Gentle Tyrant Page 2

  CHAPTER TWO

  HER grandfather was quite dellighted when Laurie told him about her successful application for the post of secretary to the eldest McAdam brother. 'He's much nicer than the other one,' she told him. Tieasanter and more understanding. I felt really at ease with him.' 'He's crippled in some way, isn't he?' her grandfather asked, and Laurie looked at him in surprise at his knowledge. 'Yes, he is,' she agreed. 'But how did you know that?' The old man smiled. 'Quin told me,' he informed her blandly. 'At least he told me that his brother was confined to a wheelchair. I didn't Like to ask the reason.' Laurie made a wry face as she set the table for dinner. 'You seem to be on very chatty terms with Quin McAdam,' she said, unable to keep the note of disapproval out of her voice, a fact that her grandfather 'noticed, looking at her with a sly smile and a hint of mischief in his faded blue eyes. 'I Like him,' he told her. 'I know you don't approve, Laurie, but he's really a nice young man, and very friendly.' 'Nice,' Laurie said tardy, banging down the cruet 24 on the table, 'is not the word I'd use for Quin McAdam.' 'You're prejudiced,' her grandfa&er accused, and she "shrugged.'Maybe I am, but I don't Like his manners. He's arrogant and ill-mannered.' 'He's mebbe a wee bit rugged in his ways,' the old man conceded. 'But that'll be from all those years in Canada when he was a youngster.' Laurie smiled wryly, shaking her head over the excuse. 'Grandpa, Canada isn't the rough, tough pio-neering backwoods it was in your young days,' she informed him. 'It's an advanced, dvilised country.' 'Maybe,' her grandfather allowed, 'but there's still a great deal of it that's untamed country, my dear, and Quin McAdam's seen most of it, and done most things in his time too.' 'To hear you talk you'd think he was as old as Methuselah!' Laurie remarked teasingly, amused despite her disLike of the subject under discussion, and interested too, although she would never have admitted it. . 'He's thirty-four,' the old man replaiyed promptly, and grinned wickedly at her, going on before she could question his authority. 'I asked him,' he told her. 'Grandpa! You didn't! But why, for heaven's sake?' He shrugged carelessly, his eyes still hinting mischief. 'I was interested,' he told her. 'Good a reason as any, isn't it?' She pulled a face, wondering how much of their own history he had imparted in return. 'So he's been telling you his life history, has he?' she said dryly, and 25 the old man nodded. 'He's been around, that feller. Ranching, lumberjacking, things Like that, that are far more likely to give a man a rugged outlook on life than train him up in smooth, drawing-room manners.' Laurie looked at nim curiously, under no delusion that the jibe had been aimed at her for her critidsm, and she pursed her mouth disapprovingly. *I don't think good manners are to be sneered at,' she told him. 'And I'm surprised at you admiring his lack of them, Grandpa. Your own manners are impeccable, how can you make them sound undesirable?' Tm not saying they're undesirable,' the old man argued, with that elusive twinkle still in his eyes. 'But they're not the b&-all and end-all of a man, Laurie, that's all I'm saying.' "All right,' she conceded, 'so you admire Quin McAdam for his his rough and ready manners.' She laughed shortly. 'You have been having some heart-tohearts with him, haven't you?' He nodded, smiling at her expression. 'We get on pretty well together,' he informed her. 'And he has been very decent to us, you know, Laurie.' 'Decent? Oh, you mean about giving us a more or less free run of the grounds.' 'And letting you keep Brownie,' he reminded her. 'Very magnanimous of him.' Laurie frowned at the reminder. 'But don't still own Brownie, you know, and I'm more inclined to think, now that I've met his brother, that the gesture came from Russell rather than Quin your friend.' 'My friend," the old man echoed. 'I Like to think he 26 is, Laurie. He's responsible for the safe keeping of my old home, and I think he'll love it in time as much as we do.' 'Huh!' Laurie's look doubted that, and she carefully arranged knives and forks on the table as if it required all her attention. It gave her a strangely lost and lonely feelling to know that her grandfather, who should have been her ally, was apparently firmly ensconced in the enemy camp. Her grandfather sighed, his eyes watching her shrewdly as she disappeared into the tiny kitchen. 'Oh well, if you've made up your mind to dislike him, my girl, there's no use trying to convince you otherwise, is there?' 'No use at all,' Laurie declared, taking a pie from the oven and carrying it in. 