Rainbow Days

by Josephine Cox

Genres: General Fiction; Family Life; Historical Fiction; Sagas; Historical Romance

Synopsis

Bitter jealousies threaten the happiness of two people forever . . .

In Rainbow Days, Josephine Cox writes a compelling saga exploring the strength of love, and the obstacles that can cause its destruction. Perfect for fans of Kitty Neale and Cathy Sharp.

'You're everything to me. I'd have to lose my life before I'd lose you.'

This is the vow Silas made to Cathleen on the day he asks her to marry him. Throughout their childhood their love has grown stronger and now, in 1900, they start to plan a life together.

But a jealous woman is determined to ruin their happiness and uses Silas's father - a good and honest man - to do so, forcing him to make an impossible sacrifice. As a dutiful son, Silas has no choice but to obey his father, and Cathleen must pay the bitter price. Separated, each is swept along to a place where there is no love or peace and no way back . . .

What readers are saying about Rainbow Days:

'A compelling novel. Vivid description combined with carefully crafted characters . . . Another Josephine Cox masterpiece' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Great story, great characters, great plot. I couldn't put it down' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Beautifully written, this is definitely one of my favourites. All the characters were so believable, at times quite emotional' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'This book was gripping from end to end. It had all the drama, romance, heartache and evilness all wrapped up in one great book' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Rainbow Days is the very best story I have ever read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release date: December 23, 2010

Publisher: Headline

Print pages: 273

Sample

‘WHAT’S TROUBLING YOU, Jessie?’ All week, he had noticed how the old woman seemed preoccupied, as if there was something weighing heavy on her mind. Always independent, too concerned about hurting others to unburden her troubles on them, Jessie had a way of keeping her thoughts to herself.

Not today though. Today, she had a feeling that things were coming to a head and she needed to talk to someone before it was too late. ‘It’s our Cathleen.’ Her soft Irish voice was lost against his mutterings.

‘Look at that!’ Irritated and impatient he gave the nail another hammering. ‘Can’t get the damned thing to hold!’

Jessie looked up from her sewing, watching Tom at work, and as always wondering what would happen to this lovely man after she’d gone. Moreover, what would happen to Cathleen? Young Robert too. Oh, but he was heading for a fall, that one.

Tom glanced at her. ‘Sorry, Jessie. What did you say?’

‘Nothing important. It can wait.’ But not for much longer, she fretted. The matter of Cathleen would have to be addressed and soon.

‘Damn it!’ Plucking the nail out he moved it further up, to where the oak beam had sunk level with the wall; one swing with the hammer and it bit hard. ‘That’s better.’

Jessie followed his every movement: the hammer coming down, his eye intent on driving the nail home; the smile on his face as he wiggled the nail to satisfy himself it would hold.

Despairing, Jessie shook her head. She knew him all too well. When that task was finished he would start another. He never stopped. Rising at five to travel into Blackburn town and light the big ovens at the bakery, he never arrived home until the streets were shrouded in darkness. Even then he would find all manner of jobs to do about the house.

‘What’s that about our Cathleen?’ Taking the picture he hung it carefully on the nail and stepped back to see how it looked.

Jessie didn’t answer straight away. Instead she continued to observe him, noting how the long hard hours shovelling bread in and out of ovens had gently stooped his shoulders and weathered his face with a deep, warm glow. Tom was in his mid-forties, but seemed older. Yet even now he would have been a catch for any woman. Long of limb and dark of eye, he was still an easy-looking man. With no life outside of his work and his children, he was often lonely. He could have found himself a new wife without too much bother, but Jessie knew he never would. The plain truth was that Tom still loved the woman he had wed all those years ago. And though she was gone now, he wanted no other.

‘What about our Cathleen?’ he repeated. Turning from his task, Tom’s dark eyes sought her face.

‘I didn’t think you were listening.’

‘Sorry about that, Jessie. The damned nail wouldn’t take hold.’

‘I don’t want you worrying, but …’ Having started, Jessie had to go on, ‘I’ve been meaning to have a word with yer, so I have.’

Sensing trouble, Tom put down the hammer and came to sit opposite her. ‘Why? What’s she done?’

‘Nothing wrong, as I know of,’ she answered. ‘It’s just that …’ She shrugged her shoulders, trying to make light of it; already regretting being the cause of the anxiety betrayed on his face. ‘Aw, sure it doesn’t matter. It’s just an old woman’s ramblings.’

