Point of No Return Read online

  She pushed past him to put the laden tray down on the dressing-table. Damn Jerome Towers’ brother, he would have to wait for his breakfast, be it cold or not. She had something much more serious to deal with at the moment.

  ‘I asked you a question.’ She turned on Roddy Meyers, her green eyes sparkling angrily. ‘What are you doing at The Towers?’

  ‘I would have thought it was obvious,’ he taunted, obviously not realising how close he was to being struck. ‘I’m staying here.’

  ‘What is this?’ she snapped. ‘A hotel?’

  He raised blond eyebrows. ‘Not as far as I know. What do you mean?’

  Megan sighed, wondering why it was that she had resisted this young man’s advances so relentlessly that he had had to resort to force. He was good-looking in a youthful sort of way, twenty-five years of age, blond hair that was worn much too long, blue eyes, a handsome face, and yet she just hadn’t been attracted to him. That he hadn’t felt the same indifference had been obvious from the first moment they met; he had asked her every chance he got if she would go out with him. That her constant refusals had been responsible for her downfall she had no doubt.

  ‘I mean that Jerome Towers seems to have more guests here than the staff can cope with,’ she said rudely.

  Roddy frowned. ‘Rome does?’

  ‘Rome?’

  ‘I’ve always called him that,’ he dismissed.

  ‘Bully for you,’ she taunted.

  ‘You don’t like him?’ he guessed shrewdly.

  ‘I’ve never met him,’ she didn’t directly answer the question. ‘Just why are you staying here?’

  ‘Have you forgotten, I was politely requested to leave the hospital?’ His sarcasm was unmistakable.

  ‘Well, at least it was politely done. I was thrown out,’ she remembered vehemently.

  ‘Mm, it was a shame about that, but—’

  ‘A shame!’ she echoed shrilly. ‘It was more than that to me. You’ve ruined my career, you know. I’ll never get another job in a hospital. I’ll never know how you knew which room was mine, I certainly never told it to you.’

  He grinned. ‘I asked your friend Tracy.’

  Megan’s eyes widened in amazement. ‘And she told you, just like that?’ She had always thought Tracy her best friend at the hospital, had even promised to keep in touch, and now it turned out that Tracy had helped this man get her sacked. Somehow that didn’t sound like Tracy.

  Roddy sat down on the bed, pushing his long hair back from his face. ‘Not just like that, no. I told her you’d invited me to your room, that you were expecting me, and that I’d forgotten your room number.’

  ‘And she believed you?’ Megan groaned. She knew a lot of the other girls sneaked boys into their room, although this was expressly forbidden in the hospital rules, but she had never been fond enough of anyone to take the risk of getting caught.

  He shrugged. ‘She had no reason not to. I tell a very convincing story.’

  ‘Oh, I know that!’ to her cost!

  ‘Mm,’ he grinned. ‘What a coincidence us both being in the same area.’

  ‘I happen to live here,’ she snapped.

  ‘At least now I know I won’t be bored.’

  Megan glared at him. ‘Don’t count on me to alleviate your boredom.’ She picked up the tray again. The food would be cold now, she would have to go down for a fresh lot.

  Roddy was watching her. ‘Where are you going with that?’

  ‘To get fresh food and then take it to its rightful owner.’

  ‘Leave it,’ he ordered.

  ‘I—’

  ‘It’s my breakfast, Megan,’ he said patiently.

  ‘But Jerome Towers’ brother—’

  ‘Me,’ he nodded.

  She nearly dropped the tray for the second time. ‘You are his brother?’ She just couldn’t be that unlucky.

  ‘That’s right,’ he smiled at her horror. ‘Half-brother actually, but that’s never counted for much.’

  Just her luck! If anyone should ever find out that he was the man involved in her dismissal, and that he was staying so close to her home, they would never believe her innocence. ‘Does he know why you were asked to leave?’ she asked almost reluctantly.

  Roddy laughed, taking the tray out of her hands and pouring himself a cup of tea. ‘He doesn’t even know I was asked to leave,’ he informed her calmly, ‘let alone why.’

  ‘He doesn’t?’ She almost sighed her relief. Maybe if Roddy Meyers was no more eager than she was to have their past meeting made public knowledge they could keep the scandal to themselves.