'I don't like Quin McAdam, no matter how much you think of him, but I do Like his brother Russell, and I'm rather looking forward to meeting the youngest one next week.' 'Ah yes, you haven't met him yet, have you?' She shook her head. 'Not yet, he's away on some kind of business, so I gather, but Quin your friend says I'll Like him best.' 'Oh, does he?' The old man looked curious. 'Why? Any special reason?' She shrugged. 'According to his brother, he's a romantic.' 'Oh, really?' The old man's brows elevated expres; sively. 'Is that what he told you ?' . Laurie nodded, cutting into the pie and releasing a cloud of fragrant steam. 'That's what he told me,' ;she agreed. 'And I should imagine they must be rather ! 27 , at odds if it's true, because Quin McAdam is just about as wnromantic as it's possible to be." ' 'Oh, I don't know,' the old man smiled, not looking at her as he spoke. 'I should say he'd, be a very romantic kind of man if he put his mind to it.' Laurie was surprised to find herself so nervous as she got herself ready the following morning. For one thing, of course, she had never yet had to go out and earn her own living, and she prayed that her training had not been completely lost during the three years since she left school. She could not bear the humiliation of it, she thought, if she found she was no use after all. Per- haps, in that one instance, Quin McAdam had been right she should have had a test to see if she was good enough, before his brother engaged her. She was uncertain, too, just how she should present herself this morning. Did she just walk in and go straight to the office, or should she ring the bell and wait to be admitted, as she had yesterday? She had no previous experience to guide her even, and her legs were shaking in the most dismaying way, as she went up the two steps to the front door. The dedsion of what to do was taken from her, however, by &e door being opened before she could either nng the bell or hesitate, and she looked up into Quin McAdam's ice-grey eyes. She had taken care not to frdress too ostentatiously, but had thought that a navy ,Linnen dress, rather severely cut, and with a lace collar would be most suitable, even if it did make her look rather older than her twenty-one years. She had brushed her hair until it shone like black 28 silk, and then tied it back with a navy scarf in the nape of her neck. She thought, and hoped, that she looked Like a very businessLike secretary and that no one would suspect just how nervous and insecure she felt. One look at Quin McAdam's smile, however, was enough to tell her that he knew exactly how she felt and he invited her in with his gaze going over her slowly from head to toe and back, his smile broadening when he got back to her hair. 'Good morning,' he said solemnly. 'You look madly efficient.' Laurie bit her lip determinedly. She had no wish to start off her first morning in her very first job, by quarreliing with her employer's brother, but the temptation was almost too much to resist. Instead, however, she compromised with a reply that was pollite but at the same time left him in no doubt of her opinion of him. 'I hoped I did, Mr. McAdam,' she said with deceptive mildness. 'Thank you for confirming it.' She thought for a minute that he was going to laugh out loud, but instead he merely smiled and confined the laughter to his eyes, which glittered at her wickedly. 'Let's hope you're as good as you look,' he said. He led the way across the hall and opened the door of the office without a preliminary knock, stepping back to allow her to go in first. Russell McAdam welcomed her with a wide and encouraging smile, as he put down the telephone receiver. 'Come in. Miss Blair,' he told her. 'You're bright and early.' Laurie responded to the smile, feelling better, al-ready, and reaffirming her liking for the older brother. 29 'I've always understood that punctuallity was part of being a good secretary, Mr. McAdam,' she told him. 'So I thought I should start off on the right foot.' 'And quite right too,' he agreed. The friendly grey eyes regarded her for a second curiously. 'Are you nervous?' he asked, and smiled encouragement when she nodded. 'Please don't be I shan't eat you.' Laurie smiled warily. 'I it's my
