CALGARY looked like most of the other western Canadian cities, as if it had been built with the sweat and hard labour of many men, a long sprawling city in the foothills of Alberta, with skyscrapers surrounding the tower in the centre of the city that owed most of its wealth and prosperity to the oil that had been found in the province, and reaching out in pretty housing complexes towards the distant Rockies themselves. It was a city that always seemed alive and humming. The usual local garb of denims and casual shirts, often worn with the customary slouched hat, for men, gave a deceptive impression of naïveté. The people of Calgary and its surrounding small towns just liked it that way.
The Wade ranch was about fifteen miles from town, the house itself being built on top of the hill, comprised mainly of windows, so that whatever way you looked you were confronted by the towering Rockies and Calgary itself.
Cattle grazed as far as the eye could see, a dozen or so horses exercising in a field neighbouring the house. It all looked very much as it had a year ago, and yet Brenna could feel her tension rising as Nathan stopped the Camaro in front of the house, having advised Grant to wait at the ranch before confronting Lesli. Which was perhaps as well, as her sister was tired and irritable and would probably have caused a scene if Grant had been waiting in the airport when they got through Customs.
Nathan came round to the front of the car to help Lesli out of the low vehicle, pushing the seat forward so that Brenna could climb out of the back. The sky was a still calm blue in early evening, the air crisp and warm, and she breathed it in deeply before they all entered the house to confront Grant.
He came out into the reception area to meet them. Lesli took one look at him, burst into tears, and ran down the hallway of the bungalow house to her bedroom, the door closing firmly.
‘That was a good start,’ Grant said shakily. The last few days had been a strain on him too, by the look of the tautness of the skin across his high cheekbones, his eyes dull with pain. ‘Should I go to her, do you think?’ He looked uncertainly at Brenna.
It was testimony to how much Lesli’s leaving had shaken him that he should voice such a question; ordinarily he had as much self-assurance and arrogance as Nathan. ‘Maybe not just yet,’ Brenna advised gently; Lesli hadn’t told her what had happened to make her leave her husband of four years, not during the long night hours when they had shared her bed, nor during the long flight back here, and she didn’t believe Lesli was ready to talk to Grant just yet either. ‘I’ll take her some dinner on a tray, and then maybe tomorrow…’
‘Yeah, maybe tomorrow.’ Grant turned away defeatedly, and the study door closed behind him.
‘Nathan?’ Brenna turned to him in confusion, her expression pained.
His mouth twisted into the semblance of a smile. ‘Not much of a homecoming for you.’
She knew what he meant, and he wasn’t being his usual sarcastic self. In the past there had been arguments and disputes, usually with her in the thick of them, but it had never been like this the family, what was left of it, was falling apart.
‘We’ll survive,’ she said softly. ‘I—Mindy!’ she greeted warmly as the housekeeper came into the hallway. ‘It’s lovely to see you again.’
‘Brenna.’ The elderly woman stiffly accepted her hug. ‘Your old room has been prepared—unless you would prefer a different one?’
‘No—no, that will be fine.’ Brenna frowned at the other woman’s hardness. Because of Christine Wade’s long and finally fatal illness, Mindy Fletcher had taken the two Wade boys under her wing and become like a second mother to them, and when Lesli and Brenna had arrived looking like a couple of confused birds who had fallen out of their nest, she had extended that same warmth to them; that warmth was no longer there, Mindy treating her like a guest rather than part of the family. It really wasn’t much of a homecoming!
‘Dinner will be ready in a few minutes, if you would like to wash up,’ Mindy instructed.
‘I thought I’d take a tray to Lesli.’
‘I can do that,’ Mindy told her abruptly. ‘There’s no need to trouble yourself.’
‘Unless you don’t think Lesli would like to see me?’ The elderly woman arched greying brows. Her dark curly hair had a similar peppered effect, and her weathered face was kind, but stern. And if she ever wore anything else but trousers and a blouse beneath a blue or brown smock Brenna had never seen it.
‘I’m sure she would,’ she assured the housekeeper gently. ‘I just—’
Mindy turned away to return to the kitchen, where she could be heard muttering something about ‘flighty young girls who didn’t know when they had it good’!
Nathan grinned at Brenna as she turned to look at him with questioning eyes. ‘Mindy has never forgiven you for not coming home to live last year,’ he drawled, starting to walk up the stairs with her cases to the attic room that had always been Brenna’s, while Brenna trailed halfheartedly behind him. ‘And I’m afraid Lesli leaving Grant has put the Jordan women right out of favour!’ he added drily.
