Whisper The Darkness Part 7

'We may just do that,' Joanna interrupted him, before he could refuse their offer, casting him a look of angry resentment. 'I doubt if Anya's ever had a chance of riding. Thank you very much.'

The Range Rover was standing in the yard, and Joanna guessed that this was what she had heard earlier, when she had imagined it was Paul. However, before Jake could impel her across the pavings and into the vehicle, the Land Rover did indeed pull into the yard behind it, and Paul climbed out carrying a cardboard box containing the groceries she had ordered. He looked astonished to see Jake standing impatiently beside Joanna, but he managed to hide his reaction, and came confidently towards them.

'I got everything you asked for, Joanna,' he said, giving her the benefit of his warm smile. Then he looked at Jake. 'h.e.l.lo, Sheldon.

How are you? We don't often see you around here.'

Jake thrust out his hands and took die box from the younger man.

'Thank you, Trevor, I'm very grateful to you.' But he didn't look it when his hard gaze quizzed Joanna. 'Did you pay for these things?

Or have you opened an account?'

'I paid for them,' declared Joanna resentfully, giving Paul a rueful smile. 'We'll sort it out later,' she added, making an expressive gesture which she hoped he would understand. 'When we have more time.'

'How much did you spend?' Jake persisted, turning back to the younger man, but Paul merely shook his head.

'I'll give Joanna the change later,' he remarked, obviously enjoying the other man's frustration, and without another word, Jake strode towards the Range Rover.

'See you soon,' Paul murmured, taking one of Joanna's hands between both of his, and grinning conspiratorially down at her.

'Don't let him bully you. You're not his possession. I'l get in touch in a day or two.'

'All right.' Joanna smiled again, and with another word of thanks to Paul's mother and father, she hastened after her employer.

Jake's face was grim as he reversed out of the yard, and then accelerated down the track to the lane Joanna had seen from the field earlier. It was obvious they would have to drive round by the village to reach the road that led up to Ravengarth, and she prepared herself to answer the censure She was sure was to come.

Jake didn't speak, however. He seemed totally absorbed with driving the vehicle, and in the end Joanne herself had to break the uneasy silence between them.

'Was there any need for you to be so rude to the Trevors?' she demanded, unable to prevent the indignation she felt from spilling over from her tongue. 'I may be your employee, but I'm not your slave, and there was no need for you to treat them as if they were to blame for my absence! Perhaps you'd have been better pleased if I'd come back to the house as Anya intended, soaked to the skin and s.h.i.+vering with -'

'If you had had the decency to inform me that you intended to spend the afternoon gossiping with the Trevors, then perhaps you would have some excuse for that statement!' he snapped angrily, overriding her pa.s.sionate tirade. 'Are you aware that for fully an hour after my return, I was convinced you must have been swept downstream into the lake, and I was on the point of calling out the rescue services when I met Trevor coming down from the farm!'

Joanna gulped, and stared at him disbelievingly. 'Swept downstream into the lake!' she echoed. 'Don't be ridiculous!'

The Range Rover lurched to a shuddering halt as Jake stood on his brakes, and she trembled a little fearfully as he turned fully to look at her. 'Don't you ever say that to me again!' he grated angrily, long brown fingers punis.h.i.+ng the steering wheel, as he would probably have liked to punish her throat. 'How dare you sit there and reproach me for my conduct at the farm, when only minutes before I'd suspected you were dead! How do you think I felt, walking in there and finding you sitting drinking tea, as if we weren't out of our minds with worry about you!'

Joanna swallowed rather convulsively. That-that's silly,' she exclaimed. 'I-Matt knew I was going to the village. So did Anya.'

Her lips tightened in remembrance.

'But you didn't get to the village, did you?' demanded Jake savagely.

'And Matt told you to use the field path, not the path by the stream, that's already subsided into the water in places.'

Joanna held up her head. 'I didn't use the path by the stream,'

she declared, and his mouth hardened.

