Desire (#5) (2 page)

Colin called me just before noon, asking me to meet him for lunch. I was glad to accept, anything to keep my mind from worrying over what I was going to say to Benjamin.

He picked me up in his steel-grey Bentley, and we drove to the far end of the cliff path.

“I thought we could take a walk,” he said. “The weather is still mild for this time of year. We may as well make the most of it.”

“Sure,” I said. “I can’t get enough of the Newport cliff walk.” I loved looking out at the great expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. I slanted my gaze at him. “Is there anything wrong, Colin?”

“Wrong?”

“Well as lovely as this is, you haven’t invited me to lunch before.”

Colin smiled. “That was very remiss of me, but there is something I need to discuss with you,” he said.

Aha. I knew it.

“I thought it better to speak with you alone.”

Now that had me intrigued. I stared at him, but he didn’t offer any more information. I guess he wanted to leave me on tender hooks until we got there. My mind flipped through the possibilities: Something to do with Benjamin? The person who tried to run Benjamin off the road in England?

Colin kept me waiting as he turned into the parking lot, close to Salve Regina University.

He didn’t speak until we were out of the car and walking along the cliff path.

“I’m sorry to be so mysterious, Kate. This is a difficult subject to bring up.”

I nodded, and waited for him to continue.

He gazed out to sea for a few moments then took my arm and began to stroll along the footpath. Two elderly women with cameras hanging around their necks stopped and asked if we’d mind taking their picture.

Colin obliged while I looked out to sea. The wind was picking up a little and white foam topped the waves heading into shore.

After the ladies thanked Colin, we resumed our stroll.

Colin pointed down to the beach below us. “Benjamin and I spent so much time on the beach. Happy memories of summers here before our fathers fell out.”

I bit my lip. Was Colin going to talk about Benjamin’s childhood? I longed to find out more. Benjamin was always so evasive when I brought it up.

“Benjamin doesn’t talk much about his childhood.”

Colin nodded. “I suppose he wouldn’t. He didn’t have the easiest of childhoods, but then many are much worse off. For a time, Benjamin and I were inseparable. As close as brothers. Of course all that changed when my father sent me to school in England. I didn’t see Benjamin again for years.”

“But you are close now,” I said.

“Yes, I don’t have any siblings, but to me, Benjamin is as close to a brother as I’ll ever have, which makes what I am about to say doubly hard.”

I stopped walking and frowned up at him. “What?”

He rubbed a hand over his face. “What I’m trying to say is that I understand how much you love your sister.”

I shook my head, where was he going with this. “What does Tina have to do with anything?”

“Your sister has had a hard few years. I know that shines a different light on it … but …”

“Colin, what are you trying to say?”

He broke eye contact and looked down at the floor. “I’m not sure how to break this to you. There is no easy way…”

“For goodness sake, spit it out,” I said.

He nodded once then said, “Carter told me things have gone missing from the house.”

“Missing?”

He nodded again. “Yes. In particular, Carter was concerned that a seventeenth-century miniature has disappeared from its cabinet in the morning room. It’s worth a great deal of money.”

My blood ran cold.

“You think Tina stole it,” I said, my voice sounded croaky and distant.

“Yes. I’m sorry, Kate.”

“No…” I sat down on the ground with a thump and ground my fists into the grass. “She wouldn’t,” I whispered.

Colin kneeled on the grass beside me. “I’m sorry, Kate. I haven’t mentioned this to Benjamin. I thought it was only right to let you deal with it. She is your sister, after all…”

I shook my head and tore up clumps of the rough grass between my fingers. “I can’t believe this. I don’t believe she would do this to me.”

“I had heard she did something like this in the past.”

I stared at Colin, and in that fraction of a second I hated him for telling me this.

We sat there for a little while, looking out to sea as the waves grew higher and more violent.

“What should I do?” I asked Colin. I could hear the bewilderment in my voice.

“There is one way we could find out. I don’t like to suggest it, but…”

I turned to him. “What?”

“Well, she’s out at the moment, perhaps we could take a quick look in her room.”

I wanted to tell him no, to say butt out, my sister would never steal from me or the man I loved, but deep down I knew that wasn’t true. She had taken money from me before. Why did I believe she had changed this time?

