Rose knew instinctively, though, that it wasn't just songs that Jancis wanted from Nathan. She had come here for a great deal more than that.
'Sorry, I should have introduced you,' went on Nathan. 'Jancis, this is Rose Caldwell. Rose, I think you already know who Jancis is.'
'Yes, I know,' agreed Rose in an even tone.
'And what exactly does Rose do around here?' asked Jancis, her gaze very sharp now as she spoke directly to Nathan, ignoring Rose completely.
'Rose works in the garden,' replied Nathan equably.
'She's an employee?'
'She's a great many things.' And before Jancis had a chance to ask what he meant by that, he went on, 'I'll bring in your luggage, and then show you up to your room. I expect you're tired after the journey.'
'I'm not in the least tired,' said Jancis, her voice returning to its usual silver tone. 'I'd like to see around your beautiful house, Nathan.'
'Well, I'm ready for bed,' Rose cut in quickly, deciding that she had had about as much of this as she could take. 'If you don't mind, I'll say goodnight, and see you in the morning.'
'Where do you sleep, Miss Caldwell?' asked Jancis, speaking straight to her for the first time.
'I have my own rooms in the east wing. Don't worry,' Rose went on flatly, 'I won't disturb you in any way.'
She had no idea what had made her say that. Perhaps it was in response to Jancis's unspoken question. Did she sleep in the same room as Nathan? And even if she didn't, was she likely to turn up at an inopportune moment? Rose walked steadily towards the stairs. When she gave an involuntary glance back, though, she realised that Jancis had already forgotten about her, dismissed her as unimportant. She was concentrating fully on Nathan now, as he came back into the entrance hall with her luggage. And from the size of the suitcases she had brought with her, Rose guessed that Jancis intended to stay for as long as she possibly could.
Wearily, she made her way up to her own rooms. Where would Jancis sleep tonight? she wondered with a soft sigh. Would she try to move in on Nathan straight away, or would she play it cool and wait for him to make the first approach? Whichever it was, one thing was certain. Jancis Kendall wasn't here because she was interested in some new songs. She was here because she wanted Nathan back again.
Rose had no idea why she was so absolutely sure of that. Perhaps it was her female instincts working overtime, she told herself with a wry grimace. They had certainly begun to bristle as soon as Jancis Kendall had walked in the door of Lyncombe Manor!
Not surprisingly, she didn't sleep well that night. It seemed ages since she had slept more than an hour or so at a stretch. After a quick bath the next morning, she pulled on jeans and a T-shirt, and then stared at her reflection in the mirror. Not much point in trying to compete with Jancis, when it came to looks. Rose combed her mop of gold-brown hair into some kind of order, dabbed on mascara and lip-gloss, and decided that would have to do. It was the way that Nathan always saw her. Either he liked it, or he didn't. And if he didn't, then there wasn't much she could do about it now.
Her feet dragging reluctantly, she finally went downstairs. To her relief, there was no sign of Jancis. She began to make herself a cup of coffee, and then jumped nervously as the kitchen door opened.
It was Nathan. He looked at her steadily for a few moments. Then he came into the kitchen and closed the door behind him. 'Are you angry with me?' he asked in a dry voice.
'Yes, I am,' she said at once. Then she glared at him. 'Why did you do it? She's the last person on earth I ever wanted to see!'
Nathan sat down, looking quite relaxed. 'Sometimes, the best way to deal with a problem is to come face to face with it.'
'But bringing her here, to Lyncombe Manor!' Rose banged a couple of mugs down noisily on the table. 'I hate seeing her here. She doesn't belong here.'
'She'd like to,' remarked Nathan.
'I know that.' Rose scowled at him. 'She looks at you as if she'd like to eat you.'
'Which is something of a change,' Nathan said calmly. 'It always used to be the other way round.'
But Rose didn't want to hear about that. 'How did you find her?' she asked, wanting to change the subject.
'It wasn't difficult. I simply rang her agent. He told me where she was staying. He also told me that she had a lot of free time at the moment. Her career's definitely on the slide. Very few bookings, and no new recording contracts.'
