Elusive as the Unicorn

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘Talking about me, Grandmother?’ Marina swept into the room like a whirlwind, her attraction more of an impact than mere beauty alone.

  Her hair fell in black, luxurious layers to just below her shoulders, dark blue eyes sparkling clearly in a perfect heart-shaped face; she was no taller than Eve, and yet somehow managed to appear so in the pencil-straight white trousers and white cotton sleeveless top.

  ‘As a matter of fact, I was,’ her grandmother answered sternly. ‘Isn’t it time you snapped out of this mood you’ve been in since you got here?’

  ‘Oh, that.’ Marina dismissed shruggingly, as if it were of no consequence any longer, bending across the table to pick an apple out of the fruit bowl standing in its centre. ‘I’ve decided Gerald wasn’t worth it, and that there will be other parts for me, better parts.’ She bit cleanly into the apple with perfectly even white teeth. ‘See you both later,’ she announced happily around the mouthful of fruit.

  ‘Where are you going now?’ Her grandmother’s exasperated question halted her in the doorway.

  ‘Shopping,’ Marina explained with relish, the front door closing noisily behind her seconds later as she left the house.

  ‘Oh, dear,’ sighed their grandmother wearily. ‘I don’t know which is worse, Marina morose and sulking, or in her usual bouncing mood and feeling like spending money!’ She gazed after her youngest granddaughter worriedly.

  Eve chuckled softly. ‘At least she’s more her normal self today.’

  ‘Hm,’ their grandmother acknowledged doubtfully.

  Eve could sympathise with her grandmother’s doubts; the last time Marina had decided to recover from a bad love-affair in the same way, her ‘shopping spree’ had amounted to the hundreds rather than tens. But, after all, it was her money to spend as she liked. As long as she didn’t come and ask their grandmother for the loan of some money a couple of weeks later, as she had the last time!

  With Marina out of the house and her grandmother pottering about her beloved garden, Eve was able to put on her bikini and spend a peaceful morning sunbathing on the patio. It felt so wonderful to relax, to watch the butterflies flitting to and fro among the flowers, to listen to the bees buzzing lazily.

  Rather like ‘the calm before the storm’, in fact!

  One minute she was lying there, lazily contemplating a pleasant evening with Paul, after all, now that Marina’s mood had improved, and the next her dreamy state had been completely shattered.

  ‘Hello, darling,’ greeted a breezily familiar voice—the surprise of having Sophy disturb the utter tranquillity of the morning almost making Eve fall off her lounger.

  She sat up hastily, pushing her sunglasses up into her hair to watch as the other woman strolled out of the house to join her.

  ‘I hope you don’t mind my coming out here like this.’ Sophy smiled down at her, very beautiful in a flamboyant red and white silk sun-dress. ‘Mrs Hodges told me the two of you were out here.’ She gave Eve’s grandmother a wave as she looked up and saw her with Eve.

  Eve hadn’t spoken to the other woman since their heated exchange on the telephone three days ago. ‘If you’ve come here to apologise——’

  ‘Certainly not,’ Sophy dismissed briskly, dropping down on to the lounger next to Eve’s as she watched Evelyn Ashton’s progress towards them from the rose garden.

  Eve frowned at the other woman. ‘Then why are you here?’ she finally asked when no explanation had been forthcoming.

  ‘Why?’ Sophy turned towards her, her own gaze puzzled now. ‘But——’

  ‘Sophy!’ Eve’s grandmother had finally reached them, and she greeted the other woman with pleasure. ‘But where’s Patrick?’ she frowned.

  ‘Parking the car and bringing in the luggage.’ Sophy stood up to warmly kiss the older woman’s cheek. ‘Actually, he’s taking rather a long time.’ She was the one to frown now. ‘Perhaps he can’t find Mrs Hodges to tell him where we are, poor darling. I’ll just go and get him.’ She shot Eve a slightly triumphant look before going off in search of her husband.

  Eve instantly mistrusted that look; what were the other couple doing here?

