Marriage by request Page 5

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CERYS saw rather less of Liam during the next couple of days, but twice she had bumped into Doctor O'Rourke briefly when he called on her uncle. The second time she had literally bumped into him as he left her uncle's room, and bit her lip on the memory of the way he had stood for several moments with her hands held in his, his eyes enjoying her discomfiture until she snatched her hands away and walked off, stiffly indignant. She remembered it now as she walked out through the open french windows into the sunlit garden. It was an embarrassment she would not easily forget, and she vowed she would revenge herself on the provoking doctor. She blinked in momentary blindness as the sun caught her eyes after the dim coolness of the house. It was cooler today and a breeze blew across from the river, light and refreshing as she walked over the lush grass of the lawn. The archway of roses, giving access to the open parkland below, enticed her as it often did, and she went that way seeking the wonderful view it gave and the never-failing sense of freedom as she looked out across the rolling greenness to the distant hills. The scent of the roses made a heady accompaniment to her thoughts as she stepped through the archway and stood on the higher of the two steps. For a moment she dosed her eyes to enjoy the soft breeze lifting her hair from her neck and stirring coolly at her temples. 67 Now there's a lovely sight!' The voice brought her out of her reverie and she opened her eyes to meet the bright blue gaze of Kevin O'Rourke as he stood just below her on the grass. She felt herself stiffen involuntarily and thought he knew quite well what effect he had on her. 'It's a very lovely view from here,' she said warily, prepared to agree on such an obvious point. 'I wasn't meaning the view,' he informed her, 'though that's pretty enough, I agree.' 'Then ' She flushed, realising his meaning at last, and he laughed softly. He looked as tidy as she had seen him look yet, with a. crew-necked shirt and quite respectable grey trousers. His hair was dishevelled, but then so was her own in the welcome breeze, and he stood with his hands in his pockets, relaxed and at ease as always. Nothing ever seemed to disturb that placid self-confidence and she wondered if anything would. 'You must know you're beautiful,' he told her, matter-of-tactly. 'I i have been told so,' she admitted, horribly embarrassed by the personal tone of the conversation. 'So I should hope,' he retorted, studying her with an intentness that was little short of insolence, turning his head to one side, a slight crease between his brows for a moment. 'Of course your nose tips up a bit, but still' he made allowances 'it's a little enough thing in itself and it doesn't spoil the whole.' 'Thank you,' she replied, heavily sarcastic, hesitating whether to give way to instinct and turn back into the garden or whether to stand her ground and force him to retreat. One hand held the skirt of her dress lifting too high in the breeze and her head was held slightly back so 68 that she looked at him down her tip-tilted nose, unconsciously arrogant and beautiful too, in the peacodkblue she had chosen to wear. It made her look exotic and slightly oriental except for those huge, darkfringed violet eyes. The silence between them was pregnant with feeling and she soon found it unbearable so that she turned at last to retreat into the sanctuary of the garden. Before she could more than half turn, however, he came up the two shallow steps in one long stride and blocked her way, standing too dose for her to keep moving and avoid him. There was no way round him and she could only retreat to the grass below, which she was not only loath to do, but determined not to. She felt uneasy so dose to the blue eyes that reflected her own image with . startling clarity. 'Please let me past,' she told him stiffly, furious because her heart was thumping so heavily that it gave her voice a breathless sound and he was bound to misinterpret. Aren't you going to stay and talk to me?' he asked, and sounded genuinely disappointed. Cerys shook her head, refusing to meet his eyes again. 'I have nothing to say to you. Doctor O'Rourke. Now will you please move and let me come past?' lie shook his head, tut-tutting softly, his expression reproachful. 'You've really made up your mind to dislike me, haven't you?' 'You made it up for me,' she retorted, 'the first time we met.' 'The first time we met,' he echoed, a faraway look in his eyes. 'Now that sounds like a cue for a song.' 'A cue for ' She raised her eyes at last, but hastily lowered them again when she saw the laughter that made a mockery of her anger. 'It was hardly a meeting 69 to inspire a song,' she said coldly, 'quite the reverse in fact.' 'Ah now, that's because you've no romance in your heart,' he told her solemnly. 'And a lovely girl like you too.' He sighed with exaggerated regret. 'Ah well, that's how it goes, there's always something that spoils perfection. Not,' he added gravely, 'that you're perfect; it's that nose, you see.' I don't claim to be any more perfect than anyone else,' she said haughtily, 'and I'm afraid your opinion worries me not at all. Doctor O'Rourke, you're far too unimportant.' 