Sweet Surrender by Catherine George Page A

Jack Spencer eyed her curiously. ‘What do you do for entertainment in a quiet place like that?’
    ‘I keep very busy,’ she assured him. ‘Teaching is no nine-to-five job. And apart from the usual routine I run the after-school science club, help out on school trips and various fund-raising events, co-produce the school plays. Socially I see a film or share a meal in Hereford with colleagues, and so on. In summer I like grubbingabout in my cottage garden, and in winter I belong to the village dramatic society—’
    ‘How about men?’ he asked abruptly. ‘The one I saw the other day, for starters?’
    Kate shrugged. ‘Alasdair’s an old college friend. He’s just returned from the States to work in this country.’
    He shot her a searching blue glance. ‘Does that mean he’ll be monopolising your social life from now on?’
    Deciding it was a waste of time to object to this man’s bluntness, Kate shook her head. ‘I don’t let any one person monopolise my social life, Mr Spencer—’
    ‘Jack.’ He smiled at her. ‘Go on. It’s very easy to say. Try it.’
    She smiled back. ‘Jack, then.’
    ‘Much better,’ he said with satisfaction, and held out his cup for a refill. ‘Besides this Alasdair, are there other men in your life?’
    ‘Two I go out with occasionally at home. Separately, of course,’ she added demurely.
    Jack Spencer grinned, then sat back in his chair, his keen blue eyes challenging hers. ‘Right. I now know a little about you. But you haven’t asked me anything about myself. Does that mean you’re not interested?’
    ‘No.’ She returned the look squarely. ‘Just polite.’
    He shrugged the impressive shoulders his suit jacket had obviously been custom-made to fit. ‘In which case I’ll supply answers to the questions you’re too polite to ask.’
    ‘You don’t have to,’ she said hurriedly, but he leaned forward, invading her space. ‘I’m single, solvent, thirty-nine last birthday, and I build houses. That’s about it.’
    ‘And you’re Abby’s uncle,’ she reminded him, as he sat back.
    ‘True.’ He raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘Does that help my case?’
    ‘What case exactly?’
    ‘I like you, Katharine Dysart.’ He smiled crookedly. ‘And I want you to like me. Do you?’
    Kate stared at him for a moment. ‘Are you always this direct?’
    ‘No. I can be as devious as the next man when necessary,’ he assured her. ‘But where you’re concerned I’m playing it straight. Will you have dinner with me tonight?’
    Her eyes opened wide for a moment, then she began to laugh. ‘Which question shall I answer first.’
    ‘If you say yes to dinner I shall take it for granted you like me!’ The blue eyes gleamed with amusement Kate found disarming. And she rather wished she could say yes.
    ‘Sorry. I’m going out with a friend.’
    ‘The college friend?’
    ‘No. A different one.’
    He thought for a moment. ‘I’m involved in a working dinner tomorrow night. Thursday’s the only evening I’ve got free otherwise. How does that suit you?’
    ‘Sorry. I’m seeing Alasdair on Thursday.’
    ‘Busy lady,’ he said lightly, and fixed her with a steely blue look. ‘Or are you just letting me down lightly, Miss Katharine Dysart?’
    ‘Not at all. Friends call me Kate, by the way,’ she added.
    ‘Then so shall I.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Time up, Kate. I’ll drive you back to Dysart’s.’
    After he’d negotiated the centre of town she directed him into the auction house car park just as Adam wasemerging from his car, with eyebrows raised when he spotted his sister with a stranger.
    ‘This one of the friends?’ muttered Jack, as he retrieved Kate’s bags from the back seat.
    ‘No, my brother.’ She called Adam over. ‘Adam, this is Jack Spencer. Uncle of one of my pupils.’
    The men shook hands, sizing each other up, and, to Kate’s amusement, appeared to approve of what they saw.
    ‘I must come along to one of your auctions some