Beaumont Brides Collection (56 page)

‘It’s possible. He might have hedged his bets.’ But the house was quiet, peaceful, undisturbed. There were no unpleasant surprises. ‘Whoever is giving you a hard time seems to know you pretty well,’ Mac said, as they locked up and returned to the car. ‘Did you tell anyone at the theatre you would be staying with your sister rather than coming here?’

She shook her head. ‘Only Melanie.’ He looked thoughtful. ‘For goodness sake, it’s not Melanie,’ she declared, hotly.

His expression didn’t change, but he didn’t press it.

‘It’s possible you were overheard talking to her. Or maybe someone was listening in when you telephoned Fizz to tell her you were coming. Or maybe someone checked your phone to see who you had called. It wouldn’t take much working out-’

‘For goodness sake, Mac, leave it! Just take me home. I need to think about this, decide what to do.’

‘I’ll take you home, but only to pack. You can do your thinking somewhere safer. Somewhere no one will find you.’

He wasn’t listening, so she said, very carefully and quite slowly as if talking to someone whose wits had gone walkabout, ‘No. Thank you. I’ve done with sticking my head in the sand and last night I did my one and only impression of a headless chicken. I can’t ignore this, but I’m damned if I’ll run and I’m damned if I’ll hide.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with your spirit. Unhappily your reasoning isn’t in such good shape.’

She was determined not to lose her temper. He’d coming running to her rescue when she’d screamed for help. But now it was time for the professionals.

‘My reasoning is just fine and dandy. I’m not ignoring the problem, I’m going to call the police the minute I get home and put the whole thing in their hands. And you assured me that with your new locks I’ll be perfectly safe.’ She wanted him to be perfectly clear that he was off the hook. That she didn’t take his promise to Luke seriously. ‘You won’t forget to send me your bill?’

He sent her a scathing look. ‘Perfect safety is unobtainable, you should know that. Even with security cameras and round the clock monitoring, the determined intruder will always find a way inside. And you’ve still got to get to the theatre and back again late at night.’

He didn’t mention the possibility of attack coming out of the dark shadows of the theatre itself. Perhaps he was being kind. But she didn’t think so. He was leaving it to her imagination to do the job for him. And her imagination duly obliged.

‘I refuse to live in a cage,’ she said, a touch desperately. ‘I won’t be driven behind locked doors by some nasty little cockroach who gets his rocks off-’

‘All right,’ he said, quickly. ‘I understand how you feel. But you’ll still have to take precautions. I can organise proper protection for you.’

‘Can you?’ It didn’t take too much imagination to guess the role he had picked for himself. The night watch. ‘What would that involve?’

‘A driver trained to deal with any emergency, someone who can stay with you at all times, monitor your mail, filter incoming calls and watch your back at the theatre.’

‘A bodyguard,’ she said, dully.

‘Not a bodyguard. This is real life, not the movies. Just someone who will allow you carry on with your life, as near normally as possible, until whoever is threatening you is found and dealt with.’

‘No.’ It sounded appalling. ‘Thanks, but no thanks. I know you’re only trying to help, but your idea of normal doesn’t coincide with mine.’

‘Normal just isn’t going to be possible for a while, Claudia. You must see that.’

‘No.’

‘Think about it.’

‘No.’

‘For goodness sake be reasonable,’ he said, impatiently.

‘The police will deal with it,’ she said, cutting him off.

‘The police will do what they can. But they can’t be there every minute of the day.’

‘Good. I don’t want some stranger at my back every minute of the day.’ Her huge eyes challenged him to defy her. As they pulled up at a long line of traffic held up by road works, he turned and challenged her right back.

‘Whoever is writing you unpleasant little notes is at your back every minute of the day,’ he reminded her. ‘Whoever is chopping up photographs of you is at your back every minute of the day. Whoever is-’

She wanted to put her hands over her ears to shut out the words. She wanted him to take her in his arms and promise that no one would ever hurt her. She suddenly wanted all kinds of impossible things. Her hands tightened in her lap, but her voice betrayed nothing.

