Witchstone

This information should have pleased her—it should have reassured her that his invitation was considered and deliberate, and not a spontaneous impulse which might be regretted later. But instead, she felt raw and indignant, reluctant to be the unwilling recipient of his patronising generosity.

CHAPTER THREE (#u06908f92-507c-50f1-a7e7-17d763fd8b6d)

THEY had been climbing steadily for several miles, and when Jake suddenly pulled the car off the road into a parking area, Ashley saw that they were at the head of a steep bank which wound down into the valley. Spread out below them was a carpet of colours—trees and fields, scattered farms and close-knit villages, all dwarfed from this altitude. A faint mist still lingered to shroud the distant hills, but the sun was gaining strength by the minute and had already melted the rime frost from the hedgerows.

The engine of the car was suddenly silent and rather than look at her companion, Ashley looked about her. Even at this comparatively early hour there were motorists about, and several had parked here to buy hot drinks from a mobile caravan that stood a few yards away.

‘Well?’ said Jake unexpectedly. ‘Have you nothing to say for yourself? You haven’t opened your mouth since we left Bewford!’

Ashley was forced to glance round then, and she moved her shoulders indifferently, looking down at her hands clasped in her lap. ‘I’m sorry. I just had nothing to say.’

‘I see.’ Jake’s mouth had a sceptical curve. ‘Do you want some coffee?’

Ashley looked towards the mobile caravan. ‘If you’d like some, I’ll have some——’

‘Will you?’ Jake sounded annoyed, and thrusting open his door he climbed out, slamming the door behind him so heavily that Ashley’s head sang with the sound.

She watched him walk across to the caravan, tall and lean in close-fitting navy pants and a cream sweater. His hair looked particularly dark in the pale sunlight, and although it was bitterly cold still he seemed unaffected by it. He returned a few minutes later with two plastic cups and she leant across his seat to thrust open the door from the inside so that he could climb in again.

He handed her one of the steaming cups of coffee and she sipped the liquid gratefully. It was very comfortable in the warm car, looking out on the sunlit day, able to enjoy the scenery without suffering its less pleasant aspects.

Jake finished his coffee quite quickly, and putting the cup down lit a cheroot, exhaling the aromatic flavour of tobacco into the air. The silence between them seemed infinitely more pronounced now that the vehicle was stationary, and Ashley began to experience a feeling of nervous tension. She had never really been alone with a man before, and she couldn’t help feeling apprehensive.

At last he half turned in his seat to look at her, and said: ‘Why did you come with me? It’s pretty obvious you’re not enjoying yourself.’

Ashley looked down at her half empty cup of coffee. ‘Why do you say that?’ she parried.

Jake uttered an expletive. ‘You know damn well why. I might as well be alone!’

Ashley felt terrible. ‘I’m sorry.’

Jake shook his head impatiently. ‘Are you?’ He dropped ash from his cheroot into the tray provided. ‘What I can’t understand is—why did you agree to come? No one forced you. I just thought you might enjoy it. As it is, I doubt whether either of us is going to do so.’

Ashley shifted unhappily in her seat. ‘I—did want to come,’ she insisted.

‘Did being the operative word, I suppose.’

‘Yes—no—oh, no! That’s not what I meant to say.’ She looked at him helplessly, her green eyes slanted and appealing. ‘I just think that—perhaps you shouldn’t have asked me!’

Jake’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why not?’

‘Well, I suppose because—because you’re—well—who you are,’ she murmured lamely.

‘You mean because I’m so much older than you are—or because I’m engaged to be married—or because my father employs your cousin?’

Ashley coloured. ‘A combination of all three, I suppose.’

‘I see.’ Jake took a long draw on his cheroot and then pressed it out with savage movements.

‘You—understand, don’t you?’ Her voice was uneven.

‘What’s to understand? It all comes down to the same thing, doesn’t it? You wish you hadn’t come because you’re bored——’

‘That’s not true!’ Ashley’s eyes were stormy now.

Jake made an impatient gesture. ‘Then tell me what my age, my fiancée and my money has to do with us going to see a library fifty miles away?’

Ashley felt angry. He was deliberately misunderstanding her. He must know what she meant. ‘Because I don’t like being patronised,’ she got out at last, trembling at her own temerity.

‘Patronised?’ Jake glared at her. ‘Who’s patronising you?’

‘You are!’ Ashley’s nails bit into her palms. ‘Whose idea was it to take me to Raybury? Yours—or your fiancée’s?’

‘My God!’ Jake lay back in his seat in disbelief. ‘What the hell are you talking about? You know whose idea it was—mine! It was conceived in the bar of the Golden Lion.’

Ashley took a deep breath. ‘But why? Why me? Why not Karen, for instance?’

Jake hunched his shoulders. ‘I’ve told you. Because I thought you’d find it interesting. I didn’t realise there was going to be an inquest into my motives or I’d have had something prepared.’

Ashley stared unseeingly through the windscreen. ‘I see.’

‘Does that satisfy you?’

She shrugged. Did it? Was she satisfied now that she knew that Jake had not discussed his intentions with his fiancée before asking her out with him? She ought to be. And why did she need that reassurance anyway? She was trying to read more into his invitation than he had ever intended. And why? Because she was childish enough to want him to see her as an equal and not as a schoolgirl.

Jake swung round in his seat. ‘I think we’d better get on,’ he said shortly, ‘unless you’d rather go back!’

Ashley bit her lips. ‘Of course I don’t want to go back,’ she exclaimed, stretching out a hand impulsively towards him. His forearm was hard beneath her fingers, the muscles taut, the heat of his flesh tangible through the soft wool. ‘Look, I know you’ll probably think I’m stupid, but—well, Aunt Mona said that no doubt you had discussed the idea of inviting me with your—your fiancée, and I—I didn’t——’ She shook her head. ‘Well, I didn’t like the idea of being—discussed!’

‘You mean I have Mona to thank for this?’ he queried sarcastically, resting his elbows on the steering wheel.

Ashley’s fingers probed his arm almost involuntarily. ‘Are you—very angry?’

He looked down meaningfully at her hand and she hastily withdrew it, linking her fingers together in her lap again. ‘I’m not angry—just irritated.’ He sighed. ‘I should perhaps point out that I do not have to clear my movements with Barbara. If I choose to invite you to accompany me to a sale—anywhere—that’s my decision, and no one else’s.’

Ashley bent her head, her hair falling like a silken curtain about her cheeks. ‘If you say so.’

‘Damn you, I do say so!’ He turned the ignition with controlled violence. ‘Shall we go?’

Ashley nodded, and the sleek sports saloon swung round in a circle to merge into the stream of traffic.

They drove down Sutton Bank and followed the winding road to Thirsk, entering the small market town just after ten-thirty. Ashley looked about her with interest. In spite of the fact that she and Jake were still saying little to one another, the atmosphere between them had significantly changed, and she no longer felt like an unwelcome encumbrance.

A few miles beyond Thirsk they joined the main trunk road north and for a while Jake had to concentrate on his driving. He controlled the powerful car expertly and without seeming effort, and Ashley was content to relax inside her seat belt and enjoy the ride.

They left the motorway just before Scotch Corner, taking the Richmond road for a short distance before turning off for Raybury. Traffic was sparse on these country roads, although they did pass one or two vehicles which Ashley thought might conceivably be on their way to the sale.

It was nearing eleven-thirty when they ran through the village of Raybury, and Ashley was enchanted by the tall houses flanking the village green, and the ducks on the pond. Daffodils were blooming in clutches, and in spite of the cold the trees showed definite signs of new life.