Deception (16 page)

Arriving
back at Drumlarig, she could have skipped for
joy to find that
Logan had left to pick Jamie up and also to make one or two calls in the
village. Martha told her they
wouldn't be home until about six.

Long
before then, Thea had her parcels unpacked and
put away. Martha,
happily chewing her way through a
large box of sweets Thea
had bought for her, didn't seem
to notice that Thea made
several journeys to and fro from
the car. By six, Thea
had a good meal ready, for once not
caring that Logan might
well wonder how she managed
to produce anything so splendid on
what he gave her.

She
wasn't foolish enough to hide everything. When
Jamie returned
she kissed him and showed him what she had got for the tree. Although Logan watched,
narrowed eyes glinting, he didn't pass a comment or ask any ques
tions.
His eyes might momentarily have been bleak, but
for once he raised
no objections when Jamie impulsively
hugged Thea, as he
shared her excitement. Their sparkling,
flushed young faces
seemed, if anything, to afford him
some small satisfaction.
After dinner, on which he con
gratulated her
enigmatically, he got up to go to the library,
but before he
went he stared at her intently for a few pulse-racing seconds, as closely as he
had done earlier in
the day.

Dizzy
from the apparent success of her shopping trip to
Fort
William, Thea felt she was riding on the crest of a
wave.
She had no idea that her luck was about to run out.
Next
morning, the day before Jamie's grandmother was
due to arrive, she iced the cake she
had baked the week before. Having been told by Martha that Mrs Murray always
brought Christmas puddings, she tactfully didn't try to make these. For one
thing she wasn't sure if she could have managed it, although she had seen them
made often enough.

She had also been told
that Christmas in Scotland wasn't usually celebrated as enthusiastically as it
was in England, but Logan did seem to be making some concessions. In the early
afternoon he brought in a tree, a rather beautiful one about eight feet in
height. Together, he and Thea erected it. It was difficult to decide where to
put it and at last they voted for the hall, where Thea thought it would give a
festive appearance to the whole house.

Thea, her cheeks hot
from exertion, was very conscious of Logan beside her. He was as taciturn as
ever, the cynical twist of his lips betraying, if silently, his inner
doubts over his own sanity, but .most of the time
he seemed
disposed to please her. Once their hands touched, which
brought their eyes leaping together and her heart began thudding. It was a
moment in time, a prelude to arms reaching out, mouths clinging, urgent with
desire. Yet the moment passed, as he shifted his position, as though it had
never happened.

Trembling and feeling
ashamed of herself, Thea said, 'I'll sweep up the mess, then Jamie and I will
begin decorating after tea.' She knew she spoke breathlessly, but she
couldn't help it. She didn't look at Logan.

'Would you like me to
go and get him again?'

It was so like the
kind of thing a man might offer to do for his busy wife at Christmas time that
Thea felt tears spring to the back of her eyes. To hide them, she smiled
quickly. 'Oh, no. It's good of you to offer, but I've an order I want to pick
up at the shop and there are a few things I forgot to put on it. I'll manage.'
 
   

He
smiled down at her. 'Thirty isn't so very old,' he
teased,
'but you seem to have retained a lot of your teenage
enthusiasm?'

Looking
away quickly, Thea floundered in her attempt
to divert him without
committing herself. 'Don't—don't
you like women of thirty, Mr Murray?'

Again
he grinned. 'I'm beginning to wonder, but don't
tempt me, Miss
Andrews. I'm certainly in no doubt about
women's tricks, no
matter what their age. And if I'm ever willing to appear taken in by any one of
you it's seldom on
my own doorstep.'

With
a small grimace, that she tried to make indifferent,
Thea
excused herself. That was plain enough, whichever
way one cared to look
at it!

If
it hadn't been for this exchange, which she had found
disturbing,
she wondered afterwards if she might have been
able to avoid the accident that
happened.

Driving
to the village from Drumlarig, the road twisted,
often tortuously,
but as there were few hedges the view was
seldom completely
obstructed. Once in the village, how
ever, the vista changed.
Several of the narrow roads leading
into it appeared to come
around completely blind corners,
on to the main street.
It was from out of one of these side
roads that another
motorist raced, just as Thea was ap
proaching.

As
she hadn't time to stop, she couldn't do anything to
avoid
a collision. Neither could the other driver. It was a
man
and he hit her side-on, on the side she was sitting.
With
the impact she was thrown straight across the front
seats,
while the Land Rover spun out of control. Fortu
nately,
perhaps, at that very spot was ajiigh hedge, against which the Land Rover
finished up drunkenly.

Thea
didn't know what happened immediately after this
as she was knocked
half unconscious. Hazily she became
aware of a lot of noise;
of men shouting, of engines being
switched off, of other
cars arriving. But when she tried to
move everything kept receding and going black.
She felt no pain. There was only an odd inability to pull herself together.

Then someone was
easing her carefully to a more comfortable position, while a man's voice
which she didn't recognise kept on insisting that the accident had been
entirely his fault. He seemed full of regret and would allow no one to touch
her until a doctor came. There was a certain kindness in his voice that Thea
found oddly comforting, even if she couldn't open her eyes to look at him.
She found it impossible to even tell them who she was, yet when Drumlarig was
mentioned, and Logan, she was filled with a vague alarm.

In another few minutes
the doctor arrived with Logan. Logan was furious and making no attempt to hide
it, though Thea wasn't sure who he was angry with. Anxiously, as the doctor
probed and a small groan escaped her, she tried to explain, but was told
sharply by Logan to shut up.

