‘What do you mean?’ she asked furiously. ‘Schoolteachers are people; we come in all shapes and sizes.’
‘There aren’t many with a shape like yours,’ he countered quickly. ‘You can’t tell me you were short of male admirers when you were at university. I’ve been there; I know what a female like you about the place would do to the male population.’ There was some element in his voice she couldn’t place and she stared at him uncertainly for a moment.
‘I’ve had boyfriends, yes,’ she said slowly, disliking the way the conversation was going. ‘No more and no less than any other girl, I suppose.’
‘Anyone special?’ His voice was casual.
‘Look, I really don’t think that’s any of your business,’ she said sharply. ‘I’m here to discuss the school’s future—or lack of it,’ she added bitterly. ‘Shall we get on with it?’
‘Impatient little puss, aren’t you?’ he said mockingly, smiling slightly as she glared back at him. ‘But I suppose you were destined to be prickly and badtempered with hair the colour of fire.’
‘I am not prickly or bad-tempered—usually,’ she added pointedly, ‘and please cut the chit-chat. You won’t charm me, Mr Strythe, so don’t try.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it,’ he said cryptically.
It was some time later when Mrs Baines brought in the tea-trolley and by then Candy had to admit that putting money into the school in a business sense was like pouring it down the drain. She couldn’t justify Cameron’s continuing his father’s patronage in any financial argument, but then Colonel Strythe hadn’t looked on it as an investment in any other sense but a human one. He had known how much the villagers wanted their children taught locally, he had seen how happy their offspring were in familiar surroundings, and once he had satisfied himself that the academic standard was good enough he had been more than prepared to be magnanimous. He could afford it, he had once told Candy, and the amount he spared the school and village was lost in the Strythe finances. Obviously his son thought differently!
She glared at him now as he gravely thanked Mrs Baines and took the heavy trolley from her, opening the door for her to leave. He could be so sickeningly pleasant when he pleased, but he didn’t fool her for a minute. She had seen what loving him had done to her sister, and Colonel Strythe had never been the same again once his son had left. This man left devastation and havoc wherever he went. She wondered how many broken hearts were scattered across Australia.
‘I won’t say, “a penny for your thoughts”, because frankly I think I would be better not knowing,’ the deep, husky voice said cynically. She focused her eyes sharply, aware she had been gazing at him with her thoughts far away. ‘Help yourself to sandwiches and cake and please try to force yourself to eat, whatever you think of the present company. Mrs Baines will be most upset if most of this doesn’t disappear.’
Candy had always been blessed with a particularly robust appetite that rarely faltered whatever the circumstances, and the selection of wafer-thin sandwiches, temptingly filled rolls, tiny individual pork pies and mouth-watering homemade cakes was too good to resist. Cameron had pulled two easy-chairs closer to the fire before bringing the trolley to her side, switching on the television as he sat down. It was too cosy, too companionable, but she was hungry, and by concentrating on the flickering screen she found she had demolished a good proportion of the food by the time she was full. She looked up to find a pair of amused steel-blue eyes fixed on her face.
‘Good grief, girl, do you always eat like that?’ His gaze roved down her slender figure in wonder.
‘You did say to eat ... whatever I think of the present company.’ The last was added with wry defiance and she swung back her heavy fold of rich silky hair from her shoulders. ‘I had better be going now. You’ve made your point about the school; I really don’t think——’
‘I haven’t made any point as far as I’m aware and we most certainly have not finished this discussion,’ he said curtly as he rang the bell by the side of the fireplace. When Mrs Baines had cleared the remains of the meal, exclaiming in pleasure at the appreciation of her cooking, he closed the door behind her and moved back to his chair, turning off the television as he did so.
‘There is another point I want to discuss with you, Candy, so forget the school problem for a moment.’ She resented hearing her nickname on his lips almost as much as she had done when he had called her Candice. The poor man can’t win, she thought wryly, except that no one in their right mind would ever describe Cameron Strythe as a poor man.
‘Your father is the same age as mine, I understand?’ She stared at him blankly. What on earth had her father’s age to do with anything?
‘I’ve no idea. I suppose they must be close in age; they grew up together, after all.’
‘Well, at sixty I think your father deserves some years without having the responsibility of what is a very taxing job on his shoulders. If Dad had taken it easier he might still be here now.’
She stared at him as the meaning of his words filtered through to her brain. ‘You aren’t going to sack him? You can’t!’ She rose abruptly to her feet, her eyes tragic.
‘Don’t be so ridiculous, woman.’ His voice cut through her like a razor. ‘I’m talking about retirement.’
‘Retirement?’ she mumbled. ‘But he doesn’t want to retire. The cottage and everything—where would they live?’ This last tack had taken her by surprise and for a moment she couldn’t get her mind to function properly, and then, as hot, blinding rage took over, she took a step towards him, drawing him to his feet by her fury.
‘You swine; you total, absolute swine!’ She was too enraged to see how white his face had gone and how those cold eyes had become positively arctic. ‘You come back here after all this time and what do you do?’ She was almost incoherent in her anger. ‘First you are going to close down the school and I don’t know what Kevin will do...’ She gave a gasping sob as she took breath. ‘And then Dad: you’re going to take out your spite on Dad as well. And what have we done to you? It was you who messed up our lives; you’ve had a rare old time ... making your fortune in Australia, and now everything is yours——’
‘Stop it.’ He had reached her side in one stride and took her arms in his hands, shaking her slightly as her voice rose to the edge of hysteria. ‘Control yourself.’
‘Control myself?’ Her voice was a shriek, but she couldn’t have stopped the avalanche if she had wanted to and she didn’t want to. She wanted to scream and yell at him, wanted to claw his face with her hands. She hated him, oh, she did, so much.
As his hand came across her face in a sharp slap the surprise of it cut off her voice as though with a knife and then the next minute he had pulled her into his arms, holding her shaking figure close as he talked in quiet, reasonable tones. ‘I’m sorry, Candy, but I had to do that; you were going to make yourself ill.’ She wanted to struggle, wanted to fight him, but suddenly the adrenalin had all gone and it was only his hands on her body keeping her upright.
‘You haven’t given me a chance to explain, to make you understand.’ He was speaking into the soft silk of her hair, her head pressed into the front of his chest, and now he lifted her face with one hand, gazing down into the tear-drenched huge eyes. ‘How can anyone so beautiful be so obstinate?’ There was a note in his voice she didn’t dare dwell on, but it made her want to cry even more. ‘What is it with you, carrot-tops?’
As his mouth came down on hers she knew she ought to resist. This was Cameron, who had used her sister so badly and now was ripping her safe little world apart, but with a sense of horror she realised she had been waiting for this since the first time she had seen him again. He was so different to any other man she had ever met, so...
As the kiss deepened his probing lips opened hers with effortless ease, speaking of his practised seduction, but although she recognised his expertise she was powerless to stop him. It