Then how did your trousers get wet?'

Joanna sighed. 'Does it matter? They did. And that's all there is to it.'

Jake's fingers released the wheel to slide wearily through his dark hair. 'I know about Anya directing you to the stream,' he declared.

'You needn't imagine you're protecting her by remaining silent on that score.' He looked at her broodingly, one hand resting at the nape of his neck. 'In G.o.d's name, why did you do it?'

'Why did I do what?' Joanna found she was more disturbed by the probing appeal in his lean face than by the angry aggression he had exhibited previously, and he moved his broad shoulders in a helpless gesture.

'You knew we would worry about you,' he stated slowly.

'You must have known that when you didn't come back, Anya would get frightened.'

'Frightened?' That contingency had not occurred to her. 'But why frightened? The stream's not like a river. It's not deep enough to drown anyone!'

'No?' Jake's tawny eyes bored into hers. 'Then let me offer you an alternative. Suppose you'd taken the path by the stream.

Suppose Matt hadn't warned you about its being flooded, and you'd gone on?'

He paused to allow his words to sink in. 'Suppose a section of the path had crumbled beneath you, and you'd been thrown into the water? What kind of chance do you think you would have had, if you'd hit your head on a stone and been knocked unconscious? The force of that stream in flood is capable of carrying a body down into the lake. I know. Sheep have been drowned that way.'

Joanna pressed her unsteady lips together. 'I didn't know that.'

'You didn't think, did you?'

Joanna sighed. 'How was I to know what you'd think?' She shook her head. 'All right, so I may have thought of teaching Anya a lesson, but I never intended to frighten her-or anyone.'

Jake studied her anxious face for another long moment, then he turned slowly back to the wheel. 'So you understand now why I was in no mood to exchange pleasantries with my neighbours.'

He thrust the car heavily into gear once more. 'I had more-pressing things on my mind.'

Joanna looked at him unhappily. 'And you've been searching for me for an hour?'

'Something like that,' he agreed offhandedly. 'I found your footsteps in the mud by the stream, but then they disappeared. It didn't occur to me that you might have climbed up to the Trevors' place. It's a steep ascent, and the gra.s.s is almost waist-high. You must have got soaked!'

'I did,' Joanna agreed with a sigh, and he gave her another a.s.sessing glance.

'That's how you got wet.' It was a statement, not a question, but she nodded. 'How foolish of me not to think of that.' He shook his head.

'I seem to have jumped to all the wrong conclusions.' His lips twisted. 'Still, I've no doubt you enjoyed yourself. The Trevors have no love for me. I don't invite confidences and I don't give them, and they, like the rest of the village, imagine I'm mentally as well as physically scarred.'

'Don't say that!' Joanna's response was angry, a reason to expunge some of the helpless frustration she was now feeling.

'They're curious about you, of course, but that's just their way.

They didn't mean any harm. And if you think I've spent the afternoon discussing you, you're very much mistaken.'

'Ah, no, I didn't say that,' he contradicted sardonically. I'm sure you and-Paul, is it?-had more interesting things to talk about.

However, I'd deem it a favour if you didn't encourage Anya to go there. Kind though they may be, I have no desire for her to get involved with any of the people around here, but of course, I can't dictate what you do in your own time.'

'Thank you.' Joanna pursed her lips. It was scarcely a concession, and she wished she dared ask why he was restricting the child in this way. Maybe if Anya met more people, had more interests, she would be less of a problem, bur obviously right now was not the time to make her feelings felt.

The journey back to Ravengarth was soon over. They b.u.mped down the track to the copse, and Jake opened and closed the gate before driving the last few hundred yards to the house. He turned into the cobbled yard, switched off the engine, and then thrust open his door without saying another word.

Joanna shook her head as she gathered her belongings preparatory to getting out also. Was it really only yesterday she had come here?

she asked herself incredulously. Somehow it seemed so much longer than that since she had met Jake Sheldon.

