Dark Obsession (19 page)

‘I’ve decided to have a dinner party on Saturday week,’ continued Marina, suddenly worried that her most important guest wouldn’t be free. ‘There should be twenty or so people; you will come, won’t you?’

‘I’d be delighted. Is it your birthday?’

She smiled mischievously. ‘No, but perhaps it’s my coming-out party!’

‘Then I most definitely won’t miss it. I’m sorry, Marina, but I think I can hear the phone. I must go now. I’ll see you Friday afternoon.’

As he strode away from her, Marina strained to see if she could hear the phone, but she couldn’t and for a moment she wondered if he’d been trying to get rid of her. Dismissing her fears as paranoia she began to walk slowly up the hill to Leyton Hall, brushing hay from her skirt as she went.

Back inside the Old Mill, Sir Matthew picked up his phone and dialled Leyton Hall. He’d begun to think that Marina was never going to leave. Crispian answered.

‘You’re lucky you caught me, I’m on my way to see the dreaded Amanda!’ he laughed.

‘Sorry, had a surprise visitor. What did you want to speak to me about?’

‘The thing is, my stepmother’s having a dinner party Saturday week, I expect she’ll tell you about it soon, and Tania and I were wondering if you’d be interested in some late-night party games, once the proper evening’s officially over that is.’

Matthew hesitated. ‘What kind of party games?’

‘Pretty original ones. I promise you won’t be bored.’

‘Will there only be the three of us?’

‘Good lord, no! Annabel will certainly join us, and my friend Luke could probably be persuaded to bring his girlfriend too. She’s amazing, really athletic.’

It was the mention of Annabel’s name that decided things for Matthew. He was enjoying himself with Marina Corbett-Wynne, but knew that once he’d persuaded her to lose all her inhibitions and she was totally enslaved then he’d get bored. He wasn’t proud of the fact, but it was the way he was. Annabel had seemed to him at their only meeting so far to be an altogether more experienced young woman who would be a partner rather than a pupil.

‘Sounds like fun. Does your father take part?’

Crispian was clearly amused. ‘Not in our games; he has plenty of his own, but they’re for people with very specialised tastes.’

‘Why did you decide to invite me to your private party?’ asked Matthew.

‘Two reasons, really. One is that if my stepmother finds you attractive, and you might be surprised to know that she does, then you must have something special, and two, Annabel likes you.’

‘How do you know?’

‘How does a man ever know? If you hadn’t been busy with Step-mama you’d have seen for yourself the other evening. Not that she’s been pining away here in your absence.’

Matthew’s mouth went dry at the thought of what Annabel and Crispian might be doing at Leyton Hall. ‘I’m not sure you’re right about your stepmother,’ he said
carefully
, ‘but hopefully you are about Annabel. Now I have to go, bye.’

Putting the receiver down carefully he stared out of the window. He’d been afraid that life in Wiltshire might be boring. It seemed his fears had been unfounded.

Chapter Eight

THAT AFTERNOON, FRESHLY
bathed and wearing tan jodhpurs and a white silk blouse, Lady Corbett-Wynne made her way to the stable block looking for her riding instructor. She stopped a passing girl groom. ‘Where’s Jerry?’ she demanded, her voice more imperious than usual because of her tension.

‘I’ll fetch him, your ladyship,’ said the girl, walking away with a pronounced wriggle of her rounded hips. She returned a few minutes later with a man in his mid-thirties whose blue-black hair was far too long and whose dark blue eyes swept over Marina’s body in what she considered to be a highly insolent manner.

‘I believe my husband spoke to you about riding lessons for me,’ she said shortly.

He smiled, showing very white but slightly uneven teeth. His skin was so dark Marina wondered if he had gypsy blood in him. ‘He did.’

‘Well, I’d like a lesson now.’

‘I’m busy now,’ he responded curtly.

‘Doing what?’ enquired Marina.

He shrugged. ‘This and that.’

‘Well, this and that can wait; I cannot.’

It looked as though he was about to argue, but then he seemed to change his mind and with a small sigh he nodded. ‘As you like. How long since you rode?’

‘Twelve years.’

‘Why did you stop?’

‘I had a bad fall.’

He pulled a face. ‘You should have got back on straight away.’

‘I’d broken my collarbone.’

‘I’ve ridden with a broken collarbone before now,’ he said in a bored voice.

