Appointment at the Altar
Jessica Hart

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Stella and Julia, my City Screen plotting team

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ONE

LUCY leant on the fence and watched Kevin, perched on a rail on the far side of the corral, waiting his turn at bareback bronc riding. In his Akubra hat, checked shirt and dusty boots, he was outback man incarnate. Strong, silent, lean-jawed, quiet-eyed…he made all her other boyfriends look like silly boys.

Not that he was a boyfriend, exactly, much as she would want to have been able to say so. But she was madly in love with him, and he had kissed her the other night. Things could only get better.

She sighed happily. In London now it would be cold and grey, but here she was in the red heart of Australia with its bright, brassy light and its fierce heat. Closing her eyes with a blissful shiver, Lucy turned her face up to the sunlight and breathed in the smell of dust and horses. She could hear the ‘hup! hup!’ cries of the men coaxing reluctant animals into the chute and feel the sun beating on to her borrowed hat.

I’m happy, she thought.

‘Well, if it isn’t Cinderella!’

The amused voice in her ear froze her smile and her eyes snapped open. She didn’t need to turn her head to know who was standing beside her. There was only one person out here with that accent.

That English accent, reeking of privilege and the most expensive education British money could buy.

Guy Dangerfield.

She had been delighted that morning to find herself squeezed into a truck with Kevin and the other stockmen when they left Wirrindago. There had been no sign of either her intimidating boss, Hal Granger, or his deeply annoying English cousin, which meant that they could all relax and have a good time at the rodeo. But now here was Guy, after all, looking irritatingly handsome and sophisticated and utterly out of place in the outback.

‘Oh,’ she said, not bothering to disguise her lack of enthusiasm. ‘It’s you.’

‘It is,’ Guy agreed.

Lucy hated the way he could say something perfectly unexceptional like that with a straight face and yet still make it sound as if he were laughing at her. It was something to do with the ripple of amusement in his voice, or maybe it was to do with his blue, blue eyes, currently hidden by ridiculously mirrored sunglasses, where a smile always seemed to be lurking even if he was only asking her to pass the toast.

What’s so funny? she wanted to yell at him, but she had the nasty feeling that the answer would be her. Nobody else at Wirrindago seemed to find him annoying. They all thought he was great.

Lucy couldn’t understand it. Guy had the kind of assurance that she always associated with generations of privilege and a gold-plated trust fund, and she didn’t trust his practised charm for a moment. The self-deprecating humour and oh-so-engaging smile were completely wasted on her.

‘Why do you always call me Cinderella?’ she asked irritably.

‘Because you’re very pretty and you never seem to be allowed out of the kitchen,’ said Guy.

‘I’m a cook,’ she reminded him with a touch of sarcasm. ‘Providing three meals a day for eight men—and the occasional visitor like you—tends to mean that you spend a lot of time in the kitchen.’

She was rather pleased with the subtle way she had managed to dismiss him as an ‘occasional visitor’. It made her feel better to remember that he was just passing through, while she had every intention of staying for ever.

‘You certainly seem to work very hard,’ Guy agreed. ‘I’d say a day out is the least you deserve. I quite like the idea of a local rodeo as the outback equivalent of going to the ball, don’t you?’ he said, with one of those smiles that Lucy was sure was meant to have her swooning with delight. ‘Hal gets to be the fairy godmother who says you can go, the stockmen’s old truck is the pumpkin that brought you here…now all you need is a Prince Charming!’

He made a show of patting his pockets. ‘You know, I’m sure I had a glass slipper somewhere…’

‘I’ve already found my Prince Charming,’ said Lucy crushingly, and looked pointedly across the ring to where Kevin was watching a snorting stallion being coaxed into the chute. ‘You just get to be an ugly sister,’ she said.

To her annoyance, Guy’s good humour wasn’t even dented, let alone crushed by her dismissive comment. He just laughed, and she sucked her teeth in irritation. Prince Charming indeed! Of course, he would think that was his role. The man was unbelievably conceited. Yes, he was remarkably handsome—even she couldn’t deny that—but that smooth, blond, blue-eyed look didn’t do it for her. She preferred her men rather more rugged.

Like Kevin, in fact.

‘I didn’t realise that you were coming today,’ she said frostily as she turned back to the arena.

‘Hey, the ugly sisters always get to have a good time,’ he reminded her. ‘And rodeos are always fun—to watch, anyway,’ he added as the stallion made short work of bucking the latest rider off his back. Guy winced as he hit the ground with a thud. ‘Ouch,’ he said. ‘It’s something different, too,’ he went on. ‘We don’t get a lot of rodeos at home, do we?’

Lucy hated the way he said ‘we’ like that, as if they had something in common. He was always doing that, reminding her—and everyone else—that she was English too and didn’t really belong out here any more than he did.

She had been having such a lovely time at Wirrindago. Employed as a cook-cum-housekeeper, she had been thrilled by the isolation and the fact that the men still found horses the easiest way to move around the wild country. It was all so different from the way she had grown up in England, and she had been quite carried away by the romance of it all.

Until Guy had turned up.

Lucy wasn’t used to not liking people but from the moment Guy had strolled into the kitchen a few days ago and introduced himself with that smile—the one that seemed to assume that any woman on the receiving end would instantly swoon at his feet—her normally sunny nature had deserted her. There was just something about him that rubbed her up the wrong way, leaving her irritated and edgy.

Guy might be Hal Granger’s cousin, but it was hard to imagine anyone more different or more out of place in the outback. He was so…so…so English, Lucy decided in frustration. He just didn’t belong, and she wished he would go back to London and stop getting on her nerves.

The way he was doing right now.

‘I wouldn’t have thought rodeos were your kind of thing,’ she said.

‘Oh, I don’t know…’ Casually, Guy leant on the rails next to her. The sleeves of his pristine white shirt were rolled up to reveal surprisingly powerful forearms, covered with a fuzz of golden hairs that drew Lucy’s eyes in spite of herself as they glinted in the bright light. There was something overwhelming about him when he was that close, and she found herself edging away.

‘I spent quite a lot of holidays at Wirrindago when I was a kid,’ he was saying, apparently oblivious to her unease. ‘I remember coming to rodeos like this one with Hal. They used to lay on bareback sheep riding and catching the greasy pig for the youngsters.’

He grinned at the memory and she glimpsed a flash of strong white teeth in his brown, too-handsome face. ‘We had some good fun. I used to want to be like those guys over there,’ he went on, nodding to where the stockmen taking part in the rodeo were sitting on the rails looking for all the world like extras in a classic Western. ‘I told my parents I wanted to be a rodeo rider when I left school.’

Lucy stared at him. ‘A rodeo rider?’ His shirt was dazzlingly white in the glare, and she could see the riders on the rails reflected in his sunglasses. There was a sheen to him, she thought, a kind of glamour that belonged on a yacht in St Tropez or skiing off piste in Gstaad, not here at a ramshackle local rodeo with bull-riding and steer-wrestling and greasy pigs. ‘You?’

Still leaning on the rail, Guy glanced up at her with another of those film-star smiles. ‘Funny, that’s exactly what my father said—and he said it in just that tone of voice too!’

Lucy wished he would stop smiling like that. It was too much. He was too much. Too vibrant. Too good-looking. Too charming. Too everything. She looked away, annoyed to find that the smile seemed to have been imprinted on her vision so that it was just as vivid even when she wasn’t looking at him.

‘What did your mother say?’

‘She told me not to be so silly.’