‘I couldn’t possibly afford that kind of protection,’ she said.

‘How much is your life worth? Less than one of your couture frocks? Far less than one of those fabulous jewels you inherited from your mother.’ He turned briefly to look at her. ‘I hope you weren’t relying on those pathetic locks to keep them safe?’

That made her laugh but when he turned to look at her, she didn’t bother to explain why.

‘This is not a matter of life and death, Mac,’ she declared. ‘It’s nasty. And I’m not denying that last night came as a bit of a shock. But anyone who knows me could have guessed I’d go down to Broomhill and with Dad away, that I’d go to Fizz and Luke. No one would want to be in that great big empty house by themselves. Not after a fright. And that is the purpose behind all this nonsense. To shake me, make me run.’ Her hands were tight little fists. ‘But I can ignore it if I try hard enough.’

‘Can you?’ He gave his full attention to the road as the traffic began to move. ‘Should you?’ His eyes met hers briefly. ‘You may be right, but if you insist upon carrying on as if nothing has happened it’s possible that he’ll try harder to get a reaction.’

‘He?’

‘He,’ Mac affirmed. ‘Or are you still trying to convince me that Adele had something to do with this?’

‘You know her better than I do, Mac. But do you really think that a man would have slashed my costume? That was such a bitchy thing to do.’ Her eyes dared him to deny it.

He didn’t, instead he rubbed absently at a small scar just above his right eyebrow. ‘Maybe that was the intention. To make you think it was a woman.’

‘That’s a bit convoluted, isn’t it?’

‘Maybe. The trouble is, I can’t see a woman meddling with your brakes.’

Brakes, brakes, brakes. Why couldn’t he forget about the brakes? It was a fault, nothing more sinister. It was just a coincidence.

‘You’re a chauvinist.’

‘I’m a realist.’

Claudia, despite her reservations, conceded the point. ‘You’re probably right. I certainly wouldn’t know where to begin. But it doesn’t rule out the possibility of Adele recruiting a man to do her dirty work for her. She was the first person you thought of,’ she reminded him.

‘She might have done the parachute thing on the spur of the moment. But not the brakes. She was angry but I think with herself as much as Tony or you. She knows she’s been hell to live with for the past few weeks. And she was home watching us make fools of ourselves on television when your dress was slashed.’ He glanced across at her. ‘I checked with Tony.’ She arched a finely honed brow at him and he shrugged. ‘I had to know. If it had been Adele, she would need some professional help.’

‘Somebody needs professional help,’ she agreed, with feeling.

‘You really don’t have any idea who could be behind this, Claudia?’

‘You think I’d keep quiet about it?’

‘Maybe.’ He shrugged. ‘You didn’t seem to take the first letter very seriously. And you’ve been slow to put the matter in the hands of the police. Are you sure you can’t think of someone you’ve upset recently?’

‘Are you suggesting that this is the work of a disgruntled lover?’

‘Did I say that?’

‘No, but I believe you were implying it.’

‘Maybe I was,’ he conceded. ‘Or maybe you just have a good idea who’s behind it. You’re in a funny business. The people in it are ... volatile.’

‘Is that a fact?’

‘Don’t think you can handle this by yourself, Claudia.’

‘I can’t think of a single person I know who would do this to me. I don’t go out of my way to make enemies. And I’m a great deal choosier about lovers than the popular press would have you believe.’ She grinned humourlessly. ‘Read tomorrow’s tabloids and you’ll see what I mean.’ She looked around as he signalled and slowed to turn off the main road. ‘Where are we going? This isn’t the way to London.’

He glanced in the rear view mirror. ‘I thought we’d take the scenic route.’ As Claudia stared at him the down rose goosey on her skin and she gave a little shiver of apprehension. ‘We can stop at a pub I know. For lunch,’ he added, quickly.

‘You’re checking to see if we’re being followed.’ He didn’t deny it and she looked back nervously but the road behind them was busy with holiday traffic. ‘How can you tell?’

