The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (50 page)

She looked away. My God he thought that mother of her
’s certainly did a number on her, she didn’t believe there was anything good or nice about herself. He said, ‘you said before that I was the second person since you’ve been here to tell you that you are innocent of the ways of the world, do you mind if I ask who the other jerk was?’

Her smile was forced and nervous. Ah he thought, so Desi had said that had she. She must have told her sorry tale and Miss. Soft Heart had been shocked senseless and Desi had told her she knew nothing of the evil that men do and Desi had obligingly opened her eyes for her. As he would soon enough.

She said, ‘oh, just someone I was chatting to in Alabama.’

‘Jonas Lando?’

She hesitated a second or two then said, ‘er, yes, that’s right.’ She silently asked Jonas Lando to forgive her for using him in that way.

Hennessey was thinking, oh but you’re a really, really bad liar, Miss. Faraday, so much for hating to deceive anyone.

‘Well he obviously knew less about you than you say I do.’

She looked sharply at him but said nothing and they walked on in silence for a while. They saw other couples on the beach, some laughing and chatting, some silently holding hands lost in each other. There was music coming from a little way down the beach where people were having a party of some kind, Adela could smell food cooking. Hennessey said, ‘they often have picnics here in the evening time, they sometimes go on into the early hours. They catch crawfish and other sea food and cook it there and eat and drink beer.’ 

She said, ‘does it get very busy here in the daytime.’

‘Oh yes, very.’

She was silent and he asked ‘why do you ask?’

‘Oh nothing really, it’s silly, it’s just that I’m not a big fan of crowds, they make me nervous.’

He had noticed that she had appeared nervous last evening at the bar when it had gotten very full and he knew now why she stayed in remote places like the cabins she had booked. He smiled inwardly, this was his opening. He said, ‘in that case maybe we should try somewhere else tomorrow, although it would be a shame to miss seeing Gulfport in all it’s glory.’

‘Yes it would,’ she answered a little awkwardly. ‘

He said, ‘maybe you’d be better off with old Dean Maxwell accompanying you here.’

Her head snapped back in surprise as though he’d just cursed at her, then she quickly looked away.

He walked on as though nothing was wrong then looked down at her bent head and laughed, ‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but tease.’

‘You’re a very mean man sometimes, Mr. Hennessey.’

He thought, you have no idea, Miss Faraday, but laughed and she asked, ‘so if not Dean Maxwell, who do you suggest I should invite to accompany me? Sheriff Taylor? Bob from the bar? Who would meet with your approval, Mr. Hennessey?’

He stopped walking and so did she; he gave her an infuriated look. 'There’s only one person I approve of, only one who I can trust with your safety,’

She said quite seriously, ‘Sheriff Taylor it is then.’

He said, ‘don’t push it, lady, don’t forget who’s driving you home.’

‘It’s only five miles.’

‘
Only
five miles huh?’

‘I’ve walked much further than that I’ll have you know, once I walked fifteen miles in one afternoon.’

‘What for?’

‘I was working.’

‘On the streets?’

‘Oh very funny. No, I delivered leaflets to people’s houses, to supplement my income.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes really, so you see five miles is nothing to me.’

‘Ah but you said in one afternoon, this is not afternoon, this is night time in a strange place, with all kinds of dangers, like coyotes and wolves, and, oh yes, panthers lurking in the shadows just waiting for unsuspecting, complacent foreigners to come walking by.’

‘Oh, I never thought of that.’

‘See, not so full of ourselves now are we.’

She bit her lip to keep from smili
ng at their banter. ‘So what do I have to do to make it up to you and to convince you not to drive home without me?’

He looked away and frowned then rubbed his chin as though thinking, ‘well, let me see, you could ask me nicely not to, then ask me even more nicely to come to Gulfport with you tomorrow.’

She pursed her lips and looked down highly amused before looking up and into his eyes., ‘please, Mr. Hennessey, would you be so kind as to drive me home tonight and not to leave me to the mercy of wild creatures and all sorts of other dangers?’

‘And?’

‘And also would you very kindly be my escort tomorrow on my trip to Gulfport. If you could see your way clear to doing both of those things, it would be very much appreciated.’

He stared hard at her, at her bright, amused eyes and her
slightly flushed cheeks, ‘that was indeed a very lovely plea, however, you failed in one area.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes, you failed to call me by my first name.’

‘Oh, I’m so sorry, I thought you would prefer a more formal request, but I consider myself chastised. So what do you say,
Sterling
?’

He
hesitated for a moment, ‘I would be honoured to fulfil both of your requests, Miss. Faraday.’

She didn’t rebuke him for calling
her
by her last name but chuckled, ‘you’re a lot of fun, Mr. Henne… Sterling.’

‘Fun?’ He admonished. ‘I’ve never been so serious in my life.’

She giggled, ‘sorry.’

‘Yeah, you look it.’ Then he too laughed but then he took her hand in his and said seriously, ‘it’s true what I said, I would be honoured to bring you back here tomorrow and show you the sights. But I’ll tell you if you had asked Maxwell to accompany you I would have gone into the woods caught that panther and put him in Maxwell’s bed.’

She stared at him knowing he was joking of course. But something in his eyes just at that moment made her think that he might well do something like that to anyone who angered him. Annie Bloom was right; there was something quite dangerous about Sterling Hennessey. But now looking at his smiling face she chastised herself for letting her imagination run away with her. She had been reading too many crime novels; maybe she should try historical novels for a while, or Mills and Boon. No, she would never be
that
desperate.