  ‘Oh, dear, Eve, I am sorry I forgot to tell you about Sophy and Patrick coming,’ her grandmother said worriedly as soon as Sophy disappeared inside the house. ‘I’ve invited them to stay for the weekend, but with all this business with Marina the last few days and this morning, I’m afraid I forgot to mention it.’ She shook her head. ‘And it was really for Marina’s sake that I invited them,’ she added ruefully.

  For the life of her, Eve couldn’t see how inviting Sophy here was meant to be for Marina’s benefit; the two women didn’t get on at the best of times, let alone when Marina was going through one of her difficult moods. Considering the fact that their grandmother was also aware of that, she waited patiently for a further explanation of this rather unpleasant development. She wasn’t feeling all that happy with Sophy herself at the moment, especially as Sophy still seemed so unconcerned with what she had done.

  ‘I thought perhaps,’ her grandmother continued distractedly, ‘after this recent—upset in Marina’s life, that she might be finding things a little dull around here, so I thought a weekend party while she’s here might be a good idea. And Sophy just happened to telephone when I was going through the idea in my mind, and so … I know she and Marina aren’t the best of friends,’ she grimaced. ‘But you have to admit, life certainly isn’t dull when the two of them are together!’

  ‘No, I can’t ever remember it being dull,’ Eve acknowledged ruefully, sharing her grandmother’s humour, at the same time remembering another person who had claimed that his life had been far from dull since he’d first met her …

  Her grandmother brightened when Eve didn’t immediately put a dampener on the idea. ‘I did mean to talk to you about it this morning, but then Marina came in and mentioned going shopping, and—well, I got distracted.’ She made a face.

  ‘That happens to most people when Marina mentions going shopping.’ Eve echoed the grimace.

  ‘Yes, I——Ah, here they come now.’ She beamed at her guests over Eve’s shoulder.

  Eve wasn’t really sure she was prepared yet to forget Sophy’s part in the events of the last week, but with the other woman as a guest in the house she wasn’t really going to have any choice in the matter; any strain between herself and Sophy would soon become apparent to her grandmother and, after the last few days they had had with Marina, she certainly had no intention of adding to the older woman’s worries.

  Nevertheless, she really wasn’t prepared for the shock she received as she turned with a fatalistic sigh to greet Sophy and Patrick.

  Adam Gardener strolled along at Patrick’s side, a warmly sensual smile lighting his face as his gaze met and held Eve’s stricken one.

  What on earth was he doing here? Surely Sophy and Patrick hadn’t …

  ‘Sophy mentioned that they had a weekend guest of their own,’ her grandmother explained softly. ‘So I told them to bring him along too; I said we have plenty of room. Actually, I thought he might help even the numbers up,’ she confided ruefully. ‘I’m rather glad I did invite him now, he looks a very personable young man. At least Marina should be pleased!’

  ‘A very personable young man’ hardly described Adam Gardener in Eve’s opinion! And what could her grandmother mean about Marina being pleased he was here? Good lord, her grandmother didn’t really intend to partner Marina and Adam off for the weekend, did she? Adam had the ability to demolish the flirtatious Marina with a few cutting remarks!

  But maybe he wouldn’t want to; after all, Marina was very beautiful. And her cousin was also completely available to return that attraction …

  Unlike Eve, herself.

  Why did these strange thoughts come into her mind whenever Adam Gardener was in the vicinity? She didn’t want to be available to return Adam Gardener’s attraction!

  While she had stood by like someone suffering from shell-shock—as indeed,
she felt—Sophy had effected the introductions, Adam smiling with lazy charm as he greeted Eve’s grandmother.

  ‘But how incredible,’ her grandmother was saying dazedly. ‘Eve, dear, this gentleman’s name is——’

  ‘I’m already acquainted with Mr Gardener,’ she cut in coolly, holding her hand out in a formal gesture of greeting. ‘How nice to see you again, Mr Gardener,’ she said with saccharine insincerity.

  ‘Isn’t it?’ he returned mockingly, holding her hand a little longer than necessary, Eve thought. She winced slightly as he increased the pressure of that hand momentarily before releasing it with slow reluctance. ‘Enjoying the sun?’ he drawled, his gaze roaming over her with slow appreciation.

