The Diamond Bride

CHAPTER THREE

‘THESE are excellent references.’ Rufus put the two letters he had just read down on the desk in front of him, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. ‘They must have been sorry to lose you at the kindergarten.’

It was a statement, not a question, Annie knew that—because Brenda Thompson, the person in charge of the kindergarten, had clearly said so in her letter of reference.

They were in Rufus Diamond’s study, a spacious room furnished with heavy mahogany furniture; it was next to the library, and Annie hadn’t even known it was here, let alone entered it before. Not that this particularly surprised her. Clifftop House was an enormous place, with two completely self-contained wings at either end of it. One housed the servants who lived in, the other appeared to be unused, and there were dozens of rooms that Annie had never been into.

Rufus had kissed his daughter goodnight once they were upstairs, leaving Annie to prepare the little girl for bed and informing her that he would see her downstairs in his study as soon as she had finished what she was doing. Annie had had to ask Jessica for directions to her father’s study.

As she sat across the desk from him now, it was as if those moments of humour between them earlier had never happened. She felt like one of the children at the home, hauled before Mrs James for some misdemeanour or other! Not that she ever had been. Keep your head down and stay out of trouble—that had been her motto. It had seemed to work quite well—

‘Excellent references,’ Rufus repeated slowly, the removal of his jacket and loosening of his bow-tie not making him look any more approachable. ‘But they actually tell me very little about you. Who are you? Where are your family? Are you likely to leave at a moment’s notice. too?’ he added grimly, obviously thinking of the absent Margaret. ‘I think I have a right to ask these questions; after all, you are in charge of my daughter on a day-to-day basis.’

Annie agreed with him, knew she would be the same if her own daughter’s welfare were at stake. And yet, from Rufus Diamond, these questions seemed an intrusion. It was totally illogical, but she found she didn’t want to tell him any more about herself than she had to.

‘I’m Annie Fletcher. And I’m your typical Orphan Annie,’ she added self-derisively. ‘I have no family that I’m aware of. And I wouldn’t leave here, or Jessica, without giving you a good reason—and time enough to find a replacement!’

His mouth twisted. ‘I believe Margaret told me the same thing.’

She shrugged. ‘You’ll have to take that up with Margaret; I never met her.’ Jessica had been without a nanny for almost a week when Annie had arrived two months ago. ‘All I can say is that I won’t do the same thing.’

‘Take it or leave it, hmm?’ Rufus said shrewdly.

‘I didn’t mean that at all,’ Annie defended quietly, hot colour in her cheeks. ‘Of course you don’t have to take it or leave it; you’re my employer, and you’re perfectly within your rights to want certain assurances. I seriously doubt I would ever choose to leave Jessica.’ Her expression softened as she spoke of the child.

Dark eyes assessed her questioningly. ‘You’re fond of my daughter?’

‘Very.’ She didn’t take offence at the question—not this one—although she felt sure there were plenty of others Rufus Diamond could and would ask that would be very offensive indeed!

‘And just how fond of my brother are you?’

That was one of them! It wasn’t altogether unexpected, though; she had known since the three of them met in the hallway earlier that Rufus would have to make some reference to it. She wasn’t disappointed!

‘I like all the family,’ she said evasively.

Rufus’s mouth thinned. ‘Even Celia?’ he queried. The other woman could be extremely haughty, and Annie knew now she considered her a servant. But at least Celia was honest about it, made no pretence of it being otherwise, and for the main part she had treated Annie fairly, if not exactly warmly.

‘Even Celia,’ she confirmed firmly.

Rufus gave a humourless grin. ‘Methinks the lady doth protest too much,’ he said smoothly.

‘Not at all,’ Annie protested indignantly. ‘Mrs Diamond has been very kind in her own way.’ She regretted adding the last comment almost as soon as she had said it, knowing she had given Rufus an opening she hadn’t meant to. She didn’t have to wait long!

“‘In her own way”,’ Rufus retorted. ‘I’ve known Celia since I was two years old—and I’ve never seen her be kind to anyone. Not without a damn good reason!’ He added cynically, ‘And nannies to my daughter do not come under that category.’

Annie wasn’t particularly interested in his scathing comments concerning Celia, had no intention of getting into any sort of in-depth conversation concerning the other woman. What did interest her was Rufus’s reference to knowing Celia since he was two years old... Of course, most children didn’t begin to learn things about their parents until they were a few years old, but in this case she didn’t think that was what was meant...

