‘If you’d turn a light on or take those sunglasses off, you’d see it’s me.’ Ruby carried the tray over to the table next to the wing chair he had just vacated. ‘Why are you wearing them inside on a day like today? There’s not exactly blinding sunshine coming through the windows.’
There was a beat or two of silence before he answered in a hollow tone. ‘Headache.’
‘Oh, sorry. I’ll try not to rattle the cups too loudly.’ She proceeded to pour the tea into the two cups, and theglug-glug-glugsound in the silence was as loud as a waterfall.
‘What are you doing?’ His voice contained a note or two of irritation and his eyebrows were drawn together, his mouth pulled into a tight line. He remained standing in a stiff and guarded posture that was more than a little off-putting. But Ruby was not going to waste the opportunity to spend some time alone with him to present her proposal.
‘I’m having afternoon tea with you. Anyway, you can’t possibly eat all that parkin on your own.’
‘Take it away. All of it. And close the door on your way out.’ He turned his back on her and stood staring out of the rain-spattered windows, his hands thrust deep into the pockets of his trousers.
Ruby let out a long sigh. ‘Look, I know headaches can make the most even-tempered person a little irritable, but I’ve come a long way and I’d like to talk to you about something. Something important.’
‘Now’s not a good time.’
‘When would be a good time?’
There was another cavernous silence. The old bookshelves made a creaking sound, and the howling wind outside whipped up a few stray leaves on the ground and sent them past the windows in a whirligig.
Lucas finally released a long, ragged sigh and then lifted one of his hands out of his trouser pocket to rake it through his black hair, the tracks of his fingers leaving deep grooves in the thick strands.
‘Is it about your grandmother?’
The quality of his tone had changed, the sharp edges softening slightly. He remained with his back to her, and the broadness of his shoulders and his strong spine tapering down to lean hips stirred a flicker of female awareness in her body. An awareness she didn’t want to acknowledge, even to herself. Men like Lucas Rothwell were way out of her league. He only dated supermodels—not homely, girl-next-door-types with freckles and acne scars.
‘Partly, yes.’ Ruby figured discussing her gran would at least give her a good lead-in to her business proposal.
Lucas turned from the window and reached out with one of his hands for the back of the wing chair, lowering himself into it. He stretched his long legs out, crossing his feet at the ankles. His pose was casual, but she sensed a coiled tension in him. Was it because of his headache? She couldn’t remember him ever being ill. Was it a tension headache or a full-blown migraine? She had heard migraines made bright light unbearable to the sufferer and often caused vision disturbance. No wonder he was wearing sunglasses inside.
‘You can pour.’ He nodded in the direction of the tea tray.
If it hadn’t been for his headache Ruby would have insisted he say please. While Lucas was taciturn and abrupt at the best of times, he was not normally flat-out rude. Well, not unless she was tipsy and begging him to kiss her.Argh.Why couldn’t she blot out that wretched moment from her memory for good? On that occasion he had been brutally rude. And from that day her teenage crush had switched to a blistering loathing.
She’d avoided him for months after that, leaving a room as soon as she found him in it, or taking long, arduous detours across the moors if ever she saw him on one of her walks. By the time she was eighteen, she’d left to find work in London, only coming back to see her grandmother two or three times a year. Most of the time when she saw Lucas now he was in a gossip magazine, with yet another stunning woman draped over one of his arms. His success as an award-winning landscape architect saw him travelling the world for his high-end clients. He only visited Rothwell Park intermittently now, which meant she had to make the most of this time with him.
Ruby poured tea into the two cups. ‘Do you still take it black, no sugar?’
‘Yes.’
She handed him the cup, but his fingers fumbled against the saucer, which made some of the tea slosh over the side of the cup. He let out a curt swear-word, not quite under his breath, and quickly steadied the cup by holding his hand over the top.
‘Sorry. Did it burn you?’ he asked.
Ruby took her cup of tea and sat on the other wing chair. ‘No, but speaking of burns... Have you seen the scald mark on my gran’s wrist?’
Even though he was still wearing his aviator glasses she could see the lines of a frown form on his forehead. ‘No. Is it bad?’
‘I think she should see a doctor to have it properly assessed. I’m worried it might need a skin graft. But you know what she’s like about seeking medical attention.’
‘I do know,’ Lucas said, his frown deepening into a two-pleat groove visible above the silver frames of his sunglasses.
‘You can take a look at it and see for yourself. Maybe she’ll listen to you rather than me.’
A flicker of tension flashed across his features. ‘I have no experience with burns. But there’s a first aid kit in the downstairs bathroom. A medical friend of mine put it together a while back. Feel free to help yourself.’
‘Thank you. I’ll see what I can do.’ Ruby eyed the delicious parkin on the tray between them and her stomach gave an audible growl of hunger. ‘Would you like some of Gran’s parkin?’
‘No, thank you. But you go ahead.’