not been unwilling to take their fair share of the patrimony offered. It was as well Marland knew nothing of his own history, and besides, what bearing did it really have on what was happening here?

  'I'm simply saying that—enough is enough,' he replied now, weariness descending like a shroud. 'I don't know that in this case, the end justifies the means.'

  'Rafe!' It was John Norman who spoke, his good-natured features drawn into an uncharacteristic frown. 'You know perfectly well, Penwyth needs the capital.'

 
Rafe moved his shoulders impatiently. 'I don't deny that. But is that sufficient reason to deny a man his livelihood?'

  Marland cleared his throat. 'I understand that without a—shall we say—substantial investment of capital, the estate may have to be sold any way.'

  Rafe stiffened now. 'Where' did you hear that?' He glanced at John Norman again. 'Was that your opinion, too?'

  The president of the Norcroft Mining Company, shifted uncomfortably. 'One doesn't have to be a fortune-teller to see for oneself, Rafe,' he demurred. 'You've said yourself…'

  'We're going through a rough patch, yes.' Rafe inclined his head. 'But it's been rough before. We've survived.'

  'An estate like Penwyth is an anachronism,' declared Marland heavily. 'Too small to be efficient, too hilly to farm economically. Who would want this land anyway? Fields and fields of rough turf, climbing among acres of second-rate timber. Pretty, maybe—valuable, it's not.'

  Rafe stilled the ready retort that sprang to his lips. Now was not the time to sentimentalise or offer emotive reasons why he wanted Penwyth to stay the same as it had always been. In all honesty, Sir George was probably right: Penwyth was not a viable proposition. It never had been. The house was a rambling mausoleum, badly in need of roofing and repair, and the acres of garden that surrounded it were gradually running to seed. Old Laurence did what he could, but there was a limit to one man's abilities in that field, and the man was old—too old to handle a garden like the Manor's, yet not old enough to pension off. And if they did pension him off, who would take it on? The young people left the valley in search of work in Cardiff or Swansea, and he hadn't the time to handle it himself. Not along with everything else.

  How much easier it had been years ago, he reflected bitterly. The rents from the farms had never contributed much towards the upkeep of the Manor, but in those days, the subsequent lords of Penwyth had had independent means. They had had the money to maintain the valley as an oasis of peace and tranquillity in a world being torn by economic collapse and starvation, money derived from sources it was not always polite to question. They had not been crippled by a series of taxes and death duties, supplemented by rising costs and soaring prices, that left Penwyth almost bankrupt and struggling to survive. Now the rents from the farms were a much-needed necessity, though they went only a small way towards the upkeep of the estate, and his father's lengthy illness had even eaten into Lucy's allowance.

  'What would you suggest I tell my tenants?' he asked Marland now. 'Like me, they were born and brought up in this valley. They don't know any other life. It takes some swallowing, doesn't it? Destroying a whole community!'

  'How many farms are involved? Six? Seven?' Marland sniffed. 'You can't seriously consider the needs of half a dozen families more important than the wealth of the nation as a whole.'

  'How dramatic!' Rafe's lips twisted. 'No, Sir George, I'm not that arrogant—or altruistic. I know what granting exploratory rights means, and I'm aware how important such a find might be.' He shook his head. 'It just seems ironic that it was Mervyn Powys who brought that axe to me. He had no idea what it would lead to.'

  Marland shrugged. 'The luck of the game, Glyndower. Now, can we discuss primary claims?'

  It was after five before they had completed the aerial survey. The helicopter belonging to the Norcroft Mining Company came down on the field below the manor, and levering himself out beneath the lethal blades of its propellers, Rafe felt it was incumbent upon him to offer his guests some refreshment before they returned to their hotel in Llandrindod Wells. Lucy would expect it, he knew, and besides, he would be interested to have her opinion of Sir George Marland. Lucy was quite a shrewd judge of character, and just because he didn't like the man, it did not mean he was unlikeable. He was not surprised when his offer was accepted. No definite decision had yet been made, and he knew both Marland and Norman would welcome this opportunity to further their mutual ends.

  While the pilot stilled the noisy propellers, Rafe walked towards the Land Rover he had left parked earlier in the afternoon. His dog, a golden-haired Labrador named Rufus, awaited him, sitting patiently in the front of the vehicle, only exploding excitedly when he opened the door.

  'Easy, boy, easy,' he murmured, fondling the golden head affectionately, as the dog displayed its welcome, and then fastening his fingers around its collar as Sir George and his satellite came importantly across the turf to join them.

  'You sit up front, Sir George,' urged John Norman, politely climbing into the back, and Rafe's mouth drew down in a wry curve as he allowed Rufus to bound into the back beside the mining company president.

