‘Really? The Aga keeps it very warm in there, I can assure you.’ May was deliberately obtuse.
‘I wasn’t referring to the heating system, and you know it!’ Jude rasped, gaze narrowed to silver slits as he looked down at her probingly.
‘Do I?’ She shrugged, turning away. ‘I just have to check on the— What do you think you’re doing?’ She gasped as Jude grasped her arm and swung her roughly back to face him.
‘Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I have to find out for myself?’ he prompted harshly.
May stared up at him frowningly. This man was probably her mother’s lover, had probably been so for some time; if anyone owed him any explanations it certainly wasn’t her!
Her mouth firmed determinedly. ‘Why don’t you ask April Robine?’ she snapped. ‘Although the two of you seem to have a very—relaxed relationship, considering you’re here having dinner with me and she’s off to have dinner with someone else!’ she added insultingly.
Jude’s gaze narrowed even more. ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’
May shrugged. ‘Whatever you want it to mean.’ She sighed, suddenly realising she was too weary to get involved in another situation of conflict. ‘It’s been a long day already, Jude, and I’m tired and I’m hungry, so do you think we could postpone this—whatever this is—until after we’ve eaten?’
He looked down at her for several tension-filled minutes, before slowly releasing her arm, a mocking smile curving his lips now. ‘You weren’t expecting me to turn up for dinner this evening as arranged, were you?’ he murmured with amusement.
‘In all honesty? No,’ she confirmed dryly. ‘But then, you’re a man that likes to do the unexpected, aren’t you?’ She shrugged. ‘Probably as another means of putting people off their guard,’ she guessed shrewdly, knowing by the way his mouth tightened that she was right in her assessment. Well, he needn’t have bothered on her account this evening—she had already been well and truly ‘put off her guard’ before he’d even arrived!
‘And you’re a woman who likes to analyse too much,’ he dismissed. ‘I’ll go and get the wine from the car.’
May watched him as he strode away, his movements fluid, the icy wind stirring the darkness of his hair, his masculine vitality unmistakable.
What was his relationship to April Robine? Lover? Friend? What? May had no idea, but until she did it would be foolish of her to allow her own attraction to him to go any further than it already had.
Which wasn’t all that easy to do when he deliberately set himself out to be charming as they ate their meal together later, telling her several amusing stories about Max, Will and himself when they were at school together, the earlier tension seemingly forgotten. And yet May knew that it wasn’t. Not really. By either of them…
‘Do you have any other family beside your parents, Jude?’ she prompted curiously as they lingered over coffee and an orange-based liqueur she had found at the back of the cupboard, given to them a couple of years ago as a Christmas present and never opened.
He grimaced. ‘Siblings, that sort of thing, do you mean?’
‘That sort of thing,’ she confirmed dryly; since the death of her father the previous year, her sisters were the two most important people in her life, and not to be so easily dismissed.
‘I’m an only child, I’m afraid.’ Jude shrugged. ‘Probably just as well, considering the amount of toing and froing I had to do between America and England during my childhood.’ He grimaced. ‘I don’t think we ever lived in the same house for more than a couple of years.’
Which probably also accounted for his seeming lack of roots now. It would also explain his complete lack of understanding where her attachment to this family farm was concerned…
‘I know where you’re going with this, May.’ He sat back, smiling.
She sighed. ‘Do you?’
‘I think so.’ He nodded. ‘But it doesn’t change the fact that this farm is too much for you to manage alone.’
She bristled resentfully, still not completely over April Robine’s visit here earlier. ‘No doubt April Robine echoes your sentiments,’ she snapped, having no doubts the other woman was completely mystified concerning May’s stubbornness about selling this farm to Jude; twenty-two years ago she hadn’t been able to get away fast enough!
‘April?’ Jude echoed frowningly. ‘What on earth does she have to do with any of this?’
May blinked, realising—too late—that she had allowed her personal resentment towards the other woman to show once again. And in a way Jude couldn’t possibly understand. ‘Well—’
‘I don’t discuss my business dealings with April, if that’s what you’re implying, May,’ he assured her hardly.
Her eyes widened. ‘Why don’t you?’
‘Because I— May, exactly what sort of relationship is it you think I have with April?’ he prompted slowly.
She shrugged. ‘The two of you obviously arrived here together, are staying at the hotel together—’
‘We arrived together because I was coming over on business anyway, and it turned out April had some business of her own to take care of in the area, too,’ he said with a pointed look in May’s direction. ‘And although we’re both staying at the same hotel—’