Restoring Grace (53 page)

‘Propitious?'

‘
Probably.
Grace is very shy. She'd find it hard to get
it on with someone if her
stepdaughter was around. Not that Demi's not lovely, but you know, two's
company.' Worried that he might think she was implying that anything should go
on between them by her comments about Grace and Flynn, Ellie stopped talking.
After her
initial attempts to seduce Ran had
failed so spectacularly,
she wanted him to believe she'd completely
given up anything in that line.

‘You're not eating much.'

‘I'm not all that hungry.'

‘Why not?'

‘
Tired, probably, being pregnant and all.' It
sounded like a good enough reason to her. In fact, she wasn't hungry because
she wanted him so much and he was sitting opposite her, friendly and often
flirtatious, but apparently not interested. It was enough to put any girl off
her food.

‘
You'll manage a trip
up to London tomorrow?’

‘
Of
course. I'll be fine after a good night's sleep.'
There was a pause as they both got on with their steaks,
then Ran broke the companionable
silence. 'So how long
do you think you'll go on
living with Grace?’

Ellie
frowned. This didn't seem a fair question. 'I don't
know. As long as she'll have me, I suppose. She was very
keen on the idea of me having the baby there. She
wanted
children, it was one of the
reasons she and her husband
broke up - she wanted them and he didn't. He
already had Demi and there's a son, too.'

‘
He must have been
quite a lot older than Grace, then.’

‘
Oh, he
was. I can't remember what the age gap was now, but it was huge.'

‘How old are you, Ellie?'

‘Twenty-five. Why? What's it to do with you?'

‘I'm thirty-five. Ten years is quite a large
gap.'

‘
So it is,' said Ellie. 'Just as well I'm not
planning to marry you, isn't it?' Then she blushed the colour of the piece of
steak on her fork. A moment later, she forced
herself
to meet Ran's gaze and realised that she had been right; he was warning her
off, explaining why he wouldn't
let her seduce him. 'On the other hand,'
she went on, willing herself to stop but somehow unable to, 'lots of people
don't get married these days. They just have a relationship.’

Ran sighed. 'Ellie, I should tell you, although
you may well have guessed, that I have had quite a lot of rela
tionships, long-term and short-term, mostly the
latter, and
they have always been with sophisticated women, either older
or the same age as me. I like you a great deal, but you are far too young and
sweet to be part of that string of women.'

‘
Sweet!' She
dropped her knife and fork loudly on to
her plate. 'Sweet! If you really
wanted to insult me, you couldn't have done better than that!'

‘Sorry. Insulting you really wasn't my
intention.'

‘Well, it was the effect! I may be young, but
I've been around. I've had my own failed relationship, you may remember, which
is why I am now carrying a child! I'm quite capable of deciding for myself if I
want a relationship, thank you!'

‘So am I, and I don't, in this particular
instance.' He spoke very gently, and that somehow gave Ellie confidence.

‘
Fair
enough.' She regarded him, not shy any more, but
challenging. 'That's
your choice. Don't blame me if you live to regret it.’

He returned her look and they confronted each
other, the sexual tension between them almost palpable. Ellie knew he wouldn't
give in and sweep her off to bed, but more importantly for her, she knew he
wanted to, very much.

‘I don't suppose you'd like to eat my steak?'
she said
demurely, changing the mood while
she was still in
control. 'I really can't eat it and it would be a shame
to waste it.'

‘You must have a few more mouthfuls,' he said
firmly, holding her gaze. 'You need the iron.’

He put down his own knife
and fork and picked up
hers. Then he cut off a small
portion of steak and held it
to her mouth.
She took it, still looking at him, still defying
him not to want her.
This, she realised, as she chewed,
not
lowering her eyes, was flirting on a grand scale and
it was enormous
fun. Playing with fire can give you a really warm feeling.

‘
Ellie,' he
said, when he had fed her three bits of steak
which she had dutifully
eaten. 'I do want to take you to bed, as you very well know, but I am not going
to do it,
which you know very well, too. So
you might as well
stop sending me smouldering looks.'

‘But if you're not going to respond to them,
there's no harm in my sending them, is there?'

‘
Not if you don't mind giving me a sleepless
night, no.'
Jubilant, Ellie lay down her
knife and fork. 'Have some
spinach, why don't you?'

‘I hate
spinach,' he said.

‘I'll eat it
then. That's got iron in it, too.'

‘
You really are the most maddening child.'

‘
Child? I
don't think so. After all, I don't suppose you've
ever wanted to go to
bed with anyone below the age of consent, have you?'

‘No.'

‘Then stop sulking and I'll go and fetch the
pudding.'
He continued to glower at her. She
grinned, and because
she couldn't help herself, she got up from her
chair and kissed the top of his head. 'Serves you right for being so
bossy,' she said, and left the room, wondering if
perhaps
she'd gone a bit too far.

Chapter Twenty-three

 
Over lunch, Grace had lost her awkwardness with Flynn.
By the
time he had fed her, bought her several large
drinks,
and made her laugh so much she wondered if she
could ever be serious
again, she no longer had any anxieties about their sleeping arrangements; she
would let
things run their course. If they
ended up in bed together,
they did, and if they didn't, well, that was
all right too.

