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THE TEXT FROM TED WAS a surprise. Alexander wondered why his brother wanted to stay at the Gatehouse with him and not at the Hall as he usually did. Something must be afoot. What was Ted up to now?
Alexander called in his final appointment of the day, a Westie pup here for its jabs. The white ball of fluff with sharp black eyes was endearing enough to make him smile, even after a long day in the clinics. He wrote up his notes when the puppy had been carried off by her eager family, the children arguing over who would get to hold her in the car, the mother throwing him an apologetic smile as she ushered them out of the room.
He would run tonight, despite the uninspiring drizzle that had misted the day. Even a heavy sky would be a refreshing lift after four walls and a ceiling. He strode to the cloakroom and changed his white coat for his waterproof jacket. He’d been polite and sociable throughout today’s clinics. There had even been a couple of interesting cases and some rather nice people.
The clinics weren’t so bad if you tackled them in the right frame of mind. Maybe he’d go for a drink at the Fox after his run. A reward to himself for good behaviour. A wry smile lifted the corner of his mouth. And he ought to call in and see Ruby. She was going to visit her parents this weekend and had dropped several hints that he might want to join her. Alexander had pretended not to catch them. Meeting her parents wasn’t on his agenda yet, and now Ted was coming to stay so he had the perfect excuse.
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ALEXANDER WOULD HAVE liked to ignore Fiona but he couldn’t snub Bill, so he nodded and approached their table with his hands in his jacket pockets and inclined his head towards Bill, already irked by the smugness of Fiona’s smile. Why did it always feel like he was going into battle when he had to speak to her?
Bill’s smile was genuine, but it was Fiona who spoke. ‘Melton. We’re honoured, aren’t we, Daddy?’
Alexander looked at Bill. ‘Must have been muddy hunting this month.’
Fiona answered for her father. ‘Gosh, yes! Hettie was telling me only yesterday that Cob came back from his day’s hunting as a dark bay. So funny!’
Alexander clenched his teeth, but civility forced him to turn his head to look at her when she spoke. He could tell from the glint in her eye that the name drop had been deliberate. He composed his features into a mask of polite disinterest.
Fiona flicked her hair back over her shoulder with a swing of her head. ‘At least it’s so much easier to wash the horses down now the yard has hot water. You won’t have seen all of the improvements, of course. Tom seems to be our go-to vet these days.’
Alexander prickled at the inference that Fiona knew more about Hettie’s life than he did. It was true, but who did she think she was with that ‘our go-to vet’?
He clenched his fists in his pockets and cautioned himself not to rise. ‘How nice.’
Fiona leant forwards, her eyes narrowing secretively. ‘Don’t say I told you so, but I do think our Tom has rather a crush on Hettie. So sweet.’ She took a delicate sip of her gin and tonic.
The muscle in his jaw was throbbing from biting down so hard. ‘So, Bill, how are things going in the world of manufacturing?’
Fiona tilted her head and listened as her father and Alexander talked. Alexander tried to ignore her, but her knowing smile played on the edge of his vision.
She curled a strand of hair between her fingers, and jumped back in when there was barely an opening. ‘Oh, Daddy, I almost forgot. We haven’t told Lexi about Hettie’s new partnership! Such plans the two of them have. Did you know that they’re building an indoor arena at Hardacre now?’
Alexander scowled. If she thought Hettie’s success would bother him, she was way off the mark. He wanted Hettie, and the yard, to do well. He just didn’t want to hear about it. More specifically, he didn’t want to hear about her.
‘I should leave you two to your evening—’
‘Dear Gregor, her new partner, is such a generous man.’
Bill frowned at his daughter, but Fiona’s smile was triumphant. Alexander forced a tight-lipped smile, but he knew he was glaring. And who the fuck was Gregor?
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BILL LEANT ACROSS THE table when Alexander had left them. ‘You know, you really shouldn’t meddle, pet.’
‘I’m not meddling, Daddy, I’m stirring. There’s a very subtle difference.’