first job ever,' she explained. 'I'm so afraid of not knowing what to do.' 'Just go along at your own pace,' he told her. 'You'll soon get the idea, I'm sure of it, and we'll get along famously.' He looked up at his brother, still standing in the doorway. 'Did you want to see me about something, Quin?' he asked. 'No.' The fair head shook slowly, while he looked from Laurie to his brother and back again. 'I just wanted to see you safely settled in with your very efficient secretary.' Russell, Laurie thought, suspected sarcasm. For herself she was sure of it, and she looked over her shoulder at him and frowned discouragingly. 'I hope I'm efficient, Mr. McAdam,' she told him. 'If I'm less than. perfect to start with, I'm hoping Mr. McAdam will bear with me.' 'Of course I will,' Russell assured her, and laughed. 'And I really think we shall have to get all this Mr. McAdam business sorted out before we become hopelessly confused. More so when Rod comes back today.' 'Today?' Quin pounced on the information. 'I thought he wasn't due back until tomorrow at the very earliest, next week more Likely.' 'He wasn't,' Russell agreed. 'But that was him on the 30 phone just now. He says he's cleared everything up and he's coming up on the morning train. He'll be here this evening some time.' 'I see.' Quin sounded doubtful, and Russell looked at him and shook his head. 'Rod knows what he's doing, Quin,' he told him quietly. 'You really must learn to trust him.' Quin shrugged, a wry smile on his lips. 'Let him grow up, you mean?' he said, and laughed. 'Maybe you're right. O.K., Russ, I get the message.' 'About this name business,' Russell said, reverting to the earlier subject. 'I think in the drcumstances it'd be easier all round if we used Christian names. Miss Blair.' 'Laurie,' Quin said firmly, behind her, before she could suggest it herself, and grinned when she turned and frowned at him. 'Sauce for the goose,' he quoted. 'Fair enough?' 'Of course, Mr McAdam.' The ice-grey eyes sparkled wickedly. 'Quin,' he insisted softly, and she looked at him for a moment in silence. 'Quin,' she echoed obediently. 'Well, now that's sorted out,' Russell said lightly. 'Let's get on with some work shall we, Laurie?' He looked at her curiously for a moment, as if he had just thought of something else. 'Does no one call you Laura?'he asked, and she shook her head. 'Never,' she told him. 'I was named for my grandfather, you see, and he's always been Laurie Blair so I am 31 'I see.' He smiled. 'Ah well, it's a very pretty name and it suits you well.' Laurie said nothing, but she thought she heard a quiet chuckle behind her as Quin closed the door after himself. Her first day at work had gone better than she expected, even hoped, it would, and Laurie was feelling, rather pleased with herself. Her shorthand had been much less rusty than she had feared and the typing skill came back to her easily. Of course Russell's patience and understanding had had a lot to do with it, and she wondered if she would have fared as well if she had been working for his brother. It had been Russell's idea that she should take Brownie out for a while and blow the day's cobwebs away, since she was unused to spending all day indoors, and she thought this, was yet another example of his understanding. She could imagine nothing better than a ride on Brownie after dinner. She had left off work about four-thirty, much earlier than she had expected to, and in plenty of time to cook an evening meal for herself and her grandfather. After dinner she went round to the stables at the back of the house and fetched Brownie from-her stall, promising that they should ride out as far as Cummin Loch and enjoy the evening breezes. It was a lovely evening, with the sun still bright and warm, but tempered by a soft west wind that lifted her hair from her neck and gentled on her skin like a caress. The loch looked even nearer in the heavier shadows of evening and spread out Like a silken patch, 32 catching the sun as it slipped lower down in the greeny-blue sky. It was still, with the utter stillness of tranqulilty, and only a slight grey frown of clouds sat on the brows of the distant hills, as if there was rain in the offing. Brownie made her way surefootedly across the familliar ground, no more impatient than her rider, but content to be out here in the quiet day's end. A slight pressure with her heels and Laurie sent the mare forward into a faster pace, encouraging her with soft words. The mare responded and lengthened her stride gradually, making the soft turf fly in small clods from her hooves, her mane flying out in imitation of her rider's hair; heading for the mirrored expanse of the loch. Neither of them noticed that another rider was coming up from their left, and they were almost at the loch's edge before Laurie reallised they had company, frowning her disLike of the intrusion, particularly when she realised who it was. She had no special desire for anyone's company in this haven of peace and quiet, and least of all Quin McAdam's. She dismounted and walked to