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'A little bird told me he would be able to leave hospital a lot earlier
than they thought at first; he's making such good progress.'
'We hope so.' She should have stopped chopping; she had a small
mountain of parsley now. What on earth was she going to do with it
all? She had only meant to chop enough to garnish the stew. Josh had
addled her brains. What little bird did he mean? Had he rung the
hospital to ask after David, or had her father told him? But of course
he had plenty of contacts at the hospital. The Killane family had been
around here since medieval times; everyone knew them and they
knew everyone.
'Are you leaving then, or staying on here for a while?' Josh asked, and
she put down the knife and contemplated the result of her work with
impatience.
'We haven't decided yet.'
'You haven't been over to see my mother. She was hoping you would,
she asked me to tell you.'
'I'm sorry, I've been very busy,' she said, sweeping the green mass of
parsley into a plastic bag, which she put into the fridge to chill,
slamming the fridge door shut with a little bang.
'You mean you don't want to see her!' Josh said in a brusque voice. 'I
can hardly tell her that, can I?'
'And I'm very busy at the moment, too/ Prue said offhandedly. 'I'm
afraid you'll have to excuse me.'
'No!'
She nearly jumped out of her skin at the way he roared that.
'I won't excuse you!' he snapped, and she backed away, staring at him
nervously. 'I won't let you hurt my mother's feelings!' His face was
wintry. 'If you don't visit her again while you're here, she will be hurt.
She'll probably ask your father if she has done something to offend
you.
'I don't want to talk about it,' Prue said, her face pale. She hadn't yet
dared to talk frankly to her father, and she wasn't in a hurry to do it,
either.
'I don't give a damn what you want!' Josh snarled, taking a step closer,
and she backed, her whole body tense.
'I'm sure you don't!' she muttered, her green eyes fierce and defiant.
'And that's typical of your whole family all you care about is what
you want, and it doesn't bother you how many people you have to
smash into the ground to get your own way! You're dinosaurs; feudal
landlords out of another century, still trying to make the world work
for you!'
He grabbed her shoulders, staring into her eyes. 'Feudal landlords!
What the hell are you talking about? That's sheer nonsense, and you
know it.'
'Get your hands off me! Don't think you can bully me!' She exerted all
her strength to break his grip, but Josh tightened his fingers, shaking
her furiously.
'You're thinking emotionally, Prue. Why don't you try using your
head for a change? If there was any love-affair between my mother
and Jim, why haven't they got married? Why be so secretive about it?
There's nothing stopping them. They're both free, they're both adults
and there's no reason on earth why they shouldn't get married.'
'Maybe my father is afraid he might lose his farm,' Prue said coldly.
'After all, your mother isn't the owner of the Killane estate you are,
aren't you? If you disapproved, you could take the tenancy away
without needing to give a reason.'
He laughed shortly. 'I wouldn't do a thing like that?'
'That's what you say now, but my father may still be afraid to take the
risk.'
'He can't care much about my mother if all that he thinks about is his
farm!'
'He's lived there all his life! And perhaps she is afraid, too. She may
prefer the status quo, to go on as they have been for years, meeting in
secret, rather than having a big family upset.'
'You don't know for certain that any of this is true! You only have
your mother's word for it, and she was hardly a reliable witness.'
Prue paled, staring at him with bitter dislike. 'Until I came here, I only
had my mother's word, but I've seen it for myself, and I'm convinced
she was right.'
'What have you seen?' Josh asked.
'Love,' she said huskily.
Josh's fingers dug into her. 'What?' he ground out between his teeth.
'Do you know what the word means?' she asked, and he glowered at
her; eyes like black, hot coal, a red light glowing deep within them.
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