A Perfect Night (7 page)

Even a half-dozen or so young children who were playing together in one corner of the orchard seemed to be sharing one another's company rather than squabbling noisily or quarrelling.

As Seb watched, one of the slightly older girls detached herself from the group and walked over to Saul Crighton leaning against him whilst he wrapped his arm tenderly around her.

As Seb looked on Katie reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair out of the girl's eyes. Quickly Seb turned away. The small scene being enacted in front of him reminded him of his own loss as a father. When he looked back now it appalled him that he could ever have behaved so selfishly and how it hurt to recognise how much he had missed.

'Come on, let me introduce you to Jenny and Jon,'

Guy was saying, touching him on his arm and directing him towards the older couple standing a few feet away.

Five minutes later he was forced to admit that Guy had been right when he had told him he would like Jenny and Jon Crighton as Jenny in particular possessed a warmth which was extremely attractive and welcoming.

And before he knew what he was doing Seb found that he was confiding to Jenny that one of the main reasons he had moved back to the area was so that he could be close to Charlotte.

'During the early years of Charlotte's life I was guilty of being an absent father,' he heard himself telling Jenny ruefully. 'I've been very fortunate in that Charlotte has forgiven me, and
she
has been very fortunate in that my ex-wife's second husband and her stepfather has given her the love and security I failed to provide.'

'We all mature at different stages,' Jenny responded gently. 'You must have been very young yourself when your daughter was born.'

Several yards away on the other side of the orchard Katie was just about to pour a glass of cooler for Saul's wife Tullah when Tullah enquired in an admiring whisper,

'Who on earth is that with your mother?'

As Katie turned round to look, her eyes widened in disbelief and dismay.

'He's...it's Seb Cooke,' she told Tullah curtly.

'You've met him?' Tullah questioned, her eyebrows lifting a little as she readily interpreted the dismay in Katie's voice and expression.

'Briefly,' Katie admitted reluctantly, and then knowing that it was bound to become common family knowledge, she added even more reluctantly, 'He's buying the apartment next to mine...'

'He is?
Wow\
Lucky
you...'
Tullah sighed mock-enviously while Saul raised his own eyebrows and questioned teasingly, 'What's this?'

'No one for you to worry about,' Tullah quickly reassured him, linking her arm with his and snuggling up to his side. 'But he is gorgeous and now that you've told me who he is I can see his likeness to Guy.'

'Mmm...he's already caused quite a flutter in the research labs,' Saul admitted. 'I think some of the girls are running a book on who will be the first to have a date with him.'

'He's a married man,' Katie protested stiffly, looking disapproving.

'You mean he was a married man,' Saul corrected her.

'According to the Aarlston-Becker grape-vine he is very much divorced and has been for a considerable length of time.'

Seb Cooke was
divorced.
For some inexplicable reason Katie discovered that her legs had gone oddly weak and that she wanted to sit down. Quite why the discovery that the elegant wife she had visualised for Seb did not actually exist should have such a dramatic physical effect on her she had no idea and nor did she wish to have, she warned herself hastily as her thoughts threatened to go into overdrive.

'Why don't you go and offer him a drink?' Tullah suggested giving Katie a sparkling-eyed look.

'I'm sure if he wants one he'll come over and ask...besides I've just remembered, there's something I've left in the oven,' Katie fibbed, pink-cheeked, as she hastily thrust the jug into Tullah's hand and started to hurry back to the house making sure as she did so that she took a circuitous route through the orchard that would keep her as far away from Seb as possible.

Unfortunately though, her father had seen her and remembering that he had asked her to handle Seb's conveyancing, he called her over.

Reluctantly Katie abandoned her flight and walked warily towards the small group which included her parents and Guy and Chrissie as well as Seb.

'Katie, I was just explaining to Seb here that you are going to be handling his conveyance,' her father told her calmly as she reached them.

'Your daughter and I have already met,' Seb informed Jon formally as her father prepared to make the introductions.

As she responded to Seb's unsmiling greeting, Katie wondered if anyone else other than herself had noticed his distancing reference to her as 'your daughter'.

