Tender Persuasion

by Sara Wood

  'Um…' Jade saw that the man had taken up a position against the small laburnum tree and was laughing at the exchange. 'I'm awfully late, I know, but I've brought the dinner money and…'

  'Sure. It's OK. Mum! Come in,' invited Billy. 'She's doing scones. I'll get her.'

  Jade went into the small sitting-room and sat down on the chintz sofa, to find herself sharing it with the stranger.

  'This isn't a free show for your benefit, you know,' she said tartly, as he folded his arms and seemed to be waiting for her to do something interesting.

  'Oh! Sorry, my mistake. I thought you laid on entertainment like this for every visitor,' he said. 'Village life and all its eccentricities. Meet the locals, learn ditch crawling, spot the post office. That kind of thing.'

  A treacherous giggle escaped from her lips and was fiercely suppressed.

  'Don't patronise,' she said calmly. 'What do you want here, anyway? The post office is closed to anyone but me.'

  'I want to ask you some questions,' he said, unconcerned. 'I'm doing a survey for the Max Planck Foundation and…'

  'It was an Institution last time I heard,' she said drily, trying not to laugh when his face fell.

  'Curses! Trust me to choose a well-read woman,' he sighed.

  Inwardly, Jade sighed too. He was fun, she thought wistfully. Then she frowned. He probably had a lot of fun with his wife and family, and judging by his slick line in chat, with any willing women who fell for his disarming style.

  'Hello, Jade.' Mrs Love bustled in, wiping her hands on her apron. 'Wait a minute while I open up.'

  'I'm awfully sorry to be a nuisance,' she said, rising. 'I couldn't get the darn books to balance, and then I dropped some of the money…'

  'And I picked some of it up,' came a deep voice.

  'Well, now, that's nice.' Mrs Love beamed at him in evident admiration, hardly able to take her eyes from his engaging neon grin as she let down the counter from its latch on the wall. 'I always open up for late school money,' she said. 'You don't want to leave it on the premises. Let's be having it, then.'

  Feeling ridiculously self-conscious, Jade carefully unpacked all the money bags and watched Mrs Love checking them with enviable speed.

  'Got any more goats?'

  She turned with relief to Billy, hovering in the doorway and eating home-made chocolate cake. 'No! I'm still paying for the damage the last one did!' she grinned. 'I've had to swap her with the farmer for chicken feed and a honey extractor.'

  'Enlighten me,' murmured the man. 'About the goat.'

  'She brought it to school,' mumbled Billy, his mouth full. 'Ate Miss Jones's basket, it did, and had a go at French for Beginners.'

  'That's a text book,' explained Jade hurriedly. Then she remembered. 'Billy, I saw you were learning about hexagons today, so I thought you'd all like to see the bees and have a honeycomb for the nature table.'

  'Oh, boy! Will they sting Miss Jones?' asked Billy hopefully.

  'Monster,' chided Jade. 'My bees are well trained.'

  'Better trained than the goat, I hope,' muttered a voice behind her.

  Jade wished he'd keep out of their conversation. 'Haven't you got a wife to go home to?' she said pointedly.

  'I have business here,' he said quietly.

  Her heart lurched. Business? He couldn't be visiting the school. No schools inspector had ever been that well groomed. He… She refused to contemplate the possibility that flashed into her head. With an effort, she concentrated on Mrs Love's neat writing and was relieved to be signing the slip. Now she could go and forget clever City men.

  'Come to see the manor, have you?' asked Mrs Love.

  Oh, God! trembled Jade, as he took what seemed like interminable seconds to answer.

  'That's right.'

  She swallowed to rid herself of the awful dry and empty feeling in her throat. She'd known that one day she'd have to face up to showing people around, but this was too soon, she wasn't ready. In any case, he was the last person she'd sell it to! She couldn't possibly live next door to anyone like him, and know that he was carrying on a life-style similar to Sebastian's. Except for being more amusing, he was so like Sebastian's friends. His arrogance stood out a mile, even to the extent of having the nerve to turn up without an appointment. Well, he wasn't getting the guided tour today. It would give her great satisfaction to refer him to the estate agent to set up a meeting—and even greater satisfaction to stall him as long as possible.