'You're like Caesar's wife, are you,' he suggested, 'above criticism?' She ignored the misquote, concerned only with the fact that he made her angry more easily than any man she had ever met, and she balled her fists angrily at her sides, her eyes blazing at him. 'Oh,' she declared furiously, 'you're nothing but a a ' 'Peasant?' he suggested mildly, and with what, even in her anger, she recognised as a dangerous quietness. 'Well, maybe you are,' she agreed crossly, stung beyond discretion. He eyed her coolly for a moment or two. 'You're playing the landed gentry again, Miss Brady,' he informed her at last. 'Well, suppose I am?' she stormed. 'Who are you to say I'm wrong?' 'Ah, I see.' He put his hands in his pockets again and stood, still blocking her way, annoyingly relaxed and at ease, letting her expend her energy on losing her temper. 'You do consider yourself a superior being I rather thought you did.' T didn't say that!' she protested, and he laughed again at her protest. 70 'But you always give the impression, don't you? Consciously or unconsciously,' he added hastily, 'to be fair, it's probably unconscious.' 'I I do no such thing,' she denied vehemently. ' 'Doctor O'Rourke, you are the most most ill-mannered man I've ever had the misfortune to meet, and please will you move and let me come past you?' 'I wish you'd call me Kevin,' he told her unex: pectedly and with every appearance of being serious. . "It would be a step in the right direction, I feel.' He : arched one brow at her curiously. 'Is it Cerys that Sean . calls you?' ^. 'Yes,' she agreed reluctantly. 'It's Welsh.' , 'Welsh? I thought you were one hundred per cent : Irish.' He eyed her quizzically. 'Don't tell me you're i both.' 'As a matter of tact I am,' Cerys informed him stiffly. ! 'Whew!' He raised pious eyes to heaven. 'Welsh and ': Irish! God help us, no wonder you go off like a bomb every five minutes what a mixture! It's like gunpow, der and matches.' ; "Oh, you !' She could stand it no longer and; determined to get past him, she put her hands against his chest to push him out of her way, but he did not ^ move as easily as she expected him to. Instead he stood , his ground, the^smile wide and infuriating, his hands i. holding her arms in a grip that would not easily be .'. broken as he pulled her to him. ; 'Spitfire,' he told her, 'you're the one that should have red hair. God help poor Liam!' Without warning ;. he bent his head and brought his mouth down hard on [ hers with such force that she felt her head go back and ; his fingers twine into her hair to hold it there. She held her breath for what seemed an. eternity and ;,knew she should fight free of him, but she felt herself I 7i too weak even to stir until the full realisation of what she was doing flooded over her and made her struggle furiously. Slie felt as it her heart would burst when at last he freed her and she thumped furiously at his chest with her fists, as angry with herself as with him because she had offered so little resistance in the first instance. Such compliance, she told herself, would be bound to be misconstrued, but he had taken her by surprise and resistance had not even entered her head until it was too late. 'Let me go!' she told him, 'will you let me go!' To her surprise he did as she asked and stepped back, a smile on his face. 'Go on, then,' he told her, blithely unruffled, 'only don't say you didn't ask for it.' That, she thought wildly, was exactly what he would think, and nothing she said now would alter the impression he had. She should have made her protest right from the start, and slapped his face for good measure now she could not even find words. She made
no answer, but glared at him in angry frustration before she walked off through the garden, head high, her dieeks flushed and fully aware that his gaze followed her across the lawn and into the house. Something would have to be done about Doctor Kevin O'Rourke, but at the moment she was not prepared to suffer the embarrassment of making a fuss. It was the following Monday that she sat in the garden, enjoying the sun and feeling incredibly lazy and relaxed. She was aware of voices in the sittingroom and knew that Liam and her uncle were talking in there, but it was not until Duffy disturbed her some time later that she knew what the subject of their conversation was. 72 'Mr. Brady said I was to ask ya to come in if it was ; convenient,' the housekeeper told her, reluctant to disturb her peace. 'Shall I tell him ya nice an' comfy I, an' don't want to be bothered?' I 'Oh no!' Cerys laughed, pulling herself from the l.comfort of her chair reluctantly. 'I'll come, Duffy, 1 thank you. Is it important, do you know?' I, Duffy shrugged lightly. 'I dunno. Miss Brady, but i-there's a powerful lot o' talkin' bin goin' on in there wid the two of'm.' She followed Cerys across the grass and into the room, leaving her with her uncle and Liam while she went on through into the hall, dosing the door behind [her. 'Duffy said you wanted to see me,' Cerys said, looking at the older man curiously. ) 'It's nothing to look worried about,' Sean Brady assured her with a smile at her serious face. 'It's just a little matter I'd like to get straight while I think about it.' .' 'Oh, I see.' . 'It's to do with my will,' he went on, and Cerys blinked at him, sitting herself down on a chair on the pother side of him, while Liam stood on the other side ^waiting politely for her to be seated first. 