‘Hey! Hold on, Kate,’ he interrupted, frowning. ‘I have no intention of working in London.’
‘But Jack,’ she said, taken aback, ‘you’ll have to when I get a job there.’
‘Look, sweetheart,’ he said, trying hard to be reasonable, ‘Dad and I have big plans for Logan and Son. Even if I wanted to, which I most definitely do not, I couldn’t desert him now, just when things are really starting to take off.’
Kate stared at him in blank dismay. ‘But you’ve always known what I wanted to do.’
Jack held on to his temper with difficulty. ‘I thought you wanted to marry me.’
‘I do want to marry you! But I want a career in London at the same time. We could both have one, Jack.’ She looked at him in pleading. ‘I’m sure your father wouldn’t hold you back if he knew how you feel.’
‘You mean how you feel,’ Jack told her shortly, then took her by the shoulders before laying it on the line. ‘Listen, Kate, I couldn’t stand being a little cog in some big company’s machine. I want to build up my own outfit, not just for my father’s sake, but for mine. I intend to run my own show one day. If you love me, stay and help me.’
But Kate was already sliding the ring from her finger, tears pouring down her face as she held it out. ‘I do love you—I’m crazy about you. But you’d better hang on to the ring for a while because I really need to do something with my life before I settle down here for good. I’m not ready for that yet,Jack.’
Too proud and hurt to argue, Jack had put the ring away and driven Kate home, sure that parting without even a goodnight kiss would make her so miserable she’d change her mind by morning. But the morning post had brought Kate requests for interviews from two London-based companies. Soon afterwards she was accepted by one of them as a management trainee, and rang Jack in excitement to tell him. He wished her good luck, but to her utter dismay refused to meet her to celebrate.
‘I don’t see the point,’ he said tersely. ‘You’ve made your choice, and I’m keeping to mine.’
‘Shall I see you when I’m down next, then?’
But proud, obstinate and desperately hurt, Jack answered in a way that changed both their lives. ‘No point in that either, in the circumstances.’
He heard her draw in a deep, unsteady breath, and waited, his tension mounting. ‘I see,’ she said in a dead little voice. ‘If that’s how you feel we’d better make it a clean break, then. Goodbye.’
Three months later Jack married Dawn Taylor, daughter of the landlord of the Rose and Crown.
CHAPTER TWO
IN ANNA’S guest room Kate lay equally sleepless, wishing she’d gone home. At least there she could have made tea, or gone on painting her sitting room. She sighed and thumped her pillow for the umpteenth time. It was Jack Logan’s fault. Though to be fair, she reminded herself irritably, chance encounters with him were factors she’d dismissed as unimportant when she made the decision to return here. During her one visit home after leaving to start the new job she hadn’t tried to contact him, and Robert and Elizabeth had moved to London soon afterwards. Kate’s next visit had been years later, when the Maitlands bought a house in the area after Ben was head-hunted by a firm of local architects. There’d been occasional visits to Anna and Ben since, but from the day she’d given his ring back Kate had never laid eyes on Jack Logan again until tonight.
She stared into the darkness. He’d changed quite a bit. Which was no surprise. He’d packed a lot into his life in the years since their last meeting—not only the hard work which had brought him such meteoric success, but marriage and divorce along the way. Kate’s eyes kindled. She was human enough to feel glad his marriage hadn’t lasted. She’d never been able to think of it without a stab of pain. Jack had broken her heart in pieces when he married Dawn Taylor.
Kate was still thinking about this when she went downstairs next morning to make tea. The house was quiet and the kitchen immaculate, all traces of the party removed the night before by the catering firm. She looked up with a smile as Anna came in, yawning.
‘I thought I heard you, Kate. Why so early?’
‘I didn’t get much sleep last night. Nothing to do with the bed,’ Kate added hastily.
‘But a lot to do with Jack Logan. Sorry, love, if I’d had the least idea that he was the secret lover—’
‘Ex-lover.’
‘Whatever. I’d have given you advance warning.’
‘Did you know about his divorce?’
‘No; I don’t know much about him at all, other than his success with these restoration projects of his. Everything he touches seems to turn to gold. They call it Logan’s luck hereabouts according to Ben.’ Anna shook her head in wonder. ‘To think it was Jack Logan’s name that never sullied your lips!’
‘What have you been reading lately?’ said Kate, smiling, then pulled a face. ‘Lord, I felt like such a fool when I asked about his wife. I wonder why the lovely Dawn left him.’
‘No idea. Ask Jack.’
‘As if!’
‘Are you going to see him again?’
‘I doubt it.’ Kate sniffed. ‘He was a touch pejorative about my track record in the romance department.’