Her One and Only (20 page)

But then there were certain personal similarities between those two men, both in looks and in character, and there was only one Gareth, could only ever be one Gareth.

Outside the sun was still shining. It was a lovely warm evening and Katie knew from past experience that her parents’ guests would spill out of the house to explore and enjoy the gardens, so she opened her wardrobe door and looked for something appropriate to wear.

The soft chambray skirt she decided upon was both practical and pretty and with it she put on a white cap-sleeve T-shirt which had been a present from Louise.

‘It’s too tight and too...’

‘...sexy,’ Louise had teased her, her eyes sparkling with amusement. ‘It’s meant to be. It suits you, Katie. Since you’ve been working for that charity you’ve started wearing things that are far too dowdy and matronly for you. You’ve got a gorgeous body...much better than mine... Oh, yes you have,’ she had insisted before Katie had been able to protest that the last thing she wanted to look was ‘sexy’, but then Louise had unwittingly touched a nerve when she had added teasingly,

‘Gareth commented the last time he saw you that Ma dresses more stylishly than you do. I know how you feel about ostentatious consumerism when other people are having to do without, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t wear inexpensive clothes that flatter you instead of opting for ones that don’t. And don’t forget,’ she had added winningly, ‘every time you buy something you’re helping
other
people to earn...’

Remembering the seriousness of her twin’s voice as she delivered this piece of wisdom made Katie smile as she slipped on the pretty delicate gold earrings which had been Louise and Gareth’s Christmas present to her. They matched the gold bangle they had given her when she had been their bridesmaid.

Arriving downstairs five minutes later, Katie shooed her mother out of the kitchen so that she, too, could shower and get ready for her guests, reminding her, ‘Ma...don’t worry, I’ll finish off everything down here...’

‘Would you? Oh, and Katie, could you do something with the flowers I’ve put in the laundry room. You really have inherited Aunt Ruth’s talent with them.’

‘Mmm...and I wonder which ancestor
you
inherited your silver tongue from,’ Katie teased her mother as she obligingly headed for the laundry room and the flowers.

CHAPTER FOUR

‘Y
OU
’
LL
LIKE
J
ENNY
and Jon,’ Chrissie told Seb warmly after they had picked him up from the house he was renting, adding ruefully, ‘Oh, but I’d forgotten you’ll have met Jon already, won’t you, since he’s handling the legal side of your property purchase.’

‘As a matter of fact I haven’t,’ Seb informed her. ‘I’ve got an appointment on Monday to sign my contract, but it seems that he’s going to be tied up in court so his daughter will be dealing with it.’

‘His daughter...’ Guy frowned and then smiled. ‘Of course. I’d forgotten that Katie was working with Jon and Olivia now.’

‘Katie... Katie Crighton?’ Seb questioned him sharply so that both Chrissie and Guy exchanged automatic close-couple looks before Guy turned to Seb and asked him,

‘Yes, do you know her?’

‘We’ve met,’ Seb told him brusquely. Then, sensing their mutual curiosity, informed them dryly, ‘As it happens she’s buying the apartment next to mine.’

‘Oh really,’ Chrissie looked interested. ‘Jenny did say when I last spoke to her that Katie was looking for somewhere local. It’s such a shame about her having to leave the charity. She was really enjoying working for them.’

‘Of the two of them, she always was more intensely caring in that sort of way,’ Guy informed Seb. ‘I can remember how when they were children, both of them were involved in sponsoring African orphans, but it was Katie who not only gave her spending money but came down to the shop and insisted on spending all her spare time polishing the furniture to earn extra money for them.’

‘Well, I suppose there is bound to be an element of competition between them,’ Seb commented briefly and with what Guy felt was an unfamiliar and an uncharacteristic note of censure in his voice. Then, before he could correct Seb’s misapprehension and inform him that in fact Katie had insisted on quietly and discreetly sharing the earnings with her twin so that their shared contributions were ultimately ‘equal’, Chrissie was asking Seb if he remembered the family from his own childhood in the town.

‘Obviously I know the name,’ Seb confirmed, adding cynically, ‘After all, it’s almost as synonymous with Haslewich as the name Cooke, although for a very different reason. From what I can remember, old man Crighton was considered to be very much among the great and good of the area, a very traditional
pater familiae
... I do once remember going to a children’s party up at Queensmead but it was quite definitely an “us and them” affair, the rich distributing alms to the poor sort of thing...’

‘Mmm... I remember those days,’ Guy confirmed. ‘But things are completely different now. Jon is as different from his father as chalk is from cheese and the current young adult generation of Crightons are a lively multi-talented bunch whose company I’m sure you’ll enjoy.’

Seb forbore to inform his cousin that his two previous encounters with Katie Crighton did not incline him to share his optimism.

He had not exactly been enthusiastic about the evening to start with and had he known just who Katie Crighton was he would’ve made every effort to exclude himself from the event. Now, of course, it was too late.

