Now and Forever (8 page)

“Punch? All right,” she said vaguely and followed Eileen dazedly to the refreshment table.

Fifteen minutes later, Nan Coleman told them that Russell had to leave suddenly and would be out of town for a few days. She softened the blow with an invitation to spend the night, and Tish, aching from his last attack, accepted it gratefully for herself and Eileen. She couldn't face the big, lonely house that night. It would be too easy to brood over the harsh, angry words he'd thrown at her.

 

It was a Saturday when Frank and Belle Tyler were flown in at the estate's landing strip, and Russell still hadn't called or come home. Tish went to meet them in the Mercedes, leaving Eileen at her usual place near the stables—and Gus.

Frank moved forward at the sight of her, his blond hair glistening like gold in the sunlight, to lift her high in his thin arms and place an enthusiastic kiss on her smiling mouth.

His dancing eyes looked down into hers. “Food to a starving man,” he teased, holding her away to nod approvingly at the revealing pale yellow sundress that clung affectionately to the soft curves of her body.

“I could almost believe you missed me,” she laughed. “Hello, Belle, it's good to see you.”

“Oh, same here,” the blonde said languidly, stretching her voluptuous body in its skin-tight red pantsuit. “So this is life in the raw! My God, it's like the end of the world, Lutecia, how do you bear it?!”

“There are compensations,” Tish murmured. “Would your pilot like to come to the house and have something to eat before he starts back?” she asked hospitably.

The middle-aged pilot shook his head. “Thanks, Miss, but I have to be in Atlanta two hours from now and I've got several stops. I'll put the bags in the car.”

“It was a nice flight,” Frank said with a grin, “but getting here's the best part. I'll need to borrow a car tomorrow, Tish, to check on Bright Meadows.”

“I'll run you over,” she said evasively, hating to admit that she couldn't turn over
any car to him without Russell's permission. Russell! A sharp twinge of pain tore through her mind. Russell and Lisa. Lisa and Russell. She fought the pain and turned back to Frank.

“You're tanner,” she teased, looking up at him.

“You're prettier.” He grinned. “Gosh, I'm glad you don't look like what most of us think of as farm girls, no jeans, no dirty hands, no lace-up shoes. I'd hate to see you looking like a backwoods hick.”

She bridled but held on to her temper. They were outsiders, she reminded herself. They didn't know the country as she did.

“Where's Russell?” Belle asked suddenly.

“Out of town for a few days,” Tish replied tightly.

“Oh, on business?” Belle persisted, her disappointment obvious.

Tish met her eyes levelly. “With a woman,” she corrected and had the malicious pleasure of seeing jealousy sweep into the blonde's sapphire-colored eyes.

“Is he engaged?” she asked.

“Not that I know of.”

Belle smiled smugly. “That's fine, then,” she said, implying that nothing short of a set marriage date would deter her.

Tish led them to the car, and all the way home she wondered which was the real danger, the faceless Lisa or the blond tigress in the back seat of the Mercedes. Either way, she thought miserably, it didn't affect her. After all, she was just a lovesick teenager hanging around Russell's neck like a chain. She'd have given anything to be able to forget those words. As it was, she couldn't forgive him for them.

The Tylers settled in, with cool politeness from Eileen and a strange dampening of spirits in Joby and Mattie. Tish could understand their dislike of Belle, who liked to sleep until noon and have a hot breakfast waiting when she dragged downstairs. But Frank was the perfect houseguest, drinking in the antiques and glassware and elegance of the towering house with an appreciation that lit up his whole face. He couldn't ask enough questions. And he had copies made of some of the fixtures to put in Bright Meadows.

Tish had been with him to the rustic old
brick house twice, and she was impressed with the renovation. It was going to be expensive, that was obvious. All the seals had to be replaced, the plumbing and wiring had to be redone. It was a nightmare of a repair job in every respect. But the expense didn't seem to bother Frank at all, he just smiled and nodded at the workmen, a far-away look in his soft eyes.

That Eileen didn't like him was patently obvious. She made excuses so flimsy they fell apart to keep out of his way. Her distaste for both of the family's houseguests was conspicuous.

“She'd like to have me fried for supper, have you noticed?” Frank asked Tish one day when they were riding in the woods behind Eileen and Gus.

She slowed her gentle mare beside his roan and sighed, watching the younger couple trot along ahead.

“I'll talk to her,” she said quietly.

“I hope you will, love,” Frank said matter-of-factly. “She's making our visit hell. Poor Belle's just about to blow sky high.”

She fought down her inclination to shove
him off the horse and smiled instead. “She isn't used to visitors,” she said.

“And that puts me in my place, doesn't it?” he asked with a tight smile.

“Frank, I didn't mean it that way….”

“Of course you did. It's all right, mother does it to me all the time, why shouldn't you?” He raised his head until his nose seemed out of mortal sight. “If you want us to leave, say so.”

“Of course I don't want you to leave,” she said, exasperated. “I'll talk to Eileen.”

“Well, if you insist. Let's ride down to the creek, all right? This is fun!”

She studied him, wondering absently how she could be so unaffected by his astounding good looks and his charm. It would have hurt his pride to know that she felt nothing except a vague irritation. Three days had passed, and she was aware of being both bored and increasingly angry in his company. At the beach, they seemed to have a lot in common. Now there was nothing. And he seemed to be more and more antagonistic. Russell wouldn't like that, she thought nervously.

As she thought of Russell, her eyes soft
ened involuntarily. And as she remembered, the pain came back. There was Lisa, after all.

“Race you to the creek!” Tish called impulsively to Frank.

