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'I only said that to shock you, to find out if you were still attracted to me. You didn't react at the time.'
'Did you expect me to?’
'I—I thought you might.'
'Why should I react to your admitting the name of one lover? There must have been several.' He stood up dismissively. 'But I don't want to know the names of all of them.'
She shook her head. 'You're wrong, Rafe. There's been no one else.'
He reacted violently to that. 'Do you take me for a complete fool?' he snapped viciously. 'My body may be far from perfect, but there's nothing wrong with my brain. I know you, Hazel, I know your appetites. And there's no way you could go for three years without a physical relationship.'
'Please, don't do this to us,' she pleaded, more hurt than he would ever know. She admitted that every time he came near her she was filled with a languorous longing to be in his arms, but she had never reacted like that with any other man.
His mouth turned back with a sneer. 'Do what to us? There's no us to do anything to. You'll be my wife, Hazel, but as far as I'm concerned there will be only one duty I want you to perform, and we both know what that is.'
And that was the one duty she had no intention of carrying out; she wouldn't be used in that way. ‘Yes, we know,' she agreed quietly.
'And make sure you don't forget it'
‘Oh, I won't forget it.'
Rafe gave a taunting smile. 'I didn't think you would.'
Once alone Hazel helped herself to a much-needed cup of coffee. Well, she was to be Rafe's wife, but it wasn't going to be pleasant for either of them. She could already imagine his anger on their wedding night, and it would be a frightening experience.
As she drained the last of her coffee from the bottom of the cup she heard the front door slam and then the sound of a car engine before it accelerated with a screech out of the driveway.
Sara came into the dining-room. 'That was Miss Celia leaving,' she told her.
'I thought so.'
'I knew she wouldn't accept your marriage to Mr Rafe,' Sara shook her head sadly. 'Always headstrong and selfish, was Miss Celia.'
Hazel rested her chin on her hands. 'I suppose she had a righf to be annoyed.'
'Annoyed, is it?' Sara scorned. 'I've never seen her in such a temper, and I've seen her angry in the past, believe me!'
Hazel smiled. 'I can imagine.'
'Would you like something to eat? Some nice eggs and bacon, or something like that?' the housekeeper offered.
Hazel stood up, repressing a shudder at the thought of food. Too much had happened today for her to be able to eat. 'No, thank you, Sara. I think I'll go to the study and finish off the typing I started on Sunday.'
Sara began to collect up the coffee cups on to a tray. 'You surely aren't going to work today?'
Hazel looked surprised. 'Why not?'
'Well, you've just got engaged, and—and------'
'And Rafe's gone to work, so I see no other choice left open to me.'
'But you have a lot to arrange, a wedding dress to buy and everything.'
Hazel smiled sadly. 'You surely aren't expecting me to wear the traditional white gown, not after what you witnessed this morning?'
'You may have been a little impetuous, but love does that to people,' Sara admitted. 'You've as much right to wear white as most girls do nowadays. I think the village people would be disappointed if you wore anything else.'
'The people in the village?' Hazel echoed.
Sara looked up from her task, 'When you get married in the local church on Saturday.'
'But we aren't------'
'Mr Rafe said you were.'
'He—he did?' gasped Hazel. 'Oh yes,' Sara nodded.
Hazel shrugged. 'Oh well, if he said we were then I suppose we are. I'll be in the study if you need me.'
In fact she was left on her own for the rest of the day. The work finished, she was lounging in the garden when Sara brought Trisha out to her.
Trisha winced as she looked at her friend's face. 'Ooh, I bet that hurts!'
Hazel patted the lounger next to her for her friend to sit down. 'It doesn't, actually. It looks much worse than it feels.'
'I would have come to see you yesterday, but when I telephoned on Sunday evening Rafe told me you had to be kept quiet for a couple of days. I came as soon as school had finished today.' Trisha sat down.
'I could do with some friendly female company,' Hazel confessed.
'Celia?' Trisha asked with a grimace. 'She's gone,' Hazel told her flatly, feeling it was no loss. After the things Celia had said to Rafe this morning she ought not to be allowed to stay in his house.
'Gone?'
Hazel nodded. 'There was a sort of family argument,' she told her.
‘Oh.'
'Mm, it was all rather unpleasant.’
Trisha licked her lips, hesitating as if she were having trouble formulating the words. 'Does this family argument have anything to do with the rumour going about the village that you and Rafe are getting married?'
Hazel raised her eyebrows. 'That didn't take long to get about!’
'You mean it's true?’ Trisha looked astounded.
'Yes.’
'But I—I can't believe it!'