‘I didn’t come here for a lecture,’ said Marina, her voice chilly. ‘A lesson is all that I require from you.’

Jerry’s initial annoyance was beginning to ebb away as he realised exactly how nervous Lady Corbett-Wynne was. Although her voice was steady and controlled her hands were clenched into tight fists and her skin was pale despite the light covering of make-up.

‘As it’s so long since you rode, I think you’d be better off just leading one of the horses round today, getting used to being near one again,’ he said casually, walking towards Betsy’s stall. She was easily the most placid animal Lord Corbett-Wynne owned, and so lazy that she was affronted when asked to break into anything faster than an easy trot.

She was also one of the smallest horses, and Marina gave an inward sigh of relief as the fair-haired girl she’d spoken to earlier brought her out of her stall. ‘Thanks, Sandra,’ said Jerry, and the girl gave him a knowing smile from beneath lowered lids.

‘She loves apples,’ said Jerry as Marina stood rooted to the spot looking at the animal. ‘Here, put this on the palm of your hand and feed her. She’ll follow you anywhere after that.’

‘Perhaps you should try blowing in her ear,’ called a light, clear voice from the other side of the stable yard.
Marina
spun round on her heel to see her daughter advancing towards them.

‘Blow in her ear?’ she said in bewilderment.

‘That’s what Jerry does to the girl grooms, and then they follow him anywhere. Isn’t that right, Jerry?’

He looked at her challenging expression, recalled the feel of her velvet skin beneath his hands and the amazing collection of sex toys she’d used during their one and only encounter and decided to play dumb. ‘I wouldn’t know,’ he said coldly.

‘Surely all those stories about you aren’t exaggerated?’

‘It depends on what the stories say. If you’ll mind the way now, I’m giving your mother a lesson.’

‘Well, that should certainly be interesting!’ drawled Tania. ‘My stepfather likes the grooms, so my mother goes to the stable manager for lessons!’

Jerry took hold of Betsy’s reins and walked the horse so close to Tania that she had to step backwards. ‘Look where you’re going!’ she said furiously. He caught the scent of her distinctive perfume and had a fleeting vision of the way her legs had wrapped themselves around his waist when he’d taken her standing up against the foot of her bed, but then a small sound from Lady Corbett-Wynne brought him back to the present.

‘Do you really want spectators?’ he asked her softly.

Marina bit her bottom lip. ‘I most certainly do not. Tania, please go away.’

‘Why are you bothering to learn?’ asked her daughter, intrigued at the sight of her mother, clearly apprehensive but apparently determined to go through with it all, even the humiliation of leading a horse that any child could ride.

‘Because I want to,’ her mother said firmly.

‘I suppose it’s all Sir Matthew’s doing,’ laughed Tania. ‘He must have something special if he can get you out here. You used to say that you’d rather die than get on a horse.’

‘I’ve changed my mind. Now go away,’ said her mother, anger beginning to take the edge off her nerves.

‘I only came over to tell you that Annabel’s gone off with Crispian into town,’ said Tania. ‘I hope you’re not being taken for a ride by her.’

‘No one will get taken for a ride if you don’t leave,’ said Jerry, irritated beyond his limit by the auburn-haired girl’s presence.

‘I’m going,’ Tania assured him, and with the lightest of touches on his arm she walked away.

After a good ten minutes walking Betsy, Marina found that she was no longer stiff with terror; in fact she actually wanted to get on the horse’s back. ‘I think I could try and sit on her now,’ she told the impassive Jerry, who seemed to have no small talk at all.

Jerry, who took in a great deal more than people realised, had been watching his new pupil closely and had come to the same conclusion. ‘Fine,’ he agreed amicably. ‘I’ll help you up.’ Lacing his hands together he waited for her to use this to help her mount.

As she slipped her foot into his hands Marina remembered the way her sandals had fallen off her feet that morning and the memory of her behaviour then brought the colour into her cheeks. ‘Don’t worry, it’s easy,’ Jerry assured her, thinking it was fear causing her to flush. Once she was in the saddle he adjusted the stirrups and pressed the back of her spine to make her sit straighter. ‘You need to keep your weight well balanced, makes life easier for the horse and you!’ he said with a smile.

Marina sat straight, her thighs gripping the sides of the horse, and when Jerry came round to the horse’s head and started to adjust her over-tight grip on the reins she couldn’t help noticing how gentle he was, and yet there was a tightly controlled strength about him that was highly arousing.