His mouth creased slightly in a suggestion of a smile. ‘I don’t think you have much to fear from harassed parents with roof racks full of luggage and cars filled with restless children.’

‘I don’t suppose I have anything to fear at all. Nothing real. Only fear itself. That’s what this is all about isn’t it?’ She glanced uncertainly at him. ‘Making my life miserable.’

‘Probably.’

Not particularly reassuring. But she refused to be cowed. ‘Well I refuse to be miserable. And right now I’m at greater risk of dying from hunger than anything my nasty little friend can dream up,’ she declared. ‘Is this pub far?’

‘You should have got up for breakfast,’ he told her, with a distinct lack of sympathy.

‘You may have forgotten, but I was working until way past eleven o’clock last night.’

He checked the mirror again. ‘So was I.’

So he was. And he had been up long before her, too. Another minute and she’d be feeling guilty.

‘You didn’t have to. I didn’t ask you to don your breastplate and come galloping to my rescue like some latter day Galahad.’

‘Didn’t you, Claudia? I rather thought you did.’

She felt her cheeks heating up beneath his gentle challenge. She may not have asked for him specifically, but her relief when he had turned up last night must have been plain enough.

‘I can assure you that any driver would have done,’ she declared, crisply. ‘And as you know Fizz would be startled to see me downstairs before lunchtime on Sunday.’

‘So she said.’ He signalled and slowed, turning off the main road to head across country. ‘You’re not a bit like her, are you?’

‘You mean she’s kind and gentle and charming, while I have a tongue like a band saw as well as being as flighty a piece of work as you’re likely to meet this side of Christmas?’ Claudia’s response was as light and as brittle as spun toffee.

‘You said it.’ Mac continually checked the mirror as they drove between high hedges then, as a gap approached, he pulled off the road, turned to face the road and drew up under the shelter of a thick canopy of trees.

He turned off the engine and for a while the only sound was the ticking of the engine as it cooled and the gradual return of birdsong as the inhabitants of the copse became used to their presence.

‘Well?’ Claudia whispered, after long tense moments when she held her breath half expecting to see some vehicle come speeding by in search of them. ‘Are we being followed?’ He didn’t immediately answer her and she glanced across at him. In direct contrast to her own tense and expectant state, Gabriel MacIntyre was utterly relaxed, leaning back in his seat, eyes closed. Clearly not. ‘Why have we stopped?’ she demanded, suspiciously.

‘I wanted to think.’

‘Think? You can’t think and drive at the same time?’

‘That depends on the thought.’ He opened his eyes and turned his head towards her. ‘I had an idea that required my undivided attention. And it seemed a good idea to be stationary when I put it to you.’

‘That suggests I’m not going to like it.’

‘I very much doubt it,’ he agreed.

‘Then I advise you to trust your judgement and keep it to yourself. Forget lunch, just get me home without delay.’

‘That’s what I’ve been thinking about. Taking you home.’

‘Don’t waste time thinking about it,’ she encouraged him. ‘Do it.’

‘All in good time. Once we’ve settled the question of protection.’

‘I don’t want protection.’

‘You don’t have any choice in the matter. I have a personal score to settle with your “cockroach”. And I gave Luke my word that I’d take care of you,’ he added, as if that settled it once and for all.

‘Luke had no right-’

‘But it occurred to me that if a stranger suddenly appeared at your side, it would alert the enemy.’ He finally opened his eyes and turned their blue depths upon her. ‘And then it occurred to me that your performance on the television last night was very convincing.’

‘My performance? Don’t underrate yourself, Mac. You gave as good as you got.’

‘Thank you. I’m glad you appreciated the effort.’ She glared at him. ‘You said it would make the tabloids. Did you mean it?’

‘I shouldn’t think there’s any doubt about it. Barty probably had someone lined up to run the story even before the show went on air. He’ll want a return on his investment, especially since it was a great deal heavier than he had anticipated.’ That thought, at least, gave her immense satisfaction.