Painted Wings Read online

'You little monster, that's blackmail I' . She put washingup liquid and hot water into t: the bowl, smiling satisfaction. 'It's up to you,' she I told him airily. 'Dry up or starve.' f 'What about Gerald?' he asked softly, as he I surrendered, and began drying the crockery as she washed it. 'He should be the one you're house? training, surely.' 'I'm not housetraining anyone,' Deryn retorted, seeing a possible rebound from her victory. 'I'm just F allocating a fair division of labour.' 'I see.' He caught her eye as she turned to put another plate in the drainer, and he smiled, pitch ing his already deep voice several octaves lower. 'It's all madly domesticated, though, isn't it?' 'If you think you can get out of drying up by embarrassing me,' she retorted, brushing back her hair with the back of a soapy hand, 'you're mistaken.' 97 'I wouldn't dream of trying to embarrass you.' 'Oh yes, you would if you thought you could get away with it.''Maybe I can!' He slid his hands round her waist and squeezed drawing her close to him, while she protested loudly. 'And you're in no position to do much about anything with your hands in water, are you? The temptation to take advantage of the fact is almost irresistible.' 'Stop it!' She squirmed ineffectively in his grasp. 'Let go of me, Dom, or I'll hit out, soapy, hands or not!' 'You wouldn't!' He ducked hastily as a soapy wet hand was aimed wildly in the direction of his face, and he released her, laughing when she missedhim. 'You would, wouldn't you?' he said. Deryn put the last of the dishes up to drain and took the tea. towel from him, her own laughter almost bubbling over. 'Get out,' she told him, with mock severity. 'I'll finish them. You're not much help anyway.''Well, what do you expect? I'm only a learner.' They faced each other in the sunny kitchen, laughter making their eyes bright and a taut, breathless kind of excitement in the .air between them an excitement that was banished a second later by Hound's furious barking as he dashed through from back to front. Dominic managed to recover in time to hook a finger through the dog's collar before he bounded through, tail wagging and eager to greet a visitor. 'It can't be Gerald,' Dominic observed, 'or he wouldn't be wagging his tail.' 98 ' Deryn, tea towel in hand, was looking out through the window, and she shook her head. 'It's two lpeople walking she said. 'They look as if they l might be out for a walk.' 'Shall I go and see?' She nodded, surprising herself by allowing him to do even such a small thing for her. 'They may not realise that the cottage is occupied,' she told him. It seemed that must be the case, for when gDominic emerged from the cottage with Hound, the man and woman came to an abrupt halt, and l.smiled at him tentatively. 'Didn't know there was ahyone in the old cottage,' the man informed him, half apologetically and speaking in the soft, singIsong accent of the valleys. 'Sorry if we're trespassing.' Voices carried clearly on the still summer air and she heard greetings exchanged and the explanation that the man and woman were former residents in the village and now here for a visit. The lilting accent was something Deryn loved and she listened rto it with enjoyment at first. Then .the man's next words cut through her reverie and she listened more ' carefully, startled by what he was saying. 'You and your wife have taken the cottage, have 'you?'he asked. 'Not permanently,' Dominic informed him blithely, ignoring the mistake as if it had not been made at all. 'We're just here for a couple of months, that's all Deryn held her breath. Surely he was going to correct the impression, and tell them that they were not man and wife and not both living in the cottage, but he made no such move, and she hesitated, hands 99 clenched, wanting to go out and eay something her self. I 'It's a lovely place for a holiday,' the woman smiled. 'Very quiet, but some people don't mind that, do they?' 7 'Oh, we love it here,' Dominic said earnestly, sticking to the truth at least this time. 'We were looking for somewhere away from the madding crowd.' Deryn had no way of knowing if he had made some gesture or used his brows to convey something other than what his words conveyed, but the man's round pleasant face looked suddenly knowing and . he smiled broadly. 'Marvellous spot for a honeymoon, eh?' he suggested. It was probably just a blatant piece of fishing, but Dominic took it all in his stride. 'It would be,' he agreed solemnly, 'but we aren't exactly on honeymoon. Actually my wife paints, and she finds this place ideal for inspiration.' He glanced at the cottage window as he said it, his face the perfect imitation of a fond husband, and he raised one hand in greeting, smiling at her. Deryn was furious, but there was little or nothing she could do about it, she realised, without making the alternative sound so much worse. She finished drying the dishes and clattered them noisily when she put them away. She could not imagine what had possessed even him to claim her as his wife, but the damage was done how and to go out there and tell the two strangers that they were not married would probably send them on their way, shaking their heads over the looseliving ways of artists. 100 'It's a wonderful spot for an artist,' the man was saying, obviously anxious to be friendly. 'Do you paint too, Mr ' . 'Gregory,' Dominic supplied uncaringly. 