A Man To Marry

‘Doubtful,’ Cat couldn’t resist snapping. ‘It’s hardly the sort of area that could have supported two such grand houses,’ she elaborated as he looked at her icily.

‘I’m a historian, Cat,’ Caleb Reynolds told her evenly, deliberately seeming to keep all emotion from his voice. Although his eyes were a different matter: hard, glacial, narrowed to icy slits as he looked steadily at Cat. ‘But I specialise in architecture. Perhaps only naturally with an architect as an ancestor,’ he added almost confrontationally.

Cat didn’t see what was ‘natural’ about it at all; her own father trained and bred horses, but she had always been—to her father’s dismay—terrified of them. They were beautiful and powerful to look at and admire from a distance, but completely unpredictable in close proximity, she had found. Exactly like Caleb Reynolds…

She brought her thoughts up short. Really! Caleb Reynolds might be powerful and attractive, but he certainly wasn’t beautiful! What on earth was she thinking of? Or maybe she just wasn’t thinking at all… And, around this man, that could be dangerous!

He certainly didn’t look like any historian she had ever seen, on television or in the newspapers, most of them old and fusty-looking, as if they belonged in the past with their textbooks!

‘In the circumstances, I quite understand your interest in this house.’ Kate had recovered enough to be able to take over their half of the conversation.

Which was perhaps as well; Cat, with her usual forthright manner, only seemed to be antagonising Caleb Reynolds! His knowledge of at least one past owner of the house was now more easily explained, although why he couldn’t have told them all of this yesterday was still a mystery…

‘And I’m sure, at some convenient time to all of us, that it could be arranged for you to look round the house,’ Kate continued politely. ‘Although, as I’m sure you appreciate, the house has been completely modernised over the years!’

‘We even have mains sewage nowadays!’ Cat put in sharply, ignoring Kate’s pained wince. Damn it, the man was the one asking them a favour, and a damned inconvenient one at that.

She wished now that it had been Toby at the front door earlier; she wouldn’t have had any trouble saying no to any ‘secrets’ he might have wanted to share!

‘I’m sure you do,’ Caleb drawled drily, one dark brow raised questioningly at her continued aggression. ‘And don’t worry, I wasn’t asking if I could look round right this minute,’ he turned to tell Kate charmingly. ‘I more than appreciate the fact that I’ve rather sprung this on you. I also realise that you have other considerations to take into account.’

Cat looked at him sharply, not fooled for a moment by that charm which he seemed to be able to turn on and off at will—it was usually off when he was talking to her! ‘What “other considerations”?’ she enquired warily.

‘The playschool, of course,’ he returned easily. ‘I appreciate I couldn’t just stroll about during the day when you have all the children in your care.’

She had news for him; he couldn’t ‘just stroll about’ their home when the children weren’t here, either! He really was the most—

‘There’s also Kate’s grandmother to consider,’ he continued evenly.

Stunned didn’t even begin to describe their silence this time—more like electric. This man, completely unknown to them until roughly thirty-six hours ago, knew far too much about their home and them; Cat was absolutely positive that neither she nor Kate had mentioned her grandmother to this man yesterday! But Cat’s earlier summing-up of this man still stood; getting information out of him that he didn’t want to give was like getting blood out of a stone. Though he had just spoken readily enough about his reason for being in the area, about his great-great-grandfather being the architect of this house, which was the reason he wanted to look round it, all that information had been volunteered—making Cat wonder exactly what it was he wasn’t saying!

Cat glanced across at Kate now, seeing all too easily how the colour had faded from her friend’s cheeks, the way she looked at Caleb Reynolds in fascinated horror. Once again like the snake and its victim!

‘Don’t tell me,’ Cat put in scornfully. ‘Lilley at the post office, again!’ She gave a derisive shake of her head. ‘Really, Caleb,’ she taunted. ‘I would never have taken you for the gossiping kind!’

He looked nonplussed. ‘I wasn’t aware that you had ‘taken’ me at all, Cat,’ he returned mockingly, satisfaction gleaming in his eyes at the way her cheeks suddenly burned. ‘But you’re right about the gossip,’ he continued before she could make any reply to his innuendo. ‘When I made my initial enquiries about Clive House I was told that a Miss Brady and a Miss Rourke lived here with Miss Brady’s grandmother.’

Innocent enough. It certainly wasn’t a secret that Kate’s grandmother lived here with them. It was just thoroughly disconcerting that this man should know so much about them! And not just from Lilley at the post office, either… So where had he got his information? And why? So far he had been very cagey about his reason for being in the area. And if he should turn out to be a reporter…! Cat had allowed one reporter too close to her once, no matter how unwittingly, and she wouldn’t let it happen again!

He looked at them both with assessing eyes. ‘I wasn’t aware I was saying something out of turn…?’

‘You didn’t,’ Kate answered him with a return of confidence. ‘Kitty—my grandmother—does live here with us. But she isn’t in the best of health, has few visitors, and goes out even less, and I would rather talk to her before you look round the house. I think you’ll be quite impressed when you see all of it,’ she assured him. ‘It’s really been very well looked after, with a lot of the original features kept in place—’

‘He doesn’t want to buy the house, Kate,’ Cat snapped. ‘Just look at it!’

