Seconds later he appeared at her side, ‘There’s no need to panic,’ she soothed. ‘I don’t think it’s serious.’
The understanding as much as the suggestion made him see red. ‘And what was your medical qualification again?’
She responded through clenched teeth and began to trot to keep up with his long-legged stride. ‘By all means blame me if it makes you feel any better, but it is just possible that this is not anyone’s fault. Children get tummy aches, they get temperatures, they need a cuddle and six seconds later they get better.’
‘Blame you? How could I do that? You’re just the innocent victim things happen to. Things like falling into affairs with married men—’
‘That’s right,’ she mumbled. ‘Pick out all the high points in my life.’ She paused and felt uneasy. If there was such a thing as immersing yourself too deeply in a role, she was guilty of it.
It was legitimate to feel protective of Rosie, but not when she allowed herself to become the victim when she’d only been a helpless observer to what had happened to her cousin.
She was not the one who had lost a baby and very nearly her own life. That was Rosie. That she needed to remind herself of this proved that she had gone way too deep undercover.
‘Enough!’ Hand on the door leading into Jas’s bedroom, Anna stopped and turned around. Pushing her head back against the panelled oak, she tilted it upwards to level her flashing blue eyes on the man whose shoulder she barely reached.
‘It’s not my fault you’ve had a row with your girlfriend. Don’t take it out on me and don’t use me as some sort of substitute. I don’t know why and I don’t want to,’ she declared with a shudder of distaste. ‘But I resent being used that way just because I was there.’
‘You did not appear to resent it at the time.’
‘You didn’t give me much chance to do anything, you just...just... I definitely don’t want to interview for the job of substitute.’ She narrowed her eyes and warned, ‘So if you lay a finger on me again I’ll...’ He’d laid more than a finger and she hadn’t wanted him to stop; she’d wanted more. She’d wanted it all. ‘Just don’t!’ she snapped.
Rather to her surprise, after a moment he tilted his head in a jerky motion of assent and retorted, ‘Don’t turn up at my door half dressed.’
Anna laid her hands on her hot cheeks and schooled her expression into something approaching composure before following him into the room.
Cesare was already at the bedside looking down at his niece. ‘So what have you been up to, Angel’s little angel?’
‘I want Mummy.’
The plaintive note was heartbreaking and Anna could see from Cesare’s face that he was not immune. ‘I know that, sweetheart. So how are you feeling? Better?’
The little girl thought about it and nodded. ‘It was Anna’s magic flannel. She wiped my head with it and I felt better. Do you have a magic flannel?’
‘All out of magic.’
‘A song...the lully song...?’ She patted the bed beside her.
The mattress dipped as Cesare arranged his long length on top of the quilt, looking incongruous against the backdrop of pink rabbits.
His expression as their glances connected dared her to comment. ‘Pink is your colour.’
Constrained by the presence of his niece, Cesare framed a neutral response. ‘If you want anything you know where I am.’
It was a dismissal and one Anna was only too happy to respond to. With a smile for Jasmine and a cold glare for the uncle, she turned to go.
‘No, I want you to stay too, Anna.’ Jasmine pouted.
Anna turned back with a sigh. ‘I don’t think there’s room. I’ll just go and—’
‘Here!’ Jasmine patted the spot to her right that was not occupied by her uncle. When Anna didn’t respond to the imperious direction the childish lips began to quiver. Anna broke at the first tear.
‘All right, until you fall asleep I’ll just lie here.’
I’m sharing a bed with Cesare Urquart. I bet not many twenty-something virgins can say that! She wondered what he’d say if he knew. Her ex-boyfriend Mark had been astonished and Anna suspected it had been the sheer novelty value of the prospect of having a virgin bride that had made him stop pressuring her for sex.
And she’d been relieved.
When he’d dumped her Mark had made several references to her frigidity in justification and Anna had not thought his comments unfair.