Scandal In Sydney. Alison Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ said, suddenly waspish. ‘We’ve been practically next-door neighbours for four years and not one invite. You know we’d all love to see your farm. It’s like you’re keeping it a secret. It’s like you’ve been keeping Lily secret.’

      ‘It’s because I know you hate horses,’ Luke said blandly. ‘Lily loves horses. She rides ‘em to the manor born.’

      Lily blinked. She loved horses?

      Actually … she did.

      A farm with horses. She thought suddenly … what was being proposed here? A couple of days on a farm with horses.

      She might even put up with Luke Williams for that.

      ‘Well, I think you should stay here,’ Ginnie said crossly. ‘Look at her.’ She motioned to Lily-In-The-Bathrobe. ‘She looks sick.’

      ‘Gee, thanks.’ But she was wobbly.

      ‘My car’s lovely,’ Luke said reassuringly. ‘Aston Martin, deep leather seats, pure luxury. And Lily even managed to protect them with her paper bag,’ he told Ginnie. ‘She’s a heroine, my Lily. I’m thinking she can sleep all the way there.’

      My Lily. The words hung.

      This was getting out of hand, Lily thought, starting to feel hysterical. She’d agreed to this, why?

      ‘How long have you guys been an item?’ Ginnie demanded of Lily. ‘Have you been to his farm?’

      Was now the time to back away? Lily wondered, hysteria growing. Pack and leave for Brisbane?

      It’d have to be Brisbane. She couldn’t go back to the Harbour after confessing this lie.

      Luke had started the lie. Not her. She glanced at Luke, who glanced right back. Their eyes locked. His gaze was … almost a challenge?

       Are you about to tell the truth?

      Oh, for heaven’s sake, why should she? she thought. What right did this nosey woman have to the truth?

      Whatever, she decided. Go with the flow.

      But maybe … not lie unless she had to?

      ‘Merrylegs is my very favourite horse,’ she said, tangentially.

      ‘Merrylegs?’ Ginnie blinked.

      ‘She’s given me years of joy,’ she said and somehow, between Ginnie’s prurient interest and Luke’s bland withdrawal, she found herself remembering her first and one true love. ‘She’s beautiful. I know her so well she’s almost part of me, and I wish I could be riding her now.’

      ‘She’s on Luke’s farm?’

      ‘All my horses are on my farm,’ Luke said, sounding suddenly … wicked. ‘Even though Merrylegs is Lily’s favourite, all my horses are her horses.’

      ‘How long have you two been an item?’ Ginnie demanded.

      ‘Years,’ Luke said. ‘Like Lily said.’

      ‘How many years.’

      ‘Three?’ Luke said. ‘I think. Isn’t that right, dear?’

      ‘Have you been staying on Luke’s farm for three years?’ Ginnie was almost speechless. ‘That’s not even a year after Hannah died.’

      ‘I never met Hannah.’ Lily faced Luke’s wickedness head on. What had he called her? Dear. She lowered her voice, talking respectfully about her lover’s deceased wife. ‘Would Hannah have loved Merrylegs?’ she asked Luke. ‘Dear?’

      ‘Hannah was more a cat person,’ Luke said. The smile behind his eyes was challenging. Dangerous.

      She rose to meet it. Challenging right back.

      ‘You never talk to me about Hannah. I think you should.’ She turned back to Ginnie. ‘He never talks to me about Hannah,’ she said, sounding aggrieved. ‘I think our relationship would be better if he let it all out.’

      ‘That’s what John says,’ Ginnie managed. ‘So …’

      ‘So, farm,’ Lily said, trying hard to sound brisk when, in fact, all she wanted to do was retreat to Luke’s bed and pull pillows over her head. ‘We can pack pillows,’ she told Luke. ‘Your beautiful car might even be comfortable enough to sleep in. Mind, I’m more accustomed to the farm truck,’ she confessed to Ginnie. ‘But when in the city, act like a city girl, that’s what I say. You might like to pack some more paper bags … sweetheart.’

      ‘I guess we’d better start packing,’ Luke said faintly. ‘Darling.’

      ‘You start packing,’ Lily said tartly, long-term-lover-like. ‘I’m poorly. Ginnie, would you like to help? Maybe you could make me that toast you were offering?’

      ‘Are you offering to make us dinner?’ Luke asked, full of hope, and Ginnie backed out as if burned.

      ‘I’ll leave you to it. We’ll miss you tomorrow night. Come back better, Lily. We’ll have a lovely long chat on Monday.’

      ‘I can’t wait,’ Lily muttered as Luke closed the door behind her. ‘I just can’t wait.’

      To say the silence was loaded was an understatement. Luke closed the door carefully and then snibbed it, as if even now Ginnie might return.

      Lily backed to the closest dining room chair and sat. Whatever energy she’d had had been spent.

      ‘I’m thinking,’ she said at last, trying hard to breathe so she didn’t gasp, ‘that communication seems to be lacking. So we’re a couple. Congratulations are in order. We’ve been dating for years. We’re about to leave on a romantic weekend to some farm I’ve never heard of.’

      ‘Where you ride a horse called Merrylegs.’ He seemed just as winded as she was. ‘I believe two of us are playing this game.’

      ‘It’s not a game,’ she snapped.

      ‘I’m not laughing,’ he said, and suddenly he wasn’t. All this time he’d been holding his briefcase. Now he set it down, carefully, like it might explode.

      That’s what the atmosphere felt like, Lily thought. Loaded.

      ‘I’m feeling a wee bit trapped,’ she said, and hauled his bathrobe tighter round her.

      ‘That’s the part I don’t understand.’

      ‘What?’

      ‘The trapped bit. You’re an agency nurse. You could pack up and leave.’

      ‘If I break my four-week contract.’

      ‘I understand it’d make it hard to find another agency to take you. But there are other cities.’

      ‘I don’t have enough money to move to another СКАЧАТЬ