‘I gathered,’ she grimaced, following him into the room at the top of the stairs. The windows extended to the sloping roof in this one room. She had always loved to draw, and before she arrived ten years ago Patrick Wade had ordered that this room be made into a bedroom-studio for her. Everything looked the same as it always had, the pretty rose and cream of the decor not in the least detracted from by the easels and work-benches in the other section of the room.
She had a little difficulty looking at the bed, considering what had happened the last time she had lain beneath the pink lace canopy. But Nathan didn’t seem to be bothered by the same memory as he stacked her cases on the ottoman at the foot of her bed, so Brenna forced them from her mind too.
‘I have a few phone calls to make before dinner,’ he told her tersely. ‘But as Mindy is on the warpath I wouldn’t be late down.’
‘No,’ she sighed. ‘I think I’ll just freshen up and then go and see Lesli anyway; she might feel like talking now she’s back home.’
Nathan’s mouth twisted. ‘That wasn’t the impression I got.’
‘Nor me,’ she frowned. ‘I’m sure all this can’t be good for the baby.’
‘I’ll see about getting her an appointment to see the doctor as soon as possible,’ he nodded grimly. ‘She didn’t look too well to me on the flight over.’
She hadn’t to Brenna either, seeming to sleep too much for her sister’s peace of mind. And if Lesli’s mad flight to England had harmed the baby in any way, Brenna knew her sister would never forgive herself; she badly wanted the baby she had waited so long to conceive.
‘Don’t look so worried.’ Nathan gently touched her cheek with a calloused hand. ‘I’m sure everything is going to work out.’
It was evidence of how weary she was herself that Brenna pressed weakly against that hand, offering no resistance when Nathan put a hand beneath her chin to lift her face up to his and claim her mouth with his own.
Like a moth to a flame, she thought bitterly, as her mouth tingled from the caress and her body caught fire. Nathan growled low in his throat at her lack of resistance, his arms about her like steel bands as he moulded her body into his.
‘I’ve brought you up a tray of coffee.’ Mindy banged the tray down on the dressing-table, and Brenna and Nathan instantly pulled apart.
Brenna turned to the older woman with burning cheeks. ‘Thank you. I… Please don’t misunderstand—’
‘It’s none of my business if Nathan chooses to make a fool of himself,’ Mindy snapped disapprovingly. ‘Again,’ she added disgustedly, before closing the door behind her with a firm thud.
Brenna frowned her embarrassed confusion. That she had allowed the kiss to happen was bad enough, but that Mindy should witness it somehow made it worse, her harshly spoken comments barbed if not understood.
‘She’s better than a cold shower,’ Nathan said ruefully. ‘Much more effective.’
‘Nathan—’
‘I know,’ he sighed. ‘The kiss should never have happened. You don’t know why it did. Let’s forget the whole thing,’ he added derisively.
‘Yes,’ she agreed simply.
‘It’s already forgotten,’ he dismissed hardly, striding to the door. ‘Drink your coffee before it gets cold,’ he instructed coldly.
It was easy, much too easy, to say the kiss should never have happened, and to forget it! It had happened, and after all her certainty that she had despised Nathan. She did despise him, but the desire she had feared, in herself and in him, was still there. And it could rage out of control at any time.
But this time she couldn’t run away from it; she had to think of Lesli and the baby. She had told her father she was going to Canada to spend a few weeks with Lesli before the baby was born, and because of the fraught situation between Grant and Lesli she knew she had no choice but to go through with that. She would just have to make the best of the situation and ignore Nathan when she could. Which was virtually impossible.
She showered and changed while she drank down several cups of the coffee—the Wades had never been a family to dress for dinner, and her black trousers and dark green blouse were casually comfortable, her height added to by high-heeled sandals, her hair secured in a loose knot on top of her head; it was cooler that way.
Lesli lay back against the pillows of the double bed when Brenna entered the room a few minutes later. The half of the bed that Grant usually occupied was smooth and unruffled. The dinner tray lay untouched on the bedside table, the food growing cold.
‘Lesli…’
‘I should never have allowed myself to be talked into coming back here,’ Lesli suddenly choked, tears streaming down her face. ‘Now I’ll never get away!’
Brenna sat down on the bed beside her. ‘This isn’t a prison, Lesli.’
