A Man To Marry

How cosy! And yet she knew that it wasn’t. She would take a guess on this man squashing her like a bug if she got in his way! But what way did he want to go…?

‘That still doesn’t tell me what I can do to help you,’ she reminded him. ‘If there is no problem with Adam—’

‘I’ve already told you there isn’t—Cat,’ he returned evenly, that arctic gaze easily capturing and holding hers. ‘Adam—for all that I spent the best part of the morning pacing up and down worrying in case he needed me!—seems to have enjoyed his morning here. In fact, I think, if anything, he found the afternoon with just the two of us quite boring. It’s always the way with children, isn’t it?’ He grimaced. ‘We get the grey hairs, and they just grow bigger and stronger!’

Cat relaxed slightly at the paternal image of this man pacing up and down in worry over his son. It brought back to her the fact that no matter how arrogant and patronising she found him he did love his son. It was there in his intonation when he spoke of Adam.

‘I had never really thought of it in quite that way,’ she smiled. ‘But yes, I suppose they do. But you really have no need to worry any further about Adam while he’s here; the other children didn’t seem to mind at all that he didn’t actually speak to them. In fact, they seem to have a sort of telepathy with each other at this age!’ Considering the trauma Adam had suffered just six months ago, although he had stayed quite close to Cat and Kate during the morning, he had also, to their delight, played with the other children.

‘So I’ve noticed,’ Caleb agreed. ‘My sister has a little girl of two, and she and Adam have no trouble communicating with each other at all.’

Slowly Cat was learning more about this man, though it was like getting blood from a stone! But she still had a feeling that was more than most people could get out of him. She knew he had been married, that his wife had died, that he had a sister, and a niece. It was probably more than he knew about her, Cat conceded. And that was the way it was going to stay!

Although she couldn’t help wondering why, with family obviously living somewhere close—Adam was able to play with his cousin—Caleb Reynolds had chosen to move to this area at all…? Unless his sister lived around here too? But if that was the case why rent a cottage? Why not just stay with his sister? There was still a lot about Caleb Reynolds they didn’t know!

‘I actually came here this evening,’ he said softly, ‘to ask you and Kate if I could look around your house.’

He had lulled her into a false sense of security by talking about Adam, and then—pow!—he’d hit her with what he was really here for!

Cat stared at him, green eyes wide. ‘I thought you were happy with our facilities when I showed you round this morning?’ She frowned. ‘I can assure you that we are inspected on a regular basis, and—’

‘I don’t want to look around the playschool again, Cat,’ Caleb cut in mildly. ‘As you say, I’ve already seen it, and I have no doubt that it passes inspection. It’s actually the rest of the house I’m interested in seeing.’

‘Why?’ Cat blurted out rudely, too startled for politeness.

‘Because it’s one of the oldest houses in the area and I have an interest in old houses?’ he suggested drily, dark brows raised at her bluntness.

She met his gaze unblinkingly. ‘And?’

He shrugged. ‘Does there have to be an and?’

She nodded abruptly. ‘I think so, yes!’

Why on earth did he want to look around this particular house? Admittedly it was almost one hundred and fifty years old, had originally been the manor house of the area, surrounded by farmland that was worked by the tenants of the cottages in the village. But the squire’s family had moved out of the area years ago, the farmland bought up by neighbouring farmers, and the village itself had expanded and grown, so that the nearest dwelling was now only a quarter of a mile away. In fact, it was the cottage this man was currently renting!

Again Caleb gave her that steady, steely-eyed look. But if he thought he was going to unnerve her he was mistaken; as a parent she would treat him with the same politeness she did all their other clients, but as someone wanting to invade the privacy of their home—! The same rules didn’t apply in that situation. So Cat met that level gaze with an intensity of her own.

‘Okay,’ Caleb Reynolds finally murmured, shrugging his shoulders, ‘you’ve guessed my secret.’ A charming smile accompanied this statement.

A smile that Cat had no intention of responding to, that put her even more on her guard instead. Charm was not something she particularly associated with this man, so it had to be there now for a reason…

‘There is more than just a mild curiosity on my part,’ he conceded grudgingly. ‘You see—’

‘Cat, what on earth is keeping you this long?’ Kate called impatiently as she could be heard walking down the hallway. ‘Really, Toby, it’s been a hard day, and—’ Kate was as surprised to see Caleb Reynolds sitting in the room with Cat as Cat had been earlier when she’d opened the door to him. ‘Mr Reynolds…?’ she greeted in a puzzled voice.

