One Chance At Love. Carole Mortimer

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СКАЧАТЬ as, for the moment, this is my niece’s home,’ he continued, ‘may I also extend an invitation for you to stay with us,’ he added grudgingly. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, Christi, Miss—–’

      ‘James,’ she supplied, realising, as he hesitated, that Christi hadn’t told him everything about her. Her expression was bland as she sensed her friend’s sharp gaze upon her. ‘Dizzy James,’ she enlarged.

      ‘Miss James,’ he nodded dismissively, puffing distractedly on the pipe, now that he had finally managed to get it lit. ‘I’ll leave you two to get re-acquainted, while I go and change.’ He nodded, as if satisfied with his decision.

      ‘Uncle Zach has been out bird-watching,’ Christi explained indulgently.

      Something suddenly seemed to be stuck in Dizzy’s throat. She coughed chokingly, tears streamed down her cheeks, for the air couldn’t reach her lungs. Bird-watching? Any birds that had been in Zachariah Bennett’s vicinity half an hour ago had been watching him, curious of the unusual antics of the human in their midst!

      ‘It’s all right. I’m all right,’ she gasped when she could finally find the strength to speak, firmly discouraging Christi from administering any more of the hearty slaps to the back she had been giving her since she first began to choke. ‘Really, Christi, I’m fine.’ She held up her hands defensively as her friend still looked undecided about administering one more slap for luck.

      ‘The mention of ornithology seemed to have a strange effect on you?’ Zachariah Bennett raised dark blond brows questioningly, once Dizzy was calm.

      She kept her expression deliberately bland as she looked up at him. ‘Not at all, Professor Bennett. In fact, the reason I was slightly later in arriving than I had said I would be was because I became interested in watching a bird myself.’ A golden eagle, she decided.

      The honey-brown gaze sharpened. ‘Really?’ he prompted harshly.

      Still he didn’t invite her to use the familiarity of his first name but, as he now seemed to think she had only said she had been bird-watching as a means of insinuating herself into his good graces, perhaps that was understandable! The sooner she and Christi had a private word the better.

      ‘Oh yes,’ she nodded. ‘Christi will tell you, I’m very much into bird-watching.’

      Christi gave her a glaring look. ‘I really don’t know your likes and dislikes that well, Dizzy,’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘It must be—how many years, since we last met?’

      Dizzy gave her friend a reproachful frown. For all his absently distracted ways, she knew the professor to be a very intelligent man, and she and Christi were going to need to be very much on their guard to keep up the pretence Christi was getting them into more and more by the minute.

      ‘I really can’t remember,’ she muttered warningly. ‘But I’m sure it can’t be that long ago.’

      Christi gave an affected laugh. ‘Dizzy seems to have moved around so much since we left school that she’s forgotten time altogether,’ she confided lightly to her uncle. ‘Come on, Dizzy.’ Her smile lacked warmth as she turned to her, her expression purposeful. ‘I’ll show you up to the room you’re to use during your stay.’

      Her friend’s grip on her arm was only just short of vicelike, and Dizzy winced slightly, while trying to give the professor a reassuring smile. ‘I do appreciate your kind invitation.’

      He gave her a look which clearly indicated that if it had been left to him she would have been looking for the park bench, nodding curtly before moving agilely up the wide stone stairway.

      Dizzy instantly turned to Christi as she pulled her towards the stairs. ‘What do you—–’

      ‘Ssh,’ her friend warned, looking frantically about them to see if they could be overheard. ‘We can talk when we get to your room,’ she muttered.

      ‘But—–’

      ‘Dizzy, I am not in the mood to be argued with!’ Her voice rose shrilly.

      She did sound more than a little strained—and she was probably going to be even more so once Dizzy told her she didn’t think this plan of hers could possibly work.

      If only she could have spoken to Christi when she’d called earlier, or at least before she’d had to meet the uncle! The way things stood at the moment, she had no choice but to continue with the plan Christi had started before she’d arrived. Unfortunately, it was a plan she felt was doomed to failure, although Christi didn’t agree with her.

      They had strolled up the stairway together, Dizzy having assured Fredericks, when he quietly appeared back in the entrance hall, that she could manage her own shoulder-bag and backpack. She smiled, as if she hadn’t seen his scandalised look that that was all of her luggage.

      Christi gave her a running commentary as they went. ‘Only the east wing has been renovated for habitation so far,’ she pointed out, then explained why the rest of the castle was closed off to them. ‘Uncle Zach has the work done as he gets the money. He must get paid very well to have the work done at all,’ she added in a whispered aside. ‘But what he’s had done so far is lovely,’ she continued in her normal voice.

      For her uncle’s benefit, Dizzy acknowledged wryly. There wasn’t an angle possible that Christi wasn’t playing, and it was all so unnecessary, when just being herself would probably have made the best impression.

      The renovation that had so far been done to the castle was very impressive, and looked very much as it must have when it was first built in the fifteenth century. Dizzy realised it also had some of the discomfort that must have gone with it at that time, as she gave an involuntary shiver from the cold. Obviously Zachariah Bennett had gone for complete authenticity, omitting the central heating that might have made the castle more appealing. She could only hope that authenticity hadn’t gone as far as the plumbing; carrying buckets of water up the stairs for her bath didn’t exactly appeal to her!

      ‘I’ve given you the bedroom next to mine.’ Christi threw open the heavy oak door.

      Dizzy was mesmerised from the first, from the tapestry that was the height and breadth of one wall, to the four-poster bed that totally dominated the huge room.

      As she walked dazedly into the room, she touched the brocade curtains on the bed wonderingly, knowing by their thickness that they would pull completely around the sides and bottom of the bed, affording its occupant complete privacy. Her eyes aglow with pleasure, she walked across the room to gaze out of one of the long, narrow windows that graced two walls of the room. The view was magnificent—lakes and mountains as far as the eye could see. Heat warmed her cheeks as she realised that the small lake Zachariah Bennett had swum in earlier was just behind the first hill to the east, that it might even be part of the land that obviously adjoined the castle.

      She was never going to get tired of the scenery if every time she looked out of this window she remembered Zachariah Bennett’s nakedness so vividly!

      ‘—so far, don’t you think?’

      She turned back to Christi, realising she had missed half the conversation in her musing over Zachariah Bennett. From the sudden impatience in Christi’s expression, she had realised it, too!

      ‘I said,’ her friend bit out with СКАЧАТЬ