other way. You thought I was laughing up my sleeve at you, but I wasn’t.’
‘I know. I feel I know you better now, and you wouldn’t do that. I shouldn’t have flown at you, but suddenly everything seemed to get on top of me.’
Her voice faded and against her will she closed her eyes.
‘Freya,’ he said anxiously. ‘You’re not coping well, are you? Even all these weeks later you haven’t really begun to get over it.’
‘Of course I have,’ she said with a bright air that didn’t fool him. ‘I’m managing just fine. It’s like it never happened. Dan isn’t worth bothering about.’
She was lying, he thought, and not just to him but, more seriously, to herself. Dan had hurt her more than she could bear, and she denied it as the only way of coping.
He thought of their meeting in the garden, when she had seemed the strong one, offering him comfort. Now he realised that he’d believed too easily. She seemed in control but she was struggling for that strength and the fight was exhausting her.
Bitterly, he blamed himself again. Would she ever be free of that pain? Would he ever be free of his guilt?
‘It’s not just Dan,’ he said. ‘It’s what I did too. You’re still hurting inside but you won’t admit it. You think you can hide it from the world. Well, maybe you can with others, but not from me.’
He waited for her to insist that she was all right, as she so often did, but this time her shoulders sagged.
‘Tell me,’ he said.
‘Oh, it’s just—’ She sighed. ‘That idiot Tommy. I wish he hadn’t managed to kiss me—even that brief little kiss. Oh, yes, you kissed me once, soon after it happened—’
‘And I got it wrong again,’ he remembered. ‘You thought I was taking advantage.’
‘I was off my head. You were being kind. I didn’t mean what I said.’
‘Don’t brood about Tommy, Freya. He doesn’t count. I don’t count. One day you’ll meet a guy who knocks you for six. You’ll want him, he’ll want you, and you’ll be so happy you’ll forget Dan ever existed.’
‘Oh, no! That’s not what I’m planning.’
‘Does life happen the way we plan?’
‘It does if you’ve got money. I told you—I’m a prosperous woman now. I’m going to become a business tycoon, investing Amos’s money where it’ll make the most profit. And I won’t care about anything else.’
He had a shocking vision of the cold, unfeeling creature she seemed to want to become.
‘Stop it, Freya. That’s not you talking’
‘Really? Then who is it?’
‘Someone else that you think you are—that maybe you want to be. But it won’t make you happy. You’d need to be heartless, and you’re not.’
‘You don’t know what I’m like. Even I don’t know what I’m really like. But I’m going to enjoy finding out. Maybe I’ll get Amos to give me some investment advice. He’s always wanted me to be his daughter. I’ll never be his daughter by marriage, but I can please him another way.’
‘By being his daughter of the heart, you mean?’ Jackson asked wryly.
‘His daughter of the brain. That’s the bit that counts. Neither he nor I has much of a heart.’
‘Stop it!’ he said fiercely. ‘Don’t talk like that. Don’t even think like that. Don’t you realise it’ll never make you happy?’
‘And what will make me happy? Another man? I don’t think so. It’s best to go my own way, keep my fate in my own hands. From now on my life is going to be governed by my decisions.’
‘If that worked out it would make you stronger than the rest of us. Nobody’s life is governed solely by their own decisions, Freya. Don’t you know that by now?’
‘I should do, shouldn’t I? But at least I’ll have some kind of control.’
‘I imagine Dad thought that, when he gave you money so that you’d marry Marcel. But he was fooling himself—as you showed him.’
‘Yes, I did, didn’t I? My first success as a businesswoman. The world should beware.’
‘Perhaps you’re the one who should beware,’ he said gently. ‘Now, I think we should go. You need some rest.’
He drew her to her feet, supporting her, and they strolled slowly back along the river, his arm about her shoulders. He felt passionate relief that the atmosphere between them had eased and she seemed willing for them to be close again. But he saw more trouble on the horizon.
Freya was vulnerable, and all the more so because she seemed unable to understand just how vulnerable she was. But he saw it clearly, and his old protective instinct rose up again. It was about to make him do something that he knew was a risk, but he was going to do it anyway. For her sake.
Soon the hotel was in sight. He stopped and drew her into the shadows.
‘Look at me,’ he said.
She raised her head so that her face was illuminated by the moon. He thought he’d never seen anything lovelier.
‘Freya, I’m your friend. You do believe that, don’t you?’
‘Yes, I believe it now.’
‘Then take this as an act of friendship,’ he whispered, brushing his lips against hers.
He felt her tense and drew back an inch.
‘This is to make you forget about that kiss from Tommy,’ he said. ‘Only that. Do you understand?’
‘Yes,’ she murmured. ‘Yes—’
He laid his lips on hers again, lightly, touching her just enough for her to feel him while keeping his inner self far back in the shadows. He didn’t seek a response from her, either from her flesh or her emotions. He had no wish to intrude on her heart. He meant only to drive away the memory of the man who’d troubled her tonight.
‘All right,’ he said softly. ‘Time to go in.’
She followed his lead into the hotel, not speaking. At the door to her room she turned a puzzled gaze on him.
‘Goodnight,’ he said. ‘Sleep well.’
She backed into her room, still not speaking, not taking her eyes from him. When the door was closed Jackson turned away, prey to a wild confusion of thoughts and feelings.
But then, to his annoyance, he saw the last thing he wanted to see. Tommy was standing there in the corridor.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Jackson snapped.
‘Look,
