Past All Forgetting

‘But you have to want it too.’ He turned her face to his, his eyes searching hers worriedly.

‘I’ve agreed, haven’t I?’ she said steadily. ‘I won’t go back on it.’

‘I know you won’t.’ He took her hand and carried it to his lips. ‘That’s one of the wonderful things about you, Janna. You’re so dependable.’

‘Or so predictable?’ she questioned dryly. ‘I didn’t used to be like that Colin. Beware, I might revert to type.’

He laughed, relieved at the apparent lightening of the atmosphere between them. ‘I don’t think there’s much chance of that,’ he said carelessly. He kissed her again. ‘Goodnight, my love, and dream of me.’

Mrs Prentiss was alone in the sitting room watching a horror film on television as Janna let herself in.

‘Hallo, dear, had a nice evening?’ she queried automatically as her daughter entered the room, and without a pause, ‘I can’t understand these people at all, Janna. The villagers have warned them to stay away from the castle, and yet they’re all going to spend the night there. It beats me why they’re so daft.’

‘Why do you watch it then, if that’s what you feel?’ Janna sat down beside her mother and cast a tolerant eye at the cobwebbed horrors being depicted on the screen.

‘I love Christopher Lee,’ Mrs Prentiss confessed, reaching for another peppermint cream.

Janna had to smile in spite of herself. She forced herself to sit and watch as the heroine’s friend succumbed to the vampire’s lure, then, trying to sound casual, she said, ‘Mum, when you were engaged, did you have—doubts?’

Mrs Prentiss wrenched her attention away from the bloodstained goings-on in front of her with an obvious effort. ‘About your dad?’ she exclaimed. ‘I don’t think so. Why do you ask?’

‘No reason,’ Janna said uncomfortably. ‘I’m just—interested, that’s all.’

Her mother surveyed her. ‘Are you having second thoughts about marrying Colin?’ she demanded. ‘Because, if so, you want your head seeing to. The trouble with young people today is that you want everything perfect all the time. You’re not prepared to work at a relationship. Have you quarrelled?’

‘Oh, no!’ Janna was aghast. ‘Please, Mum, let’s drop the subject.’

‘Well, you raised it in the first place,’ Mrs Prentiss pointed out reasonably. She leaned forward and switched off the television set. ‘Now, let’s have this out. Are you having second thoughts about Colin, and if you are, why?’

Janna bit her lip. ‘It’s nothing as definite as that,’ she said miserably. Swiftly she told her mother about Colin’s wish to buy Carrisbeck House, and Sir Robert’s plan to live in the stable block.

Her mother seemed unimpressed, however. ‘It’s a modern thing, this wanting to live away from your family,’ she remarked. ‘When I was a girl, people had their parents to live with them and thought nothing about it. And he won’t actually be in the house. I don’t see what you’re making all the fuss about. Colin is all he’s got, after all, and for all his money, he’s a lonely man, I daresay.’

‘You think I’m being selfish,’ Janna said forlornly.

‘Not altogether, but I think you’re crossing your bridges before you come to them,’ Mrs Prentiss said bracingly. ‘As Colin said, he may change his mind. And it’s a lovely house. There was a time when we couldn’t keep you away from there. Not many young people have a chance to start their married life in those circumstances, you know. Look at it from Colin’s point of view. And what have you got against the place, anyway?’

It would have been an immense consolation to put her head down on her mother’s lap and sob out the whole wretched truth, but Janna could not permit herself that indulgence. Her mother did not deserve to be upset like that after all this time, she thought wearily. The time for confession was long past.

She forced a smile and rose to her feet. ‘Nothing, of course. You’re right, Mum, I’m sure you are. It’s just bridal nerves, I suppose.’ She bent and kissed her swiftly. ‘Now watch the rest of your film. I’m going to bed before I get nightmares!’

She had not arranged to see Colin on Sunday, and spent a quiet day, lazing round the house, acting her normal self for all she was worth, conscious of the occasional worried glance from her mother. She slept badly that night and rose late on Monday morning, feeling as if she had not rested at all. She was helping her mother strip the beds ready for the weekly wash, when the phone rang.

