Ice In His Veins Read online

  ‘There’s no need for sarcasm, Mr Earle. I’m perfectly well aware of what a telephone is.’

  ‘In that case, Eden, why be surprised that I’ve spoken to David? I called him to tell him of your reluctance to visit him. He was upset, naturally, and not a little concerned about your resentment towards him. According to him your mother may not have been telling you the whole story about the last eighteen years.’

  She gave him a searching look. ‘What did he mean?’

  ‘It isn’t for me to say. Your mother is the person you should talk to about that.’

  ‘Oh, come on, you’ve gone this far, you might as well finish. In what way has my mother been holding out on me?’

  He took his time about answering, finally he shrugged. ‘You’re sure you want to know?’

  ‘Quite sure.’

  ‘Okay. Well, it seems that your father kept in touch with your mother during the last years of his life, asked for photographs, things like that. When he died your grandfather kept up these enquiries by telephone.’

  ‘Telephone calls about me?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’

  ‘Believe the facts. How else could your grandfather know that your best friend at school was Cheryl Sanders, that you came sixth in the History exam you took in eighth grade, that—’

  ‘Okay!’ she cried. ‘But if he knows all that, and my mother obviously told it to him, why has she never mentioned it to me?’

  He took a swallow of his drink. ‘That’s something you’ll have to ask her.’

  Eden picked up her wrap and evening bag, walking hurriedly to the door.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Jason was on his feet now.

  ‘To talk to my mother, of course.’

  ‘Right now?’

  ‘I can’t think of a better time.’

  He frowned. ‘But what about dinner? It will be arriving any moment now.’

  ‘Then you eat it,’ she advised tautly. ‘And don’t get the mistaken idea that anything you’ve told me makes any difference to me. Even if what you say is true it doesn’t mean I’ll go to England.’

  ‘Oh, it’s true, Eden, and you know it is. But as I’ve already told you, what you do holds no interest for me. But if you decide to make that trip to see David I’ll be glad to make the plane reservation for you.’

  ‘I can do that myself—if I think it necessary.’

  He shrugged. ‘Please yourself.’

  ‘I usually do.’

  ‘So I would imagine,’ he said dryly.

  ‘Meaning what, Mr Earle?’

  ‘Meaning you come across as a very spoilt little girl.’

  ‘Your opinion of me isn’t that important to me,’ she retorted haughtily. ‘I’m sure I’ll survive without your approval.’

  ‘I’m sure you will. I’m also sure that when the time comes you’ll make Tim an excellent wife.’

  Her eyes narrowed. ‘What makes you think I’m going to marry him?’

  ‘You would be a fool if you didn’t. Anyone can see he’s in love with you.’

  Eden didn’t miss the contempt for the emotion in his voice. ‘He may be,’ she accepted. ‘But it doesn’t necessarily follow that I feel the same way about him.’

  ‘I wouldn’t have thought that was important.’ He poured himself another drink. ‘He was what you meant when you denied needing your grandfather’s money, wasn’t he?’

  She drew in an angry breath. ‘No, he was not! Considering you know next to nothing about me you’re very insulting, Mr Earle.’

  ‘You knew even less about me at our first meeting, and yet you already disliked me,’ he pointed out.

  She blushed. ‘That was different—I knew of you.’

  ‘And didn’t like much of what you heard,’ he mocked.

  ‘Quite,’ she agreed. ‘I especially don’t like your taste in women—and I don’t mean Claire. Tell me, Mr Earle, doesn’t it bother you that Isobel once stole another woman’s husband from her?’

  ‘Why should it bother me? I’m sure we’ve all got things in our past that we aren’t too proud of.’

  ‘I’m sure Isobel never regretted marrying my father,’ she scorned.

  ‘As far as I can gather they were very happy together.’

  ‘She’s hardly likely to tell you any different—after all, she wouldn’t want you to think she wasn’t a good wife.’

  ‘Being a good wife to someone else doesn’t mean that she would be a good one for me. My requirements might be different.’

  ‘I can imagine!’