  Sir George used his handkerchief to dust the dog hairs from the seat before joining his host in front, and Rafe turned on the ignition with an inward grimace. He wished he could be done with the whole damn business, without the decision which he knew he was going to have to make.

  Penwyth dreamed in the late afternoon sunlight. It was a beautiful house, built on the site of an ancient Cistercian monastery, destroyed in the sixteenth century. Stones from the original building had been used to build the manor house, and from time to time, rumours were spread of a shadowy monk being seen in the grounds, or a certain coldness being felt in various parts of the building. Rafe himself had never seen any ghost, or experienced any sense of chilling as he worked in his study, sometimes late into the night, but the Welsh were a superstitious people, and he respected their beliefs.

  The house itself was built of mellowed stone, liberally covered with ivy. It was a constant battle trying to keep the creeping tendrils off the windows, but tinged with the russets and reds of autumn, as it was now, the vine gave the building a warm, welcoming appearance. It was approached beneath a Norman arch, set in a high stone wall, that gave on to a cobblestoned courtyard, where Rafe's mother had cultivated plants that clung as tenaciously as the ivy to the uneven bricks. Here was honeysuckle and clematis, but late in the year, only the lingering scents of their blossoms remained, like a memory of summer.

  Rafe brought the Land Rover to a halt to one side of the ivy-hung porch, and warning Rufus to remain where he was, invited his guests into the house. Sir George was mellowing, too, beneath the undoubted influence of historic architecture, his admiring gaze moving along the mullioned panes that flanked the porch at either side, and John Norman, who had seen it all before, exchanged an encouraging glance with their host.

  William Morgan appeared as Rafe entered the hall, his elderly features expressing polite interest in the two men who were following his employer. The old man had been butler at the Manor for more than forty years, since the days when the Glyndowers had employed a housekeeper, too, and not relied on the mistress of the house to perform such menial duties. He was a luxury they could ill afford, Rafe had acknowledged many times, but like Percy Laurence, Morgan was too old to cast adrift.

  'Will you be wanting tea, sir?' he enquired now, relieving Rafe of his jacket. 'I believe Mrs Glyndower is in the library. Master Thomas is with her.'

  For a moment Rafe forgot the presence of his guests, forgot the unpleasantness of the decision he was going to have to make, and felt only a sense of crushing disappointment.

  'Tom?' he echoed. 'Thomas is here?'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'Damn!'

  Rafe felt his jaw clenching angrily, and then was reminded of his position once more as Sir George remarked: 'Capital house you've got here, Glyndower. This panelling—magnificent! Seventeenth century, isn't it? Beautiful.'

  'It's early eighteenth, actually,' replied Rafe absently, his mind still buzzing with the implications of his son's arrival. Then, forcing a politeness he was far from feeling, he added: 'Part of the foundations date back to the sixteenth century, and there are stone racks in the cellars, which we think were used for storing wine by the monks who used to live in the monastery that originally stood on this site.'

  'Is that so? Fascinating, fascinating…'

  Sir George was clearly disarmed by his surroundings, and while
he and John Norman shed their sheepskin jackets, Rafe had a swift exchange of words with the butler.

  'When did he arrive?' he demanded in an undertone, and Morgan wasted no time in pretending he did not know who his employer was talking about.

  'Just after you left, sir,' he exclaimed, rather reluctantly Rafe felt. Morgan had a soft spot for the youngest member of the household. 'I—er—I understand he came up from Cardiff by train.'

  'Hitched a ride, you mean,' muttered Rafe dourly. 'God Almighty, this is all I need! I don't suppose his mother was pleased.'

  Morgan's mouth turned down at the corners. 'No, sir.'

  'I thought not,' Rafe thrust impatient fingers through the thickness of his hair. Dark, like his Celtic ancestors, it was now streaked with grey, no small contribution coming from the problems Thomas always created.

  The opening of the library door brought his silent speculations to a halt. Lucy stood on the threshold, smiling warmly at John Norman, whom she knew, before awaiting her husband's introduction to Sir George. Not very tall, and slender, with the smallest hands and feet he had ever seen on a woman, Lucy epitomised anyone's ideal of a well-bred and attractive wife. But, after twelve years of marriage, Rafe now understood why size should never be equated with weakness. Lucy was strong, and determined, and at times she could display the ruthlessness of purpose her father had exhibited in the boardrooms of the Redvers grocery chain. As when dealing with their son, for example…

  With the introduction over, Rafe suggested they continued their conversation in the library, and ignoring Lucy's silent signals to adjourn to his study, he entered the room to find Thomas curled up mutinously on the window seat. His eyes widened hopefully when he saw his father, and then dropped again when he saw he was not alone, and Rafe had no opportunity to speak to him before John Norman saw him, too.