Carole Mortimer - Mistletoe Magic

‘I’ll go,’ Gideon offered. ‘I can always stay upstairs with Peter while they come down and eat, if they have a problem with leaving him alone.’

Molly looked across at him. ‘That’s kind of you,’ she murmured slowly.

He paused in the doorway. ‘I can be kind,’ he assured her hardly, before striding purposefully from the room.

Molly grimaced her dismay, knowing she had once again said the wrong thing. But she knew, in their present circumstances, she would be hard-pressed to say the right thing where Gideon was concerned.

‘Lovers’ tiff?’

She turned sharply to frown at David as he stood watching her, a teasing smile curving his lips, dark brows raised mockingly.

He shrugged at her obvious displeasure. ‘Sam said something this morning about Gideon coming to your rescue last night concerning a spider in your bedroom. Then the two of you went off shopping together earlier. And he was in your bedroom a few minutes ago,’ he reasoned, his smile widening at her look of obvious displeasure. ‘What else am I supposed to think?’

‘Not what you are thinking,’ she snapped disgruntledly.

‘No?’ David speculated.

‘No!’ she bit out frustratedly, a rueful smile starting to curve her lips now. ‘Last night. This morning. In my bedroom just now. This is all just some silly idea of Crys’s… I suppose you do realise that this is all some mistaken matchmaking on Crys’s part? And you’re another prime candidate?’ She turned the tables on him, knowing she had scored a point when he looked totally stunned.

‘Me?’ David was visibly dumbfounded. ‘But I thought Gideon…? Who does Crys have picked out for me, then?’ he said dazedly.

‘Me,’ Molly drawled. ‘According to Sam, she isn’t too bothered as to whether it’s Gideon or you I become involved with, so long as it’s someone!’

‘Thanks!’ David grimaced.

‘You’re welcome.’ She grinned, enjoying his discomfort after his having teased her so mercilessly.

He frowned. ‘And I thought Crys was just being kind by inviting me to stay for Christmas!’

‘Oh, she was,’ Molly instantly assured him. ‘She is. Crys is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.’

‘I’m glad we’re all agreed on that point at least,’ Gideon rasped as he returned to the kitchen, dark gaze narrowed questioningly as he looked stonily at Molly.

She held that gaze for several long seconds, and then she looked away, knowing from Gideon’s accusing look exactly what he was thinking. But it was impossible to defend herself against such ingrained prejudice. And with David in the room she had no intention of even trying to do so.

Besides, Gideon, at least, was unaware of Crys’s attempts at matchmaking. And Molly wanted him to remain that way.

‘Are they coming down to join us?’ she prompted distantly.

‘Sam is,’ Gideon confirmed. ‘Crys will have something later; she’s going to stay upstairs and have a nap with Peter. After her disturbed night, and with the relief of knowing it’s nothing serious, she probably needs sleep more than food at the moment,’ he added affectionately.

Molly knew how Crys felt. Her own night had been far from restful. Although she didn’t have the added worry over Peter to contend with, too.

She nodded. ‘I’ll go and take over from her later, so she can have something to eat.’

Gideon eyed her for several seconds. ‘That’s kind of you,’ he finally murmured dryly.

Deliberately. Mockingly. Tauntingly.

Okay, so neither of them had a particularly good opinion of the other. But if they continued like this it was going to make this time more difficult for the others than it already was.

‘My mother always told me that kindness is a virtue,’ she dismissed lightly, beginning to serve soup into four bowls.

‘So is loyalty,’ Gideon rasped harshly.

Molly stiffened, knowing exactly where that remark was directed. ‘And honesty,’ she bit out tautly, brown gaze challenging his now.

‘Hey, can anyone join in this conversation? Or is this just some private thing between the two of you?’ David interjected dryly, drawing their attention to the fact that he was still in the room.

It was a fact both of them seemed to have momentarily forgotten in their antagonism towards each other, Molly acknowledged, and she shot David a rueful smile.

‘Luncheon is served,’ she announced decisively, turning to smile at Sam as he came into the room. ‘Are they okay?’ she prompted gently.

He grimaced. ‘Fine.’ He nodded. ‘But this was the very last thing we needed on top of… Well, we could definitely have done without this at the moment,’ he muttered tensely.

Molly frowned at him. ‘On top of what…?’ she prompted, hoping the discord between herself and Gideon wasn’t becoming a problem for the others.

‘Nothing,’ Sam dismissed abruptly. ‘Just forget I said anything,’ he muttered, sitting down to eat his soup distractedly.

‘But Diana—Dr Chisholm,’ David corrected ruefully at their puzzled looks. ‘She told me that she doesn’t foresee any complications with Peter.’

‘I’m sure there won’t be.’ Sam nodded. ‘I’m just worried about Crys, that’s all.’ He shrugged. ‘She looks on our marriage, and Peter’s birth, as her second chance. I don’t want anything to spoil that. Not that it will,’ he added hurriedly.

‘What could possibly happen to spoil it for you?’ Molly looked at her stepbrother dazedly.

‘Exactly—what could?’ Gideon was the one to answer hardly.

Molly didn’t look up from her soup, but nevertheless she sensed his censorious gaze on her. And the reason for it.

So shopping this morning, even getting rid of that spider from her bedroom earlier, had just been a temporary respite after all; Gideon obviously still totally distrusted her where Crys’s happiness was concerned.

And not only was his distrust totally unwarranted, it was also highly insulting.

It also brought into question—once again—Gideon’s own feelings towards Crys…

‘I’M JUST going into town to pick up a few things Crys forgot to get.’ David told them shortly after lunch. ‘Anyone fancy coming for a drive with me?’

Sam had gone back upstairs to sit with Crys and Peter, taking some soup and bread up on a tray for his wife, leaving Molly with very little to do this afternoon apart from wrapping those two extra Christmas presents—which certainly wasn’t going to take very long—and, of course, providing Gideon with a convenient target to vent his sarcastic humour on.

‘You go ahead, Molly,’ he invited now, barely glancing up from the newspaper he was reading as he sat at the kitchen table. ‘I’ll stay here in case Sam and Crys need anything.’

Her cheeks flushed angrily; as if she needed his permission to do anything. Or to be made to feel guilty because she felt the need to get outside in the fresh air—away from him—for a while.

‘What the…?’ Gideon rasped before Molly could think of a suitably cutting reply to his sarcasm, his attention suddenly riveted on the newspaper he had merely been glancing through before.

‘What is it?’ Molly frowned at him worriedly.

‘Hmm,’ David murmured distractedly, having glanced over Gideon’s shoulder at the newspaper. ‘It’s a good photograph of us all, but…’

‘Exactly—but!’ Gideon muttered angrily, standing up, with the newspaper now tightly gripped between his hands. ‘I don’t think either Sam or Crys are going to like this.’ He frowned darkly.

‘What is it?’ Molly repeated agitatedly, moving to look at the newspaper herself now.

What she saw there made her breath catch in her throat.