No Mistaking Love

CHAPTER ONE

KATE would have known him anywhere.

The same dark, ruthless looks, the same unreadable eyes, the same hard expression illuminated by a swift, disconcerting smile. She hadn't seen him for ten years but there was no mistaking him. Luke Hardman. The first man who had ever kissed her.

He was standing on the far side of the room, watching the crowds pushing their way to the theatre bar. It was something in the way he stood that had first caught Kate's eye, a sort of callous assurance in the way he held himself that set him apart from the rest. The dark severity of his dinner-jacket suited his steely looks, Kate decided, remembering a time when he would have scorned to wear anything other than a leather jacket. He would never have been near a theatre in those days either; perhaps he had changed more than she thought.

His face was too harsh to be really handsome, but there was a dangerous attraction about him. Kate wasn't the only woman who had noticed him. She watched a girl catch his eye and send him a provocative smile, but he merely looked through her, not bothering to hide his bored indifference. No, Kate thought, Luke Hardman hadn't changed that much.

She turned slightly so that she could watch his reflection in the mirrors lining the bar. She didn't want him to catch her staring-although it was hardly likely that he would notice her now, any more than he had ten years ago.

`Sorry, this is the best I could do.' Serena appeared suddenly at Kate's elbow and handed her a warm gin and tonic. A sliver of lemon floated listlessly in the glass. `We should have ordered them before the interval.'

When Kate only murmured thanks absently Serena followed the direction of her gaze. `He's rather gorgeous, isn't he?'

'Who?'

`The man you're staring at in the mirror!' She glanced over her shoulder at Luke. `He's even better in the flesh.'

`I haven't been staring,' Kate said, but was unable to prevent a betraying flush. She fished the lemon out of the glass and sucked it thoughtfully as her eyes went back to Luke. `Actually, I think I recognise him.'

`Oh?' Serena looked at him with renewed interest. `Who is he?'

'Just someone from the village,' Kate said as casually as she could. `I haven't seen him since I was sixteen.'

`How come you never introduced me when I came to stay?' Serena demanded, pretending to be aggrieved. `I've always liked that "mad, bad and dangerous to know" type!'

Kate laughed. `I wouldn't have dared introduce anyone to Luke Hardman! He was much older than me; I hardly knew him. But I always noticed him. He was different from the other boys in the village.' She paused. `He used to make me nervous.'

`You? Nervous?' Serena looked at her friend in astonishment. `I've known you since we first went to boarding-school, Kate, and I don't think I've ever seen you nervous. You wouldn't be Kate if you weren't calm, cool and collected at all times!'

`I wasn't with Luke. He had eyes that could look right through you. I could never decide whether he frightened or fascinated me-a bit of both, I think.' Kate gave an embarrassed laugh. `I used to go all gauche and tongue-tied if he was around. All it took was a sight of him crossing the road, and my heart would start jumping around-classic adolescent stuff!' she finished, ignoring the way her heart had leapt when she had first seen Luke tonight.

Serena was grinning. `Kate, how sweet! I never knew you had a crush on anyone.'

`It wasn't a crush, exactly,' Kate said in an attempt to salvage her pride. `I didn't even like him. He was rude and unpleasant and he never cared what anyone thought of him.'

`He sounds irresistible!' said Serena. `Why don't you go over and say hello?'

'No!' said Kate, too quickly. `I mean, he wouldn't remember me.'

`I don't see why not.'

`I'm not exactly the memorable type, am I?' Kate contemplated her reflection with resignation. She had grown out of a plain and gawky adolescence into a quietly attractive girl, but she had long accepted that she was never going to be wildly beautiful. Only her unusual eyes, a deep tawny gold, gave any indication that there was more to Kate than her habitual air of cool poise suggested.

`Well, I don't know,' Serena said loyally. `You don't stand out in a crowd, but you've got the sort of face that lingers in the memory, even though you can't quite work out why. Anyway, if you remember him so well there's a good chance he remembers you too.'

Kate shook her head, amused despite herself. `I've got a better reason to remember him. What girl ever forgets her first kiss?'

'Kate!' Serena shrieked, so that everyone turned and stared at them. Even Luke glanced in their direction. Kate turned hastily so that her face was hidden from his view.

'Sshh!'

`Sorry,' Serena whispered, going to the other extreme. `Honestly, Kate, you are a dark horse! Did he really kiss you? How romantic!'

`It wasn't romantic at all,' Kate said with some astringency.

