The Diamond Bride

Annie was intrigued now. ‘Is it?’

‘It isn’t important,’ Anthony dismissed carelessly. ‘Although you do realise, with Rufus around, we’re going to have to be even more careful about when and where the two of us meet?’

She had been debating this afternoon, as she’d stood on the jetty waiting for him—pointlessly, as it turned out—whether or not they should meet again. Oh, she was no less attracted to him, and she wanted to feel wanted by him, but he was engaged to another woman—no matter how much of a farce, on his part, the engagement now was.

This was the circle in which she had kept going round and round, and every time she’d come back to the fact that she was attracted to a man who was engaged to marry someone else. Even though the attraction seemed to be reciprocated, it was still wrong for her to feel this way about a man promised to another girl.

She drew in a controlling breath. ‘Perhaps we shouldn’t meet...’

‘I was hoping you would say that!’ Anthony gave her a hug, smiling down at her when he released her. ‘It won’t be for long; as I’ve said, going by Rufus’s last visit, this one may only be for a day or so. Then we can start to see each other without worrying about him.’

That hadn’t been what she was about to say at all. Much as it pained her, the only conclusion she had come to concerning her relationship with Anthony—such as it was!—was that it would have to end. At least until Anthony had decided what he was going to do about his engagement. But Anthony seemed to have misunderstood her just now...

‘You really are wonderful, Annie,’ he told her huskily, blue eyes glowing. ‘How could I have been so stupid as to think I could make a go of things with Davina?’ He shook his head at his own lack of forethought. ‘I’ll sort things out, Annie, you’ll see. In the meantime, I intend to stay as much out of Rufus’s way as possible. I suggest you do the same.’

Easier said than done!

As Jessica had hoped, Daddy did come and carry her downstairs to dinner. Which meant he came up to Jessica’s bedroom to collect her. And as Annie was there too, having helped the young girl to dress in her prettiest dress—red velvet edged with fine lace at the neck and cuffs—she encountered Rufus again not much more than an hour later.

As the Diamonds were a family that dressed for dinner, his black evening suit, snowy white shirt and black bow-tie came as nothing of a surprise to Annie. The fact that the formality of his clothing did little to disguise the leashed power within was also expected; Rufus Diamond was a man who exuded arrogant masculinity.

‘Does our little mouse still have her roar this evening?’ he teased. ‘Or has Anthony managed to talk you down to a whimper?’

Jessica looked puzzled by his query. ‘But we don’t have any mice, Daddy.’

Annie didn’t pretend not to know it was her he was referring to. Usually she was so calm and controlled—temper tantrums hadn’t gone down too well at the children’s homes! It was only this man who brought back echoes of the fiery side of her nature that over the years she had taken such care to quell.

As he did now! ‘The younger Mr Diamond doesn’t talk down to me at all,’ she told him tartly.

The humour left Rufus’s darkly mocking face as he frowned, giving him a slightly menacing appearance—and making Annie wonder if she was wise to talk back to him so sharply. He was her employer, after all...

‘Don’t backtrack, Annie,’ he replied curtly—as if he was well able to read her inner uncertainty.

Maybe he could. She had never been any good at hiding her feelings. Another reason for ending this barely formed relationship with Anthony. It could only bring her grief, and possibly dismissal from working with the little girl she already adored. These sort of complications weren’t something she had given any thought to when she had opted to work in a family environment!

‘And I wasn’t talking down to you, either,’ Rufus continued firmly. ‘Jessica did nothing but extol your virtues for the earlier part of this evening.’ He ruffled his daughter’s hair affectionately, receiving a pleased giggle in return. Rufus turned back to Annie with darkly piercing eyes. ‘Children aren’t easily deceived.’

That was true; she had easily been able to tell, when she was in care, which people were genuinely interested in her and who was just making a show of being kind. But she didn’t see how anyone could be less than sincerely fond of a lovely child like Jessica.

‘Daddy...’ Jessica spoke carefully. ‘What does “extol your virtues” mean?’ She wrinkled her nose in confusion.

‘It means, young lady—’ Rufus easily swung his daughter up into his arms, grinning down at her ‘—that you think Annie is great!’

‘But she is,’ Jessica said without a shadow of doubt.

‘I’m sure she is, poppet.’ Rufus tickled his daughter as he carried her ceremoniously down the wide staircase.

Annie walked happily along behind them, pleased with the obvious closeness between father and daughter, despite Rufus’s three-month absence. The two could have been together only yesterday, so naturally affectionate was their relationship.

‘Mind you,’ Rufus paused to whisper conspiratorially to Jessica, ‘when I met Annie earlier, I didn’t think she was much older than you!’ This last, playful remark was accompanied by a glance back at a red-faced Annie. ‘She looks—much older in that black dress,’ he added lightly, blue gaze challenging.

‘I helped her to choose it,’ Jessica told him proudly.