His imitation of his mother’s crisp tones was no doubt wickedly accurate and, in spite of her determination not to find him the slightest bit amusing, Lucy was betrayed into a laugh, which she tried to cover by adjusting the old stockman’s hat on her head. She had borrowed it that morning and it was a little big, but it made her feel authentic, unlike Guy Dangerfield, smile or no smile. He might have a closer connection to the outback than she did, but at least she tried to fit in. He just stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb.

‘I’m surprised you’re not having a go today if you were that keen,’ she said.

‘I know better now,’ said Guy. ‘I leave the hard stuff to the experts like Prince Charming over there.’

He nodded across the ring to where Kevin was sitting on the rails, looking quietly confident as another wild horse pawed the ground in the chute, impatient for release into the ring. ‘You need to be tough to take on bareback bronc riding.’

‘I know,’ said Lucy, deciding to ignore the Prince Charming jibe. ‘Kevin says it’s the supreme rodeo challenge,’ she was unable to resist adding. She was at that stage of infatuation when just saying Kevin’s name was a thrill.

‘Kevin said something?’ Guy straightened from the rail in mock astonishment. ‘When? I didn’t know he could talk!’

‘Very funny,’ said Lucy coldly.

‘You’ve got to admit that he’s not exactly chatty,’ he said. ‘I’ve hardly heard him say a word at meals since I arrived. I mean, we all know about strong silent types, but that’s ridiculous!’

‘There’s nothing ridiculous about Kevin,’ Lucy flared up. ‘He just doesn’t say anything unless it’s worth saying. It’s one of the things that makes him a real man—unlike some,’ she added pointedly.

Guy leant back against the fence and folded his arms, but Lucy was sure that behind those stupid sunglasses, his eyes were dancing.

‘So you think a real man incapable of making conversation?’

‘No, he just doesn’t waste his time spouting stupid rubbish—like giving people silly nicknames, for instance!’

‘Cinders, are you by any chance implying that you don’t think I am a real man?’ Guy tsk-tsked. ‘I’m hurt!’

If Lucy had believed for a moment that he had been really offended she would have been embarrassed, but, as it was, she just lifted her chin at him.

‘You’re not like Kevin,’ she said.

‘Apart from the fact that I can string more than three words together at a time, what’s the real difference between us?’

‘Kevin’s tough,’ said Lucy. ‘He’s steady, he’s sensible and he works hard.’ Belatedly, she realised that she hadn’t made him sound much fun, and she waited for Guy to point it out, but he only grinned.

‘How do you know you couldn’t say the same thing about me?’

She eyed him with frustration. Surely he must know how frivolous and superficial he appeared next to someone like Kevin? ‘You don’t seem to take anything very seriously,’ she said at last. ‘Do you even have a job?’

‘Of course I do!’ He pretended to sound affronted. ‘I’m in investment banking.’

‘Oh…banking,’ said Lucy disparagingly. ‘That’s not a real job.’

‘Hey, it’s not all late lunches and corporate jollies, you know!’

‘How did you get into banking?’

Guy smiled crookedly. ‘I have to admit that it’s a family firm.’

Just as she’d thought. No doubt he’d been given a token job with a plush office to sit in while everyone else did all the work, Lucy decided. He probably rolled up at ten and spent most of the day at lunch catching up with pals on the old boys’ network.

‘I don’t think you can compare working in a bank with what Kevin does,’ she said, determinedly unimpressed. ‘You don’t need the same kind of skills.’

‘Maybe,’ said Guy, ‘but what can Kevin do that I can’t?’

‘Well…he’s a brilliant horseman.’ Lucy had never, in fact, seen Kevin on a horse. As Guy had pointed out, she was usually in the kitchen when the stockmen were at work, but she had heard them talking about how good Kevin was often enough.

‘I can ride.’

‘I don’t mean English riding.’

‘English riding?’ Guy raised his brows, a smile hovering around his mouth, and she gestured irritably.

‘You know what I mean. Just sitting on the back of the horse and pottering along a country lane. I’m talking about real horsemanship—working with the horse, being able to control it absolutely the way Kevin can. Taming a wild horse, or bringing down a cow without hurting it…all the things he does every day.’

‘I admit I don’t spend a lot of time on horseback in the bank, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t be a stockman if I wanted. Could Kevin run an investment bank, do you think?’

Lucy looked at him suspiciously. ‘Are you really telling me that you can ride like Kevin?’

‘I’m not saying I’m any good, I’m just saying that I could be a real man if I wanted to.’

As usual, his face was poker straight, but his voice held that undercurrent of amusement that so riled Lucy. She didn’t believe a word of it. He was just teasing her, probably miffed because she thought that Kevin was more of a man.

Lucy’s chin went up. She had had enough of being teased by Guy over the last few days. ‘Prove it,’ she said.

‘Prove that I can ride?’ Guy rubbed his jaw, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. ‘Short of throwing myself on to a spare horse, I’m not sure how I can do that.’

‘We’re at a rodeo,’ she pointed out sweetly. ‘There are plenty of horses back there.’ She nodded in the direction of the holding pens behind the makeshift arena. ‘You could take part in one of the competitions.’

‘Have you seen those horses?’ Guy made a comic face. ‘Half of them are completely wild!’

Lucy shrugged. ‘You said you could ride,’ she reminded him.

‘Well, there’s riding and riding, if you know what I mean.’

‘You’re the one who said you could ride like Kevin. I don’t think it would be easy, but a real man would like a challenge. You obviously don’t,’ she finished dismissively, and then regretted it because Guy had straightened and suddenly he seemed very solid and very close.

For one frozen moment she thought she might have gone too far, but then he smiled. Taking off his sunglasses, he looked directly into Lucy’s hostile eyes. ‘I wouldn’t say that, Cinderella,’ he said softly.

Lucy had the strangest impression that the noise and smells of the rodeo had faded around them while blue eyes locked with blue. Hers were the blue of a summer sky, while Guy’s were darker, a deep ocean blue where laughter lurked like sunlight glinting on the water and, as she stared up at him, held against her will by their gleaming depths, she was suddenly acutely aware of him.

Ever since he had arrived, she had dismissed Guy as a playboy, too handsome for his own good, too charming to be real, but now, all at once, she saw him as a man. A man with warm brown skin and a hint of golden stubble, with a strong jaw and a slightly crooked nose and laughter lines creasing those blue, blue eyes, and something turned over inside her at the realisation that he was not only a very real man but that he was very close.

‘In fact,’ Guy went on, and his voice held that disturbing undercurrent of amusement and something else that sent a tiny shiver down Lucy’s spine, ‘I’d say that I enjoy a challenge just as much as the next man, if not more.’

Swallowing, Lucy succeeded in wrenching her gaze away from his at last and she took a step back. ‘You’ll do it, then?’ she said a little unsteadily. She felt odd, as if the ground had been cut away beneath her feet somehow.

Guy grinned again and, in spite of herself, her pulse gave a little kick. ‘You know it would be much easier if you would just believe me.’

‘I’ll believe you when you take part in the next round. It’s calf roping next, so they’ll give you a proper horse.’

‘Calf-roping? You couldn’t pick something a bit harder?’ said Guy humorously. ‘That means I’ve not only got to stay on the horse but catch a calf with a lasso.’

‘It’ll be a challenge,’ Lucy agreed. ‘And according to you, you like one of those!’

‘Ah, well, if that’s what it takes to convince you, I suppose I’d better—’He broke off as an ‘ooooh’ came from the crowd standing around the ring. ‘Isn’t that Kevin?’

‘Kevin?’ Lucy turned sharply to see Kevin rolling free of the horses’ hooves in a little cloud of dust, but he was smiling broadly as he stood up and helped the men catch the horse that was still bucking furiously around the edge of the ring. People were clapping too, so presumably he had stayed on the horse’s back for longer than the others.

