They had muffins with the twins at five o’clock and it was obvious the two little girls were tired out even then. By six they’d had their bath and were in their pyjamas snuggled down in bed, looking impossibly angelic as Kay kissed them goodnight.
‘Where’s Uncle Mitchell?’ Georgia asked sleepily as Kay dimmed the light. ‘Isn’t he going to kiss us goodnight?’
‘Not tonight, darling, he’s talking to Grandma and Henry.’ Kay had made it clear—not so much by what she’d said as what she hadn’t—that she intended to settle the children down herself without any help before she had left the drawing room. She had seen Mitchell look at her intently, his eyes searching her face, but he hadn’t objected or attempted to follow her.
It had only been a few days but already Georgia and Emily were far too fond of Mitchell, Kay told herself as she walked slowly down the stairs to join the others. She had to calm things down, put an emotional brake on the proceedings. She had been so determined to prevent anything but the most fleeting of exchanges between Mitchell and her children in the last two months, and now here they all were actually living in his house! It was ironic in the extreme. But it couldn’t continue. They couldn’t continue.
The thought hit her hard and she bit her lip. He had been very kind to her, to all of them, and she appreciated it, she did really, but it didn’t alter the facts. She had been crazy to start seeing him in the first place and now suddenly it had mushroomed into a giant tangle. The bottom line was he wanted her in his bed with no involvement other than a sexual one. She knew that, she had always known it, so all this was no one’s fault but hers.
He had tried to seduce her in a hundred little ways, in fact just being with him was a seduction all in itself, but he hadn’t lied to her. He had laid it on the line from the beginning; he’d been positively barefaced about his intentions. It wasn’t comforting at all.
As she reached the drawing-room door she heard her mother laugh from within, a warm, carefree laugh that was almost a giggle. Kay stopped, her heart thumping. It had been years since she’d heard that laugh—the last time had been when her father was still alive, in fact.
In spite of her father’s foolishness with money and his last disastrous run of speculating, which had resulted in her mother being left virtually destitute, Kay knew her parents had loved each other deeply. They had shared the sort of ‘till death do us part’ type of love she’d imagined she and Perry had got, but with her parents it had been real.
Now her mother was laughing with Henry. Kay’s brow wrinkled. Did it mean…? And then she caught her racing thoughts, which had galloped ahead to picture them walking down the aisle.
For goodness’ sake, she told herself sternly, her mother and Mitchell’s housekeeper had only known each other for a few days; she mustn’t read too much into something as unimportant as a laugh. She had been speaking the truth wh
en she’d told Mitchell she was glad they liked each other, and if it did develop into something more she would still be glad. But only time would tell.
Nevertheless, Kay found she had to stand for a full minute composing herself before she felt able to open the door and join the others.
Why was life so complicated and up in the air? she asked herself, stitching a bright smile on her face as she entered the warmth of the drawing room. And then she glanced across and met Mitchell’s darkly brooding gaze from the other side of the room, and she had her answer,
CHAPTER EIGHT
WITH Henry and her mother present, Kay found it wasn’t difficult to act a part for the rest of the evening. She managed to mention, fairly casually, that the twins had an invitation to a friend’s birthday party in a day or two, so she felt it best they return home the day after Boxing Day. They were all so grateful for Mitchell’s open-handed kindness, she emphasised carefully, but they must have inconvenienced him dreadfully, and now everyone was back on their feet it was better to get back to normal.
Mitchell had smiled an easy reply with his mouth but his features had been as flint-hard as his eyes, and she had tried to avoid meeting his gaze for the rest of the evening.
At eleven o’clock, when her mother had yawned for the hundredth time and had made noises about going to bed, Kay had leapt to join her, sticking to Leonora like glue as they said their goodnights to the men and then climbed the stairs to the bedrooms.
‘Okay, what’s wrong?’ As they reached the landing Leonora took her daughter’s arm, pulling her up short when Kay would have just said goodnight and entered her room. ‘Have you two had a row or something?’
‘More a something.’
‘Why? When?’ Leonora whispered. ‘I thought we’d all been together today. When did you fit a row in?’
‘I told you, we haven’t rowed. It’s just…’ Kay didn’t know how to put it but she knew with absolute certainty her mother would favour Mitchell whatever she said. ‘Mitchell’s not looking for any sort of ongoing relationship,’ she hissed quietly, glancing back down the shadowed landing as though he were going to leap out any moment. ‘And I don’t want the twins confused and upset when he’s not on the scene any more. They’re growing too fond of him.’
‘Who says he’s planning not to be on the scene any more?’ her mother asked, reasonably enough, Kay supposed.
‘Me. Him. Oh…’ Kay gazed at her mother irritably. ‘He’s made it clear his intentions are strictly dishonourable, okay? A few weeks or months or whatever of warming his sheets and having ‘fun’—’ she was beginning to really loathe that word ‘—and then bye-bye with no regrets on either side. That’s how he operates. He spelled it out to me when we first started seeing each other, if you want to know.’
‘And you still agreed to see him?’ Leonora asked expressionlessly.
‘Not exactly.’ Kay bit on her lower lip. ‘It wasn’t like that. He just wouldn’t take no for an answer and insisted we could date as friends. I said it was a mad idea, but—’
‘He talked you round.’
‘Yes.’ Kay shrugged her shoulders helplessly.
‘Are you sleeping with him?’
It wasn’t like Leonora to ask personal questions of such a nature. Kay stared at her mother for a few moments before she said, ‘No, I am not sleeping with him.’
‘But you want to,’ Leonora blithely stated.