Bride at Briar's Ridge

by Way, Margaret

  Daniela moved very quickly around the bed, rushing to his side. She was very pale, her dark eyes huge in her face. ‘I knew you’d come.’

  He seized her with one arm around her waist, holding her to him. He could feel the trembling that ran right through her body. All the while he kept staring at the other man. ‘So who are you?’ He addressed himself directly to Daniela’s visitor, a guy who looked absolutely trustworthy, though it was abundantly clear Daniela didn’t trust him at all.

  The man cleared his throat. ‘Gerald Templeton.’ He identified himself as though his name must be distinguished enough to allay anyone’s fears. He glanced down at his watch. ‘I expect I should be on my way. I had an appointment fifteen minutes ago.’

  Daniela drew even closer to Linc.

  ‘What’s he doing here, Daniela?’ Linc asked tightly, deliberately blocking Templeton’s exit. He needed to find out what this was all about. Templeton looked fit, around six feet, a few years older than him by the look of it, but Linc knew he was strong enough to defend himself if necessary.

  ‘Easily explained,’ Templeton broke in, aware the other man, impressively tall and in wonderful shape, was on trigger alert. ‘I’m in Sydney on business. I thought as I was so close I’d call on Daniela. We saw quite a bit of each other in London.’

  Realisation slotted in. ‘So you’re the guy who was harassing her?’ Linc asked, silver-green eyes narrowing with menace.

  Templeton responded to the implied threat. His head fell, not in contrition, more as an indication of deep betrayal. ‘Is that what she’s been telling you?’

  ‘Come on.’ Linc threw him a disgusted, challenging look. ‘You were giving her a lot of trouble.’

  Templeton looked up, his mouth twisting in a grimace. ‘Sorry—it was the other way around. Look, I don’t want to say any more. It will only make matters worse. I just came here to ask Daniela to marry me.’

  ‘And you were going to make yourself comfortable in the bedroom while you were doing the asking?’ Linc’s eyes fairly blazed in his face. He was trying his best to understand, but he was having more trouble than he thought. Clearly this guy was genuinely in love with Daniela.

  Templeton appeared to be bracing himself against all insult. ‘When Daniela left London she knew things weren’t over between us.’

  ‘And you were giving her a little breathing space? Is that it?’ Linc was still searching the other man’s face in an effort to divine what was really going on.

  Daniela shook her head frantically. ‘Carl—please.’

  Both men ignored her.

  ‘The answer is yes!’ Templeton’s voice rang with sincerity. ‘I love her and she loves me.’

  ‘If she only knew it.’ Linc’s laugh was harsh, his fists clenching of their own volition. The anger and confusion that was in him was cresting. Daniela had never fully explained her relationship with this man who had so inopportunely turned up. He looked civilised enough, only Daniela’s reactions were telling him something was very wrong.

  Now Templeton appealed to Daniela—full of passion and turmoil. ‘Aren’t you going to say something, darling?’ he begged. ‘Tell your…friend here, every word I’ve spoken is the truth. I did come here to ask you to marry me?’

  ‘Why don’t you just go, Gerald?’ Daniela said, her voice dropping to a whisper as she was overcome by a spasm of weakness. Carl had arrived not a moment too soon.

  Incredibly, there were tears in Templeton’s dark eyes. ‘You won’t come back with me? You’re upset now. I can come again tomorrow.’

  ‘Don’t even think about it,’ Linc warned, gripping Daniela tighter. ‘There have been some big changes around here, Gerald.’ He glanced down at Daniela, oddly silent within the curve of his arm. ‘I take it you haven’t told him?’

  ‘Told me what?’ Templeton’s eyes riveted themselves to Daniela’s face.

  ‘Think, man,’ Linc said crisply. ‘How can Daniela accept your proposal when she’s already accepted mine?’

  There was a stunned silence, then Templeton burst out in rage. ‘How could you do this to me?’ he cried. ‘Leading me a fine dance.’ He was boiling with fury. ‘Coming to Australia was just a stunt to get me to follow you, wasn’t it? You wanted to bring me to heel.’ His eyes shot to Linc. ‘This is one sick girl,’ he said, his voice packed with warning and the bitterest disappointment. ‘She keeps it hidden, but you’ll find out soon enough.’