She had missed his moment of glory. Lucy was mortified, and furious with Guy for distracting her. When Kevin dodged his way across the ring towards her, she gave him a dazzling smile that pointedly excluded Guy.

‘You did brilliantly,’ she said, trusting that he had been too busy clinging on to the horse to notice that she’d been talking to Guy instead of watching him.

‘Wasn’t bad,’ said Kevin laconically.

‘Congratulations,’ said Guy, muscling in where he wasn’t wanted, as usual. Anyone with any sensitivity would have murmured an excuse and slipped away to leave her alone with Kevin, but not Guy! No, he was right there, shaking Kevin’s hand, being friendly and interested and asking him about the skills he needed to stay in the saddle so long, until Kevin was getting positively loquacious.

‘Isn’t it time you went and got ready for the calf-roping, Guy?’ Lucy interrupted as a megaphone crackled into life with an announcement about the next competition. ‘You don’t want to miss your chance to have a go, do you?’

‘You going in for that, Guy?’ asked Kevin and she couldn’t help noticing that he seemed more interested in that than in anything she had had to say.

‘So it seems,’ he said, smiling. ‘Lucy’s issued a challenge that I can’t refuse, although I’m not sure that I’ll be able to take part. I wouldn’t blame the organisers if they didn’t want amateurs messing up their competition.’

Lucy wasn’t going to let him weasel out of it that easily. ‘At least you can go and see.’

Kevin looked puzzled as Guy strolled off. ‘I didn’t know he could use a rope,’ he said.

‘He can’t,’ she said scornfully. ‘He’s just calling my bluff. You wait, he’ll be back in a minute with some excuse about why he can’t do it.’

But Guy didn’t come back. Lucy should have been perfectly happy now that she was alone with Kevin, but her attention kept being distracted by the laughter from where all the contestants were gathered. Whenever she glanced over, she could see Guy, clowning around, pretending to get on a horse the wrong way round, borrowing a hat, making everybody laugh.

What a show off the man was! Lucy turned her eyes determinedly back to Kevin’s ruggedly handsome profile, but it was hard to concentrate with Guy playing to the crowd like that.

The sooner this farce was over, the better, she decided, and was relieved when it seemed to be Guy’s turn. They had found him a horse. Someone would give him a boost into the saddle, he could hold on long enough to go round the ring, and she supposed she would have to give him credit for having tried when—

Oh.

Fully expecting him to bungle mounting his horse, Lucy was taken aback when Guy swung easily into the saddle in one fluid movement. Astounded, she watched him manoeuvre his horse behind the barrier and wait while the calf was released from the chute and given a ten second start.

Alarmed by the unfamiliar surroundings, the calf blundered round and round the makeshift arena, looking for a way out until the barrier was raised, and Guy spurred his horse forward, keeping pace with the animal at an easy canter.

Lucy watched, blue eyes gathering wrath as he rode with effortless grace, detaching the lasso from the pommel and testing its weight in his hand as easily as if he had spent his whole life in the saddle.

I can ride. He had told her, but she hadn’t believed him. He had known that she wasn’t going to believe him, and so he had let her think that he was joking. And now there he was, twirling the rope experimentally before sending it snaking through the air to land neatly over the calf’s horns.

Around the ring there was a burst of applause and Guy was instantly in showman mode again, grinning and waving his hat to acknowledge the cheers.

‘Not bad for a Pom,’ said Kevin.

‘No,’ said Lucy tightly. Logically, she knew that Guy couldn’t possibly have set her up to make a fool of herself, but that was how it felt.

‘Come on,’ she said abruptly, having had enough of Guy Dangerfield for one afternoon. ‘Let’s go and find the others.’

‘Might as well dump our swags too,’ said Kevin. ‘There should still be some space down by the creek. That’s where we usually sleep.’

It was a long speech for him, but that wasn’t why Lucy stopped and looked at him blankly. ‘Sleep?’

‘There’s always a party after the rodeo,’ he said as if everybody knew that. ‘We have a few beers and there’s a dance. Nobody wants to drive home after that.’

‘But…I didn’t realise you’d be staying.’ Lucy regarded him with dismay. ‘I promised Hal I’d be back tonight,’ she tried to explain. ‘His niece and nephew are coming tomorrow and I said I’d help him make sure everything was ready.’

Kevin couldn’t see the problem. ‘Hal knows you’re with us. He won’t expect you back until tomorrow.’

She bit her lip uncertainly. ‘Did you bring a swag for me?’

‘Sure did,’ said Kevin and he smiled his slow smile, the one that usually had her heart doing handsprings.

For once, Lucy was too torn to respond. She had longed and longed to spend more time with Kevin, and now, at last, when he seemed to be showing a bit more interest, she wasn’t going to be able to enjoy it. It was so unfair.

If only she could stay. She loved a good party, and tonight would probably be great fun. There would be a barbecue and dancing in the woolshed and later, perhaps, she and Kevin could slip away down to the creek in the starlight…It could be the perfect romantic evening.

How could it be perfect, though, when she had promised Hal she would go back? She would spend the whole time feeling guilty.

Her boss wasn’t the easiest of men and, truth to tell, Lucy was a little intimidated by him, but it was Hal who had given her the job and a chance to work in the outback. If it hadn’t been for him, she would never even have met Kevin. And Hal had made it clear that her priority would be looking after his sister’s children during their stay at Wirrindago. Lucy had signed a stringent contract to that effect but, even if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have wanted to let him down. She owed him too much.

But how could she insist that Kevin drive her back tonight? The other stockmen would have to come too, as they only had the one truck, and they would all miss the party. They had few enough social occasions to look forward to, Lucy knew. It wouldn’t be fair to them.

She had promised Hal. It wouldn’t be fair to him not to go.

‘I don’t know what to do, Kevin,’ she said helplessly. ‘I’d love to stay, honestly I would, but I did say that I would go back tonight. If I’d known…’

It was at that moment that Guy came strolling up, as pristine as ever. It looked as if he had hardly broken a sweat on that horse in the crushing heat. Lucy eyed him with deep resentment. He could at least have had the decency to fall off. At least then he would look dirty and normal like everyone else.

As it was, she was convinced with no justification whatsoever that the mess she had found herself in was somehow his fault.

‘Satisfied, Cinders?’ he asked with a glinting smile.

Lucy gritted her teeth. ‘Yes,’ she said tersely.

‘You were good,’ said Kevin. ‘You going in for anything else?’

Guy shook his head. ‘I’m challenged out,’ he said with an amused glance at Lucy. ‘I thought I’d head back to Wirrindago now. Hal could do with a bit of support. For a man who can move a thousand head of cattle around without a blink, he seems unnerved by the thought of two children. But I can’t say I blame him!’

‘Maybe Guy would give you a lift back, Lucy,’ said Kevin, and Guy lifted an eyebrow at Lucy in surprise.

‘Aren’t you staying for the ball, Cinders?’

‘It’s not a ball.’ Kevin was bemused. ‘It’s just a party.’

Lucy was too disappointed to explain. She knew he was only trying to help, but he hadn’t even tried to persuade her to stay, and now he was going to offload her on to Guy Dangerfield, of all people!

‘I told Hal I’d be back tonight,’ she admitted to Guy, almost choking on the words. ‘I didn’t realise that everyone else would be staying.’

‘I’m sure Hal would understand if you wanted to go to the party,’ said Guy, who appeared to be able to read her expression without difficulty. ‘It’s not like you’ll really be reduced to rags if you’re here after midnight! I’ll tell him what’s happened, and Kevin can bring you back with the others tomorrow morning.’

