‘Oh, yes. And he’s been feeding Fred—the donkey.’ She made a face. ‘He used to keep an eye on Miss Betts before she died—but very discreetly, of course. It seems such a shame to think that she and Uncle Henry could have been so happy together. It was just her pride that kept them apart. They were engaged,’ she enlightened Sara, ‘but they had a quarrel—I don’t know what it was about, I doubt if anyone does, and she broke off the engagement. Since neither of them married anyone else, Jonas and I can only suppose that deep down they still loved one another. Poor Jonas: the last thing he wanted was to inherit Uncle Henry’s house. You should have seen the state it was in! Some of the rooms were damp, it needed rewiring—the lot. It had been terribly neglected. The parents thought he would sell. We call them ‘the parents’ because we both have one,’ she elucidated with a shy smile. ‘Jonas’s father married my mother when I was ten and Jonas was fifteen. It was very difficult at first for all of us. My parents were divorced and I bitterly resented anyone else taking my father’s place, and Jonas had lost his mother in a particularly horrific air disaster. Sam…your brother, has told me about his wife and your fiancé, so I know you’ll understand when I say that both Jonas and I hated the thought of someone else taking the place of the parent we had lost. When you add to that the guilt one naturally feels when one discovers the hated step-parent is really a rather nice person, you can imagine the difficult time we gave our natural parents for the first years of their marriage.’ Vanessa smiled. ‘However, we all managed to weather the storm; I think it’s a sign of dawning maturity to be able to accept that one can love a step-parent without being disloyal to the blood parent whose place they’re taking. Jonas was better at adapting than me. He was also very good to me. When he went to Canada after finishing agricultural college, I was devastated. The parents never really expected him to come back. He landed a top job over there, managing a huge farm for a large corporation, and when we heard that he’d inherited the house here we all expected him to put it up for sale.
‘It hasn’t been any sinecure for him, making it pay; he’s built up the nursery business from nothing, and the profits he makes on that plus the money he invested from the sale of the remaining farm land just about keeps his head above water, although he says he’ll never be a wealthy man. When I ask him why he dosen’t sell he says that he feels he can’t—that he feels Uncle Henry didn’t leave the property to him to sell but to preserve. Of course the house is lovely, and Jonas has managed to pick up some beautiful antiques for it.’ Vanessa paused to draw breath and flushed a little. ‘I’m sorry if I’m rattling on; I’m too inclined to chatter on like a magpie when I’m nervous. I had quite a bad stammer when my mother married Peter, but he was so gentle and patient with me. Jonas’s father is a botanist and naturalist,’ she added informatively. ‘He and my mother live in a remote cottage in the Fens. I suppose it’s from his father that Jonas inherited his love of the land, although he has a far more dynamic personality than Peter. I take charge of the office work, although Jonas oversees the financial side of things. Do you think you’re going to like living down here?’
There was just enough wistfulness in her voice to make Sara reply honestly. ‘I’m loving it already,’ she told her with a quick smile. ‘And so is Carly.’
‘Carly. I’m looking forward to meeting her. Sam adores her, doesn’t he? Is she very like her mother?’
‘No…not really. If anything, she looks more like Sam. She has his personality, too,’ Sara said thoughtfully. ‘I could bring her over with me when I come to collect the animals if you like?’
‘Oh yes, please do.’
The coffee was ready, and, deftly putting it on the ready-prepared tray, Sara headed for the kitchen door, pausing while Vanessa opened it for her.
In their absence the two men had moved into the sitting-room, and seemed to be deeply engrossed in a discussion about cricket when they walked in. Jonas got up immediately, coming to take the heavy tray from her. His fingers grazed hers briefly, the momentary sensation of skin against skin shocking through her.
Sara deliberately hung back to pour the coffee, keeping herself outside the general conversation. She didn’t want to talk to Jonas. She didn’t want him in her home, or in her life; she hadn’t wanted to hear what Vanessa had told her about him. She preferred to retain her initial, totally erroneous belief that he was a man she could quite easily despise. It was as though she dared not let herself admit she could have been wrong in any way about him, because in doing so she would in some way make herself vulnerable. But to what?
It was a question her mind balked against answering.
As she handed round the coffee cups, she noticed that Vanessa and Sam were sitting close together on the settee, Vanessa listening earnestly while Sam expounded at length about his work.
‘Stop boring the poor girl,’ Sara scolded her brother as she gave him his coffee. ‘I’m sure she’s not the slightest bit interested in economics.’
‘Oh, I am!’
As Sara looked at her in surprise, Vanessa flushed and bit her lip.
‘What my sister is too modest to tell you,’ drawled Jonas lazily, getting up from his chair and coming across to join them, ‘is that she got a very creditable First herself in Economics. I’m afraid her talents aren’t used to their fullest extent working for me.’ As he spoke, he leaned over and ruffled Vanessa’s blonde hair affectionately, in much the same way as Sam was wont to caress her, Sara recognised.
Sam himself was eyeing Vanessa in much the same light as a miser discovering a hidden source of gold. His eyes lit up and he put down his coffee untouched.
‘I think we’d better leave them to it,’ Jonas murmured against Sara’s ear, as she stepped back from them. ‘Unless of course you’re the type of sister who doesn’t want her brother involved with any female bar herself?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Sara knew she she sounded terse, but his comment made her feel angry. She had never been the slightest bit jealous of Sam’s relationship with Holly, but it was strangely painful to recognise that, unlike her, he seemed ready to put the past behind him and start living again. There had been a very definite glint of male approval in the way he looked at Vanessa.
‘Good. Let’s leave them to it then, shall we?’
His fingers curled round her arm, making her flinch.
‘You shouldn’t wear black; it doesn’t suit you,’ he told her carelessly as he drew her inexorably towards the open French window. ‘It’s too funereal.’
Sara felt the colour drain from her skin, and she shivered in the light breeze from the open door.
‘Sam says you’re very keen to start work in the garden. Walk round it with me and tell me what you plan to do.’
As on the previous two occasions when she had met him, Sara found herself struggling against the formidable male power of his will. Jonas frightened her in a way that had nothing to do with his far greater physical strengh; it was a fear that sprang from the terrible vulnerability she sensed within herself towards him. And yet what was she frightened of? The potent sexual chemistry that existed between them? Of betraying the love she felt for Rick by… By w
hat? Falling in love with Jonas? There was no way that could ever happen; she didn’t even like him—loathed him, in fact.
‘I’d rather stay here, if you don’t mind?’
They were both talking too quietly to be overheared by the absorbed couple on the settee, but nervertheless Jonas swung her slightly away from them as his mouth curled in a brief smile, his teeth white against his tanned skin as he murmured, ‘I don’t mind in the least, but I rather think those two over there might.’
Puzzled, Sara glanced over to where Vanessa and Sam were sitting.
‘If your brother wants to be alone with my sister, he can hardly invite her to walk round the garden with him, can he?’
Sara felt her skin colour up hotly beneath the implied criticism that she was lacking in tact and intuition. For a moment it struck her that if Sam were genuinely interested in Vanessa and a permanent relationship developed from that interest, her own life would change dramatically. If Sam married again, she could hardly go on living with him.