Rose supposed she ought to feel sorry for Jancis, but she just couldn't seem to manage it. 'How could her career go downhill so fast?' she said with some curiosity.
Nathan shrugged. 'The public are pretty fickle. You're only as good as your last performance, or your last record. Since we split up, she hasn't been able to find any new material that was good enough to keep her at the top. Her record sales fell off, and her live concerts stopped being a sell-out. Once that starts to happen, the slide downwards becomes very hard to stop.'
'She thought that she didn't need you,' Rose said slowly. 'That she could make it without you. But she can't. So, now she wants you back.'
'Her agent told me that she's been trying to find me,' agreed Nathan. 'No one knew where I had gone, though.'
'Didn't you even tell your friends? Or your family?'
'A couple of close friends knew where to find me. They wouldn't have given my address to Jancis, though. As for family--' he gave an odd little shrug
'—I don't have any. I've no idea who my father was, and my mother dumped me at birth. I suppose she had her reasons, but she didn't stick around to explain them. I spent a lot of time in different children's homes, and occasionally I was farmed out to foster parents. None of them kept me for very long, though. Not that I really blame them. I was a pretty difficult child.'
Rose was staring at him in horror by this time. 'That's awful! No one should have that kind of childhood.'
'It wasn't all bad,' he said quickly, seeing the stricken look on her face. 'I remember quite a few good times. And kids in that sort of position tend to stick together. I made some good friends. I still keep in touch with most of them.'
Rose was still thoroughly shaken. She had had such a happy childhood herself that she couldn't bear to think of someone having no close family, no one to turn to in time of trouble, no one who really cared in the way that only loving parents care.
She was too choked up to say anything else for a couple of minutes. Nathan remained silent, as well, as if knowing that she needed a little time to take in what he had told her. Then, when she was finally ready to ask a couple of halting questions, there wasn't a chance because the door opened and Jancis floated in.
When she saw Rose sitting there, her face rapidly altered. The cool blue eyes became hard, and her mouth set into straight lines at the corners. Rose wasn't in the mood for any sort of confrontation, though. She got to her feet and headed towards the door that led out into the garden. 'I've got a lot of work to get on with,' she said quickly. 'I'll see you later.'
She escaped into the fresh air, and felt a sense of relief once she was out of the house. Lyncombe Manor wasn't the same with Jancis Kendall inside it. She headed for the far end of the garden. There were several shrubs there that had grown wild and needed clipping back into shape, and at least she would be a safe distance from the house—and Jancis.
While she worked, she couldn't help brooding over what Nathan had told her. No wonder he had fallen into that obsessive relationship with Jancis. He must have been desperately looking for love, after a whole lifetime without it. The bad luck that had dogged him for most of his life had still been following him around, though. He had chosen a woman who didn't seem capable of loving. Only of using and manipulating people.
Rose sighed. And now, Jancis was back again. All right, so Nathan had gone looking for her, and brought her back here, of his own free will. Was he really over her, though? Or was all this just an excuse to get her back into his life again?
She still didn't know the answers. All the old uncertainties kep
t coming back to plague her. Common sense told her that Nathan must have been sure of his feelings, or he wouldn't have risked coming into contact with her again. Yet common sense flew right out of the window whenever thoughts of Jancis came into Rose's head. Jancis—Nathan's ex-lover. Jancis— who sang his songs so exquisitely. Jancis—who now wanted Nathan, in a way that she had never wanted him before. Although Rose was inexperienced in many ways, she knew that being wanted often ignited a powerful response. And if she, in her relative ignorance, knew that, then it was very certain that Jancis Kendall knew it, too.
Rose hacked away at the shrubs with unnecessary viciousness. She had almost completely decimated a forsythia before realising what she was doing. She dropped the secateurs, and then tiredly rubbed her forehead. This was no good. She had better stop right now, before she did even more damage.
'I'm no gardener, but I don't think that a shrub should be cut right down like that,' commented a cool female voice.
Rose briefly closed her eyes. She really didn't want to see Jancis Kendall right now. 'What are you doing here?' she said flatly.
