Mistresses: Bound with Gold / Bought with Emeralds

Regan was staring at something around the back of the house. ‘Is that gazebo on an island?’

Sir Frank chuckled at her astounded expression. ‘Hazel’s idea—thought it would be a romantic place to go for al fresco lunches. Had to have a brute of bulldozers in to dig the lake and divert a stream to feed it.’ His blue eyes twinkled brightly in his plump red face. ‘Why don’t I go and break the good news about your arrival while you take a stroll in the fresh air…?’

Since Regan would sooner not be around when Sir Frank broke his ‘good news’ to his sister-in-law, in case it fell badly flat, she accepted his suggestion with alacrity.

The small oval lake was a marvel of engineering, and she wandered out onto the small wooden jetty where two small rowboats were moored and looked across the narrow divide of water at the latticed gazebo, guessing that the huge spreading oak that dappled the grass on one end of the little island had been there long before the bulldozers had moved it, probably as long as the main house itself.

The hot afternoon sun beat down on her unprotected head and she was drawn across the wide, luxuriant lawn to walk in the cool shade of the wild wood which grew along one side of the house. The undergrowth to the mature canopy of deciduous and evergreen trees was a mingling of native and exotic shrubs and seedlings, and Regan idly plucked a large, glossy leaf as she turned to view the building from this new aspect.

A movement at one of the ground-floor windows caught her eye and she saw the figure of a man talking on the telephone, pacing restlessly back and forth past the open sash. She was at least a hundred metres away, and at first all she registered was that he was dressed in a suit and that he was tall and dark-haired, but then he halted by the window, glancing up from the sheaf of papers in his hand, and she got a good look at him full-face.

A thrill of dumbfounded horror turned her blood to ice.

Adam!

The leaf fluttered to the grass as her hand flew to her mouth.

He noticed her at the very instant of her appalled recognition, and for a moment they were both motionless, staring at each other.

Even at a hundred metres she could read his body language. His back stiffened in surprise and then his torso tilted forward in puzzlement. He moved right up to the open window and she began to edge backwards into the undergrowth, praying that he wouldn’t realise who it was that he was seeing. Surely in her summery skirt, short-sleeved blouse and simple flat shoes she was a far cry from the sophisticated Eve whom he had tumbled in his bed.

The phone still plastered to the side of his head, he suddenly thrust his shoulders out of the window.

‘Hey—you!’

Regan’s body jerked. She took another step back. No—this nightmare couldn’t be happening. Not here—not now!

‘Hey! Don’t go!’ To her horror he dropped the phone from his ear and put one long leg over the windowsill. ‘Eve?’

Oh, God!

‘Eve, is that you?’

He was already out on the verandah, striding along to the wooden steps. Regan whirled around and blindly fled, crashing through the shrubbery in a desperate attempt to put as much space between them as possible before those long, powerful legs hit the grass running. Even in full business-kit, with a one hundred-metre handicap, he could probably still sprint her down on a flat track.

Fortunately she was small enough to scuttle through chinks in the tangled undergrowth that would have snagged larger bodies, but as she got deeper into the trees she could still hear him thrashing somewhere behind her, hoarsely yelling at her to stop, pausing now and then in his pursuit to gauge her direction.

When she almost ran slap-bang into the sturdy trunk of an old macrocarpa pine, top-heavy with needle-like green foliage, she let instinct take hold and shinned up the untrimmed branches until she reached a high fork into which she could safely wedge herself, out of sight of the ground.

None too soon. She clutched at her perch, the rough bark pricking her cheek and bare forearms as she flattened herself against the trunk, holding her breath as dried pine needles crunched under the pounding feet below.

‘Eve? Dammit—answer me—is that you?’

To her dismay he halted almost directly beneath her, breathing heavily. Thank God she wasn’t wearing anything bright that might give her away if he thought to look up. She felt dizzy, and suddenly remembered to breathe. She didn’t want to faint and flatten him with the proof of her presence.

‘What the hell…!’ he muttered to himself. ‘Look—whoever you are, you’re not in trouble for trespassing, if that’s what you’re worried about!’ he called, his voice rasping with controlled impatience. ‘Come on out—I’m not going to hurt you…’

He fell silent until the hush of leaves stirring in the gentle seaward breeze was shattered by the muffled shrill of a cellphone. An angry curse floated up into the boughs as he ripped the phone out of the inside pocket of his buttoned jacket.

