AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘About a certain engagement,’ she ground out.
‘Can you think of any better way to take the heat off us?’ he asked in an equally low tone.
The problem was that she couldn’t. ‘Promise you won’t say anything to Robyn?’ she hissed, balking as he tried to hand her in to the back of the car.
‘Trust me,’ he said, with a sweet smile that made her insides do a strange flip. ‘I won’t say anything to worry your sister.’ He slid along the bench seat with her, settling to face Robyn and Bethany and draping his arm along the back of the seat behind her silky head.
Bethany made the most of their luxurious ride, and when they arrived at the restaurant Robyn smirked across at her sister.
‘Aren’t you glad you dressed up? I told you he’d be taking us somewhere posh!’
The restaurant was an elegant old house set in park-like grounds, and in between the prearranged courses they strolled the gardens, feeding the goldfish in the numerous ponds and admiring the peacocks parading their pride on the jewel-green lawns. Once again, Matthew proved himself capable of disconcerting charm, gently teasing Bethany into feeling comfortable with the formal service and ensnaring Robyn’s professional interest and personal sympathy with talk of his father’s imminent by-pass surgery, managing to casually drop into the conversation the fact that Rachel had met both his parents. Robyn’s attention was also kept busy monitoring the small courtesies Matthew constantly paid to Rachel.
‘You know, you should wear clothes like that more often,’ he told her, his warm brown eyes enjoying the visual feast she presented. ‘You have such a superbly majestic figure it’s a shame to swamp it in layers of fabric. And that particular shade is perfect for your colouring; it gives your skin a kind of lustrous glow…’
‘David chose this dress for me,’ she informed him with a hint of belligerence.
‘Then he obviously had excellent taste—in both clothes and women,’ he said quietly, with an exquisite diplomacy that made Robyn sigh gustily.
As they progressed through the leisurely meal Rachel was forced to admire his ability to appear to be frank and open while cleverly avoiding contentious issues and retaining firm control of the conversation. She remembered that he had cut his financial teeth in the maverick world of foreign exchange dealing, and now she saw the qualities that had enabled him to excel in those pressure-cooker conditions, to make lightning decisions involving millions of dollars based on calculated risks that sane men would reject as reckless. Since he had assumed the mantle at Ayr Holdings he had relinquished his maverick status to become the epitome of solid conservatism, but now she realised that under that respectable façade the volatile taker of extreme risks still existed, albeit constrained by maturity and experience.
Rachel ate the delicious food and drank the champagne, refusing to dwell on the implications of her sudden insight.
Later, en route to the airport, as she was beginning to tense at the thought of the coming ordeal, Matthew took her hand in his and pressed it against his taut thigh.
‘I know Rachel hasn’t told you much about us, but perhaps I’d better warn you…’
Rachel’s arm jerked, but the strong masculine fingers were too determined to allow her to pull free.
‘About what?’ asked Robyn, her eyes darting expectantly between them.
‘Just that you might be hearing some news from us soon.’
‘What news?’
Matthew gave her a limpid smile. ‘It would be premature to say. Your sister is a very independent and stubborn female.’
Robyn chuckled back, relaxing again in her seat. ‘She is that. She’s always been a fighter.’
Matthew’s hand tested his jaw. ‘I can certainly attest to that,’ he said drily. ‘I just thought you’d like to know she has someone else on her side.’
‘Good—she needs someone. Since Mum and Dad retired to the Gold Coast there’s no help from that quarter…not that they were ever much of a support—too busy living their own lives and protecting their precious respectability. And Frank is a dead loss. You should have seen the way he stormed out of our place this morning.’
‘Frank Weston came to see you?’ Matthew looked sharply at Rachel, taking a shrewd guess as to the reason for his visit, but it was Robyn who answered, telling him about the angry visit that had left Rachel so upset.
‘I don’t know what he was so furious about, but he had no right to pitch into Rachel about David. He always was a hard-nosed cynic, but you’d think he’d have got over his jealousy by now.’
‘Of David?’
Rachel simmered at Matthew’s swift curiosity. Did he think she was the type of woman to play one brother off against another?
Robyn burbled on. ‘No—of Rachel and David—because they were so great together. It’s all water under the bridge now, anyway. I told her that he might ease up if she appealed to his sense of justice—told him about all this other stuff she’s spooked about at the moment—but of course she won’t.’
‘All w
hat other stuff?’
‘Robyn, no—’