‘Colin?’ she said in surprised response to the terse tones at the other end of the line. ‘What a strange time to ring. Is anything wrong?’

‘Oh, no.’ Colin’s voice was heavy with sarcasm. ‘Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds. I just thought you’d like to know that the supreme sacrifice will not be demanded from you after all.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You won’t have to live in Carrisbeck House, my sweet. It’s been snapped up by someone else while you were dithering about last Friday.’ His voice sharpened. ‘Hello—Janna—are you still there?’

‘Yes, I’m still here,’ she managed. ‘Colin, I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry. I know how you’d set your heart on it. Do you know—have you any idea who it is?’

‘Of course I know.’ He gave a short, savage laugh. ‘It’s in safe hands, darling. Back safely in the bosom of the Tempest family, just as you secretly wished. The Colonel’s nephew—Rian or whatever his damned name is—has come back, and he’s bought it.’

CHAPTER THREE

JANNA replaced the telephone receiver and stood for a moment, her knuckles pressed childishly against her teeth. She felt totally shaken, not merely by Colin’s news, but by the anger and petulance he had displayed in the telling of it.

She had tried to console him, in spite of her own inner turmoil, by telling him that there would be another house for them, but her efforts had been useless. Colin had wanted Carrisbeck House and had been thwarted, and the frustration revealed a totally new side of his character.

She went into the sitting room and sank down on to the sofa, feeling limp. In some ways she could understand his reaction. To many people in Carrisford and the neighbouring villages, Colin and his father were still mere newcomers to be tolerated rather than dales people. Colin, she was sure, had felt that his acquisition of Carrisbeck House would have altered this—that he would in time fill the position in the community that Colonel Tempest once had done. But Janna was not so sure about this. She wondered even if Colin’s motives might not have been fully comprehended and resented by the local people. At any rate, such speculation was now a waste of time. Colin would have to find a new way of establishing himself as the new ‘squire’.

And if Colin himself was so peevish in his disappointment, she shuddered to think what Sir Robert would say. The only glimmer of brightness in the dark cloud that seemed to be descending on her was that she did not have to face having her future father-in-law living in such close proximity.

Now there was her mother to tell. This was another prospect that Janna did not relish. Mrs Prentiss would undoubtedly want to know why Janna had not informed her that Rian was back and with a small child in tow, who was actually going to be Janna’s pupil. Janna sighed. That was how her mother would see it—a piece of interesting and slightly scandalous news to be imparted over the coffee cups. She would certainly not understand why Janna had kept it to herself.

Janna could not fully understand it herself. It would have been so much simpler that way—to mention it casually in passing. ‘Oh, by the way, guess who’s back?’ Now it was too late, and by her silence she had invested Rian’s return with an importance that her mother’s shrewdness was unlikely to overlook.

But these were minor worries compared with the actuality of Rian’s presence as a permanent resident in Carrisford. Of all the places in the world that he had visited, what had drawn him back here to this quiet market town in the shadow of the Pennines? How could he bear to come back to all the memories that Carrisford must evoke, and live in the house from which he had been dismissed in disgrace? When it became generally known that he had been forced to buy his uncle’s house and not inherit it as in the normal course of events, she knew that speculation would be rife. And all eyes would be on him anyway because of the child Fleur. He had not always regarded public opinion with such arrogance, she told herself unhappily.

She got up with sudden resolution. No matter what the cost, she would have to see Rian—try and persuade him to change his mind. Could she make him see that no purpose could be served by him living here? If he wanted his revenge on her, then he had already achieved that, by effectively destroying her peace of mind.

She found her suede coat and tugged on matching knee-length boots, then called to her mother that she was going to the library, snatching up a couple of books from the sideboard.

As she walked hurriedly down the long sloping street that led to the market place, she wondered what she would do if Rian was not staying at the White Hart after all, but a swift glance at the hotel car park before she passed under the archway leading to the hotel entrance reassured her. That exotic-looking foreign car he had been driving was there, so he could not be too far away.

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