‘Yes! What…? No—I put down the phone and got distracted for a moment…No, no, of course it’s not—you’re right; we need to get this settled now…’ Her eyes hunted for the sight of him as he wheeled in a half-circle one last time and then began retracing his steps. ‘Sorry…we’ll pick up at the clause we left off and go through it point by point…just let me put my hands on that contract again—’

Regan remained frozen for a few minutes after she had listened to his retreat. When she was certain that his words weren’t just a cunning ruse to flush her out, she uncramped her limbs and began to climb down with a great deal more care than she had tackled the ascension, thankful that her skirt was cut on an A-line rather than tight around her knees and that she had no pantyhose to snag.

She hit the ground with a groan of relief and bent to brush the bark and twigs off her clothes and legs, and straighten the seams of her skirt. She was retucking her blouse into her waistband when a prickle on the back of her neck made her swing around, her heart pattering like that of a baby bird who’d fallen out of its nest.

A thin, gangly youth, with hair the colour of used rope straggling to his shoulders and round, wire-framed glasses that accentuated the boniness of his face, stood watching her from the bushes.

Regan nervously flicked her hair behind her ears and pinned on a reassuring smile. ‘Hello. Where did you come from?’

And more importantly—how long had he been there? She bit her lip. Had Adam grabbed a handy accomplice for the chase?

He didn’t smile back at her, his brown eyes unnervingly intense. ‘Hi.’

‘Do you live here?’ she asked brightly, scraping at the sticky residue of pine-sap on her reddened palms.

He pushed his hands into the pockets of his baggy khaki shorts, hunching his thin shoulders under the plain white T-shirt. ‘Nah.’

He looked at the scratches on her legs. ‘What were you doing up that tree?’

Her mind went blank. ‘I…thought I saw an interesting bird,’ she improvised. Heavens, how low she had sunk—now she was even lying to children! Although judging from the squeak and scrape of his breaking voice he wasn’t really a child any more. In his early teens, she estimated.

‘What kind of bird?’

‘Uh, I don’t know…that’s why I wanted to get a closer look.’ She tried another smile.

‘Didn’t you know someone was calling for you?’

‘No—were they?’ She rounded her eyes innocently. ‘I must be hard of hearing. Who was it—do you know?’ she asked, hoping she might find out enough to plan herself a disaster strategy.

His light brown eyes looked innocently back. ‘Big or small?’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘The bird you saw, was it big or small?’ he wanted to know.

‘Big,’ she said firmly.

‘What colour was it?’

‘Well…brown, I suppose.’

‘Light brown or dark brown?’

‘Both,’ she said desperately. ‘Sort of speckled.’

‘Flying or perching?’

‘It flew and landed in the tree, then it perched,’ she said through clenched teeth.

‘What colour legs did it have?’

She looked at him incredulously. ‘Who do you think you are, James Bond?’ she joked.

‘Are you talking about the ornithologist or the spy named after him?’ he responded, and suddenly she knew that the weedy adolescent look was extremely deceptive.

She had tossed him a condescending comment, expecting its subtlety to be totally over his head, and he had fielded it with precocious dexterity. He knew very well she had been stringing him a line because he had been the one spinning it into a noose!

She folded her arms defensively across her chest. ‘I’m surprised anyone of your generation knows where Ian Fleming got the idea for his character’s name.’

He shifted his weight, sifting his battered sneakers amongst the fallen leaves. ‘I read a lot.’

‘So did I at your age, except I wasn’t allowed to read Ian Fleming,’ she said wryly.

‘How old do you think I am?’

‘Is this another guessing game?’ She sighed at his steady stare. ‘Fourteen,’ she said, adding a year to her best estimate for the sake of his young male ego.

‘Fifteen,’ he corrected gloomily.

‘Oh…well, what I said actually still goes,’ she consoled him. ‘My mother thought the Bible was the only book worth reading. Novels were a big no-no in our house.’

His thin face took on an expression of sheer horror. ‘You weren’t allowed to read any fiction at all?’

She shrugged. ‘Not at home. I used to keep a stash in my locker at school, though.’

