A Man To Tame - Rachel Lindsay (Roberta Leigh) (17 page)

‘You
^’
re so little,’ he said
against her lips. Yet so full of spirit that I sometimes think you're ten feet
tall,’

‘You are the one
who's ten feet tall,’ she gasped, and tried to find the ground with her feet.

‘We could make love more
comfortably sitting down,’ he murmured, 'and even better if we were lying
down.'

'Joshua!'

'Kate!' he echoed. 'Don't tell me a
doctor is so easily shocked?'

'Academic understanding is quite
different from experience,’ she said primly. ‘You have the layman's
misconception of what happens in medical school,’

'Oh, really,’ he teased. ‘Does that
mean you're still——-'

‘Yes,’ she said firmly.

‘We'll have to put that right,
then!' His hold tightened round her and she gave a little shiver. 'Am I
frightening you, Kate?'

'A little,’ she confessed, and
wriggled her toes, In lifting her up he had left her shoes behind, though she
knew he was unaware of it. 'I didn't expect to find myself here with you like
this,’ she continued.

'Don't you like it?'

'Are you fishing?'

'In very deep water, I think,’ he
replied, ‘but not too deep�
for you , I hope?’

'I don't know, Joshua.'

'Well, I know,’ he said, and gave
her a slight shake. ‘We're in this together, Kate, and it's
way over our heads. It's too late for either of us to draw back now.'

‘I never——-‘

Daddy!' A thin voice piped and as Joshua's arms momentarily
relaxed Kate slipped down to the floor and quickly fumbled for her shoes.

What is it, Janey?' her father
asked, turning around.

'I wanted to let you know I'm
awake.'

‘You've certainly done that,
sweetheart!' His hand moved behind him and touched Kate's thigh. She trembled
and then stepped quickly round him to move towards the bed.

'Are you feeling much better after
your sleep, Janey?'

‘You didn't go down and leave me,'
Janey said, ignoring the question.

'I told you I wouldn't,' said Kate.
‘But I'm going to go down now.'

‘Will you come and see me again?'

'Of course.'

‘Will you be my doctor?'

‘You have Dr Parker.'

I'd rather have
you.' Janey looked at her father. 'Can I have Kate as my doctor?'

‘Who said you could call her Kate?'
Joshua asked.

‘You do, so why
can't I?'

‘Of course you can,' Kate said,
'and even though I can't be your doctor I can come and see you as your friend.'
She bent to kiss Janey and, without looking at Joshua, hurried from the room.
She was halfway down the corridor when he caught up with her.

‘You've made as big a hit with my
daughter as you have with me,' he said.

‘But Janey succumbed more quickly!'

'Because she has
the innocence of a child. I had to compete
with years of prejudice.’ He caught hold of her, hand and pulled her to a stop.
I’ve never lied career women and have always run a
mile from the ones
I
met.'

‘What do you have against them?'

The fact that they're so busy
trying to succeed in a man's world that they forget how to be women.'

‘Perhaps if they didn't feel they
had to compete so hard in order to get acceptance ‘

‘I’m sure you're right,' he
interrupted. I’m not defending my past attitude, merely explaining it.’ He
resumed walking with her, only stopping as they reached,
the top of the stairs. 'I wish the visitors had gone,' he said under his
breath. 'I want to have you to myself. There's so much time to make up for.’

‘We've only known each other a
month,' she reminded him.

I’m thinking of the years when I
didn't know you. They've been wasted years, Kate.'

Below him in the hall came a slim
figure in scarlet. There you are, Joshua,' called Felicity. The Craigs are
going and they want to say goodbye to you.'

‘I’m coming,' he replied, and went
swiftly down the stairs.

Kate was glad she could follow
alone and more slowly, since it gave her time to try and collect her wits. She
still could not believe she had not imagined the scene that had taken place
between her and Joshua in Janey's bedroom. It had happened so swiftly that she
wondered even now whether it might not have been a dream. Yet her lips were
still bruised from his kisses and her body still warm from his touch, telling
her it was no dream but the beginning of something wonderful and real.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Kate did not have a chance to talk
to Joshua alone again, for though she and Dermot stayed for supper so did most
of the other guests. Even when she bade him goodnight, Felicity stood beside
him, her skirt touching his dark trousered leg, her hand hovering above his arm
like the talons of a bird.

