Read Online Sweet Surrender (The Dysarts) by Catherine George - Free Book Online Page B

the small sleeping face just visible above the covers in the buggy. Amazing that all men were as cute and helpless as this to start with. Even Alasdair.
    This was hard to believe when Alasdair Drummond presented himself prompt at seven at Friars Wood the following evening. In a khaki crew neck sweater and black denims, a khaki reefer jacket hanging loose from his shoulders, he looked tall and tough and anything but helpless. Or cute.
    â€˜Hi. Are you ready, Kate?’ He gave her the familiar bone-dissolving smile as she beckoned him inside.
    â€˜You’re on time, Alasdair. Have a chat with my father while I get my coat.’ She left him with Tom Dysart in the study and went to the kitchen, where her mother was humming along to the radio while she put the finishing touches to the evening meal.
    â€˜Alasdair’s here,’ Kate announced. ‘He seems anxious to get going.’
    Frances eyed her, frowning. ‘I thought you were going to wear the gold dress again.’
    Kate shook her head. ‘It’s cold, and the Forrester’s is only a pub, no matter how good the food is, so I thought I’d be comfortable.’
    In actual fact she had put the dress on at first, thenchanged into jeans and a cinnamon wool sweater which clung even more than the dress. And instead of leaving her hair down she’d twisted it up securely, but with the odd curling tendril left to look as though it had escaped by accident.
    â€˜You look very pretty just the same,’ conceded her mother. ‘What coat are you wearing? Surely not the windbreaker you wear for school?’
    â€˜Why not?’ said Kate carelessly. ‘Come and say hello to Alasdair while I fetch it.’
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    â€˜Did your mother tell you I rang the other night?’ asked Alasdair, when they were on their way.
    â€˜Yes. I was out with a friend.’
    â€˜The man I saw at your place the other day?’
    â€˜No. A different friend. Son of my mother’s bosom pal. Toby’s the junior partner with a firm of local accountants.’
    Alasdair drove in silence for a while, then cast a frowning glance in her direction. ‘Harking back to the man I ran into at your place—you said he was important. How important?’
    â€˜I don’t know yet. I haven’t known him long.’
    â€˜Has Adam met him?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Does he approve?’
    Kate gave him a hostile glance. ‘It doesn’t matter whether Adam approves of Jack Spencer or not, but as it happens he does.’
    â€˜So why didn’t you ask the man along on Sunday?’
    â€˜Because it was a family thing.’
    â€˜ I was there,’ Alasdair pointed out.
    â€˜Not by my invitation.’
    He threw a hostile glance at her. ‘I’m beginning to think this was a mistake.’
    â€˜We could always turn back.’
    â€˜Is that what you want?’
    She shrugged. ‘Not particularly. I’ll have missed dinner by now.’
    â€˜So you’ll bear with my company as long as I provide you with food?’ he said with sarcasm.
    Kate felt sudden contrition. ‘Alasdair, if I’ve been unfriendly I’m sorry. But last time we met—by which I mean years ago, when you wiped the floor with me for wasting my so-called talents—we parted on bad terms. Did you really expect me to welcome you with open arms when you turned up again out of the blue?’
    â€˜If I did I was out of luck,’ he said morosely, and sighed. ‘Look, Kate, I miscalculated by turning up at your school last week without warning. I know I should have got in touch first, but I was feeling pretty low after my grandmother’s funeral. There was an early hotel lunch for the mourners afterwards so my parents could drive back to Scotland straight after it. I couldn’t face the empty house on my own for a while, so on impulse I drove to see you.’
    â€˜And got a cold shoulder for your pains,’ said Kate