‘Isn’t it?’ her sister retorted in a hard voice. ‘How can you say that when you couldn’t wait to leave?’
‘But you’re married to Grant.’
‘And you should have been married to Nathan,’ her sister claimed.
Brenna swallowed hard. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Grant and I knew you’d spent the night with Nathan before you left last year,’ Lesli explained huskily. ‘Grant challenged Nathan about it, and he said the two of you were going to be married.’
Brenna shook her head dazedly. ‘You’ve never mentioned that you knew before.’
‘Nathan asked us not to, because you would have been embarrassed, I suppose. But don’t you see, Brenna?’ she reasoned desperately. ‘You more than anyone must be able to understand why I want a divorce.’
‘A divorce!’ Brenna repeated astoundedly, standing up. ‘Lesli?’
‘Grant doesn’t love me,’ her sister stated flatly.
‘But do you love him?’ she probed gently.
Lesli’s mouth tightened even more. ‘Not any more.’
She actually sounded as if she meant it, Brenna realised. How could a love as deep as the one Lesli had always had for Grant die so suddenly—and so completely?
‘Lesli, you’re carrying his child!’
‘My child,’ her sister contradicted. ‘It’s in my body, so it belongs to me.’
‘But it’s part of Grant,’ Brenna reason.
‘I’ll try and forget that.’ Lesli sank down under the bedclothes. ‘Could you take this tray away; I’d like to get some sleep now.’
‘You haven’t eaten anything,’ said Brenna worriedly.
‘I don’t want it.’
‘Lesli—’ Brenna broke off as her sister turned the other way, biting her bottom lip as her sister’s pain became her own.
‘Brenna,’ Lesli stopped her at the door. ‘Make sure Grant realises he isn’t welcome in this room any more,’ she rasped.
Brenna sighed. ‘Don’t you think you should be the one to tell him that?’
‘No,’ her sister muttered. ‘I don’t even want to see him.’
‘Darling, you can’t stay in here for ever, and—’
‘I don’t want to see him!’
With a last worried look at her sister’s averted face Brenna quietly left the room. How did you tell a man he wasn’t welcome in the bed he had shared with Lesli for the last four years?
‘Don’t worry,’ Grant told her harshly as Brenna haltingly tried to tell him that, minutes later in the study where he sat behind the desk in the swivel oak chair that was rather like the old-fashioned type the sheriff always had in cowboy films. ‘I haven’t been able to sleep in that bed since she left, and it seems even more unwelcoming now that she’s back!’
Brenna’s fingers were laced together in her lap. ‘Grant, Lesli seems to have the idea that you no longer love her, and—’
‘That’s a damned lie,’ he grated. ‘Of course I love her!’
She moistened her lips. ‘If you’ve had an affair—’
‘Is that what Lesli said I’ve done?’ he attacked fiercely. ‘My God, I don’t even look at other women, let alone go to bed with them!’ He stood up forcefully.
‘Calm down, Grant,’ she sighed wearily. An affair was obviously not the reason for their conflict. ‘Lesli hasn’t told me anything. Neither of you has, that’s why I’m stumbling around in the dark trying to make sense of this!’
His expression became defensive. ‘This isn’t really any of your business, is it? You and Nathan both keep sticking your nose in, and it’s nothing to do with either of you. Lesli and I will work this out on our own.’
‘How?’ she questioned tautly. ‘Lesli won’t even agree to talk to you, and you seem just as stubborn!’
‘That doesn’t mean we need you and Nathan—’
‘What about the baby?’ Brenna cut in coldly. ‘Where does that fit into all this?’
‘It’s our baby and—’
‘Lesli says it’s hers,’ she sighed. ‘And when she divorces you—’
‘Divorce!’ All the colour left his face as he stood up noisily. ‘She isn’t divorcing me!’
‘She says she is,’ Brenna frowned.
‘Like hell she is!’ Grant grated harshly. ‘I’ll divorce her first!’
It occurred to Brenna at that moment that Grant wasn’t talking very logically; it also occurred to her that it might have something to do with the half empty bottle of whisky beside him on the desk. Grant was drunk! She had never seen any of the Wade men drink more than a couple of glasses of wine with their meal, and a few bottles of alcohol were usually only kept in the house for guests. Any guest wanting whisky in the near future was going to be out of luck!