She said, ‘well, since I like Dean and don’t want to see him eaten, I’m glad I chose you, and thank you very much.’

‘You’re very welcome.’

She laughed and they walked back to Hennessey’s car.

When they arrived back at Adela’s cabin he took the key from her fingers and unlocked the door for her.

She thanked him and added
, ‘I’ve had a really wonderful time tonight. The food was lovely and the walk on the beach was the perfect way to end the evening, thank you for suggesting it.’

‘It was my pleasure. I’ve had a great time too.’

She smiled and he took her hand and put the key into her palm, he looked into her eyes as he closed her fingers over the key covering them with his own hand. She looked back with that same expression he had seen earlier when she thought he had been about to kiss her. He could hear her breath coming in short gasps. He leaned down as if to kiss her lips, then suddenly brought the hand he covered to his lips and kissed her fingers.

She felt that now familiar warm tingle and asked herself, if I feel this way when he kisses my fingers what would I feel if he ever kissed my lips. She pulled herself up sharply; she mustn’t think like that about him, he was obviously only interested in friendship, the kissing of her fingers instead of her lips proved that.

He said, ‘thank you for your company; I’ll see you tomorrow outside the bookstore at ten.’

She said somewhat hoarsely, ‘yes, thank you. Goodnight,
Sterling.’

Ah, goodnight,
Sterling
, she obviously wasn’t mad at him for only kissing her hand this time. Maybe because he had made a date with her for tomorrow. But she could not hide her disappointment that he hadn’t gone a little further than a kiss on the hand. He smiled inwardly to himself as he said ‘goodnight.’

He stayed where he was as she let herself in and closed the door he heard the key turn in the lock then the sound of the bolts being drawn across. He walked down the few steps to the path and made his way through the woods to his hotel, very satisfied with the evening, and with himself.

CHAPTER 19.

       Adela had slept intermittently, her mind had been too restless for sleep, she had been sifting through the evening’s events until the early hours. It seemed to her that since she had met Sterling Hennessey she had not had a single good night's sleep. Although Olivia was never very far from her thoughts also.

She had enjoyed the evening very much but she was unsure of his intentions, was it just friendship he wanted? But the things he said and the way he looked at her sometimes, like when he had said he was jealous of Dean Maxwell, and when he had leaned toward her as if to kiss her. She wondered what would have happened if she had not suddenly recalled what he had said about Dean Maxwell and got annoyed with him. Probably nothing, after all he had had the opportunity when they had said goodnight at the door, but instead he had opted for kissing her hand. And sometimes she caught a look of calculation in his eyes, as though he was asking himself questions about her and trying to figure something out, figure
her
out.

She had said more to him than she should have last night, she had talked about her mother and her alcoholism, had told him things she had never told anyone else. Maybe because no one had ever asked or even shown any interest in her life, but he seemed genuinely interested and sympathetic.

But she wasn’t as embarrassed about that as she was about the other things she had said, not least about never having done certain things. He had picked up on that and made what she was sure were suggestive comments.

She felt hot all over when she recalled that conversation. Had he guessed from what she had said that she was a virgin? No, he couldn’t possibly have put two and two together like that could he? Admitting that you’ve never frequented a restaurant before was hardly saying “hey I’m a virgin as well,” was it? And yet she had probably given herself away by getting all shy and coy. Oh gosh, she wished she didn’t have such an open, easy to read face. Her mother had taken advantage of that to hurt her, she hoped Sterling Hennessey would not use it to his advantage also.

But those things he had said about Dean, about him being a user and planning his conquest of her. She had to admit that he was probably right in that he knew men better than she did, he was one after all, a very handsome, sexy, charming, amusing man.

She smiled when she recalled what he had said about putting the panther in Dean’s bed, although she shouldn't have, she was as bad as
Sterling. Sterling, how she liked that name. The last thought in her head before she eventually managed to doze off somewhere in the early hours was that Sterling Hennessey had never once in all the time they had spent together called her by her first name, he had called her Adela Faraday but never just Adela. Funny.

Despite the lack of sleep she felt refreshed the next morning and looking forward to the day ahead, a day spent with Sterling Hennessey.

She showered and dressed in yellow shorts and a cream short sleeved blouse with yellow flowers around the hem. She hesitated on taking her bathing costume, they would be by the sea after all, but she had never been comfortable wearing one, even at the swimming pool. Her mother had said that she had a protruding stomach and big thighs that were very off putting to others, not to mention that she was bow legged too…which was actually untrue. In fact most of what her mother had said was untrue Adela just didn’t always realise it…but she did not want to be half naked in front of Sterling Hennessey. She didn’t realise then that the thought of wearing a costume in front of him disturbed her more than wearing one in front of a big crowd of people.

Today she left her backpack behind and picked up her beach bag, it was big enough for a towel, a bottle of water, her camera and binoculars, as well as the usual items she usually took with her on her days out.

When she was ready she donned her big straw hat, picked up her sunglasses and exited the cabin half expecting to see The Carters on their way out for the day but she didn’t. She saw no one in fact as she walked through the woods to the town. There she met a few people she had spoken to at the bar the other night and they stopped to ask how her vacation was going, and how much they had enjoyed her singing at the karaoke. All conversations ended with “Have yourself a nice day now,” she smiled and said she hoped they would too.

Dean’s shop was open for business and she went in making the door bell jingle. Dean came out of the back of the shop and smiled heartily when he saw Adela. He said, ‘hi there, I didn’t know whether you would make it or not.’

‘I said I would.’

‘Yes, you did, but I wasn’t sure if you might be otherwise engaged with that guy.’