Free The Silver Castle by Nancy Buckingham Page A

unpleasantly that I was here looking for pickings.”
    Raimund’s tone dismissed this as irrelevant. “What else did he have to say?”
    “Nothing much. I just told him I was waiting for you, and he suggested that it would be best for me not to wait as he’d need you for some time. That was all.”
    Raimund’s fingers drummed a nervous tattoo on the side of the car.
    “The best thing is to leave him to Mama. She will talk him around. We might just as well enjoy ourselves today while we have the chance.” He glanced at me and managed a smile. “In you get, Gail.”
    I made no move. “Wouldn’t it be better to see your brother now, and get it over with—whatever it is? I mean, if there’s trouble, it’ll catch up with you in the end.”
    “But we’ve made plans, Gail. I can’t stand you up.”
    “Yes, you can. I won’t mind.”
    “I would, though.” He tossed the swatch of samples onto the rear seat. “So jump in and let us get started.”
    Raimund was hustling me. Having decided to cut and run, he couldn’t do it fast enough. Perhaps, like me, he had noticed the tall figure watching us from an upper window of the office block. In another moment, I guessed, the window would be thrust open and Anton Kreuder would be calling his half-brother over, a direct summons which Raimund wouldn’t dare ignore. Damn the man, I thought—damn his ill temper and his foul manners.
    I jerked open the car door and laughed across at Raimund. “Okay, what are we waiting for?”
    Now he was the one who hesitated. Then he slid in beside me, and we did a fancy fast turn out of the yard. I felt the rear wheels slide as we swung onto the road. He corrected the skid and we stormed away. Glancing at his profile, I saw that he was grinning defiantly.
    “You don’t let anything worry you for long, do you?” I observed.
    “Since when did worrying put anything right?”
    I shrugged, not really caring. I was too involved with my own disturbing thoughts.
    “When I was talking to your brother just now,” I said, “he was perfectly friendly at first, but as soon as I told him my name his manner changed completely. He was furious. I don’t understand. Why should he be so much against me because I’m Benedict Sherbrooke’s daughter?”
    “Anton’s mind is a law unto itself,” he said.
    “Oh, for pity’s sake,” I said irritably, “do you have to try and make a stupid joke out of everything?”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “It’s completely pointless to make such a mystery out of it. Anton must have hated my father, and now he’s taking it out on me. It was very sweet of your mother to invite me to stay, but you can’t deny that both of you have been hinting that I’m not expected to hang around for too long. I didn’t need second sight to work out that it was Anton you were scared of. You didn’t want him to arrive home and find me there.”
    “Everything would have been fine if he’d not taken it into his head to come back sooner than planned,” Raimund said. “It is very puzzling, too. Anton is not the type to cut short a business trip.”
    I sighed on a long, impatient breath. ‘If you were expecting your brother to be difficult, you must also know why he feels this way. So tell me.”
    “Don’t keep on about it, Gail. Mama and I do not have to ask Anton’s permission before inviting someone to stay. The Schloss is as much our home as his.”
    With that, Raimund put his foot down hard and swerved out to pass a heavy truck on a long, sweeping bend. I closed my eyes, terrified of meeting something in a head-on collision. And when, after a minute or two, he dropped to a more sensible speed, I felt afraid to press him any more in this edgy, unpredictable mood.
    Ahead of us, a pale thread of sunlight silvered the clouds and threw a spotlight onto some ancient ruin perched dramatically on a mountain crag. I sighed, wishing I could enjoy the beauty all around. Raimund could, if I let him. His philosophy was to put