giving him their full attention. Jared just sat and listened. Andrew was smug and far too arrogant, but that didn’t seem to bother Noelle, who hung on his every word as if he were dispensing holy law. It made him irritable, and after a short time, he excused himself and went to bed.
“How long has he been here?” Andrew asked Mrs. Dunn when Jared was safely upstairs.
“For two days,” she replied. “He was tired of life in the big city and wanted to come home. He’s feeling his age, I think.”
“The poor old thing,” Noelle said, with genuine sympathy. “It must have been very difficult for him to get around in a big city like New York with such a handicap. Perhaps he will find a quieter life here.”
“I hope that he doesn’t interfere too much with our own lives,” Andrew muttered.
“You’re ungrateful, my boy,” Mrs. Dunn told him bluntly. “Jared paid for this house and everything in it, lest you forget.”
“I’m grateful for his gifts,” Andrew returned. “But he’s hardly a welcome addition to our household. I remember his earlier visits. He was always glowering, watching, somber. He’s a cold and intimidating presence.”
“He’s an attorney,” Mrs. Dunn replied. “It wouldn’t benefit him to be frivolous, Andrew.”
“Yes, well, when he establishes his practice, perhaps he won’t be around so much and things can go on as before.” He looked pointedly at Noelle and smiled warmly. “Because I have hardly had time to get to know my cousin Noelle. Now that I am excused from further travels out of town for a while, we can spend some time together.”
Noelle’s heart leapt into her throat and she beamed at him. “That would be lovely, Andrew.”
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs, covertly drinking in the fullness of her figure, the pretty lines of her face. She wasn’t the sort of woman he would marry, because she was much too countrified and simple for his taste, and she had no social background to speak of. But she would make a sweet little mistress. There was the minor complication of his stepbrother, but Jared would present no real problem. He was confident that he could seduce Noelle without difficulty. Afterward, well, he’d worry about that when the time came.
The soft mewling at the back door caught Noelle’s attention even above the rumble of thunder and the patter of hard rain when she was cleaning out the pantry a few days later. She wiped her hands on her white ruffled apron, grimacing at the smudges she left there, and went down the long, wide hall to the back door.
Outside there was a tiny marmalade kitten with big blue eyes. She picked it up and laughed as it curled under her chin and began to purr.
As she started back down the hall, Andrew passed her on his way to the study. He paused, scowling. “Noelle, put that filthy thing out. We can’t have a cat in here. They’re nasty.”
She gaped at him. “But it’s a kitten. And it’s pouring outside.”
“I don’t care. I won’t have a cat in the house. I hate cats. I can’t stand the sight of them.” He kept walking.
She glared at his back. “Well, you don’t have to look at it, do you?” she asked under her breath.
She dried it on a soft cloth and tucked it against her bosom before she peered out the door to make sure Andrew wasn’t nearby, then made a dash for the kitchen.
In her mad rush to avoid detection, she cannoned straight into Jared and almost knocked him down.
He cursed sharply, leaning heavily on his cane as he grabbed the door for support, and the eyes he turned on Noelle made her stop short and hold her breath. She’d never seen such an expression on a man’s face. It made her think of guns…
A minute later she wondered if she’d imagined the look in his eyes. He snapped the door shut and looked at her, unblinking. “What have you got there?”
“It’s a kitten,” she said, holding it protectively as she recovered from the cold, merciless anger, now gone, in his blue eyes. But they were only a little less intimidating now. “Andrew told me to put it out. I won’t. It’s raining again, and this poor wretched little creature is thin and starved and homeless. If it goes, I go with it!” she said, with bravado.
He got his balance back with the cane and straightened. His cold blue eyes slid over the cat and lingered on the firm fullness of her bosom. She was just a girl, he reminded himself, and he was no stranger to a woman’s bed. But the pleasure he felt when he looked at her disturbed him.
His gaze lifted to collide with hers. “It will have to live in the kitchen,” he said. “Mrs. Pate can keep an eye on it for you.”
“I can keep it?” she asked, relieved.
“Yes.”
“But Andrew…”
“For God’s sake, it’s my house. If I say the cat can stay, it can stay.”
“There’s no need to be so unpleasant,” she pointed out. “It’s your leg, isn’t it?” she added then. “I expect the rain makes it ache more. You should sit down and rest it, Mr. Dunn. It can’t be doing you any good to walk around.”
His thin lips became even thinner and his eyes narrowed, too. “I’m not infirm.”
“It’s all right, you know. I didn’t mean to be offensive.”
“And stop talking to me as if I were in my dotage!”
Her eyebrows both lifted. “My, you are in a nasty temper, aren’t you?”
“Miss Brown!”
“One should never meet unkindness with unkindness,” she recited. “I’ll take the kitten to Mrs. Pate, then. May I tell Andrew that you gave it permission to stay, if he asks why I didn’t put it back outside?” she added, not wanting to offend Andrew but determined to help the kitten.
“Tell Andrew what the hell you like!”
“Sir!” She flushed. He didn’t apologize for his language or the whip in his voice. After a minute, she continued, “I don’t want to make him angry, but it’s such a very small kitten.” She looked up and met his searching eyes…and felt the ground move under her feet. It was a kind of look that she’d never experienced in her young life.
She wasn’t alone. Jared was feeling something similarly profound, but his reaction was typical of a man who wanted no part of entanglement.
“You may have nothing better to do than stand and chat, Miss Brown, but I have work waiting,” he said testily.
“Excuse me, then.” She moved aside and let him pass, noticing the ungainly gait and the strain on his face. “I could make you some tea—” she began, with compassion.
His head jerked around and the expression on his face put wings on her feet. Whoever said that people grew crotchety with age had been quite accurate, she thought. But at least he’d let her keep the kitten.
Andrew, when told of this decision,
