The Mistress Assignment

by Jordan, Penny

  But that still didn’t absolve her from the fact that she had deliberately used a moment of weakness to persuade Kelly into a deceit which was becoming, hourly, more stressful to maintain.

  Desperate to change the subject, she asked Brough, ‘Do you manage to see much of your grandmother?’

  ‘Not as much as I’d like,’ Brough admitted. ‘Either Eve or I try to get down to see her at least once a month. As it happens, we’re going down the weekend after next; if you’d care to come with us you’d be more than welcome. In fact, it might actually be a good idea; that way you could see the teaset in situ, so to speak.’

  Go with them...on a family visit...to see his grandmother?

  Kelly opened her mouth and then closed it again.

  ‘Oh, I couldn’t,’ she protested finally. ‘There’s...’

  ‘The shop; I know,’ Brough responded for her.

  Had she imagined it or had that really been a note of almost cynical irony in his voice as he shot her a brief sideways glance?

  It was impossible... Anna would always stand in for you... Hurriedly she closed her mind to the tempting little voice that was reminding her that Anna had made a point of telling her that she was more than willing to take charge of the shop during Beth’s absence should Kelly want some time off.

  And Brough was right in saying that it would be helpful for her to see the whole of the teaset—when she would already have had the benefit of the archivist’s records.

  No. No. It was completely impossible, and besides, Brough was quite obviously relieved that she hadn’t accepted his invitation, because he had made no attempt to press the matter or persuade her to re-think her decision.

  ‘The last time I drove up here I found a decent pub in a village just off the motorway at the next turn-off. Unlike you, I’m afraid I do need the odd “comfort stop”,’ he informed her dryly as he swung the car over from the fast lane of the motorway.

  Rural Warwickshire was a part of the country with which Kelly was relatively unfamiliar, and she couldn’t quite suppress a small gasp of pleasure as they left the motorway access roundabout and Brough took an exit onto a pretty country road. Farmland stretched to either side of them, and in the distance Kelly could see the gleam of water where a river made its way between tree-lined banks.

  The village, which lay concealed just beyond the brow of the hill, was reached via a meandering road which wound down to a cluster of cottages, some of which were thatched, set around a tranquil duck pond.

  ‘Good heavens,’ Kelly marvelled as Brough drove in under an archway to the rear of a pub which could quite easily have featured in a film set for a Dickens novel. ‘Why on earth isn’t this place swamped with tourists? It’s almost too perfect...’

  ‘It’s an estate village,’ Brough explained. ‘Originally all the houses, like the land, were owned by the same family, but apparently when the last Earl died the new one, his grandson, decided to sell off the houses, but only to tenants who had family connections with the village.’

  The pub was as quaint inside as it looked outside, and there was even a large marmalade cat sitting on an armchair in front of the empty fire.

  The coffee room was cosy and prettily furnished, with windows overlooking a paved patio area filled with tubs of flowers.

  When the coffee came, it arrived in a large cafetière with, Kelly noted with approval, a choice of both milk and cream—proper milk and proper cream in jugs, not fiddly little plastic containers—and there were even crisp, deliciously scented cinnamon biscuits to go with it.

  As she poured herself a cup, Kelly couldn’t help but notice how pleasantly Brough spoke to the waitress who had brought in the coffee for them, his manner exactly right, and she was not surprised when the girl gave him a genuinely warm smile before she left.

  Kelly had only eaten out with Julian once when, by accident, she had bumped into him and Beth at a local wine bar and he had insisted on her joining them. His attitude then towards the young boy serving them had made her cringe with embarrassment and anger, and she had been unable to look Beth in the eye as she’d wondered how on earth she managed to put up with Julian’s arrogant, overbearing attitude.

  Kelly might be a thoroughly modern woman, but she still believed that there was a place and a need in her modern world for good manners from both sexes, and she couldn’t help feeling not just a warm sense of approval for Brough’s behaviour but, far more alarmingly, an additional feeling of pleasure and female pride at being with him and guessing that the waitress thought she was fortunate to be accompanied by him.

  ‘More coffee?’ Brough asked her ten minutes later when she had finished her first cup. Regretfully, Kelly shook her head. From the window she could see the river and the pathway that lay enticingly alongside it and, as though he had guessed what she was thinking, Brough commented, ‘I thought we could stop here on the way back, perhaps have a bite to eat and a walk round the village, if that appeals to you.’

  What could Kelly say? After his earlier display of good manners, the last thing she wanted to do was to appear gauche and ill-mannered by refusing such a pleasantly phrased invitation. It surprised her a little to discover how much she was enjoying this unexpected state of harmony which had arisen between them. When he was not cross-questioning her about Julian Cox, Brough could be very relaxing to be with.

  Relaxing...? Who on earth was she kidding? Kelly asked herself a little grimly five minutes later as she checked her appearance in the ladies’ cloakroom and reapplied her lipstick. If she was so relaxed then what, pray, were those goose feathers, those distinctive flutters of sensation she could feel giddying around inside her? Those sharp little darts of sensation, of reaction and warning, which kept zipping along her nervous system. If this was relaxed then she would hate to know how it felt to be really on edge in the presence of the man, she derided herself mockingly.

