Seductive Stranger

'It's nice to see you home again, Prue,' Lucy Killane said, her voice warm as melted honey—but how real was the sweetness?

'I'm happy to be home.' Prue's glance slid sideways to the other person in the hall, a girl sitting on a red velvet-covered chair, her eyes on her own two hands, which were clasped around her knees. Prue recognised her, too—it was the girl who had been with her father that morning. What had he called her?

'Do you remember my daughter, Lynsey?' asked Lucy Killane, noticing where Prue was looking, and Prue couldn't help giving Josh a quick flick of her angry green eyes. His sister? Not his girlfriend?

What had all that been about, then, yesterday morning? What had Lynsey Killane done? He had been so angry and the girl had been so defiant as he'd hustled her away.

'I think so,' Prue said slowly, beginning to remember a much younger girl, skinny and slight with huge eyes. Lynsey Killane had made so little impact that Prue had forgotten about her altogether until now.

'You were much older,' agreed Mrs Killane. ' Lynsey's just eighteen, now.'

'Hello,' Prue said to the other girl, and Lynsey nodded, looking up.

'Hi.' She wasn't exactly unfriendly, but she made it clear that Prue was out of her age group, not someone who could ever become a close friend, which meant that Lynsey couldn't be bothered with her. After giving Prue that cool look, she turned her head to watch the log fire, her long black lashes lying against her cheek, showing Prue her immaculate profile—delicate, half childlike, very lovely.

'What can I get you to drink?' asked Josh, and Prue accepted a sherry, amber-gold and very sweet.

'Come and sit near the fire,' said Mrs Killane. 'We like sitting in the hall; it can get too cold in winter, but at this time of year it is perfect with a big fire, and we have plenty of logs to burn. Josh thins out the timber from time to time. We replace each tree with a sapling, of course; timber is a valuable part of our income, you have to manage the forestry properly.' She was talking huskily, sounding a little nervous.

'She isn't interested in estate management. Mother,' Josh said drily.

'Oh, but I am,' said Prue, not quite honestly, and wondered yet again at her unvarying impulse to annoy him. He gave her a look that told her he had noticed, she needn't think he hadn't, and he didn't like it—or her—much! She gave him a sweet smile that told him it was mutual—she didn't like him much, either!

Nobody else seemed to be aware of their silent exchange of hostility, although to Prue it was as obvious as a ten-foot wall.

'What a pity about your fiancé,' said Lucy Killane, politely changing the subject anyway, 'I hope he isn't too badly injured?'

'I hope so, too,' Prue said, on a sudden sigh, partly out of guilt because she was spending more time hating Josh Killane than she was thinking about David. '1 should have rung his parents and told them,'

she thought aloud, 'but 1 wanted to wait until 1 knew for certain how he was ... I don't want them to drop everything and fly over here if David really isn't badly hurt, but on the other hand, if it is serious I know they'd never forgive me if they weren't told. I'm seeing him tomorrow, and I'll ring them afterwards.'

'Where do they live?' Mrs Killane asked:

'Sydney; very near where we lived.' That reminded her of her mother, she frowned and met the other woman's eyes; saw a faint flicker of uneasiness in those dark depths. Lucy Killane was thinking about her mother, too! A telepathic flash passed between them and Lucy Killane paled a little.

Prue went on flatly, 'They were good friends to my mother and me.

After she was killed, I don't know what I would have done without them.

'So you've known your fiancé for quite a while,' said josh, and she nodded. 'A boy and girl affair!' he added drily, making her bristle.

'We're hardly teenagers!'

'He drives like a teenager.'

'That's unfair; just because he had an accident. 'He crashed because he wasn't looking where he was going!'

'How do you know why he crashed?'

'Because I saw him kissing you as he came over the top of that hill!'

Prue felt herself flush hotly. 'He didn't...' But she wasn't sure if that was the truth or not; she couldn't actually remember what had been happening in the few moments before the car veered wildly across the road. The shock of the crash had wiped out everything but a vision of Josh Killane's angry, tightened features flashing past them, her own scream of fear, David's shaken exclamation and then the impact as the car hit the stone wall.

'Josh! Stop being so aggressive!' Mrs Killane said anxiously, frowning at her son, whose mouth indented as he shrugged.

'You seem to forget, I could have been put into hospital myself—or killed! And all because this guy hadn't got his mind on the road.'

'Prue is our guest!' his mother warned, looking unhappily at Prue.