  Linc’s face showed no emotion whatsoever, so tight was his self-control. ‘How did you get here, Templeton?’ he asked.

  ‘I drove—what else?’ Templeton thrust a hand violently through his thick dark hair.

  ‘So your car’s in the street?’

  Templeton nodded, looking like a man who had been dealt a mortal blow. ‘Even after everything you’ve done to me I can’t hate you,’ he said, his eyes settling once more on Daniela’s beautiful face as though mesmerised.

  ‘Why don’t I see you to your car?’ Linc suggested in a voice that brooked no refusal. ‘I have a few questions.’

  ‘And I’ll answer them, so help me God!’ Templeton let out a strangled breath. ‘My beautiful Daniela! I would have given you the world!’ He made a visible attempt to pull himself together. ‘At least I might be able to stop someone else from putting himself through the same hell I went through.’

  ‘That’s not the way it was, Gerald,’ Daniela said, raising her head.

  ‘I loved you with my whole heart and soul.’ Templeton took several steps towards her, the set of his handsome features ennobled in grief.

  ‘Done. You’re done now.’ Linc stopped him in his tracks by putting out an arm and steering him backwards. ‘I’ve heard more than enough. You have to leave. Now.’ He extended an imperative arm to shepherd the other man from the room.

  As far as Linc was concerned the evening seemed to have shape-shifted itself into a disaster. What had they been doing talking in the bedroom anyway? Why not the living room? What would it have taken for Templeton to get her into bed? Okay, that made no sense at all. Daniela had known he would be arriving. What she hadn’t known was that Templeton was going to ask her to marry him. He’d seen the guy—the smooth, handsome image—heard his voice. English upper class. Social background meant a lot to them. Was it possible Daniela had been hanging out for marriage, as Templeton had claimed? Was Daniela a witch who lived to put men under her spell? He couldn’t sustain a thought like that. It was so disloyal.

  Sunk in despair, her nerves jangling, Daniela began to put food back in the refrigerator. She covered the salad and mustard seed dressing. The escalopes of tuna to be served with mushrooms and witlof had only to be put under the grill. And Carl loved lime tart, so she had used a classic recipe. But who could eat in this state? She could just imagine what Gerald would be telling Carl. How would he know what were lies and what was real? Gerald was very convincing…

  It was to have been a wonderful night. She had realised finally she had to tell Carl the truth about what had happened to drive her to find sanctuary back home. Gerald Templeton had been her worst nightmare. His handsome façade had hidden deep character flaws she had come to find repellent. Until Carl had arrived tonight she had been truly frightened. When Gerald had forced her to go with him to the bedroom her very scalp had crawled. What had he intended to do? She had repeated vehemently that she had a guest arriving. Yes, a man, she’d confirmed. A superbly fit young man, who would never permit her to be harmed. It was he who should be worried. Yet Gerald hadn’t appeared fully capable of taking that in. Or had he thought he could deal with any male guest simply by opening the door and telling him to go away? Gerald’s arrogance was unbelievable. She couldn’t shake the sense he had intended to use force if need be to get her to agree to what he wanted. What he wanted was her.

  She gulped down the rest of the glass of Riesling she had been sipping while preparing the meal. It had gone off the chill. She knew Gerald would spread his lies, doing everything in his power to convince Carl she ha
d worked her way into his life, seduced him into falling in love with her and then, when he didn’t immediately offer marriage, she had thrown down an ultimatum by fleeing to Australia. Gerald was clever, highly plausible. A by-product of his privileged life was the belief that he could have anything he wanted.

  When Carl returned her heart flipped a double beat. ‘He’s gone?’

  Carl, looking grim, threw himself onto a sofa, his expression dark. ‘God!’ he said soberly. ‘How long did you know this guy?’

  ‘A few months.’

  ‘Please…don’t hold back.’ His extraordinary eyes were aglitter.

  She slid down into an armchair, thinking her legs were about to give way on her. ‘I’m guessing he said longer?’

  ‘He said you were together a year.’

  ‘He was lying!’ The words burst from her. She might feel like it, but she wasn’t about to dissolve in tears. ‘We were never together in the way he wanted. And I didn’t sleep with him, if that’s what you want to know?’

