Instant Father

An hour later Gavin’s car appeared. The sight brought Norah out of the hut, face pale and eyes flashing. “Find Peter something to do at the other end of the grounds,” she told Iris. “Make sure he doesn’t come near the house.”

Gavin went straight to his room. He was tired, hot, sticky and dispirited. Nothing was going as he’d planned, and the unfamiliar sensation of not being in control was playing havoc with his nerves. He stripped off and went into his bathroom, hoping that a shower would make him feel better. But no sooner had he stepped under the cool water than he heard the sound of his bedroom door being opened and then shut forcefully.

“Hunter.” He’d never heard Norah use that tone or that volume before, and it struck his ear disagreeably.

“I’m in here,” he called. “I’ll be out in a moment.”

Through the glass panel he could see her enter the bathroom. “I want you out now,” she snapped. “I have things to say.”

“Then you’ll have to wait until I’m ready,” he called back, affronted. “Please leave.”

“Not on your life. We have to talk. Hunter, I’m warning you, if you don’t get out, I’ll come in.”

Seeing her reach for the handle on the other side of the panel he grabbed his own handle and hung on. “What’s the matter with you, woman? Have you gone mad?” he yelled over the sound of the water.

“Oh, I’m mad, all right. You’ve no idea just how mad. But you’re going to find out. Now turn off that water and get out here.”

“Don’t give me orders,” he shouted.

“Hah! If I gave you what I’d like to give you, you’d be in the hospital for the rest of your days. Get out of the shower and face me like a man.”

Curiosity, as much as anything, made him yield. “Get out of my bathroom, and I’ll get out of the shower,” he yelled.

“And have you lock the door against me? Oh, no!”

“If you imagine I’m getting out like this, with you standing there, you delude yourself.”

“And if you imagine that the sight of your body would make me want to do anything except commit violence on it, you delude yourself. Here’s your robe. I’ll look the other way while you put it on.”

She averted her head and held the robe out behind her. Now seriously alarmed, Gavin opened the shower door very gingerly and took it from her. He put it on hurriedly, keeping his eyes on her back, which seemed to radiate fury. “I’m ready,” he said shortly.

She stood aside, refusing to leave first, so that he had to pass before her to get into the bedroom. “Aren’t you going rather over the top?” he demanded.

“I’m not taking any chances of you retreating into the bathroom and shutting me out.”

“No way. I want to know what this is all about. What gives you the right to march into my bedroom and start acting like a storm trooper? Time for explanations.”

“Right! But it’s going to be you doing the explaining. I had a phone call this morning. Or rather, you had a phone call, which I had to take. I really couldn’t blame the man for assuming I was your secretary. What else do I have to do?”

“Did you get me out of the shower to make an issue of this?” he demanded in outrage.

“I got you out of the shower to discuss Harry Elsemore and his plans for driving me out of this place,” Norah said emphatically.

At that moment Gavin became uncomfortably aware that the robe didn’t cover him very well. He instinctively clutched the edges together while he expelled his breath very slowly. It gave him time to think.

“He was very eloquent on the need to get rid of me to make it easier for you to raise money on this house. How dare you try to mortgage Strand House behind my back!”

“I’m trying to raise money on my half of it, which I have every right to do.”

“Not behind my back.”

“Why should I discuss my business affairs with you?”

“Because they affect my home-and it’s going to continue to be my home no matter what nasty little plans you and Elsemore cook up.”

Gavin cursed. This had all seemed so simple when he’d first planned it, and it was simple. It was just that Norah had the gift of making it sound underhanded, and he was furious with her for it. “Elsemore went too far,” he snapped. “I never asked him for suggestions to get you out, and I won’t listen to them.”

“Oh, come,” she scoffed, “surely if he comes up with a real beauty-”

“I tell you I won’t listen. I don’t do business Elsemore’s way-”

“Why on earth not?”

“Because he’s a crook,” Gavin snapped, realizing too late that he’d said something fatal.

He was right. Norah fell on this tidbit like a lioness devouring prey. “Oh-ho, so he’s a crook! But you do have dealings with him?”

“Long-distance dealings and only when necessary.”

“I wonder what sort of necessity puts you in cahoots with a crook.”

“I don’t like the expression ‘in cahoots with.’”

“Tough!”

“As for necessity…Look around you. How long can we go on like this? But the only way I plan to get you out is to buy you out.”

“Not in a million years! This place is perfect for the sanctuary, and I’m staying. I’ve told you that before, but you suffer from convenient deafness.”

“There are other places. You’ll have plenty of money with what I propose to pay you-”

“There is nowhere else like this, and I’m staying.”

“Look, Norah, don’t force me to play dirty.”

“I don’t believe what I’m hearing. You? Play dirty? Surely not.”

He flushed at her sarcasm. “You’re damned lucky I’m offering you money at all. Liz had no right to simply assign her half of Strand House to your father, and if I challenged you in the courts I’d rate my chance of overturning it as pretty good. That’s what I should have done at the start. But no, I made the mistake of trying to be fair. Well, this is my last offer. Sell to me for a reasonable price, and I’ll be fair to you. I’ll help you find somewhere else. I’ll even pay for the transport of the animals. I can’t do more than that.

“But if you insist on fighting me to the end, you’ll find out what real dirty play is. I’ll take you to court and have that gift declared null and void. Then I’ll turn you out without a penny. Now what’s the matter?”

He asked the last question in some alarm, because Norah’s expression had changed with disconcerting suddenness. The anger had vanished to be replaced by hilarity. “What’s so damned funny?” he demanded.

“You are. You and your illusions. Gift, my foot! There was no gift. My father bought Liz’s share of the house fair and square.”

He was taken aback by this, but only briefly. “Sure he did,” he said, recovering. “And I can imagine the kind of nominal price he paid. Probably one pound.”

She’d stopped laughing and was looking at him curiously. “No, it was rather more than a pound.”

“Ten pounds. Or did he rise to the stratospheric heights of a hundred?”

“It was more than a hundred.”

“So how much? C’mon, blow my mind.”

“As a matter of fact I don’t know the exact amount-”

“Ah-hah!”

“But I do know it was a generous sum, because I heard Liz say it was too much.”

“Well, she would say that, wouldn’t she, to save his pride? None of this scares me. I still think this was a gift disguised as a sale, and that means I can still get it set aside.”

“Then I suggest you try.” She moved toward his bedside telephone.

“What are you doing now?” he demanded sharply.

“Calling our lawyer to say you want to see him. Hallo, Angus? Can you come over tonight and bring all the papers connected with…”

Gavin waited, fuming, until she’d finished. “Thank you,” he snapped. “I could have called him myself.”