'It's quite a coincidence the two of you buying ad-joining apartments,' Chrissie Cooke commented lightly.

Seb gave a small shrug before responding,

'They're ideal for anyone living alone who wants the space and privacy they afford. The size of their rooms is an asset together with no maintenance of the beautiful gardens.'

'Mmm... I believe the builders have even renovated the tennis courts so that the residents will be able to use them,' Chrissie enthused.

'Do you play tennis, Seb,' Jenny asked conversationally.

'I used to,' Seb acknowledged. 'Although...'

'Katie plays,' Chrissie chimed in.

Hot-cheeked, Katie denied quickly, 'Not any more...

I don't really have time, and since Louise got married...'

'Louise is Katie's twin,' Chrissie explained to Seb.

'She and her husband are living in Brussels at the moment.

'When are they next coming over, Jenny?' she asked Katie's mother.

'We're hoping to arrange a family party for Ben soon,' Jenny responded, turning to Seb to tell him, 'Ben, my father-in-law, hasn't been in very good health for quite some time. This celebration isn't for a particular reason other than the fact he likes to get to see all the children. As much as he pretends his grandchildren and family irritate him, privately he would be dreadfully hurt if they didn't all come to see him every once in a while.'

'I suppose he
does
love us in his way,' Katie agreed, momentarily forgetting her discomfort at seeing Seb.

'But it's Uncle David he really wants...'

'David is my husband's brother,' Jenny explained quietly to Seb.

'Did I hear you mention my father's name?' Olivia Crighton suddenly chimed in on the point of walking past with her husband Caspar, but instead coming over to join them as she heard them discussing David.

'The family's black sheep.'

Seb frowned a little as he heard the challenging bitterness and dislike in her voice and noticed that it was Jon who moved over to her taking hold of her hand and patting it almost paternally as he soothed her, 'We were just saying how close he and Dad always were Livvy...'

'Don't remind me,' Olivia responded, refusing to be mollified. 'If Gramps hadn't spoiled him so much...' She stopped and shook her head, apologising to Jenny, 'I'm sorry, but gramps was criticising me the other day for continuing to work even though I've got the children...'

'He can be very difficult, I know,' Jenny agreed, turning to Katie and suggesting, 'Katie, why don't you take Guy, Chrissie and Seb up to the house so they can get themselves something to eat. I like to make sure my victims are well fed and slothful before I go on the attack,' Jenny told Seb beguilingly with a warm smile.

'Go on the attack?' Seb couldn't resist questioning as Katie started to lead the way back to the house.

'Mmm...' Guy began to explain, but Katie beat him to it telling Seb protectively,

'My mother is a very caring person. She works very hard to raise funds to help support and maintain a local charity which was originally founded by my father's Aunt Ruth.'

'Mother and Baby homes,' Chrissie told Seb enthusiastically. 'We all do what we can to help but Jenny and Maddy between them carry the heaviest responsibility for everything.'

'Thanks in the main to Saul, Aarlston-Becker already underwrites a special fun day for the children, which is held annually. That's due to come up quite soon, isn't it, Katie?' Chrissie asked her.

'Mmm... Aarlston combined it with a group day off which means that nearly all the staff are also involved in the event.'

'Yes, it's held in the grounds of Fitzburgh Place and I warn you now, Seb,' Guy teased, 'you can fully expect to be roped in.'

'Guy organises the marquees and the entertainers as his contribution,' Chrissie informed Seb.

Guy gave a modest shrug.

'It's nothing really. What we normally do is arrange the event to tie in with one that we're giving commer-cially up at the Hall so that we can give the kids their day out either for free or at a minimum cost. Lord Astlegh allows us to use the parkland for free and you'd be amazed at the amount of talent there is among Aarlston employees.'

'...and among your family,' Chrissie reminded him.

'Last year's fortune-teller was a really big hit. Who was she? You never would tell me...'

'No, and I'm not going to now,' Guy informed her.

'Her identity is a professional secret.'