‘It’s all right, thank you,’ said Lucy, frigidly polite. She had no intention of enjoying a romantic evening courtesy of Guy, even if she had been sure that Kevin would think to take her down to the creek in the starlight. He certainly didn’t seem to be making any effort to persuade her to stay, she thought glumly. Perhaps he didn’t like her as much as she had hoped?

‘I made a promise,’ she said, ‘and I’ll keep it.’

‘Good girl.’ Guy nodded approvingly. ‘I can’t say I’d mind having some company on the way back,’ he added. ‘It’s a long drive on your own. The pumpkin’s ready whenever you are, Cinders.’

Lucy cast a last longing look at the woolshed. Tonight it would be throbbing with music and laughter, and the old wooden floor would reverberate with dancing feet. The smell of beer would mingle with the smoke from the barbecue, and the light would spill out through the great doors into the vast, silent outback night. It would be the kind of party she had always dreamed of.

And she wouldn’t be there. Kevin would be dancing with a nice Australian girl who could talk horses with him, and she would be stuck with the only Englishman for hundreds of miles around. She could have wept with disappointment, but she had given her word to Hal and there was nothing she could do about it now.

She sighed. ‘I’m ready now,’ she said.

CHAPTER TWO

IT WAS a silent drive at first. To Lucy’s relief, Guy didn’t try to make conversation. If she hadn’t already decided that he was unbearably arrogant and conceited, she might have thought that he was being sensitive about her disappointment. He didn’t tease her about not going to the ball, as she had half expected that he would, but let her stare miserably out of the window and think about Kevin and all the other girls he might be dancing with in the woolshed that night.

With a sigh, she took off her hat and ran her fingers through her flattened hair so that it fell, blonde and dishevelled now, to her shoulders. Glancing at Guy under her lashes, she saw that he was watching her with an unreadable expression and, for some reason, she found herself blushing.

‘You know, you could have stayed,’ he said. ‘Hal would have understood.’

‘I know, but I’d given him my word.’ Aware that she was being self-indulgent, Lucy made an effort to pull herself together. None of this was actually Guy’s fault, she realised, and he was her employer’s cousin. It might be a little late to start being polite, but she could always try. ‘I’m sorry, I’m not being much company,’ she said and mustered a smile. ‘I’m not usually this miserable.’

‘I know,’ said Guy. ‘I’ve been struck by what an extraordinarily happy person you are. Most girls your age would grumble about being stuck in an isolated homestead all day with nothing to do but cook and clean for a bunch of taciturn men and nowhere to go in the evenings, but you seem to love it.’

‘I do love it.’ Lucy was surprised that he thought that there was anything odd about it. ‘It’s all so romantic! Exactly how I always imagined the outback to be! I can’t believe how lucky I am to be here.’

‘It’s just that you give the impression of being a girl who likes to have fun,’ he said, his eyes on the dirt track that ran arrow straight through the red dust to the horizon. ‘I could see how disappointed you were not to be able to go to the party tonight.’

Lucy eyed him uncertainly, not quite sure how to take him when he wasn’t making fun of her. ‘I do love a party, but I don’t mind the isolation.’

She didn’t mind anything as long as Kevin was there. If he’d been beside her instead of Guy, she wouldn’t have given two hoots about the party. As it was, she couldn’t help wondering who he was with and what he was doing.

‘Maybe living so quietly makes you appreciate social events more,’ she said. ‘I’m glad I didn’t have to make all the men come back with me. They don’t get to go out much, and they’ll have a great time. It won’t matter to them if I’m there or not.’

Guy cast her a glance, evidently not in the least fooled by her bright smile. ‘Kevin isn’t going to get together with anyone else tonight, if that’s what’s worrying you,’ he said.

‘How can you know?’ Lucy abandoned the pretence that she wasn’t worried.

‘Hey, Prince Charming never settles for anyone less than Cinderella, right?’

Lucy wasn’t reassured. ‘There might be someone more suitable there.’ She turned the hat wistfully in her hands. ‘I wish I wasn’t so English,’ she confessed in a low voice.

‘Come on,’ said Guy as the truck juddered over a rough patch in the track. ‘Kevin may not be the most talkative guy in the world, but he’s a man, and you’re a very pretty girl, as I’m sure you must know. He’s not going to be interested in suitable when he’s got you.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ she said, chewing anxiously at the side of her thumb. ‘It’s hard to tell with Kevin,’ she went on in a burst of confidence, even though part of her was marvelling that she was actually talking to Guy—Guy, of all people!—like this.

It must be something about being shut up together in the front seat of the truck, she decided. The cab made for an oddly intimate environment, especially when you were driving across the outback and there was nothing to distract you and no one else around for miles and miles and miles. There wasn’t much else to do but talk.

‘I just don’t know what he feels about me.’ She sighed.

‘It’s hard to tell with someone like Kevin, I agree,’ said Guy. ‘Not like you.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re obviously not a believer in keeping your feelings to yourself,’ he said with a touch of irony. ‘It’s not very British of you, but I kind of like it.’

Lucy flushed. ‘I’m in love with Kevin,’ she said, and her glance held more than a hint of defiance. ‘Why should I try and deny it?’

‘No reason,’ said Guy mildly.

‘My sister thinks you ought to keep everything bottled up inside,’ she went on, a little deflated by his lack of response. ‘But if you love someone, why not say it? Why should you be ashamed of your feelings?’

‘You shouldn’t,’ he said, ‘but sometimes it’s worth keeping them to yourself until you’re absolutely sure that is how you feel.’

‘You sound like Meredith.’ Lucy hunched a shoulder. ‘I am sure how I feel about Kevin. Why shouldn’t I be?’

Guy shrugged. ‘You don’t need to justify yourself to me,’ he pointed out. ‘Kevin seems a nice enough bloke, even if he hasn’t got much to say for himself. I just wonder how much fun you’ll have with him. I mean, what do you talk about when you’re together?’

Lucy didn’t want to admit that she was rarely alone with Kevin. The Wirrindago homestead might be isolated in the middle of a million acres but there was surprisingly little privacy. The stockmen worked together, ate in the homestead together and then retired to their communal quarters. It was hard to find an opportunity to slip off on your own, or rather with someone else, but if anything, that had only made Lucy yearn for Kevin even more.

She had fallen in love with him on her first evening at Wirrindago. He had walked on to the veranda, a dream come true in his checked shirt and boots and rugged male attraction, and Lucy had been lost. He was perfect, her dream of living forever in the outback with him was perfect, and she didn’t want Guy Dangerfield casting doubt on it.

‘When you’re really in love, nothing else matters,’ she said loftily. ‘It’s not about making conversation. It’s about being together and loving each other.’

‘If you say so,’ said Guy, clearly unconvinced. ‘It can be a lonely life in the outback, though.’

‘Not if I’m with Kevin.’ Lucy was uncomfortably aware that she was making her relationship with Kevin seem rather more established than it was, but it was a point of principle more than anything else. ‘You dreamed about being a rodeo rider,’ she said. ‘Well, this is my dream.’

She shook back her hair defiantly, and Guy sent her a sideways glance.

‘I grew out of that particular fantasy,’ he pointed out. ‘About…oooh…eighteen years ago.’

‘And have you never had a fantasy since?’

As soon as the words were out, Lucy wished that she had phrased it differently. She saw the corner of Guy’s mouth twitch, and she felt a flush creeping up her cheeks at the unwitting suggestiveness of her question. ‘You know what I mean,’ she snapped. ‘A dream. You’re not going to tell me that you don’t dream any more, are you?’

‘No.’