I got heavily to my feet. “Okay,” I said to Colin, “Let’s go.”

In less than five minutes, we were back at Cliff House and standing in the doorway of Tina’s room. On the dresser I saw her cosmetics and her bottle of Chanel No. 19. She’d worn that scent for years. The fragrance lingered in the air. This felt wrong. I wanted to turn on my heel and run and pretend Colin had never told me any of this.

But before I said a word, Colin entered the room and pulled open a drawer.

He looked at me over his shoulder. “Why don’t you check her case?”

I moved to the closet and pulled out Tina’s small black suitcase and kneeled on the floor beside it. It had two pockets in the front and I checked those first, running my fingers along the inside lining. Almost immediately, my hand bumped into something hard and round. My fingers closed around the smooth object and I pulled it out and examined the intricate paintwork on the enamel: the miniature.

I couldn’t speak, but I held it up for Colin to see.

As I stood up, black shapes swirled in front of my eyes and my knees buckled. I heard Colin call my name before everything faded to black.

I woke up, lying on Tina’s bed, to see Colin staring down at me.

“Kate? Thank God. I’ll call Benjamin.”

“No!” I struggled to sit up.

“You have to see a doctor, Kate. You just fainted. There might be something seriously wrong.”

A tear ran down my cheek. “I know what’s wrong. I’m pregnant.”

Colin paled. “Does Benjamin know?”

I shook my head. “I haven’t had a chance…”

Pathetic excuse, Kate. You’re just a coward. You’re scared to tell him.

I looked up into Colin’s light grey eyes. “I’m scared, Colin. Scared he’ll be angry, that he won’t want the baby.”

Colin sat down heavily on the bed beside me. “I see.”

“I know it’s very sudden, perhaps if we’d been together longer … Not very good timing …” I trailed off. I was babbling.

Colin looked at me strangely. “He has no idea?”

I shook my head. “I know I have to tell him.” I took a deep breath. “I’ll do it tonight.”

Colin shook his head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Perhaps you should wait a few more days. It’s probably best if you deal with Tina first. Benjamin may … react badly.”

I blanched, feeling sick. “You think he’ll be angry.”

Colin bowed his head, studying his fingers then he looked up at me. “I think you know how he’ll react, Kate.”

I closed my eyes, trying to stop the tears. Of course I knew how he would react that was why I’d put off telling him, wasn’t it? Because I was scared of his reaction.

“Benjamin hates the idea of family legacy. He’s hung up on it. You know we both watched our family get torn apart by greed. He never wanted to have children.”

“He never wanted children,” I repeated in a dull voice. Of course, he didn’t. I knew that.

“I didn’t plan for this to happen, you know,” I said. “It does take two after all. I didn’t magically fall pregnant on my own.”

Colin patted my arm. “Don’t get upset. We’ll figure this out. In time, we’ll win him around. We’ll get him used to the idea slowly. I’ll help you Kate,” he said.

“You will?” I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “Thank you.”

COLIN INSISTED I PHONE the Preservation Society and tell them I wouldn’t be in for the rest of the day. He said it would be better if we dealt with Tina this afternoon, before Benjamin came home.

We waited in the small sitting room for Tina to come home. I sat stiffly on an over-stuffed antique chair, wishing I was upstairs in Benjamin’s more modern apartment. The rooms downstairs were beautiful to look at, but not the kind of room I’d choose to relax in.

We sat in silence. Every now and again, Colin would look over and offer me a weak smile, but for the most part he looked as preoccupied as I felt.

I heard Carter open the front door and heard the clicking of Tina’s low-heeled boots as she crossed the marble floor of the Great Hall.

Carter must have told her we were expecting her because she walked straight into the sitting room.

She looked tired as she flopped down on a sofa opposite me.

“Well, that was a waste of time. I figured it was better to be honest about my past, but I don’t think it did me any favours. The owner of the last coffee shop I spoke to couldn’t get me out of the door fast enough.”

She spotted the miniature sitting on the coffee table. “That’s pretty.”

Colin snorted.

“Recognise it?” I asked in a cool voice.