  Eve stood as if turned to stone, remembering for the first time that she was only wearing the turquoise bikini she had been sunbathing in.

  Normally it wouldn’t have bothered her to greet people wearing so little, especially friends like Sophy and Patrick—and she still regarded the other woman as such, despite her recent interference. But Adam just made her feel conscious of her own near-nakedness—and his reaction to it.

  His warmly caressing gaze made her feel hot all over. ‘I’ll just go and dress before lunch,’ she said hastily.

  ‘Please don’t bother on my account,’ Adam told her softly, his own clothing, although much more formal than her own, basically casual, the cream-coloured short-sleeved shirt revealing muscularly tanned arms covered in golden hair, beige-coloured trousers moulded to his narrow waist and thighs.

  Eve gave him a warning look from beneath lowered lashes. In her seventies, her grandmother expected certain codes of behaviour from people, and simply wouldn’t understand the way Adam behaved with Eve. She didn’t understand it most of the time!

  ‘We’re only going to have a light meal served out here,’ her grandmother told her innocently. ‘No reason to change if you don’t want to.’

  ‘I want to,’ Eve affirmed through gritted teeth. How she wanted to!

  ‘I’ll come in with you and take the luggage up to our rooms,’ Patrick offered lightly.

  ‘No, I’ll do that,’ Adam put in in measured tones. ‘You stay and keep Sophy and Evelyn company; I’m sure the three of you must have a lot to talk about.’

  Evelyn. Already Adam was on a first-name basis with her grandmother, and it had taken Paul, despite his father’s almost lifetime association with the older woman, months, after he had taken over from his father, to pluck up the courage to call her Evelyn!

  ‘If you’re sure?’ Patrick accepted amiably, already lowering his bulk down on to one of the loungers while Sophy poured them all a cool glass of lemonade, the matter of the luggage already decided as far as they were concerned.

  Eve caught the look of coy satisfaction in Sophy’s gleaming green eyes and turned angrily away, marching determinedly towards the house.

  ‘Much as I like this tantalising view of your back——’ Adam broke off the gentle mockery as Eve turned furiously, his hands raised defensively as her hands could be seen to be clenched at her sides. ‘You didn’t know I was coming here today, obviously,’ he drawled drily.

  ‘Obviously,’ she bit out in controlled tones as she continued on into the house.

  Adam caught up with her, keeping his strides measured to hers now that he had done so. ‘I didn’t plan this, you know,’ he began coaxingly.

  ‘No?’ She turned to glare at him with eyes as turquoise as her bikini. ‘You were no more Sophy and Patrick’s “weekend guest” than I am.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong.’ He shook his head confidently. ‘We were going to their cottage in the country …’

  ‘I have news for you.’ Eve gave him a pitying look. ‘If indeed it is news,’ she added suspiciously. ‘Sophy and Patrick don’t have a cottage in the country!’

  ‘They don’t?’ Dark blond brows rose in what could only be genuine surprise.

  ‘No!’

  ‘Oh.’ Adam was having trouble containing his humour now, running a hand over his mouth in an effort to control his show of mirth. But that couldn’t erase the laughter from his eyes. ‘What a pity Patrick met Sophy first; she’s a woman after my own heart.’ He sobered, his expression suddenly intense. ‘If it had still been mine to give, of course,’ he added softly.

  Eve’s mouth firmed. ‘If you would like to bring the luggage up?’

  She made no effort to help him carry the three suitcases up the wide staircase, knowing she was behaving childishly, but just so angry at the whole situation. Besides, a brief glance back showed her that he was managing the heavy cases with ease.

  Going to Sophy and Patrick’s ‘cottage in the country’, indeed! It didn’t need two guesses—didn’t need one guess—to know whose fabrication that had been; she was already certain.

  And, as she had already known, Mrs Hodges had prepared the two best guest bedrooms, the lemon and cream for Sophy and Patrick, the blue and white for Adam.

  Unfortunately, as Eve was all too well aware, the blue and white bedroom happened to be the one next to hers. But she couldn’t possibly ask for that to be changed now, it would make herself too obvious to everyone. Not that she thought there was any possibility of Adam’s attempting to enter her bedroom without permission—permission he would never get. No, the real problem—and what a problem it was—was that there was actually a bathroom connecting the two rooms, with a door going into each bathroom off it!