'No, I don't paint. I'm just loafing around while the little woman works.' The little woman! That was really the last straw and Deryn balled her hands into fists as she listened to him. It was an expression he would never have used normally too, so it was just part of some elaborate joke, probably done simply to pay her back. They all three joined in the laughter that followed, and even Hound wagged his tail delightedly. It was nice that everybody was so happy, Deryn thought bitterly, but she would have something to say to Dominic Gregory when she got him on his own again. In the meantime he was chatting away quite happily to his newfound friends, apparently without a care in the world. Only when she heard the couple depart, and Dominic setting off round the cottage to his own quarters, did she go outside. A small, slender figure in a bright red and yellow smock, she stood on the grass that surrounded the cottage, her bare feet planted firmly on the ground, her hands on her hips and an angry sparkle in her wide hazel eyes. DomI' He turned slowly, as if he suspected what was in store for him, standing for a moment or two just looking at her, with Hound waving his tail hopefully. He could scarcely miss realising how angry she was, but still he smiled as he came back towards 101 her, a glint of challenge in his eyes that dared her to do her worst. 'Yes, ma'am.' She fumed silently for another second or two while he studied her angry face. 'You'd better say something soon,' he advised solemnly, 'or you'll burst.' 'How dare you ' she exploded. 'How dare you tell lies like that?' He said nothing for a moment, but he made no attempt to disguise the laughter only just below the surface and evident enough to infuriate her further. 'Only white lies,' he said at last, quietly. 'White or not, they were liesi' 'And I told them for your sake as much as anyone's.' . 'My sake!' He folded his arms and looked down at her, making her feel smaller than ever. 'Your sake,' he insisted. 'I didn't want those people to get the wrong idea about us.' 'But you deliberately gave them the wrong idea,' Deryn objected, and frowned when he shook his head. 'I only carried on with what they had already decided was the fact,' he told her. 'But that was the time you should have corrected them.' He grinned. 'It wouldn't have rung very true, would it?' he asked. 'I don't see why not.' 'Well, we do both live here, and it would have looked a bit fishy if I'd said we weren't married.' 'We don't both live here!' 102 'Yes, we do,' he argued. 'But not together we don't share the cottage.' He grinned again and it was obvious that he was enjoying the situation, the more so probably because she was so annoyed about it. 'It must have looked as if we do,' he said. 'With me and Hound strolling out while you were there at the sink, all domestic, drying up the lunch things.' He laughed. Tt's a good . job they weren't a few minutes earlier, they'd have seen me with the tea towel in action and that would, have clinched it. Nobody but a husband would be seen dead with a tea towel in his hands.' She ignored the implication of that and looked at him reproachfully. 'You needn't have let them think we're married,' she argued, unwillingly beginning to see the logic of his argument. 'You could have put that straight.' 'I could have,' he agreed obligingly. 'Then what would they have thought? They'd never in a million years have relieved I merely eat my meals here and then trot off like a good little monk and sleep in the summerhouse.' His eyes scanned her from top to toe in
one swift, disturbing appraisal. 'They weren't the type to believe it, especially seeing you looking like a little painted bird and in your bare feet.' He grinned wickedly. 'Besides, I'm not the sort that people mistake for a monk.' 'You're actually enjoying it I' Deryn accused, and he smiled admission. 'I'm afraid I am, I did then, and now you're making such a song and dance about it that I'm enjoying it even more. I love the way you look when you're angry. You look so incredibly beautiful.' 103 v Deryn shook her head hastily, dismissing the crazy., illogical ideas that came into her head, and determined to stay firmly in full possession of her senses. 'What happens if they speak, to someone who knows it isn't true?' she asked. "Is there anyone?' he queried, and she shook her head, then thought of something else and looked at him in dismay. 'Gerald,' she said. 'If he hears, what on earth will he think?' 'The worst, I should imagine,' he remarked dryly. 'But is he likely to hear about it? I mean, he doesn't know anyone in the village, does he?' He was looking at her differently now, his eyes more speculative. 'Does it matter a lot what Gerald thinks?' he asked, and she did not answer at once. 'You were the one who said I could be cruel and ruthless,' she reminded him. 'You implied that his feelings could be hurt because he he didn't know how to handle me. Well, those were your words she added defensively when he grinned. 'I'm trying not to hurt his feelings.' 'Because you really don't want to or because I said you would?' he asked softly, and Deryn glanced at him warily. 'I like Gerald,' she said. 'Despite what you think of me, I don't like hurting anybody, and I am very fond of Gerald.' 'I see.' She was uncertain just what meaning lay behind that rather enigmatic remark, but she was not going to ask him, not at the moment anyway. 'I suppose I shall have to explain to him when he comes,' she said ruefully. 104 'You may not need to.' She looked at him curiously and he smiled. 'It's very unlikely he'll ever hear about it.' She looked dubious, unwillingly convinced. 'No. No, I suppose not.' 'I should say I'm sorry,' he said after a moment, and she looked at him uneasily. That crooked smile touched his mouth again, and she wished she did not remember so vividly the way that same mouth had kissed her, only a very short time before. 'Are you sorry?' she asked, as she had done'then, and this time he nodded. 'In a way. I wouldn't like to upset your love life.' He tried to hold her gaze, but she looked down at her bare feet, suddenly and alarmingly aware of how close he was, and how her pulse was thudding away crazily at her forehead. You already have,' she said, huskily breathless, and turned and ran back into the cottage, like any of those conventional and romantic heroines she despised so much. 105