‘Huh! I’ve yet to see the day when you take to “rambling”,’ he declared. ‘Come on, Jessie. It’s obvious you’re concerned about our Cathleen. You’d best out with it!’

‘I never said I were concerned!’ she chided. ‘I were just thinking … now that she’s eighteen, and with not having a mam an’ all … well, I reckon yer might need to have a talk with the lass.’ Feeling uncomfortable beneath his curious gaze, she began to wish she had kept her worries to herself.

Frowning, he asked, ‘What kind of a talk?’ Cathleen was the joy of his life. If there was a problem he needed to know. ‘Jessie! What are you getting at?’

Changing her mind, the old woman shook her head. ‘Aw, sure, it’s summat and nothing,’ she replied with a shrug.

‘Let me be the judge of that, Jessie.’

‘I were just wondering if you’d said anything to the lass …’ Her mind raced ahead, thinking that the best thing was to change tack, at least for now. ‘… About the business, that kind o’ thing?’

Crossing her fingers under her pinnie, she asked the good Lord not to strike her dead for telling lies.

Reassured, Tom gave a sigh of relief. ‘By! I thought for a minute you were saying she’d got herself in trouble with some young fella. That bugger Lou Matheson comes to mind straightaway!’

She laughed. ‘Lou Matheson might fancy his chances, but our Cathleen’s never had eyes for him.’

Unsure, he searched her eyes looking for the truth then, suddenly leaning forward, he took hold of her hand. ‘Look here, Jessie,’ he said, ‘I know you love the lass, and you’ve never been one for telling tales, but if ever there was anything worrying you, about Cathleen, in particular, I wouldn’t want you to keep it from me.’

Shame and guilt filled her kind old heart, and now she was in a dilemma. ‘I understand what yer saying, so I do.’

He kept his gaze locked with hers, a fond smile creeping over his manly features. ‘That doesn’t mean to say I don’t trust you or anything, and I’d never want to hurt your feelings, Jessie. I love you like you were my own mother.’

Casting his mind back to the past, he thought of how things used to be. ‘You’ve been an absolute Godsend to me,’ he told her kindly. ‘You were there the day our Cathleen was born … then three years later when young Robert came along.’ His eyes clouded over. ‘You stood by us when their mam fell ill and were taken only days after.’

Swallowing his grief, he confessed, ‘I fell apart after that, I let things go, God help me. I lost my work and my senses. But you were always there, for all of us. You saved my sanity.’

Jessie was special, he knew that. And he owed her more than he could ever repay. ‘The day you persuaded us to come and live here with you in Pleasington, oh, Jessie!’ He bowed his head. ‘Throwing open your home to the three of us, well, it was a grand thing you did. Not many women would have done the same.’

‘Aw, I’m sure they would,’ Jessie answered. ‘Where family is involved, a woman will always give that little bit extra.’ A cheeky grin lifted her features. ‘Besides, I didn’t do it just for you!’ she declared craftily. ‘We’ve helped each other, so we have.’

Jessie had her own painful memories. ‘When my Thomas went, he left behind a rundown bakery and a pile of debts. You took it on, and in no time at all the bakery was making more money than ever before, and all the debts long ago paid off.’ She chuckled. ‘I’ve even managed to save a shilling or two for me old age, so I have.’

Tom shook his head. ‘However much you might dismiss it, you still saved my life, Jessie … mine and the children’s. I know this much … if it hadn’t been for you, I don’t think I would ever have come through it.’

Remembering, Jessie nodded. ‘Mebbe … mebbe not.’ A great sigh rippled through her. ‘There’s no denying, it were a bad time,’ she recalled. ‘You lost a wife and I lost a daughter, but we were blessed with two little souls. We’ve a lot to be thankful for, Tom, you must always remember that.’

Taking a deep breath, he leaned back in the chair. ‘I know,’ he agreed. ‘Sometimes, though, I wish young Robert was more like Cathleen.’ He shook his head. ‘I swear he drives me to despair.’

Jessie knew what he meant and agreed, but would never say so. Instead, against her own instincts she always found herself defending the lad. ‘I’ll not deny Robert is headstrong and rebellious, but sometimes that’s the way it is … no two bairns are ever the same, any mother will tell yer that. He’ll grow out of it, so he will. Sure, the lad’s only fifteen, and o’ course’ – a familiar sense of sadness filled her old heart – ‘from the day he was born the poor wee soul never had the love of a mother.’

