Cassie backed away, her eyes wide. When he took a step towards her she grabbed her cardigan and fled, Dan's wild, harsh laughter echoing in her ears.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Cassie spent a terrible Monday. On the surface she functioned normally, going to work, operating all morning, making calls all afternoon, smiling and talking as though nothing was different. Underneath, she was a seething mass of confusion and fears. How could she have been so stupid as to agree to marry Dan? Whatever had possessed her?
The ever-observant Roger had frowned at her more than once, finally asking what was wrong, but she made some excuse about not sleeping well. He believed her because insomnia had been a recurring problem of Cassie's over the years.
Her mother had not been as easy to put off that morning at breakfast. She had been bursting with curiosity, wanting to know what had transpired with Dan. Cassie had no intention of telling her mother the blunt and embarrassing details of the entire evening. And Jason's presence at the breakfast table had precluded any open discussion about his father.
Cassie had, however, confessed reluctantly to her mother that Dan had asked her to marry him, not adding that she had already been emotionally blackmailed into saying 'yes'. She had let her mother think that the matter was yet to be decided. And, as far as Cassie was concerned in the cold light of day, that was so!
Joan had been astonished, then delighted, expressing the opinion that she was sure it would be for the best. 'After all, you've never really got over the man, have you?' she'd said perceptively. 'And I'm sure he must still care for you if he wants to marry you. Men these days don't marry merely because of an illegitimate child.'
Cassie did not have the heart to disillusion her. Jason was without doubt Dan's main motive for proposing marriage.
But he definitely did not care for her any more. He openly disliked the woman she'd become. Though for some perverse reason he still wanted her. His vow to reduce her to some sort of sexual slave was obsessive in its intensity, fuelled perhaps by a desire for revenge. Dan bitterly resented Jason's existence having been kept from him.
What terrified her most was how easily Dan would achieve his objective if she married him. And he expected her answer that afternoon!
By the time Cassie climbed into her jeep at the end of the day, she was emotionally exhausted. Quite automatically she turned on to the road for home instead of taking the highway which led to Strath-haven, and was half-way there before she realised her mistake. Shrugging wearily, she continued on, thinking to herself that it was just as well. She really couldn't face Dan looking as she did.
When she brought the jeep to a halt in front of the old farmhouse, Cassie was about to climb out from behind the wheel when she stopped. Why should she go inside and change? It was better that Dan saw her exactly as she was attired every workday. White overalls, no make-up, hair scraped back into a functional pony-tail. Maybe he would change his mind about marrying her, she thought wryly, if he saw her at her least attractive.
Cassie restarted the engine and drove down the hill towards the suspension bridge, detouring slightly to skirt Rosie's paddock. No untoward developments there, she thought with relief as she saw the mare actually cantering. Not that there should be. Foals rarely came early, but Rosie was getting on in years, which could make things slightly unpredictable. If anything went wrong at this late stage, Cassie worried...
I'm getting paranoid, she thought irritably. Rosie's as healthy as a horse! She laughed at her own pun and turned the jeep for the short run down to the river.
Jason must have been watching for her, for he raced to meet her as she stepped off the bridge, throwing his arms around her waist in an uncharacteristic hug. 'Gee, you're late. We thought you weren't coming. Dan was going to ring up Gran to find out what had happened to you, but I told him you'd make it sooner or later. I said you probably had a 'mergency with a cow or something.'
Cassie smiled down at her bright-eyed son as he skipped along the gravel path ahead of her, backwards, marvelling at his energy and thinking to herself that his happiness was really worth any sacrifice. But surely he could be happy, she frowned, without his mother making such a disastrous marriage?
'And guess what?' he was saying. 'I had three rides in the helicopter. But it's gone now, see?' he pointed to the spot on the front lawn where the machine usually stood. 'Dan sent it back to Sydney.'
Cassie glanced up then, having for some time been half-aware of Dan watching them from the veranda. Perhaps he was ensuring that she made no retreat now that she'd arrived.
'And which did you enjoy most?' she asked Jason, trying to keep her voice normal as they approached the front steps. "The sports car?' She nodded towards the shining red Mercedes parked nearby. 'Or the helicopter?'