And, in fact, she had. Having worked in a daytime kindergarten, where her evenings were her own, Annie hadn’t had much call for the sort of formal clothes she would need for one of the Diamond dinners. After two evenings of coming down in serviceable skirts and blouses, of feeling exactly what she was—the hired help—she had decided to change that, taking Jessica into town with her shopping on their first available Saturday and buying three dresses that, when matched with differing accessories, could get her through an evening no matter what company happened to arrive. On the very evening she’d bought the dresses she had been presented with a bishop and a judge, so her purchases had been well worth the effort!

She had bought black, royal-blue and white dresses, and tonight, as Rufus Diamond had duly noted, she wore the black one, which while not accentuating her figure, didn’t hide it either, the above-knee length revealing an expanse of shapely leg too. On a couple of other evenings she had worn a long floral scarf trailing from her throat, or a fitted jacket of powder-blue, but tonight she wore only a single silver broach fastened above her left breast; she hadn’t wanted to wear anything this evening that would draw attention to her!

‘And Annie is much older than me,’ Jessica added in a scandalised voice. ‘She’s twenty-two. She told me she is.’

‘Oh, that’s much older!’ Rufus agreed, only the twitch of his lips, as he turned briefly to Annie, telling of his repressed humour—again at her expense.

‘Really, Daddy.’ Jessica unwittingly sounded just like her grandmother at that moment. ‘You can be so silly at times.’ She gave an exasperated shake of her head—again, not unlike Celia would have done.

Annie doubted that the word ‘silly’ could be applied to Rufus—at any time. It certainly wasn’t the impression he had given her since their first meeting this afternoon!

And while Annie, in her parentless state, might have little idea of what a family dinner should be like, she was sure that the following couple of hours spent at the Diamond dining table was not it!

It was the strangest meal Annie had ever been present at—and she didn’t mean food-wise; as usual Mrs Wilson, the cook, had provided an excellent meal; homemade pâté, followed by duck in a delicious orange sauce, with fresh fruit in port to finish. But for all the justice the Diamond family paid it, it might as well have been the beans on toast Annie had often enjoyed in the past as her own meal of the day!

The tension around the table was intolerable, felt by all, she was sure, except Jessica—a happy Jessica with her father seated at her side. And Rufus Diamond was the catalyst for everyone else’s tension—although for all the notice he took of it he might have been as unaware of it as his daughter.

Or so Annie thought...

Jessica was seated between the two of them, and Rufus had to lean forward to speak to Annie. ‘Enjoying yourself?’ he asked, still with that repressed humour.

She had been wishing the meal over, at least her own and Jessica’s part in it. The young girl usually retired to bed when the coffee and port stage was reached. Although that might be different tonight, as her father was here...

As for enjoying the meal...! Celia was at her most haughty, while Davina, a tall, elegant blonde, flirted shamelessly with Rufus at every opportunity, and Anthony—well, Anthony seemed lost in his own reverie, paying little attention to any of them. This Annie was relieved about; the last thing she wanted was to give Rufus any more ammunition to fire at herself and Anthony!

‘Very much, thank you,’ she returned primly.

He gave that wolfish grin at her politeness. ‘Liar!’ he rejoined quietly.

She met his gaze unflinchingly. ‘I was referring to the food, of course.’

Once again she was taken aback when he threw back his head and gave a throaty laugh of pure enjoyment, those lines she had noticed earlier beside his eyes and mouth proving to be laughter lines—evidence that this man laughed a lot. And she didn’t think it was always at other people; somehow she sensed that he had the ability to laugh at himself too. This man was an enigma, a chameleon, one moment distant and forbidding, the next full of humour. It could take a lifetime to know such a man—

Annie broke off her thoughts with a guilty glance in Anthony’s direction, once again affected by his good looks, the way he smiled across at her conspiratorially, almost as if he had sensed her confusion—although not, thank goodness, the reason for it. She doubted he would smile at her in that way if he realised exactly what she had been thinking about his brother!

‘Would you care to share the joke with us, Annie?’ Celia Diamond’s mildly arrogant voice broke in on her thoughts. ‘I’m sure we could all do with some light amusement,’ she added dryly—showing she was far from immune to the awkwardness of the evening.

But as she and the rest of the family, and the tension that existed between them with Rufus’s presence, were the subject of that light amusement Annie somehow didn’t think the other woman would be at all happy to share the joke!

Annie shot Rufus a look that clearly cried ‘help’—although, even knowing Rufus’s sense of humour as little as she did, she had a feeling he might just enjoy sitting back and watching her squirm!

‘It was just a little anecdote about Jessica that Annie wished to share with me.’ Thankfully, Rufus did come to her rescue. ‘Speaking of which,’ he added, with an affectionate wink at his daughter, ‘I think it’s time Jess went up to bed. No protests, young lady,’ he added with gentle reproof as he sensed that was exactly what she was about to give him. ‘You’re going to need plenty of sleep if you’re going to attempt to beat me at chess tomorrow.’

This was the first indication Annie had had that the child played chess; she seemed very young to have mastered such a complicated game. Nevertheless Annie had stood up to leave quickly enough herself at Rufus’s first suggestion of it; this evening couldn’t end quickly enough as far as she was concerned!