It was in bed later that she found the time to review her situation once again. She had had little opportunity since Jake brought her back from the Trevors to permit herself such a luxury, but at last, in her room, she was able to a.s.similate and digest the events of the day.

Her only contact with Anya since her return was a muttered apology, delivered in her pyjamas, in the presence of her father.

Jake had brought his daughter down from her room, where apparently she had been sent on pain of a beating should she disobey him again, and she had stood before Joanna and mumbled the words, with tears of mortification and resentment glimmering in her blue eyes. She knew Joanna had won another battle, and her defences were crumbling in the face of this concerted onslaught.

Of Jake himself Joanna had seen almost as little. Her return had been greeted with obvious relief by Matt Coulston, and she had given the old man a special smile of apology, that he should have been worried, too.

'I didn't realise you'd be so anxious,' Joanna told him, feeling contrite. I'm sorry if I've wasted your time.'

'Oh, I did some digging like you said,' Matt a.s.sured her airily, and it was left to Jake to look puzzled at this unexpected announcement.

'The young lady suggested I should start digging the vegetable plot over,' Matt went on to explain, much to Joanna's chagrin.

'Just to keep me busy, so to speak. While you were away.'

Jake's mouth had compressed at this, but he had made no comment, and Joanna had gone indoors, realising with a pang that there was no one but herself to prepare the evening meal.

In the event, Jake did not eat at home. He took Anya back upstairs after making her apologise, and then came down again as Joanna was unpacking the groceries Paul had collected for her. He came into the kitchen as she was putting some cheese into the refrigerator, and noticing the pans already set on the cooker, asked what she thought she was doing.

'Making supper,' she answered smoothly, refusing to be ruffled by his dark, aggressive countenance. 'I was going to cook the chicken Matt plucked for me, but it's a bit late now to prepare a proper meal, so we'l have to make do with tinned soup and gammon.'

'I did not employ you to cook my meals,' Jake averred, his expression twisted with irritation, and Joanna looked at him squarely.

'Then who is going to do it?' she asked, tilting her head, and his eyes narrowed at the implied criticism.

'I'll go into the village,' he said shortly. 'There's a fish shop there.

We can have fish and chips this evening, and tomorrow I'l try the employment exchange in Penrith.'

Joanna sighed. 'I for one don't want fish and chips,' she declared, her nose wrinkling at the thought of all that grease.

'And I don't think Anya should have such a thing before bed, I can easily heat the soup, and if I grill the gammon, there are tins of pineapple -'

'Thank you, but I do not require you to practice your culinary abilities on me,' Jake retorted coldly. 'And while we're discussing food, I should point out that we do not shop at the village store.

Whatever you thought we needed could have waited until I go into Penrith tomorrow, and in future -'

'There was no bread,' Joanna had interrupted him, then, her eyes sparkling. 'No bread, no b.u.t.ter and no flour. Your housekeeper was as good at keeping a full larder as she was at everything else! And I do not intend to starve just to please you!'

Jake's eyes were glacial now, and she realised she was once again going too far.

'And you did pay for this food, didn't you?' he demanded, glancing around. 'I prefer not to appear a pauper in fact as well as appearance.

How much do I owe you?'

'I paid,' said Joanna, a little shortly. 'But you don't have to worry -'

'Thank you, but I prefer to pay my debts,' he retorted coldly.

'In spite of your obvious opinion of my financial situation, I am reasonably solvent, and if this place denies that a.s.sumption, put it down to a disappointing lack of interest on my behalf.'

Joanna licked her dry lips. 'It's nothing to do with me, Mr Sheldon -'

'But you've made it so,' he countered bleakly, pulling his wallet out of his pocket. 'Here,' he tossed several five- pound notes on to the table. 'That should cover it, and anything else you need in the immediate future. And now- if you'll excuse me,'

and he left before she could either thank him or deplore his extravagance.