‘But that’s censorship! You should have told her that she couldn’t violate your rights like that,’ he said, showing he was a true child of the modern age. ‘I’m allowed to read anything I like.’

‘Lucky you. I guess your mother must be a real liberal, huh?’

‘I don’t know. Clare lives in America. My parents divorced when I was born, and I stayed with Dad.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry.’

‘Why?’

She was taken aback. ‘Well…I’m sorry because you didn’t have your mother there when you were a baby,’ she said, stepping gingerly.

‘Why? Don’t you think that men can single-parent as well as women?’

Regan rolled her eyes. She had a feeling that this gangly youth might well best her in a debate. A question seemed to be his favourite form of reply.

‘Look, I really have to go.’ She couldn’t believe she had stood here chatting when Adam might already be back on the prowl. She had to find out what he was doing here and whether it was going to be possible to avoid him. If he was just a visitor maybe she could keep out of the way long enough for him to think he had made a mistake…

‘Sir Frank and Mrs Harriman are probably wondering where I am.’ She hesitated, looking around.

‘The house is back that way.’ He pulled his hand from his pocket and pointed over her left shoulder.

‘Thanks.’ She still hesitated.

‘If you turn right when you get to the bark track behind that tree big fern you’ll come out of the bush by the front flower garden,’ he added.

She gave him a sharp look, but his thin face was telling her nothing. If he was willing to help her, he surely couldn’t be in league with Adam.

‘OK—thanks again. Bye…’

‘See you around,’ came the laconic reply.

She paused, looking over her shoulder. ‘Will you?’

‘Probably.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m Ryan.’

She wondered what test she’d passed that he was willing to honour her with the information so far stubbornly withheld. ‘I’m Regan. I’m here to help Mrs Harriman organise her granddaughter’s wedding.’

Something flickered in his eyes, but he didn’t respond and she offered him a cheerful wave and went on her way.

She discovered that her trust in him was justified, and five minutes later she was politely greeting Hazel Harriman in the drawing room at the front of the house and apologising for the state of her hands.

‘You look as if you’ve been pulled through a hedge backwards, lass!’ Sir Frank said, when she’d explained that she had strayed off the path amongst the trees and tripped over some creepers.

‘Trust you to be blunt to the point of rudeness, Frank,’ said the tall, thin, elegantly dressed woman on the Victorian sofa. Her strapped right ankle was propped on a footstool and a lightweight fibreglass cast covered her left arm from the base of her fingers to her elbow. A single crutch was propped against the arm of the sofa and an open Brides magazine lay on the polished mahogany occasional table beside her knee, along with the remains of her afternoon tea.

She turned a coolly gracious smile up to Regan, her dark brown eyes compassionate for her obvious embarrassment.

‘Take no notice, my dear. I designed these grounds specifically to tempt people to explore rather than just to stand and stare.’ She tilted her beautifully coiffured ash-blonde head. ‘Won’t you sit down? I’ll ask Mrs Beatson to bring you a refreshing cool drink or cup of tea.’

‘Tea, please,’ elected Sir Frank. ‘And scones. With cream and some of that homemade kiwi fruit jam of yours.’

His sister-in-law gave him a quelling look. ‘Plain tea and biscuits is all you’ll get from Alice,’ she said firmly. ‘The doctor sent her your diet sheet.’

‘I think I may have ended up with some tree sap on my skirt as well,’ said Regan, declining to besmirch any of the antique cream and white striped armchairs. Her nerves were on full alert as she tried to pay full attention to her hostess while also keeping one wary eye on the door for Adam, half expecting him to burst in and denounce her for a wanton harlot. ‘Perhaps it would be better if I changed first…’

‘Of course, and you might like a shower after your hot drive, too. Why don’t I get Alice to show you to your room? Although you’ll forgive us if the bed isn’t made up yet, since we weren’t expecting any more guests today.’ She slanted a look at her brother-in-law which made him scowl sheepishly.

‘I’m sorry. I quite understand, Mrs Harriman. I don’t want to be a burden—I can make up the bed myself if someone shows me where the linen cupboard is,’ said Regan. Whatever discussion had gone on between them before she’d arrived, it was evident that Sir Frank’s steamroller generosity had paid off, but that Hazel Harriman was gracefully making him aware of her displeasure.

