things.
'It's not your fault, pet,' said Connie, shrewdly guessing the thoughts going through Tanya's mind. 'Remember, I knew your mother.' Her eyes misted over in memory. 'She was adorable, and lived in a world of her own. If she had known—well, she would have done something about it. I know she would, but she just didn't think,' she ended lamely.
Tanya nodded dumbly. 'Well, that's that,' she said after a pregnant silence. 'I've promised to stay on for six months until I make up my mind what to do.'
'Make up your mind what you want to do?' repeated Connie in astonishment. 'You mean you're seriously considering leaving?' she demanded incredulously.
Tanya looked back at her with raised brows. 'See it from my point of view, Connie,' she said quietly. 'It's about time I stood on my own two feet. Oh, Kade wants me to stay, to work my way up the ladder of success, he gave his word to Father, you see,' she added bitterly. 'He doesn't particularly like me, Connie, and I'm not too keen on him. It doesn't look much like a recipe for success, does it?' she queried ironically. 'And besides that,' she ended furiously, 'I'm sick and tired of being "watched over" or "coddled". Whichever way you put it, it's a miserable situation to be in, and the sooner I do something about it the better. I want to be able to make my own decisions, and not have them made for me as they have been for as long as I can remember.'
Connie started to say something, but Tanya forestalled her with a quick, 'I know what you're going to say, and although I have good reason to be grateful to Kade, I'm not feeling particularly grateful at the moment. As for the next six months—' She rushed from the kitchen, leaving a very worried Connie staring at the slammed kitchen door.
CHAPTER FOUR
AFTER listening to another stern lecture from Connie the following morning about not rushing her fences, and giving herself time to work out her problems, Tanya left for the offices in a despondent mood. A night's worrying over what she was going to do when the six months were up had brought her no nearer to a solution, apart from the obvious one that she should do exactly what Kade had suggested she should do, and work her way up to a working partnership with him.
As things were at that moment in time it appeared that she had no other choice but to do just that and no amount of wishful thinking would alter the situation. It was of small consolation to remember that she was doing what her father had wanted her to do either. Since her return, Tanya had undergone such a battering of emotions that she only wanted to be free of the past and not to be forced to honour any obligations placed upon her.
If her father had known the true state of affairs, she very much doubted if he would have expected her to carry on under those conditions, but as the thought was there she had a sneaking feeling that she was wrong on that point. He would expect her to do what Kade wanted her to do. He had trusted him to carry out his wishes.
The white walls of the office buildings loomed up in front of her as she passed Kade's chalet, and as if it was
he and not the innocuous-looking low building of the chalet, Tanya glared at it. He was an early starter, she knew, and would be on the rounds of the orchard inspecting his crops. She no longer thought of the farm in possessive terms, particularly when recalling Kade's blunt observance on her income hardly matching her past life style.
Melanie, too, was said to be a keen starter, and had secured lodgings for herself in the home of one of the senior members of staff who lived a mile or so away from the works, in order to make an early start.
At the thought of the lovely brunette, Tanya almost stopped in her tracks. She had been detailed to work with her and the prospect was hardly a pleasant one. If Kade had guessed that it had been Melanie who had, as Kade had put it, flung her into the mire of the past—Tanya took a deep breath, the
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