down to you, either,’ Rufus continued firmly. ‘Jessica did nothing but extol your virtues for the earlier part of this evening.’ He ruffled his daughter’s hair affectionately, receiving a pleased giggle in return. Rufus turned back to Annie with darkly piercing eyes. ‘Children aren’t easily deceived.’
That was true; she had easily been able to tell, when she was in care, which people were genuinely interested in her and who was just making a show of being kind. But she didn’t see how anyone could be less than sincerely fond of a lovely child like Jessica.
‘Daddy...’ Jessica spoke carefully. ‘What does “extol your virtues” mean?’ She wrinkled her nose in confusion.
‘It means, young lady—’ Rufus easily swung his daughter up into his arms, grinning down at her ‘—that you think Annie is great!’
‘But she is,’ Jessica said without a shadow of doubt.
‘I’m sure she is, poppet.’ Rufus tickled his daughter as he carried her ceremoniously down the wide staircase.
Annie walked happily along behind them, pleased with the obvious closeness between father and daughter, despite Rufus’s three-month absence. The two could have been together only yesterday, so naturally affectionate was their relationship.
‘Mind you,’ Rufus paused to whisper conspiratorially to Jessica, ‘when I met Annie earlier, I didn’t think she was much older than you!’ This last, playful remark was accompanied by a glance back at a red-faced Annie. ‘She looks—much older in that black dress,’ he added lightly, blue gaze challenging.
‘I helped her to choose it,’ Jessica told him proudly.
And, in fact, she had. Having worked in a daytime kindergarten, where her evenings were her own, Annie hadn’t had much call for the sort of formal clothes she would need for one of the Diamond dinners. After two evenings of coming down in serviceable skirts and blouses, of feeling exactly what she was—the hired help—she had decided to change that, taking Jessica into town with her shopping on their first available Saturday and buying three dresses that, when matched with differing accessories, could get her through an evening no matter what company happened to arrive. On the very evening she’d bought the dresses she had been presented with a bishop and a judge, so her purchases had been well worth the effort!
She had bought black, royal-blue and white dresses, and tonight, as Rufus Diamond had duly noted, she wore the black one, which while not accentuating her figure, didn’t hide it either, the above-knee length revealing an expanse of shapely leg too. On a couple of other evenings she had worn a long floral scarf trailing from her throat, or a fitted jacket of powder-blue, but tonight she wore only a single silver broach fastened above her left breast; she hadn’t wanted to wear anything this evening that would draw attention to her!
‘And Annie is much older than me,’ Jessica added in a scandalised voice. ‘She’s twenty-two. She told me she is.’
‘Oh, that’s much older!’ Rufus agreed, only the twitch of his lips, as he turned briefly to Annie, telling of his repressed humour—again at her expense.
‘Really, Daddy.’ Jessica unwittingly sounded just like her grandmother at that moment. ‘You can be so silly at times.’ She gave an exasperated shake of her head—again, not unlike Celia would have done.
Annie doubted that the word ‘silly’ could be applied to Rufus—at any time. It certainly wasn’t the impression he had given her since their first meeting this afternoon!
And while Annie, in her parentless state, might have little idea of what a family dinner should be like, she was sure that the following couple of hours spent at the Diamond dining table was not it!
It was the strangest meal Annie had ever been present at—and she didn’t mean food-wise; as usual Mrs Wilson, the cook, had provided an excellent meal; homemade pâté, followed by duck in a delicious orange sauce, with fresh fruit in port to finish. But for all the justice the Diamond family paid it, it might as well have been the beans on toast Annie had often enjoyed in the past as her own meal of the day!
The tension around the table was intolerable, felt by all, she was sure, except Jessica—a happy Jessica with her father seated at her side. And Rufus Diamond was the catalyst for everyone else’s tension—although for all the notice he took of it he might have been as unaware of it as his daughter.
Or so Annie thought...
Jessica was seated between the two of them, and Rufus had to lean forward to speak to Annie. ‘Enjoying yourself?’ he asked, still with that repressed humour.
She had been wishing the meal over, at least her own and Jessica’s part in it. The young girl usually retired to bed when the coffee and port stage was reached. Although that might be different tonight, as her father was here...
As for enjoying the meal...! Celia was at her most haughty, while Davina, a tall, elegant blonde, flirted shamelessly with Rufus at every opportunity, and Anthony—well, Anthony seemed lost in his own reverie, paying little attention to any of them. This Annie was relieved about; the last thing she wanted was to give Rufus any more ammunition to fire at herself and Anthony!
‘Very much, thank you,’ she returned primly.
He gave that wolfish grin at her politeness. ‘Liar!’ he rejoined quietly.
She met his gaze unflinchingly. ‘I was referring to the food, of course.’
Once again she was taken aback when he threw back his head and gave a throaty laugh of pure enjoyment, those lines she had noticed earlier beside his eyes and mouth proving to be laughter lines—evidence that this man laughed a lot. And she didn’t think it was always at other people; somehow she sensed that he had the ability to laugh at himself too. This man was an enigma, a chameleon, one moment distant and forbidding, the next full of humour. It could take a lifetime to know such a man—
Annie broke off her thoughts with a guilty glance in Anthony’s direction, once again affected by his good looks, the way he smiled across at her conspiratorially, almost as if he had sensed her confusion—although not, thank goodness, the reason for it. She doubted he would smile at her in that way if he realised exactly what she had been thinking about his brother!
‘Would you care to share the joke with us, Annie?’ Celia Diamond’s mildly arrogant voice broke in on her thoughts. ‘I’m sure we could all do with some light amusement,’ she added dryly—showing she was far from immune to the awkwardness of the evening.
But as she and the rest of the family, and the tension that existed between them with Rufus’s presence, were the subject of that light amusement Annie somehow didn’t think the other woman would be at all happy to share the joke!
Annie shot Rufus a look that clearly cried ‘help’—although, even knowing Rufus’s sense of humour as little as she did, she had a feeling he might just enjoy sitting back and watching her squirm!
‘It was just a little anecdote about Jessica that Annie wished to share with me.’ Thankfully, Rufus did come to her rescue. ‘Speaking of which,’ he added, with an affectionate wink at his daughter, ‘I think it’s time Jess went up to bed. No protests, young lady,’ he added with gentle reproof as he sensed that was exactly what she was about to give him. ‘You’re going to need plenty of sleep if you’re going to attempt to beat me at chess tomorrow.’
This was the first indication Annie