  He smiled. ‘I’m sure you can. But it wasn’t from Isobel that I heard the marriage was a success.’

  ‘My grandfather, I suppose?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘The same reasoning applies to him. He angled for that marriage, he’s hardly likely to put it down either.’

  ‘Stop being so bitter, girl,’ he told her. ‘That’s all in the past, it’s the future I’m concerned with.’

  ‘Your future with Isobel?’

  ‘If I have any future with her it’s none of your business.’

  Eden shook her head. ‘She must know of your reputation, the women you’ve had, still have. But maybe that doesn’t bother her, I have no reason to suppose my father was any more faithful to her than he was to my mother. Still, I wouldn’t want to be involved with you.’

  His glance ran insolently over her youthful curves. ‘You won’t get the chance to be. I like my women to be experienced, you lose out on both counts.’

  She frowned. ‘Both?’

  ‘Both. Some girls of twenty have had more lovers than they would care to name. But not you, you’re a child, and you definitely aren’t experienced.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  He smiled, a slow mocking smile. ‘I know, Eden.’

  ‘Then you’d be wrong,’ she told him defiantly. ‘As you said, a girl doesn’t get to twenty nowadays without gaining a little experience.’

  ‘How little?’ he challenged.

  ‘Not so little,’ she lied. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really would like to talk to my mother.’

  ‘It would appear you have plenty to talk about. And I’ll remember your claim to experience, I may have need of it some day.’

  Eden flushed a fiery red. ‘Do you ever get that desperate?’

  He grinned. ‘Not with women like Isobel and Claire about.’

  ‘You’re disgusting!’ she snapped. ‘And boastful.’

  ‘Oh, not boastful, Eden, I’m just trying to live up to the reputation you’ve just credited me with.’

  ‘I haven’t,’ she denied heatedly. ‘Everyone else has. The newspapers are always reporting on your activities. After all, you are news.’

  ‘You flatter me,’ he taunted.

  ‘Scandalous news most of the time. Goodbye, Mr Earle.’

  ‘I’ll expect to hear from you.’

  ‘Don’t hold your breath!’

  Eden fumed all the way home in the cab, sure that her mother would have some reasonable explanation for what he had just told her. She knew her mother felt very bitter towards David Morton, but surely she wouldn’t have lied to her all this time. And if she had, where did that put Eden in regard to her grandfather?

  Drew was alone when she entered the lounge, intent on one of his favourite television programmes. ‘How did your evening go?’ he asked interestedly, standing up to turn off the television.

  ‘It didn’t.’ Eden slumped down into a chair. ‘We didn’t even get as far as having dinner.’ She hesitated. ‘Daddy, do you know if my—father and grandfather kept in touch with Mummy?’

  He looked surprised by the question. ‘Is that what Jason Earle told you?’

  She nodded. ‘He told me—’

  ‘The truth,’ her mother spoke from behind them. She came further into the room, clothed in a silk bathrobe, but her face still perfectly made up. She was never seen without her full make-up, aware of a few lines having appeared aro
und her eyes amd mouth during recent years.

  Eden looked at her sharply. ‘The truth?’

  ‘Yes, if Mr Earle told you I heard from Graham until his death and from David since then.’

  ‘You hear from David Morton?’ Drew asked slowly.

  ‘Yes,’ she answered with a certain amount of challenge in her voice.

  ‘How often?’ Eden asked.

  Her mother shrugged, lighting a cigarette before answering. ‘Two or three times a year, I suppose.’

  ‘Two or three—Mummy!’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Angela, is this true?’ Drew demanded to know, as shocked as Eden.

  ‘Of course it’s true.’ Angela gave an abrupt laugh. ‘Stop looking so surprised, both of you. You didn’t think, when Graham’s second marriage produced no children, that David would give up his only grandchild, did you, Drew? You should know better than that. He’s too selfish to let us get on with the rest of our lives without a reminder from him now and again of his existence.’

  ‘But you never mentioned it!’ Eden’s reproach was obvious.