  ‘No,’ he bit into a piece of buttered toast, ‘I just told him I’d been discharged.’

  ‘And he believed you?’

  ‘He had no reason not to. So now you’re working for my brother?’ He eyed her speculatively.

  ‘No, I’m not, I’m just helping out. And now I know you’re here I don’t intend helping out any longer,’ she told him angrily. ‘I’m leaving, and right now!’

  He moved in front of the doorway to stop her exit, his hands on her upper arms. ‘Don’t be like that, Megan. You’ve been against me from the first—why don’t you like me?’

  She wished she knew that herself. ‘Maybe you try too hard,’ she evaded. ‘Whatever the reason, I want you to take your hands off me.’

  ‘Oh, come on, Megan, I still want to go out with you,’ he said coaxingly. ‘And now there’s no patient/nurse relationship to stop us we can—’

  ‘I don’t remember that stopping you before!’

  ‘No, well—’ he smiled, ‘you’re beautiful, very desirable. You can’t blame a man for being persistent.’

  ‘That persistent I can,’ she said indignantly. ‘I should hate you for what you did to me.’

  ‘But you don’t,’ he murmured softly, his gaze fixed on her parted lips. ‘Oh, Megan, I—’

  ‘Roddy, are you going to get up to—’ the voice trailed off as the man came to stand in the open doorway, his brown-eyed gaze levelled on them as they stood close together.

  Megan wrenched away from Roddy Meyers’ embrace to face Jeff Robbins, and the censure in those deep brown eyes made her squirm with embarrassment. She had wanted to see him again, had intended making sure she did, but not when she was in Roddy Meyers’ arms.

  ‘I see yu’re already awake, Roddy,’ Jeff Robbins drawled, his gaze flickering over Megan almost insolently before passing back to Roddy. ‘And being entertained too, by the look of things.’

  The younger man grinned. ‘I was just getting to know the new maid.’

  ‘I am not the new maid!’ Megan denied vehemently.

  ‘No, she isn’t,’ Jeff Robbins agreed. ‘Miss Finch is deputising for her mother,’ he explained abruptly.

  ‘I was just trying to persuade Megan to go out for a drive with me this afternoon,’ Roddy lied, knowing he had her trapped.

  ‘Really?’ Again brown eyes raked over her. ‘And did you manage to persuade her?’

  ‘She’s a bit hard to pin down to anything definite,’ Roddy grinned. ‘But I live in hope.’

  ‘Don’t we all?’ Jeff drawled.

  All humour left Roddy’s face. ‘Have you been after her too?’ he queried resentfully.

  ‘No one has been “after” me!’ Megan cut in on their conversation, wishing Roddy Meyers would shut up, and that she could persuade Jeff Robbins that this situation wasn’t like it looked. But he didn’t look any more ready to believe her than they had at the hospital two days ago.

  ‘Haven’t they?’ Jeff asked, eyes narrowed.

  ‘No! I—’

  ‘Hey, Rome, I think she’s embarrassed,’ Roddy mused.

  Rome? This was Jerome Towers? But it couldn’t be—could it? But what other explanation could there be for him to be walking about the house? The estate manager would have no need to do that. Why hadn’t he told her this morning who he was? No wonder he hadn’t known about the tractor he was supposed to mend!

  Why ha
dn’t he corrected her mistake? Had he enjoyed listening to her make a fool of herself? The reason he had changed his mind about taking her out became obvious; he would hardly want to date someone who was working as kitchen help in his own house. Everything the old Squire had ever said about this man suddenly seemed true—he was a pompous snob.

  He was still watching her with narrowed eyes, obviously knowing of her surprise. ‘Maybe you should get some clothes on, then she wouldn’t feel that way.’

  ‘Megan’s used to seeing men without their clothes on,’ his brother dismissed.

  Jerome Towers’ contempt seemed to increase. ‘Is she now?’ he grated.

  ‘Of course she is—she’s a nurse, isn’t she?’

  ‘How do you know that? Did you know Megan before today?’ Jerome queried suspiciously.

  ‘She was on my ward, weren’t you, love?’ Roddy looked at her for confirmation.

  Megan blushed, the look in her eyes willing him not to reveal any more about their previous meeting. ‘Yes,’ she nodded, her gaze still on Roddy.