Brenna stood up. ‘Maybe we’d better talk when you’re—feeling better—’
‘Not drunk, you mean.’ Grant slumped back into the chair, putting his feet up on the desk. ‘There will be no divorce, Brenna, not now or ever,’ he spoke with finality. ‘Lesli will come to her senses eventually.’
She wasn’t so sure of that, and a frown marred her brow as she waited in the lounge for Nathan to finish his calls and come down for dinner; Mindy had already been in twice, given a disgusted snort that her dinner was being kept waiting, and left again.
Nathan looked unperturbed when he joined Brenna a short time later, having changed into fitted beige trousers and a brown and beige striped shirt. ‘Has Mindy got to the slamming door stage yet?’ he grimaced.
‘Not yet. But—’
‘Oh, we’re all right, then,’ he said confidently, pulling out the chair opposite his that had always been Brenna’s place at the dining-table and pressing the buzzer for Mindy to begin serving their meal. ‘I know, I’m dicing with death,’ he shrugged as Brenna pulled a face. ‘Better attack than defence.’
He grinned up at Mindy as she served their meal, and before the elderly woman left to get their main course he had even managed to coax a smile out of her.
‘You always were her favourite,’ Brenna said disgustedly.
‘I was always the one who had to find ways of getting back into her good graces,’ he corrected. ‘It was either learn how to charm her or spend half my life in my bedroom.’
Charm. Yes, for a man who never used it he certainly knew how to get around Mindy. The housekeeper was actually laughing by the time she served them coffee in the lounge.
‘Right,’ Nathan sobered once he and Brenna were alone. ‘What’s happening between Lesli and Grant?’
‘Nothing,’ Brenna sighed. ‘She’s pretending to sleep—or she just might not be pretending; she seemed very tired. And Grant is drunk—’
‘Out cold,’ Nathan corrected gruffly. ‘I put him to bed in one of the guest rooms.’
‘That’s why you were so late down?’ Brenna frowned.
He nodded. ‘There’d be hell to pay if Mindy had found him.’
Brenna stood up to pace the room. ‘I don’t understand what’s wrong with them. Lesli says Grant doesn’t love her, but I’m sure he does. She—she seems hard—hardened. It’s hard to describe.’
‘I’ve seen it for myself. It’s as if she’s willing herself not to love him,’ he frowned.
‘He says he hasn’t had an affair.’
‘I know damn well he hasn’t,’ Nathan rasped, his eyes narrowed. ‘And if Lesli says otherwise—’
‘She doesn’t,’ she shook her head. ‘Nathan, we have to do something or—or I’m afraid it will be too late.’
‘Meaning?’ he prompted harshly, his expression hardening as she told him about both Grant and Lesli mentioning divorce. ‘Young idiots!’ he grated. ‘Don’t they realise that once that word gets taken seriously everything else gets distorted?’
‘I don’t think they care,’ Brenna sighed. ‘Not at the moment, anyway.’
‘Then we’ll have to make sure they’re given time to care,’ he scowled.
It was strange how the two of them were working together, even becoming friends in their common cause to save Grant and Lesli’s marriage. It was so long since she had felt even half this close to Nathan; she had forgotten how good it felt.
He glanced at his watch. ‘Grant is going to be out until the morning. Lesli will probably be asleep until then, so I have a little time to work something out. I have to go, I have an appointment in the city.’
‘Now?’ she frowned her surprise.
‘Half an hour ago, actually, but never mind. You probably feel like an early night yourself. I’ll give all this some thought while I’m out.’ He stood up.
He was gone so fast Brenna was just left with a blur of expensive aftershave, and she was slowly drinking her coffee when Mindy came in to clear away.
‘Has Nathan gone out?’ The older woman frowned at his absence.
‘He said he had an appointment in town,’ Brenna explained with a smile.
‘I should have known,’ Mindy said indulgently. ‘I expect he’s gone to see Dee.’
‘Dee?’ Brenna repeated with a feigned lack of interest.
‘Dee Wallace,’ the housekeeper explained. ‘She owns a boutique in the city. The two of them have been seeing each other for several months now.’
The fact that Mindy took such care to tell her that made her wonder if the other woman could also know of the night she had spent with Nathan last year. It was a possibility, she acknowledged. Mindy was the housekeeper, and she seemed to know most of what went on in the household. But Mindy needn’t have worried about warning her off Nathan; the two of them might be trying to keep Lesli and Grant together, but she wasn’t silly enough to see anything else between them. She hadn’t been even that naïve a first time, let alone a second!