Shocked at her thoughts she tried to concentrate on the lesson. It was bad enough to be obsessed with Matthew
Stevens
, but to find herself lusting after her husband’s stable manager was more than she could stomach. She wondered if she was going mad.

The rest of the lesson went well, but to her horror Marina found that she was becoming more and more aware of Jerry. When he praised her and his dark-blue eyes smiled into hers she felt a flutter in her stomach, and every time he ran his fingers through his mop of dark hair her throat went dry as she pictured herself running her own fingers through it in passion.

By the time he helped her down, his hands firm around her waist, she was exhausted, but more by her thoughts than by the actual ride. ‘Thank you,’ she muttered, her voice far less assured than when they’d begun. ‘Perhaps we could continue another day?’

‘Tomorrow afternoon, same time?’ he suggested.

‘That will be excellent,’ replied Marina, who walked away at a leisurely pace until she was out of sight.

After that she almost ran into the house and up to her rooms where, to the astonishment of her maid, she took another bath and then lay on her bed trying to rest. Images of herself and Matthew together fought with images of herself doing the same things, but this time with the younger man’s brown, work-roughened hands on her body.

Jerry handed the horse back to Sandra and went into his office. He’d been strangely disturbed by the lesson. From all that he’d heard he’d expected Lady Corbett-Wynne to be a sharp-tongued, dried-up stick of a woman but in reality he’d found her slender fine-boned beauty very desirable, more so than her over-ripe daughter, with her obvious charms.

‘Not for you, Jerry,’ he told himself firmly as he settled down to the accounts. ‘Keep your mind on your work and you’ll stay out of trouble.’

Crispian had taken Annabel into town so that she could look at the fabrics in one of the large department stores,
hoping
for inspiration to strike. Clearly she had to lighten the dining room, but white wood still seemed a heavy price to pay for three weeks’ sexual pleasure and she was trying hard to discover a compromise. When she rejoined Crispian for the drive back he looked unusually dispirited.

‘Something wrong?’ she asked curiously.

‘I invited Amanda to this dinner we’re having and she accepted,’ he said gloomily.

‘Did you expect her to refuse?’

‘Yes, I damned well did! She never goes anywhere at night except out to the piggery. What a mess. Now I’ll have to entertain her all through dinner and play the attentive suitor.’

‘If you’re not serious about her, isn’t it all rather a waste of time?’ asked Annabel.

Crispian scowled. ‘Yes, but it’s the only way I can keep Papa happy.’

‘He’s not going to stay happy for long. Surely in the end you’ll either have to ask this Amanda to marry you, or give her up.’

‘No, in the end she’ll get tired of waiting for me to ask her and that will be the end of it. I’ll then feign a broken heart, which should be good for a few months. After that I’ll start again with someone else.’

‘Aren’t you ever going to marry?’ asked Annabel.

Crispian shot a sideways glance at her. ‘How can I? I’m obsessed with Tania. She’s the only woman I really want but because she hasn’t any money, and our parents imagine we should think of each other as brother and sister, I can’t have her.’

‘How could your father stop you?’

‘He wouldn’t
stop
me, Annie; the point is that without a fresh injection of money my marriage to Tania would effectively lose us Leyton Hall.’

‘Does that worry you?’

He thought for a moment. ‘I suppose it does. After all,
some
of my ancestors worked damned hard to get it. I’d be letting the side down if I threw it away.’

‘Then you’ll have to hope you meet someone you like as much as you like Tania,’ said Annabel.

‘You’ve no idea what you’re saying,’ Crispian retorted coldly. ‘We’re perfect together; no other woman would enjoy the things we enjoy doing. Even if I wanted to break free I couldn’t. She’s like a sorceress and I’m caught in her spell!’

Annabel understood what he was saying. She could imagine only too well the long, erotic hours that the pair of them must have passed together over the years as they explored their sexuality, gradually discovering how well they were matched.

‘You never know; Tania can’t be unique,’ she said, trying to offer him some kind of comfort because she didn’t like seeing him so depressed.

Crispian braked hard as they approached a sharp bend in the road and Annabel was thrown against his arm. ‘No,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘I used to think she was, but since I’ve met you I’m not so sure. How would you fancy being Lady of the Manor, Annabel? Think what fun the three of us could have.’