'I thought that we should have a talk,' replied Jancis. 'We hardly seem to have spoken to each other since I arrived here.'
She moved a little closer, standing in the full sunshine, so that brilliant highlights glinted in her pale hair. She was wearing a white dress in a soft, floating material, and light, strappy sandals.
Rose knew that, in contrast, she looked a mess. Her jeans were faded, her T-shirt was marked with grass stains, and she was sweaty and grubby after attacking that shrub with such unnecessary vigour.
Jancis was looking at her assessingly now, as if trying to figure out what Nathan saw in her. Then she seemed to relax, as if writing her off as no real threat.
'I'm surprised that you want to work in a place like this,' she remarked. 'It must be very dreary, with only Nathan for company.'
'If you think that being with Nathan is dreary, what are you doing here?' Rose shot back at once.
Jancis's carefully plucked eyebrows rose gently. 'You want us to be quite honest with each other? No more pretending that we don't really know what's going on? That's fine by me. I prefer it that way.' She flicked back a strand of pale blonde hair that had drifted over her eyes. 'Nathan isn't dreary, of course,' she went on. 'Either in bed, or out. We both know that—or, at least, I assume we do,' she said, looking at Rose assessingly. Rose managed, with great difficulty, to keep her own face totally expressionless. She wasn't going to let this woman provoke her into an angry outburst.
'Of course, I used to pretend that I wasn't interested in him,' Jancis went on.
'That always used to get him going—and Nathan was quite something when he was angry.' Jancis closed her eyes slightly dreamily, as if recalling exactly what it had been like, and Rose shivered convulsively. How much more of this could she take?
'Then I made the mistake of thinking that I could make it without him,'
Jancis continued, in a rather different tone. 'I'd made it to the top and I had everything—money, fame, best-selling records and adoring fans. I began to ask myself why I needed Nathan any more. He was taking a half-share of everything that came in, and I didn't like that. I was greedy. I wanted it all, so I decided to dump him.'
'According to Nathan, he was the one who walked out,' Rose said tightly. For just a moment, Jancis looked very angry. She obviously liked people only to hear her version of events.
'Whichever way it was, Nathan left,' she said tautly, at last. 'But soon after the split, I realised I'd made a big mistake. I needed Nathan. I wanted him back again. He'd gone, though. It was as if he'd disappeared off the face of the earth. No one knew where he was, or how to find him.'
'Perhaps that was because he didn't want to be found,' retorted Rose. 'And are you sure it was Nathan you wanted back? Or was it just his songs? You don't seem to have been doing too well since he stopped writing all your material for you.'
Perhaps it was a cruel jibe, but Rose no longer cared. Jancis had caused enough pain—and caused it quite deliberately. Maybe it was her turn to get some of it back again.
Jancis's face didn't look quite so exquisite now. Her blue eyes had narrowed, and her mouth had set into an almost ugly line. 'Yes, I want him to write for me again,' she said in a hard voice. 'And I want our partnership back. I've decided that things are going to be just the way they were.'
'Sometimes, you don't always get what you want,' Rose said steadily. Til get it,' Jancis said with utter confidence. 'I know Nathan. I know what turns him on, what he likes. And this time, I'm going to make sure that he sees a new side of me, the vulnerable side. He'll like that. It's what he's always wanted, to see me vulnerable. He won't be able to resist it.'
Rose turned away from her, and began to pick up the gardening tools she had been using. Then she slowly began to walk away.
'You might as well pack your things and leave right now,' Jancis called after her. 'You'll never have Nathan. I'm the one he's always wanted, and I can get him back again any time I want. You're only second best. Just someone he's turned to because I wasn't around.'
Rose was beginning to feel slightly sick now, but she refused to show any sign of weakness in front of this woman. Ignore her, she told herself steadily. Just keep walking. Get away from her, and you'll start to feel better. But even when Jancis was out of sight, Rose still felt sick to her stomach. Because she was afraid Jancis was right? she asked herself shakily. Jancis had said that she was second best—and that was Rose's own greatest fear. Nathan might like her. He might even want her. But if Jancis still came first, if he still had any of the old feelings for her, then Rose knew that she couldn't bear to live with that.