‘
Would you
like some tea?' asked Flynn as they got
back through the front door.

‘I'll make it. Do let me. You've looked after
me so well all day, it's the least I can do.' She turned and smiled as
they entered the kitchen. 'Well, actually, it's
probably the
most I can do.'

‘I don't know how you can know so much about
wine
and not care about food.' He regarded
her with an intent
ness which both scared and intrigued her.

‘Oh, I do care,' she insisted. 'I just can't
cook. I never
learnt. Edward always did it
and he was such a foodie—' she broke off. She'd made it a rule never to say
anything
negative about Edward. She even tried not to think anything
negative about him.

‘Yes?’

She glanced up, accepting
the blame for this herself. 'I
was scared to try, I suppose, in
case it went wrong.' She
smiled, trying to
get him off the subject. 'I'm very good
at washing up, though.'

‘
Loading the dishwasher can be tricky,' he said
seriously.

‘
Oh, shut up!' She
threw a tea towel at him, wondering
I she was a bit drunk. 'I'll make
the tea.'

‘
Let's have
it in the sitting room. I've spent enough time
Looking at you across a
table, usually a kitchen one. I'd Like to try another setting.'

‘
It might be an improvement.'

‘I doubt it,
but I do like variety.'

‘Then go
away and leave me to it.’

While she was in the
kitchen, Flynn's cat appeared and
rubbed itself against her legs,
asking for food.

‘I'm just a trigger for you now,' she said, cuddling
him. 'You feel hungry whenever you see me.' Then she found the cat biscuits and
put some in a bowl and watched as he crunched into them. 'Perhaps I'll get a
cat,' she said aloud, and then filled the kettle.

She carried the tray into the sitting room,
which was beautiful. It had elm boards on the floor with a few very
worn old rugs. The furniture was a mixture of
antique and
modern but it blended so well together, she only noticed
it wasn't all the same period when she put the
tray down.
Set against a wall was
something very similar to Edward's
favourite Dutch table, with cabriole
legs. The room felt elegant and yet still comfortable, somewhere to relax.

‘Biscuits?' asked Flynn, who had been lying on
one of the pair of sofas with his feet up and had swung them down as she
entered the room.

‘
You can't
want biscuits. You ate a huge lunch. Besides,
I've no idea where they
are.'

‘I'll get them. You sit down and pour the tea.'
He rose,
but stayed, looking at her as she
sank into the welcoming
embrace of feather cushions and silk velvet and
fiddled with the cups. She glanced up and was surprised to see him looking at
her with an expression which caused her heart to flutter in an unnerving way.
Then the corner of his mouth twitched to indicate he was only teasing her and
made everything all right again.

He came back with a packet of the sort of
biscuits her sister Allegra would serve: organic, with Royal connections. Grace
was just about to comment on his excellent
taste
when she noticed that he was also carrying her post,
and that his
expression had changed.

‘What's this?' he asked, handing her a flyer
with her handwriting all over it.

‘Oh, just something,' she said, trying to sound
unconcerned. 'Rubbish, really.'

‘
So why have you made notes on it?'

‘Doodling.'

‘
It doesn't look like
doodling to me, Grace.' He sat
down on the sofa next to her and made her
look at it. 'It looks like calculations for borrowing money from loan sharks.
Tell me you haven't. Please,' he added, his tone horridly reminiscent of
Edward's when she'd done something wrong.

But he was not Edward and
she was not afraid to stick
up for herself. She'd arranged the
loan while Flynn was out and now realised she should never have left the
evidence lying around. 'It's nothing to do with you!' she said defensively.

‘
Tell me,'
he said, biting out each word, 'that you
haven't borrowed money at such
an extortionate rate of interest that you will have paid double the amount you
borrowed by the time you've finished.'

‘But it's only until I sell the paintings!' She
was partly
angry with herself for leaving
the evidence where he could find it, but also horribly aware that she'd done
something
she'd told Demi that no one should ever, ever do.

‘
When will
that be? You'll owe them thousands in
interest alone. And there's likely
to be a huge penalty charge if you pay them back early. Give me that paper. I'm
going to stop this.’

Grace snatched it away
from him. 'Flynn, you have no
right to
behave like this. It's my money, my loan, my house and my business!' Some part
of her noted that it was satisfying being able to argue with Flynn. Edward
could silence
her with a look, a raised
eyebrow, and a withdrawal of
his favour which felt like a total
eclipse. 'Who are you to say who I can borrow money from or not?’

Flynn snatched the paper
back. 'I'm someone who cares
about you, and will not stand by and
let you be fleeced by these sharks!’

He left the room and Grace struggled out of the
sofa
and followed him, running to keep up
with his long
strides. 'Give that back! It's mine!’

He took no notice, he only walked faster and
crossed
the hall to his study. He went in
and shut the door, prac
tically in her
face. She tried to follow him but found
herself the wrong side of the
door, hearing the key being turned in the lock.