`Well, tell me what happened, then,' Serena said eagerly.

Kate sighed. She should never have mentioned that wretched kiss. Serena would insist on hearing the whole story now!

`Do you remember that hot summer after we did our 0 levels?' When Serena nodded she went on. `I went home as usual, but Veronique was in France that year and I didn't have any company. All the other kids in the village used to avoid me because I lived in the manor and went to public school, and that meant that I was a snob. Worse, my mother was French and a bit flighty!' Kate gave a wry smile. It was easy not to mind now, but at the time it had hurt.

`Anyway, in the end I latched on to a girl called Anne who lived a couple of miles away. I didn't like her all that much, but she was better than nobody. She had a sister called Helen.'

Kate paused, remembering Helen and that long, hot summer.

`Well?' Serena prompted.

`Helen was having a fling with Luke Hardman,' Kate continued, almost reluctantly. `Having a bit of rough, she used to call it,' she remembered with distaste. `Her parents would have been furious if they'd found out, so Anne and I used to be roped in as alibis. Helen would pretend to come riding with us. We'd go down to the woods so she could meet Luke, and then Anne and I would be sent off for a couple of hours.'

Kate could still remember the frisson she had felt when Luke had smiled up at Helen, the look on his face as he'd pulled her off her horse. There had been an earthy sexuality about them that had made Kate uncomfortably aware of her own innocence. Luke had never even noticed she was there.

`Helen was all over him,' she continued. `But she'd come back and sneer at him behind his back because he didn't hold his knife properly or something equally stupid. I hated that.'

`She sounds a bitch,' Serena said frankly. `Did Luke know what she was like?'

Kate shrugged. `You could never tell what Luke thought, but he found out soon enough. We were due to go riding one day and meet Luke down in the woods as usual, when Helen strolled in and said she wasn't coming, she'd been invited to the south of France and the men were more sophisticated down there. I asked her if she was going to tell Luke and she just laughed and said we should let him wait, he'd get the message soon enough. I'll never forget the way she laughed.'

`What did you do?'

`Anne was all for doing as Helen said, but I couldn't let him sit there and wait. It sounds stupid, but I hated the thought of him being humiliated. It would be like watching a tiger doing tricks. So I went down to the woods by myself and told him Helen wasn't coming.'

`Was he upset?'

`He was angry. Not shouting and raving, but just cold anger in his eyes. It was terrifying. I wished I hadn't gone then, because he seemed to notice me for the first time. He asked if I'd been sent to report back on how devastated he was, and when I said no he said had I come to offer myself as a consolation prize.' Kate's cheeks burned with the memory. `It was awful. I tried to back off but he caught me with one hand and pulled me back.'

She glanced involuntarily down at her wrist, as if it still bore the imprint of his fingers. His hands had been very strong, his grip like steel as he had forced her chin up.

`Is that when he kissed you?' Serena asked, agog. They were both oblivious to the hubbub going on around them.

Kate nodded.

Serena glanced over at Luke and then leant closer to Kate. `What was it like?' she whispered. `Do you remember?'

Do you remember? Kate's eyes deepened to amber. She would never forget. Her feeling of terrified exhilaration as he had jerked her back into his arms was still vivid. The roughness of his hands against her skin, the unexpected warmth of his lips, the bitter anger in his eyes: Kate remembered them all. She remembered the dappled shade of the woods on that still, hot afternoon and the damp smell of earth beneath her feet.

She had never been kissed before. She hadn't known how strong a man's body could be, or how lips could be firm and fierce and persuasive all at the same time. She hadn't known about the trembling, treacherous excitement as he slid his hands slowly, lingeringly, down her bare arms, had never guessed at the ache of need that could swamp fear and dislike at the mere touch of his mouth.

Oh, yes, she remembered all right. Out of the corner of her eye Kate could see Luke. He looked bored and irritable, but his mouth was just as she remembered.

`It was just a kiss,' she said. She had never been kissed like that again.

`Oh.' It was clear that Serena was disappointed. `Did he say anything to you afterwards?'

She had stared up at him as he had released her, shaken and dazed by the strength of her own

reaction. Luke's eyes had been narrowed as if he was taken aback at suddenly finding her in his arms, and he had stepped back abruptly. Kate had read disgust in the gesture, and she had flinched as the stinging slap of humiliation had hit her with the force of a blow.

`He said, "Go home, Catherine, and grow up,"' Kate said slowly, reliving that devastating moment before she had turned and stumbled away from the contempt in his eyes.