‘Miss Brady,’ he returned formally, having stood up at her entrance. ‘Although your friend and I have decided to dispense with formality and stick to first names,’ he added, once again with that charming smile.

If one were in the mood to be charmed—which Cat certainly wasn’t! Besides, that smile didn’t quite reach the hardness of those icy grey eyes…

‘Really?’ Kate gave Cat a sideways glance, obviously as confused as Cat had been by his presence here.

Although Cat was no longer as confused as she had been initially. If he thought she had forgotten his ‘secret’, he was mistaken!

‘Did you enjoy your bath, Kate?’ he enquired solicitously, his gaze mocking now.

Cat could easily guess the reason for his mockery, on two counts. Firstly, the pieces of grass that were both on the back of Kate’s top and entangled in her hair clearly showed she hadn’t been anywhere near the bath in the last few minutes. And, secondly, Kate’s blankly uncomprehending expression said she didn’t have a clue what he was talking about!

Cat had originally used the excuse of Kate being in the bath because she hadn’t wanted Caleb to suggest joining them in the garden. But Kate’s slightly dishevelled, obviously post-garden appearance simply made a liar out of her.

‘My mistake, I’m afraid,’ Cat put in sweetly, her expression deliberately bland. ‘I thought you had gone to have a bath, but obviously you haven’t finished in the garden yet,’ she said pointedly.

Kate gave her a frowning look before turning to Caleb. ‘Gardens take up such a lot of one’s time, don’t they?’ she said conversationally, her words neither confirming nor belying Cat’s statement. ‘As you’re going to find out while you’re at Rose Cottage. Unless you have someone coming in to take care of it for you?’

Cat knew that Jane’s mother always did the cleaning at the cottage, and with Adam taken care of as well five mornings a week she couldn’t help wondering what Caleb was going to find to do with his time if he passed the gardening on to someone else too. Besides coming here when he felt like it and making a nuisance of himself, that was! One male dropping in unannounced was bad enough; two was intolerable!

‘Actually, no,’ Caleb answered Kate lightly. ‘It was the fact that the cottage had such a large garden that appealed to me. We live in an apartment in London, and the doctors seemed to think that a complete change of scenery might be of benefit to Adam.’

‘So he’s going to do the gardening?’ Cat put in, with only a light veil over her sarcasm.

It was a veil that didn’t fool Caleb for a moment, and he looked at her consideringly for several seconds. ‘You don’t like me very much, do you, Cat?’ he finally murmured thoughtfully.

Like him—she didn’t even know him! But the habit he had of speaking his mind was a little unnerving, yes. Kept between the two of them, it wasn’t a problem, but with Kate present—Kate who now looked very uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken—it was a completely different matter.

‘Kate’s the diplomat in this partnership, Caleb,’ Cat returned ruefully. ‘I have better success dealing with children.’

‘As opposed to men?’ he returned softly.

‘As opposed to anyone!’ Cat snapped back, eyes flashing deeply green.

Give me a break, Kate, her expression silently pleaded with her friend; this man gave as good as he got—if not better!

‘You were about to explain your interest in seeing around this house?’ she prompted their visitor, deliberately not looking at Kate now as she heard her friend’s indrawn breath, but hoping that her friend now understood her own defensive attitude towards this man.

Caleb looked perfectly relaxed, seemingly unaware of the underlying tension in the room. ‘It’s quite simple, really,’ he replied. ‘I’m interested in this house because my great-great-grandfather was its architect.’

The two women couldn’t have felt—or looked!—more stunned if he had told them his ancestor had been Jack the Ripper!

Cat didn’t know what explanation she had been expecting, but it certainly hadn’t been the one Caleb Reynolds had just given. And poor Kate seemed to be having trouble keeping up with the conversation at all.

‘Clive Reynolds,’ he explained as their shocked silence continued. ‘The house was actually named after him. His name is carved into the stonework on the front of the house,’ he added as he still received no response from either of the two women.

Clive Reynolds… He was right, it was. But time and familiarity had dulled for them the awareness of that name and a date, 1850, etched into the stone directly above the front door. Clive Reynolds. This man’s great-great-grandfather…

The surname was obviously the same, and yet…

‘What a coincidence.’ Once again Cat’s barely veiled scepticism could be heard, and the sudden hardness of his grey eyes said Caleb Reynolds was well aware of it!

‘Not at all,’ he bit out crisply. ‘I’m in the area because I have some research to do at the museum in York, but I chose this village for my stay deliberately once I realised about the house. I’m curious to know whether or not my ancestor built any other houses in the area.’