  'I thought so,' continued the post mistress. 'When I saw you with Jade, I thought, ah, she's going to show him around.'

  Mrs Love was about to say more, and Jade frantically interrupted, saying the first thing that came into her head. Anything, even showing this glib sophisticate her house, was better than having her private affairs discussed, or strangers knowing that she was the current owner. There would be too many questions, too much prying: painful answers.

  'Yes,' she said hurriedly, looking at her watch. 'And we'd better hurry. Goodbye, Mrs Love, and thanks. Come on,' she called to the astonished man, still sitting on the sofa, 'we have a lot to look at.'

  He jumped up with alacrity and followed her out. Jade had stumbled blindly for a few yards down the lane by the time he caught up and stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

  'Leave me alone. Let's get this over with,' she muttered, twisting away.

  'No. Hold on.' He moved swiftly in front of her, his face serious. 'Who—'

  'My name is Jade and I'm the school secretary, I told you,' she said, forestalling him. Surreptitiously she pushed her left hand into her pocket and slid off her wedding ring, noticing that his eyes went straight to that hand when she brought it out again. He must know that it was a Mrs Kendall who was Saxonbury Manor's current owner—or rather the owner of the second crippling mortgage. She hoped, therefore, that he had an image in his mind of a middle-aged county lady. If that was so, then he wouldn't connect Mrs Kendall with a casually dressed scatterbrain who worked in the local school. That should put him off the scent. 'I'm to show people around. The owner doesn't like the idea of selling,' she added truthfully. She wanted to sell, but dreaded the process of doing so.

  'I'm sure,' he said, walking along with her again. 'It must be sad, leaving happy memories behind. I understand the husband died in some accident.'

  A year ago, and still the memory cut her like a knife! 'Yes,' she said tightly, her tone discouraging further prying. He wasn't easily put off.

  'What kind of accident?' he asked.

  'Ballooning.' To hide her shaken expression, Jade reached up and buried her face in the deep purple lilac that hung over the lane.

  'I think I remember something in the papers,' he said, frowning in concentration. 'Wasn't he trying to cross the Alps?'

  'Pyrenees.'

  'I'm sorry,' he said, hearing the quiver in her voice. 'I suppose in such a small community the death of one of its members must have upset the rest of the village, too. And I'm forgetting my manners. I'm Dane King.'

  She took his hand reluctantly. 'I… That is… No one told me you were coming. You're only supposed to see the house by appointment,' she said, suddenly remembering she could get out of the chore and put off the evil day when a stranger first started nosing around her home.

  'Oh? My secretary sent a letter a few days ago, advising that I'd be here today unless I heard to the contrary.'

  Jade bit her lip, knowing what had happened.

  'I'm afraid your letter was probably eaten,' she sighed.

  He didn't bat an eyelid. 'I see. That would explain why Mrs Kendall didn't know I was coming,' he said as if letters were frequently devoured in his experience.

  Jade dimpled, reckoning he was owed an explanation, and then paused. She must remember he didn't know who she really was.

  'My goat escaped—she often did. The manor door was open and she ate the post before it could be collected.'

  'I hope she wasn't ill,' he said suavely.

  Her eyes slanted up at him. Either h
e was very good at hiding his surprise and remaining urbane, or so much had happened to him that nothing surprised him any more.

  'It had almost a fatal result. I considered turning her into mince.'

  'Minced goat is a delicacy I haven't tried,' he grinned. 'Did Mrs Kendall mind?'

  'She was livid,' said Jade truthfully.

  'I'm sure she was. She probably has a lot on her mind at the moment.'

  'She has,' sighed Jade, suddenly brightening as an idea occurred to her. 'Would you like to see around the rest of the village? It might give you a feel of the place.'

  He smiled down at her, unsuspecting. 'That would be wonderful,' he said huskily. 'I think feel is so important, don't you?'

  She stared hard. 'You'll feel a distinct frost if you make any more stupid remarks like that,' she said coldly.

  He grinned, unperturbed. 'Can't blame me for trying, can you?'