Lucy half turned in her seat, suddenly curious. Guy might give the impression of being very open and friendly, but behind that lazily good-humoured expression it was hard to know what he really felt about anything. ‘So what do you dream about now, if it’s not rodeo riding?’ she asked.

Guy’s smile gleamed. ‘I don’t think I know you well enough to tell you that, Lucy,’ he said. ‘I’m with your sister on that one, I have to admit. Some fantasies are best kept to oneself!’

Lucy gripped her tongue between her teeth as she smeared chocolate icing over the top of the cake. Ostensibly it was for afternoon smoko, but really she had made it for Kevin. Chocolate cake was his favourite, so she made it as often as she could.

She was feeling very happy today. Kevin had actually said that he had missed her at the party after the rodeo, and Lucy hugged the memory of his laconic comment to her as if it had been the most passionate declaration of love. A man like Kevin wasn’t going to rush into anything, she reminded herself frequently, so admitting that he had missed her was a big step.

It was a start, anyway.

Even better, Guy Dangerfield was leaving at last. His mother was having a double hip replacement, he had explained, and he needed to fly back to London the next day so that he could be around to help her after the operation.

Lucy would be relieved to see him go. It wasn’t that he had been about the place that much. If anything, she had seen less of him since that drive back from the rodeo, but she had been uncomfortably aware of him at meals, when his smile kept snagging at the edge of her vision, and his voice with its undercurrent of laughter was somehow impossible to ignore, even if he was talking at the other end of the table.

She wished she hadn’t told him quite so much about herself, although Guy had never mentioned their conversation again. At odd times, Lucy would find herself thinking about how he had looked on that drive, and remembering things that she hadn’t even been aware of noticing at the time.

Like his hands, strong and square on the steering wheel, or the line of his jaw. Like the texture of his skin, his throat brown above the white collar. Like the curl of his mouth and the gleam of his smile.

And then she would remember how easily he had swung on to that horse and a strange feeling would uncurl in the pit of her stomach.

It all made her feel very unsettled. Lucy tried reminding herself how irritating he had been, and the annoying way he would insist on calling her Cinderella, and she told herself she was glad that he didn’t come into the kitchen to chat any more, but she couldn’t help feeling just a little piqued when he just waved a greeting on his way past and left her alone.

Wondering why she should care at all just made her more unsettled. It was a very good thing that Guy was going, she decided as she put the finishing touches to the cake. Tomorrow she would be able to relax at last, without the constant distraction of Guy’s presence, and maybe there would be a chance to spend more time with Kevin.

Not that there was any time to spend on building a quality relationship at the moment. Hal’s sister had brought her children, Emma and Mickey, to stay before flying out to join her husband on a two-month business tour, and they were having a hard time adjusting.

Lucy felt sorry for them. She knew what it was like to be homesick, having been sent to boarding school at seven, but she had had her big sister, Meredith, to look after her. Emma, at nine, didn’t seem nearly as practical as Meredith, or as devoted to looking after her younger brother, so Lucy was doing her best to keep them entertained in between making sure there were meals on the table three times a day.

Right now, the two of them were on the front veranda, playing some computer game, but she would go and suggest they play a game of cards or something as soon as she had cleared up the kitchen.

Brushing cocoa from her jeans, she glanced at the kitchen clock. Hal should be back soon. He had driven into Whyman’s Creek earlier that morning and she had given him a whole list of ingredients to pick up from the store.

Lucy put the cake to one side and regarded the mess she had made with a sigh. She was an exuberant cook and she had never got the hang of washing up as she went along. She always put off the moment of tidying up as long as she could.

‘Uncle Hal’s here!’

Emma’s cry from the front veranda made Lucy brighten at the perfect excuse to avoid tackling the mess for a while. Wiping her hands on a tea towel, she hurried along the corridor to help Hal unload.

The front door stood open, but a screen door kept out the insects. It fell into place with a clatter after Lucy exited and made for the steps leading down to where Hal had parked the truck. She saw his tall figure first, and then noticed with surprise that he had brought someone with him. He hadn’t said anything about a visitor when he left that morning.

Lucy’s blue gaze was on its way back to Hal when it stopped and returned to the stranger in a ludicrous double take. Surely not? It couldn’t be…?

But it was. Her sister, so dearly familiar and yet so utterly unexpected out here that for a long, long moment, Lucy could only stare.

Meredith?

Meredith looked up at her. ‘Hi, Lucy,’ she said.

It was her! Lucy’s heart swelled with astonished delight. She hadn’t realised how much she had missed her no-nonsense sister until now. Hurrying down the steps, she swept Meredith into a hug.

‘I can’t believe it’s really you!’ she cried excitedly. ‘It’s so good to see you!’ Then she pulled back to look into her sister’s face. ‘But what on earth are you doing here?’

‘Your sister?’ Guy’s brows rose. He had been out all day and had only just come back to discover that Hal had brought an unexpected visitor back from Whyman’s Creek. ‘Has she come out to visit you?’

‘Not exactly.’ Lucy was distracted as she turned the potatoes in the hot fat.

They needed more cold meat for lunchtime sandwiches, so she had planned to roast another huge joint tonight and now she was glad. She could cook roast beef in her sleep these days, and she had too much on her mind to concentrate on anything more complicated.

‘She wants me to go home with her,’ she told Guy. ‘A friend of ours has been in an accident. He’s in a coma, and they think that my voice might help him to come round.’

Guy sat on the kitchen table and regarded Lucy’s downcast face thoughtfully. ‘That’s bad news.’

Lucy sighed, too miserable even to resent Guy’s presence. ‘I know.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I think I’m going to have to go,’ she said. ‘It would mean breaking my contract—you know how insistent Hal was that I was here to look after Emma and Mickey—but Meredith’s talking to him now and we’re hoping that he’ll agree to her taking my place while I go back to London and see Richard.’

Guy frowned slightly. ‘Will it really make such a difference if you’re there?’

‘Meredith seems to think that it will.’ Lucy put the potatoes back into the oven and straightened, smoothing some stray hairs from her forehead with the back of her arm. ‘To be honest, I don’t want to go, but I owe Meredith a lot and if this is what she wants, then I’ll do what I can. I spoke to Richard’s mother on the phone, too. She sounded desperate, as if they’ve pinned all their hopes on me going back. How can I refuse when it means so much to them?’

Guy hesitated. ‘What about Kevin?’

‘He’ll wait for me, I hope,’ she said, her eyes sliding away from his. ‘Even if Hal doesn’t agree to keep the job open for me if Meredith stays, then I’ll get back to the outback somehow. I’m not going to just give up on my dream.’

But Hal had agreed, Meredith told her, when she came into the kitchen a little later and was introduced to Guy.

‘Now we just need to get you to Darwin,’ she told Lucy.

‘I can help you there,’ said Guy. ‘As it happens, your timing couldn’t be better.’ He told Meredith about his mother’s hip operation. ‘I need to be there,’ he said, ‘not that Ma will appreciate it! She’ll probably just tell me that I’m in the way, but I’ve chartered a plane to pick me up from the airstrip here tomorrow morning anyway. The pilot will fly me directly to Darwin, and I can pick up the London flight there. Lucy might as well come with me.’

Lucy had been listening to him with growing dismay, but Meredith’s face lightened. ‘That would be great,’ she said gratefully. ‘It means she can get home much sooner.’

‘I’m sure we can find a local flight,’ Lucy cut across her. ‘We don’t need to put Guy to any trouble.’

‘It’s no trouble,’ said Guy. ‘There’s room for another person on the plane and, as I’ve chartered it, it won’t cost any extra.’ He glanced at Lucy’s mutinous face. ‘Of course, the alternative is for Hal to drive you into Whyman’s Creek,’ he said mildly. ‘There’s a local flight to Darwin and you might be able to get a seat on it, but as Hal’s just got back from town today, he’d probably be glad not to have to drive you in again tomorrow morning.’

