The Wedding Party And Holiday Escapes Ultimate Collection. Кейт Хьюит
up, Rafe was seated and watching her.
“How was your run?” her mother asked him.
He’d been for a run already? Lexie hid her surprise. She often ran in the mornings herself, but not when she’d had only a few hours’ sleep. This morning she had barely dragged herself out of bed in time to dress properly for breakfast, and had done it only because it was so important to her mother. She stabbed a cube of melon in her bowl. Who’s the indolent one now? a little voice taunted.
“Pleasant,” he said in that deep, cultured voice. “You have lovely grounds, especially that wooded area that the driveway cuts through.”
He was looking at her mother, but Lexie couldn’t pull her gaze from him. What was he going to say next? Why bring up the scene of their midnight cat-and-mouse game? An incident that now, in the broad light of day, seemed almost surreal.
“Thank you. And you slept well last night?”
Lexie held her breath. Would he feel compelled out of a misplaced sense of either responsibility or mischief to mention what had happened last night, how and where he’d found her? She was leaving today. She didn’t need a lecture from her mother as a parting gift.
Rafe’s knowing gaze met hers before transferring back to her mother. “Deeply.”
But briefly, she thought, as she let her breath out on a sigh of relief and begrudging gratitude. She took aim at a strawberry with her fork. Even without going for a run, she’d managed only a few hours’ sleep. In response to the thought, her jaw tensed with the beginnings of a yawn.
“I’m afraid you must find our country ways quite dull?” Antonia smiled at Rafe, and Lexie cringed. If only her mother would stop fishing for compliments.
Lexie looked up and caught the gleam in his dark eyes, and the urge to yawn disappeared. The fork stilled in her hand as she waited for his answer.
“On the contrary,” he said easily, just as her mother would have expected. “Last night was fascinating. Far more interesting than I could have anticipated.” Double meaning laced his words, and Lexie waited for her mother to pick up on it and probe further.
If only she would go and chat with some of the other guests. Lexie hadn’t thought that after last night she could want to be alone with Rafe, but it would undoubtedly be better than this agony of trepidation.
“I’m delighted you thought so. I do have a reputation for the best dinner parties.” Fortunately, her mother, while socially astute, could also be shallow. And for once Lexie found herself grateful for that fact. Her mother had no idea that Rafe could be talking about anything other than the dinner party and truly had no idea how dull the dinner had been in the first place. If people complimented her, which they always did, it was usually because of her wealth and status. She had to know that, it was how she thought, too. Her mother just couldn’t quite believe it worked in reverse.
Lexie took a bite of her strawberry and forced herself to chew, pretending to concentrate on a breakfast that she was too anxious and too tired to really be interested in. She watched with something like envy and a little irritation as Rafe started on a plate of bacon and eggs.
She ate enough that it wouldn’t look as if she was running from him before she pushed her bowl away a little. She was about to stand when her mother beat her to it, saying, “I really must have a word with Bill before he leaves, I’ve been sadly ignoring him.” And then she was gone. Lexie could hardly go now, too, and leave Rafe sitting alone at the table. Gritting her teeth, she reached for her orange juice.
“Don’t stay on my account, Precious,” he murmured, apparently aware of her conflict. His knowing eyes watched her over the rim of his coffee cup. A hint of a grin taunted her.
Lexie folded her hands in her lap. “Thank you for not mentioning the nightclub to my mother.”
He sat back a little. “You didn’t seriously think I would? What you do or don’t tell your mother is no concern of mine.”
“Thank you anyway.”
As he shrugged off her thanks his cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and, frowning, glanced at the caller ID. “Excuse me. It’s my brother. I need to take it.” He stood and strolled off the terrace.
What she told her mother might be no concern of his, but what he told his brother was surely an entirely different matter. She hadn’t done anything to be ashamed of, but it would still be better if she was the one to mention it to Adam.
If it needed mentioning at all.
She could hear nothing of his conversation as he walked away. He passed Stanley, who stood to one side of the terrace overseeing the proceedings, and disappeared from sight behind a manicured hedge.
Grasping what was possibly her last opportunity to talk to her old friend, she picked up her coffee cup and made her way over to the butler. If she was also closer to Rafe, it was purely coincidence.
“Pleasant evening last night, miss?” he asked, a twinkle in his eye.
“Not you, too?” Stanley was the only one in the household who knew about her love of dancing and her occasional nightclub escapes.
“Meaning?”
“I got busted.”
“By?” His concern showed in that single syllable.
“The Frog Prince.”
The concern deepened. “He wasn’t impressed?”
“Ah, no, that’s not how I’d describe his reaction.”
As Stanley allowed a smile, her mother’s laughter reached them, and they both looked in her direction. “Clearly, he didn’t feel obliged to mention it to your mother.”
“No. Thankfully. At least not yet, anyway.”
“I’m sure he’s the last person who would.”
Stanley, too, knew of Rafe’s reputation. But despite Rafe’s assurances, and his own not infrequent misdemeanors, Lexie wasn’t one hundred percent certain that Rafe wouldn’t use his information to her detriment if he felt it served his purpose, either here or in San Philippe. “You’re probably right,” she said, at least partially to reassure herself.
“One other thing,” Stanley said.
“Yes?”
“You might want to stop calling him the Frog Prince, if he’s to become your brother-in-law.”
“I know,” she said on a sigh.
“You don’t have to go.”
Lexie looked back at the breakfast table, the assembled guests, her mother presiding over it all, and quashed her own doubts. “I know you think what I’m doing is crazy. And sometimes I think that, too, because it doesn’t always make sense. But I want to go. I love San Philippe. I can’t explain why, but I’ve always felt welcome and at home there. And of course there’s Adam.” Maybe he shouldn’t have been last on that list.
“Dammit, Adam,” Rafe’s voice carried suddenly to her. “Shouldn’t you be the one to do that with her?” His pacing had brought him to the other side of the topiaried hedge. She couldn’t see him because the hedge made a dense screen, but it was far from soundproof. “Logically, yes, but—” He walked a little farther off. “I have a life to get back to.” Lexie still heard his words, and she was fairly sure she was the topic of conversation. “I have better things to do with my time than babysitting or running your errands for you.” Now she was definitely sure, and a weight settled in her stomach. “This whole situation is ludicrous.” Rafe’s disdain for her was clear. “I can’t imagine what sort of scheming or hopelessly naive woman would—”
Stanley cleared his throat. “On the other hand,” he said, talking over Rafe’s voice, “the Frog Prince has a certain ring to it.”
Lexie laughed, but