Rufus was watching her closely, well aware of her puzzlement, she was sure. The man seemed to miss nothing!

‘You really don’t know too much about this family, do you?’ he said slowly.

She knew she loved Jessica, that Celia lived her role as lady of the manor to perfection—and that Anthony was trapped in an engagement he shouldn’t be in! What else did she need to know?

‘Perhaps I should get back to my original question.’ Rufus spoke purposefully now, dark eyes watchful. ‘How well do you know Anthony?’

Not well enough, obviously. Because until this last weekend she hadn’t even realised he had a fiancée. He had been down for several weekend visits on his own, which was when Annie had found herself becoming attracted to his charm and good looks. It had been a shock—and a disappointment—when he had arrived on Saturday with Davina, to stay for a week. Then he had kissed her on Sunday... Now she was just confused about the whole thing.

‘I don’t,’ she answered honestly. Did you have to know a person well to be attracted to them?

Rufus was still watching her with those shrewdly assessing eyes. ‘In that case,’ he finally said harshly, ‘my advice to you is stay well away from him!’

She remained outwardly calm, but flinched inwardly at the force behind Rufus’s words. It had been obvious from the first that there was little love lost between the two brothers, and that the dislike was mutual. But once more Rufus Diamond was talking to her as if she were no older than Jessica. Maybe falling for the charm of a man who had turned out to be engaged to marry another woman wasn’t the most sensible thing she had ever done in her life, but, as Jessica had pointed out earlier, she was much older than her young charge—old enough to make her own mistakes, or otherwise!

‘Fatherly advice, Mr Diamond?’ she returned smartly.

His mouth tightened as her barb hit home. ‘I was only joking with Jessica earlier when I made that remark about your age.’ He easily guessed which comment of his she had taken exception to. ‘I also take back what I said down on the beach, about your being young and impressionable,’ he added at her bemused expression. ‘Young you may be, but you’re nobody’s fool.’

Annie drew in a sharp breath; she wasn’t so sure about that!

The fact remained that she hadn’t known about Anthony’s fiancée until Saturday, but even when she had found out she had still allowed him to kiss her. Wasn’t that foolish in the extreme, even if she did feel so deeply attracted to him?

‘Thank you,’ she accepted huskily, not quite able to meet the deep blue of Rufus’s gaze.

‘And whether my advice just now was fatherly or not,’ he continued briskly, ‘you would do well to take it!’

She bristled indignantly. Rufus had arrived here only a few short hours ago, and yet he seemed to have done nothing in that time but issue orders and upset people—mostly her! And, while she accepted he had a right to tell her what he required of her as far as Jessica was concerned, she did not welcome his interference in what she considered to be her private life!

Nevertheless, she chose her next words carefully. ‘You’re very kind, Mr Diamond—’

‘I’m no more kind than Celia,’ he cut in scathingly. ‘Anthony either, for that matter. In fact, we aren’t a very kind family,’ he concluded.

‘In that case, I’m surprised you leave—’ She broke off abruptly, warned by the sudden dark anger in his face that she would be overstepping the line with the observation she was about to make concerning Jessica. She looked up at him with wide, apprehensive eyes as he stood up forcefully, his size seeming to fill the room.

‘Not young and impressionable at all,’ he said with deliberation. ‘And for God’s sake take that scared-rabbit look off your face,’ he told her disgustedly, moving around the desk to perch on it in front of her. ‘I may not be kind, Annie, but by the same token I’ve never struck a woman in my life. And I don’t intend to start with you. Even if you do say the damnedest things,’ he added gratingly. ‘I leave Jessica here because there is nowhere else for her to go. Her mother is dead.’ It was a flat statement of fact, revealing none of his inner feelings concerning the loss. ‘And I can hardly take her with me when I go on an assignment!’

Annie could see the sense of that; she also knew that Jessica fared so much better than she had herself. Her own mother had died shortly after giving birth to her, and she had never even known who her father was, only the circumstances of her birth. Whereas Jessica obviously adored her father, for all his long absences.

Annie moistened her lips. ‘I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to criticise—’

‘Yes, you did,’ he said without rancour. ‘And I probably deserve it.’ He reached out to put his hand beneath her chin and gently raise her face so that she had no choice but to look directly into his. He didn’t look angry any more, his mouth curving into a smile. ‘You’ll do, Annie Fletcher,’ he told her huskily. ‘You love my daughter, that’s all the reference you need.’ He easily dismissed the two letters she had provided.