This was so patently true that Lucy was left with nothing to say, as Guy was no doubt perfectly aware. She could hardly insist on Hal going to all the effort of driving her into town on the off chance she would get a seat on the next flight when it had taken all Meredith’s persuasive powers to get him to agree to her leaving at all.

Raging inwardly at the workings of fate, Lucy threw her things into her rucksack the next morning. She had so been looking forward to Guy going, and to spending some time alone with Kevin—well, without Guy’s smile lurking distractingly in the background, anyway—and now here she was, leaving with him instead of waving him off with a bright smile. Spending an hour and a half alone with him on the drive back from the rodeo had been bad enough. How was she going to manage going all the way to Darwin?

They were even going to be on the same plane to London, she had discovered to her dismay. While she had been saying goodbye to Kevin, Guy had been on the phone, arranging her ticket.

‘Meredith said she would do that,’ Lucy protested when she found out, but Guy only shrugged.

‘Meredith was exhausted last night,’ he pointed out. ‘It seemed the important thing was to get you on to the first plane so I got my PA to book you on the same flight.’

At least she would only have to put up with him until they got to Darwin, Lucy consoled herself. Guy was a first class traveller if ever she saw one, and she was most definitely a budget traveller. Once they got to Darwin, he would be so coddled by special lounges and fast track service that with any luck she wouldn’t see him again after that.

But there was another shock at Darwin itself. ‘You’ve booked me in first class?’ Lucy’s voice rose to a squeak of appalled dismay.

‘It’s a long flight,’ said Guy. ‘You might as well be comfortable.’

‘Meredith told me that Richard’s parents wanted to buy my ticket home, but I’m quite sure they didn’t intend me to come first class!’ Lucy was aghast. ‘I know Richard’s father is a successful businessman, but he’s not so successful he can afford to hand out first class plane tickets.’

‘In that case, it’s lucky that I am,’ said Guy, putting a firm hand under her elbow and piloting her towards the first class check-in desk. ‘Richard’s parents can pay for your ticket back to Australia, and you can travel as economically as you like then.’

Lucy dug in her heels as she realised what he was saying and rather belatedly wrenched her arm out of his warm grasp. ‘You bought my ticket to London?’

‘I can’t take any credit for it. My PA did all the work.’

‘But I can’t let you pay for me. I hardly know you!’

‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that,’ said Guy, repossessing her elbow and propelling her firmly forwards. ‘We’ve been living in the same house for the past week. You know that I like marmalade on my toast and I know that you’re not at your best in the mornings. I know how you feel about Kevin, and you know that I once wanted to be a rodeo star. Very few people know that about me, Cinders,’ he said with a gleaming smile. ‘We can’t be strangers when you know my embarrassing secret!’

‘But it’s so expensive!’ said Lucy, hanging back.

‘Lucy, I’m a rich man,’ he said patiently. ‘It won’t even be a blip in my bank account.’

And somehow Lucy found herself handing over her passport as Guy checked them both in. The bookings had been made electronically, and in no time at all she was on the plane, with none of the shuffling queues she was used to, and ensconced in a luxurious seat by the window. There was no denying that the whole process of boarding was a lot less stressful in first class.

‘Wow,’ she said, pushing her seat back and playing with all the buttons, forgetting for a moment that she was cross with Guy. ‘I’ve never been in the pointy end of a plane before. This is great!’

Guy watched her indulgently. ‘I’ve never seen anyone get so much pleasure out of an airline seat,’ he said, and Lucy flushed and stopped fiddling immediately. She was obviously being very un-cool.

‘I don’t suppose you’ve ever been at the back of the plane.’ she grumbled.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Never. I had a very privileged upbringing.’

That accounted for his assurance, anyway. Guy only had to lift an eyebrow for someone to rush to do his bidding. Lucy would love to have accused him of arrogance but she couldn’t. He was charming to everyone, and all the flight attendants, male and female, were soon fawning over him.

Lucy watched them darkly. There was no need for them to lean quite that close to him or smile quite so invitingly, surely? She might as well not have been there! They had obviously taken one look at her jeans and shirt and recognised that she wasn’t a first class traveller.

As if to disprove her, a beautifully groomed flight attendant, who made Lucy feel even scruffier than ever, leant past Guy.

‘Would you like some champagne, Miss West?’

Miss West! Champagne! Who would ever have thought that she, Lucy West, would be sitting in first class, drinking champagne?

Lucy was ashamed of the little thrill that went through her as she accepted a glass. No flight attendant had ever bothered to learn her name before. She had always just been part of the mass and, while she was perfectly happy being one of a crowd, it was undeniably nice to have all this attention.

She glanced at Guy, who obviously took all this luxury for granted. He raised his glass to her with one of those smiles that always left her feeling slightly ruffled. ‘Here’s to dreams,’ he said.

Lucy thought of Kevin, back at Wirrindago. Even she couldn’t pretend that his farewell had been emotional. ‘See you then,’ he had said as she had left. But outback men weren’t used to expressing their emotions, Lucy reminded herself. It didn’t mean her dream wouldn’t come true.

‘To dreams,’ she said with a touch of defiance and touched her glass to Guy’s. ‘May they all come true.’

‘I’ll drink to that,’ said Guy and, as their eyes met for the toast, Lucy found her gaze snared in the gleaming blue depths of his, just as it had done at the rodeo. Just as before, she felt the air shorten between them. There was the same strange fluttery sensation in her stomach, and it made her nervous in exactly the same way.

Lucy yanked her eyes away, feeling oddly breathless, and took a gulp of champagne as she thought longingly of Kevin. Kevin, so quiet, so steady. He never made her feel jangly and jittery like this. You always knew where you were with Kevin. It might not be exactly where you wanted to be, but there was something restful about being able to adore him without expecting much in return.

There was nothing restful about being with Guy. Lucy did her best to ignore him, but it was impossible. If you were used to economy class, the space between the seats was enormous, but still he seemed very close, and she wished that she was sitting behind him or in front of him or anywhere else, in fact, where she might not be quite so aware of him.

He was absorbed in the Financial Times, which meant that she could study him covertly as she drank her champagne, and it felt to Lucy as if she had never looked at him properly before. His palely striped shirt was open at the collar and his sleeves were casually rolled up above his wrists. He lounged back in his seat, long legs stretched out before him and crossed at the ankle, utterly relaxed and evidently completely unperturbed by her presence.

He was like a big cat, thought Lucy in a flash of revelation, like a golden lion lolling in the shade of an acacia. He had the same air of carelessly leashed power, of a lazy indulgence that could turn in a flash into danger. No wonder he made her nervous. And no wonder he was so little bothered by her.

Guy turned a page of the paper, shaking it straight, and Lucy’s eyes snared on his forearm, and for some reason the breath dried in her throat. It was ridiculous. It was just an arm, adorned with what was no doubt an obscenely expensive watch, with broad wrists and square hands, but she was suddenly consumed with the inexplicable need to run her hand along his forearm, to feel the strength of his muscles, the fine golden hairs beneath her palm, the warmth of his skin…

Heat washed through her at the very thought of it and she emptied her glass with a kind of desperation. Her fingers were actually twitching, she realised wildly. Terrified that they might somehow acquire a will of their own and reach out for him, Lucy made herself turn to look out of the window, but there was nothing to see but air and light and the occasional wisp of cloud far below, and the more she stared, the more she saw instead Guy’s blue eyes, gleaming with that smile that made her prickle all over.

‘More champagne?’