`Catherine? Is that what he called you?' Serena asked, diverted. `I thought you were always Kate.'

`Not at home. My mother always called me Catherine in the French way, and I was known as Catherine in Chittingdene. It was only when I went away to school that I became Kate to you lot.^'

'I see.' Serena risked another glance at Luke. `What happened next time you met him?'

`I never saw him again. He left the village a few days later. I don't know if he ever went back. Dad died a couple of months later and my mother couldn't wait to sell the manor and take us to France, so I never went back to Chittingdene. This is the first time I've seen him since.'

`I wonder if he would recognise you,' Serena said thoughtfully.

`Not a chance. Remember what I was like at sixteen, Serena? All bottle-bottom glasses and straggly hair! I've changed a lot since then, thank goodness. There's no way he'd recognise me. It's not as if I'm like Helen.'

`Why, what was she like?'

'She was-' Kate broke off, staring into the mirror, where Luke's face had lightened as a woman walked towards him. She laid her hand on his arm possessively, and took the drink that he handed her, apparently unconcerned that she had kept him waiting.

`See for yourself,' Kate said in an odd, toneless voice. `That's Helen with him now.'

At eighteen, Helen had had a golden, provocative beauty, and the past ten years had merely added gloss and a subtle exoticism to her looks. She had slanting green eyes and silver-blonde hair that fell in a glittering, rippling fall to her waist. In a short strapless turquoise dress, she looked literally breathtaking.

`But that's Helen Slayne, isn't it?'

'That's right.' Kate looked at Serena in surprise. `Why, do you know her?'

'Hardly! But she's a famous model. I've seen her in all sorts of things. That hair's a sort of trademark. I suppose you wouldn't have seen her while you've been in France. She's stunning, isn't she?'

'Yes,' said Kate flatly. `She always was.'

There was a dull ache in her chest. Why was she so surprised to see Helen here with him? It was stupid to feel disappointed because Luke had evidently allowed himself to be taken in by that glittering beauty a second time. Why expect him to have had more pride? It was none of her business if he'd chosen to make a fool of himself again.

With Helen standing next to him, Luke wasn't going to be noticing anyone else in the room. Kate turned round and allowed herself to study him properly. It was strange that after all this time everything about him should be so familiar. The way he stood, the way he turned his head, the hard line of his mouth… especially his mouth… There had always been an air of arrogance about him, a kind of reckless pride. How could he stand there, smiling at Helen like that after the way she had treated him?

As if she had shouted it aloud, Luke lifted his head and stared over Helen's shoulder straight into the unguarded criticism in Kate's eyes.

Kate's heart lurched alarmingly as she found herself staring into those slate-grey eyes. He was nowhere near her, but she felt skewered by that cold, hard look. She wanted to look away, but the eyes held her immobile. They might have been alone in the room. The crush and hubbub in the bar faded to insignificance, Serena and Helen were forgotten. There was only a narrowed slate grey gaze and the nervous jolt of her heart.

And then a couple in front of her stepped back to let someone through en route to the bar and cut Luke from view.

Kate swallowed and dropped her eyes, annoyed to find herself flushing.

`Do you think he did recognise you after all?' Serena said excitedly. She had watched the look Luke and Kate had exchanged with interest.

`No.' Kate sounded curt, but she was having difficulty bringing her heart under control again. It kept jumping around in an alarmingly erratic manner. `No, I don't think so,' she said again, more lightly. The eyes had been as unreadable as ever, but she would swear that there had been no recognition in them, only a speculative sort of contempt.

To Kate's intense relief, a bell began to ring insistently over the noise of the crowd just as Serena opened her mouth to pursue the matter.

`Come on, drink up,' she said, taking a hasty swig of her gin. `The second half's about to start.'

They joined the queue shuffling noisily back into the auditorium. Serena seemed to have forgotten Luke, and was telling Kate about her not-so-subtle attempts to get her handsome neighbour to notice her. Wedged in the middle of the crowd, Kate rolled her eyes and laughed at her friend. She had a warm, arresting smile that lit up her quiet face-but which switched off abruptly as she found herself looking once more into Luke Hardman's hard eyes.

He and Helen were unhurriedly finishing their drinks while the crowd pushed past them. Luke Hardman had never been a man to waste time standing in a queue with everyone else.

Someone was pushing Kate from behind, but she hardly noticed. Luke had lifted his glass in a silent toast and sent her a swift, mocking smile that flamed the colour in her cheeks.