She was barely breathing, certainly not moving, very conscious of how very close they were, the deep cobalt-blue of his eyes so clear to her now—the only thing that was—as her gaze was held mesmerised by his, her face made immobile by the touch of his hand, his fingers warm against the softness of her throat.

She flicked her tongue over her lips again, colour warming her cheeks as she saw his eyes following the movement. She inwardly withdrew, then instantly moved back from the touch of his hand, gratefully drawing air into her lungs at the same time. What on earth was happening to her? She wasn’t that young and impressionable—so how, feeling the way she did about Anthony, had she also felt the pull of this man’s attraction?

She didn’t know herself under these circumstances. But she was sure that, even if the Diamond men weren’t kind, they were both possessed of an attractiveness she would be better off without!

‘Can I go now?’ she said abruptly, wishing he would move away from her—let her breathe a little!

Thankfully, he did, moving back behind the desk, although he didn’t sit down again, merely looked at her from beneath lowered lids. ‘No,’ he finally replied forcefully. ‘We haven’t talked about Jessica’s accident yet.’

Which was one of the things she was here to discuss; how could she have forgotten? This man, that was how; she was finding it difficult to keep up with his lightning changes of mood and conversation, knew she would look back on this time spent in his study with a feeling of exhaustion. She felt as if she had to constantly be on her guard, for one reason or another.

And the subject of Jessica’s accident was no different. She didn’t know how it had happened; one minute the little girl had been in the saddle, the next she had been on the ground. Annie was a novice rider herself; simply managing to stay seated in the saddle was a major feat! She had mastered just sitting on the back of the placid animal she had been given and letting the horse do all the work. She simply wasn’t experienced enough to give any sort of judgement on Jessica’s mishap.

That in itself would probably be a black mark against her in Rufus Diamond’s book!

‘Knowing how to ride a horse wasn’t something that was discussed when I came here for an interview,’ she told him defensively. ‘But it’s something Jessica loves to do, and as she can’t possibly go out on her own—’

‘You had to accompany her,’ Rufus surmised, his eyes suddenly alight with humour, a slight twitch to those sculptured lips. ‘Done much riding before, have you, Annie?’ He raised innocently questioning brows.

Too innocently. He was laughing at her again, damn him!

‘There wasn’t much call for it in the inner London Children’s home I was brought up in!’ she told him sharply.

The stark contrast between her own childhood and Jessica’s was apparent in that one blunt statement. There had never been too much spare cash at the home, certainly not enough to run to riding lessons. Even if she had wanted them. Which she hadn’t.

And after Jessica’s accident she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to sit on a horse again! Jessica had been riding most of her life, it seemed, and still she had been thrown.

‘So you meant it literally when you called yourself Orphan Annie?’ Rufus said.

‘Yes.’ She was on the defensive, unsure of the turn of the conversation. Again!

Rufus took his time, sitting down in the chair behind the desk, his face softening as he looked across its width at her. ‘In that case, I wouldn’t take the Diamond family as a typical example of the species,’ he drawled dryly. ‘It had some sense of normality before my father died six years ago; since then it’s deteriorated into anarchy,’ he said matter-of-factly. ‘A group of people who happen to share the same house but who can barely stand the sight of each other!’

‘Surely not?’ Annie gasped in dismay at the tragedy of such a thing. But hadn’t she seen it herself this evening, in the barely maintained civility over dinner? And at the time she had thought Rufus to be the catalyst; she couldn’t remember it having been quite as tense on other evenings when she and Jessica had joined in the evening meal.

‘Surely, yes,’ Rufus confirmed wryly. ‘And as no one else seems to have filled you in on the family history perhaps I should do so,’ he said wearily.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, already felt uncomfortable enough with the little she did know. ‘Is it relevant to Jessica that I know?’ She frowned.

His mouth tightened. ‘Before the weekend, I would have said no. Now I’m not so sure...’ He grimaced darkly, then shook off that mood as he smiled across at her. ‘Don’t look so worried,’ he chided, at her apprehensive expression. ‘As far as I’m aware, there is no history of axe murderers or serial killers in the family. At least, none that Celia would ever allow to be discussed! Appearances are everything to my dear stepmama,’ he told her wryly. ‘Although she wasn’t always so particular,’ he amended harshly, eyes cold with anger once again.

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