As soon as she could speak, she demanded fiercely, ‘What are you doing in here?’
‘Maud was worried about you. She felt someone should be with you.’ He gave a dispassionate shrug. ‘She was determined enough to do it herself, so I really had no option but to offer my services instead.’
He was standing beside her bed, making her feel ridiculously self-conscious, despite the residue of pain still lurking threateningly in her chest.
The pyjama bottoms he was wearing were obviously not his own, flannelette and voluminous, the legs too short despite the fact that the waist had dropped to his hips. Uncomfortably Rebecca was aware that, since she was lying facing him and he was standing up, unless she turned on to her other side or closed her eyes there was no way she could avoid the sight of his bare torso and flat, hard belly.
The dark line of hair that disappeared under the knotted cord of his borrowed pyjamas was causing the oddest sensations to gather ominously in the pit of her own stomach, sensations so intense that she instinctively slid her hand beneath the bedcovers and placed her palm firmly against her stomach as though to suppress them before giving in to the cowardly impulse to turn on to her other side and hope that he would go away.
He didn’t. Instead, shockingly, she felt the hard warmth of his palm on the cold flesh of her back, the firm stimulation of his hand not only rubbing away the cold but also easing the nagging pain from her tormented lungs.
Dizzily she wondered how he had known just how much she had needed to feel the comforting heat melting away her pain, and as though in answer he said quietly, ‘I had pneumonia once myself. Not very pleasant.’
‘No,’ Rebecca agreed shortly. She was having difficulty breathing, never mind speaking, and her difficulty had nothing at all to do with her illness. The sensation of his hard male palm moving rhythmically against her skin was doing far more than merely alleviating the pain in her lungs. The heat from the unexpected contact had spread right through her entire body, sending up a shocking frisson of sensation from the pit of her stomach.
All too uncomfortably conscious of the way her body was reacting to him and praying that he wouldn’t notice and start asking questions she could not answer, she was caught off guard when he invited casually, ‘Tell me again what you were doing in the mill pond.’
What she was doing? Baffled, she focused on him, forgetting the dangers of doing so.
It had been a long time since she had been as close to him as this. The last time…the last time must have been the day of her eighteenth birthday, when he had kissed her…not as she had longed for him to kiss her in her fevered adolescent dreams, but not quite either, surely, in a way that was totally non-sexual.
Then, though, they had both been fully dressed, and she had not been anything like as aware of her own sensuality and needs. Abruptly she tried to focus on his question.
‘You know what I was doing. Peter’s jacket…’
There was a pause. Frazer’s hand was removed, and shockingly his hands were on her upper arms, turning her to face him.
‘Liar,’ he said calmly ‘It wasn’t Peter’s jacket that took you into the water at all, was it? It was the fact that you thought Peter was inside it.’
Her face gave her away, even before she whispered betrayingly, ‘How did you guess?’
‘I didn’t,’he told her curtly, his expression darkening. ‘The twins told me. They hadn’t realised until I arrived on the scene just what danger you were in. They’d been so subdued all evening, I guessed something was going on. When I tackled them about it they told me the truth.’
All of it? Rebecca wondered, then got her answer when Frazer continued grimly, ‘I’ve made sure that they’re now fully aware of the dangers of playing that kind of game, and that, while it might originally have seemed a good idea to tease you by pretending Peter had fallen in the water, it could have resulted in terrible tragedy.’
‘Did they tell you why they were teasing me?’ Rebecca asked him, deliberately pulling free of his hold and looking away from him.
‘Oh, apparently they got impatient because you were late joining them.’
So they hadn’t told him! She had suspected not. After all, they must both have realised by now, after hearing the way Frazer reacted to her, that they need have no fears that she was going to come between them.
‘It’s a pity that Maud saw fit to dismiss Carole. Maud thinks they ought to be sent to boarding school.’
‘No!’ Rebecca interrupted him vehemently, surprising herself as much as she obviously had him. He was frowning at her, and yet at the same time there was a look in his eyes that made her heart thud uncomfortably.
‘So protective of them. Why? Or can I guess? They’re Rory’s children, therefore…’
‘That has nothing to do with it,’ Rebecca denied angrily. ‘The twins are obviously insecure and afraid. That’s what makes them react the way they do. They’re constantly testing the adults around them, searching for proof that they’re loved and wanted. If you send them away they’ll interpret that as another rejection. It’s bad enough that they hardly ever see their parents.’
‘You and Robert attending boarding schools,’ Frazer pointed out.
‘Robert and I knew that our parents loved us. They were very careful to explain why it was necessary for them to be away, and when they did come home they made sure that we knew how much they loved us. Peter and Helen haven’t mentioned their parents once since I’ve been here. They’ve talked about you…’She bit her lip, remembering how sometimes she wished they would not, because even hearing the sound of his name had the power to hurt her, especially now that she was here living in his home.
She saw that Frazer was frowning.
‘You sound very convincing.’
‘Children are my job,’ she reminded him tiredly. ‘Which was why Aunt Maud rang me and asked me to come up here.’
‘Is it?’ The dry tone of his voice and the way he looked at her made her skin burn.
Half of her wanted to challenge him and ask what other possible reason there could be, but she didn’t have the courage, so she said jerkily instead, ‘I warned her that you wouldn’t want me here, but…’ She shivered suddenly and saw his frown deepen.
‘Stop talking and go back to sleep. I don’t want the doctor accusing me of neglecting you to such an extent that you’re getting worse and not better.’
‘No,’ she agreed wryly. ‘The sooner I’m better and able to leave, the happier you’ll be. I’m well aware of that fact, Frazer.’
She lay down and started to pull the bedclothes up around her, tensing when her fingers tangled with Frazer’s and were pushed unceremoniously out of the way as he took the covers from her and firmly and efficiently tucked them round her.
As he saw the astonishment widening her eyes, he reminded her drolly, ‘You’re not the only one with parenting experience, you know.’
And then, just as he was about to move away, he added in a completely different tone, ‘I suppose I have to thank the fact that you’re not well for your amazing self-denial in not reminding me that I now owe you an apology. I had no idea that you actually thought it was Peter in the pool. Why didn’t you tell me?’
Gravely Rebecca met the look he was giving her and said quietly, ‘There didn’t seem much point.’
It was silly that, where she should have felt triumph, all she could feel was a sudden painful sadness and an aching wish that it was somehow possible for them to wipe out the last few years and start again.
CHAPTER FIVE
’SHUSH! Uncle Frazer said we weren’t to wake her up!’
Reluctantly Rebecca opened her eyes. The twins were standing beside her bed staring down at her, and her glance was drawn past them to the narrow camp bed where Frazer had spent the night. Her heart thumped erratically, her emotions and senses affected by the memory of him.
‘Aunt Maud says that you’re very poorly and that you mustn’t be disturbed,’ Peter informed her, staring curiou
sly at her.
‘And I said, I think, that you two weren’t to come up here and wake Rebecca up,’ said Frazer from the door.