Restless Nights

by Catherine George

  Gabriel blinked her eyes hard. ‘I’m glad you were lovers, at least.’

  ‘So am I. I wouldn’t have traded those short periods of bliss with Matthew for a lifetime with any other man.’ Miss Scudamore breathed in unsteadily, blew her nose, then turned to Gabriel, suddenly brisk. ‘So, my dear. Do something. Don’t let Adam slip through your fingers just because he’s too rampantly jealous to listen to your explanation.’

  ‘Jealous?’

  ‘Of course he’s jealous, child. He found you in the arms of another man. How do you expect him to react?’

  ‘I expect him to listen to me,’ said Gabriel, blinking hard.

  ‘Then make him. Isn’t there some way you can arrange to bump into him by accident?’

  ‘Other than haunting Dysart’s Auction House, waiting for him to come out, no.’

  ‘At least promise me you’ll try, dear.’

  Having been persuaded to stay to tea, it was late by the time Gabriel left Pembridge Manor. On the drive back she felt tired, but very much better. Her talk with Henrietta Scudamore had been strangely cathartic, though how she was to keep her promise to talk to Adam when he refused to answer her calls was a problem which engaged her mind for most of the journey home.

  The light was glowing on the telephone when Gabriel went inside the house, but it was Jeremy again, marvelling at the price someone else had paid for the Singleton portrait. ‘If your Adam finds something similar in future, dear heart, remember an old friend and put out a whisper in advance of the vultures,’ he begged.

  Gabriel stood looking at the telephone afterwards, but decided against honouring her promise to Henrietta right away. She would wait until tomorrow to talk to Adam. By then she would be more distanced from the emotion and pain of the past two days. Of course, even if she did talk to him, there was no guarantee that it would soften his heart towards her. But she’d promised, so she’d try. And if Adam remained hostile, when her father came home Gabriel would insist he found another assistant so she could go back to London to her own flat, where she belonged.

  Relieved to find she could read, even watch a little television, Gabriel spent a strangely peaceful evening, had the usual chat with her mother, then went up to bed determined to make up for the sleep she’d lost the night before. And tonight, she decided, she would turn out the light and sleep in the dark like an adult. This was a mistake. She woke later, heart beating like a drum, to find the security lights blazing through the drawn curtains.

  Gabriel slid from the bed and peered out, but as usual nothing was visible in the glare. But something had definitely woken her up. She stood very still, registering the usual creaks and groans in the old house, then switched on the light, pulled on her dressing gown, and unlocked the door. Clutching the old hockey stick she kept by the bed, Gabriel forced herself to go all over the house, searching in every nook and cranny for a non-existent intruder. At last, satisfied that no one was there, she went back to her room, feeling rather proud of herself, got into bed and stretched out a hand to switch on the radio. Then dropped it again as the brainwave occurred to her. Before she had time to change her mind Gabriel dialled Adam’s number, and this time he answered on the second ring.

  ‘Adam,’ she said in a choked voice so unlike her own Adam sounded uncertain for a moment.

  ‘Gabriel?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘I’m frightened,’ she gasped, which was true enough. What she was doing was quite terrifying in its own way. ‘I think there’s someone trying to get in.’

  ‘Are you locked in your room?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Stay there,’ he ordered. ‘I’m on my way.’

  Gabriel sat on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands, amazed, now, that she’d had the nerve to go through with it once she’d heard Adam’s voice. But she had nothing to lose. At least she’d be able to talk to him. If he’d listen. She sat up, eyeing her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was in a wild tangle, and her eyes still heavy from lack of sleep and the aftermath of the headache. The thigh-length blue singlet she’d worn to bed was crumpled, and would not have been her first choice for confronting Adam. But she was supposed to be scared out of her wits, she reminded herself, and got back into bed just as she was, prepared for an endless wait until Adam appeared. When his car came zooming down the lane at breakneck speed only fifteen minutes later, Gabriel leapt out of bed in amazement, hoping he hadn’t passed any police cameras on the way.

  She saw him vault from the car and race to the door to unlock it, then his footsteps were on the stairs and he was hammering at the bedroom door.

  ‘Gabriel,’ he called, ‘let me in.’