  ‘Before she was ill, of course?’ Jerome Towers enquired coolly. ‘If she had you for a patient, Roddy, I can quite understand her not being strong enough to carry on,’ he added mockingly.

  Roddy looked at Megan with amusement. ‘I didn’t realise.… I wondered why you suddenly disappeared,’ he taunted.

  Megan gave him a resentful glare. ‘Well, now you know,’ she snapped.

  ‘Yes,’ he grinned, ‘now I know.’

  ‘Shouldn’t you be getting back to the kitchen, Miss Finch?’ Jerome Towers asked harshly. ‘I’m sure Freda could do with your help.’

  Colour flooded her cheeks at his intended rebuke. ‘Yes, of course. If you’ll excuse me.’

  ‘Gladly,’ he drawled.

  ‘Megan?’ Roddy Meyers stopped her at the door. ‘Can I take it that our drive is on for this afternoon?’

  Her eyes flashed. ‘You—’

  ‘Maybe then you could tell me about your illness,’ he added mockingly.

  Megan gave Jerome Towers a sharp look, biting her lip as she read the contempt in his gaze. What gave him the right to be so high and mighty? ‘Yes, all right,’ she agreed to Roddy’s blackmail—for that surely was what it was. But she would tell him a few home truths this afternoon! ‘What time?’ She couldn’t look at either of them in her anger, but stared down at her hands.

  ‘About two-thirty?’

  ‘Okay. I’ll meet you downstairs.’ She didn’t want her mother and Brian getting to know of the meeting, especially Brian. If he found out their connection he was likely to seek the younger man out and challenge him to a fight. Then there would be no possibility of hiding the past.

  ‘I’ll pick you up at your home,’ he insisted.

  ‘No! No,’ she said less sharply, knowing that Roddy could be deliberately troublemaking if he knew how much she wanted to keep him away from her home. ‘I’ll enjoy the walk over.’

  ‘All right,’ he shrugged. ‘She knows her own mind,’ he told his brother laughingly.

  Jerome Towers’ expression remained grim. ‘So I’ve noticed.’

  Megan shot him a resentful glare before leaving the room, running down the wide flight of stairs as if the devil himself were after her. Seconds later she felt as if he were!

  ‘Miss Finch!’ Jerome Towers stood at her side as she reached the bottom step.

  It took all her courage to turn and face him, to face the disapproval that she knew would be in his face. Why should he be so disapproving? He was the one who had lied and deceived her. She felt an absolute fool now when she thought of the way she had acted with him, the things she had said. And she had let him kiss her! No!—she had let Jeff Robbins kiss her, not this arrogant stranger.

  ‘Yes, Mr Towers?’ she asked in a stilted voice, looking steadily into those censorious brown eyes.

  ‘Freda said you took Roddy’s breakfast up fifteen minutes ago,’ he said curtly.

  Whatever she had been expecting him to say it hadn’t been this. She frowned her puzzlement. ‘Yes?’

  ‘If you are to continue deputising for your mother until she is well enough to return I would advise you not to spend too much time in my brother’s bedroom, no matter what your relationship may have been with him before you came here.’

  Megan gasped. ‘What has Roddy been saying?’

  ‘He’s hardly had time to say anything,’ Jerome Towers said dryly. ‘But your own response points to my assumption being a correct one. And the other staff will draw their own conclusions if you take fifteen minutes to deliver his breakfast every morning.’

  ‘Why, you—’

  ‘I’m only telling you this for your own good,’ he interrupted her angry outburst. ‘It’s up to you whether or not you take my advice.’ He walked past her, turning when he reached what she assumed to be his study, or office, door. ‘And, Miss Finch,’ he paused when he had her attention, ‘I think I can take having a date turned down without the girl having to resort to her mother’s illness as an excuse. You had only to say you had something going with Roddy. Unless of course you were trying to decide whether the richer brother might be a better bet.’ He went into the room and closed the door firmly behind him.

  Megan didn’t give herself time to think, marching angrily across the marble tiled hallway and bursting into what turned out to be a study. ‘Now you just listen to me, Mr Towers!’ she stormed at the man standing just inside the room. Almost as if he had expected her … ‘I—’

  Her words were cut off in mid-flow as she was pulled against the rigidness of a male body, her mouth captured and parted as Jerome Towers bent his head and kissed her.