  ‘Were you waiting for him to propose marriage?’ Was that possible? Linc stared across at her. She was wearing a dress new to him, in a shade of red that was perfect with her golden complexion. He didn’t think any man could want a woman more. ‘It’s a ploy that’s worked since Anne Boleyn,’ he suggested, with a sardonic shrug.

  She shook her head sadly. ‘I thought you knew me better than that. There’s a devil in Gerald. I missed it completely when we first met. He was—well, you saw him. Gerald looks the quintessential English gentleman. We had dinner a number of times. We went to concerts, the theatre, art galleries. He took me down to his parents’ country home, a very impressive place.’

  ‘Sounds like he wanted you to meet them.’ Linc watched the play of emotions on her beautiful face. Her stress was palpable. And because of the strength of his feeling for her his sexual jealousy had been unleashed.

  ‘Not at all. A party was going on, and I was aware Gerald’s parents had a suitable bride lined up for him—a Lady Laurella Marks, one of his own circle. What Gerald had in mind for me was the role of mistress. Let’s see—mistresses were invented long before Anne Boleyn, weren’t they?’ Now her soft, honeyed voice held a trace of bitterness.

  ‘He said you were lovers.’ Not long after that he had hit Templeton’s sneering, abruptly coarse mouth.

  ‘Don’t you think I would have told you if we were?’ Her dark eyes were brilliant with unshed tears.

  ‘Daniela, you haven’t told me much at all.’ He sighed. ‘How does a man get to be obsessed with a woman when he hasn’t even made love to her?’

  Colour flamed in her cheeks. ‘I didn’t say he hadn’t made love to me. It stopped short of sex.’

  ‘Were you teasing him? Goading him?’ There were so many images in his mind.

  That hurt like an open wound. ‘No. I was becoming increasingly uneasy about him. It got to the point he was ringing me—checking up on me—sometimes twelve times a day. He once accused me of starting an affair with a friend of his. He couldn’t have been more wrong. It didn’t seem to mean anything to him that his friend was married—happily married, I might add. To Gerald there was a certain cachet in having a loving wife and an exhilarating mistress. Why are you so angry anyway? You appear to have fallen for his lies.’

  His eyes glinted. ‘Not at all, but I’m feeling a little lost, and I have to admit jealous. Anyway it’s becoming plain he was trying to poison our relationship.’

  ‘Which is?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘Well, we are sleeping together.’ He found himself responding to the turbulence in the air.

  That hurt, too. ‘Tell me about your stepmother?’ she retaliated. He was the one who had opened the envelope. See how he reacted. ‘Or are you afraid to?’

  Linc thumped a hand on the arm of the sofa. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ A muscle twitched along his taut jawline.

  ‘You’re not fond of her? Too fond of her?’ I mustn’t do this. It’s crazy!

  ‘I loathe her,’ Linc muttered between his fine white teeth.

  ‘But she doesn’t loathe you?’ Jealousy appeared to be driving them both.

  That upset Linc. He had done everything in his power to give Cheryl a wide berth. ‘Why talk about Cheryl? She isn’t a part of this. Perhaps I ought to go?’ He stood up, knowing the evening had been ruined but somehow unable to save it. Templeton had said things that had really got under his skin. No wonder his temper had got the better of him.

  ‘Please yourself.’ Daniela rose as well, her surface antagonism hiding a wealth of hurt feelings. Gerald had afflicted them both with his venom. ‘But go and you don’t come back,’ she said, in the full bloom of upset.

  For a moment he didn’t answer, and then he came slowly towards her. ‘You know, I think you’re really, really clever.’

  She threw up her chin, her dark eyes brilliant with anger. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘These ultimatums,’ he said.

  ‘You don’t trust me?’

  Why the hell didn’t he confirm his trust in her? Jealousy was such a dangerous thing. It made a man say things he shouldn’t. ‘You’re my witch,’ he said. ‘Why not Templeton’s? Besides, you obviously don’t trust me.’

  ‘Then mightn’t it be a good time to call it a day?’ Sadness suddenly enveloped her like a cloud. Men stuck together. Woman was the temptress of choice.

  She stared away and Linc took her by the shoulders, overwhelmed by her closeness and hating what was happening. ‘Is that what you want? Talk to me, Daniela,’ he pleaded. ‘I’m crazy about you. You know that. But you confuse me.’

