Robert was here a moment ago. Shall I go and find him?”
Sarah didn’t answer. She had not been in the study before and she gave a gasp of delight as the proportions of the book-lined wall met her eyes. “What a lovely room!” she exclaimed.
Neil perched himself on the edge of the desk and looked about him. “I suppose I’m used to it.” His eyes returned to her face. “It’s obvious you’ve never lived in a village before!” he accused her with mock severity. “You’d be more discreet if you had ! And you’d know better than to kiss your boy-friend bang in the middle of the village!”
“I didn’t,” Sarah protested. “He—he kissed me!”
Neil’s mocking look made her blush. “If you say so. Robert and I were on the other side of the river, and despite our best endeavours, we couldn’t see much of you—only the back of his head. Who is he, by the way?”
“Alec Farne. He’s the producer of the play I was going to be in.”
“And what was Smart Alec doing in Chaddoxbourne on a sunny afternoon in the middle of the week?”
Sarah blushed again. “His play isn’t going very well.”
“My word, and he came all this way to ask you to change your mind and take the part after all?”
She nodded, embarrassed. “I think so. But then my father had an attack of asthma and I was more worried about that.”
She was relieved that, at that moment, Robert came into the room and wished her a curt good morning. “I think we can manage without you, Neil,” he added. “Miss Blaney has come here to work, not to gossip!”
Neil went obediently, blowing her a light kiss from behind his brother’s back. “One doesn’t gossip with the people who are being gossiped about!” he said sotto voce. “All right, all right, I’m going!”
Sarah pretended that she was looking at the view out of the window. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Robert. It was not only the memory of his kissing her, but Neil’s ridiculous joking stood, like something tangible, between them. Behind her, Robert cleared his throat and she jumped round guiltily.
“There’s no need to look as though I’m going to hit you! ” he said irritably.
“Of course—of course not!”
“But you’re not taking any chances?”
She made a rush towards the desk, nearly tripping over a small hump in the carpet. With a mounting feeling of hysteria, she sat down on the nearest chair and waited for the blur of embarrassment to clear before her eyes.
“Heaven help you if you’re always so clumsy !” Robert barked at her, exasperated.
“I’m not!”
He looked amused. “It’s the unfortunate effect I have on you? Why are you looking so frightened? What did Neil say to you?”
“N-nothing much. He said you’d been just across the river when Alec—I don’t think he thinks I’m serious about this job either!” She sniffed, aware that she sounded pathetic and who, in Robert’s company, would ever want to sound anything so—so dismal ?
“I believe you’re serious,” Robert said abruptly. “But Neil is right about people gossiping about you and Alec Farne. If you don’t want to have everyone talking about you, you’d do well to sort that young man out once and for all!” He studied her pale face and frowned. “Don’t look so sick at heart! All you’ve got to do is to tell him that you’re not interested—if you’re sure you’re not! ” He put his hands, tanned and long-fingered, flat down on the desk in front of her. “I don’t think you’re cut out to be a successful sinner,” he went on with a hint of a smile. “If you’re having an affair with him, it’s no business of mine, but I think you’d be much happier married to him.”
“But I’m not!”
He regarded her steadily. “No,” he said, “I don’t think you are. But you’d be a fool to be alone with him again if you don’t want him to kiss you.”
She gurgled with sudden laughter, her smile lighting up her face. “I don’t think I’ll