Millionaire's Woman

‘Longer than that.’ Kate munched on a mouthful of cheese torte for a moment.‘Actually,’ she said,looking him in the eye, ‘I’ve left London for good. I live here now.’

He stared at her incredulously. ‘Alone?’

‘No.’ She held the hard gaze steadily. ‘I live with my niece.’

‘Ah, I see.’ His eyes softened. ‘I was very sorry about your sister. Tragic accident.’ He raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘But I’m curious, Kate. What brought you back to this neck of the woods? At one time you couldn’t get away fast enough.’

‘My aunt left me a house here in Park Crescent. When Elizabeth and Robert were killed—’

‘I was at the funeral.’

She stared at him, startled. ‘Were you? I didn’t see you.’

He shrugged. ‘It seemed like a bad time to intrude. But I was there.’

‘Why, thank you, Jack, that was very kind,’ she said quietly. ‘After it was over I brought my niece to stay here with Anna and Ben. Joanna was desperate to leave London after her parents died, and she liked it here so much I resigned my job, sold my flat and moved to Park Crescent to make a home for her.’

‘Amazing.’ Jack’s eyes were cold. ‘Not,’ he added, ‘the admirable aim to make a home for your niece, but to provide it here instead of London. At one time a career there was all you wanted in life. You thought I was mad to stay here and work with my father.’

Kate shrugged. ‘It was your choice to make. Mine was different.’

‘Obviously the right one. I heard you climbed pretty far up the tree in your job. Was your niece your only reason for leaving it?’

‘It was the deciding factor, yes, but I’d had a move in mind for a while.The chain of department stores I worked for merged with a bigger outfit a while back. I stayed on for a year or so after the takeover, but it wasn’t the same with the new regime. So when Liz and Robert died I decided to accept the company’s very generous pay-off and make a life for Jo back here.’

‘So what will you do now? Look for a job here in town?’

‘I’ve already sorted one,’ she said, and got up with her empty plate. ‘Can I get you some pudding?’

He stood up. ‘Let me bring some for you.’

She shook her head. ‘No, thanks, Jack, I must get back to the fray. In case you didn’t know, Anna gave the party just for me—a sort of welcome home for the prodigal.’

‘I did know. Lucy Beresford told me.’

She gave him a mocking smile. ‘Yet you still came?’

‘It was the sole reason why I came. I rarely go to parties, let alone turn up at one uninvited. Tonight curiosity won over manners.’ His eyes locked with hers. ‘I’m glad it did. It’s good to see you again, Kate.’

‘You too, Jack.’ Kate gave him a cool little smile, and hurried back to the sanctuary of the dining room.

‘There you are, Kate.’ Anna trickled damson sauce over two plates of hazelnut meringues and handed them over. ‘I promised Richard you’d join him to eat these.’

‘Richard,’ repeated Kate blankly.

‘Richard Forster, the man I invited for you!’

‘Are you matchmaking again?’ said Kate, exasperated. ‘Give it up, Anna. It’s no sin to be single and thirty-something.’

‘Thirty-four, if we’re counting,’ Anna reminded her. ‘And I’m not asking you to marry the man, just talk to him for a bit. You’ve hardly spoken two words to him yet.’

‘Sorry, sorry, situation remedied right now.’ Kate went off to hunt down her quarry and found him in the conservatory, looking out at the moonlit garden. ‘Hi,’ she said, handing him a plate. ‘I hope you like this kind of thing.’

In actual fact Richard Forster actively disliked sweet things, but wasn’t fool enough to refuse food, or anything else, offered by a woman like Kate Durant.

‘Thank you.’ He began on his meringues with apparent relish while he asked her how

she was settling back into small town life after her years in the capital.