The smile in the soft brown eyes shifted from one of politeness to genuine warmth. ‘Now I’m the one embarrassing you, Regan—forgive me, but I couldn’t resist that little dig at Frank. You don’t have to feel awkward—I know exactly what he’s like. This idea of his was probably sprung on you with much the same lack of notice as he gave me. He calls my side of the family bossy, but he really takes the cake!’

‘Cake, huh!’ Sir Frank rumbled. ‘Tea and biscuits is all I get around here!’

‘And please do call me Hazel,’ the other woman went on, as if he hadn’t spoken, ‘because we want to be comfortable with each other if we’re going to be working side by side for the next few weeks. Much as I hate to admit it, I do need someone to help—I’m left-handed and I have endless letters and lists still to deal with. And Carolyn is in such a mental tizzy that she can’t seem to concentrate on anything at the moment…’

One of the tight knots of tension loosened in Regan’s chest at the rueful admission of relief. At least now, on top of her other worries, she needn’t fear that she was leeching off a reluctant hostess.

‘Now, why don’t you go upstairs with Alice and settle in?’ Hazel ordered briskly. ‘And later she can show you around the house, so you can get your bearings. We can leave our little get-to-know-you chat until later. Meanwhile, I suppose I should see how the meal will stretch to two extra…I think Alice told me she was doing a stuffed salmon…’

Oh, God, was she going to have to face Adam across a formal table?

‘You said you weren’t expecting any more guests?’ Regan blurted. ‘Does that mean you have some staying here already?’

She held her breath until Hazel shook her head, her softset curls shimmering. ‘Not staying, no—except for Carolyn, of course, and she often flits back to Auckland to stay overnight at her flat. No, by “guests” I meant that Carolyn’s having a little impromptu party here later this evening for some of our local friends. It’ll be a nice, informal introduction for you.

‘And we do have plenty of visitors popping in and out during the course of the day. Joshua’s staying down at Palm Court, and he regularly drops by to see Carolyn, and there’s Christopher, of course—that’s Joshua’s brother.’

Thinking about it later in her room Regan, pondered the uneasy look that Hazel had exchanged with Sir Frank when she’d mentioned Christopher Wade and then hurriedly changed the subject—thwarting any further casual enquiry about male visitors. Was the fiancé’s brother considered some kind of problem? Could he be her Adam?

If so, she didn’t run into him when the stoic Alice Beatson finally winkled her out of her room for a nervewracking tour of the house. The room in which she had seen him proved to be a blessedly empty library, and dinner turned out to be a straightforward foursome with the Harrimans. Carolyn, whom she’d never met before, seemed perfectly pleasant when introduced, but rather disconcertingly edgy when she learned the purpose for Regan’s visit. Beneath the superficial gloss of sophistication often provided by inherited wealth she seemed rather young for her twenty-two years, and Regan had misgivings about the wilful curve to her lovely mouth and the highly-strung quality to her darting conversation. She had a beautiful figure and long, natural blonde hair which she kept twitching over her shoulder, and there was a hectic glitter in her golden-brown eyes as she bubbled excitedly about Joshua, whom she called her Darling Jay, and the people Regan was likely to meet later that night.

A good percentage of them were male, and as Regan ventured down later to join the party she was deeply fatalistic, determined that whatever happened she would brazen things out. Now that she had calmed down she had reasoned that a confrontation with Adam might be highly embarrassing but it wasn’t the end of the world. Plenty of women had to endure the social awkwardness of running into inconvenient ex-lovers. And Adam was a sophisticated man, unlikely to want a public fuss any more than she did.

The ‘little’ impromptu party had the house bulging at the seams already, and after Hazel had introduced her without incident to several bunches of friendly, relaxed people Regan felt confident enough to grab a glass of non-alcoholic punch and wing it on her own. In her black flip skirt and plain white silk camisole she knew she looked more subdued than most of the younger women present, and that suited her perfectly.

‘Hi, sweetie—you’re definitely a new face around here.’ As she moved away from the punch bowl she was accosted by a handsome, dark-haired young man with a cocky smile and to-die-for blue eyes who fell into step beside her. ‘Now, you can’t be a friend of Caro’s or we would have met before—are you part of the local gentry?’

‘I’m Regan Frances. I’m a house-guest here.’ That was the unfussy label Hazel had used in her introductions.