  It hadn’t always been this way. This was an old house, and the smaller room which was now a bathroom had once been another bedroom, for bathrooms had not been too plentiful when the house had originally been built. But that small room was a bathroom now, deliberately made that way so that the two bedrooms should appear to be a suite, a suite she and Adam Gardener were to share …

  She couldn’t help wishing that particular bathroom had never been put in!

  ‘Comfortable bed.’ Adam bent slightly and pressed down on the blue-covered mattress he would be using during his visit.

  ‘The bathroom is through here.’ Eve threw open the connecting door with a casualness she was far from feeling, promising herself she would remove all her personal toiletries from the room at the first opportunity. ‘But I should knock first; I’m afraid you’re sharing it.’ She turned to leave.

  ‘With you?’

  She turned slowly at the door, knowing she had given herself away by her haste to be gone. ‘As it happens, yes,’ she bit out, looking at him challengingly, daring him to comment further.

  He didn’t, the single brow he raised eloquent enough.

  Eve left him standing in the middle of the guest bedroom, closing her own door forcefully behind her a few seconds later, standing shakily just inside the room until she could breathe more easily.

  The weekend promised to be a horrendous time for her. Her more unsuspecting grandmother could have no idea what she had done with her casual invitation …

  * * *

  ‘Where on earth do you think Sophy and Patrick found him?’ Marina said speculatively, her dark blue eyes gleaming interestedly as she lay on Eve’s bed later that evening.

  These feminine confidences had become a ritual, first between two little girls, then two young women, and latterly between two fully grown women, although they hadn’t been too regular in recent years.

  But Eve had no doubts that Marina was going to totally explore this new interest she had in Adam Gardener as she settled more comfortably on the bed, her arms back behind her head as she let her thoughts drift.

  Marina had only returned from her trip into town shortly after tea, Eve and her grandmother sharing a look of mutual horror at the number of shopping bags she had carried into the house, shopping she lost all interest in as soon as she was introduced to Adam Gardener. The sulky pout to her lush red-painted lips became a thing of the past as she instantly dazzled him with one of her warmer smiles, her hand resting intimately in his as she gazed up at him as if he were the only man in the world.

&n
bsp; And, to Eve’s disgust, Adam fell for it hook, line and sinker, as far as she could see!

  And the two continued to monopolise each other until it was time to go and change for dinner—when it now seemed as if Eve had to listen to how attractive Marina found him!

  ‘I don’t think they “found” him anywhere,’ she gently rebuked. ‘He’s a business acquaintance, and owns a gallery in New York, I believe,’ she provided dismissively, wishing Marina would go to her own room so that she could finish getting ready. Paul would be arriving soon, and the last thing she wanted was him and Adam getting into conversation together. She would just have to hope that the dinner party the other evening stayed firmly out of the conversation over the weekend! What an idiot she had been to ever have lied in the first place.

  ‘Rich, do you think?’ Marina frowned consideringly.

  ‘I think a person’s wealth, or lack of it, shouldn’t make any difference, if you like someone,’ Eve reproved softly.

  Marina grinned unabashed. ‘I just happen to know I would be happier with a rich husband than with a poor one, regardless of whether or not I like him,’ she mocked lightly.

  Eve had given up being shocked by anything Marina said years ago, but even so …! ‘Husband?’ she repeated frowningly. ‘You’ve only just met the man!’

  ‘But I’ve been looking for a rich husband ever since I was seventeen,’ Marina confided audaciously. ‘I’ve just never met the right man yet. Adam Gardener could be him, don’t you think?’

  She thought Marina ought to have her head examined for even contemplating such a thing!

  Regardless of the fact that Adam had been charming to Marina since they had first met, he did have the ability to totally demolish her if he chose. Brittle and selfish as Marina could sometimes appear, she didn’t deserve to have less than a completely loving relationship with her husband.

  And no, as far as Marina was concerned, she didn’t believe she could have that with Adam Gardener.