The Mills & Boon Sparkling Christmas Collection. Kate Hardy

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СКАЧАТЬ make them feel as comfortable as possible. It wasn’t for another couple of weeks but Eva was happy to have something to focus on and decided to give the bedrooms a quick tour of inspection.

      Opening the door to the newly decorated coastal-theme bedroom, Eva was pleased with the final result. She just had the bedding to choose and she took a mental note to add some fresh flowers before the guests arrived. She moved across the hallway to the bedroom at the back of the house, which overlooked the garden. Here, Eva had taken her inspiration from the time she’d lived in the highlands. The walls were painted pale green and a reupholstered tartan armchair – one of her finds in a second-hand shop – sat by the fireplace. A few pots with sprigs of purple heather and a painting of the Cairngorm mountains completed the room that American tourists loved.

      Eva headed back downstairs noticing the post had been delivered. She smiled when she saw the postcard on the doormat, already knowing it was from Moira and Donald. Eva wondered where they were now as she bent down to pick it up. She found something charming and old-fashioned about Moira going to the effort of writing and sending postcards. She liked to imagine her with her usual gin and tonic, sitting down to write while looking out on some glorious ocean view.

      They were having the time of their lives by the sound of it. Moira wrote about the places they’d visited, describing the rugged beauty of New Zealand’s mountains and seeing the bubbling hot springs in Japan. Now they were sailing to Hong Kong.

      Seeing the familiar handwriting Eva felt a pang of regret that she wasn’t able to pop next door and have a chat. She sighed, wondering if she would ever travel like that. She and Jamie had never had a proper holiday. During summer Eva couldn’t leave the business and at other times Jamie was at school. It wasn’t just the lack of time; it was also the money. After day-to-day living, most of the profit Eva made went back into the guest house to keep it in tip-top shape. Customers’ ability to browse, choose, and review online meant Eva had to compete with the best to keep securing business.

      After reading the postcard, she pinned it to the fridge in the kitchen along with the others. Deciding to make fresh tea, she filled the kettle and leaned against the worktop for a moment. The kitchen, a large bright space, was the hub of her home and Eva’s favourite place in the house. One end of the kitchen was taken up by stainless steel appliances and was organized in accordance with various health and safety regulations for food preparation.

      At the other end Eva had created a homely, cosy space for her and Jamie, which was dominated by a wooden table. A small French dresser stood in one corner crammed with recipe books, ceramic pots, and dried flowers in bright vases. Drawings from Jamie’s nursery days were pinned to the wall alongside various photographs.

      Waiting for the kettle to boil, Eva checked the large cupboard outside the kitchen where she kept all her supplies. The top shelf was packed with toiletries for the guest rooms and the bottom shelves were stacked with clean linen and towels. Feeling suddenly restless, Eva wanted to get on with something. Tea forgotten, she decided to make a start on the en suites and reached for a pile of white fluffy towels.

      As she passed Hamish sleeping off their earlier walk, he opened one eye and looked up at her. Mrs Duffy was lovely but Eva wished there was some way of speeding up the training process. She chuckled to herself, thinking there should be some kind of doggy boot camp for disobedient dogs. ‘What am I going to do with you when the guests are here?’ she asked Hamish. But his only response was to thump his tail lazily on the floor before closing his eyes again. Clearly he wasn’t too concerned with such matters.

      ***

      Ben walked home pleased his first few days at the university had gone well and in particular the first lecture he’d given this morning. Standing in the lecture theatre in front of a hundred students had been both terrifying and exhilarating. After introducing himself, his nerves had settled and he’d got into his stride, hopefully giving his students a better understanding of Newton’s Laws of Motion. He took it as a good sign when students’ hands shot up at the end to ask questions. He’d then spent an hour with two first-year students going over an advanced mathematics topic and was rewarded by seeing realization dawn on their faces as they started to understand three-dimensional integrals.

      His work at the university might be going well but he couldn’t say the same for his new house. With each day that passed, the sense that he was neglecting it grew. So much about the house was perfect but in the cold day of light he could see the cracks showing, quite literally. Only this morning he’d noticed where rainwater had seeped in through his bedroom window.

      As he unlocked the front door he tried to shake the feeling he was an imposter letting himself into someone else’s house. Ben stood still for a moment in the hall, sensing something wasn’t right. Following a faint sound through to the front living room, he looked up to see a small ominous bulge surrounded by an ugly brown stain protruding from a corner of the ceiling. A slow steady drip of water fell onto the carpet.

      He swore under his breath. Just what he needed. A leak – but what the hell should he do? He knew enough to find the stopcock under the kitchen sink and turn off the water. He looked around helplessly for something to catch the water. In his London flat he’d make one phone call to his landlord and it would all be sorted. But things were different here.

      He managed to find a pan and grabbed it to place it under the drip, wondering what to do next. The thought of starting to phone around random engineers wasn’t appealing. His mind turned to Eva, remembering she had the name of someone – what choice did he have?

      Moments later he knocked on Eva’s shiny blue front door and as he waited for her to answer he looked properly at her house for the first time. In comparison to his more formal front garden, hers was rambling and full of colour. Fragrant purple lavender and flowering shrubs lined the path and pots filled with small creamy flowers stood either side of the front door.

      Eva opened the door holding a pile of white towels, with her hair piled high and a few loose tendrils framing her face. Ben swallowed hard. Did this woman ever look anything less than adorable? And what the hell was happening to him? Standing there, he’d almost forgotten why he was here.

      ‘Hi.’

      Her smile was tentative and her voice held a cautious note. Hamish appeared at Eva’s legs, took one look at Ben, and let out a low growl before shooting out to the front garden. Clearly Ben hadn’t made a very good first impression on him either. Ben saw Eva’s startled expression before she thrust the towels into his chest.

      ‘Hold these,’ she ordered and ran off in pursuit of her wayward dog. Hamish circled the front garden several times, enjoying the impromptu game of chase before finally sensing perhaps his mistress wasn’t pleased with him. Ben watched helplessly from the doorway wondering if he should be helping in some way. Thankfully Hamish appeared to calm down and was now being led back to the house by his collar.

      ‘Sorry about that,’ Eva said with a weak smile, looking slightly harassed.

      ‘No, no – I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any difficulties …’

      ‘It’s not your fault,’ she sighed, casting a disappointed look at Hamish. ‘And I’m sorry about him jumping up on you the other day. We’ve only had him a few weeks and we’re still training him.’ She reached to take the towels back from Ben.

      ‘It’s fine; please don’t worry.’ He bent down patting Hamish on his head, hoping the gesture would reassure him – and Eva – that he wasn’t really such a terrible person.

      ‘Anyway, is there anything I can do for you?’

      He straightened up to СКАЧАТЬ