‘You were a long time in Janey's
room,' Dermot remarked as they drove away from the house.

'She fell asleep and I promised to
stay with her until she woke up,' Kate explained.

‘Mr Howard said you performed a
miracle.'

That's layman's talk.'

‘She's a nice kid,' Dermot went on.
'It's odd her not liking Felicity. You'd
think she would,
considering she looks so much like her mother.'

'I don't think Janey remembers her
mother very clearly,' Kate said.

‘More likely the kid is jealous at
having to share her father's affection.'

This thought had struck Kate too,
though the dislike she herself felt towards Felicity had made her more inclined
to give Janey the benefit of the doubt

Thai: could be the reason they
haven't got married yet,' Dermot went on. 'Janey is highly strung and Mr Howard
might be afraid of doing anything that would make her worse. I'm sure that's
why Felicity came back to live in Llanduff—so Janey could get a chance to know
'her.'

If Dermot had told her all this
earlier in the day Kate would have listened with interest, but now his remarks
seemed to have no meaning, for what had happened between herself and Joshua in Janey’s bedroom made the past a dead
and meaningless occurrence. The future was all that mattered: her future with
Joshua. It was unbelievable, so much so that she was afraid to think about ft.
Yet when Dermot left her at the house she could not prevent herself from
weaving plans for the days ahead and the years she would be sharing with a man
who, only a short while ago, she had considered her enemy.

It was a shock to find it raining
when she awoke, but the gloomy skies could not darken her mood and she was light
of step when she went down to breakfast

‘Mr
Howard called you a little while ago,' Mrs Pugh informed
her. 'But when I said you were asleep he wouldn't let me wake you.'

‘Did he say he would call back?'

‘No. He was off to Manchester
Airport. Said something about flying to the States and that he-would call you
from there. But he hoped to be back in three or, four days.'

The dark clouds hovered over Kate's
shining horizon and she resolutely pushed them away. Obviously Joshua's
departure had been unexpected, otherwise he would have
told her about it yesterday. But at least he had called this morning to say
goodbye. If only Mrs Pugh-had not listened to him and had woken her up! She
stared morosely at her toast, glad when a ring at the surgery door told her
there were patients to see and she could push back her chair and stop
pretending to eat her breakfast.

This is the first time anyone has
called here on a Sunday,' she said to Mrs Pugh's disapproving back.

'Sunday is a day of rest for
doctors as well as human beings,’ the woman snorted.

'I'm the most under-worked doctor
in the medical profession,' Kate said cheerily.’

‘You soon won't be. Once the
womenfolk start to come, you'll be up to your eyes in work.'

It was well after midday before Kate found herself free. The
rest of the day stretched ahead with nothing to do and, when the rain stopped
and the watery sun made an effort to ride the pale blue sky, she put on a
jacket and scarf and went for a walk. Automatically she took her favourite
route, and coming to the crossroads turned— in the direction of Felicity
Davis's cottage. It looked prettier than ever and, with smoke coming out of the
chimney, had a mediaeval air about it, though the girl who opened its door and
hailed her very much epitomised the twentieth century.

�‘Hello, Dr Gibson,' Felicity called. ‘I
thought I recognised you walking up the lane.'

Regretting her decision to come
this way, Kate inched backwards. 'I often come this way. I like the view from
the top of the hill.'

I’m too used to it to see it any
more.' Felicity opened the door wider. 'Do come in for a drink. I'm bored with
my own company.'

To have a drink with Felicity was
the last thing she wanted, but short of being rude Kate could not see a way of
refusing.
She
followed the other girl through a whitewashed hall to a
long, low-ceilinged room where chintz-covered easy chairs stood on gay scatter
rugs and a log fire burned in a huge old-fashioned fireplace.

‘What a charming room,' Kate
exclaimed. 'It's like one of those advertisements you see on television
advertising wholemeal bread!'

Felicity grinned and opened a
cabinet door to disclose an assorted array of different sized bottles. ‘Name
your poison.'