  She unlocked the door with unsteady hands, threw it open and Adam, looking as dishevelled as she was, pushed her inside and closed the door.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he demanded, and she nodded speechlessly, swiping at the tears she couldn’t keep back.

  ‘What happened?’ he said urgently.

  ‘Something woke me up, so I searched the house. But it must have been outside.’ She heaved in a deep, unsteady breath. ‘Sorry to bring you on a wild-goose chase.’

  ‘Stay here,’ he commanded. ‘I’ll go outside and look round.’

  ‘No!’ she implored, and clung to him. ‘If someone’s there you could get hurt.’

  His arms went round her involuntarily, a strange little smile playing at the corners of his mouth. ‘I’ll take your hockey stick for protection.’

  Gabriel detached herself to hand it over. ‘I’ll come with you—’

  ‘You will not. I’ll be back as soon as I can. So stay put!’ He ran down the stairs and went outside, locking the door behind him.

  Gabriel pulled on a dressing gown and went downstairs to wait at the kitchen window until she saw Adam coming back.

  ‘I couldn’t find anything,’ he reported, and eyed her accusingly. ‘You should have stayed in your room.’

  ‘You might have needed help.’ She braced herself. ‘Actually, Adam, to be honest I don’t know if anyone was there or not. Something woke me, but what, exactly, I don’t know. So I made myself look round the house—’

  ‘I told you not to do that,’ he said roughly, the look in his eyes so much at odds with the tone of his voice Gabriel swallowed hard.

  ‘I thought it was time I behaved like an adult,’ she said, her eyes falling. ‘Anyway, I remembered that you promised to come if I asked for help.’

  ‘You knew I would,’ he retorted, and closed the space between them slightly.

  ‘It seemed like a good way to get you to listen to me,’ she said bluntly. ‘The only way, in fact. You refused to answer the phone.’

  ‘I’m listening now, so if the man I saw wasn’t Jeremy, who the hell was he?’ Adam demanded harshly, a pulse throbbing beside his mouth.

  ‘Jake Trent, the man I used to work for,’ said Gabriel, and told him exactly what had happened, blow by blow.

  ‘You hit him with that?’ said Adam in awe, eyeing the ashtray.

  ‘Right between the eyes. Though I think it was the knee in the crotch which hurt him more.’

  He winced. ‘As well it might! Has he tried this on before?’

  ‘Not the caveman stuff, but he’d been making life difficult for me for ages.’ Gabriel’s eyes kindled. ‘Jake Trent thinks he’s God’s gift to women, and the fact that I don’t drives him mad.’

  ‘Literally, by the sound of it. But surely he knew about Jeremy Blyth?’

  ‘Of course he did.’ Gabriel smiled a little. ‘But Jeremy’s gay, Adam. We really are just good friends. I think the world of him, but Jake doesn’t look on him as any kind of protection where I’m concerned.’

  ‘If he comes anywhere near you in future,’ said Adam with menace, ‘refer him to me.’ His mouth twisted. ‘I’ve been in hell ever since I saw you together.’

  ‘So have I,’ she said bleakly. ‘But I’d given up begging you to speak to me. I have my pride, Adam
Dysart.’

  He eyed her in silence. ‘Gabriel, did you mean what you said about the loan?’ he demanded at last, as though the words were wrung out of him.

  ‘Of course I didn’t,’ she said scornfully. ‘But you just wouldn’t listen to me, and I was feeling so rotten I said the worst thing I could think of to hurt you.’

  ‘You succeeded,’ he assured her grimly.

  Gabriel smiled a little. ‘But it was the famous loan which forced me to restore your picture. Dad resorted to moral blackmail.’

  Adam grinned, the look of strain fading from his eyes. ‘So that was it.’

  ‘But it had nothing to do with—with anything else,’ she said, flushing.

  ‘Thank the Lord for that.’ He took her hands in his. ‘If you’ll come and sit on my knee I’ll do some begging of my own.’

  ‘What for, exactly?’

  ‘Forgiveness to start with.’

  When Gabriel was settled on his lap, Adam put a finger under her chin and raised her face to his. ‘But if this pride of yours was still in action, why did you ring me tonight?’

