The Ultimate Choice

'It wasn't really stealing,' Kelly pleaded. 'Grandpa and Judge Moffat took him because of your deal with the Russians. They were going to ransom him back to you…well,

not exactly ransom him… but kind of like Rasputin. Make you see reason…'

Justin's mouth thinned and Kelly plunged further into explanation, frantic to appease his wrath. 'Grandpa and the judge have been in the sheep business all their lives. They thought you were being very unpatriotic to sell our best bloodline to the Russians through the ewes. They're old men, Justin. They didn't think straight. And when all the fuss started, they didn't know what to do. Their pride wouldn't let them back down. And they couldn't get Octavian Augustus away with the search going on…'

'So they sent you up here.'

The words were a stinging indictment and a murderous rage suffused his face. He wrenched himself away from her and was off the bed before Kelly could utter a protest. He towered over her, emanating all the ruthless power that Kelly had sensed in him on their first meeting. And it paralysed her, strangling any word she might have said, thwarting any move she might have made.

'Get your clothes on, Kelly,' he commanded with icy, blistering authority.

'No,' she croaked, driven out of her shock by the dire necessity to fight his judgement. 'You don't understand…'

He dragged her out of his bed and set her on her feet. 'I was right when I said I was a fool this afternoon,' he grated, his eyes mincing her into contemptible little pieces. 'Let's not labour the point.'

'But that's not how it is!' Kelly cried in desperate denial.

His face tightened against any plea. 'Don't waste your breath. Or any more time. Get dressed.'

He turned away from her, snatched up the telephone, and punched out some buttons. His curt order for his car to be brought up to the house forced Kelly into action. She gathered up her clothes and took them into the bathroom, momentarily defeated by his pointed admonition not to waste any more time.

Guilt weighed heavily upon her. She should have told him about Octavian Augustus the Fourth sooner… had the search called off…disposed of the problem that was costing so much time and effort and anxiety. It had been crowded out of her mind by other more urgent, more important matters. She had to make Justin understand that. But it was painfully obvious that he was not prepared to listen.

The probability was that, the more she tried to say, the worse the situation would become. The assumption he had leapt to seemed all too credible in the circumstances. She could only hope that Justin would not be able to reject the truth of what they had shared when he had more time to reflect on it.

Meanwhile, there was one thing she had to make clear so that he would not expend his fury on her grandfather and Judge Moffat.

He was dressed when she emerged from the bathroom. A mixture of antagonism and intense bitterness glared at her. Kelly's stomach heaved with nervous apprehension. No way would he let her near him again. Not in his present mood. How she was going to soften him she didn't know…

'Grandpa and Judge Moffat didn't send me up here, Justin,' she said as steadily as she could. 'I came because I… because I wanted to. They didn't think it was a good idea at all.'

'But you knew better,' he lashed at her. 'I give you full marks for persistence, Kelly. You stop at nothing when you want to win.'

The sting of his words goaded her into another appeal. 'Justin, I love you…'

His mouth twisted in savage mockery. 'Don't worry. I'll serve your purpose. And then you can serve mine.'

Kelly flinched at the hard contempt in his voice. 'I never…'

'The car is waiting. And so is your grandfather. Not to mention everyone else who is engaged on a futile and misleading search. We'll have time for more words later. The rest of our lives together.'

He opened the bedroom door and waved her out.

Kelly moved, aware that any more argument was useless. Whatever Justin thought now, at least he was granting her some intercession for her grandfather and Judge Moffat. And that gave her another chance to prove the sincerity of her feelings for him.

The car was waiting for them at the front steps. Kelly tensed as Justin spoke to Roy Farley, but he merely announced his intention to take her home. He did not even mention Octavian Augustus the Fourth. But, to Kelly's leaping apprehension, Justin's face was as pale and immobile as marble when he turned back to her and performed the courtesy of seeing her into the car.

The drive down to her grandfather's house was short in distance but long in dreadful silence. Kelly wanted to ask Justin his intentions, but the expression he wore was too forbidding. He had shut himself off from her before, but this time she felt there was a solid, unbreachable wall around him.

He parked the car beside Judge Moffat's. Anxious to get the worst over, Kelly leapt out and led the way up the veranda steps, down the hallway and into the kitchen. Justin St John followed in her footsteps. As they entered the room, her grandfather and Judge Moffat hastily pushed themselves to their feet. Their faces underwent a wild spectrum of expressions from startled surprise to embarrassed guilt, before settling into stubborn righteousness.

Octavian Augustus the Fourth looked up in mild interest at the sudden bustle of activity around him.

'Justin, I would like you to meet my grandfather…' Kelly began shakily.

Justin nodded curtly, not offering his hand.

'…and his good friend, Judge Moffat,' Kelly finished, shrivelling inside at Justin's unforgiving manner.