hurt to argue, Jack had put the ring away and driven Kate home, sure that parting without even a goodnight kiss would make her so miserable she’d change her mind by morning. But the morning post had brought Kate requests for interviews from two London-based companies. Soon afterwards she was accepted by one of them as a management trainee, and rang Jack in excitement to tell him. He wished her good luck, but to her utter dismay refused to meet her to celebrate.
‘I don’t see the point,’ he said tersely. ‘You’ve made your choice, and I’m keeping to mine.’
‘Shall I see you when I’m down next, then?’
But proud, obstinate and desperately hurt, Jack answered in a way that changed both their lives. ‘No point in that either, in the circumstances.’
He heard her draw in a deep, unsteady breath, and waited, his tension mounting. ‘I see,’ she said in a dead little voice. ‘If that’s how you feel we’d better make it a clean break, then. Goodbye.’
Three months later Jack married Dawn Taylor, daughter of the landlord of the Rose and Crown.
CHAPTER TWO
IN ANNA’S guest room Kate lay equally sleepless, wishing she’d gone home. At least there she could have made tea, or gone on painting her sitting room. She sighed and thumped her pillow for the umpteenth time. It was Jack Logan’s fault. Though to be fair, she reminded herself irritably, chance encounters with him were factors she’d dismissed as unimportant when she made the decision to return here. During her one visit home after leaving to start the new job she hadn’t tried to contact him, and Robert and Elizabeth had moved to London soon afterwards. Kate’s next visit had been years later, when the Maitlands bought a house in the area after Ben was head-hunted by a firm of local architects. There’d been occasional visits to Anna and Ben since, but from the day she’d given his ring back Kate had never laid eyes on Jack Logan again until tonight.
She stared into the darkness. He’d changed quite a bit. Which was no surprise. He’d packed a lot into his life in the years since their last meeting—not only the hard work which had brought him such meteoric success, but marriage and divorce along the way. Kate’s eyes kindled. She was human enough to feel glad his marriage hadn’t lasted. She’d never been able to think of it without a stab of pain. Jack had broken her heart in pieces when he married Dawn Taylor.
Kate was still thinking about this when she went downstairs next morning to make tea. The house was quiet and the kitchen immaculate, all traces of the party removed the night before by the catering firm. She looked up with a smile as Anna came in, yawning.
‘I thought I heard you, Kate. Why so early?’
‘I didn’t get much sleep last night. Nothing to do with the bed,’ Kate added hastily.
‘But a lot to do with Jack Logan. Sorry, love, if I’d had the least idea that he was the secret lover—’
‘Ex-lover.’
‘Whatever. I’d have given you advance warning.’
‘Did you know about his divorce?’
‘No; I don’t know much about him at all, other than his success with these restoration projects of his. Everything he touches seems to turn to gold. They call it Logan’s luck hereabouts according to Ben.’ Anna shook her head in wonder. ‘To think it was Jack Logan’s name that never sullied your lips!’
‘What have you been reading lately?’ said Kate, smiling, then pulled a face. ‘Lord, I felt like such a fool when I asked about his wife. I wonder why the lovely Dawn left him.’
‘No idea. Ask Jack.’
‘As if!’
‘Are you going to see him again?’
‘I doubt it.’ Kate sniffed. ‘He was a touch pejorative about my track record in the romance department.’
‘But engagements were your speciality. At least you never got married—and divorced—like him.’ Anna looked speculative. ‘There’s no one significant in his life right now, though. According to Lucy Beresford—the fount of all knowledge—the eligible Jack Logan lives all by himself in that showplace of his.’
‘Amazing. When I saw that article about it in the Sunday magazine I took it for granted Dawn lived there with him.’
‘They must have split up before he developed the property.’ Anna downed her tea at the sound of footsteps upstairs ‘Stand by your beds! Ben’s on the move at last.’
‘I’ll just wait to say hello and goodbye, then I’m off home,’ said Kate, and smiled. ‘Home. That sounds so good, Anna.’