'Your will?' She looked uncertain, not sure what her reaction should be but feeling a cold sensation in the pit of her stomach at the mention of wills. 'Nothing for you to worry about, as I said,' her uncle reassured her again. 'I hope not,' she said, looking at Liam curiously and knowing how he must be hating this kind of talk, even more than she did herself. 'It sounds very important.' 'It's important to me,' Sean Brady told her. 'Perhaps I'm being selfish, but I'd like to get things straightened 'out before I go.' 73 'Uncle Scan ' she began. A raised hand stemmed her protest. 'It has to be faced, Gerys my dear. Kevin O'Rourke is a very good doctor, and he gives me a few months at most I believe him.' The mention of her erstwhile antagonist distracted her mind from the gravity of the subject for a moment, and she felt a faint tinge of colour warm her cheeks at the memory of their last meeting. 'Father!' It was Liam who protested now, his grey eyes dark with the pain that the subject always caused him, and Cerys shook her head. 'Isn't there .something someone can do?' she asked. 'I can't believe it can can be so hopeless, Unde Sean, I simply can't.' Sean Brady shook his head too, his deep eyes gentle with understanding for her reluctance to admit defeat. 'There's nothing, Cerys. Everything that can be done has been done, and now ' He spread his hands helplessly. 'It's one of those things that can't be. avoided, as you know with your father, my dear.' Cerys shook the remembrance of her father's early death from her memory and locked her fingers together :in her lap, looking down at them so that the glisten of '.tears in her eyes would not be seen by the two men. 'It doesn't seem fair,' she said, half to herself, 'that good men like you and Daddy should' ' 'Cerys dear, please don't upset yourself,' her unde .interrupted, reaching out to her, so that she left her chair and came and sat beside him on the floor, curled up within reach of his hand that soothed her unsteady .ones. 'I wanted to let you and Liam know about my will, but I don't want you upset about it.' She smiled wanly at him. 'I'll be all right, Unde ,Sean, really. I'm sorry I fussed, I'll try not to again.' 74 I 'Good girl.' He patted her hand and leaned back in , his chair, more at ease now but looking incredibly tired I and old. ^ 'I can't quite see where I come into it,' Cerys confessed. 'Surely, Uncle Sean, Liam is your only heir, isn't I'he?' 'No, not the only one,' her uncle denied, looking at the shadowed face of the. man he called his son. 'You know what a strong family feeling there's always been ; with the Bradys, Cerys. You're my only family apart ; from Liam and I couldn't exclude you even for him.' 'But you ' She was stopped again by a raised :hand. 'That was why I asked vou to come over to Ireland '/ / ' ; he reminded her. 'I wanted to see you again, of course but also I wanted to well, that's another matter.' Pie ;, glanced at Liam again, the deep eyes eloquent with .hope. 'I couldn't exdude you from my will, my dear, you're too important to me. You're the last of the Bradys, in our line of the family anyway.' Cerys took the thin hand between her own, her eyes gentle as she looked up at the drawn face of the man . beside her. 'But I don't need anything, Unde Sean. I'm -well provided for already.' ' "I have decided.' There was something autocratic about the way her protest was dismissed and the voice '.was as firm as he could make it so that there was no doubt that argument would be useless. 'You and Liam . will share equally in everything. Liam knows that and he agrees.' - Liam, so silent until now, shook his black head in protest. 'I said that you should have everything, Cerys, : as you should,' he told her. 'You're the one most en ,;'titled to it, but Father won't hear of it.' I 'I should think not!' Cerys told him with something I 75 of the same adamancy her uncle had shown. 'You as his so'n should be his heir.' She turned a resigned smile on the tired face above her. 'But since he's so determined about it,' she added softly, 'there's little I can do about it.' Sean sighed deeply and leaned his head back on the cushions that supported him, heavy lids dropping over the tired eyes. 'Thank you, Cerys, the first obstade is over anyway.' Liam, she thought, looked uneasy at that and she wondered what other obstacles there were to come. There was seemingly going to be a lot more to this visit to Ireland than she had' anticipated. 'There are obstacles?' she asked. 'What sort of obstacles. Uncle'Sean?' He raised his head, his eyes going to his foster-son as if he was uncertain tor the first time what he should do or say. 'I'm not sure that this. is the right time to tell you what I had in mind,' he told her. 'I had hoped to settle everything today, but' he spread his hands 'I think perhaps Liam may be right, it's too early yet; to precipitate the matter may be disastrous. I can wait a little longer, I hope.' 'And I think you should rest now,' Cerys insisted gently. 'No more talk, you're too tired.' She got up from beside him on the floor and stood by his chair. 'I'm quite able to go on,' her uncle told her, but Cerys was firm, her small chin thrust out in an obstinacy that matched his own. 'I shall refuse to listen to you any longer,' she told him. 