  ‘Oh!’ she gasped as he released her, still held in the firm grip of his hands.

  He looked down at her. ‘I knew that would get you in here.’

  Her eyes were wide. ‘Is that why you …?’

  ‘Mm,’ he nodded, his warm gaze on her parted lips.

  Megan pushed hard against him, struggling to be free. ‘You obnoxious, overbearing—’

  He let her go, moving to sit in the leather chair behind the desk. ‘I could hardly kiss you out there in the hallway. Anyone could have come along and seen us.’

  ‘You didn’t have to kiss me at all!’ she snapped, still breathless from the touch of those firm lips on hers.

  ‘But I did,’ he said calmly. ‘Now, what is your relationship to Roddy?’

  ‘I’m not telling you!’ her eyes flamed with feeling. ‘And just in case you haven’t heard about it, the Squire no longer gets the first night of love with the local maidens!’

  He raised dark eyebrows. ‘Are you a maiden?’

  ‘Mind your own damned business!’ She slammed out of the room, the sound of his mocking laughter following her.

  Freda was busy preparing lunch when Megan entered the kitchen a few minutes later, so she took over the peeling of the potatoes.

  ‘Are you all right?’ the cook asked. ‘You’re looking a bit flushed,’ she explained her query.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Megan mumbled.

  ‘Young Roddy hasn’t been making passes at you, has he?’ Freda tutted. ‘He is a lad!’ She shook her head, a smile on her lips.

  ‘Is he in the habit of making passes?’ Megan couldn’t help her curiosity.

  ‘Well, he made a couple of advances towards Patsy when he stayed here last. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that isn’t the reason she’s off sick today—you know how her Donald can be. Roddy wouldn’t leave the poor girl alone, that’s why I wondered if he’d—’

  ‘Nothing I can’t handle,’ Megan cut in briskly, wondering what Freda would say if she knew she was in more danger from Jerome Towers than from his young brother.

  ‘That’s all right, then.’ Freda was obviously relieved. ‘Would you get some mint in from the herb garden out the back?’ she asked, the makings of pastry in her mixing bowl. ‘I do like my potatoes to have a bit of mint in them.’

  ‘But I thought Mr
Towers didn’t eat potatoes.’ Megan blushed at Freda’s questioning look. ‘Just someting Mum said,’ she mumbled.

  Freda nodded understanding. ‘Mr Towers doesn’t bother with much food at all. I’m always telling him he doesn’t eat enough, but he says he doesn’t see the point of over-indulging.’

  Megan wondered if he had the same attitude to all life’s appetites. From the way he had kissed her, twice, she didn’t think he did. His mouth against hers had been frankly sensual, pointing to an experience that hadn’t been gained by abstinence.

  But he had no right to kiss her whenever he felt like it, as if it were his due or something. If he ever tried to kiss her again she would—she would—She sighed; she would kiss him right back, she knew she would. Much as she tried to keep up her prejudiced dislike of him, the truth of the matter was that on acquaintance she found him all too disturbing for comfort.

  ‘Maybe he’s afraid of middle-aged spread,’ she made the same bitchy comment to Freda that she had made to her mother only that morning, although now she knew it to be untrue. Jerome Towers wasn’t thin, not unpleasantly so, his shoulders wide and powerful, tapering down to a slim waist and forceful thighs, his stomach flat and firmly muscled. No, he was a man at the peak of physical fitness, and the closeness of his lithe body against hers had had an arousing effect.

  ‘At thirty-two?’ Freda scoffed. ‘Go on with you!’

  Megan laughingly let herself out into the herb garden, finding the mint with no trouble. She might have lived the first nine years of her life in a town, but she had soon picked up the country ways and knowledge. She and Brian had been much happier here, having room to play, clean air to breathe. It was for the clean air they had come here if they had but known it, their father’s illness being irritated by the town smog.

  As she stood up she saw Roddy Meyers looking out at her from one of the upstairs windows, turning angrily away as he dared to grin at her. She would wipe that smile off his face when she met him this afternoon!

  Her mother was looking slightly better when she got home at lunchtime, although Megan insisted she stay in bed.

  ‘How did you get on, love?’ her mother asked worriedly.