‘Are you indeed? Lucky thing! My name is Chris.’

She stopped by the French doors to the glass conservatory. ‘Christopher Wade?’

He leaned his hand on the doorframe above her head and raised his eyebrows in a wicked leer. ‘Ah, I see my fame has preceded me. What have you heard? How brilliant I am? How witty and good-looking? It’s all true, I tell you!’

She laughed. ‘I can see that.’

‘A woman of exquisite discernment.’ He grinned, and for the next few minutes elicited a string of giggles with his nonsense.

Regan was so busy enjoying the performance that she wasn’t aware of her danger until a masculine arm suddenly shot into her line of vision, holding out another full glass of beverage.

‘You appear to have run out of punch, Mrs Frances— why don’t you take mine? It seems my brother is too intent on flirting to do his duty as a gentleman.’

Regan stared, not at the glass in the manicured hand, but at the stud securing the French cuff of the dazzling white sleeve—a solid gold cufflink inset with New Zealand jade. Her gaze slowly travelled up the length of the white arm to collide with a pair of murderous steel-grey eyes.

‘Y-your brother?’ she stuttered, not noticing the young man had stiffened at her side.

He knew her name. He must have asked about her. The cat was well and truly out of the bag.

His smile was lethally unamused. Her eyes shifted to Carolyn, clinging to his other elbow, and to the huge diamond flashing on her finger. Shock punched her in the stomach as her brain clicked back into gear and worked through all the clues she’d stupidly missed.

Owns a corporation—therefore must be quite a bit older than Carolyn; well-respected in financial circles—meaning millionaire; corporate-apartment-type rich; ‘Darling Jay…’

Jay…JA…Joshua Adam.

Joshua Adam Wade.

Oh, God—she had slept with her employer’s grandniece’s fiancé! The passionate fantasy lover who had told her he despised people who cheated on their partners was the very man whose wedding she was here to help arrange!

Chapter Six

‘HOW long have you been engaged?’ Regan croaked, sipping on her fresh glass of punch.

‘Nearly two months,’ preened Carolyn, looking adoringly up at the man at her side. In a pink taffeta shift overlaid with a black satin and lace Empire-line dress she looked the perfect accessory to her fiancé’s monochrome white shirt and black trousers. As a woman who had never had to work—and probably never would—she had plenty of time to devote to her appearance. ‘We got engaged in the second week of February, didn’t we, Jay Darling? Up here—on St Valentine’s Day!’

Regan choked, spluttering liquid back into her glass. That was only two days after her own encounter with ‘Adam’!

‘Sorry, a piece of fruit pulp must have gone down the wrong way,’ she said, as Chris gave her a light tap on the back.

At least Joshua hadn’t been engaged when he had ‘engaged’ himself to be entertained by one of Derek’s ‘friends’!

But he hadn’t just decided he wanted to get married and hunted out a wife within the space of two days. And if he had already been involved with Carolyn why hadn’t he looked to her to satisfy his libido instead of seeking casual sex with a stranger…or did he come from that chauvinistic school which divided the whole of womankind into only two types: those you slept with and those you married?

But, no—looking at the golden-blonde’s flushed cheeks, and the way she was leaning her breasts into Joshua’s side, her eyes avidly darting between the two males, Regan got the strong impression that in spite of her dewy, debutante looks Carolyn was no innocent virgin. And, anyway—Joshua was surely too intelligent to subscribe to such an outrageous double standard!

When she dared look at his face she found that he was staring down at her with a blistering contempt that caught her on the raw. She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, proudly rejecting his disdain. Did he think she had come here expecting to run into him? Her eyes were violet pools of reflective scorn as she glared back at him. As a betrayed wife herself, she hated that he had forced her into a position where she felt like the iniquitous ‘other woman’.

‘OK now?’ asked Chris, solicitously rubbing her rigid spine.

Joshua’s nostrils flared at the sight of his brother’s petting hand.

‘Do you usually allow yourself to be pawed by men you’ve only just met, Mrs Frances?’ he drawled, his joking smile undercut by the venomous tone which suggested that she was in the habit of allowing liberties a great deal more obscene.

Regan’s drink trembled in her hand, and even Carolyn stopped preening long enough to look startled at his smiling ferocity.