`Can you get a move on? You're blocking the door and the play's starting in a couple of minutes!' The impatient voice behind her jerked Kate out of her trance and she looked quickly away from Luke.

'Oh-er-sorry,' she muttered as she hurried to catch up with Serena.

She had been enjoying the play, but she sat through the second half without hearing a word. Seeing Luke again after all these years had left her feeling edgy and unsettled. She tried to concentrate on the stage, but her mind was tugged back irresistibly to that hot afternoon and the woods and how it had felt when Luke had pulled her round into his arms.

Suddenly Kate became aware of a storm of applause around her, and, as Serena gave her an odd look, hastily began to clap. There was no point in dwelling on the past, she told herself, still thinking about Luke. It had been a remarkable coincidence, seeing him here tonight, but it was unlikely that she would ever see him again.

Even so, she couldn't help searching the crowds for a glimpse of him as they left the theatre, slowing her steps deliberately until Serena asked her what the matter was.

`Nothing,' said Kate, quashing a feeling of inexplicable disappointment. He must have gone already.

`You're awfully quiet,' Serena said suspiciously.

`My contact lenses are killing me,' Kate lied as they headed towards the Underground. `It was so smoky in that bar.'

They flipped their season tickets open at the gate and joined the crowd filing down the escalators. `How's the job hunting going?' Serena asked, turning round from the step below to look up at Kate. `Have you managed to find what you want yet?'

Kate forced her mind back to the present and her most pressing need to find a job. `Not yet, but I've got an interview for tomorrow that sounds promising.' She rummaged in her handbag as they stepped off the escalator. `I've got the ad here. What do you think?'

Serena took the newspaper cutting. "'Parlezvous franchise?"' she read the heading. `Well, you can certainly do that, Kate!

A bilingual PA is required for dynamic director of this successful company. Fluent French required, plus excellent secretarial skills, preferably with director-level experience. Must be confident, super-efficient and free to travel.

`Kate, it sounds perfect!' Her eye fell on the salary quoted at the bottom of the advertisement and she whistled. `I wouldn't mind pay like that!'

'I know.' Kate took the cutting back and they walked slowly down the platform. `It sounds a bit too good to be true, doesn't it? But I need to get something soon. If I'd realised how difficult it would be to get a good job here I don't think I'd have given up my job in Dijon quite so quickly!'

'You're not regretting coming back to England, are you?'

`No.' Kate shook her head. `I'd been in that job four years. It was time to move on. Solange coming to school in England gave me the impetus to make the break.'

`I do think it's a bit of cheek for Veronique and Alain to go swanning off to the Ivory Coast and expect you to look after their daughter for them,' Serena said, indignant on Kate's behalf.

`They'd have had to send Solange to boarding school anyway,' Kate said mildly. 'Veronique always had this thing about making sure Solange is bilingual by sending her to school in England for a year, just as she had to do. It just seems a convenient time when Alain's job takes him to Africa for a year.'

`Convenient for them that you're prepared to give up your job to be near her,' Serena commented tartly.

`Oh, Solange is just an excuse, really. I could hardly tell my mother that I can't stand her new husband, could I? It was all getting rather uncomfortable with Thierry and me being extra polite to each other, and poor Maman stuck in between. She'd be terribly upset if she thought I'd left home because of Thierry, so I said I was coming to keep Solange company. It's partly true, anyway. I feel rather sorry for Solange: I remember what it's like being at boarding-school with no one around to take you out at weekends and make a fuss of you. I remember what it's like being a foreigner too. I always felt French in England, and English in France, so I sympathise. After all, I am her aunt-and it's hardly a great sacrifice to come back to England.'

Kate stuck her hands in the pockets of her jacket and smiled at Serena. `My mother thinks I'm being wonderful, Veronique and Alain think I'm being wonderful, but really I'm just being selfish. I never really settled in Dijon; I only stayed because I didn't think Maman would be able to cope by herself-you know how impractical she is! -and once I had a good job it seemed so silly to give it up. But Maman's got Thierry to look after her now, and if the truth was known she'd probably much rather I wasn't around looking quite so grown up!' Kate gazed reflectively at the huge poster on the other side of the tracks urging her to throw caution to the winds and jump on the next plane to the Caribbean. `It's all worked out very well. I've missed England these last few years. I should have come back before.'

"Well, I hope you stay.' Serena squeezed her arm affectionately. `It's good to have you back. All you need now is that job!'