Carole Mortimer - Point Of No Return

‘I know you didn’t,’ Megan laughed, knowing very well that this friendly lady had meant it as a compliment to her mother. ‘I’ll try not to be long with this,’ she promised.

She had the impression of unobtrusive luxury as she walked through the house, The Towers having been completely redecorated and refurnished before the new owner had moved in. The workmen had been working on the place for weeks before Jerome Towers moved in. Megan didn’t pause over her admiration of the new colour schemes, not wanting to arrive at the bedroom with a cold breakfast.

Not that she didn’t think the man deserved it. It was typical of Jerome Towers’ brother to arrive on the doorstep unannounced and then want to be waited on hand and foot. Breakfast in bed at ten-thirty in the morning, indeed! Brian had already put in five hours’ work by this time! It just didn’t seem fair.

She knocked on the wood-panelled door, hearing the mumble of some sort of answer. She knocked again, just in case it had been an instruction to wait and not to come in.

She heard another mumble inside, a crash as something hit the floor, and then the door swung open.

‘You!’ she exclaimed in horror, the tray almost falling out of her hands.

Standing in front of her, his blond hair tousled from sleep, his eyes bleary, his only garment a pair of blue silk pyjama trousers resting low down on his hips, the beginning of his recent appendectomy in evidence, was Roddy Meyers!

THE sleepy look left his eyes and he leant casually back against the doorjamb. ‘Well, well, well,’ he drawled mockingly, ‘if it isn’t Little Megan Finch!’

She had recovered from some of the shock by now—but not all of it! And she had thought she would never see him again, had hoped she would never see him again. ‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded accusingly. She must have the wrong bedroom, must have turned left instead of right, but that still didn’t explain this man being here.

The last time she had seen him had been when he had been pulled off her as she lay helpless on her bed, helpless because he had just pushed her there before attempting to make love to her. They had been discovered by a senior nursing officer as she did her rounds of the nurses’ home, and although Megan had claimed her innocence her story hadn’t been believed, because this man, Roddy Meyers, had claimed she had invited him there, had said she had been attracted to him from the first. Then of course the first incident in his private room had been brought up.

She couldn’t blame the people in charge for thinking the worst, not on the evidence they had. But she would never forgive this man for the lies he had told about her. He was despicable, and she hated him more than she had ever hated anyone in her life.

She pushed past him to put the laden tray down on the dressing-table. Damn Jerome Towers’ brother, he would have to wait for his breakfast, be it cold or not. She had something much more serious to deal with at the moment.

‘I asked you a question.’ She turned on Roddy Meyers, her green eyes sparkling angrily. ‘What are you doing at The Towers?’

‘I would have thought it was obvious,’ he taunted, obviously not realising how close he was to being struck. ‘I’m staying here.’

‘What is this?’ she snapped. ‘A hotel?’

He raised blond eyebrows. ‘Not as far as I know. What do you mean?’

Megan sighed, wondering why it was that she had resisted this young man’s advances so relentlessly that he had had to resort to force. He was good-looking in a youthful sort of way, twenty-five years of age, blond hair that was worn much too long, blue eyes, a handsome face, and yet she just hadn’t been attracted to him. That he hadn’t felt the same indifference had been obvious from the first moment they met; he had asked her every chance he got if she would go out with him. That her constant refusals had been responsible for her downfall she had no doubt.

‘I mean that Jerome Towers seems to have more guests here than the staff can cope with,’ she said rudely.

Roddy frowned. ‘Rome does?’

‘Rome?’

‘I’ve always called him that,’ he dismissed.

‘Bully for you,’ she taunted.

‘You don’t like him?’ he guessed shrewdly.

‘I’ve never met him,’ she didn’t directly answer the question. ‘Just why are you staying here?’

‘Have you forgotten, I was politely requested to leave the hospital?’ His sarcasm was unmistakable.

‘Well, at least it was politely done. I was thrown out,’ she remembered vehemently.

‘Mm, it was a shame about that, but—–’

‘A shame!’ she echoed shrilly. ‘It was more than that to me. You’ve ruined my career, you know. I’ll never get another job in a hospital. I’ll never know how you knew which room was mine, I certainly never told it to you.’

He grinned. ‘I asked your friend Tracy.’

Megan’s eyes widened in amazement. ‘And she told you, just like that?’ She had always thought Tracy her best friend at the hospital, had even promised to keep in touch, and now it turned out that Tracy had helped this man get her sacked. Somehow that didn’t sound like Tracy.

Roddy sat down on the bed, pushing his long hair back from his face. ‘Not just like that, no. I told her you’d invited me to your room, that you were expecting me, and that I’d forgotten your room number.’