the very edge of the loch, not even turning her head, hoping her silence would discourage him enough to send him away again. Not that she shouldn't have known better. The big grey looked much less mettlesome than usual, and dipped his head gratefully to drink from the loch, although his rider allov ed him only a short drink before drawing him back. A swift and surreptitious glance showed her that Quin himself looked much less jaunty than usual and rather tired, as if he had ridden long and hard in the 33. hot sun. His shirt was opened well down too, to catch the cool of that soft west wind off the water. They had, Laurie realised, been g6se all day and were probably both a lot more tired than they looked. Quin looked at her steadily as he dismounted and allowed his horse that brief refreshment. 'Hello, Laurie.' The greeting was so unusually subdued that she stared at him for a moment before-answering. 'Hello,' she said then, and moved uneasily when, drawing the grey back from the water and over-indulgence, he stood close beside her. His unusual quietness puzzled, and she had to admit, worried her to a certain extent. 'Is is something wrong?' she asked. 'Wrong?' The ice-grey eyes regarded her curiously. 'How do you mean wrong?' Laurie shrugged, more uneasy than ever when she thought she had been mistaken. 'I I don't know,' she said. 'I just thought you seemed worried, quiet.' She used her hands in a gesture of resignation. 'Oh, I don't know, you just seemed unusually sober for you, that's all.' A raised brow restored the first glimmer of normallity. 'Am I usually so boisterous?' he asked, obviously out of temper about something. 'You' make it sound as if I usually behave either Like a schoolboy or a clown.' 'I meant nothing of the sort,' she retorted, turning from him, and angry because he had not only disturbed her peace but roused that inevitable resentment in her again. He said nothing for a moment, then he followed her 34 to where she stood kicking at the white stones that edged the water. 'I guess I am a bit off at the moment,' he admitted with surprising frankness. 'Although I didn't know it showed.' Laurie was not to be so easily pacified, however, and she looked at the strong brown face with its'incongruous grey eyes, frowning still. 'I suppose I should have minded my own business,' she said shortly. 'Maybe you should,' he allowed with a wry smile. 'But as you've noticed something amiss, I might as well tell you why I'm a bit quiet.' 'You don't have to!' 'I know I don't,' he retorted, 'but you started it, so you can listen to the reason now. I've just had to sack a man, and it leaves a bad taste.' -She looked at nim for a moment, wondering whether the bad taste was left by having to dismiss the man from his work, or from the reason for the dismissal, but it would have been unthinkable to ask which it was. 'I see,' she said instead, and saw him look at her sharply. 'You don't approve of sacking people?' he asked. 'How can I possibly approve or otherwise,' she asked, reasonably enough, she thought, 'when I don't know the circumstances?' "'Thieving,' he told her bluntly. 'From the Castle Hotel which you know, of course.' 'Of course.' 'But you still don't approve?' Laurie looked at him briefly, then lowered her eyes. 'I didn't say that,' she denied. 'And you know your own business best.' 'I'd better,' he said dryly. 'So why that faintly dis35 approving look in your eyes?' She shrugged. 'Not because you dismissed a man for stealing,' she said. 'It was just that ' She hesitated to go on. 'Hmm?' 'I I think you could be completely ruthless, that's all,' she told him, and meant every word of it. 'And I pity that man for that reason.' 'I see.' He sought and held her gaze. 'So, somehow or other, it's bound to come back to me being the villain of the piece, right?' 'I didn't say that either,' she denied. 'But since you mention it, I have to adm
it that I'm very glad I-work for Russ and not for you.' 'Oh, are you?' He looked as if he was undecided whether to laugh or lose his temper and, out here on the wide solitary expanse of the moor, she hoped it wasn't the latter. 'I I am,' she affirmed. 'Otherwise you might be sacking me.' He laughed shortly. 'That's quite likely,' he told her. 'Have you been thieving? Already?' 'No, I have not!' she declared indignantly. 'And you have'no right to say such a thing, Mr. McAdam.' 'Quin,' he stated firmly. 'We've been through all that, remember?' 'I remember,' she said. 'But ' 'Then use it,' he said, 'otherwise you'll get confused.' Laurie took a very deep breath and plunged in. 