'Mmm...well, she was definitely a Cooke,' Chrissie murmured.

'Well, of course. What else would you expect with our gypsy genes?' Guy countered teasingly.

They had reached the house and as Katie led the way into the large conservatory off the kitchen where the main buffet table had been laid out she decided that now that her duty was done she could safely escape. Seb's brooding presence was having a decidedly disturbing effect on her senses. Was that really his aftershave she could smell and was so acutely aware of, that potently musky odour?

As they started to help themselves to the buffet another group came in including Saul and Tullah and their children. Almost immediately Saul and Seb began to discuss some mutually interesting aspect of their work at Aarlston-Becker but for some reason, instead of retreating back into the garden, Katie discovered that she was simply staying where she was listening and observing.

Saul said something which made Seb laugh. It was the first time Katie had seen him properly relaxed and a warning feathering of an emotion she didn't want to name curled dangerously down her spine. She wasn't attracted to him she told herself fiercely, she couldn't possibly be, she loved Gareth.

Saul's daughter Meg tugged on her father's sleeve and Katie saw quite plainly the look of sombre reflection that darkened Seb's eyes as he watched Saul turn to respond to his daughter.

He envied Saul. But why? Katie had recognised immediately when she had seen him with Charlotte just how close and loving a bond there was between the two of them.

As though she had guessed what was going through Katie's mind, Chrissie who had been standing beside her and who had also observed the small bit of byplay, explained in a quiet voice, 'Seb feels very guilty about the fact that he was an absent father for much of the time when Charlotte was young.'

'He
abandoned
his wife and child?' Katie demanded sharply.

She had turned her back towards Seb to speak with Chrissie and was therefore unaware of the fact that he had both disengaged himself from his conversation with Saul and overheard her own sharp question until he spoke from immediately behind her, his voice bitingly harsh as he told her quietly,

'No, I did not
abandon
them...'

Katie felt her face start to burn as Chrissie discreetly melted away leaving her to confront Seb on her own.

Katie knew that by rights she ought to apologise, if only because Seb was a guest in her parents' home, but for some extraordinary reason, a streak of wilful stub-bornness normally more likely to manifest itself in her twin than in her, suddenly propelled her into defensive action, causing her to walk angrily towards the door at the same time throwing acidly over her shoulder,

'But you did
leave
diem,
desert
them...'

As she walked into the narrow passage which linked the conservatory to the laundry room through which she had intended to make her escape, to her consternation Seb followed her, pulling the door to behind him, his height and breadth of shoulder taking up so much of the narrow space that as she turned to face him, Katie felt almost as though she was actually being deprived of au-to breathe.

'Why you...!'

Katie's eyes widened as she saw how very angry Seb was, a dark flush burning along his cheek bones, his eyes the colour of molten metal. A sharp frisson of fear ran through her body, but she refused to give in to it or to be intimidated by it, or by him. Stubbornly she stood her ground.

His close proximity to her in the passage though was making her feel acutely claustrophobic. She had always had a fear of small enclosed spaces, something to do perhaps with the fact that once as a young child she had become trapped in a cupboard, but as she turned intending to walk away, she froze with shock as Seb suddenly reached for her, taking hold of her upper arm to restrain her as he told her furiously, 'Oh no you don't....
What
gives you the right to sit in judgement of me?' he demanded curtly. 'Have you ever been married? Have you ever had a child? No, of course you haven't, you're...'

You're one of fortune's favourites he had been about to tell her. You're cushioned and protected from the realities of life by your parents and your background, but when he saw the white, tight look that drove the colour from her face and felt the way she froze, tensing her body almost as though he had physically hurt her, he stopped while his scientist's analytical brain tried to process all the conflicting information he was receiving.

Katie stared at him.
How
had he guessed her increasingly humiliating secret? She could feel her heart racing, her body taut with anxiety. He couldn't possibly have actually guessed how she really felt, could he?

From the moment Gareth and Louise had announced their love for one another Katie had made a fierce promise to herself that she would somehow find a way of making a fulfilling life for herself without Gareth in it.