She paused, thinking how Tom’s only son did seem to have a streak of wickedness in him, but went on, ‘For all his wild ways, he’s still his mother’s child, and his mother was goodness itself. So we mustn’t despair.’

Suddenly, in the appealing way she had of turning a situation round, she began to chuckle. ‘Matter o’ fact, I were quite a handful meself in me young days.’ Rolling her speckled brown eyes, she confided, ‘I don’t mind telling yer, I were a little divil, so I was!’

Tom couldn’t help but throw back his head with laughter. ‘I don’t doubt that for a minute, Jessie Butler!’

Jessie’s old eyes twinkled. ‘I’ve allus loved the dancing.’ She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. ‘I reckon when I were born the good Lord gave me feet that wouldn’t keep still. Me daddy told me I danced at the drop of a hat … soonever the gramophone was wound up, sure I’d be off like a spinning top … dancing all over the place and making everybody laugh. It’s allus been the same so it has, the music starts and my feet begin to itch. When I were old enough to be allowed on the dance floor, I’d be the first one on and the last one off.’ As she spoke her feet tapped a gentle rhythm on the rug. ‘I were never short o’ partners neither, though I wore the buggers out one after the other, so I did.’

Chuckling at the memory, she added mischievously, ‘Sure, them other bonny lasses didn’t like it at all, but that didn’t bother me none. As long as I could dance, I was in me glory, so I was.’

‘Sounds to me like you were a bit of a handful, Jessie Butler.’ He laughed. ‘I should think you drove your mam and dad to distraction.’

‘Aye, that’s what they said an’ all.’ She laughed with him, her heart happy at the memory.

Tom could imagine how she might have caused a stir as a young woman. With those beautiful hazel eyes and that long, thick hair, she must have turned many a young man’s head. Now, at sixty-nine years old, she still carried a haunting kind of beauty; though the hair was plaited and streaked with grey, there was a mischievousness about her that gladdened the heart.

‘You dance as if you were born to it,’ he told her. ‘Your daughter always said you should have a career out of it.’ He smiled wistfully. ‘I wonder what she’d say if she’d been here on Cathleen’s birthday, and seen you dancing round the garden like some little pixie … wearing out everybody who was brave enough to try and keep up with you.’

‘Oh, Cathleen kept up. She were still dancing when I sat meself down, so she were.’

‘Aye, well, that’s not surprising is it? ’Cause we all know our Cathleen is her grannie in the making.’

Feeling his loneliness, Jessie took hold of his hand, saying softly, ‘You wondered what her mammy might have said if she’d seen us? Well, I’ll tell yer … she’d have said how you should try dancing more often. She’d have said you needed to find yerself a woman, someone to spend the rest of your days with.’

Nodding thoughtfully, he conceded, ‘Happen you’re right, Jessie, but it’s not likely I’ll ever find a woman like my Mary, even if I wanted to.’ Before the memories came flooding back, he shrugged off Jessie’s suggestion with a smile. ‘Besides, I’m not a dancing man,’ he said. ‘So, I’ll leave all that to you and Cathleen, for you’re two of a kind, and that’s a fact.’

‘Now you could be right about that,’ the old woman agreed. ‘She’s got the feet for dancing, so she has, and a heart the same. And doesn’t she love the outdoors an’ all? Sure she’d spend her life like a gypsy on the road if she had half a chance.’

‘She’s a good girl, isn’t she, Jessie?’ It wasn’t that he needed reassuring; it was just that, lately, Cathleen had seemed to grow up so quickly. She wasn’t his little girl any more. She was a young woman, and very beautiful at that.

‘Aye, she’s a good girl, Tom. Our Cathleen will always make you a proud man, I’m sure of it.’

‘And Robert?’ He always felt anxious thinking about his son.

‘Aw, the lad’s young and headstrong. But so is every other lad at his age. So stop yer worrying why don’t yer?’ Though to her mind, Robert was a lost cause. ‘Robert will come right in the end, mark my words. Besides, Cathleen keeps a wary eye on him, so he won’t go far wrong, I’m thinking.’ She prayed she was right.

‘Oh, Jessie, I do hope so.’

Momentarily closing his eyes he pictured Cathleen’s mother; slim and pretty, with vivid blue eyes and flowing fair hair, she might have been Cathleen herself.

Suppressing the image, he looked at the old woman. ‘We seem to have got off the subject,’ he chided. ‘You were saying … about Cathleen?’

Having lied once, she did not want to do so a second time. Tom was a good man and deserved better. Besides, there was nothing to be gained by worrying him with her suspicions. ‘I were just wondering about her future,’ she confessed.

