Robyn Donald – Iceberg by Robyn Donald Read Free Book Online

asked, but without fear of a negative answer.
    She led the way into the sitting room, turned, to face him with defiance, masking the fear she felt.
    'What is it?' she asked distantly.
    He paused a moment before replying, almost as if he chose his words, and when he spoke it seemed at a
    tangent. 'Sarah has taken a liking to you.'
    Linnet's golden gaze flew upwards. 'I tike her, too,' she said when it was obvious that he was waiting for some
    reply.
    'She was upset because she thinks it was my presence which drove you from the pool so abruptly.'
    Was there a hint of satire in the deep tones? Almost certainly. Linnet flushed. 'I'm sorry about that,' she said,
    aware that the was being manoeuvred into some sort of situation—one she knew instinctively, that she 'was not
    going to like.
    He smiled without humour. 'I doubt it. However, at the moment Sarah needs careful handling. She's been ill,
    and isn't picking up as quickly as she should. What exactly do you think of her?'
    Linnet looked down at her clasped hands, noted with detachment the fluttering of her pulse in a wrist. 'She's a
    very definite personality—imaginative, forthright, perhaps a little too used to having her own way. I like her.'
    The irony in his smile was unmistakable. 'Perhaps, he suggested blandly, 'a case of diamond cuts diamond.'
    'I beg your pardon?’
    'You also have a definite personality, you're imaginative, forthright and almost certainly too used to having your
    own way.'
    'Greedy, too, don't forget!' she retorted, angry with him for his patronising words, angry with Bronwyn for
    putting her in this position .and angry with herself as she realised that she would have liked to have his good
    opinion.
    His expression hardened. 'I hadn't forgotten. I doubt if it would be possible for you to make Sarah greedy, so I'm
    prepared to overlook that—at least as far as she's concerned.'
    "Very magnanimous of you!'
    He caught at his control, managed to retain it, although a muscle jerked in his jaw and there was a new note of
    warning in his voice. 'I didn't come here spoiling for a fight, and I refuse to allow myself to be provoked into
    one.'
    'Then what did you come for?' she demanded, wishing only to get him out of the place before some precarious
    part of her control slipped and shattered.
    'To ask that for Sarah's sake we appear to be on—at least reasonably friendly terms.'
    Linnet stared at him, but before she^ could say a thing he continued, 'She's still very easily upset; your
    precipitate departure left her weeping1 and blaming me. Quite frankly, I wish you'd never met, but as you have
    and she's taken a fancy to you I'll have to make the best of it. I don't want her to feel that she's being disloyal
    together of us when in the other's company, nor do I want her to realise that------'
    'That we dislike each other intensely,' Linnet finished drily, as he seemed, probably for the first time in his life,
    at a loss for words.
    He looked at her with something like mockery. 'Is that what it is? Myself, I should have expressed it differently,
    but you're very young.' He seemed to wait for some answer from her, but when, after .a-moment, she still
    remained silent, wondering what on earth he meant, he asked indifferently, 'Have I your assurance, then?'
    'What assurance?'
    'Your wariness is only exceeded by your deliberate stupidity. Have I your assurance that when Sarah is about
    you will endeavour to hide this intense dislike, as you call it?’
    Instinctively she hunted for the catch in .his proposition, turning it over in her mind, seeking for flaws. But it
    seemed merely the request of a reasonably fond father concerned about the well-being of his daughter.
    Grudgingly she answered, 'I see no reason why not.'
    'Good. Now will you come over to the house and reassure her?' This brought her head up swiftly, her attention arrested by an odd note of triumph in his -voice. But there was
    no sign of it in his expression; the handsome features were set as