Sara Craven - High Tide At Midnight

‘The young lady is just leaving,’ Dominic Trevennon said in a voice as bleak as a winter’s gale.

‘Really?’ The newcomer made no attempt to hide his disappointment. ‘That’s too bad. Are you staying in the neighbourhood?’

‘Only as a temporary measure. I have to get back to London.’ Morwenna did not look at Dominic Trevennon to judge the effect of this deceptively defiant little speech. She was frankly shattered at the thought of having to go out again into this stormy night to find somewhere to stay. If she was honest with herself, she had counted on being offered a night’s shelter at Trevennon. She had not wanted to eat any further into her small savings. She reflected despondently that this trip to Cornwall was likely to prove one of the costliest impulses of her entire life, not merely in financial terms either. Her confidence and self-respect had also taken an unexpected battering. All she wanted to do now was to get away from this big dark house and the harsh insensitive man who dominated it and lick her wounds in peace. She needed desperately to think too, to consider some of the unpalatable facts that she had been presented with. Her mother, it seemed, had created a fantasy world about her time at Trevennon for some reason best known to herself. Perhaps she hadn’t wanted to face facts either, Morwenna thought unhappily.

The young man was speaking again. ‘Well, if you must rush away, then I suppose it can’t be helped. But do drive carefully. A tree came down on our road tonight. Jacky Herrick was moving it with his tractor as I drove down, but there might be others.’

She smiled at him with an effort. ‘Perhaps it’s just as well that I haven’t a car,’ she said, trying to speak lightly. ‘I presume there will still be buses on the main road.’

‘Yes, but they’re few and far between.’ He studied her for a moment with undisguised curiosity, then swung towards Dominic Trevennon who had been listening to the interchange with a faint sneering smile playing about his lips.

‘Dom, what’s going on here? You aren’t seriously suggesting that she should walk all the way back to the main road on a night like this—not when we’ve got half a dozen empty bedrooms.’

‘Oh, please.’ Morwenna intervened, alarmed. ‘I really must be going. I’ve made arrangements….’

‘Then you must let me take you in my car.’ He gave her a smile of such charm that she felt warmed by it in spite of everything that had happened. ‘Where are you staying? The Towers in Port Vennor?’

‘Er—no.’ Morwenna thought rapidly. ‘As a matter of fact, I’m staying with some friends. But you really don’t need to put yourself out.’

‘I’m not. Dom, don’t just stand there. Tell her that she’s not putting us to any trouble. What’s the matter with you? You surely weren’t going to let her simply trudge off into the night, for God’s sake?’

Dominic Trevennon raised his eyebrows coolly. ‘Frankly, it didn’t seem to be any of my concern,’ he said offhandedly. ‘In any case, Miss Kerslake has already impressed me as a young lady more than capable of looking after herself.’

‘Miss—Kerslake?’

Dominic Trevennon nodded. ‘You heard me correctly—and your assumption is equally correct. And as introductions now seem to be in order, Miss Kerslake, this is my younger brother Mark.’

His handshake was warm enough, but Morwenna already sensed a faint air of withdrawal in his manner. The younger brother had an easy forthright charm which his elder totally lacked, she thought, smouldering.

She said very sweetly and politely, ‘If after my dire identity is disclosed to you, the offer of a lift is no longer forthcoming, I shall quite understand.’

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