He appeared once more as she was carrying a tray containing Anya's supper out of the kitchen, on her way to the child's room.

With a curt: 'I'll take that,' he lifted it out of her hands, and she returned to the kitchen and her own lonely meal with a feeling of intense frustration.

Now, lying in the darkness, she couldn't help wondering where Jake was and what he was doing. She had heard the Land Rover depart as she was taking half-hearted mouthfuls of celery soup, but although she had waited, as she had done the night before, he had not returned. She hoped he had got himself something to eat. She doubted he had had anything all day, and the realisation that she was beginning to feel a sense of responsibility towards him made her bury her head in the pillow and silence her thoughts.

There was no one to wake her the following morning, but surprisingly, Joanna was awake at seven a.m. Despite the fact that it was a dull morning outside and the light was still grey and uninspiring, she felt no remorse at getting out of bed, and after a hasty sluice in the bath with delightfully hot water, she dressed in jeans and a sweater and went downstairs. She really would have to find time to unpack today, she thought ruefully, her overflowing suitcase catching her eyes as she brushed her silky hair before the dressing table mirror. And to write to her mother, too, she determined, feeling a pang of compunction at the realisation that she had hardly thought of her own family since coming to Ravengarth.

Deciding she did not have time to secure her hair in the knot, which had proved unsatisfactory the day before anyway, she merely tied it back with a black ribbon and restricted the use of cosmetics to a colourless lip l.u.s.tre. Somehow it seemed pointless spending ages on eye make-up when she intended to spend the morning cleaning up the kitchen. She was totally unaware that the curling bronze lashes had a beauty all their own, without the darkening accent of mascara, and her skin was smooth and pearly soft, and required little but a moisturiser to keep it so.

It was certainly chilly as she ran down the stairs, but she found to her relief that the kitchen was deliciously warm.

Evidently Jake had fed the Aga the night before, and it was glowing brightly, the obvious reason for the hot water she had enjoyed earlier.

Despite his objections to her buying food in the village, someone had cut bread from the fresh loaf and spread it with b.u.t.ter from the pack she had purchased. She guessed from the plate and cup left to dry on the draining board that Jake had already had toast and coffee, and the faint aroma of burnt bread seemed to confirm this. She plugged in the electric kettle to make herself some coffee and pondered the possibility that Jake might eat a more substantial meal later, and then decided she had no authority to act on this presumption, and concentrated instead on getting the place clean and tidy.

Unused as she was to housework, it wasn't easy deciding which ch.o.r.e she ought to tackle first, but eventually she set about the most obvious tasks of cleaning the sink and working surfaces, and was.h.i.+ng the floor which had about a month's acc.u.mulation of dirt on it. She ate her breakfast as she worked, stopping every now and then to take a mouthful of toast and a swallow of coffee before getting on, and by the time Anya dragged her feet into the room she had made a distinct improvement in its appearance.

Where's Daddy?' Clearly Anya saw nothing of note in her efforts, and rinsing her hands at the sink, Joanna endeavoured not to feel aggrieved.

'I'm not sure where he is,' she replied, adopting a bright air of competence, 'but if you want breakfast, then you'd better tell me what you'd like.'

Anya frowned. Isn't Mrs Harris coming back?' she asked, and this time Joanna guessed she was not being obscurely critical.

'No,' she replied, refilling the kettle and plugging it in again.

'Your father's going to employ another housekeeper, but until he does, I shall do what I can.'

Anya sniffed, a habit Joanna was sure now she had picked up from Mrs Harris, and rubbed her nose on the sleeve of her sweater. It was rather a nice sweater, or it would be if it was clean, and it reminded Joanna of the pile of dirty was.h.i.+ng still waiting to be done.

'Did you make my supper last night?' Anya asked now, her expression brooding, and when Joanna nodded: 'Don't you know how to do anything else but open tins?' she exclaimed scornfully.