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IT WAS LATER THAN HE’D planned when he left the pub to go and see Ruby. He’d brooded too long over his whiskey, turning the glass and staring into its golden depths as the liquid shifted and settled.
This was always going to happen, of course. He’d moved on, so why should he expect any different of her? She’d almost moved on before she came back. Why had she come back, anyway? And why was he letting the thought of her moving on cut him up so much? This wasn’t part of the plan. He was meant to be forgetting her, not dwelling on the ache thinking about her provoked.
The all-pervading drizzle had soaked the pavement black. Its shiny wetness reflected the yellow light outside the pub that illuminated the still-falling rain. Alexander rounded his shoulders and dropped his head. Whoever Gregor was, he and Hettie must be tight. She’d refused all his offers of help, but she was clearly willing to accept help from Gregor. What sort of name was that? He shook the rain from his hair as he climbed into the car and sat for a moment in darkness before turning the ignition on.
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HE COULD SEE THE STAIN of Ruby’s nipples through her nightdress. The shadow of her curves through the flimsy fabric was a welcome diversion from his thoughts, and he reached for her before she had the chance to speak, his hands on her ribs, his thumb tracing a line underneath her breast as he manoeuvred her backwards into the flat. ‘Ted wants to visit this weekend, so I won’t come to your parents.’
‘As if you ever intended to.’
He turned her and palmed her breasts, his face pressed to the back of her head. Her nipples hardened under his hands. ‘Don’t be like that, I’m here now. Here to see you, and to say sorry I can’t come.’ He felt her neck stiffen.
‘You weren’t invited, anyway.’ She tried to turn to face him, but he held her in place.
‘You look very sexy tonight. Am I invited under here?’ He ran his hand up the side of her thigh, beneath the hem of her nightdress. His fingers found the leg of her knickers and followed the line of elastic. Hooking his thumb over the top, he drew her panties down.
Ruby gasped. ‘Is this meant to be foreplay?’
But he could hear the heat in her voice, and she didn’t move away from his gaze as his eyes travelled over her. ‘You’re beautiful. I’ll carry this picture with me while you’re gone.’
‘And you’re full of crap.’
Her words melted into a moan when Alexander’s finger slipped inside her. She tilted away from him and braced on the arm of the sofa. He lifted the nightdress higher, running his forefinger down her spine, pulling her knickers lower.
Alexander was slow to undress. He watched Ruby as her breath quickened in expectation, saw the rise and fall of her ribs and the roll of her head on the cushion.
She pressed her eyes closed when he touched her again, and his were shut when he gripped her hips and slid inside her.
An image of Hettie filled his mind and he didn’t try to fight it, but it was Ruby’s moans of pleasure that drove his thrusts, and he pulled his attention back to the moment.
Slowing, he lifted Ruby upright. Her nightdress fell like a curtain between them. He stroked the front of her thigh, cupping her pubic bone. He pushed her deeper onto him, his fingers finding her softest folds. Ruby’s gasps built, and he rode the wave of her orgasm to his own spill of relief.
The climax of their encounter left them in an awkward embrace, back to front, half-standing, half-kneeling on the edge of the sofa. Alexander moved away.
He reached out to touch Ruby’s arm as she stood, but the gesture felt weak and as wretched as the darkness of his mood. He knew he should say something now, express his affection, touch her and hold her, anything but this hellish, anti-climactic silence.
‘Thank you, gorgeous. Would you like me to make you a cup of tea?’
Ruby kept her back turned. ‘Don’t bother. I’d hate to keep you.’
‘You’re not keeping me. I’m here to see you.’
‘We both know why you’re here, Alexander.’
He rubbed his forehead. Was she right?
He had no defence, but the shabbiness of the truth made him bite in response, ‘Oh, come off it. You were as keen as I was, so don’t turn this on me. From where I was standing you enjoyed it too.’
Ruby plumped the cushions on the sofa with a ferocity that betrayed her reaction to his statement.
Alexander sighed as he dressed. ‘I’m sorry. For whatever I’m meant to be sorry for.’