“Race?” He laughed. “These beasts don't have seat belts, my love, and if I go much faster than this, I'll fall on my embarrassment.”

“Sorry. I forgot you haven't done much riding.” She slowed her pace, remembering how quick Russell always was to take up the challenge—and beat the reins off her in a fair race, even if she had the faster mount. His eyes would sparkle with it, and he was a pleasure to watch when he rode, so much a part of the horse that no motion he made was ever awkward or anything less than perfect….

“How's Angela?” she asked brightly and settled back in the saddle to listen.

 

It was almost dark when they got back to the house. They drove up at the front steps, and a strange sense of forboding made Tish's pulse run away when she noticed that
the den lights were on. That room was dark, always dark, except when
he
was home.

“You're shivering, love,” Frank remarked as they went up the steps, and he pulled her gently closer to his side. “What is it?”

“I forgot my sweater,” she lied, pressing against his thin body for comfort, for support. “I'm a little chilly.”

She stood back to let him open the door and, bracing herself, she went through it.

The hallway was brightly lit, but there was no activity. The den door was open, and with an audible sigh of relief, she noticed Belle Tyler's back at the entrance. She was just looking at the room, Tish thought giddily.

“Oh, there you are!” Belle laughed, turning, and there was a new brilliance in the heavy-lidded blue eyes.

Then, suddenly, Tish saw the reason. Russell moved into view at Belle's side, and she found herself looking up into eyes like polished mahogany. Her heart stopped. He was dressed in a pale brown suit with a cream silk shirt and patterned tie that set off his darkness, a masculine darkness that seemed
almost satanic combined with the hard set of his jaw and the black scowl over his eyes when he looked straight at her. There was an unfamiliar flame in his eyes that burned as his gaze swept over her.

She lifted her chin proudly, not forgetting for one instant those painful words he'd thrown at her before he left for Florida. “Welcome home, Russell,” she said in a coolly polite voice.

One corner of his mouth went up, but his eyes didn't smile. There were new lines in his face, too.

Belle caught his arm possessively. “I've been telling your brother how much we're enjoying our visit,” she told Tish. “I could just stay here forever!”

Tish felt herself burning, but she smiled. “We've enjoyed having you,” she said politely.

Belle ignored her. “Russell, you remember my brother, Frank?” she asked.

“I remember,” Russell said, and extended his hand to the younger man with an arrogance that wasn't lost on Tish. “How are you, son?”

Frank winced as he shook hands with
Russell. “Good to see you again, sir,” he said, making a lie of the words even as he spoke them.

“Same here.” Russell pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and bent his head to light it, his hair burning with a black sheen under the light of the hall chandelier. “How are your repairs coming along?”

“Slowly,” Frank told him. “The contractors have been slowed down on the outside work because of the rain. They're starting to catch up now.”

“So Belle told me,” he replied, with a wisp of a smile in the blonde's direction. “Where's Eileen?”

Tish's eyebrows went up. She hadn't thought about the young girl until right now.

“She went into town with Gus,” Belle said carelessly. “They were going to pick up a saddle.”

Russell's eyes jerked up, and they were angry. “I told her that she wasn't to leave this house without permission on a school night,” he reminded Tish. “It was your responsibility to see that she didn't.”

“She didn't bother to ask me,” Tish re
turned, locking her jaw for battle. “I have guests, Russell.”

“Which is supposed to be an answer?” he shot back.

Tish glared at him. “I can't be everywhere. Frank and I have been riding…”

“Please,” Belle broke in with a nervous laugh. “I…I told her to go ahead. I was sure you wouldn't mind. After all, she's seventeen,” she added on a gulp when she saw the fury in Russell's dark eyes turned on her.

“Just another teenager, hanging around your neck,” Tish said meaningfully, bitterly, and regretted it almost immediately when it brought his furious eyes shooting into hers.

“Careful, baby,” he said in a deceptively soft voice. “Remember what happened the last time you pushed too hard?”

She flushed uncomfortably and tore her eyes away.

The front door began to open slowly before she could answer him. A small, black head peeked around it and nervous, wide brown eyes surveyed the small group in the hall.

“Uh, hi!” Eileen called uncertainly, a
smile that didn't quite convince on her face. “Has…anyone been looking for me?”

“Get in here,” Russell said in the low, soft voice that indicated his fiery temper was barely leashed.

Eileen swallowed hard and came the rest of the way in, her hands folded in front of her as she approached him. “Russ, I can explain….”

“Please do.” He lifted the cigarette to his chiseled lips with one eye narrowing dangerously.

“Gus said he was going into town to pick up that saddle Grover ordered,” she said in a rush, “and he invited me along. Belle said…”

“Never mind what Belle said,” he replied curtly. “You were told not to go out at night when I wasn't home, weren't you, Eileen?”

“But it isn't dark yet.”

“It most certainly is.”

“Russ, I'm almost eighteen,” she wailed.

“So you remind me at every opportunity.”

“Will it help if I apologize?”

“Not a hell of a lot.” He took another draw from his cigarette. “I'll excuse you
this time because of Tish's company, but next time,” he added darkly, with a cool, dangerous smile, “I'll have your hide, or Gus's, or both. Do you understand?”

Eileen's eyes glazed with tears. “Yes, Russ.”

“All right. Now, come here and say hello properly.”

Pouting, she went to him. But he smiled and caught her up in his big arms, planting a brief, affectionate kiss on her lips, and she melted. Wrapping her thin arms around his waist, she let the tears come, and he held her until they stopped.

Tish bit back her own anger at the sight of brother and sister. It was always like that with Russell. He could be cruel when he was crossed, but the anger was always quick to come and go, and was always followed with kindness.