Kingfisher Morning

'I was happy to see him and Fanny,' she said defensively. 'I was glad to be sure that what I'd once felt was all gone now. I'm cured of Guy. It was just a brief spell…nothing real, nothing solid.'

Ross watched her, his features sardonic. 'So? And the kiss? What was that for?'

She looked blank. 'The kiss?'

'I saw him kissing you,' Ross said curtly.

'Oh…' She remembered now. 'That didn't mean anything…it was just a brotherly peck.'

Ross gave her a dangerous, narrow-eyed stare. 'Was it, indeed? Well, don't confuse me with him, will you. Brotherly pecks aren't in my line.'

She was confused, pink-cheeked. What did he mean? Her heart thudded.

Then Robin called from the cottage, his voice shrill and excited. 'Uncle Ross, Emma… aren't you coming in? We're waiting for tea!'

Emma hurried towards him, reluctant yet oddly eager to get away from the tautness of her encounter with Ross. When she was alone she would take out the memory of those moments and go over it, see what she had thought and felt. For now she wanted to break away, return to the less spine-tingling realities of life with the three children.

Fanny and Guy were in the kitchen, helping Tracy butter bread, laying out cups and saucers, while the kettle cheerfully bubbled its way towards boiling. Emma introduced Ross to them. He shook hands briefly with Guy, assessed him politely yet with a coolness Emma felt must be noticeable to the others. Then he turned and smiled with much more warmth at Fanny. His eyes flickered appreciatively.

'Emma said you were pretty…she understated it. You're a peaches and cream girl, aren't you?'

Fanny smiled, dimpling. 'Thank you. Emma didn't tell us you were such a flatterer.'

He gave Emma a little sidelong look, a flick of his dark lashes, a sardonic smile. 'Didn't she?'

'No,' Emma said sweetly. 'I couldn't tell them you were prone to flattery because I'd never seen signs of it.' She smiled at Fanny. 'You're bringing out a new side of him.'

'Feminine girls have that effect on men,' Ross said.

'Ouch!' Emma retorted. 'Thanks.'

'Emma's very feminine,' Guy declared, indignant on her behalf and bristling at Ross's approach to Fanny.

'You obviously haven't come in contact with her left hook,' Ross drawled. 'She could go three rounds with the world heavyweight champion.'

Fanny opened her blue eyes very wide, staring from him to Emma. 'Goodness!'

Very pink, Emma said, 'The kettle is boiling. Excuse me…Ross, take them through to the sitting-room, will you, while I finish making the tea?'

'I'll help,' said Fanny with determination.

Ross gestured to Guy. 'We'd better make ourselves scarce. You know what women are like in a kitchen!'

Guy obeyed, but with an expression that boded ill for his future relations with Ross. Guy was an easy-going man, but he had been deliberately offended during the last few moments, and he was aware of it.

'What,' asked Fanny, 'is going on? You didn't give me any hint.'

'Hint about what?' returned Emma casually, pretending to be stupid.

'You know perfectly well,' Fanny said affectionately. 'There's an atmosphere between you two that could be cut with a knife.'

'You're wrong,' said Emma. 'There's another girl.' Her voice was brittle. She hoped Fanny would not hear the underlying pain, but Fanny had known her for too long, and in this case was not made blind by her own feelings.

'Oh, Emma,' she murmured sympathetically. 'Poor darling! What rotten luck.'

Emma shrugged. 'Just one of those things…'

'He's very attractive,' sighed Fanny.