Kate had assumed the offer of a
drink to mean tea, and she shook her head. 'Do you mind if I refuse? Short drinks
give me’ a headache.'

'Something long, then, or would you
like some coffee?'

'Coffee would be lovely.'

'Come into the kitchen and talk to
me while I make it,’ Felicity said over her shoulder as she went across the
hall.

Kate followed and found herself in
a small but perfectly equipped kitchen, as clinical and shining as her own
surgery.

‘You seem equipped for everything
here,' she commented, gazing at an eye-level oven, a dishwasher and various other
electrical instruments.

'I hate all domestic chores,'
Felicity said, 'and the only way I manage to do them is by being a hundred per
cent efficient.'

'I never imagined you doing
anything domestic,’ Kate admitted, and felt bright blue eyes looking at her
with amusement.

‘But you don't know me very well,
do you, Dr Gibson, or would you mind if I called you Kate?'

‘Please do.' Kate accepted a
biscuit, knowing as she took it that it was home-made and knowing, even before
she tasted it, that it would be excellent. For all Felicity's disclaimer of
domesticity she was not the type of girl to do anything by halves.
Unaccountably she thought of Joshua. He had probably sat at this very table for
dinner. And breakfast too…

'Such a bore Joshua having to go
to, the States,’ Felicity said. 'It's left me high and dry. If he'd had any
advance warning I would have gone with him.'

'Just for three days?' The moment
Kate spoke she knew she had made a mistake, for the blue eyes sparked
dangerously. 'Joshua left a message with my housekeeper,’ she continued
nervously, though she didn't know what she had to be nervous about.

'He likes you,’ said Felicity
bluntly. The fact that you are dedicated to your work is something he finds
intriguing.'

'Really?' Kate said in an offhand way.

‘But then he finds most women
intriguing,' Felicity added. ‘He's a dreadful flirt.’

‘You know him better than I do.’

‘You know he married my cousin?'
and then at Kate's nod: 'I was in love with him even then, but of course he
never knew it, and when Janine died it was all I could do not to rush back and
tell him so. It was only because I knew Joshua so well that I forced myself to
stay away from him.'

Against her will Kate's curiosity
was stirred and, as if aware of it, Felicity spoke again.

‘I
knew that once he found himself free he wouldn't tie
himself to another woman for years. Certainly not until he'd sown all the wild
oats he'd never had a chance to sow before. You see, he grew up with Janine and
never had a chance to know any other .women.’ The percolator bubbled and fell
back and she filled the cups. 'He had a whale of a time for four years and
that's when I decided he'd been free long enough. So I packed my bap, sold my
apartment in New York and came back to Llanduff!'

‘You make it sound like a plan of
campaign.'

'It was. And like all well planned
campaigns, it's paid
off.'

'Has it?' Kate said involuntarily.

‘Sure.' Felicity set the cups on a
tray. ‘Let's take it into-the living room, shall we, it's more comfortable
there.' She went ahead of Kate. We'd have been married already if it hadn't
been for Janey,' she said over her shoulder. That child is sp possessive of her
father she's given him a complex about bringing anyone into the 'house. Still,
painting her portrait will finally resolve that little problem. Whenever I
suggested it before she used to blow her top, but you saw for yourself
yesterday that she accepted it without making a fuss.'

That's a good sign,' Kate said, marvelling that her voice could sound so natural when her
mind was still busy with,«hat Felicity had said a
moment before.

’Well Joshua thinks it is,’ Felicity
said and if things go as we plan we'll get married this summer.' She handed
Kate
her cup and sat down beside her. Her expression was
frank and her eyes met
Kate's without any prevarication. 'I suppose you think I'm crazy to marry
Joshua and settle down in a place like Llanduff?'

‘Why should I think that ?' Kate asked huskily.

‘Because you've always lived in London
and your work obviously means more to you than anything else.'

'I could say the same of you,' Kate
said coolly.

Felicity shook her head. 'I love
painting—and I’ve been very successful at it—but it's always been second best
for me. I would have married Joshua years ago if he would have had me.' She put
down her cup and stretched her arms wide. 'I can't really believe it’s all
coming true. He can be a devil at times, but he's everything I've dreamed of.'