She spun to face him, one of the cushions still clasped to her chest. ‘You need me to spell it out? You turn up at midnight—’
He lifted his hands. ‘Okay, okay—’
‘—and I don’t know who you were shagging just then, but I’m pretty bloody sure it wasn’t me.’
His hands fell back to his sides. Oh, for fuck’s sake, he didn’t need this. He knew he was being a shit, but irritation flared in his chest anyway. He fought it, moved to Ruby and put his arms around her. The cushion sat between them like a stumbling block, and he felt her body wilt as her shoulders dropped.
‘Go home, Alexander.’
‘Is that really what you want? Can I at least kiss you goodbye?’
Ruby’s pale eyes flicked to his. ‘You didn’t feel the need to kiss me when you got here.’
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A BLAST OF COLD AIR swept into the car when Ted opened the door, but it was the shock of seeing his brother that jolted Alexander. There was unfamiliar stubble on Ted’s chin, and his suit was crumpled. His skin looked sallow under the glow of the car’s interior light.
‘Hard week?’
‘You could say that.’
They didn’t speak again on the drive to the Gatehouse. The car’s radio broke the weight of their silence and Alexander decided to hold back the questions he wanted to ask. He was worried now, but he figured that Ted would talk in his own good time.
Ted hoisted his overnight bag across his shoulder and they went into the house. ‘Do you mind if I grab a shower?’ He was heading for the stairs before Alexander had answered.
Alexander grilled the steaks he’d bought. The shower was still running as he mixed the salad and uncorked a bottle of Malbec. He turned the TV on with the volume low when Ted still hadn’t reappeared, and paced the sitting room until his brother finally came back down the stairs, clean-shaven and damp-haired in jeans and a T-shirt.
Ted barely glanced at the food Alexander set in front of him, but he took the glass of red wine.
Alexander picked up his knife and fork. ‘Health, women or work?’
‘Are you sure you want to know?’
Alexander was growing impatient now, and the angst that had built in his gut made the steak unappealing. ‘Of course I want to know. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?’
‘And you won’t lose it when I tell you?’
‘How the fuck can I say that until you’ve told me what it is?’
‘It’s Anj. She’s kicked me out.’
Alexander leant back in his chair and looked at his brother, but Ted wouldn’t meet his eye. The muted noise from the TV played out from the sitting room while he digested and shaped this piece of information. ‘Do I need to ask you why?’
‘Probably not.’
A blow of agitation forced him to his feet.
Ted turned his head away. ‘Go for it, Al. Let’s get the judgement over and done with.’
‘You fucking idiot.’
‘There we go.’
Alexander shook his head but he sat back down. Two dinners sat on the table untouched.
He tried to breathe through his anger – at Ted, at all of them. Was the whole fucking family dysfunctional? He knew he was screwed, but Ted and Anju? At the engagement, the party, he’d seen them happy, and now that was in ruins. Was it in-born, inbred, this cheating and betrayal? Was the whole world at it, or was it the curse of the Meltons? Surely someone was getting it right. He made himself think of James, the only decent one out of the three of them.
His face set hard and cruel. ‘Well, maybe it’s for the best. Better you fucked up now than after the wedding, if you’ll forgive the pun.’
Ted’s colour was high and he glowered back at his brother. ‘I think I’ll go. Stupid of me to think I would find any sympathy here.’
‘Sympathy? For God’s sake, man, is that what you think you’re due?’
‘From you, yes. When the fuck have you ever been faithful?’
The stand-off bristled across the table.
Alexander clenched his fists. He had been faithful, but where had that got him? It was all a bloody game, this love charade. It was more like a contest to see who could hurt the other most. And it did fucking hurt, he knew that now. Maybe he’d deserved it, but what had Anju done? Another broken faith, another broken relationship. And all for what? ‘Was she worth it? Whoever you shagged?’
‘What do you fucking think? I love Anju-—’
‘Ha!’
Ted walked away from the table.
Alexander wrestled his voice back to an even tone. ‘You’re not going anywhere. Where have you got to go?’
Ted’s shoulders fell in defeat.
‘Sit down. Eat your steak and finish your wine. Let’s talk about this and see if there’s any way out of the train crash.’