When the Devil Drives

'You've allowed Cal Blackstone to execute the perfect revenge.'Simon shook his head wonderingly. 'If the whole thing wasn't sobloody nauseating, I could almost admire the bastard.''I don't understand.' Her heart missed a beat.'It's quite simple.' His voice sounded dead. 'His grandfather, alsoCallum, if you recall, tried to rape our grandmother, the first JoannaChalfont. She managed to fight him off, and get away from him, butthat's really why he was booted out of his job, and his cottage.''Rape?' Joanna repeated blankly. 'But I've never heard any mention --''Of course not. You don't think Grandfather would have let the storyget out, do you? There were plenty of other explanations for hisdismissal. Old Blackstone was a born troublemaker as well as alecher, so an excuse for getting rid of him wasn't hard to find.'He looked at her. 'And that, sister dear, is how the famous family feudreally began. Not out of industrial unrest, or local politics or evenambition, but because of an aggressive, womanising upstart whocouldn't keep his hands off our grandmother.'He snorted. 'If old Cal had possessed even the slightest decency, he'dhave cleared out altogether, once he'd been sacked and evicted, andwe'd have been rid Of Him. He might even have thought himselflucky he wasn't lynched. But of course he stayed, claiming that hewas the one who'd been wronged. Every day he remained was aninsult to Grandmother, and a threat as well. It wasn't that longafterwards she had the miscarriage that killed her—probably broughton by the stress of all she'd been through.'Joanna swallowed. 'How—how do you know all this?' Her mindwinced away from the ugliness of the story, and its even nastierimplications where she was concerned.