  Admit it, she cautioned herself as she replaced the top on her lipstick, he’s one very sexy man! So what? She had met sexy men before.

  Met them, yes, but reacted to them in the way she was reacting to Brough, no! This was crazy, she told herself sternly. She didn’t even like him. Look at how angry he had made her... Look at the things he had said to her...done to her... That kiss for instance...

  Hastily Kelly looked away from the mirror and the sudden unexpected pout of her freshly lipsticked mouth.

  ‘Okay?’ Brough asked her when she rejoined him in the coffee room. The smile he gave her did uncomfortable things to her heart, causing it to somersault upwards, forwards and then backwards, leaving her breathless and slightly flushed.

  ‘Fine,’ she told him crisply, adding in a voice that was designed to show him that so far as she was concerned this was simply a business exercise and that the only thing on her mind was business, ‘How long will it take us to get there?’

  ‘Not much longer now,’ Brough answered her as they made their way back to the car.

  Their destination was familiar to Kelly from the time she had worked there, and as the factory gates came in sight a small, slightly rueful half-tender smile curled her mouth as she reflected on the nervous excitement of the girl she had been when she had first walked through that entrance.

  ‘Nothing ever quite approximates the feeling of earning one’s first wage packet, does it?’ Brough asked her softly as they drove through the gates. ‘I can remember just exactly how it felt to hold my first paper-round money in my hand...’

  As they shared a look of mutually amused laughter his expression suddenly changed, sobering and clouding slightly.

  ‘It concerns and grieves me that so many of our young people today will never experience the sense of self-esteem earning one’s own money brings. We’re in danger of creating a society of “haves” and “have nots”, not merely in the material sense but in the sense of owning one’s self-respect and self-worth which, so far as I am concerned, is almost as basic a human need as our need for air to breathe and food to eat. Like love, a strong sense
of self cannot be quantified, analysed or bought, but without it our lives are empty and unfulfilled.’

  His thoughts, so in tune with her own, made Kelly shiver a little as his words touched a chord within her.

  It left her feeling dizzy, disorientated, as though she had somehow strayed off her normal familiar terrain, the feeling both exhilarating and frightening. The thought of what might have been had things been different trembled through her mind. That kind of bond was so rare, so precious, so...so unthinkable and impossible, she warned herself as Brough parked the car and told her mundanely, ‘We’re here.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘YOU’RE very quiet. Not having second thoughts, I hope.’

  They were on their way back to Rye-on-Averton, the original late-morning meeting with the archivist having turned into a full tour of the factory in addition to an inspection of its archive records, followed by an early dinner as the archivist, delighted to find a fellow enthusiast, had insisted on showing them both some examples of some of the company’s rarest pieces as well as advising Kelly on just how she might best mix and colour her paints to achieve an authentic antique tone.

  ‘Not second thoughts about wanting to do the work. just worrying about getting the paint right,’ Kelly told him ruefully.

  ‘Mmm...I must admit I hadn’t realised that modern paint colours wouldn’t be suitable,’ Brough acknowledged. ‘It’s certainly a fascinating and complex business.’

  ‘Yes,’ Kelly agreed. ‘I thought I knew most of what there was to know about the history of British porcelain, but listening to Frank today I realise just how wrong I was and how little I do know.’

  ‘Mmm...I could see how thrilled he was to be able to talk with you.’

  ‘Well, he certainly couldn’t have been more helpful. But, as he says, there really isn’t any substitute for seeing the rest of the teaset at first hand for ensuring that I get the colour matches right.’

  ‘It isn’t too late to change your mind about coming with us on our next visit,’ Brough said.

  ‘I...I’ll have to think about it...’ Kelly told him.

  The evening was already turning to dusk. They had left Staffordshire just before eight o‘clock. Frank Bowers had insisted on taking them out to dinner and Brough had taken her to one side after Frank had delivered his half-hesitant invitation, to say quietly to her, ‘If it doesn’t conflict with any other plans you may have made, I think we should accept. He’s plainly enjoyed the opportunity to talk about his work—and I know we did talk about stopping off at the Lion and Swan for a meal and a walk along the river on the way back, but I should hate to disappoint Frank...’

  ‘I agree,’ Kelly had responded instantly, and they’d both returned to where Frank was putting away the company records.

  ‘Yes, I understand you’ll need to think about the weekend visit,’ Brough was telling her cordially now as he swung the car out into the fast lane of the motorway. ‘I should hate to interfere with any private plans you might have.’

  It was the emphasis on the word ‘private’ that made Kelly glance warily at him. Was he trying to insinuate that he suspected her of hesitating in accepting the invitation to visit his grandmother because she was either planning to see Julian Cox or hoping to see him? It seemed that, with their return to Rye-on-Averton imminent, the cessation of hostilities between them was over.

  Very well, if that was the way he wanted things, she decided hardly, suppressing the unwanted quiver of disappointment that sharpened almost to an actual pang of pain.