After Doctor Stewart
completed a brief examination and said it was all right to do so, Logan lifted
her gently, carrying her to the doctor's house, which was only a few yards
away. Carefully he laid her on the couch in the surgery, then brushed back her
tumbled hair with what to Thea seemed surprisingly tender fingers, before
leaving her, at Doctor Stewart's request, for a further examination.

Til be back,' she
heard him informing Doctor Stewart curtly, 'after I've given McLean a piece of
my mind!'

A short while later,
when she regained her senses completely, she was relieved to learn she was
suffering from littie more than concussion.

'You've had a slight
blow on the side of your head,' the doctor said. 'You've been very fortunate.
After a good night's rest you should be as good as new, but I'll take another
look at you in the morning.'
 
  

'I feel all right,'
she tried to get a better grip on herself, 'just a bit sick.'

'McLean ought to be
shot,' the doctor grunted, Thea thought to himself. 'One of these days he'll
kill somebody.' He mixed her something in a glass and passed it to her. 'This
will help.' He assisted her to drink it when she found it difficult to hold the
glass.

She didn't know who
McLean was, nor was she very interested. All she could think of, when she
managed to sit up, was Logan and Jamie. 'Jamie?' she gasped. 'I was on my way
to meet him!'

'That's been taken
care of,' Doctor Stewart assured her.

'Was Logan very mad?'
she whispered, sinking back again.

Doctor Stewart
actually smiled. 'I hardly think he would be with you, but I wouldn't be in
McLean's shoes for a fortune.'

'I don't expect he
meant to harm anyone,' she murmured absently, her eyes on the door. 'Where's
Lo—I mean Mr Murray now? I'd like to go home.'

'He's dealing with the
police. He'll be here shordy,' Irene Stewart spoke from the doorway, 'I'm
afraid he isn't very pleased. His Land Rover looks as if it might be out of
action for some time. Poor Logan!'

'Scarcely Miss
Andrews' fault, my dear.' The doctor's bushy brows drew together.

If Irene's chosen role
was that of Job's comforter, she cleverly disguised it. 'I'm only going by
appearances, Daddy,' she rejoined sweetly, casting Thea a mocking glance.
'Logan doesn't seem kindly disposed towards anybody, and I imagine this
goes for his housekeeper too.'

Thea felt the other
girl's spite, but was too weary to retaliate. Besides, what she said might be
quite true. In fact she was forced to agree when, a short while later, Logan
came for her. If she was sick and shaken, she felt worse when she saw his face.
It was positively thunderous. His
face was
grim, there was a white line running from his nose
to his mouth and she
could almost feel the effort he made to control the anger smouldering within
him.

Not able to find the
immediate self-possession to say much, she tried to mollify him, 'I'm sorry
about the Land Rover, Mr Murray.'

'That wasn't your
fault,' he acknowledged tersely.

Irene suggested
quickly, 'If Miss Andrews would like to rest a little longer, Logan, she'd be
very welcome. Perhaps you'd like a cup of tea?'

He thanked her but
refused. 'Jamie's waiting outside in the car, Irene. I'd rather get straight
back.'

Thea got to her feet
too quickly and swayed. Doctor Stewart steadied her. 'Perhaps you'd better
carry Miss Andrews, Logan.'

'She can walk.'

The doctor shot him a
puzzled glance but said nothing further. Thea's face was chalk white, he could
feel her shaking. He helped her to the car himself.

Logan opened the door
and slammed it behind her. When Jamie began unexpectedly to cry, he snapped at
him, 'That's enough of that, my lad. Miss Andrews will survive. Some people
have a remarkable talent for it.'

The street was silent,
no one in sight, as though Logan's anger had swept through them as well, scaring
away any curious spectators. Thea shuddered, suddenly as cold as ice. Something
was very wrong, she could feel it.

Jamie shrank in his
corner, clearly bewildered. Logan said nothing. Miss Andrews will survive the
accident but nothing else, his black silence seemed to say as he swung the car
around abruptly and started back to Drumlarig.

With the sharp turn,
Thea lost her precarious balance and fell against Jamie's seat. An audible sob
rising to her throat, she straightened with difficulty. Although she must be
responsible, in a way, for crippling his Land Rover, she
wouldn't have believed Logan could be so
unfeeling. Surely
his Land Rover wasn't that important? While she wasn't
ill or injured, she had had a fright and no matter how she tried she couldn't
pull herself together any faster. Having never been involved in a car accident
before, she had had no idea it could affect one like this. Tears, which she
couldn't seem ttTstop, ran down her cheeks. Jamie, his own eyes still brimming,
passed her his handkerchief.

'Thanks,' she breathed
noisily, taking it from him, an act which seemed to comfort him as much as it
did her. Logan's back was rigid and didn't relax all the way to Drumlarig.

On the paved
forefront, he slammed out of the car and disappeared into the house, while
Jamie stared after his infuriated father, as bewildered as Thea. Thea,
attempting to reassure the boy, got out of the car herself, promptly falling on
the muddy ground as her feet slid from under her.

'Can you help me,
Jamie?' She was sobbing in earnest now and could make no further attempt to
hide it. On top of the fright she had got, all her hopes and dreams had
collapsed and there was anguish in her heart.

Jamie, as though
determined to prove himself a man again, stopped whimpering and squared his
young shoulders. Gravely he took his handkerchief back and rubbed the dirt
from Thea's hands. 'Of course I'll help you,' he said.

'Just to my room,' she
said gratefully, as he kept a tight hold of her hand. 'If I rest for an hour or
two I'll be all right. Doctor Stewart said so.'

'Are you sure?' he
whispered anxiously.