‘Go on,’ he urged. ‘Tell me what’s really on your mind.’

Jessie found herself edging towards the real issue. ‘I’ve taught Cathleen all I know. She can read and write, she has a quick grasp of numbers, and a natural love for music and nature, but now that she’s eighteen you need to be thinking about her future.’

Tom sat up, suddenly aware that he had been neglecting his parental duties. ‘By! It never even crossed me mind,’ he admitted. ‘She grew up when me back was turned and now I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do.’ An idea struck him. ‘Look, Jessie, if the lass is good at figures like you say … happen we should take her into the business? She’s already doing deliveries, and folk think the world of her.’ His face darkened. ‘I had thought our Robert might take over some day, but I don’t think he has the spirit for hard work.’

‘It’s not a bad idea, Tom,’ Jessie conceded. ‘But I wouldn’t want her weighed down with too many responsibilities, not yet anyway. She’s of an age when her whole world is opening up. Many a lass of eighteen is already wed, with bairns running at her feet. For all we know, Cathleen could be setting her cap at some young man right now. If yer ask me, we should be guiding her in the right direction.’

‘In what way d’you mean, Jessie?’

‘I mean … if she were to fall for somebody not of her own station, it might cause the lass, and us, no end of grief.’

Alarmed, Tom sensed Jessie’s veiled warning. He finally understood what she had been leading up to. ‘My God! That’s what’s been playing on your mind, isn’t it … Cathleen and Silas Fenshaw.’ He toyed with the possibility and rejected it out of hand, but when he looked up, neither his smile nor his voice was convincing. ‘Surely to God she’s got more sense than to entertain such an idea? They’re friends, Jessie! They’ve allus been friends, and no more.’

Now that she’d stirred his suspicions, Jessie kept at it like a dog with a bone. ‘Think about it, Tom,’ she pleaded. ‘They spend every waking minute together. Yes, to be sure, they’ve been friends since they were children and that’s innocent enough. But friendship can change.’

‘Not in that way.’

‘Yes, Tom!’ Forcing him to look at the possibility, she urged, ‘Love can take a hold, and before you know it they’re seeing each other through the eyes of grown-ups. ’Cause that’s what they are. What’s more, they’ve already got a head start on many another young couple who have fallen in love and found themselves in a tangle.’

‘I still can’t see that happening, Jessie.’ To him Cathleen was still a baby.

‘Then you’d best put yer mind to it, because she’s not a bairn any more. She’s a young woman with time on her hands, and you know what they say … the devil will surely find mischief for idle hands.’

‘Silas Fenshaw has always been earmarked to wed the Turner girl, everybody knows that. Our Cathleen doesn’t even come into the picture. It’s all to do with business, and power.’

Jessie shook her head. ‘There’s nothing more powerful than love, and besides, no matter how desperately his father might want Silas to slip a wedding ring on Helen Turner’s finger, it will never happen. Young Silas has no liking for her. You know it, I know it, and the whole of Lancashire knows it.’

‘I think you’re barking up the wrong tree, Jessie.’ All the same, Tom’s mind was made up. ‘First thing Monday morning, I’d best make a start on teaching Cathleen the ins and outs of the bakery business. With your blessing o’ course … seeing as we’re partners.’

Jessie smiled. ‘It don’t mek no difference to me, son,’ she answered. ‘My half will come to her anyway, one o’ these fine days.’ Though she hoped that day was far off yet. ‘But yer must ask her first, and see if that’s what she wants.’

With that they each resumed their tasks, but their thoughts were of one mind: could Cathleen really have stepped out of line and fallen in love with Silas Fenshaw? If she had, then she had already taken the first step down a painful road, for while Edward Fenshaw might have accepted the baker’s child as a playmate for his only son, he would never entertain the idea of her being one of the family. Never in a million years!

DESPITE THE HOT sun beating down on her head, Helen Turner made no move to find shade. Instead, she stayed by the verandah steps, hidden from sight and secretly observing the two figures below, her devious eyes following their every move.

Unable to tear herself away, she continued to watch them, hating their innocence, their obvious joy in each other. Oh, how she longed to run and tell them what she had discovered, and how because of it, she held both their futures in the palm of her hand. But, however much she wanted to, she could not tell them yet. Tomorrow would be soon enough, she thought bitterly.

Her hard features lifted in a smile. ‘Enjoy each other while you can,’ she murmured softly. ‘It won’t be long now, not if I have my way.’ The smile gave way to a low, rumbling laugh. ‘And as you should know by now, I always get my way.’