'Unless you leave the talking to Liam and me, I shall go out of the room. I mean it,' she added when he eyed her speculatively. 'I've inherited the Brady stubbornness, Unde Sean, and I don't move easily.' To her surprise a fai'nt chuckle greeted her threat and he reached out for her hand. 'You're a wonderful 76 girl, Gerys, and a real Brady despite your mother's temper you'll have fine sons.' Cerys looked at him in surprise. 'Perhaps,' she allowed after a moment. 'But I have no plans for marrying at the moment, there's plenty of time yet.' 'You're a very lovely girl,' he told her softly. 'Any man would be pleased and proud to marry you.' She laughed, bending to kiss his forehead lightly. 'Maybe,' she said, 'but I'd have to be pleased and proud to marry him too and be in love with him.' Her uncle's grey head shook regretfully, an obstinate line appearing at each corner of his mouth. 'There was a time,' he said slowly, 'when a good Irish girl would have left the choice of a husband to her family.' Cerys smiled, a little uncertainly, for he looked so serious about it and not quite knowing whether his remark implied approval of the old system or not. 'I'm glad it's different now,' she declared, in no doubt of her own feelings in the matter. 'I'd hate to have to marry someone else's choice. After all, the family used not to have to live with them, did they?' She smiled to show that she did not take the matter seriously. 'No I prefer being able to make my own choice.' 'And perhaps dioose unwisely?' Sean asked, evidently not supporting her theory. 'Is it any worse than having someone else choose unwisely for you?' she asked. 'I'm sure the all-knowing parents who made the matches in the old days were no more infallible than the girls themselves would have been.' She laughed softly, treating the matter with the lightness she felt it deserved. 'It's no use. Uncle
Sean, you can't restore the old ways and I, for one, am very glad of it.' 'Hmm.' He conceded her victory grudgingly, but she was left with the impression that he did not approve 77 of either her dislike of the old system or her lighthearted dismissal of it. Liam had contributed little to the conversation and she had the feeling that his mind was elsewhere and not on the matter of her choice of a husband. Her unde, she thought, looked even more tired, and she hated the way his eyes had that heavy look about them as if they would droop dosed at any minute and stay that way. 'I think you should rest now,' she told him gently. 'You look very tired. Shall I get Doctor O'Rourke to come up and have a look at you?' Sean Brady shook his head. 'No, thank you, my dear, don't trouble Kevin, there's nothing he can do. As you say, I'm tired. I think I will rest a while.' 'Would you like me to stay with you?' she asked. 'Or would you rather be alone?' He nodded. 'Alone, I think. I can think better then and you get out into the sunshine and enjoy yourself, Cerys. There's so much tor you to see yet.' 'All right, I v/ill,' she promised, 'if you're sure you'll be all right. Liam,' she said straightening up from beside her unde's chair, 'are you too busy to take me riding this afternoon?' He raised his eyes as if he had only just caught the gist of her question as she finished speaking. 'Oh er no, I'm afraid I can't, Cerys, I have to go into Traveree, but you could come with me if you'd like to.' 'Business?' she asked, wrinkling her nose at the idea, and he nodded, getting to his feet. 'I'm afraid so, but Traveree's c uite a nice town. You could look around the shops if you want a change from fields and hills.' 'I don't,' Cerys retorted, 'I want a change from shops 78 and pavements. Maybe I'll walk down into the village. I haven't been down there yet.' 'It looks as if your powers of persuasion need improving,' her uncle told Liam with a smile. 'At your age I'd have blarneyed the girl into coming with me.' T can't be blarneyed,' Cerys told him hastily, taking pity on Liam. 'Not even by Liam.' 'And I'm not much of a blameyer,' the younger man told her ruefully, 'so I'd fail anyway.' Cerys widened her huge eyes and stared at him. 'I'd say you were very good at it,' she told him. 'You've been flattering me outrageously ever since I came here. You're a very dangerous man, Liam Rogan.' He looked at her with a warmth that touched her heart and she smiled at him. 'I've only told you you're very lovely,' he said quietly, 'and that's no more than the truth. God knows.' 'There you are, you see,' Cerys declared, looking down at her uncle in triumph, 'he's as good as any of you!' 'Then be persuaded,' Sean encouraged her. 'Go with him into Traveree.' Cerys laughed, shaking her head at his persistence, although Liam, she noticed, was less insistent about having her company. 'I mean no offence to Liam,' she said, 'but I really would prefer to walk into Killydudden and he doesn't really mind, do you, Liam?' She thought he looked a little disconcerted at the direct question, but he smiled a moment later and pulled a wry face. 'I don't imagine you'd change your mind even if I did, would you?' She shook her head, laughter in her eyes at his grimace. 'No,' she admitted. 'I told you, I'm stubborn.' Sean Brady sighed. 'Time,' he murmured, half to himself, 'is not only a great healer, it's also a great 79 corrosive of stubbornness.' .'Maybe,' Cerys agreed lightly, not altogether understanding the allusion, 'but I still shan't change my mind.' So