asleep, so I—’
‘Jane is very reliable,’ Cat assured him, taking pity on him; it must be as difficult for him to leave Adam after what had happened as it was for Adam to leave him! ‘She helps out at the playschool part-time during the school holidays. She’s taking her A levels.’ And now, Cat realised self-disgustedly, she was the one babbling.
It was just that Caleb Reynolds was the last person she had expected to see when she’d opened the door. Although she had a feeling Kate would have handled the situation better than she was; tact and diplomacy were not her fortes!
‘Would you mind if I came in for a few minutes?’ Caleb enquired. ‘I won’t take up too much of your time,’ he said bluntly as Cat looked at him blankly. ‘I’m sure, like myself, you have other things to do this evening.’
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to invite him in, she just wasn’t sure it was convenient at the moment. They had all been going out into the garden, and— ‘Please, do come in,’ Cat invited stiltedly, thinking fast. ‘I—I believe Kate is taking a bath,’ she added hurriedly, believing no such thing! ‘I’ll just go and war—tell her that you’re here—’
‘That won’t be necessary.’ He had followed her through into the same room as yesterday. ‘Unless you feel in need of the moral support?’ he commented derisively, his presence in this utterly feminine room with its chintz curtains and covers once again malely dominating.
Cat bristled indignantly at his mocking tone. Arrogant, patronising—! Her sympathy for him of a few minutes ago completely evaporated. ‘Not in the least,’ she dismissed scathingly.
Besides, she could imagine Kate right this minute, in the most secluded part of the garden, relaxing on a lounger, Kitty at her side. No, she wasn’t about to disturb either of them; she could deal with Caleb Reynolds quite well on her own!
‘Please sit down,’ she invited tersely, waiting for him to do so but maintaining her own standing position beside the unlit fireplace. ‘And if it isn’t a problem with Adam that brought you here, then what can we do to help you, Mr Reynolds?’ she asked warily. Because this man, with his arrogant disdain, didn’t give her the impression he was in the habit of paying social calls just for the sake of it!
He looked at her consideringly for several long seconds, the silence stretching awkwardly between them. ‘Miss Rourke—or perhaps I can call you Cat?’ he drawled, seeming amused by her continued formality.
And no doubt he was amused, Cat inwardly acknowledged, but she would bet that if she stepped even one inch over what he considered the line to intrusion into his private life, rather than the polite interest she had shown so far, he would step on it—and her!—very quickly.
‘Please do,’ she accepted distantly.
‘And I’m Caleb.’
How cosy! And yet she knew that it wasn’t. She would take a guess on this man squashing her like a bug if she got in his way! But what way did he want to go…?
‘That still doesn’t tell me what I can do to help you,’ she reminded him. ‘If there is no problem with Adam—’
‘I’ve already told you there isn’t—Cat,’ he returned evenly, that arctic gaze easily capturing and holding hers. ‘Adam—for all that I spent the best part of the morning pacing up and down worrying in case he needed me!—seems to have enjoyed his morning here. In fact, I think, if anything, he found the afternoon with just the two of us quite boring. It’s always the way with children, isn’t it?’ He grimaced. ‘We get the grey hairs, and they just grow bigger and stronger!’
Cat relaxed slightly at the paternal image of this man pacing up and down in worry over his son. It brought back to her the fact that no matter how arrogant and patronising she found him he did love his son. It was there in his intonation when he spoke of Adam.
‘I had never really thought of it in quite that way,’ she smiled. ‘But yes, I suppose they do. But you really have no need to worry any further about Adam while he’s here; the other children didn’t seem to mind at all that he didn’t actually speak to them. In fact, they seem to have a sort of telepathy with each other at this age!’ Considering the trauma Adam had suffered just six months ago, although he had stayed quite close to Cat and Kate during the morning, he had also, to their delight, played with the other children.
‘So I’ve noticed,’ Caleb agreed. ‘My sister has a little girl of two, and she and Adam have no trouble communicating with each other at all.’
Slowly Cat was learning more about this man, though it was like getting blood from a stone! But she still had a feeling that was more than most people could get out of him. She knew he had been married, that his wife had died, that he had a sister, and a niece. It was probably more than he knew about her, Cat conceded. And that was the way it was going to stay!
Although she couldn’t help wondering why, with family obviously living somewhere close—Adam was able to play with his cousin—Caleb Reynolds had chosen to move to this area at all…? Unless his sister lived around here too? But if that was the case why rent a cottage? Why not just stay with his sister? There was still a lot about Caleb Reynolds they didn’t know!
‘I actually came here this evening,’ he said softly, ‘to ask you and Kate if I could look around your house.’
He had lulled her into a false sense of security by talking about Adam, and then—pow!—he’d hit her with what he was really here for!
Cat stared at him, green eyes wide. ‘I thought you were happy with our facilities when I showed you round this morning?’ She frowned. ‘I can assure you that we are inspected on a regular basis, and—’
‘I don’t want to look around the playschool again, Cat,’ Caleb cut in mildly. ‘As you say, I’ve already seen it, and I have no doubt that it passes inspection. It’s actually the rest of the house I’m interested in seeing.’
‘Why?’ Cat blurted out rudely, too startled for politeness.
‘Because it’s one of the oldest houses in the area and I have an interest in old houses?’ he suggested drily, dark brows raised at her bluntness.
She met his gaze unblinkingly. ‘And?’
He shrugged. ‘Does there have to be an and?’
She nodded abruptly. ‘I think so, yes!’
Why on earth did he want to look around this particular house? Admittedly it was almost one hundred and fifty years old, had originally been the manor house of the area, surrounded by farmland that was worked by the tenants of the cottages in the village. But the squire’s family had moved out of the area years ago, the farmland bought up by neighbouring farmers, and the village itself had expanded and grown, so that the nearest dwelling was now only a quarter of a mile away. In fact, it was the cottage this man was currently renting!
Again Caleb gave her that steady, steely-eyed look. But if he thought he was going to unnerve her he was mistaken; as a parent she would treat him with the same politeness she did all their other clients, but as someone wanting to invade the privacy of their home—! The same rules didn’t apply in that situation. So Cat met that level gaze with an intensity of her own.
‘Okay,’ Caleb Reynolds finally murmured, shrugging his shoulders, ‘you’ve guessed my secret.’ A
