Read Past All Forgetting for Free Online

He was gone.
    Janna hauled herself out of the water and heard his car engine start up in the distance. Tears of rage and humiliation mingled with the drops of water on her face, as she stood dripping and bedraggled on the bank. She would never forgive him, she swore savagely to herself. And she would make him pay for this if it was the last thing she did.
    She was walking round the market a few days later and had stopped to examine some remnants of material on a stall, when a hand descended on her arm and Rian's voice close to her ear said, 'None the worse for your ducking, I see.'
    She wrenched herself forcibly free, and gave him a wrathful look.
    'No thanks to you.' she said distinctly. 'I might have drowned—or gone down with pneumonia.'
    'Hardly,' he said drily. 'I was sure somehow you'd manage to survive, Janna.'
    'Thank you.' Her tone held bitterness. 'I know better than to regard that as a compliment'
    He sighed. 'Is that what you want—compliments?'
    She stared down at her feet. 'You know what I. want,' she muttered at last 'I want you to treat me as if I was a woman.'
    'Then stop behaving like a child,' he said, but his voice was gentler and held a trace of laughter. 'How old are you, Janna?,'
    'I shall be seventeen in just over two weeks' time.' She sent him a hostile look. 'I suppose to you I'm sixteen.'
    'Stop supposing,' he said patiently. 'Come and have coffee with me instead.'
    'Are you serious?' she asked incredulously.
    'I think so.' There was an edge to his voice. 'It's only a hot drink I'm offering, not an invitation to bed.'
    She flushed indignantly and he gave a slight groan. 'God help me, this was meant to be a peace move, not a resumption of hostilities. Come and have coffee, Janna.' His thumb moved caressingly on the soft flesh of her arm, sending a pleasant tingle through her senses. He grinned at her and she thought furiously that he probably knew quite well the effect that his casual touch was having on her.
    He pulled her arm through his and led her off through the market-day crowds. The town's most popular cafe was situated in rooms at the .rear of the baker's shop, and they lingered to make a selection of cream cakes at the counter before continuing to the rear and finding an unoccupied corner table.
    'Well, this is pleasant.' Rian pushed the sugar bowl towards her.
    She helped herself to a spoonful, her lips compressed.
    'Please don't patronise me,' she said eventually.
    'Nothing was further from my thoughts,' he returned mildly. 'Don't be so prickly, Janna.'
    She stirred the spoon round the cup, watching the swirl of the liquid. 'Can you blame me?'
    'Not altogether, perhaps, otherwise I shouldn't be here.' He reached his hand across the table and clasped hers lightly. Tax, sweet witch. I can't be your lover, but I could be your friend, if you'd let me.'
    'On the grounds that half a loaf is better than no bread at all?' She gave him a defiant look. 'Is it really so impossible? Funnily enough, I got the distinct impression that you fancied me.'
    'I plead guilty as charged,' he said slowly. He released her hand and sat back in his chair. 'Janna, you may well be counting the hours to your seventeenth birthday, but I was going through the same process ten years ago. There's no way around that'
    'Ten years isn't such a tremendous gap.'
    'At this precise moment, it seems a lifetime.' He drank some of the coffee, grimaced slightly and pushed it aside. 'Apart from anything else, did no one ever tell you that sometimes the man prefers to make the running?'
    She blushed vividly. 'I just wanted you to notice me,' she claimed in a low voice.
    'As if anyone with normal faculties could possibly overlook you!' He gave her a wry look. 'You're a spectacular lass, Janna. If you were a few years older, you'd have to fight me off.'
    'That's a great comfort,' she said past the lump in her throat. 'I think I'd better go. Thanks for the coffee.'
    'Oh, hell.' He pushed a hand through his dark hair. 'This is not