Painted Wings Page 12

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  DERYN opened her eyes slowly. She had never before noticed that the bed was so uncomfortable, and then she realised that she wasn't in bed at all but in the one and only armchair in the cottage sittingroomcumkitchen and the sun was shining in on her from the window. She remembered her guest upstairs then and sat up straight, her eyes opening wide, while Hound came over and wagged his tail in a friendly good morning. She fussed him for a moment, then let him out, and stoked up the fire to boil a kettle for tea. Soon she must go and see how Dominic was this morning , and see'if he felt like breakfast or not. After last night's storm, it was a warm golden : morning, and she stood in the doorway for a mo ment of two, savouring the peace of it, and straight ening out the kinks from her cramped limbs. There was something wonderful about this morning, she , felt, although she could, not imagine why it should seem so much more so than other fine mornings. ! She could not think why she felt so mellow, for there had been many equally soft, bright mornings at Llanwellon, but still she hummed to herself as she j' put out cups and saucers. She managed to shut Hound downstairs, fearing for her safety on the stairs with a cup of tea in her t hand, she knocked on the bedroom door softly, in 'case Dominic was still asleep. He answered almost at i77 once, however, and she went in with his tea, very conscious suddenly that she was still wearing the clothes she had slept in. 'It's not the local scarecrow,' she told him, facetious to cover the way her voice quivered when he smiled at her. 'I've slept in my clothes.' 'You look all right to me,' he assured her softly, and reached for her other hand as he took his tea from her. 'Good morning, little one.' 'It's a lovely morning after the storm.' She withdrew her hand and walked back to the foot of the bed, out of reach. 'How are you this morning?' 'Fine,' he assured her. 'Fit as a fiddle, and rarin' to go.' 'To Tunisia?' she asked, suddenly remembering, and he looked at her curiously. 'Now how did you hear about that?' He grinned knowingly. 'Gerald for a pound,' he guessed. Well, you certainly didn't tell me,' she retorted, holding on to the oldfashioned bed end with both hands, and resting her chin on the brass knob on the top of it. 'I didn't have the chance,' he told her, and his eyes held the old familiar laughter. 'You were in no mood to listen when I came back, if you remember.' 'You had yesterday morning at breakfast,' she said, and he grinned, hiding most of his face behind the big mug of tea. Td had second thoughts by then,' he said. Deryn stared at him uncertainly. 'You mean you mean you're not going?' He shook his head. 'Not yet awhile anyway.' He cocked a brow at her provocatively. 'Are you disap178 pointed?' 'No. No, of course I'm not, why should I be?' He shrugged, still smiling, as if at some private thought he was not prepared to share. 'I had a feeling I was in too. much of a hurry to take things at face value,' he told her, and did not enlarge on that either. 'Oh?' 'Oh,' he mocked, and laughed, elbows on his knees, the mug of tea held in both hands while he watched her. 'You look as if you suspect me'of all sorts of devious doings, little one,, and I assure you you're wrong.' 'No, I don't!' Well, I'm glad to hear it.' He drank the last of the tea and put down the empty cup, then turned and smiled at her again with the same devastating effect as before. 'Now, I wonder, will you be an absolute little angel and do something else for me?' :. She looked at him doubtfully, but nodded just the same. 'If I can,' she said. 'What is it?' He grinned at her, putting his hands to the naked upper half of his torso. 'Make me more respectable,' he said. 'I thought perhaps you wouldn't mind going down to the summerhouse and fetching me some clean dry clothes. Will you?' 'Oh yes, of course! I'd forgotten about that. Those will still be damp, won't they?' 'Thank you.' She eyed him expectantly, for it seemed to her that he had something else in mind, land his next words confirmed it. 'Also,' he said, lyou'll probably find a lost lady down there. She's arriving on the early train, or supposed to be, and it :. i79. won't take her long to get out here in a taxi, even allowing for the walk from the road.' Deryn found it suddenly hard to meet his eyes and there was a small, cold feeling inside her that '.' had not been there before. 'You you want me to see her?' 'I doubt if you'll be able to avoid it,' he informed her, apparently unconcerned. 'And she might be in a bit of a temper at first because I was supposed to be meeting her with the car.' I see.' " 'So will you rescue her for me, and tell her I'll be along quite soon ?' Deryn nodded, her hands tight on the iron bed post. 