Yeah, right. He glanced down again at the linking of his large hand with the tiny one of his little cousin and he knew he was doing no such thing. He’d stay here today. He wouldn’t go near Tammy, though. Hell, a man had some pride and if she thought…
She thought nothing. She wanted nothing from him. She didn’t dress to attract. He’d seen her dressed to kill, but that had only been to stop Ingrid treating her as a poor relation. When Marc was around she didn’t care what she wore.
Had she even noticed that he was a man?
Of course she had. When he’d kissed her she’d kissed him right back.
The memory of those kisses was enough to make him groan and shove a pillow over his head. Hell, he didn’t respond like that to women. He didn’t.
He’d care for Henry today, and at dinner tonight he’d have it out with Tammy. They had to sort out some sort of sensible arrangement. She must agree to take on Henry’s permanent care.
He had to get out of here before he went nuts.
The day seemed endless. More than once Marc looked longingly at the housekeeping bell, but something held him back. Maybe it was the way Henry clung to him. Maybe it was the way the baby chortled when he tried to make him laugh, or maybe it was the thought of Tammy’s scorn if she returned to the house and found Henry handed over to the servants.
It wasn’t just Tammy, he conceded as the day wore on. It was the thought of Henry’s distress. The baby had somehow crept around his heart, and he didn’t have a clue what to do with how he was feeling.
He’d care for Henry today, but tonight he’d hand him over to Tammy and escape, he thought. Immediately! The way he figured it, if this was how he felt then Tammy must feel the same. He’d call her bluff. If he found it hard to dump Henry with the servants, then Tammy would find it impossible.
All it needed was his departure. So…he’d stick around until dinnertime tonight and then he’d go.
It was a really long day.
Tammy didn’t return to the house for lunch. She’d taken a packed lunch, Mrs Burchett told him, and the compulsion to carry Henry down through the beech grove to see what she was doing became almost overwhelming.
He did take Henry outdoors. The baby loved the garden, and to his own astonishment Marc found himself wandering round talking to the little boy as if he could really understand.
‘This is what you’ll inherit one day, Henry. Your responsibility. And your pleasure.’
And there
Tammy would do wonders with this place.
His steps turned involuntarily towards the beech grove. ‘Your Aunty Tammy is just through here…’
But he stopped himself-somehow. They’d lead different lives, Tammy had decreed, and he could only agree with her. He must.
So instead of taking Henry to see his aunty wielding a chainsaw he forced his steps back to the house. A couple of storybooks later and a good dinner and Henry was asleep. Finally.
Maybe he could leave now.
It was five o’clock. Henry was deeply asleep. Tammy had agreed to take over his care from seven o’clock, and it’d be a miracle if Henry woke before then. Mrs Burchett could easily and safely keep an eye on him. He could just walk out the door right now and drive away and that would be that.
But his laptop was still set up with his work on it, and it was sort of easier just to sit next to his big bed where Henry lay sleeping and make plans for a proper irrigation system-one where the pipes didn’t go up the mountain-and keep an eye on Henry as well. After all, if he woke…
Or he could just watch him and think about Tammy…
And then it was too late. ‘Dinner’s in ten minutes,’ Dominic told him. ‘Miss Tammy’s in the front salon. I’ve lit the fire.’
It sounded really good to him, and walking away now would be boorish. Wouldn’t it?
Tammy was in jeans.
Marc had dressed as he normally dressed for dinner in any of the royal residences-in a dark suit and tie-and her appearance by the fire set him aback. Maybe he’d grown accustomed to her in her sister’s gorgeous dresses. The jeans she was wearing were clean and fresh, but still they jarred.
‘I’m not a princess,’ she said, jutting her chin as he paused in the doorway and he thought, How the hell did she know what I was thinking?
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘You were thinking I should have dressed appropriately. I have.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘I think you do.’ She was eyeing him cautiously, noting the dark shadows under his eyes. ‘You didn’t go back to sleep, huh?’
He was thrown completely off balance. ‘After you left…?’
‘You need to sleep when you can with babies,’ she advised him kindly. ‘You can catch up tomorrow, but after that you might like to readjust your schedule.’
‘Look, Tammy-’
‘Shall we eat?’
‘No!’ It was almost an expletive. He crossed the three steps between them and gripped her shoulders, forcing her to meet his eyes. He had to make her see. ‘This plan of yours is crazy.’
‘Why is it crazy?’ Maybe he’d intended her to be thrown off balance by his nearness-by his gripping her like this-but the gaze that met his was direct and clear. ‘It’s the only possible plan in the circumstances.’
‘You came here to care for your nephew.’
‘I told you exactly why I came,’ she retorted. ‘I came to see that he’s loved and well looked after. You love him. You can look after him.’
‘I don’t love him.’
‘Don’t you?’ She smiled then, her eyes crinkling at the edges in a way he was starting to really, really like. ‘Maybe you don’t,’ she agreed cordially. ‘Yet. But I’ve seen his response to you and I’ve seen that you can’t bear for him to suffer. I might not have been near the palace today but I have my spies.’
‘What the hell-?’
‘I’ve had progress reports all day.’ It was as if he was across the room from her. She seemed completely unaware that he was still gripping her. ‘The staff told me about every move you made. You couldn’t bear to let him be, even when he was asleep.’
‘I don’t-’
‘You don’t do love?’ she said thoughtfully. ‘So you say. So everyone says. You’re a womaniser who goes from one relationship to another. But Henry’s not like that. Henry’s not a woman you can walk away from. Marc, you’ve never let yourself love anyone since your mother died, and here’s Henry about to cure you in a way that you never imagined possible.’
Her reply left him speechless. Almost. ‘For God’s sake,’ he told her, ‘when will you get it into your thick head that I don’t want to be cured?’
‘You don’t want to be loved?’
‘No!’
‘And you don’t think that maybe you’ve fallen head over heels in love with your little cousin?’
‘No!’
‘Liar.’
They were inches apart now. Her colour was heightened but still she met his gaze, unflinching. ‘I’m not going to let you walk away from this, you know,’ she told him. ‘Not now. I reared my sister practically single-handed and she broke my heart at the end of it. If you leave me in sole charge of Henry the same thing could happen again. But