“Uh, no,” Tina frowned. “Should I? Was it Mom’s?” she asked.

So innocent. How could she look me directly in the eye and lie like that?

“It’s a seventeenth-century miniature,” I said. “It’s worth around sixty-thousand dollars.”

“Wow,” Tina said and let out a low whistle. “Sixty-thousand dollars for something so small. That’s nuts.”

“We found it in your case, Tina,” I said.

My voice shook as I spoke, and I clenched my fists, determined to keep control.

For a moment she didn’t answer. The only sound in the room was the steady ticking of the grandfather clock standing against the wall.

She stared at me then spun around to face Colin. “What is this?”

“You know what this is,” Colin said, with a steely edge to his voice. I had never seen him so angry. “You tried to steal the miniature, but you were seen.”

“Bullshit,” Tina said, standing up and putting her hands on her hips. “I haven’t stolen anything.”

She turned to me, her eyes wide and beseeching.

“Kate, you have to believe me.”

“She doesn’t have to do anything of the sort. You have betrayed and hurt your sister deeply. You should be ashamed of yourself.” He stood up and walked over to the door leading to the Great Hall. “I think it would be better for us all if you left now, Miss Taylor.”

Tina turned on me, her expression full of disgust. “You believe this creep over me?”

For a moment, I didn’t think I would find my voice, then anger flashed through me. How dare she do this? How dare she make me feel guilty when she was the one who had stolen from Benjamin?

“I found it in your case, Tina.” I stood up, resting my hands on my hips, mirroring her aggressive pose. “And this wouldn’t be the first time.”

She recoiled from me as if I’d slapped her.

Her face screwed up into a scowl. “Screw you,” she spat at me.

Then she ran out of the room.

I sat back down on the sofa. I wouldn’t cry. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

Colin moved to follow Tina from the room. “I’ll make sure she leaves with her own belongings.”

When he returned, I thanked Colin for his help and he tried to reassure me everything would work out. I wasn’t convinced. I didn’t understand how I could have been on top of the world just a few days ago. Now it seemed my whole world was unravelling.

After Colin left, I walked into the Great Hall, barely noticing the exquisite works of art and the opulent design. I walked up the winding staircase, passing Carter, the butler. He looked down his long nose at me and gave a self-satisfied smirk.

I ignored him and continued on my way to Benjamin’s private apartment. I wished he was working from home today. I longed to feel his strong arms wrapped around me, making me feel safe and secure.

I lay down on the super king-sized bed and expected to lie there worrying, but to my surprise I drifted off within minutes and didn’t wake up until Benjamin came home.

“Hey, sleepy head,” he said, as I blinked up at him. “What’s wrong? Are you still feeling ill?”

I pushed myself up to a sitting position. “I’m okay.”

He loosened his tie, and undid the top button of his shirt. Desire uncurled in my belly. I could help him with that…

He sat beside me on the bed and smiled when my hands went directly to unhook the rest of his buttons.

He placed his hand over mine to still my fingers. “Are you sure you’re okay, Kate? You look a little pale.”

My hands dropped to my sides. I didn’t want to talk now. I wanted to feel his hot hands on my body, to be so consumed by desire I couldn’t think of anything else. But I knew he wasn’t about to let this go.

“I had a run in with Tina earlier. Seems she hasn’t changed at all.” My voice sounded brittle and bitter but I couldn’t help it.

He raised an eyebrow.

“She tried to steal something valuable. She tried to steal from you after all you did to help her. I’m sorry, Benjamin. It’s my fault. I never should have given her the opportunity.”

He stroked my hair, pushing it back from my face, so he could look into my eyes. “It’s not your fault.”

“I should have known she’d do this. She has done the same thing time and time again, and I keep falling for her turning over a new-leaf act. I’m so stupid.”

He frowned, his eyes darkening. “You’re not stupid. You just wanted to see the best in her.”

I shrugged. “I won’t fall for it again.”

Benjamin kicked off his shoes, and lay down on the bed beside me. “You know, she had me fooled too.”

I moved closer to him, biting my lower lip. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” I undid two more of his shirt buttons then run my fingers lightly over his chest.

“And what do you want to do, Kate?” he asked, his eyes glinting playfully.