UNAWARE THAT THEY were being watched, Cathleen and Silas ran through the spinney and on towards the lake, Cathleen in front, Silas in pursuit. Laughing like a child, her skirts held high above her knees, Cathleen tripped and fell. Lying there on the grass breathless and excited, she made no protest when Silas fell on top of her.

‘You minx!’ Grabbing her into his arms, he teased, ‘Did you really think I’d let you get away from me?’

Reaching out, she traced her fingers along the curve of his mouth. ‘I would never want to get away from you.’

His dark gaze mingled with hers. ‘I do love you.’ His voice ached with longing.

She smiled, a certain, wonderful smile that told him all he needed to know. ‘Hold me, Silas,’ she whispered. ‘Hold me tight.’

When he drew her closer she confided, ‘Sometimes I can’t help but feel …’ pausing, she looked away, ‘… afraid.’

Turning her face to his he asked worriedly, ‘Cathleen, what is it? What are you afraid of?’

Looking up at him now, feeling his strong arms about her, she thought she would never be afraid again, but always there were doubts. ‘What if others were to come between us?’ she asked. ‘What if you should ever stop loving me?’

‘I could never stop loving you. Listen to me, sweetheart!’ Cupping her face in his hands, he told her firmly, ‘You’re everything to me. I would have to lose my life before I’d lose you.’

Stretching up, she kissed him soundly on the mouth. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘But you and me … the way we are.’ Fear marbled her words. ‘Sometimes I think it might be snatched away and we’ll be punished.’

Drawing away from her, he frowned, his dark eyes troubled. ‘You mustn’t think like that! We’ve done nothing to be punished for.’

Scrambling up, she shook the grass from her skirt. When he took hold of her, she looked away, suddenly shy. ‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured. ‘It’s just that we don’t really belong together. You live in a big house. Your father is a powerful, wealthy man.’ She recalled the first time she had come to the Fenshaw house. ‘He only allowed us to play together in the first place because I ran and told him how the dogs were chasing you.’

Silas laughed. ‘I saw you drop the bread-basket and run all the way to the house,’ he recalled. ‘You were so little … six years old, and as brave as a lion, and after Father got me down from the tree, I told him I wanted you to come to the house again – not just to deliver bread, but to play. And each time you went away, I pleaded with him to let you come back, again and again, until we were inseparable.’

Cathleen smiled. ‘He only agreed because he was worried that if it hadn’t been for me, the dogs might have eaten you.’ A look of sorrow crossed her face. ‘Remember how sad we were when he had them put down?’

‘I’ve never loved anyone else, you know that, don’t you?’

‘Not even the other one?’

‘Which other one?’

‘Helen Turner.’

‘My God, Cathleen! I hope you’re not comparing yourself to that hard-faced bitch! Her father and mine are business colleagues, that’s all. She means nothing to me and never has.’

‘All right then … but we’re still worlds apart and always have been. You went away to be educated by men of learning, while I sat on my grandmammy’s knee to learn the reading and writing. You’re being groomed to take over your father’s empire … farms and cottages all over Lancashire. You know about things I could never hope to understand, and it will come between us, I know it will.’

‘No, Cathleen!’ Taking her by the shoulders, he gently shook her. ‘They’ll love you for what you are, a beautiful young woman created by heaven.’ He sighed. ‘And touched by hell, I think … you’re bad-tempered and impossible … and I wouldn’t swap you for the world!’

Tears gathered in her blue eyes. ‘If your father knew how we felt about each other, he’d stop you from seeing me again.’

‘I might have something to say about that.’ Leaning forward to whisper in her ear, he urged, ‘Marry me, Cathleen?’ Stroking her long, fair hair, he waited for an answer, as he had waited all these years.

Thrilled, she gave a small, impetuous laugh. ‘You’ve asked me that every year since I was six years old.’

‘And I’ll ask you every year until you’re sixty if I have to.’

‘You’re a stubborn man, Silas Fenshaw!’ Her blue eyes twinkled merrily.

‘Only because you never give me an answer.’

‘What makes you think I’ll give you an answer now?’

‘Because you’re older and wiser.’

‘You mean … I’m eighteen, so I should know what’s good for me?’

‘Something like that.’ He grinned, a handsome, lopsided grin that made her giggle.

‘What if I’m not ready?’