He started to frown as he had a sharp mental picture of Katie the first time he had seen her. Seb felt his stomach muscles tighten in protest at the feelings
that
memory evoked. At thirty-eight he considered himself, if not exactly past being sexually aware of and aroused by the sight and thought of a pretty woman, then certainly well able to control the physical effects of such thoughts. But now, as then, his body was proving him wrong.

Irritably he tried to deny the impact of his visual memory of her as Guy drove in through the gates to Jon and Jenny’s comfortable home.

* * *

T
HE
HEADY
SUMMER
warmth of the evening had prompted Jenny to organise a buffet table under the trees in their pretty orchard and as Seb followed Guy and Chrissie in under the rose and honeysuckle hedge which separated the orchard from the rest of the garden, the first person he saw was Katie.

She had her back to him and was standing beside Saul Crighton, who Seb recognised from work, pouring him a glass of what Seb later discovered was her mother’s special and highly potent strawberry wine cooler. The scene in front of him couldn’t have been more idyllic, Seb recognised. The meadow grass was sprinkled with wild flowers, the breeze was scented with roses and the still warm air hummed with harmonious happy voices. Even a half-dozen or so young children who were playing together in one corner of the orchard seemed to be sharing one another’s company rather than squabbling noisily or quarrelling.

As Seb watched, one of the slightly older girls detached herself from the group and walked over to Saul Crighton, leaning against him whilst he wrapped his arm tenderly around her.

As Seb looked on, Katie reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair out of the girl’s eyes. Quickly Seb turned away. The small scene being enacted in front of him reminded him of his own loss as a father. When he looked back now it appalled him that he could ever have behaved so selfishly and how it hurt to recognise how much he had missed.

‘Come on, let me introduce you to Jenny and Jon,’ Guy was saying, touching him on his arm and directing him towards the older couple standing a few feet away.

* * *

F
IVE
MINUTES
LATER
he was forced to admit that Guy had been right when he had told him he would like Jenny and Jon Crighton as Jenny in particular possessed a warmth which was extremely attractive and welcoming. And before he knew what he was doing Seb found that he was confiding to Jenny that one of the main reasons he had moved back to the area was so that he could be close to Charlotte.

‘During the early years of Charlotte’s life I was guilty of being an absent father,’ he heard himself telling Jenny ruefully. ‘I’ve been very fortunate in that Charlotte has forgiven me, and
she
has been very fortunate in that my ex-wife’s second husband and her stepfather has given her the love and security I failed to provide.’

‘We all mature at different stages,’ Jenny responded gently. ‘You must have been very young yourself when your daughter was born.’

Several yards away on the other side of the orchard Katie was just about to pour a glass of cooler for Saul’s wife, Tullah, when Tullah enquired in an admiring whisper, ‘Who on earth is that with your mother?’

As Katie turned round to look, her eyes widened in disbelief and dismay.

‘He’s...it’s Seb Cooke,’ she told Tullah curtly.

‘You’ve met him?’ Tullah questioned, her eyebrows lifting a little as she readily interpreted the dismay in Katie’s voice and expression.

‘Briefly,’ Katie admitted reluctantly, and then knowing that it was bound to become common family knowledge, she added even more reluctantly, ‘He’s buying the apartment next to mine...’

‘He is?
Wow!
Lucky
you
...’ Tullah sighed mock-enviously while Saul raised his own eyebrows and questioned teasingly, ‘What’s this?’

‘No one for you to worry about,’ Tullah quickly reassured him, linking her arm with his and snuggling up to his side. ‘But he is gorgeous and now that you’ve told me who he is I can see his likeness to Guy.’

‘Mmm...he’s already caused quite a flutter in the research labs,’ Saul admitted. ‘I think some of the girls are running a book on who will be the first to have a date with him.’

‘He’s a married man,’ Katie protested stiffly, looking disapproving.

‘You mean he was a married man,’ Saul corrected her. ‘According to the Aarlston-Becker grape-vine he is very much divorced and has been for a considerable length of time.’

Seb Cooke was
divorced
. For some inexplicable reason Katie discovered that her legs had gone oddly weak and that she wanted to sit down. Quite why the discovery that the elegant wife she had visualised for Seb did not actually exist should have such a dramatic physical effect on her she had no idea and nor did she wish to have, she warned herself hastily as her thoughts threatened to go into overdrive.

‘Why don’t you go and offer him a drink?’ Tullah suggested, giving Katie a sparkling-eyed look.

‘I’m sure if he wants one he’ll come over and ask...besides I’ve just remembered, there’s something I’ve left in the oven,’ Katie fibbed, pink-cheeked, as she hastily thrust the jug into Tullah’s hand and started to hurry back to the house making sure as she did so that she took a circuitous route through the orchard that would keep her as far away from Seb as possible.

Unfortunately though, her father had seen her and, remembering that he had asked her to handle Seb’s conveyancing, he called her over.

Reluctantly Katie abandoned her flight and walked warily towards the small group which included her parents and Guy and Chrissie as well as Seb.