  She threw up her head, tears in her eyes.

  ‘Why do you cry? Why?’ The hunger in him surged out of bounds. He could feel it all through his body, his heart, his lungs and his chest.

  ‘I’m not crying,’ she said, setting her delicate jaw. ‘How can you possibly care about me and yet be ready to believe an unstable man like Gerald Templeton?’ she accused him. ‘I fled a great job, friends, to come home and escape him. He made my life a nightmare. He rang my phone endlessly and never spoke. He was somewhere there, wherever I was. Across the street, in the same building, in shops, parked in the street where I lived. You can’t know what it was like!’ She drew a long shuddering breath as disturbing memories hit her afresh.

  A vertical line split Linc’s black brows. ‘You could have got a restraining order,’ he said reasonably.

  ‘You think that would have kept him away? His name carries weight in the City. Who was I? Besides, unstable people follow rules of their own. Do you know how many wives, girlfriends have taken out restraining orders only to be beaten up or killed? Some men are brutes. Don’t for a minute think the upper classes are excluded. Gerald was brought up to believe he could have anything he liked. Certainly any woman. He wasn’t a womaniser, but he wanted me. I desperately wanted to be left alone. That’s why I had to move away. He could come back, for all I know.’

  A truly daunting expression crossed Linc’s face. ‘He won’t be coming back.’ He spoke emphatically. ‘Men like Templeton see women as helpless victims, easy marks. Essentially they’re bullies on some sort of power kick. Templeton won’t want to stick around here while I’m on the scene. You can be sure of that.’

  ‘You told him you’d proposed to me.’ She didn’t look at him as she said it. She didn’t know where they were any more.

  ‘I did.’ Linc nodded briskly. ‘And I told him it really wouldn’t be worth his while if he ever came near you again. I honestly think he paid attention.’

  She had to force herself to move away. ‘I feel sick, Linc. I think you should go.’

  He grieved for the friction between them. He certainly wasn’t about to leave her. ‘Sorry. I’m staying here,’ he said quietly. ‘I won’t bother you in any way. I can sleep on the couch. I just want you to know I’m here with you.’ He was silent for a moment, then he burst out, ‘Hell, I’m hungry. Let me put something together for you. It might make you feel
better. I was so looking forward to tonight.’

  ‘So was I.’ Her gaze went to the roses that Gerald had pitched to the floor. ‘Now it’s destroyed.’

  ‘I won’t let you say that!’ Linc’s voice was full of intensity. ‘Men like Templeton set out to be destroyers. They can’t achieve their aims if you don’t let them. Let’s settle down, Daniela. Please. I could do with a drink. Let me get you one, too.’

  Linc took a long time going to sleep. It wasn’t just that his tall frame was way too long for the sofa—it sure was. It was more that he was wound up so tight it was damned near impossible to unwind. How could he when he was desperately trying to subdue what Daniela might see as the brute or the beast in him? No getting away from it—some of the male of the species had a brutal streak.

  He could have kissed her, to the point where her own sexual needs were too driving to be refused. He knew he could have done that. On the other hand he knew he wouldn’t. That would make him no better than Templeton, with his sick fantasies. The sooner it was morning the better. Maybe both of them needed to take a step away. Or maybe—he groaned—they needed to get closer. He only had to walk down the corridor, but he loved her too much.

  Loved her?

  Isn’t that it, Mastermann? You love her. Nothing can change that.

  He awoke with a start, his body tensed up. ‘Daniela!’ He wrenched himself halfway up, abs and chest tight. ‘Are you okay?’

  She was bending over him, her hand on his shoulder. ‘I couldn’t sleep,’ she said, in her soft, mellifluous voice.

  God, the sweetness of her! She had come to him. Felt the need. That thrilled him to the core.

  She started to crawl over him, her hands seeking his face, the ridges of his cheekbones, the line of his jaw, then slipping down to his chest, clawing on a whorl of hair. Her touch was electric. Impulses were shooting all over his body. He could no longer hold off. He hauled her onto his lap, tilting her head back over his arm and burying his face against her throat. The flavour of her skin was exquisite. She was wearing a nightgown, a mist of a thing, and his seeking hands, desperate to touch her all over, told him she wore nothing beneath it.