‘And she believed you?’ Megan groaned. She knew a lot of the other girls sneaked boys into their room, although this was expressly forbidden in the hospital rules, but she had never been fond enough of anyone to take the risk of getting caught.

He shrugged. ‘She had no reason not to. I tell a very convincing story.’

‘Oh, I know that!’ to her cost!

‘Mm,’ he grinned. ‘What a coincidence us both being in the same area.’

‘I happen to live here,’ she snapped.

‘At least now I know I won’t be bored.’

Megan glared at him. ‘Don’t count on me to alleviate your boredom.’ She picked up the tray again. The food would be cold now, she would have to go down for a fresh lot.

Roddy was watching her. ‘Where are you going with that?’

‘To get fresh food and then take it to its rightful owner.’

‘Leave it,’ he ordered.

‘I—–’

‘It’s my breakfast, Megan,’ he said patiently.

‘But Jerome Towers’ brother—–’

‘Me,’ he nodded.

She nearly dropped the tray for the second time. ‘ You are his brother?’ She just couldn’t be that unlucky.

‘That’s right,’ he smiled at her horror. ‘Half-brother actually, but that’s never counted for much.’

Just her luck! If anyone should ever find out that he was the man involved in her dismissal, and that he was staying so close to her home, they would never believe her innocence. ‘Does he know why you were asked to leave?’ she asked almost reluctantly.

Roddy laughed, taking the tray out of her hands and pouring himself a cup of tea. ‘He doesn’t even know I was asked to leave,’ he informed her calmly, ‘let alone why.’

‘He doesn’t?’ She almost sighed her relief. Maybe if Roddy Meyers was no more eager than she was to have their past meeting made public knowledge they could keep the scandal to themselves.

‘No,’ he bit into a piece of buttered toast, ‘I just told him I’d been discharged.’

‘And he believed you?’

‘He had no reason not to. So now you’re working for my brother?’ He eyed her speculatively.

‘No, I’m not, I’m just helping out. And now I know you’re here I don’t intend helping out any longer,’ she told him angrily. ‘I’m leaving, and right now!’

He moved in front of the doorway to stop her exit, his hands on her upper arms. ‘Don’t be like that, Megan. You’ve been against me from the first—why don’t you like me?’

She wished she knew that herself. ‘Maybe you try too hard,’ she evaded. ‘Whatever the reason, I want you to take your hands off me.’

‘Oh, come on, Megan, I still want to go out with you,’ he said coaxingly. ‘And now there’s no patient/nurse relationship to stop us we can—–’

‘I don’t remember that stopping you before!’

‘No, well—–’ he smiled, ‘you’re beautiful, very desirable. You can’t blame a man for being persistent.’

‘ That persistent I can,’ she said indignantly. ‘I should hate you for what you did to me.’

‘But you don’t,’ he murmured softly, his gaze fixed on her parted lips. ‘Oh, Megan, I—–’

‘Roddy, are you going to get up to—–’ the voice trailed off as the man came to stand in the open doorway, his brown-eyed gaze levelled on them as they stood close together.

Megan wrenched away from Roddy Meyers’ embrace to face Jeff Robbins, and the censure in those deep brown eyes made her squirm with embarrassment. She had wanted to see him again, had intended making sure she did, but not when she was in Roddy Meyers’ arms.

‘I see yu’re already awake, Roddy,’ Jeff Robbins drawled, his gaze flickering over Megan almost insolently before passing back to Roddy. ‘And being entertained too, by the look of things.’

The younger man grinned. ‘I was just getting to know the new maid.’

‘I am not the new maid!’ Megan denied vehemently.

‘No, she isn’t,’ Jeff Robbins agreed. ‘Miss Finch is deputising for her mother,’ he explained abruptly.

‘I was just trying to persuade Megan to go out for a drive with me this afternoon,’ Roddy lied, knowing he had her trapped.

‘Really?’ Again brown eyes raked over her. ‘And did you manage to persuade her?’

‘She’s a bit hard to pin down to anything definite,’ Roddy grinned. ‘But I live in hope.’

‘Don’t we all?’ Jeff drawled.

All humour left Roddy’s face. ‘Have you been after her too?’ he queried resentfully.

‘No one has been “after” me!’ Megan cut in on their conversation, wishing Roddy Meyers would shut up, and that she could persuade Jeff Robbins that this situation wasn’t like it looked. But he didn’t look any more ready to believe her than they had at the hospital two days ago.

‘Haven’t they?’ Jeff asked, eyes narrowed.

‘No! I—–’

‘Hey, Rome, I think she’s embarrassed,’ Roddy mused.

Rome? This was Jerome Towers? But it couldn’t be—could it? But what other explanation could there be for him to be walking about the house? The estate manager would have no need to do that. Why hadn’t he told her this morning who he was? No wonder he hadn’t known about the tractor he was supposed to mend!