Glad of the distraction, Lucy held out her glass to be refilled. ‘It feels all wrong to be drinking champagne in all this luxury when I’m only here because Richard is so ill,’ she said to Guy, who lowered his paper with just a hint of reluctance.

Lucy didn’t care. He could catch up on what was happening with the Dow-Jones Index some other time. Right now, she wanted him to be annoying. She was counting on it, in fact. She needed him to remind her of everything that she disliked about him so that she would get over this weird and rather embarrassing longing to touch him.

‘Will he get better any quicker if you drink water?’ asked Guy.

Good, thought Lucy, seizing on what she was sure was a touch of condescension in his voice. ‘No…but…you know what I mean,’ she said. ‘I shouldn’t be enjoying myself.’

‘This guy you’re going back to see…Richard?…presumably everyone wants you to be there because they know he cares about you?’

‘Yes,’ she acknowledged with some reluctance. She wasn’t at all comfortable with the idea that Richard was still in love with her, although Meredith insisted it was true.

‘Then I’m prepared to bet that what he likes most about you is your ability to enjoy yourself wherever you happen to be,’ said Guy. ‘That’s what makes you special, Cinders, not your blonde hair and blue eyes, lovely though they are.’

No, that wasn’t what she needed him to say at all. Why couldn’t he mock her? Why wasn’t he teasing her and making her feel stupid, instead of telling her that she was special? Used to the idea that Guy thought she was really rather silly, Lucy was now completely thrown.

‘I wish you wouldn’t call me Cinders,’ she muttered, not knowing what else to say. ‘It’s stupid.’

‘This Richard isn’t going to want you to change just because he’s ill,’ said Guy, ignoring her interjection. ‘If anything, he would want you to be even more yourself than usual. It’s enough that you’re going home when you don’t really want to. You don’t need to feel guilty as well.’

‘But I do,’ Lucy blurted out. ‘It feels as if it’s all my fault that Richard is in such a bad way.’

Guy didn’t quite roll his eyes, but there was an exaggerated patience in the way he folded his paper. ‘What, you drove the car that put Richard in a coma?’

‘No, of course not,’ she said, glad to feel a spurt of irritation with him. That was much more like it! ‘But I know Meredith thinks that he had the accident because he wasn’t concentrating, and he wasn’t concentrating because he was upset about me.’ She took a morose sip of champagne. ‘She hasn’t said anything, but I know she blames me for leaving.’

‘Ah,’ said Guy. ‘So you and Richard were more than just friends?’

Lucy nodded. ‘But not much more,’ she said quickly. ‘We went out for a while, but that’s all. It wasn’t a big deal. He was a friend of Meredith’s and I didn’t realise until too late that she was in love with him, but hadn’t let on to anyone how she felt. So Richard didn’t have a clue, and I didn’t either. I would never have gone out with him if I’d known.

‘It’s not that Richard isn’t lovely—he is. He’s very intelligent and charming and nice-looking and…steady, I suppose. I’d just broken up with a boyfriend who was the opposite of that. Tom was great fun, but he was wild and unreliable and Richard seemed like a grown-up next to him, so when he asked me out, I couldn’t see any reason to say no.’

Guy had turned slightly in his seat to listen to her. ‘When did you realise how Meredith felt about him?’

‘Not until about a month later.’ Lucy turned the champagne flute in her hands, remembering how aghast she had been. ‘If only she’d told me! But that’s typical of Meredith.’ She sighed. ‘She keeps everything to herself. I only found out by accident. I just happened to see her face in the mirror when I was talking about Richard, and suddenly it was so obvious, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t guessed before.’

‘It must have been an awkward situation,’ commented Guy.

‘I felt awful.’ It was a relief being able to talk to Guy about it, Lucy realised. ‘Meredith’s my big sister and she’s done everything for me. The last thing I wanted was to hurt her. I would never have encouraged Richard if I’d known how she felt.’

‘So what happened?’

‘The honest truth is that Richard and I weren’t going anywhere. He’s lovely, but a bit serious for me, and we didn’t really have much in common, not like him and Meredith. I thought that Richard felt the same way and that the best thing would be for me to leave. If I was out of the way, I was sure they’d get together and everything would be all right.’

Guy glanced at her and his eyes gleamed. ‘That was very selfless of you, Lucy.’

Lucy had the grace to blush a little. ‘I’m not saying that it didn’t suit me. The fact is that I was bored with my job and feeling restless anyway. I’d always loved the idea of the outback and it seemed the perfect opportunity to get a working visa and go.

‘That’s how I ended up at Wirrindago, and I’ve been so happy there,’ she said with a wistful smile. ‘Meredith was furious with me for going, though. She said I’d hurt Richard and that I was being selfish, and things were rather strained between us when I left. I didn’t honestly think that Richard was that upset, but she told me yesterday that he was devastated. Apparently he’s been confiding in her. She says he still loves me and that’s why they all want me to go back now but, to be honest, I felt worse about hurting Meredith.’

Lucy grimaced at the very thought of how unhappy her sister must have been when she’d walked off with Richard under her nose. ‘Meredith was known as the sensible one and I was the party girl who never settled down to anything. We lost our mother when we were both small and it was always Meredith who looked after me.’

‘It seems to me that she’s still doing that,’ said Guy. ‘And you let her.’

Lucy paused with the champagne glass halfway to her lips. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Who was it who arranged everything with Hal so that you could go back?’ he asked, unfolding his paper once more. ‘You didn’t even think about booking a flight. You just assumed Meredith would do it for you. And if Meredith isn’t around, I’ll bet there’s always someone else—like me on this occasion—who’ll sort things out for you.’

‘That’s not fair,’ she said, but her voice didn’t hold quite enough conviction, and Guy glanced at her face before he returned to the Financial Times.

‘Isn’t it?’ he said.

CHAPTER THREE

WAS that how Guy thought of her? As a lazy brat who let others organise her life for her? Lucy shifted uneasily in her seat. The trouble was that Meredith was so competent that it was often easier to let her do things her own way. But that didn’t mean she was spoilt, she thought defensively.

Did it?

A little sulkily, Lucy pulled out the in-flight magazine and began to flick through it mindlessly. The truth was that she didn’t like the idea that Guy thought that she was, especially when she had dismissed him as a spoilt trust-fund baby at first. There was irony for you.

But it was hard to stay grumpy when you were continually being plied with delicious food and wine and exhorted to lie back and make yourself comfortable, and Lucy’s spirits, naturally buoyant, soon rose.

She had never travelled in such style before. She wasn’t even bored. The complimentary bag of toiletries was fun to unpack. There were films to watch, magazines to read, a drink on hand whenever she felt like one, and the ultimate luxury of a seat that folded completely flat into a bed. The long flight was an odd kind of limbo time when all she could do was sit there, so Lucy determined that she might as well enjoy doing nothing while she could.

It was only as they began their descent into Heathrow, down through the clouds into a murky London dawn, that her mood began to sink with the plane. It would soon be time to face reality again. She would have to go and see Richard in the hospital, but what if he didn’t come out of his coma? She couldn’t hang around indefinitely. She didn’t have any money and even though Meredith had said that she could live in—

‘Oh!’ Lucy’s hand went to her mouth in an involuntary gesture as she remembered.

‘What is it?’ Guy stopped in the middle of a long stretch and looked at her dismayed expression in concern.

‘It was all such a rush before we left that Meredith forgot to give me the keys to her house!’

‘Or perhaps you forgot to ask for them,’ he suggested gently.

Lucy opened her mouth to make a sharp retort, but stopped herself just in time. Closing it again, she made herself count to ten. ‘Yes,’ she agreed through her teeth after a moment, ‘you’re right, of course. I forgot to remind her about them.’