  Her mother’s eyes flashed angrily. ‘Why should I have done? A few telephone calls don’t make him any less the swine he was when I married your father against his will.’

  Eden stood up, equally angry. ‘No, but they prove he hasn’t forgotten me.’

  ‘I’ve never said he had. But he didn’t make his last call. He always calls on your birthday. This year he missed. I thought—’

  ‘Do you know why he missed it?’ Eden cut in shrilly. ‘He’s dying, that’s why! He’s dying, and all you can think about, all you’ve ever thought about, was your own bitterness towards him. You had no right to keep his calls from me, no right at all!’ She recoiled as Drew’s hand snaked out and struck her forcibly across one cheek. ‘Daddy!’ Tears gathered in her eyes.

  ‘Don’t ever let me hear you talk to your mother like that again,’ he told her coldly. ‘Your grandfather was a swine to your mother, and whatever she may have done in regard to him since then she did for the best, for all of us.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Eden cradled her throbbing cheek. ‘I’m sorry!’

  ‘So you damn well ought to be!’

  ‘Eden,’ her mother sounded strange, not at all like the woman who dominated the household with an iron will. ‘What’s wrong with David?’

  ‘He had a heart attack,’ she supplied.

  ‘Someone should have let me know—Isobel should have let me know. He’s Eden’s grandfather, we had a right to know.’

  ‘Perhaps Isobel didn’t know about the calls either,’ Drew suggested gently.

  ‘She knew,’ Angela said vehemently. ‘She tried to stop Graham making them.’

  ‘I think you should lie down,’ Drew told her softly. ‘You’re very pale.’

  ‘I think I will.’ She gave a vague smile before going to their bedroom.

  Eden watched her go, her frown one of puzzlement. Like Jason, it had never occurred to her that her grandfather’s illness would matter to her mother. But it had; she looked as if someone had dealt her a blow.

  She looked at her stepfather. ‘Is Mummy all right?’

  He sighed. ‘It’s just the shock.’

  ‘Shock?’

  He nodded. ‘All these years, all she’s ever had was her hatred of David Morton. Oh, she’s loved us, in her own way, but it was hatred of him that held her together after she had to leave Graham. Knowing he’s dying has shocked her to the core.’

  ‘But—but why?’

  ‘You have to understand your mother to know what she’s feeling right now. It’s as if her reason for living has been taken away from her. When I married her all those years ago I knew she was still in love with your father, but—’

  ‘Oh, surely not,’ Eden scorned. ‘She hated him, as she’s always hated his father.’

  He shook his head sadly. ‘She’s always loved Graham, even after he died. But she couldn’t live with him, couldn’t live with what David Morton was doing to them both. Your mother is fond of me, we’ve had a good marriage, but your father was always the love of her life. She never stopped loving him, even when she knew she had to leave him or make him hate her. And I’ve never resented the love she had for him. I’ve accepted it, as I’ve accepted the affection she has for me.’

  ‘I never realised….’

  ‘No,’ he smiled. ‘It wasn’t necessary that you should. Don’t blame your mother for keeping those calls to herself. The ones she had from Graham I’m sure she kept to herself because they were all she had of him, the only contact she could have with the man she still loved.’

  ‘Oh, Daddy!’ Eden flung herself into his arms. ‘It must have been awful for you.’

  ‘I wouldn’t change a minute of it. I’ve loved your mother and I’ve loved you, and together we’ve all been happy.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘It’s never mattered, Eden, never. Now I’m going to go to her, be her strength. You see that’s the one thing I do know, your mother needs me now, and whenever she needs me I intend to be there. Right now she’s confused, lost even. If David Morton dies she’s going to need me more than ever.’

  Eden had always known that Drew loved her mother very much, but she had never realised just how selfless that love was. He had known all these years that his wife had still loved her first husband, and yet it had made no difference to his own love for her.

  She should have realised herself how the bitterness and hatred her mother had for David Morton had always been her strength, her reason for everything she did, the reason she always had to succeed at everything. In her own way she had been proving to David Morton the last eighteen years that she had been good enough for his son, that by rejecting her he had himself lost out. Drew was right, if David Morton died her mother was going to need him very much.

