felt shrivelled at the thought.
Lord Richard Kestrel was chatting to Lady Sally, and Olivia and Deborah had wandered out on to the terrace to take tea, so Rachel took the opportunity to slip outside. She could feel her headache worsening and hoped that the fresher air might make it better.
The gardens at Saltires were small but beautifully tended, for Lady Sally, in company with her friend Olivia Marney, was a keen amateur gardener. Rachel wandered towards the small ornamental lake, but swiftly retraced her steps when she realised that Mr Caspar Lang was sitting by the gazebo, having his portrait painted for the watercolour book. Rachel had no wish to be caught watching. Mr Lang had quite a good enough opinion of himself as it was, without her adding to it.
It was as she was coming back through the rose arch that Cory stepped directly on to the path in front of her. Rachel had thought herself quite composed by now and was intending to take her place at the tea table in a cool and rational manner, but now such thoughts flew from her head. Perhaps it was the suddenness of Cory’s appearance, or perhaps the fact that she had been thinking about him on and off-with rather more on than off-for the past fourteen hours. Whatever the reason, she gasped and coloured up like the most impressionable of debutantes. Cory eyed her blush with interest, which just seemed to make it worse.
‘Whatever is the matter with you, Rae?’ he remarked softly. ‘You look rather guilty. What were you doing- running away?’
Rachel, unforgivably, vented her irritation by snapping one of Lady Sally’s prize roses off the arch.
‘Of course I was not running away! Why should I wish to do that?’
‘I have no notion,’ Cory said, driving his hands into his pockets. ‘I merely thought that you had been acting strangely, dashing off before I could speak to you.’
‘I was not aware that you had noticed,’ Rachel said, before she could stop herself. ‘You were far too occupied.’
She saw the humour deepen in Cory’s eyes and was vexed with herself.
‘I see,’ he said.
‘I doubt that you do,’ Rachel said. ‘If you choose to flirt with Lady Benedict, then it is no concern of mine.’
‘Of course not,’ Cory said soothingly.
‘I don’t care!’ Rachel said childishly.
‘I know that you don’t,’ Cory agreed.
Rachel stared at him, frowning. She was not quite sure why this unsatisfactory exchange made her feel worse, but it did. It reminded her strongly of childhood squabbles, but with an added element of adult friction that she could not quite explain.
‘Why are you agreeing with me?’ she demanded.
‘Because I thought it would put you in a better temper,’ Cory responded.
Rachel repressed the urge to stamp her foot. ‘Well, don’t!’
‘You are very cross today,’ Cory observed.
‘Congratulations on your perspicacity. Of course I am cross.’ Rachel pulled the head off the rosebud and tossed it aside, wincing as the thorn caught her thumb. ‘I have the headache and you are deliberately setting out to provoke me, just as you did last night.’
There was a pause that suddenly seemed heavy with unspoken meaning. The whole tone of the encounter changed in an instant.
‘I do not suppose,’ Cory said, moving closer, ‘that you slept very well last night, Rae.’
Rachel looked up and met the question in his eyes. Her heart skipped a beat. Last night they had been playing games, but she had no intention of doing so again. It had been far too disturbing. What had set out as a plan to teach Cory a lesson had almost ended in her own downfall. She had nearly succumbed to his skilful seduction.
She deliberately moved away. ‘Why should you think that?’ she asked coolly.
Cory followed her. ‘Because I did not,’ he said.
‘So?’ Rachel raised her brows. ‘I cannot see the connection.’
Cory gave her a keen glance. ‘Then let me construe for you. I did not sleep well because I was thinking of you. And you, I suspect, did not sleep well because you were thinking of me.’
Rachel turned her shoulder. Her heart was beating with quick, light strokes. ‘You are quite mistaken. And odiously arrogant! My inability to sleep last night had nothing to do with you. I was scarcely lying awake troubled by dreams of you!’
‘Really?’ Cory drawled. ‘Then why mention it?’
‘Mention what?’
Cory smiled infuriatingly. ‘Those troublesome dreams, Rae.’
Rachel thinned her lips. ‘Take a grip on yourself, Cory! We are not all of us fainting at your feet. As for your own insomnia, I cannot be held responsible for that either.’
‘I hold you directly responsible,’ Cory said, still smiling.
There was another loaded silence.
‘You should take a cold dip in the river,’ Rachel said. ‘That would cure your difficulties-and your pretensions.’
‘Thank you for the suggestion,’ Cory said calmly. ‘I cannot but remember what happened the last time that I went for a swim.’
Rachel could remember too, in vivid detail. She struggled against the memory. ‘Then if cold water does not work, perhaps I could administer a knock on the head,’ she said sweetly. ‘It would be my pleasure. You will sleep like a baby after that.’
Cory started to laugh. ‘You are fighting hard, Rae.’
‘Against your conceit!’ Rachel spun away through the arch. ‘It is a difficult job, but someone has to undertake it.’
She could hear his footsteps following her along the gravel path. ‘I do not believe that you were so indifferent to me last night in the stables,’ Cory said, ‘whatever you claimed.’
Rachel swung around to confront him. ‘You were playing games last night, so I thought that I would do too,’ she said coolly. ‘But I am tired of that now. Go away and play with Lady Benedict instead. She appreciates these things far more than I do.’
There was a pause and then Cory laughed. ‘Very well, I concede-for now,’ he said. ‘Friends?’
‘Just that,’ Rachel said. She held her hand out to shake on it. It was a mistake. The moment his hand touched hers, something akin to a shiver ran all the way along her nerves. She saw Cory’s eyes narrow on her face, as though he were reading her mind. He rubbed his thumb over the palm of her hand, making the shivers worse.
‘You have cut yourself,’ he remarked, moving the lace edge of her cuff to one side and exposing the pale skin of her inner arm. ‘How did that happen?’
‘It is nothing.’ Rachel pulled her hand away from his and tugged her sleeve down a little self-consciously. His gesture had made her feel naked. ‘I cut myself on the jagged edge of a pot when I was helping Mama wash the artefacts this morning.’
Cory was looking thoughtfully at the scratch. ‘You should be more careful.’
‘I am not care
‘No, thank you,’ Cory said, ‘I cannot bear so insipid a beverage.’
‘Then I will leave you to take your dip in the river,’ Rachel said. ‘Pray take care that no one sees you, though. Not everyone has as strong a constitution as I. The shock might be too much for them.’
‘Will you be walking home that way?’ Cory enquired with a grin.
‘Certainly not,’ Rachel said. ‘I shall take the other footpath. I would not like to repeat that experience.’
Cory put his hand on her arm. ‘Should you not?’ he challenged.
‘It seems to me,’ Rachel said, ‘that you are so entirely in love with yourself that you need no one else’s admiration, Cory.’
Cory did not say anything but he let his gaze rest on her in a manner that contradicted her most effectively, and Rachel, who had sworn that she had put the matter to rest, found herself coming out with the one thing to which she required an answer.