She sighed. ‘I’ll have to call round some friends to see if anyone can put me up.’ Her shoulders slumped. ‘I was dying for a shower, too!’

‘It’s a bit early to ring round in search of a bed isn’t it?’ said Guy, glancing at his watch. ‘It’s not six yet. I can’t see you getting many warm invitations to pop straight round at this hour of the morning.’

Lucy made a face. ‘I’ll try Meg first. She’s an old friend.’ An old friend who was notoriously grumpy in the mornings. ‘She’ll forgive me…I hope!’

‘Why don’t you come back with me?’ suggested Guy. ‘I’ve got a car meeting me, and the flat has a couple of spare rooms. You could have a shower and call the hospital and your friends from there.’

‘That’s kind of you, but I think you’ve done more than enough,’ said Lucy firmly. She hadn’t forgotten his suggestion that she was incapable of looking after herself. She would show Guy that she could manage perfectly well on her own. ‘I’ll be fine.’

But when they got to the baggage hall she discovered that she had no charge on her phone. Lucy sighed. Why did this kind of thing keep happening to her? She could spend all morning at Heathrow, trying to contact Meg on a public phone.

Or she could swallow her pride and ask Guy if she could take him up on his offer after all.

Lucky she had never been that proud.

Her jaw actually dropped when she saw Guy’s apartment. After first class and the luxury of stepping into a sleek limousine that had pulled up right outside the terminal, she had thought that she might be getting blasé, but the apartment block in the heart of London’s Docklands was a different world altogether.

‘Home’ was too cosy a word for Guy’s penthouse, right at the top of the soaring tower, with heart-stopping three hundred and sixty degree views across London. He had access to a fabulous bar, a gym, a spa and even a private cinema with reclining leather seats should he care to see the latest film with a few friends in comfort.

It could hardly have been more different from the isolated homestead at Wirrindago. Strange to think that they had been there only the day before.

‘Gosh,’ was all she could say when Guy showed her into his apartment. It was like stepping into something from a design magazine. The curved wall of the huge living area was made entirely of glass, opening on to a balcony with a spectacular view over the great bend of the Thames far below. The floor was of polished oak, and the entire apartment was decorated in cream and neutrals that created a sense of light and calm.

Lucy wouldn’t have been human if she hadn’t been impressed, although she did her best not to look too intimidated. The kitchen was all steel and granite and electronic control panels. ‘A bit different from the kitchen at Wirrindago, isn’t it?’ she said.

‘I believe it was designed by NASA,’ said Guy, straight-faced. ‘I get up in the morning and think, What shall I do? Boil an egg or launch a space shuttle?’

Lucy laughed. ‘Do you ever do anything as boring as cook in it?’

‘Nope. Cooking is not one of my talents,’ he admitted.

‘It seems a shame to have all this and not use it,’ she said, running her hand over the granite worktop.

Guy shrugged. ‘I can order in food if I have guests, or there are plenty of restaurants round here. I tend just to keep the basics. The housekeeping service should have stocked the fridge.’ He opened the steel door. ‘Ah, yes…milk, orange juice, water…There should be bread and fruit somewhere, too,’ he added as he closed the fridge. ‘Help yourself to whatever you want.’

He showed Lucy into a room with a floor to ceiling window looking down on to the river and the vibrant commercial centre that had grown out of the old docks of London. Even in the dull light, the glass windows of the great towers glittered as they thrust upwards, and it was hard to imagine that once great ships had been tied up at the quays and wharfs that were now home to bars and shops and cafés.

The view was impressive enough, but Lucy actually gasped when she saw the bathroom. ‘This is fabulous!’ she said. ‘I’ll never dare use it!’

‘I thought you were desperate for a shower?’

‘I am, but once I’m in there, I may never want to leave. I’d better ring Richard’s mother first, anyway,’ she said, guiltily remembering why she was there. ‘May I use your phone until my mobile is charged up?’

Guy went to have a shower himself while she was talking to Richard’s mother, and as he came out of his room a little later he saw Lucy put down the phone with a tiny grimace.

‘Bad news?’

‘Not really. Richard’s much the same, I gather. I can go and see him this afternoon.’

Guy’s hair was wet from the shower and he was buttoning up his shirt. The action seemed extraordinarily intimate and Lucy averted her eyes, suddenly self-conscious. ‘I’m afraid his mother is expecting miracles, though.’

‘In what way?’ Barefoot, Guy walked over to the kitchen and filled the kettle. ‘Fancy some coffee?’

‘That would be wonderful,’ said Lucy, subsiding gratefully on to one of the chrome stools at the kitchen bar. In spite of sleeping on the plane, she was suddenly so tired that she thought even coffee wouldn’t be able to keep her awake.

She pushed her hair wearily away from her face. ‘Ellen seems convinced that Richard will wake up as soon as I open my mouth.’ She hesitated. ‘I’m hoping they haven’t got the wrong idea.’

Guy was wrestling with the coffee machine, which like everything else in the apartment was the latest cutting-edge technology. ‘Sometimes I miss instant coffee,’ he said with a grunt of frustration. ‘At least you didn’t need a degree in computer science whenever you wanted a mug of coffee.’

‘Let me.’ Lucy slid off her stool and went over to push him out of the way. ‘There you go,’ she said smugly and, as if by magic, the machine purred into life.

‘How did you do that?’ Guy stared at her, impressed.

‘I worked in a café for a while,’ she said, climbing back on to her stool. ‘I may not be able to rope a calf, but I can make coffee.’

‘Which is, frankly, a lot more useful in Canary Wharf.’ Guy opened the fridge again to find milk and orange juice. ‘So, what have Richard’s parents got the wrong idea about?’

‘Ellen seems to be under the impression that I rushed back to see him the moment I heard he was ill because I’m still in love with him,’ said Lucy glumly. ‘She was talking as if Richard and I will get engaged the moment he wakes up.’

Guy found some glasses and poured two glasses of juice. ‘Tell them about Kevin,’ he advised. ‘If they know you’re in love with someone else, they won’t waste their time hoping it will all be all right when Richard comes round. It’s much better to be honest.’

Lucy brightened. ‘Yes, I suppose I could mention Kevin if it starts getting awkward. That’s a good idea.’ She yawned hugely. ‘Sorry, it’s all catching up on me.’

‘You could have a nap if you don’t have to go to the hospital until this afternoon.’

‘I might do that after I’ve rung Meg.’ She registered what he was wearing for the first time. ‘Are you going to work?’ she asked in surprise.

‘Of course. We’re back in the city now,’ said Guy, putting on an air of importance. ‘Places to go, things to do, people to see…You know how it is!’

‘You probably just want to show off your tan,’ she said, a little snip in her voice, and he grinned.

‘That too. I’ll let you have the door codes,’ he told her, ‘and then you can come and go as you want.’

The apartment was empty when Lucy got back from the hospital that evening. She frowned, looking at her watch. Surely Guy wasn’t still at the office? He hadn’t said he’d be this late.

But then, he hadn’t said when he would be back, and why should he? He didn’t have to account to her. She was just his cousin’s cook, and a man like Guy would no doubt have a scintillating social life to go with his ultra-glamorous apartment. He would be out every night at parties or in clubs, eating in expensive restaurants and mixing with the celebrity A-list.

Lucy looked around at the stylish furniture and minimalist décor. No, this wasn’t the kind of apartment you came back to for cosy nights in, to collapse on the sofa after a hard day at work and watch television with a take-away. It was the sort of place you brought your beautiful, sophisticated girlfriend and seduced her with the lights of London at your feet.

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