But he wanted to lash out at her and grabbed any excuse to do so because he couldn't give her the real reason for his bitter anger. He couldn't admit to her that he felt angry enough to shake her until her teeth dropped out because he'd come within a whisker of falling in love with her. And while he didn't expect her to be an angel he didn't want her to be the type of woman who'd play around with a married man.
Caro gave him a cold look, sick of his evil temper, and yes, OK, she really should have explained the situation to Lucy, and she felt bad about prying into what had happened to his dead wife. But she hadn't learned anything and he wasn't so all-fired perfect, was he?
'You should be thankful I kept my mouth shut.' She glared at him, no longer afraid to meet his eyes because of the contempt that was there every time he looked at her now. 'If I'd told your mother you'd sacked me because I'm not the qualified nanny I pretended to be—and I'm not so sure about that,' she added witheringly, 'since you claim you knew I wasn't all along and were apparently perfectly happy to say nothing at all about it—then I would have had to tell her why I stooped to such devious behaviour to get the job in the first place.'
She walked out, her head high, as the lift doors whooshed open and he didn't say a word until they were both in the car, which had been brought round for him and was waiting on double yellow lines. And then he asked, his voice as smooth and cold as a steel blade, 'And why exactly did you stoop to what you've admitted was devious behaviour? To earn a few extra bucks to plough back into an ailing business? Or did you have a darker motive? I think I'm beginning to know you well enough to suspect the latter.'
He put the engine into gear and edged out into the early evening traffic and Caro wished she'd insisted on hiring a cab to take her to the hospital. But she hadn't and he'd asked a question and she was going to give him the answer and he didn't have to like it.
'I wanted to hurt you for what you did to my sister Katie. Remember her? Katie Farr? I thought a great opportunity would present itself if I worked for you.' She risked a look at his profile. Clear-cut, unforgiving, the sensual mouth compressed. She transferred her gaze back to the rear end of the red London bus they were stuck behind. 'Not one of my better ideas, as it happens.'
'And your grandmother always claimed you were so level-headed. Did you know,' he tossed out conversationally, 'the way she talked about you, yoi could well have been some kind of sainted super woman? A right pain in the you-know-what. With respect, she's such an opinionated old lady, learning jus how wrong she is about you could seriously damage her health. So shall we make a pact not to tell her?'
'Whereas your halo shines in the dark,' Caro came back, almost light-headedly, 'for all to see and wonder at.' It made her feel giddy, the way they were calling each other names, but oh, so very politely. She gripped her hands into fists, making her fingernails bite into the tender skin of her palms, primarily tc stop herself from bursting into hysterical laughter.
It wasn't funny.
'Yet at the moment you appear to believe it's tarnished.' He saw the traffic snarl-up ahead and made an avoiding left turn into a side street. 'Would you like to explain exactly what it is I did to Katie? Bui tell me, did she ever get around to doing something about that floral decorator's business she was so keen to set up?'
'I don't know what you're talking about.'
'No? Then Katie doesn't confide in you? I wonder why? Too much in awe of her brilliant big sister?'
'Hardly.' Remembering how Katie had always run to her with her problems, big or little—and mostly little—real or imaginary—and mostly always imaginary until Finn had entered her life and turned it sour—Caro sighed and Finn took his eyes off the now relatively quiet road ahead to shoot her a sardonic look.
'Hit a nerve? Does that mournful sigh mean a smidgen of contrition?'
'It means you're talking through the back of your head. I don't know whether you make a habit of it, but in this case I'm finding it a bit tedious. Get your facts straight, Finn.'
'And they are?'
He didn't sound so laid-back now. There was a very slight edge to his voice.
Caro gave him a quick appraising glance, found his profile an enigma as usual and let him have it in a voice as cool and impersonal as she could make it. 'Katie confides in me. Not in Gran—she's terrified of her. Not in Mum, either, because she tends to get in a flap. But she tells me things. Such as why she tried to drown herself.'
She heard the harsh, disbelieving inward drag of his breath and ignored it, reminding him, 'She was head over heels in love with you and believed you loved her. Do you always tell them you think you're falling in love? Have you found it the quickest way to get them into bed? It certainly worked with Katie, didn't it?'
Aware of the sudden brittleness that had appeared in her voice, of the interpretation he just might put on the reason for it, she smoothed down the sharp edges and swooped for the jugular. 'She could see no reason for living when she woke up one morning and saw your wedding photographs splashed all over the front of her newspaper. The fact that your bride was well and truly pregnant with your child didn't help much, either. I wanted to hurt you back. For her.'
His silence alarmed her; it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end. If he told her that it was all lies, that he barely knew Katie and certainly hadn't seduced her, she knew, to her eternal shame, she would believe him because she didn't want to believe he was that bad.
Much as she loved her younger sister, she had to admit that Katie had always had a penchant for self-dramatisation, a sometimes worrying habit of appearing to shut herself away in a dream world of her own making.
Believing him would free her up to admit her true feelings for him. She didn't want to do that, didn't want to fall in love with a man who really and truly disliked her because she had mentioned his still deeply mourned dead wife and sullied her memory by daring to speak of her.
The blistering silence continued and of course he could have been concentrating on his driving, but they were well on the open road now and the traffic was relatively light, so it looked as though he was trying to come t
o terms with what she'd told him, perhaps trying to dream up excuses and come up smelling of roses.
But she knew he couldn't even be bothered to do that when he said, 'We're about ten minutes away from the hospital. We're going to have to talk about what you've told me. But not right now.'
CHAPTER ELEVEN
'Too silly.' Emma Fair's eyes drifted shut at last, her lashes dark, fluttering smudges against her white skin. 'Daydreaming.'
Daydreaming and didn't see the other car rounding the bend in the narrow lane, her instinctive evasive action heading her straight into a high stone wall, according to the information Katie had given her.
'Don't try to talk, Mum. That's good; rest as much as you can,' Caro approved softly.