She stayed out in the garden for most of the rest of the day, only going into the house for a meal when she was sure that neither Nathan nor Jancis were around. She knew how Nathan had spent the day. She had heard the sound of his music drifting out of the open windows of the room where he worked. Was Jancis with him? she wondered with a pang of sheer jealousy. Later in the afternoon, Rose discovered that she wasn't. She had made sure that she stayed very close to him, though, sitting right outside his window, reclining prettily in the shade of a nearby tree, so that he could hardly fail to see her every time he glanced up.
When it finally got too dark to work any longer, Rose reluctantly trudged back into the house. She was tired to the point of exhaustion, every limb aching from the long hours of work she had put in today. Perhaps she was finally tired enough to sleep tonight, she thought hopefully. She felt as if she needed several hours of uninterrupted sleep to stop herself from cracking up.
She had just enough energy left to cook herself a meal. She sat down in the kitchen to eat it, but had only swallowed a couple of mouthfuls when the door opened and Nathan came in.
'Why are you sitting here on your own?' he said, in some surprise. 'Jancis and I are in the drawing-room. Come and join us. Bring your supper with you.'
'I'm the hired help,' Rose muttered. 'And hired help always eat in the kitchen.'
He just looked at her for a few moments. 'Are you being funny?' he said at last.
'Do I look as if I'm laughing?'
He stood there for a while longer. Then he came and sat down opposite her. Rose stopped eating. The last of her meagre appetite seemed to have deserted her.
'You look as if you need a long shower and a good night's sleep,' Nathan said, as his gaze moved over her.
'In other words, I'm a mess!'
Unexpectedly, he reached over and pushed a tousled strand of hair out of her eyes. The gesture unsettled her. Worse than that, it made her eyes prickle. She blinked very hard a couple of times. This wouldn't be a good time to cry.
'Did I make a bad mistake, bringing Jancis here?'
She hadn't been expecting him to say anything like that, and she didn't know how to answer him.
'I thought it might solve the problem we were having,' went on Nathan. 'I didn't mean to make things worse.
'
'I don't see how it could have solved anything,' she muttered.
'The best way to lay a ghost is to come face to face with it,' he told her. 'I don't want us to spend the rest of our lives being haunted by Jancis.'
'Are you sure that you didn't just want to see her again?' she shot back immediately.
Nathan withdrew his hand, and the expression on his face began to change.
'We've been through all this before,' he said in a much tighter tone. 'I don't think I can go through it all again.'
'I don't see why not,' Rose said stonily. 'I didn't want to meet Jancis. I didn't want to know anything about her. Yet here she is, back in your life again. And how did she get here? You went and fetched her back!'
He glared back at her stormily. 'And I've explained why I brought her here!
If you can't understand my reasons, then perhaps things aren't as good between us as I thought they were.'
Rose got to her feet and began to move towards the door. 'I think I'm beginning to understand only too well.'
'Where are you going?' he demanded sharply.
'Up to my room. Spending the evening with you and Jancis is just a little more than I can stomach!'
'You haven't eaten your supper.'
'Give it to her!' she flung back at him, as she wrenched open the door. 'She seems to want everything else that I thought was mine. Why shouldn't she have my food as well?'
She charged out of the kitchen after that, slamming the door behind her with a very satisfying thud. She knew she was behaving rather childishly, but she didn't care. Losing her temper like that had made her feel much better, and for the first time today that faint sensation of nausea had gone. Rose went straight up to the east wing, and the privacy of her own rooms. She spent a long time bathing, and washing her hair. Then she sat and slowly brushed the gold-brown curls until they were dry.
She had thought—hoped?—that Nathan might come after her, but there hadn't been any sound of footsteps outside the door. He's probably having such a good time with Jancis that he's forgotten all about me, she told herself with a dark scowl. One thing was absolutely certain. Jancis would make good use of every moment she was left alone with Nathan. Was she putting on her vulnerable act already? Telling Nathan that she needed him, that she really loved him, that she just couldn't make it without him? And was he falling for it?
Haunted Summer Page 13