'Believe it, Trisha. Rafe and I are getting married on Saturday.’
Trisha gave her a hard look. 'It's a bit sudden, isn't it? People will talk.'
'I can't stop them talking,' shrugged Hazel. 'They'd do it anyway, even if we waited another six months or so. But as their suspicions will soon be shown to be unfounded the gossip should soon die down—and they are unfounded, Trisha,' she. added firmly.
'But why the rush?'
'There's no point in waiting any longer than that. I've always loved Rafe, you know that.’
'I knew you did three years ago, but I wasn't sure if you still felt the same way. I thought on Saturday that you might do when you reacted so strongly against Rafe being at the dance with Mrs Clarke, but I couldn't be sure. Does he love you?'
Hazel had been hoping Trisha wouldn't ask this question, but had known inevitably that she would. She smiled brightly. 'That's a strange question to ask a newly engaged girl,' she evaded.
'But a pertinent one. Does he, Hazel?'
Hazel swallowed hard. 'No.'
'Then why------'
'Why is he marrying me? Because he feels he has to,' she answered truthfully.
'But you just said...'
Hazel sighed. 'And I meant it. It's a long story and I don't think either of us comes out of it in a very good light' She told Trisha of this morning's events, the embarrassment, the shame, but most of all the sheer joy of knowing she was going to be Rafe's wife. 'I do love him very much, Trisha,' she added.
Trisha couldn't help giggling. ‘I can just imagine Sara's face when she walked into the bedroom this morning,' she explained at Hazel's querying look.
Unwillingly Hazel smiled too. 'I didn't think it was very funny at the time, and Rafe still doesn't think it's funny.’
‘I can't believe he doesn't love you. Why marry you if he doesn't? Only Sara knew about it, the scandal would have soon died down.'
'Rafe doesn't think so. And there are other reasons for marrying someone other than love. Good old-fashioned lust for a start.'
Trisha blushed. 'I'm sure Rafe wouldn't...'
'He's already told me what to expect. He isn't a knight in shining armour, you know, just a man. But I don't care what his reasons are for marrying me as long as he does marry me, that's all I want. I believe that given time I could teach him to love me a little.’
Hazel wasn't quite so sure a little later when he didn't even bother to show up for dinner. The obvious place for him to have gone was Janine Clarke's, and Hazel ate her meal in stony silence, ever conscious of Sara's pitying glances.
By the time she was drinking her coffee in the lounge she was at boiling point., How dared he treat her in this way? How dared he!
His treatment of her only succeeded in strengthening her resolve that he would suffer for this. She would get him so tied up in knots that he would be utterly confused. He didn't know what suffering was yet, but he soon would!’
She looked up hopefully as the lounge door opened, but it was only Sara. 'I’ve finished with the coffee, thank you,' Hazel told her dully.
'There's a visitor for Miss Celia,' Sara said worriedly. 'I told him she wasn't here, but when he asked when she would be back I didn't know what to say.’
'Who is it?' asked Hazel.
'A Mr Logan.'
Carl, and he was here to see Celia! 'Show him in, Sara. I'll talk to him.'
Carl came into the room, looking quite handsome in a dark brown suit and tan-coloured shirt. He took one look at Hazel and smiled. 'Snap!'
Their matching black eyes were both just going through the yellowish stage. Hazel returned his smile. 'Sit down,' she invited. 'Can I get you anything to drink?'
'No, thanks. I had a date with Celia tonight, but your housekeeper said she'd already gone out.'
'She's gone, Carl,' Hazel told him gently, knowing no other way to tell him.
She could clearly see his puzzlement. 'What do you mean, gone?’
Hazel sighed. 'She left this morning and we aren't expecting her back.'
Carl sank slowly into a chair, his face white. 'You mean she's gone for good?' he asked dazedly.
'I'm afraid so. She left in rather a hurry, so she probably forgot your date. I'm sure she'll call you when she realises.' She wasn't sure of any such thing, but she hoped Celia would have the decency to apologise to the poor boy, although she doubted it. She stood up. ‘I think I should get you that drink after all.' She poured him out a large measure of whisky into a glass and watched as he drank half of it in one gulp. 'Better?'
He nodded. 'But I don't understand. Celia didn't say anything about going away when we went out together last night.'
'It was all rather sudden,’ she explained.
‘Is someone ill? Is that it?’
Hazel couldn't see Celia rushing to anyone's bedside even if they were ill, but she didn't say that to this obviously infatuated man. She bit her lip. 'I don't really know how to explain this, but—well, Celia didn't like the idea of my marrying her brother,'