  But what she had learnt tonight made her want to meet this man, to find out what it was about him that had made her father choose him above his wife and child. And then there was always Isobel Morton….

  ***

  And so it was that Eden found herself on a plane the next day seated next to Jason Earle, travelling with a man she didn’t know on her way to meet a man she wasn’t even sure she wanted to know.

  Her mother had raised no further objections, her strangely subdued mother who suddenly seemed to have lost the drive that made her such a strong personality. All the fight seemed to have gone out of her, and for once Eden saw her mother leaning on Drew’s quiet strength.

  She hadn’t wanted to call Jason Earle last night, hadn’t wanted to have to listen to the mocking satisfaction she felt sure would be in his voice as he heard of her decision to go to England with him. She had thought of just making her own way there, of not telling him she was going, but that would simply have been a childish gesture; he would know in the end anyway. Besides, it was going to be a long flight, and although Jason Earle might not be her idea of an ideal companion to pass the hours with he was company. At least, he would have been if he hadn’t buried his nose in some papers he had taken out of his briefcase as soon as they had taken off.

  Eden gave him an impatient look, sighing heavily. She had never doubted for one moment that he would be able to get her a seat on his flight; men like him didn’t know the meaning of the word no. Besides, who would dare to say it!

  Finally she could stand his silence no longer. ‘You aren’t much company, are you?’ she accused.

  Cool grey eyes were turned in her direction as Jason raised his head. ‘I wasn’t aware that you wanted company, especially mine.’

  Eden flushed at his intended taunt. ‘I don’t suppose it would occur to you that I might be nervous? That I’m travelling to a country I’m not familiar with, to see a man who deprived me of my father.’

  ‘You nervous?’ he mocked. ‘I don’t believe it.’

  ‘That’s right,’ she sighed. ‘Mock me, that’s sure to make me feel better.’ She turned away, her mouth trembling slightly.
r />   Now it was his turn to sigh. ‘I wasn’t mocking your nervousness, I was just surprised that you admitted to such an emotion.’

  ‘I’m surprised you can be surprised,’ she snapped.

  To her chagrin he gave a throaty chuckle. ‘You’re a constant surprise to me, Eden. You have been since the moment we met.’

  Unwillingly her lips began to twitch with humour. ‘When you thought I would be a child. Just how old did you think I was?’ she asked interestedly.

  ‘Eleven or twelve,’ he admitted ruefully. ‘Neither David or Isobel ever mentioned how old you were. I just assumed…. But I’m learning that where you’re concerned it doesn’t pay to assume anything. I didn’t think you would come with me today. I still don’t understand why you have.’

  She shrugged, still uncertain about that herself. ‘Curiosity—I think.’

  ‘And what about your job? I thought you were a working girl.’

  ‘I am. I work for Drew.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘Isn’t that what stepfathers are for?’ she flashed. ‘To give you time off when you need it. That is what you meant, isn’t it, that you would hardly call it working when Drew can do without me at such short notice.’

  ‘Well, is it?’

  ‘Yes, it is! I don’t work for him directly, I work for one of his managers. And I was hired for ability, not from family connections.’

  ‘If you say so,’ he derided.

  ‘I do! If you ever need a secretary I’ll be glad to prove it to you.’

  His mouth turned back. ‘I don’t envisage that happening. Sandra is very capable, and never sick.’

  ‘A regular paragon, in fact,’ Eden taunted.

  ‘Why don’t you read a book or something?’ Jason suggested wearily. ‘It’s too tiring trying to converse with you.’

  ‘And you have your work to do!’

  ‘I always deal with my paperwork during the flight, there’s usually little else to do.’

  ‘Don’t let me stop you. I’m sure you have a lot of work to get through, work you should have been doing during the weekend.’

  ‘Instead of escorting the lovely Claire,’ he finished dryly. ‘Wasn’t that the implication?’

  ‘If the cap fits…’