  She did. Married men shouldn't roam . 'Get this straight,' she seethed. 'I'm showing you the village and then, if you want to proceed, the house. I'm not showing you anything else. I don't like smarmy City slickers, especially ones who think that life in the sticks is picturesque and romantic, and that the dawn chorus is something to do with the sound of six-cylinder engines revving up for the morning crawl to the Treasury.'

  'Ouch!' he winced. 'And I thought a little peasant girl might be bowled over by my sophisticated technique,' he joked.

  Her dark brown eyes looked him up and down scathingly. 'The local farm lads have a better technique than yours, and it's more successful.'

  'Ah. Spoken for, are you?' he murmured.

  'Over here,' she said sharply, ignoring him, 'is Barlock Weir's house. Twice a week, the village is nose to tail in worshippers of his prose style. Coaches have a standing arrangement to park in the driveway of Saxonbury Manor,' she said, exaggerating hugely. 'The new owner would be expected to honour that, of course. I hope you won't upset the villagers and ruin the joy of his admirers by changing the arrangement if you buy the house.'

  She was pleased to see he was frowning as he studied the clapperboard cottage, preserved inside and out in 1920s style as it had been left when the great author died.

  'That's the footpath to the school,' she continued relentlessly, 'but we won't go there now. It'll be mayhem. Playtime. Usually the harassed headmaster brings the children into the manor grounds so they can let off a bit of steam, because the playground is so tiny.' Her fingers were crossed at the small white lies she was telling. Well, John was sometimes harassed, and they did go into the manor and the playground was small. It was the way she put it together that was misleading.

  'Hence Billy falling into the pond,' he said.

  'Yes. Would loads of children pretending to be Superman or the Lower Sixth at St Trinian's bother you?' she asked innocently.

  'Saint…'

  'The awful girls' school, where the girls run wild and…'

  'I know what you meant,' he said faintly. 'Yes, it would bother me. I need the house to be peaceful.'

  'Oh, dear,' she said sorrowfully, looking at her feet and willing her mouth not to twitch in delight. 'The country isn't quiet, Mr King. Not here, anyway. I live next door to the manor and my cockerels are always crowing, day and night it seems. Then the tractors drone away all day and the farm machines, the forester's chainsaw… We're used to it, but a townie…'

  'I could put up with a lot of things if you lived next door,' he said. 'Will you show me your house?'

  Jade could have kicked herself. Since Sebastian's death, Saxonbury Manor had held too many memories for her to stay. She'd found herself thinking of the past and not planning for the future. So she had chosen to live in what was once the gardener's cottage and fought to keep the big house going, calling in every day to feed the fantails in the huge medieval dovecote, until a time when the new owner would take the burden of responsibility from her shoulders.

  'You wouldn't be interested in my cottage. It's like the rest of the houses in the village,' she said in an offhand manner. 'Dark, damp and plagued with rats.'

  'Sounds positively feudal,' he murmured, his thoughtful gaze on her.

  She shrugged her slender shoulders and had to save her narrow strap from slipping down her arm and revealing too much flesh. Dane's avid eyes lingered on her breasts and, conscious of his interest, she tried not to walk with her usual hip-swinging motion. She had become very aware of her own sexuality and wanted to minimise it.

  'We'll go into the church,' she said, opening the lych-gate. That would keep his mind on sober things, she thought crossly, wondering why the atmosphere between them was becoming tense.

  'This is beautiful.' He was admiring the circular Norman tower, one of only three in the whole of Sussex.

  That wouldn't do! 'Decaying,' she said laconically. 'The whole thing is falling down. The parish council has agreed a levy from every householder to repair it. That's one of the reasons Mrs Kendall is selling up—the upkeep of the village is horrendous.'

  'Surely that's not how things are done—' he began.

  'Come inside,' she said quickly, almost dragging him in. 'See those roof timbers! Death-watch beetle. If you're quiet, you can hear them, clicking away. Huge beams like that are going to cost a fortune.'

