Strange Intimacy. Anne Mather

all the harsh beauty of his Celtic forebears.

      ‘I’m not carrying a load of cases,’ Cory declared rudely, as the man who had helped them off the train walked away, and Isobel turned on her daughter with thinly veiled frustration.

      ‘We don’t have a load of cases, Cory,’ she retorted through her teeth, and then drew herself up to her full height as the other man—the man who had been watching them—pushed himself away from the wall, and came strolling loosely, but purposefully, towards them.

      ‘May I be of some assistance?’ he enquired, and Isobel was briefly shocked by the fact that there was not a trace of a Scottish brogue in his voice. She had been so sure he was a Scot, and his lazy drawl disconcerted her.

      ‘Um—no,’ she replied, refusing to meet his eyes. She had read somewhere that so long as eye-contact wasn’t established a woman had a chance of avoiding an unpleasant encounter. She looked beyond him to where a porter was wheeling a trolley on to the platform, and, grasping Cory’s arm, she said, ‘Go and grab him, will you? He’ll help us with these, and show us where we can get a taxi.’

      ‘Must I?’

      Cory was obviously more interested in what was going on between her mother and the stranger than in summoning the porter. And, judging by the way she was looking up at the man through her lashes, Isobel guessed that in a year or so she would be facing yet another problem with her daughter.

      ‘Yes, you must——’ she was beginning, when the man spoke again.

      ‘You are Isobel Jacobson, aren’t you? I heard you call your daughter Cory, so I was pretty sure I was right.’

      Isobel swallowed, and this time there was no avoiding those eyes, which she saw, with some amazement, were almost as black as his hair. ‘Who are you?’ she exclaimed, as Cory propped one hand on her hip and adopted what Isobel privately called her provocative pose.

      ‘Rafe Lindsay,’ he said, his thin lips parting to reveal slightly uneven white teeth. ‘Clare’s brother-in-law. I had to come down to Glasgow on business, so I offered to meet you and drive you back to Invercaldy.’

      Clare’s brother-in-law!

      Isobel gazed at him, as if she still couldn’t believe it, and his smile broadened into a grin. ‘Do you want to see my driving licence?’ he offered, putting a hand inside his jacket, but Isobel quickly came to her senses. No one else but an associate of Clare’s would have known who she was, and who Cory was. But Clare had said her husband was brother to the Earl of Invercaldy, and this was definitely not the Earl. He was too young, for one thing—probably only a couple of years older than herself—and no member of the aristocracy that she had seen would ever wear his hair so long—it overhung his collar by a good two inches at the back. Well, not in this century anyway, she amended, recalling Bonnie Prince Charlie’s followers’ luxuriant locks. And, come to think of it, Rafe Lindsay did have a look of one of those swarthy Highlanders—if he really was a Scot. A younger brother, perhaps?

      But, ‘That won’t be necessary,’ she informed him, rather primly now. And then, causing Cory to give her a disgusted look, ‘You don’t have an accent.’

      It was a foolish remark, and he would have been quite at liberty to ignore it, but instead he chose to answer her. ‘Noo? Och, if I’d ha’ known you’d prefer the vernacular, I’d no ha’ tried to hide ma brogue,’ he mocked, with all the broad Scottish vowels she could have wished. Then, summoning the hovering porter with an ease Isobel could only envy, he indicated the luggage. ‘My car’s outside. Shall we go?’

      For the first time since they had left London that morning, Cory looked positively cheerful. After exchanging a challenging look with her mother, she slung her canvas holdall over her shoulder, and started after Rafe Lindsay and the porter. Evidently this new development met with her approval, anyway, and Isobel knew she ought to feel grateful for that at least. But, as she followed them, she was aware that her own feelings were decidedly mixed.

       CHAPTER TWO

      ‘WHATEVER possessed you to do such a thing?’ The Dowager Countess of Invercaldy gazed at her eldest son with undisguised displeasure. Then, twisting the pearls at her throat with a restless finger, she went on, ‘What kind of an impression is she going to get of the family, if you choose to behave like one of your own workers? Good heavens, Rafe, I don’t know what your father would say if he were still alive!’

      ‘I doubt he’d regard it as a hanging offence,’ remarked her son drily, lifting the cut-glass decanter and pouring a generous measure of whisky into his glass. ‘I only gave the woman a lift, Mama. I didn’t abduct her for God’s sake!’

      ‘No. But you didn’t know her!’ retorted his mother. ‘Approaching her at the station, like a common adventurer! What must she have thought? And what will you do if she tells everyone that the Earl of Invercaldy—picked her up?’

      ‘I did.’ Her son swallowed half the liquid in his glass.

      ‘Rafe, you know perfectly well what I mean. She’s quite at liberty to say whatever she chooses. She might even accuse you of being so—eager—to meet her, you drove down to Glasgow for just that purpose.’

      ‘That’s rubbish, Mama, and you know it.’ Her son regarded her with rather less tolerant eyes now. He finished his whisky, and looked at her coolly over the rim. ‘I had an appointment with Phillips. You should know—you made it.’

      ‘I know that, and you know that, but no one else. I don’t expect you’re going to go about the village broadcasting your affairs to all and sundry.’ She watched him pick up the decanter again, and her lips grew pinched as he poured another measure. ‘I suppose I should be grateful you were sober at the time. You were sober, I take it? You didn’t go to Phillips’ office stinking of alcohol, I hope?’

      Rafe chose not to answer that remark, and, as if realising she was treading on dangerous ground, the Countess retrenched. ‘What was she like, anyway? Clare says she has a young daughter. I doubt if she’ll find Invercaldy very entertaining after London. Are they awfully southern? You know—the kind of people who think everything grinds to a halt north of Watford!’

      Rafe turned, his refilled glass in his hand. ‘I have no idea what they think of us, Mama,’ he replied tautly. ‘But they’re not savages, if that’s what you’re implying. The woman seems fairly well educated, and according to Clare her father was some kind of historian. The daughter’s another matter. Thirteen going on thirty, if you get my meaning.”

      ‘A pocket Lolita!’ exclaimed his mother disparagingly. ‘I might have known there’d be something wrong with appointing an Englishwoman! Why ever did you let Clare persuade you that she knew best? They’ll be settling into Miss McLeay’s cottage now, and we’ll never get them out!’

      Rafe sighed. ‘May I remind you that Dr Webster was in favour of appointing Mrs Jacobson? And she is going to work for him, after all. The Websters have known her for almost twenty years, apparently. But she and Clare lost touch after the Websters moved away.’

      ‘Mrs Jacobson!’ The Dowager Countess clicked her tongue. ‘What’s happened to her husband? Will you tell me that? She’s how old? Mid-thirties? Forty?’

      Rafe looked down into his glass. ‘Younger,’ he said flatly, not at all sure why he felt the need to correct her. It didn’t matter to him how old his mother thought the woman was. She’d hardly spoken a word to him during the more than two hours’ drive from Glasgow. While he’d been organising the stowing of their luggage, she had scrambled into the back of the Range Rover, and he had been left with the predatory Cory. Who had shown no qualms at all about ignoring her mother’s orders, and climbed into the seat beside him.

      ‘Very young to be a widow, then, wouldn’t you say?’

      His mother’s voice intruded on his thoughts, and Rafe raised his glass to his lips. ‘Clare