‘Katie, I was just explaining to Seb here that you are going to be handling his conveyance,’ her father told her calmly as she reached them.

‘Your daughter and I have already met,’ Seb informed Jon formally as her father prepared to make the introductions.

As she responded to Seb’s unsmiling greeting, Katie wondered if anyone else other than herself had noticed his distancing reference to her as ‘your daughter’.

‘It’s quite a coincidence the two of you buying adjoining apartments,’ Chrissie Cooke commented lightly.

Seb gave a small shrug before responding,

‘They’re ideal for anyone living alone who wants the space and privacy they afford. The size of their rooms is an asset together with no maintenance of the beautiful gardens.’

‘Mmm... I believe the builders have even renovated the tennis courts so that the residents will be able to use them,’ Chrissie enthused.

‘Do you play tennis, Seb,’ Jenny asked conversationally.

‘I used to,’ Seb acknowledged. ‘Although...’

‘Katie plays,’ Chrissie chimed in.

Hot-cheeked, Katie denied quickly, ‘Not any more... I don’t really have time, and since Louise got married...’

‘Louise is Katie’s twin,’ Chrissie explained to Seb. ‘She and her husband are living in Brussels at the moment.

‘When are they next coming over, Jenny?’ she asked
Katie’s mother.

‘We’re hoping to arrange a family party for Ben soon,’ Jenny responded, turning to Seb to tell him, ‘Ben, my father-in-law, hasn’t been in very good health for quite some time. This celebration isn’t for a particular reason other than the fact he likes to get to see all the children. As much as he pretends his grandchildren and family irritate him, privately he would be dreadfully hurt if they didn’t all come to see him every once in a while.’

‘I suppose he
does
love us in his way,’ Katie agreed, momentarily forgetting her discomfort at seeing Seb. ‘But it’s Uncle David he really wants...’

‘David is my husband’s brother,’ Jenny explained quietly to Seb.

‘Did I hear you mention my father’s name?’ Olivia Crighton suddenly chimed in on the point of walking past with her husband, Caspar, but instead coming over to join them as she heard them discussing David.

‘The family’s black sheep.’

Seb frowned a little as he heard the challenging bitterness and dislike in her voice and noticed that it was Jon who moved over to her, taking hold of her hand and patting it almost paternally as he soothed her, ‘We were just saying how close he and Dad always were, Livvy...’

‘Don’t remind me,’ Olivia responded, refusing to be mollified. ‘If Gramps hadn’t spoiled him so much...’ She stopped and shook her head, apologising to Jenny, ‘I’m sorry, but Gramps was criticising me the other day for continuing to work even though I’ve got the children...’

‘He can be very difficult, I know,’ Jenny agreed, turning to Katie and suggesting, ‘Katie, why don’t you take Guy, Chrissie and Seb up to the house so they can get themselves something to eat. I like to make sure my victims are well fed and slothful before I go on the attack,’ Jenny told Seb beguilingly with a warm smile.

‘Go on the attack?’ Seb couldn’t resist questioning as Katie started to lead the way back to the house.

‘Mmm...’ Guy began to explain, but Katie beat him to it, telling Seb protectively,

‘My mother is a very caring person. She works very hard to raise funds to help support and maintain a local charity which was originally founded by my father’s Aunt Ruth.’

‘Mother and baby homes,’ Chrissie told Seb enthusiastically. ‘We all do what we can to help but Jenny and Maddy between them carry the heaviest responsibility for everything.’

‘Thanks in the main to Saul, Aarlston-Becker already underwrites a special fun day for the children, which is held annually. That’s due to come up quite soon, isn’t it, Katie?’ Chrissie asked her.

‘Mmm... Aarlston combined it with a group day off which means that nearly all the staff are also involved in the event.’

‘Yes, it’s held in the grounds of Fitzburgh Place and I warn you now, Seb,’ Guy teased, ‘you can fully expect to be roped in.’

‘Guy organises the marquees and the entertainers as his contribution,’ Chrissie informed Seb.

Guy gave a modest shrug.

‘It’s nothing really. What we normally do is arrange the event to tie in with one that we’re giving commercially up at the Hall so that we can give the kids their day out either for free or at a minimum cost. Lord Astlegh allows us to use the parkland for free and you’d be amazed at the amount of talent there is among Aarlston employees.’

‘...and among your family,’ Chrissie reminded him. ‘Last year’s fortune-teller was a really big hit. Who was she? You never would tell me...’

‘No, and I’m not going to now,’ Guy informed her. ‘Her identity is a professional secret.’

‘Mmm...well, she was definitely a Cooke,’ Chrissie murmured.

‘Well, of course. What else would you expect with our gypsy genes?’ Guy countered teasingly.

They had reached the house and as Katie led the way into the large conservatory off the kitchen where the main buffet table had been laid out, she decided that now that her duty was done she could safely escape. Seb’s brooding presence was having a decidedly disturbing effect on her senses. Was that really his aftershave she could smell and was so acutely aware of, that potently musky odour?