‘I can see I’ve taken up enough of your time for one evening,’ Caleb put in sardonically, moving to the door. ‘So I’ll leave you all in peace.’

Peace? The man didn’t know the meaning of the word!

‘I’ll see you out.’ Kate followed him.

‘Cat.’ He paused at the door to nod abruptly in parting.

‘Mr Reynolds,’ she returned tersely.

She hadn’t moved when Kate returned to the sitting-room a few minutes later, looking up at her friend with bright green eyes. ‘He’s right,’ Cat told Kate fiercely, ‘I don’t like him!’ Her eyes flashed angrily.

‘He’s—unsettling,’ Kate acknowledged more cautiously.

‘Kate, the man is arrogant and condescending—and I don’t trust him one little bit!’

‘Let’s not get all of this out of proportion,’ Kate warned. ‘Admittedly I was a bit surprised when he said he would like to look round the house, but as his great-great-grandfather designed it—’

‘So he says!’ Cat snapped, scowling darkly. ‘Reynolds isn’t exactly an uncommon name, Kate,’ she pointed out scornfully as her friend looked at her questioningly. ‘And he mentioned nothing yesterday about his ancestor having designed this house, only came up with that idea today—when the name is engraved on the front of the house for all to see!’

Kate looked bewildered. ‘You don’t think Clive Reynolds was his great-great-grandfather…?’

‘I think it’s all just a little too much of a coincidence,’ Cat said firmly. ‘But I’m going to find out the truth,’ she added determinedly. ‘There are bound to be records, some way I can actually find out if he’s related to Clive Reynolds. In the meantime, I suggest we say nothing to Kitty about this. There’s no point in bothering her with it until we know for certain.’

‘I agree,’ Kate said slowly, momentarily closing her eyes. ‘Will it ever stop, do you think, Cat?’ she added wearily as the two of them strolled back out to the garden.

Cat squeezed her arm reassuringly. ‘Of course it will. We’ve all lived here in relative peace for the last few years; there’s no reason why that shouldn’t continue.’ Caleb Reynolds would be dealt with very firmly if he should turn out to be any other than what he claimed to be. She would see to that. And enjoy doing it, she realised.

‘Hello, darlings.’ Kitty beamed at them both; Kate’s grandmother, who supposedly wasn’t in the best of health, at this moment was down on her hands and knees as she weeded a flower bed!

In her early seventies, Kitty nevertheless looked years younger than that, shoulder-length blonde hair swept back from her face, her face relatively unlined by the years, her figure still youthfully slim as she stood up.

Despite the fact that she hadn’t performed in public for twenty-five years, she was still, to anyone who had admired and known her—as Caleb Reynolds obviously had!—instantly recognisable as the opera singer, Katherine Maitland!

CHAPTER THREE

‘HIS great-great-grandfather was Clive Reynolds,’ Cat announced crossly as she dropped down into one of the chairs placed around the kitchen table.

She had waited until the playschool closed for the day on Tuesday afternoon before going off in the car to the local library. What she had found there hadn’t cheered her up one little bit. She had been so sure there was something about Caleb Reynolds that didn’t ring true… But she was unable to refute his claim when it had been printed there in black and white!

‘That’s wonderful.’ Kate sighed her relief at the news. ‘You managed to find a book on Clive Reynolds, then?’

‘Er—not exactly.’ Cat grimaced. ‘I found a book on Caleb Reynolds,’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘Actually, it was a book he’s written on the history of English architecture, but it had some blurb about the author inside the cover.’ It had been accompanied by a picture of the author, a photograph obviously several years old, no grey visible at the temples in Caleb’s dark hair as there was now, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses making him look studious. As photographs went, Cat had decided, it was pretty uninspiring—and nothing of the man’s intensity in the flesh came through. ‘He apparently became interested in the subject of architecture because of his great-great-grandfather, the architect Clive Reynolds.’ She grudgingly made a direct quote from the personal information given about the author of the book.

Kate grinned her relief, that smile starting to slip as she saw Cat was still scowling. ‘But that’s good news, isn’t it?’

‘I still don’t trust him.’ Cat shook her head stubbornly.

‘You don’t like him,’ Kate corrected. ‘Don’t confuse dislike with distrust.’

‘Why would someone like him move—even temporarily—to a small village like this?’ Cat muttered thoughtfully. Because that information about him inside his book had also listed his qualifications and the achievements he had made in his field; the list of letters behind his name was staggering. Caleb wasn’t only intelligent, but obviously deeply respected in his chosen field…

‘He already explained all that,’ her friend protested at her continued belligerence. ‘He has some research to do at the museum in York, and he’s interested in seeing round this house,’ she reminded her. ‘Heavens, Cat, I don’t remember this reaction from you towards Toby when he moved into one of the cottages in the village almost a year ago!’ She gave Cat an impatient look.