to their rooms. He hung onto them as they went up in the lift and inserted the key into the door of her room. He pushed the door open. She preceded him into her room, knowing that he would follow.
Ellena went over to the window, again looking out but registering nothing very much. She heard the sound of the door behind her being closed. She turned. She was not mistaken, she saw: Gideon Langford had not merely opened the door and left her to it, he was right there with her. Those questions weren’t going to wait any longer—he wanted answers.
Why she should feel hostile to his questioning she had no idea, a self-defence mechanism perhaps? But when he began, ‘This child...’ for short, pithy starters, she discovered an aggressiveness in her that rushed out to meet anything he had to say head-on.
‘Kit and Justine’s baby, you mean?’ she challenged before he could get further.
Her aggressiveness glanced off him, barely touching him, though she didn’t miss the way his eyes narrowed slightly at her tone. ‘You’re saying my brother is the father of your sister’s child?’
‘Of course he is!’ she erupted.
‘You’re sure of it?’
How dared he? ‘Listen, you,’ she attacked hotly, ‘Justine may have been a bit wild, a bit of a rebel, and their relationship may have had its—its stormy moments, but there’s been no other man for her but Kit, since the moment she met and fell in love with him!’
‘But they’re not married?’
‘Grief—he’s your brother—don’t you know anything about him?’
‘I know a whole lot about him, including the fact that there was no woman on the scene when I last visited him six months ago.’
‘Your bi-annual visit, was it?’ she threw in tartly, though she almost apologised for that remark when he flicked her an acid look. Then she wondered why the hell should she? Who did he think he was, trying to deny Kit was the baby’s father? ‘Justine lived at home with me until the baby was born—Kit collected them from the hospital and there didn’t seem to be any question that he would take them back to his flat.’
‘They live together?’
‘Happily,’ Ellena declared frostily.
‘Happily unmarried?’
‘I don’t think getting married occurred to either of them,’ she replied honestly.
‘That sounds like Kit,’ Gideon muttered, and asked abruptly, ‘Where is it now—this infant?’
She felt annoyed. ‘Violette,’ she informed him stiffly. ‘Her name’s Violette.’
‘Violette?’ he echoed—much in the same vein as if she’d told him they’d called the child Rover.
‘They chose the name, not me!’ she snapped, and wondered if the stress was getting more than she could take, because her sense of humour seemed to be twitching for a smiling release at his reaction to the baby’s name. She did not smile, however, but informed him, ‘Your brother Russell and his wife are looking after Violette white—’
‘Your sister left a four-month-old baby with that hard-nosed, money-grubbing bitch!’ he interrupted on a snarl.
Ellena blinked in surprise—all too evidently Gideon Langford had little time for his sister-in-law. She recalled that Justine had called Pamela a bit of a shrew; the one and only time she had spoken with her herself, she hadn’t taken to her, either.
‘Your brother left the baby too!’ she defended. ‘Anyway, as well as paying Pamela, Justine also engaged a temporary nanny.’
‘Huh!’ he grunted, and Ellena started to actively dislike him. ‘I phoned Russell just before I left—he didn’t say anything about looking after Kit’s infant!’
‘That’s hardly my fault!’ she flew, her emotions all over the place, her temper seeming to be on a very short fuse. ‘Since you’re a family who only visit every six months, it’s a wonder to me you tell each other anything.’
The chill factor went down another ten degrees as Gideon Langford favoured her with an icy look for her trouble. ‘You know nothing!’ he rapped curtly.
‘I know...’ she went to explode. But then was suddenly so overcome by the events that had taken place that she came to a full stop, words failing her. She swallowed hard, emotion threatening to overwhelm her.
She turned swiftly about, her grief private, not to be shared. She looked down at the windowsill, concentrated hard on it, striving with all she had for control.
So hard was she battling not to break down that she momentarily forgot she wasn’t alone in the room. A reminder of Gideon Langford’s presence arrived, though, when, just as if he knew of her every thought and feeling, he moved behind her and took hold of her.
She felt his firm grip on her upper arms and began to like him again, even though all the evidence pointed to the reverse. ‘Hang on, Ellena,’ he instructed low in her right ear, using her first name, making them more friends than the enemies they’d been a minute ago. ‘They’re not dead. I won’t believe they’re dead.’
She swallowed hard, but did not turn around. ‘I can’t believe it either,’ she said huskily.
For a minute more Gideon held her in that steadying grip. Then he was saying, ‘We have to think of leaving.’
‘I don’t want to leave—I can’t,’ she answered.
‘Yes, you can,’ he countered. ‘I’ll instruct everyone you can think of to contact me the moment they have the barest hint of news.’
She tried to be sensible. ‘You’ve business to get back to, I expect.’
‘It seems incidental,’ he replied—and Ellena knew that she really did like him. He had a multi-million pound conglomerate to run, but it meant nothing to him when his youngest brother was missing.
She realised, common sense giving her a nudge, that they could achieve nothing by staying. ‘When do you want to leave?’ she asked, and felt him give her arms a small squeeze of encouragement.
‘As soon as you’re ready,’ he answered, letting go his hold and moving away.
Ellena turned and looked at him. The icy look he had served her with before had gone, and, for all he was unsmiling, he seemed less harsh than he had been. ‘I’ll just get my things together, settle up here, and...’
‘I’ll settle,’ he stated, and, when she looked likely to proudly protest, ‘You’re family,’ he said, and went, not knowing how warmed she felt. For, apart from Justine and Violette, she had no other family.
It took her next to no time to gather her belongings together. But in that short period Gideon Langford had settled their account with the hotel and organised their flight.
They were on their way back to the small airport when she realised he’d found time to speak with other people too. ‘The minister from the local church was kind enough to call,’ he informed her quietly as they reached their destination. ‘He