'Yes, of course, but first I'll have to get some . more clothes for myself out of the wardrobe. I'm not fit to be seen, especially by strangers.' 'You're always fit to be seen,' he told her softly ". 'But please will you wear that little yellow smock thing that makes you look like a pretty canary?' She looked up then, and a small crease appeared between her brows as she shook her head slowly. 'I don't think you ' she began, then turned hastily, and sought in the big oldfashioned wardrobe for the yellow smock, wondering what on earth she was ' going to say to Tess, for it was bound to be her that he was expecting, she felt sure. How would she break the news to her that Dominic had spent last night, not in his own bed in the summerhouse, but at the cottage, in hers. She went down to the summerhouse after she had washed and changed, with Hound bounding along 180 ' in front of her, as if he was going home. There was no sign of the expected arrival yet and for the : moment she breathed a sigh of relief for even a brief respite. , She found and packed up a complete change of dry clothes into a small empty case she found in the smaller of the two rooms. Being there like that, and packing clothes for him, gave her an odd and disturbing sense of intimacy that she sought to shake off as she remembered shaving things for him, something he had omitted to ask for. She was in the act of closing the door behind her when Hound suddenly flew off across the garden, barking excitedly. Deryn turned, the case in her hand, suspecting that at last the expected visitor had .arrived, and it was obvious that Hound both recog. nised her and liked her, judging by his reception. She was coming across the untidy grass patch, rubbing the labrador's ears, and laughing at his enthusiasm, and Deryn's heart skipped a beat when she recognised the subject of the photograph she .had seen. So it was Tess he was expecting, and, if anythmg, she was even better looking in the flesh. She had a very nice smile too, and she looked at Deryn with curious but quite surprisingly friendly eyes. 'Good morning,' she said, as she approached. :'Isn't he up yet?' Deryn blinked uncertainly. This girl was not at all what she had expected. 'I Mr. Gregory' isn't here I mean ' The girl laughed easily,'and extended a hand. 'I'm Tess GIadwin she said. 'I suspect you're Deryn, aren't you?' 181 Deryn nodded, not quite sure what to say. 'I'm Deryn Williams,' she agreed. I knew you had to be,' she was told frankly. 'Dom's been raving about you for weeks, and now I see why.' 'Oh has he?' It was disconcerting having her so friendly when Deryn had anticipated at least a cool reception, if not outright hostility. Isn't Dom up yet?' Tess Gladwin asked again, and laughed. 'I ask because he belongs to the lark brigade as a rule. What's wrong with him?' 'Well, nothing much really, this morning,' Deryn said cautiously. 'He asked me to tell you he won't be very long before he joins you.' She looked at the friendly, open face of the other girl and acted on impulse. "Perhaps you'd like to have breakfast with us,' she suggested, and did not even notice how familiar and intimate the words sounded. 'That's very kind of you, thank you, I will.' Tess glanced back at the summerhouse and cocked one dark brow in a gesture that was somehow oddly familiar. 'Were you rousing Dom from his slumbers?' she asked. Deryn shook her head, wondering how it would sound when she tried to explain, and if Tess Gladwin would be quite so amiable when she knew where he'd spent last night, 'He he isn't in the summerhouse at the moment. Miss Gladwin.' 'Mrs. Gladwin she was told, and noticed for the first time that the other girl was wearing a wide gold wedding ring on her left hand. Somehow that was very hard to swallow. 'Oh I'm sorry.' 182 'Did you say Dom's not in the summerhouse?' 'He he had an accident last night,' Deryn went on to explain, foreseeing difficulties ahead. 'He had a a fall and he was in no state to be left alone in the summerhouse with no heating or or anything.' ' For a moment Tess Gladwin looked anxious. 'Is he all right now?' she asked, and Deryn nodded. 'He isn't in