  She craned her neck up and tilted her head in an attitude of listening. There was a silence. Gradually she became aware that Dane King wasn't joining her in the study of non-existent death-watch beetles, but had folded his arms and was staring at her instead. As she dropped her gaze, she saw that his expression had ceased to be charming or flirtatious and was hard. And his eyes were more piercing and blazing angry than any she had ever seen.

  Jade gulped. 'S-s-something wrong?' she said, to unfreeze the deathly silence.

  A deep breath expanded the big chest and she gulped again, awed and intimidated by him. He was terribly angry. Had he rumbled her? Still he remained silent. Then, as she slicked her dry lips, he was seemingly galvanised into action and, before she knew what had hit her, he had caught her up and marched her outside, down the path and out on to the lane.

  'Well now, Jade. It seemed inappropriate to yell at you inside a church,' he said in a soft voice that held evidence of barely controlled rage. 'So you'll explain here.'

  Jade lifted her defiant eyes to his. She wasn't going to let him push her around. 'I thought I was explaining every-thing rather well,' she bluffed.

  She gave an outraged gasp as his big hand splayed on her middle, and she staggered back till she felt her spine being pressed against the yew tree. His hand stayed where it was, pushing imperceptibly, and Jade's pride refused to allow her to prise it away.

  'Why don't you want me to buy Saxonbury?' he asked grimly.

  Jade's face grew serious, and she looked at him from under her thick lashes. She'd have to give him a reason of some sort.

  'This is a nice village. Nice people live in it. Unwordly people. You wouldn't fit in.'

  'Not enough.'

  'It's all I have to say,' she said doggedly.

  'Really?'

  To her dismay, he moved close, his body trapping hers, his hands snaking out to catch her wrists as she moved to thrust at his shoulders. And they were body to body; her soft warmth transferring to his muscled hardness, his face harshly thrust into hers, a snarl marring the handsome features.

  'I'll scream—'

  'Do that and I'll kiss you,' he threatened in a biting tone.

  Jade's eyes grew huge and she clamped her lips together, not daring to open them for any reason in case he interpreted that as the preliminary to a scream. The last thing she wanted was for him to kiss her! Already the shocking pressure of his body was causing some highly undesirable responses within her. It was shaming that she was responding to the highly potent virility of the kind of man she loathed.

  The air was thick with an electrifying charge that ran between them, welding them closer, rendering Jade immobile. Small tremors ran through her, till every nerve-ending felt alive and stretched to
its limits. What had happened to her? Had she been corrupted morally during her marriage, without realising it?

  His anger was dying away, to be replaced by another emotion far more dangerous. Their intimate situation was having its effect on him, too, as it would on any red-blooded man. He, Jade realised with a flash of fear, was more red-blooded than most.

  'Well, Jade, why don't you scream?' he murmured in a sultry voice.

  Unable to speak, not daring to, she shook her head in mute refusal.

  'Pity. Let's pretend, then,' he said huskily, and bent to claim her mouth.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Jade's whirling brain and aroused senses temporarily eclipsed the knowledge that Dane was a stranger and married. All she knew was that her instincts had completely taken over her mind and were urging her to respond to his incredibly erotic kisses. Still holding her wrists, so that their arms were outstretched, Dane shifted his body suggestively against hers, shocking Jade with his intimacy. And his desire.

  She tried to twist her head away, moaning under his warm, searching, searing mouth, but he anticipated every move and his kiss deepened, setting up a terrible yearning inside her. It was because of Sebastian, of course, she thought miserably. The way he'd made love to her…

  Tears welled into her brown eyes and she squeezed them tightly, but too late to prevent two huge, salty drops running down her face. Dane's tongue found one as he explored the arch of her upper lip.

  'I don't usually make women cry when I kiss them,' he said quietly, drawing back to look at her.

  'I bet you don't,' she said savagely, angry with her weakness. Her head tossed, making black tendrils flip angrily into the air. 'Now, if you've finished, perhaps you'd take your disgusting body away from mine and release my wrists.' She felt terribly vulnerable, with her breasts stretched high against his chest, and deeply ashamed that their hardened centres were throbbing in apparent abandon.

  He did as she asked, and stood awkwardly while she made a show of rubbing her reddened wrists and tucking in her top more securely.