A No Risk Affair

‘I don't intend ruining my figure giving some man children he'll probably ignore.’

Robyn ignored this latest jibe at Brad and herself. ‘It improved mine,’ she smiled.

‘Maybe on the surface,’ Caroline acknowledged. ‘But stretch marks can be so unsightly!’

Robyn didn't even attempt to defend this insult. She had a few finely silver stretch marks on the flatness of her abdomen, yes, but unless someone was looking really closely they weren't noticeable. And she knew that she would risk having much worse marks than that if she could have Kim and Andy at the end of it. ‘So you'll be taking the party around this afternoon?’ she said dryly.

Caroline flashed her an angry look. ‘If you weren't family you wouldn't be so sure of yourself,’ she snapped.

If she didn't at least have that claim she didn't know if she would be able to stand Caroline's constant bitchiness. At least this way she was partly able to defend herself, although at the back of her mind she always had the danger of losing her home and job. Caroline did have a lot of influence with her over-indulgent father, and if she made enough of a fuss about Robyn and her children he could just be talked into asking them to leave. Nevertheless, she never let herself or the twins be treated as inferiors; there were some limits to her pride.

‘If I weren't family then I wouldn't be here,’ she pointed out in a reasoning tone. ‘And couldn't you have your hair done tomorrow?’

‘I wanted to look good for when Sinclair Thornton arrives,’ her cousin-by-marriage said moodily.

‘He's arrived.’

Blue eyes sharpened questioningly. ‘What do you mean?’

She shrugged narrow shoulders. ‘Exactly what I said, he's already arrived.’

‘When?’

‘This morning.’

‘You've seen him?’

Robyn nodded. ‘Before I came to work. Your father didn't mention his arrival to you?’

‘No,’ she answered in a preoccupied voice. ‘But then he's been rather busy this morning.’ Caroline's expression was sharp as she focused on Robyn. ‘What's he like?’

‘Mr Thornton?’

‘Well I hardly mean Daddy!’

She had known exactly who Caroline meant, but the occasional need to bait the younger girl persisted. The two of them had never got on, Caroline seeming to have more poise and sophistication even at fourteen than the young girl being introduced as the newest member of the family. It soon became obvious that even this youngest member of the family found her unsophisticated naïveté totally unsuitable in a relation of hers. And just occasionally Robyn couldn't help the defence mechanism that sprang into action whenever she remembered those past slights, motherhood having given her a confidence she previously lacked. Finding herself solely responsible at nineteen for two other vulnerable lives besides her own was sure to have had some effect!

‘Mr Thornton seemed—quite pleasant,’ she answered dismissively.

‘As good looking at his photographs?’ Caroline couldn't keep the eagerness out of her voice as she forgot for a moment her usual affected air of boredom.

Sinclair Thornton's good looks couldn't be denied, neither could his charm, and yet somehow she doubted he was exactly Caroline's type. The men the younger girl usually dated all seemed to be highly sophisticated, always perfectly dressed for the occasion, and Robyn felt sure that any denims those men owned would carry designer labels on the back and not be as disreputably faded and old as the denims Sinclair Thornton had worn this morning had been. But maybe she was misjudging Caroline, maybe the author's raw masculinity would be a welcome change after all that polished charm.

‘I've never seen a photograph of him,’ she shrugged. ‘But he is very good looking.’

Caroline chewed thoughtfully on her bottom lip, seemingly unaware that she was smudging her lipgloss by doing so, something she wouldn't be pleased about when she realised it later. ‘I wonder if it would be too forward of me to go over and introduce myself?’ she murmured to herself.

Remembering the author's casually friendly manner Robyn doubted he would find it at all forward to have a beautiful young girl introduce herself to him. ‘I'm sure he would welcome it,’ she drawled.

Caroline looked at her with narrowed blue eyes. ‘I don't want to go down there if you've already made a nuisance of yourself,’ she questioned haughtily.

Robyn held on to her temper with effort. One of these days——! She didn't have red hair for nothing, as Caroline would one day find out if she didn't stop playing ‘Lady of the Manor’ in this way! ‘I didn't make a nuisance of myself at all, he came over to borrow a cup of milk—–’

‘How original!’

‘You said it,’ she sighed wearily.

Caroline flushed at her misdirected sarcasm. ‘I'm sure he really did need the milk.’

'So am I,’ she said dryly. ‘An author would be able to think of a much better approach.’

‘Of course,’ the younger girl scorned. ‘I think I'll go and invite him over to dinner tonight, I'm sure he can't be organised enough for that yet.’

‘Er …’

‘Yes?’ Caroline prompted impatiently.

She gave a resigned sigh. ‘He's coming to the cottage for dinner this evening,’ she revealed reluctantly.

‘The cottage?’ the other girl repeated dumbfoundedly. ‘You mean with you and the twins?’

‘Well as we're the ones that live there, yes,’ she nodded.

Caroline flushed at the sarcasm. ‘What on earth possessed you to invite a man like Sinclair Thornton to dinner?’ she snapped disgustedly.

‘What on earth possessed him to accept?’ she flashed back, her eyes dark.

‘Politeness, I expect,’ Caroline returned waspishly, her eyes suddenly narrowing again. ‘You aren't seriously interested in him, are you?’ she said disbelievingly.

Robyn flushed at the younger girl's incredulity at such an idea being possible. The fact that she never dated, that a man like Sinclair Thornton would be the last man she would be attracted to if she did, didn't alter the fact that Caroline seemed to think she had no right to find any member of the opposite sex attractive, that her divorce and motherhood meant she had to be unattractive herself to any man.

‘I was merely being a polite neighbour,’ she bit out tightly. ‘If he would rather accept your invitation then I won't be in the least insulted.’ Any imp of pleasure she may have got out of this morning's teasing of Sinclair Thornton had evaporated during this unpleasant exchange with Caroline. It probably wouldn't have been funny anyway, not if Sinclair Thornton felt about children the same way Caroline did.

‘I should hope not,’ Caroline said haughtily. ‘The man is here to see Daddy, after all.’

‘Yes.’

‘I'll just go and change before going down there,’ Caroline spoke softly to herself, her smile one of anticipation.

‘Er—Caroline?’ she halted the other girl at the door. ‘The coach-party this afternoon?’ she prompted, having received no definite reply on the matter.

The pouting red mouth tightened. ‘I'll have to take them round, I expect,’ she snapped. ‘Daddy's silly to be so soft with you, you are an employee, after all.’

Robyn made no reply to this last bitchiness, although her breath left her in a barely controlled sigh once she was alone. It was true, she was an employee, but the Colonel always made allowances for the fact that she was a single parent first. She had no doubt that if, or when, anything happened to the Colonel there would be a lot of changes made.

She had never thought of herself as totally ineligible before, either. Oh the twins would be a big responsibility for any man to take on if he should happen to fall in love with her, but she had never even thought of being on her own for the rest of her life, knew that although she had had one disastrous marriage that with another man it could all be perfect. For the moment she preferred things the way they were, knew that although Kim and Andy were well-adjusted children that the fact that their father had chosen not to live with them troubled them at times. But one day they would be old enough to understand, and when that day came she would be ready herself to perhaps find a new love of her own. For the moment she was satisfied with her lot.

And for Caroline to imply she might be interested in Sinclair Thornton was ridiculous! He wasn't her type at all, and she doubted she was his either.