hospital?' Oh no,' Deryn assured her. 'He stayed at the cottage.' Again that black brow lifted in comment. 'At your cottage?' Yes.' She saw the implication, but did not know quite what to do about it. I see.' Deryn flushed and her hand tightened on the handle of the case she carried. I don't think you do, Mrs. Gladwin. I slept downstairs in an extremely uncomfortable armchair.' Surprisingly again, the other girl laughed. 'You don't have to explain to me,' she said. 'Dom goes his own sweet way, but I am rather fond of the old devil and I rather hoped he'd reformed since the last time I saw him.' She smiled. 'I'm glad he has.' 'You you don't mind?' Deryn stared at her curiously, not knowing quite what to make of her. Tess Gladwin shrugged. 'Why should I mind? My brother's life is his own affair, if you'll pardon the pun.' Deryn halted in her tracks, her eyes wide, her lips parted but unable to find the right words. 'Your ' She swallowed hard. 'Your brother?' Tess nodded, amused but frowning curiously. 183 'Yes didn't Dom tell you who I was?' 'No, he didn't,' Deryn said grimly, her eyes . darkening ominously. 'I suppose he thought it would be more fun if he didn't.' 'No doubt,' Tess agreed, glancing at her speculatively. 'I guess you've had your hands full with that brother of mine, haven't you?' Deryn loked at her for a moment, then smiled wryly and went on again towards the cottage. 'Not really,' she said. 'I've had my mind on other things most of the time.' 'Mm, so I've heard,' Tess mused, and smiled when Deryn glanced at her suspiciously. 'We've always been pretty close, Dom and I,' she told her. 'Hence my knowhow about you and and your friend Gerald, was it?' Deryn nodded, not at all sure that she liked the idea of being discussed, but feeling strangely elated about something she could not quite put a name to. I'm afraid ' She'shrugged. 'Oh well, Gerald will be off to Africa soon,' she said. 'And I probab'ly won't see him again.' She opened the door of the cottage and invited her visitor in, setting down the case on the floor. 'I'll put some more fuel on the fire,' she said. 'Your brother will need even more breakfast than usual this morning, I expect, after his experience in that cave last night.' 'Cave?' Tess flicked her brows up in surprise, and Deryn laughed. 'I'll leave him to tell you about that,' she told her. She looked down at the case when she had dealt with the fire, and glanced enquiringly at Tess. 184 'I suppose you wouldn't like to take his things up to him, would you?' she asked, and Tess smiled as she shook her head. I don't think I'd better,' she said. 'I have a feeling I'm not the person he most wants to see at the moment.' Deryn stared at her, biting on her lower lip, and wishing she did not feel so excited and almost childishly lighthearted. 'I can't imagine why,' she said. 'But I'll go if you'd rather not.' Tess said nothing, but watched as Deryn' picked up the case and went up the narrow, dark stairs with it to the bedroom. A knock produced the immediate answer to come in, and she opened the door to meet a smile that did strange things to her pulse. It was quite idiotic, she told herself, the way she was behaving this morning and it was time she did something about it. 'Here are your things,' she told him shortly. 'And I've invited your sister to breakfast, so don't be too long coming ,down.' She put the case down heavily on the foot of the bed and would have gone out of the room again, but he reached out for her and only just missed grasping her wrist. 'You sound crotchety,' he told her, apparently unperturbed by the fact. 'What's wrong?' 'Nothing.' 'That's not true,' he retorted. 'I suppose it's because I didn't tell you that Tess is my sister, is that it?' 'No, of course not! It makes no difference to me who your visitors are.' 'Do you like her?' i85 She was forced to be honest about that at least. 'Yes,' she said, "I do.' Good.' 'Why should it matter to you, if I like Tess or not?' He reached out a hand again, but she stubbornly refused to be drawn by it. 'Come here,' he said, where I can reach you.' I don't want to be reached.' He grinned ruefully. 'You are in a huff, aren't you?' he said. 'Please come here, Deryn, where I can reach you.' 'No, and I wish you'd stop trying to to I don't want to be be coaxed or whatever it is you're trying to do,' she told him vaguely. 'I'm going.' She turned and heard him move at the same time. 'If you don't come here, I shall come after you,' he threatened. 'And that would cause a stir ' 'Don't you dare!' She turned back hastily, to find him still decently covered, but with the bedclothes gathered into one hand as if he meant to carry out his threat. 'Then come here.' She went back and this time allowed him to take her hand and draw her up close to the side of the bed. She could not look at him because she knew what she could see in his eyes and she was hot at all sure that she could cope with it in the way she knew she should. One hand went under her hair and lifted it from her neck and the other went round her waist and pulled her down until she was sitting almost onhis lap. Almost without realising it she lifted her 186 face to him and closed her eyes when his mouth covered hers, gently at first and then harder and more excitingly until she clung to him, breathless and uncaring about anything else. It was Hound's loud and insistent barking downstairs that brought her to her senses and she tried to push away from him, even though he hung on to her tightly and his eyes were darkly bright as he looked down at her. 