‘Nigel promised you to me for two to three weeks,’ Zach reminded her.
‘But we’ve finished the chapters.’
‘We could do some more. Nigel would be delighted if we did.’
Tamara couldn’t deny that.
‘Why the rush to get away?’ Zach asked her softly. ‘I could feel mortally offended, especially when I’ve gone to the trouble of inviting your fiancé over here this morning.’
Tamara choked on her coffee, her face devoid of all colour. Malcolm here! She closed her eyes in anguish. Dear God, what was she going to do? The fabrication of her engagement wouldn’t last a second in Zach’s probing presence, and once that was gone he was fully capable of rending into shreds what was left of her pride and self-respect, to say nothing of discovering about his baby. Her hand went to her stomach.
‘Thinking today might be a good time to tell him, with witnesses there to make sure he does the right thing?’ Zach goaded, noticing the betraying gesture.
‘I hate you!’ Tamara burst out impulsively, pushing back her chair and rushing out of the room. ‘I hate you!’
Upstairs she thought wildly of simply walking out and driving off in her car, but some inherent and stubborn streak of courage would not let her. If she was to be denounced and humiliated then let her at least have the guts to face up to it.
The morning dragged by. It was just after eleven when Tamara heard the sound of horses’ hooves on the gravel drive. She was standing in the hall, almost rooted to the spot, two bright coins of colour burning in her cheeks, when Zach observed lazily,
‘Well, aren’t you going to go and say hello to him?’
Moving like a robot, Tamara walked towards the door. For a moment the sunlight dazzled her as she stepped outside and towards the drive.
‘Tamara! Good God, what on earth are you doing here?’
Tamara looked upwards, shielding her eyes. Malcolm was riding the hunter he kept in his parents’ stables and alongside him, looking very trim and supercilious, sat Karen Austruther on an obviously highly-strung thoroughbred mare.
Tamara, who liked horses but was faintly alarmed by them, stepped back instinctively, her eyes widening in sudden fear as Karen’s horse suddenly reared, pawing the air, the sharp whistle of her crop as it sliced through the air and across the animal’s flanks bringing it forward in a furious bound, its eyes rolling threateningly.
What happened next was a confused blur to Tamara afterwards. One moment she was a safe distance away from the horses, trying to think of how she was going to explain her presence to Malcolm, without betraying to Zach that their engagement was over, the next, she was staring upwards in terror while Karen’s horse reared over her, its hooves glinting in the sunshine as it came down over her, slowly … slowly … and she was unable to move.
‘Mellors!’ It was Zach’s voice, furious and authoritative, that broke the paralysing spell; his arms that snatched her from danger to deposit her, trembling uncontrollably, a safe distance away from the prancing animal.
‘For God’s sake, man,’ she heard Zachary saying angrily, ‘why the hell didn’t you do something? She could have been killed!’
Karen’s acid laughter filtered into the morning air. ‘Don’t be ridiculous! She wasn’t in any real danger. She ought to have moved out of the way. She doesn’t begin to know the first thing about horses, that’s all.’
They all stopp
ed talking as a car suddenly came down the drive. On a wave of relief Tamara recognised Nigel’s BMW and started to hurry unsteadily towards it as it came to a halt and Nigel climbed out.
‘Tamara, my dear girl. … I wrapped up the Italian business sooner than I anticipated and decided to come and see how things were going here.’
‘She’s just had an unpleasant shock,’ Zach explained quietly. ‘I believe you were just about to leave,’ he added implacably to Malcolm and Karen.
‘But I wanted to talk to you about the hunt,’ Malcolm blustered. ‘See here … I think it’s time you began to see reason. There are people living round here who don’t care much for the idea of having a gang of young hooligans about the place …’
‘Yes,’ Karen piped up in shrill tones. ‘My father is a J.P. and he doesn’t approve at all. It’s just not the done thing round here, I can assure you.’
‘No?’ It seemed to Tamara that Zach’s voice was dangerously quiet, and she shivered within the protection of Nigel’s supporting arm. ‘Well I can assure you, Miss … whatever your name is, that there are people round here who have a damned sight more compassion for their fellow human beings than you appear to have, and they have a hell of a lot more pull than your father.’
Karen wheeled her horse round and cantered down the drive, Malcolm following her.
‘Do you honestly think you can be happy with that life; with those narrow-minded views?’ Zach demanded harshly of Tamara as he drew level with her. ‘Because I damned well don’t!’
She couldn’t look at him. She turned to Nigel and said painfully, ‘I want to go home. Please can we?’
CHAPTER TEN