'To make a distinction,' she argued, 'one needs only to give a different name to each person, and it would solve it 36 just as well if I call your brother Russ. Then I can distinguish you, and still give you your full name." He looked at her steadily for a moment or two down the length of his arrogant nose, then he nodded slowly. ; 'Yes, and you would too, wouldn't you?' he said. 'You unsociable little devil!' 'How dare you?' Laurie demanded, her cheeks . flushed angrily. 'Quite easily,' he told her softly. 'You go out of your way to ask for it;' 'How dass you speak to me Like that?' There was a hard, bright gleam in his eyes and his smile owed little to good humour as he surveyed her i from his vastly superior height. 'You're a bad-s' tempered, unsociable, self-opinionated little autocrat,' r he informed hw with obvious satisfaction. 'And don't throw your weight about with me, Madam Hoity, or I'll take steps to bring you down a peg or two. I've had a hard day and I'm in no mood to take your littlegirl tantrums. O.K.?' 'You you ' Words failed her and she resorted to the only other means of revenge open to her. She raised her right hand and slapped it viciously hard across his face. The ensuing stony silence she found almost fright: ening and her hands were trembling when she looked up at his face. His wide, slightly crooked mouth wore ; a smile that was more threat than promise, and his ' eyes really were icy as he looked down at her. Then he swept his gaze over her in one swift, disconcerting I appraisal. 'Right,' he said quietly. 'Have it your way, lady, but I ' 37 . don't say I didn't warn you.' He turned and swung himself up into the saddle, then put his heels to the grey, but pausing briefly beside the browsing mare. 'No!' It took her a second or two to realise what he had done and by the time she ran forward it was too late to do anything even if she could have. Brownie was already on her way across the moor beside her stablemate, the rein held firmly in Quin McAdam's hand. 'Enjoy your walk!' The words drifted back to her and she caught a vague, brief glimpse of a smile before he turned away and urged the two animals to-greater speed. ..It was only two miles from Cummin Loch, Laurie knew, or she had always thought so, but now with the whole of it stretched out before her it seemed more Like five or six miles. The sun was much less hot now and she thanked heaven for that much at least, but she was still not inclined to walk so far just because Quin McAdam had seen fit to put her afoot. She enjoyed walking usually, but she felt angry and almost tearfully humiliated as she made her way back home, vwing the most awful revenge on her tormentor. She would not even have the satisfaction of accusing him of stealing her horse, because Brownie no longer belonged to her but to the McAdams' stable. Gradually, as was inevitable, she became less and 'less angry as the peace and beauty of the moor enfolded her, and she was feelling almost content when she spotted someone coming across the moor on horseback. There was no mistaking the bay mare, nor the fair head of her rider, and she set her features once 38 more into an expression of dislike. If he had come out again just to taunt her, she would not let him get away with it so easily. She was more than half-way home now, and having come so far she was quite happy to walk the rest, but she would not be followed and teased by Quin McAdam. She wished her grandfather could see the way he had treated her, then perhaps he would not be 'so ready to align himself with the enemy. Brownie came Like the wind, flat out in a full gallop, and Laurie was once again forced to recognise the perfect horsemanship of the rider. No doubt long practice in far more gruelling circumstances than this had given him such skill, but it was quite exdting to watch for all that, and she kept her eyes on him as he came towards her. He reined in just short of her, a hint of smile on his face when she pointedly ignored him and walked on. 'Had enough?' he asked, and she looked at him meaningly from under her lashes. 'I'm quite capable of walking a couple of miles without falling down,' she informed him cooly, and veered round the two of them, with her nose in the air. 'You haven't walked two miles yet,' he told her. 'Only about half of it.' 'I can manage the rest of it,' she said, and looked up at him as he rode along beside her. 'I can't imagine why you came out again,' she told him, and he smiled. 'Can't you?' The ice grey eyes looked at her steadily and he shook his head. 'I know you won't believe this,' he said, 'but I do have a conscience.' 'I don't believe it,' she assured him. 39 'Well, nevertheless it's true, and I just couldn't sit down to my well-earned dinner with the thought of you wending your weary way back across the moors on foot. So I came to fetch you.' She looked at him curiously, a frown between her brows. 