'I'll kick that hound one of these days,' he said, and Deryn laughed. She hadn't meant to laugh, but it broke thetension and Dominic laughed with her, then hugged her close, his face buried in the mass of her tumbled hair, his voice muffled. 'I love you,' he whispered huskily. 'I love you, Deryn.' Deryn lay back against his arms, her hands still pushing at him, although by now she knew she did not want him to let her go, looking up at the darkly tanned face, mercifully restored to its usual colour this morning. There were fine lines at the corners of his grey eyes, and a certain rakish leanness about the brown features that she suddenly found irresistible, and her fingers went instinctively to those controversial grey hairs, just above his ears. 'Are you reminding me of those grey hairs again ?' he asked softly, and she hastily shook her head. 'No!. No, of course I'm not ' He looked at her steadily for a long moment, then smiled. 'I suppose I have absolutely no right to ask you to marry me,' he said then. 'Taking into consideration these grey hairs among other things, but I am asking you, my darling, because I love you to distraction, and I'm also conceited enough to think 187 you love me, although your spirit of independence will probably let you die rather than admit it.' Deryn laughed softly, feeling less independent and more idiotically feminine than she ever remembered, and revelling in it. 'I'll admit it she told him, tracing the firm line of his chin with one finger as she spoke, 'if you'll tell me why you suddenly decided not to go to Tunisia, or why you did decide to go in the first place.' He laughed, shaking his head over her curiosity. 'I decided to go because I was getting much too fond of you, my darling.' 'And you didn't like that?' He kissed her lingeringly. 'I'd have been delirious about it,' he said, 'if it hadn't been for Gerald. I thought you were all set to marry him. So a couple of weeks ago I decided the best thing I could do would be to take off into the wide, blue yonder and try to forget about you.' 'Two weeks ago!' She stared at him. 'So so you' didn't decide on Africa because you knew I we were supposed to be going there?' 'Good lord, no!' He looked almost scandalised at the idea. 'I was going to escape having to see you and Gerald together. I certainly wouldn't have followed you.' 'I see.' 'Is that what you thought?' She pulled a face. 'It's what Gerald thought.' He would! No, it was because I thought I might be mucking up your romance with him that I was going. I didn't want you to be unhappy because of me, not ever. Then you told me you'd refused to go 188 with him to Africa, and when you showed signs of wanting to scratch Tess's eyes out before you'd even seen her ' 'I didn't!' Deryn objected indignantly. Oh yes, you did.' He kissed the tip of her nose and smiled. 'Well, then I knew, or at least I hoped I'd read the signs right, and I couldn't take the chance of going away then, and probably losing you because I'd been too hasty. So yesterday morning I rang from Glanreddin and cancelled my trip.' 'And nearly got yourself killed down some ghastly' hole in the hillside ' She hugged him tight when she thought of the agony of mind she had gone through last night and the way she had cried when she knew he was safe again. She stayed close to him for some time like that, then she lifted her head again and looked at him quizzically.
'Why did you ask Tess to come here?' she asked then. He laughed softly, and the sound of it throbbed warmly against her. 'I rang her at the same time as I rang the agents. I wanted you two to meet, that's all, nothing more sinister than that, and I'm very glad you like one another.' She snuggled her face contentedly into the curve of his neck. 'I like Tess,' she told him. 'I'm not sure how she feels about me.' 'If you're going to be the means of getting me to settle down,' he told her with certainty, 'she'll love you.' 'And are you going to?' He held her away from him for a moment, something of the old familiar look of amusement in his eyes as he looked at her. 'If you'll have me,' he told 189 her. 'Will you?'Deryn looked at him steadily, her eyes soft and warm with a look she would never have believed herself capable of. 'Ilove you,' she said simply, 'so I suppose I will.'Hound, downstairs and growing more and more impatient, barked again urgently, but neither of them noticed this time, not even when the smell of the breakfast Tess was cooking floated up the stairs.