Prue eyed him blandly out of the comer of her eye; Josh sensed as much and turned his head to look at her, his mouth hard. ,
'Why can't you say who you're meeting?' he still insisted to Lynsey.
'Oh, Caroline, if you absolutely must know!'
'Why all the secrecy about meeting Caroline?' he demanded, and Prue watched Lynsey in the wing mirror, wondering if it was really this Caroline she was meeting, or if she had rapidly invented that story to placate her brother?
'Why do I always have to tell you everything I'm doing?' Lynsey muttered.
He made an impatient face. 'Oh, well! Don't be late back, then!'
'Nag, nag, nag.'
&n
bsp; 'You know Mother will start worrying if you're out for hours, and we don't know where you are!'
A heavy sigh was all the answer he got, and he drove in silence for ten minutes. When they entered the village at the heart of the valley, Lynsey said quickly, 'Drop me at the post office, would you? I promised David I'd buy him a postcard of the village.'
Prue gave her a startled look. David? Lynsey used his name pretty casually, considering they had only met for the first time today, and just for five minutes too! Had he really asked Lynsey to buy him a postcard? Or had she offered to? Lynsey ignored her, seemingly unaware of her frowning scrutiny.
Josh stopped the car and Lynsey got out, slamming the door behind her. As they drove on, Prue glanced back and saw Lynsey going into the post office. The Killanes were an interfering family! What did Lynsey think she was doing, chatting David up, taking him flowers, buying things for him? Prue felt guilty because she should have thought of asking David if he needed anything instead of quarrelling with him over his parents, and guilt made her angry with Lynsey for having the cheek to do what Prue should have done.
'Is your sister in training to be a social worker?' she asked Josh coldly.
'Miaow;' he said, grinning, but she decided to ignore that.
'When exactly does she go back to her college?'
'Oh, soon, don't worry.' He seemed to find all this very amusing; Prue didn't.
'I am not worrying,' she said with dignity, and he laughed, which somewhat spoiled the effect.
'Oh, no?'
'No!' she insisted.
'Sure you aren't jealous because she's taking an interest in your fiancé?'
'She's just a kid,' Prue dismissed. 'Does she often get crushes on people? I know some teenagers do.'
'Would you call her a teenager?'
'She's eighteen, what else could you call her?'
He turned in through the gates of the farm, considering that question.
'Well, I'd have said Lynsey was a young woman—she's legally of age and could get married, drive a car or fight for her country, so I don't think I'd call her a teenager.' He pulled up outside the house and turned in his seat to face Prue, his face quizzical. 'Take no notice of her. She's romantic by nature. Your fiancé's not bad-looking, he's lying helpless in a hospital bed and he's far away from has home and family—that makes him irresistible to a girl like my sister! '
Prue listened and watched him, for view of him breaking up and reforming in a dizzying fashion. Sometimes she wished she had a gun to shoot him with, yet sometimes, as now, he was gentle and thoughtful and kind. The Killlanes were a puzzling faintly; an enigma.
He gave her a crooked little smile, one eyebrow slanting upwards.
'What's on your mind now?'
'Sorry?' She started, looking into his jet-black eyes and seeing little golden flecks around the pupil which she had never noticed before—had they been there? or was it the reflection of the autumn sun she was seeing?
'You were staring at me in an odd way,' he said softly, looking deep into her green eyes, his face very close.