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always,’ he admitted. His slow, reflective smile held a rueful affection that softened his features. ‘But I do love the kid, and despite being spoilt from the day he drew breath he’s basically a good guy. Sure, he panicked when he found out about the baby. But he wouldn’t be the first. Personally, I think marriage with the right sort of girl is just what he needs …’

      ‘You mean if he’s got a wife she might keep him out of trouble and save you a lot of hassle?’ she accused scornfully.

      ‘That thought had occurred to me.’

      ‘If you were trying to sell me Greg as a brother-in-law you haven’t done much of a job so far!’

      ‘Why would I want to sell you anything, Alice? I thought you were all for leaving the young people to sort it out for themselves.’

      Alice gave an exasperated snort. ‘I’d think I’d have preferred it if you’d thought Sophie was a gold-digger!’ she exclaimed.

      ‘That was always one possibility,’ Gabriel admitted readily, ‘but, having heard Greg’s version of events, I think there’s only one victim here, and it isn’t my brother.’ His voice carried a grimness that made Alice appreciate just why Greg might be afraid of his brother.

      There had been nothing grudging in his candid admission, and she felt confused and simultaneously suspicious of his apparent forthrightness.

      ‘In Greg’s defence I have to say I’ve never seen him this smitten by a girl, and he doesn’t usually go for teenagers.’ His expression suggested that personally he found this attraction impossible to understand. ‘If your sister loves him I think the responsibility might well be the making of him … Does she?’

      One dark brow quirked at a quizzical angle, he gave her a direct look that Alice found impossible to wriggle away from. Actually, she felt as if his eyes were pinning her to the wall. He’d pinned her to the wall that night, only not with his eyes …

      The sudden freeze-frame image in her head filled her with intense shame—the silhouette of two bodies as close to being one as it was possible to get … How did I behave like that? She pulled at the neckline of her tee-shirt fretfully.

      ‘I don’t know.’ Her voice had a hoarse, strained quality as she struggled to put the past where it belonged. ‘Sophie has gone away to think.’

      ‘And what will she decide?’ he persisted.

      ‘You don’t get it, do you?’ She gave him an exasperated scowl. ‘You might tell your brother what to think, but Sophie is no puppet. I’ll just try and support her in her decision.’

      ‘A commendable attitude.’ He seemed noticeably unimpressed. ‘What if that decision is to marry Greg? Will your non-interventionist policy hold true then?’

      ‘Even then,’ she confirmed reluctantly.

      ‘Greg thinks you’re trying to spike his guns. He finds you scary.’

      ‘I think Greg finds anyone scary who doesn’t respond to his charm, and I’m not the sort of person who is won over by a slick tongue and a pretty face.’

      Gabriel’s dark eyes narrowed as he digested her lofty claim.

      ‘I’m left wondering just what it was about me that won you over that memorable night.’ At his soft words all the colour leached from Alice’s face.

      Knowing that what was coming next was inevitable, she watched his brow furrow in mock confusion before his eyes abruptly widened with comic comprehension. Alice started as he vigorously slapped his thigh.

      ‘Don’t tell me …!’ he instructed firmly. ‘It was my inner goodness shining through again, wasn’t it?’

      ‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you?’ she hissed. She’d known he’d be determined to mortify her. He didn’t know that he couldn’t think anything about her she hadn’t already thought herself.

      ‘Well, you’d know about stupid men, wouldn’t you? As you’re married to a prize idiot!’

      ‘Leave Oliver out of this!’ she yelled.

      ‘Or do you have his tacit approval of your nocturnal activities? Perhaps you share the details with him later … Some men get off on that sort of thing, I understand.’

      ‘You’re sick!’

      The soft noise Alice hadn’t noticed emerging from the intercom became a sudden wail.

      ‘My son needs me,’ she said shakily. ‘Why don’t you let yourself out? Incidentally, if I have got any influence with Sophie I’ll use it to stop her getting any more involved with someone who’s even remotely connected with you!’

      Gabriel appeared to take her open malice in his stride. ‘At least you’ve dropped all that objectivity rubbish. We both know where we stand, I think.’

      Pushing past him, Alice wished she could say the same. In the last half-hour her whole life had been turned upside-down!

      CHAPTER TWO

      ‘I WONDER what are they up to. Big brother must want to give me the once-over, probably, and warn me off. Perhaps,’ she theorised a little wildly, ‘he’ll want to pay me off.’

      Alice knew better than to interrupt Sophie in the midst of one of her wilder flights of fancy. She maintained a neutral silence; she didn’t feel in the mood to get involved in convoluted conspiracy theories.

      ‘If he’s having his brother there, I want you. I’m not about to be browbeaten.’

      Privately Alice didn’t think she’d ever seen anyone less browbeaten. She was the one feeling helpless. She’d seen that stubborn set of her sister’s chin before.

      She could have said, I can’t possibly come with you because Gabriel MacAllister is the father of my child and he doesn’t know. That might prove distracting, she brooded darkly. And oh, incidentally, I don’t want him to know! It brought a wry fleeting smile to her face when she imagined how her sister would respond to that dynamite confession! God, how did my life get this complicated?

      Naturally she was glad that Sophie had returned from the long weekend break at their grandmother’s house outside York in a positive frame of mind, but an energised Sophie was hard to resist once she set her mind on something!

      And it was Alice who had convinced her she ought to speak to the wretched boy! She repressed a cowardly impulse to look for the nearest bucket of sand to bury her head in!

      Drinks with the MacAllister brothers was not exactly her idea of a restful evening. It might have been a less daunting prospect on neutral ground, but it seemed Gabriel had leased Milborne Hall on the outskirts of town.

      Alice had been forced to listen to local speculation about this surprising development for the past two days. She found herself praying that the more optimistic amongst the locals were wrong when they said rather smugly it was perfectly natural Gabriel MacAllister would want to live somewhere as perfect as their little rural backwater.

      ‘Wouldn’t it be better if Mum and Dad …?’

      ‘Are you kidding! Mum starts crying every time I look at her, and I’m just glad Dad sold his shotgun last year,’ Sophie reflected grimly. ‘You can laugh …’

      Not recently!

      ‘But you’re not living there. I wish I’d stayed at Gran’s.’

      ‘I’m working …’ Alice made a feeble last-ditch attempt to wriggle out of it.

      ‘You’re not on duty until nine, are you …?’ Sophie smiled when her sister glumly nodded. ‘Fine, drop Will off a couple off hours early with Mum and we’ll go straight there. We’ll be finished in plenty of time for you to get to work. Anyone would think you were the one scared of meeting the man! It’s

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