'With only one horse?' she asked. 'I wasn't going to bring the grey out again,' he said. 'He'd had a hard day too, and it wasn't his fault you and I had words. So I just brought Brownie.' 'It wasn't my fault we had words either,' she declared. 'But you didn't bother about me, did you?' He grinned, a disturbingly engaging grin that showed .so white in the brown face. 'I bothered enough to come back and fetch you,' he told her. 'You're going to let-me go back on Brownie and you'll walk?' She knew perfectly well that that was not his intention at all, but the alternative did disturbing things to her senses and she told herself she would rather walk all the way than ride double with him. He shook his head. 'Brownie can manage both of us,' he said, and put down an inviting hand. 'Come on.' Laurie shook her head firmly, determined not to put herself in such a position. 'No, thank you,' she said. I will walk the rest.' He put the proffered hand on his hip and surveyed her from above as if he would Like to do something about her stubbornness and was not quite sure what. 'So you're pig-headed as well, are you?' he commented, and Laurie glared up at him. 'If you like,' she told him haughtily. 'You've already put me afoot and treated me as if I was a a naughty 40 child, now I'm pigheaded as well as all the other names you called me back there. I can well do without you or your conscience, Mr. McAdam. Now please go away and leave me in peace.' She glanced at him briefly again and saw that there was that icy look in his eyes again, feelling a flick of anxiety that she had aroused his temper again. 'I was right about you too,' he said quietly. 'You just won't accept an apology, will you? You have to have the last word, every time.' 'You haven't apologised,' she retorted, and he sighed, as if his patience was rapidly running out. 'All right,' he said slowly and with exaggerated patience. 'I'm sorry I took Brownie and I'm sorry I said some of the things I did, now will you stop bearing a grudge and let me take you home? I want my dinner.' 'Then go and have it,' Laurie told him. 'You ' She heard him take in a long, slow breath, then he bent low and a second later an arm came round her, lifting her off her feet. 'No, no!. Let. me go! Quin, put me down, let me go!' He dumped her without ceremony on the saddle in front of him and put his heels to the willing Brownie, his face set in a determined hardness that for a moment startled her. 'Sit still and be quiet,' he told her shortly. 'I promised your grandfather I'd come and fetch you, and I'm going to whether you kick and screamer not.' ; Since she was doing neither, she looked at him in-i dignantly, finding the grim face rather disconcerting at : such close quarters. He said nothing more and she felt t 41 very small and vulnerable with his arms round her, S holding on to him with one hand, aware that she could feel the strong, steady beat of his heart under her fin- gers" I 'I'm not kicking or screaming,' she ventured mildly,!? after several minutes, and hastily lowered her eyes'! when he looked at her. - 'I had noticed,' he said wryly. 'I was breathing relief in fact.' 'Did did Grandpa ask you to come and fetch me?' she asked, and he laughed. I 'Yes, he did. I told him what I'd done and he I seemed a bit startled that I'd had the nerve to tackle you, but he was a bit worried too, so I said I'd come
j back for you after I'd parked Hamish in his stall, and here I am.' 'I see.' One brow was cocked quizzically at her, and he smiled in a way that suggested all manner of things. 'Disappointed?' he asked softly, and Laurie glared at him. 'So you lied when you said you had a consdence,' she said, and he laughed again. 'Not really,' he told her. 'I would have come back for you whether I'd seen your grandfather or not.' 'Would you?' The ice-grey eyes were looking at her with a strange kind of intensity and they were much too close for comfort so that she wished she could draw her own away instead of meeting them head on. 'What do you think?' he asked softly. They were within a few dozen yards of me lodge 42 I cottage and she wondered if her grandfather could see them from the windows, as Quin slid down and then reached up his hands for her. He held her for quite a while after she stood on the ground, his hands almost meeting round her tiny waist, then he smiled slowly and shook his head. 'You're going to be a lot of trouble to me, Laurie Blair,' he said softly, and brushed his lips gently against her mouth. 'A lot more trouble than I'd anticipated.' 43