  Gabriel explained about her visit to Henrietta Scudamore. ‘When she told me about her lover who never made it back from Dunkirk, she made me promise to get you to listen to me. I was still trying to think of a way when I fell asleep, and when something woke me up it dawned on me how to do it.’

  ‘You scared the living daylights out of me,’ he said with feeling, and shifted in the chair. ‘Darling, I wish your father had kept something comfortable to sit on when he sold his aunt’s furniture.’

  ‘We could go and sit on my bed. If you like.’

  His arms tightened involuntarily. ‘If I come anywhere near your bed, Gabriel Brett, I shall want to lie in it. And make love to you,’ he said hoarsely.

  ‘Why else do you think I suggested it?’ She slid from his lap, holding out her hand in invitation.

  Adam leapt up and took it. ‘Does this mean you’ve forgiven me?’

  ‘This time only,’ she said tartly. ‘No second chance, so don’t try it again.’

  ‘I wouldn’t dare—I’m too scared of that ashtray.’ He took her in his arms, and smoothed her head against his shoulder. ‘I could kill that swine for making trouble between us. Seeing you there—under him like that—brought my world crashing down around me. But only because I love you so much, Gabriel.’

  She raised steady blue eyes to his. ‘If I didn’t believe that there’d be no question of forgiveness, Adam Dysart. Though I can understand why you were so angry.’

  ‘Angry? I was insane with jealousy, woman,’ he growled, shaking her a little.

  ‘Miss Scudamore said you were. Which comforted me.’

  ‘You were pleased I was jealous?’

  ‘Of course I was. I thought you could only be jealous if you loved me.’

  Adam held her away to look down into her face. ‘When I saw you in that bastard’s arms I could have killed him.’

  ‘I managed very well for myself.’ Gabriel eyed him crossly. ‘Look, I’m tired. Either go home or come to bed. Which?’

  ‘That’s a choice?’ he demanded, and hurried her to the door. ‘Tonight, and every other night in future, I sleep where you sleep. Here or at the Stables. I’m not letting you out of my sight again.’

  Two months later, on a bright August evening, Friars Wood was packed with Dysarts of every description gathered together to celebrate Adam’s engagement to Gabriel Brett. Kate was home on vacation from her teaching job, Fenny had just got back from a holiday in a French farmhouse with a dozen other students, and Jess and Lorenzo Forli had flown from Florence with Carlo and Francesca, who were racing round the garden with Richard Savage and his sisters Helen and Rachel, playing with the dogs. While Jonah helped Lorenzo keep glasses filled with champagne, Leonie and Jess bombarded Gabriel with questions about her work, and how soon they needed to think about buying hats for the wedding.

  ‘Stop bullying her,’ said Adam, sliding an arm round Gabriel. ‘You’ll frighten her off with all this talk of weddings.’

  Gabriel, no longer so averse to the idea of marriage, now her parents had amazed her by getting back together again, smiled up at him, gave him a kiss, and went to help Kate and Fenny hand round platters of savoury titbits.

  ‘I was thrilled when Mother sent me the cuttings about Adam’s latest sleeper,’ said Kate, who was small and dark, and less extrovert than her sisters. ‘You’re astonishingly talented to be able to restore something like that.’

  ‘My father taught me,’ said Gabriel, wondering why someone as brilliantly clever as Kate Dysart had chosen to teach at a primary school instead of the research career Adam said everyone had expected of her. ‘It’s fascinating work, but it can be stressful sometimes.’

  ‘A bit like teaching,’ chuckled Kate. ‘Fen, take a plate of sausages out to the gang, would you?’

  ‘If I do they’ll want me to play with them,’ said Fenny, pulling a face, then smiled good-naturedly, and flipped a long black rope of hair over her shoulder. ‘Pass it over. But if I’m not back in ten minutes send a rescue party.’

  ‘It must be pretty bewildering surrounded by such a crowd of us like this,’ said Kate with sympathy.

  ‘I love it,’ said Gabriel warmly. ‘And I’m grateful to your parents. They didn’t turn a hair when Adam brought me to live at the Stables.’

  ‘They’re delighted. Adam’s always kept his retreat strictly off-limits where girls are concerned. You’re the first one to share it with him, Gabriel.’

