Forcing herself to stay calm, she shrugged and said flatly, ‘I did wait. But you didn’t come back and I have notes to write up. So, if you don’t mind—’
‘Oh, but I do. We need to talk.’
She flinched at the biting tone of his voice but drew her head up to meet his gaze. ‘I’m sorry you feel like that, but I’m busy now,’ she said carefully. ‘Maybe we can talk later.’
Turning, her heart pounding in her chest, she walked quickly up the path and opened the front door of the cottage. Before she could shut it, Laszlo had followed her into the living room.
‘What are you doing?’ She stared at him furiously. ‘You can’t just barge in here!’
‘Don’t you ever walk away from me.’ His face was twisted with anger. ‘I told you to wait!’
She lifted her chin, eyes blazing. His high-handed manner was setting her teeth on edge. ‘I did,’ she shot back at him. ‘But if you think I’ve got all day to sit around and wait for you—’
‘My grandfather was upset. I was trying to make him feel better. But maybe you don’t care about that.’ His eyes were hardening like lava cooling.
‘That’s not true, Laszlo. I do care about your grandfather,’ she said shakily. ‘And I want to help. That’s why I’m going to speak to my uncle.’
She stared at him in helpless silence as he shook his head.
‘No, you’re not.’
His voice scraped over her skin, hostility palpable in every syllable.
‘Not if you want to keep this job!’
Prudence took a step backwards, the unfairness as much as the autocratic tone of his command leaving her feeling almost winded. She felt dizzy. He’d gone completely mad. That was the only explanation.
‘What is your problem? You’re not making any sense. If Edmund hadn’t been ill he’d have been here instead of me. And you were fine with that. Only now you’re telling me I can’t even ring him?’
Incandescent with anger, Laszlo stared at her. She was right. His behaviour was irrational. Except that it wasn’t. Only he couldn’t explain that to her. Not while he was still reeling from this revelation that Edmund Seymour was the man who had ruined his life.
His chest felt tight and he took a calming breath. Finally, he said flatly, ‘We made a deal. I told you that if you couldn’t work for me then you should leave.’
‘Any deal we made didn’t include pussyfooting around you when you’re having some sort of temper tantrum!’ She glared at him. ‘This has nothing to do with our deal and you know it. You’re just angry because I wasn’t where you wanted me to be. Well, now you know what it feels like!’
There was a moment’s savage silence and then she took a breath. What wer
e they doing? Tearing each other apart over a phone call?
Feeling suddenly calmer, she shook her head and said slowly, ‘I didn’t just leave to make you angry. I really did—really do—have a lot of work to do.’
She bit her lip. Had they naively expected that the anger and resentment from their past would magically dissipate just because they’d started sleeping together again? If so, they’d been grievously mistaken. The fragile peace they’d shared for more than a week was over, and sadly she realised that it had been as illusory as every other aspect of their relationship.
‘But my advice would still be to contact Edmund.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘I see. I suppose you think you know better than I do what’s best for my grandfather?’
Biting her lip, she nodded. ‘In this instance—yes. He’s worried about the cataloguing and Edmund can help him,’ she said simply. ‘Sometimes you just need a different point of view to solve the problem.’
Catching sight of the ineffably contemptuous sneer in his eyes, she felt a ripple of anger snake over her skin.
She took a deep breath. ‘You know, the trouble with you, Laszlo, is you’re just so certain you’re right you just can’t imagine that there might be another point of view.’
‘Not true.’ His voice was dangerously soft. ‘I know everything there is to know about other points of view. Particularly your uncle’s.’
There. He’d said it. It was as though he’d taken off a particularly scratchy sweater. She stared at him, her eyes blinking in time with her scattering thoughts. ‘What do you mean? You’ve never even spoken to my uncle. He spoke to your grandfather and Jakob.’
He smiled slowly and she felt the breath squeeze out of her lungs.