He shook her gently a second time. ‘No teasing!’ he chided. ‘Answer me, Cathleen. I could talk to your father this very evening, tell him how we feel about each other.’

She looked away. ‘Maybe he already knows.’

‘Answer me!’

‘You’ll have to ask me again.’

‘You’re tormenting me now, you devil!’

Her emotions in a tangle, Cathleen could hardly contain her joy. All she had ever dreamed about was being Silas’s wife, but until this moment she had been too young to give such a promise. Now she was eighteen and ready to go to him, even though she still had misgivings, not about Silas or herself, but about the difference in their backgrounds. Yet it didn’t seem to worry Silas, so she wouldn’t let it worry her.

On waking that morning, with the sun shining, the whole world had seemed more alive than ever before; now she knew why. Silas was asking her to marry him, and it was the best day of her life. She felt wonderful and happy and cheeky, and wanted the moment to last for ever.

‘Go on,’ she teased. ‘Ask me again.’

‘Why?’

Wanting to laugh out loud with delight, it was difficult to keep a straight face. ‘Because I’m not sure I heard you right the first time.’

‘You are a devil!’ He saw the look on her face and his heart leaped. ‘Are you trying to drive me crazy?’

‘No.’

Unsure of her, he waited for the laugh that might follow. Instead, she looked at him, and he dared to believe she was serious. ‘Tell me what you’re thinking,’ he murmured. ‘Put me out of my misery.’

She was quiet, looking at him in a way that turned his heart over. In that precious moment, there was so much love between them, so much longing … mingled with fear. What if it all fell away? What if the joy they shared was suddenly to disappear, and they were driven apart. It didn’t bear thinking about.

‘All right then,’ she cried suddenly, making off at a run, ‘I’ll give you an answer … but you’ll have to catch me first!’

Laughing, he chased her through the undergrowth and on towards the lake. When he caught up with her, she was splashing barefoot along the water’s edge. Keeping her in sight, he ran into the water, calling for her to come back. ‘It’s dangerous! There are reeds everywhere!’

Defiant, she ventured out a little further. ‘Come on!’ she beckoned. The water was up to her neck now, making her cough and splutter.

Fearing for her safety, Silas went after her. ‘You’re crazy, come out of there!’ Lunging forward he took hold of her arm, but when she snatched it away and dipped under the water, he had to go with her.

They were both good swimmers, but only Silas knew how treacherous the reeds could be. ‘Make your way back,’ he urged when they resurfaced. ‘Stay close to me.’

On entering shallower waters, and being already soaked to the skin, they swam and kicked and splashed for the sheer fun of it all. A short time later, he took her by the scruff of the neck and hauled her out on to the bank, and they lay there awhile in the warm sun, excited by the thrill of the chase, and wonderfully exhilarated by the sting of cool water on their bodies.

Half laughing, half chiding, Silas told her, ‘I’m not sure if I want you for my wife after all.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘Because I don’t know if I want my children brought up by a lunatic!’

‘Aw, well!’ Shaking the excess water from her clothes, she collected her boots from the bank. ‘You’d best take me home then,’ she sighed, a twinkle in her blue eyes. ‘Being as you don’t want to marry me any more.’

Suddenly she was grabbed from behind. ‘I can see I’ll have to take you in hand!’

‘So, you do love me after all?’

Feigning astonishment, he asked, ‘Love you? Whatever gave you that idea?’

‘Well, do you want to marry me or not?’

He turned away. ‘Not if you were the last woman on earth!’

When he tugged at her skirt a moment later, she fell down on the grass, her long hair damp against her shoulders, and her wet clothes clinging. ‘So, it’s all over between us, then?’ she said softly.

‘Absolutely!’ He could hardly contain himself.

‘Whatever will I do without you?’

His gaze softened. ‘You’ll have to marry Lou Matheson.’

Biting her lip tantalisingly, she teased, ‘He’s not so bad.’

‘I see.’ He looked at her with adoration, his voice falling to a whisper. ‘Let’s make love, Cathleen.’

Her blue eyes darkened like the ocean. She couldn’t speak, she was overwhelmed by the emotion that swept through her.

They lay there in each other’s arms, unsure and afraid, until Cathleen thought she saw someone looking at them from the house. ‘Let’s go to the island,’ she whispered.

‘Are you sure?’

She nodded, her heart pounding as she slid her hand into his. In silence, they walked to the jetty where the boat was tethered, and he helped her clamber inside. As he rowed across the lake to the island, his dark eyes searched her face, watching for any sign that she wanted. . .