  Later, when everyone gathered round the long table in the big dining room, Laura and Harry Brett were seated with their hosts at the head, the children crowded together at the foot with Kate and Fenny to keep them in order, and Gabriel found herself between Lorenzo Forli and Jonah Savage.

  ‘No flirting over there,’ said Adam, only half joking.

  Jess tossed her blonde hair back and patted his cheek. ‘I never thought you’d be the jealous type, little brother.’

  ‘Neither did I until I met Gabriel.’

  ‘You have nothing to fear from me, Adam,’ Lorenzo assured him, and smiled smugly. ‘My wife also is jealous.’

  Everyone laughed as Jess stuck out her tongue at her handsome husband, and won an outraged rebuke from her little daughter at the far end of the table.

  ‘Don’t worry, Gabriel,’ said Jonah, handing her a salad bowl. ‘You’ll get used to everyone quickly enough.’

  ‘A pity your parents are on holiday with Aunt Helen, darling,’ said Leonie. ‘They could have joined us to meet Gabriel.’

  ‘Adam can bring her up to London when they get back,’ said Jonah, and smiled at Gabriel. ‘They’re keen to meet the clever lady who made Adam such a nice little sum of money recently. Are you working on anything right now?’

  Later, when Jonah turned to talk to Kate, and Lorenzo applied himself to charming Laura Brett, Gabriel sat back in her chair in a happy haze, smiling across at Adam as the conversation flowed around her. Sometimes, lately, she found the change in her life hard to believe. Not only was she living with Adam, and loving it, but her parents had come back from their holiday announcing that they were getting back together. Harry Brett had sold the farm and barn to a property developer, and bought a modern house with suitable workshop premises in Pennington.

  Shortly the premises would be ready, and the new house furnished with pieces from the home Laura was selling in London, plus a lot more Adam had found for them on his travels.

  Now there was only one small cloud on Gabriel’s horizon. Adam treated her views on marriage with such respect he’d never brought the subject up again. The ring he’d given her, she knew, was meant to show the world that Adam considered their present relationship permanent and binding. But now that her father and mother were back together again, and were obviously happy with the arrangement, Gabriel’s views on marriage had changed, and tonight were further influenced by the various happy examples of it right before her eyes at the table.
/>   She realised that Adam was watching her, a questioning look in his eyes. She smiled reassuringly as Jonah refilled her glass.

  ‘We’re about to have a toast,’ he whispered, as Tom Dysart got up and raised his glass.

  ‘To Gabriel and Adam,’ he said, and everyone jumped up to echo the toast, the children giggling and jostling down the table as they followed suit with their drinks.

  When everyone resumed their seats Gabriel got to her feet, to Adam’s surprise. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to make a speech. Well, only a little one. I just wanted to thank Frances and Tom, and everyone here tonight, for welcoming my parents and myself into your numbers. And to propose a special toast of my own.’ She met Adam’s eyes squarely. ‘To my future husband—and soulmate.’

  Adam stared at her incredulously for a moment, then jumped up to stride round the table to her. ‘If you’ll excuse us, everyone, I’m going to take Gabriel for a little walk in the garden.’

  He took Gabriel by the hand, and, ignoring the laughs and catcalls from his sisters and brothers-in-law, he rushed her from the room and along the hall, straight out of the front door, making no allowance for her high heels as he led her down the steps to the terrace, and down another flight to the lawn below. When they were right out of sight of the house he pulled her round to face him.

  ‘Did you mean what you said just now?’

  ‘Which bit in particular?’ she said breathlessly.

  Adam kissed her fiercely, then drew away a little, his eyes boring into hers. ‘Just to hear you say “husband” would have been enough, but you said “soulmate”, too. Did you mean it?’

  ‘Of course I meant it!’ She smiled at him expectantly. ‘So if I propose, will you say yes?’

  Adam gave a great shout of laughter, then seized her by the waist and spun her round until she was dizzy, catching her to him at last to the sound of applause from the terrace above.

  ‘Did you ask her to marry you?’ called Leonie.

  ‘No. She asked me.’ Adam kissed Gabriel swiftly, then led her back up to his sisters, who were waiting with Jonah and Lorenzo. ‘And just in case you’re wondering,’ he said, smiling down at Gabriel as they reached the terrace, ‘I said yes.’