Seductive Stranger

'They still call one of the wards Killane,' he said. 'And I'm on several committees concerned with the day-to-day running of the place, so I knew that all I had to do was ring the head porter, Phil Maley—he knows everything that goes on in the hospital. I asked if Lynsey had arrived yet, and he cheerfully told me she'd already collected your fiancé.' Josh smiled; it wasn't a very pleasant smile and Prue winced.

'He thought I knew all about it, of course! He knows your father is my tenant and it seemed very natural that Lynsey should drive over to pick your fiancé up.'

'Well, isn't it?' Prue burst out.

Josh shook his head. 'No, that…'

She broke in angrily, 'Why not? Why shouldn't she have called in by chance, discovered that David could leave at once, and offered him a lift back to the farm? That must be what's happened.' Her voice picked up, she almost smiled. 'Yes, that's it! Probably, your sister is taking the long way round from the hospital . . . sightseeing . . . she may have called in somewhere else, on friends, not realising that David is still weak and should go straight to bed. I'd say that that is the most plausible explanation.'

Josh gave her a wry smile. 'Plausible maybe, but it isn't true, I'm afraid!'

'How can you possibly know?' she asked, dreading his answer.

Josh pulled a crumpled letter out of his pocket and Prue's eyes focused on it blindly, her face growing even whiter.

'Lynsey gave this to a nurse to post. When I went over to the hospital, they gave it to me.'

He held it out but Prue didn't take it, shaking her head. 'I don't want to read your letter! What does she say?'

'It wasn't addressed to me, and it isn't from Lynsey.'

'You said Lynsey gave it to a nurse to post!'

'She did, but she didn't write the letter. He did. They meant it to be posted, so that you wouldn't get it until tomorrow morning/ His mouth was cynical, distasteful. 'They wanted to make sure of getting away before anyone found out what they were planning.' He pushed the envelope at Prue, and this time she took it with trembling fingers and turned it over and over, staring down at it.

'You've opened it!'

'And read it,' said Josh coolly. 'I had to know what it said.'

'You had no right to open a letter addressed to me!'

'I was in a hurry. I didn't know what was going on, I just knew that my sister was up to something. I even wondered if you and your fiancé had both gone with Lynsey, if you were in some sort of conspiracy to spirit her away so that she didn't have to go back to university! But when I was given that letter, I realised they wouldn't be writing to you if you were going off with them, so I opened the letter and read it.'

Prue unfolded the crumpled paper and stared at David's sprawling, untidy handwriting. She was in such a state that she could hardly make out one word in three, but the word sorry leapt out at her over and over again. She read it, and lifted her head, her face stricken.

'He says they're in love . . .'

'I know, I read it, remember!' Josh interrupted impatiently.

'They're getting married right away, as soon as they can get a licence,'

she said over him, as if he hadn't spoken, and then she laughed with bitter irony. 'We've been engaged for a year! For one reason or another, it was never the right time to get married, and we were quite happy to wait; after all, we had all our lives ahead of us.' She held up the letter, staring at Josh. 'But he wants to marry her at once!'

'Not if I can stop it,' Josh said, watching her tensely.

'But I don't understand any of it,' Prue said, her green eyes bewildered. .'They barely now each other! David's been in hospital ever since we got here - and I've been visiting him every day. How can they be in love?'

Josh's face was d

ark with angry blood. 'Lynsey has been visiting him too, ever since that first time, when she took him those flowers. She obviously took one look and fell for him. My God, if I'd known I'd have packed her off to university again before her feet could touch the ground, but then she knew how I'd feel if I ever found out. She took great trouble to hide:, what she was up to!' Josh gave a thick groan.

'She seems to have made the running, it may not be his fault as much as hers.' The admission was reluctant, irritated, and then he burst out,

'Although how he could dump you to run off with an eighteen-year-old girl, God only knows.'

The word 'dump' made Prue wince; her pallor growing more pronounced and her green eyes all dilated pupil; black with pain.

'He was probably flattered,' Josh said, mouth twisting. 'Most men would be—Lynsey's beautiful, even if she is Just a kid. Having her throwing herself at him must have turned his head, not that that excuses what he's done. He should have known better, he's years older than her, and they hardly know each other, even if she has been visiting him every day for the last couple of weeks.'