  ‘I’m not sure just what you’re trying to suggest,’ she told him frostily, ‘but the main reason I can’t give you a yes or a no at this stage is because I need to find someone to take charge of the shop for me. You may be able to walk away from your business commitments for a whole weekend—I’m afraid that I can’t.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Brough returned equally formally and coolly. ‘Forgive me, but I had assumed that since this commission was business...’

  Immediately hot colour burned a mortified flush up her throat and over her face.

  ‘I realise that,’ she retorted stiffly, and of course she did, even if very briefly earlier in the day she had momentarily forgotten.

  But, in truth, hadn’t there been a few brief but oh, so telling occasions during the day when the sharp line that in the past had always divided her professional life from her personal one had become dangerously blurred—when she had looked at Brough, compelled to do so by something he had said, only to find that it was not the client she was seeing but the man?

  And what a man!

  Kelly groaned in dismay, lashed by a delicate shiver of sexual awareness. This wasn’t what she wanted, what she needed in her life right now.

  Her reaction to Brough would have unnerved her even without the added complication of the situation with Julian Cox. When she added to that the already highly combustible mixture of anger and attraction she felt towards Brough, the dangerous extra ingredient of emotional awareness and longing she was confronted with became a potentially lethal cocktail which she knew could destroy her if she wasn’t careful. After all, put together all those ingredients and the result was as dangerous as some magical, mystical sorcerer’s potion, because the result was quite simply love. And Brough was the last person she could ever allow herself to love. He didn’t like her now, so what on earth was he going to feel about her when he discovered—as discover he surely must—that she was deliberately trying to take Julian away from his sister?

  She could try telling him, of course, that her motives were truly altruistic, but somehow she doubted that he would believe her, that he would even want to believe her.

  ‘Tired?’

  The unexpected concern in his voice brought a small, anguished lump to her throat. Unable to reply without betraying her emotion, she shook her head.

  ‘It’s been a long day,’ Brough told her, adding ruefully, ‘I must admit I had no idea of the complexity of the task I was asking you to take on when I first approached you.’

  ‘It will be a challenge,’ Kelly admitted, relieved to be back on a safer subject. ‘But I am looking forward to it. My biggest worry is that your grandmother is going to be disappointed. The teaset must mean so much to her... When Frank showed us those jugs this afternoon, which had been in the same family for six generations, and he told us how much each generation had to reinsure them at, it really brought it home to me that it isn’t the material value that means so much but the fact that they represent a part of a family no longer there in person, a piece of very personal history... memories...’

  ‘Yes,’ Brough agreed soberly. ‘I can see from the look in Nan’s eyes when she touches her teaset that it’s Gramps she’s thinking about.’

  A little enviously Kelly wondered what it must be like to have experienced such love, and to still be able to warm oneself by its embers.

  What was Brough’s grandmother like? What had his grandfather been like? Brough? Her heart gave a small, uneven thump. In thirty years from now Brough could be a grandfather himself. Her heart gave another, even more uneven thud, and then a series of short, frantic, accelerating mini-beats as she contemplated her own future. In thirty years from now how would she feel when she looked back on today? Would the sharp ache of newly discovered love for Brough she had recognised today have dulled to nothing more than a dim memory, or would she be looking back in sadness and regret for what had never been?

  They were almost home now, the lights of the town shining in the valley ahead of them as Brough turned off the motorway. Kelly sat in silence beside him as he drove through the quiet streets towards the shop. Rye-on-Averton was a genteel town, its residents either middle-aged or retired in the main. Its wine bars and restaurants, though, were well patronised, as were the shows put on by the excellent local amateur dramatic and operatic societies.

  ‘I’ll come up with you,’ Kelly heard Brough saying as he parked his car outside the shop.

  Immediately she shook
her head, but Brough was already climbing out of the car.

  ‘It really isn’t necessary,’ she said as he opened her car door for her.

  The flat had its own entrance, and she had already removed the keys in readiness from her bag and was holding them in her hand, but to her chagrin Brough quietly removed them from her grasp.

  ‘I know this is a relatively crime-free and safe area, but I’m afraid my grandmother’s influence means that I would feel I had failed in my male duty if I didn’t see you safely inside.’

  So he was only acting out of duty. What had she imagined? she derided herself as she walked silently towards the rear entrance of the flat. That he was insisting on seeing her inside because he wanted to delay the moment when he parted from her for as long as he could? How utterly ridiculous. He probably couldn’t wait to see the back of her.

  ‘It’s this way,’ she told him unnecessarily, indicating the rear ground-floor door.

  Stepping past her, Brough inserted the key in the lock and then opened the door for her.

  ‘Thank you...’ Kelly started to say as she stepped past him, but it seemed he still did not consider his duty to be fully done, because he shook his head and stepped into the small hallway with her, glancing towards the stairs as he did so.

  ‘Would you like me to come up with you and look around?’ he asked her politely.

  Immediately, Kelly shook her head.

  In the hallway on a small console table was one of the first pieces of china she had painted. She saw Brough looking at it.

  ‘One of your pieces?’ he asked her.