to be the closest person around.’
Heat tinged her skin. Trying to sound professional and assured, she said crisply, ‘It was very kind of you. I don’t remember much—’ only the sound of his voice, calm and reassuring, and the wonderful comfort of his arms when he’d held her until the shivering stopped ‘—but I know I didn’t change myself.’
His eyes narrowed slightly. ‘Once the fever had broken I went back to the school dance floor, but everyone had gone by then. It didn’t seem a good idea for you to sleep in wet clothes, so I removed your dress.’ In a coldly formidable tone, he finished, ‘I behaved as a brother might have.’
Colour burned into her skin. Hoping her words mingled the right blend of gratitude and distance, she said, ‘Yes—well, I thought as much.’ And then, changing the subject without finesse, ‘Thanks again for being generous enough to let me stay in this lovely place.’
‘You’ve thanked me enough,’ he said a little curtly, adding with a faint smile, ‘I went to school with your principal. When he asked if his teachers could use this bach I agreed. It’s not used very often, and it seems a waste to have it sit here empty. You’re the third teacher to come here, and I expect there will be others.’
So that was the connection. And he was making sure she didn’t think she was special.
She said with cool assurance, ‘I’m grateful. But to make things very clear, I was neither drunk nor drugged that night in Tukuulu.’
One straight black brow lifted. ‘I wondered if you’d remember that. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions—it didn’t take me long to realise you were ill.’
For some reason she wasn’t prepared to explore, she didn’t want his apology. ‘I sent you a letter thanking you for your help.’
‘Yes, your principal passed it on.’
He hadn’t answered. Well, for heaven’s sake, she hadn’t expected him to.
Without inflection, he said, ‘I’m glad I was there when you needed someone. I’m Kelt Crysander-Gillan—although I don’t use the first part of my surname—and I live just up the hill.’
Nothing about being some sort of aristocrat, she noted. Clearly The Duke was just a nickname, perhaps because of the double-barrelled name. They mightn’t be common in New Zealand.
And he looked like a duke, someone of importance, his very presence a statement of authority. A very sexy duke, sexier than any other duke she’d ever met…
One who’d taken her clothes off and seen her naked…
Firmly she tamped down a sizzle of adrenalin. ‘And of course you know that I’m Han-Hannah Court.’
Oh, he’d really unnerved her! For the first time in years she’d almost given him her real name, catching it back only just in time. Startled, she automatically held out her hand.
‘Welcome to New Zealand,’ he said gravely, and his long, lean fingers closed around hers.
Her heart picked up speed. Cool it, she commanded her runaway pulse fiercely while he shook hands.
There was no reason for the swift sizzle of sensation that shocked her every nerve. Acting on pure blind instinct, Hani jerked her hand free.
Kelt Gillan’s brows met for a taut second above his blade of a nose, but he turned when the children chose that moment to surge up from the beach, their shouted greetings a melee of sound.
He silenced them with a crisp, ‘All right, calm down, you lot.’
She expected them to shuffle their feet, but although they obediently stayed silent their wide smiles told her he was popular with them.
Amazing, she thought, watching as he said something to each of them. And again she remembered Felipe, her first and only lover. He’d had no time for children; there was no profit to be made from them…
Kelt Gillan said, ‘Miss Court has been ill and needs a lot of rest, so I want you to play on the homestead beach until she’s better.’
Their attention swivelled back to her.
Into the silence Jamie said earnestly, ‘I was sick too, Honey. I had mumps and my throat was sore and I couldn’t eat anything ’cept ice cream and jelly and scrambled eggs.’
‘And soup,’ the lovely Kura reminded him officiously.
He pulled a face. ‘And some soup.’
‘I’m getting much better now,’ Hani said, smiling at him. ‘And I’m lucky—I can eat anything I like.’
‘Honey?’ Kelt said on an upward inflection, that taunting brow lifting again as his cool gaze inspected her face. ‘I thought your name was Hannah?’
‘I’ll have to learn to talk like a New Zealander,’ she said lightly, irritated by the colour that heated her cheekbones. In the last six years she’d worked hard to banish any vestige of the soft cadences of her birth country.
‘Actually, it suits you,’ he said, a sardonic note colouring his deep voice. He turned back to the children. ‘All right, off you go.’
They turned obediently, all but Jamie. ‘Where do you live?’ he asked Hani.
Nowhere…‘On a hot little island called Tukuulu a long way over the sea from here.’
An older girl, Jamie’s, sister—cousin?—turned. ‘Come on, Jamie,’ she commanded importantly, and the boy gave Hani a swift grin and scampered off.
‘What charming children. Are they siblings?’ she asked into the suddenly oppressive silence.
‘Siblings and cousins. In New Zealand the term whanau is used to denote the extended family,’ the man beside her said.
‘You didn’t need to warn them off,’ she told him. ‘I like children.’
Kelt Gillan said succinctly, ‘Honey or Hannah or whoever you are, you’re here to convalesce, and it’s no part of that healing process to act as unpaid babysitter. Your principal asked me to make sure you didn’t overexert yourself.’
His words set off a flicker of memory. The night he’d unhooked her from the coconut palm and carried her home he’d spoken in exactly that controlled, uncompromising tone. As though she were an idiot, she thought angrily.
She didn’t care what Kelt thought, but it wasn’t fair to spoil the children’s pleasure. ‘Both you and he are very thoughtful, but I’m quite capable of making decisions like that for myself. Believe me, it didn’t hurt me or tire me or worry me to sit in the sun and watch them. I enjoyed it.’
‘Perhaps so,’ he said inflexibly, ‘but that’s not the point. You’re here to rest and regain your strength. I’ll make sure their parents understand that they stay in Homestead Bay. Don’t fret about curtailing their fun—they’ll play quite happily there.’
Behind him his horse lifted its head from lipping the grass and took a step sideways, its powerful muscles
