Dangerous Flirtation
Page 17
How had she looked, Mary Graham, lying on her hospital bed, begging Joshua Kent to make sure that she came to her funeral? An over-vivid imagination supplied the answer.
If she went with him, it wouldn’t be because he demanded that she should. It would be because...She shook the water from her brushes and stuck them, too fiercely, in a pot to dry. It toppled and fell to the hard quarry-tile floor and smashed in a thousand pieces.
‘Oh, drat!’ Joshua Kent’s visit had unsettled her more than she had been prepared to admit. The memory of Mary’s visit was deep buried — her mother had never spoken of it again — and the doll had been put away.
She cleared up the mess, taking excessive care to hunt for every last shard of glass, wrapping it carefully in newspaper before putting it in the bin. She found another pot for her brushes, tidied her paints, straightened her easel…stalled endlessly.
It was only when there was nothing left to stay the moment that she climbed the stairs to the little room that had been hers for as long as she could remember.
It hadn’t changed much. The wallpaper was still the same daisy-pattern that her father had put up the year before he died. It was scuffed now, bumped by furniture and marked by drawing pins from teenage posters. She should redecorate, but there were so many other expenses in an old house.
The decision to let one of her spare bedrooms had been made six months earlier in an effort to defray some of the costs. She had been putting off the evil moment, but she was going to have to face the prospect of letting the other spare bedroom. The only alternative was working extra hours, but the talk in the common room was all of cut-backs, not expansion. Still, she would leave the final decision until after her holiday.
She opened the cupboard door. There was a neat stack of favourite childhood books that she couldn’t bear to part with, a collection of shells. The costume dolls that her father had brought her back from his trips abroad filled the centre shelf.
But the doll she had come to find wasn’t there. It was at the bottom, buried under a sleeping bag and rucksack, but after a moment’s search she found it, picked it up and held it at arm’s length.
It was a very superior sort of rag doll from a big London store. The material still had that new starchy smell; the lace edges of the dress and bonnet were still crisp. Little fingers had never disturbed her pristine condition or loved her to a state of tattiness. Only, very occasionally, had she taken her from her hiding place and held her for a moment, to show the doll that she did love her, but couldn’t ever let her mother see.
Now Joshua Kent had come stirring up memories she would rather forget. Disturbing her with his arrogance, his dictatorial manner, his irritation that she hadn’t immediately agreed to his demand. But it had been far more than that. He hadn’t wanted to come at all, she thought. Despite his determination that she comply with Mary’s wishes, she was almost certain that he didn’t want her anywhere near Ashbrooke. And that fact alone might be enough to take
Praise for Liz Fielding
“effortlessly engaging” … Julie Cohen
“Witty, heart-warming and totally spellbinding…” Tempted By Trouble - Cataromance.com
“…a beautifully written story full of emotion, with characters I will remember long after finishing it.” Mistletoe and the Lost Stiletto – Mad About Romance
“A magnificent setting, a feisty heroine and a sexy hero – a definite page-turner…who could ask for anything more?” A Wedding At Leopard Tree Lodge – Still Moments eZine
Reunited: Marriage in a Million is a story that contains everything we’ve come to expected from Liz Fielding – a veteran of romance fiction. Her well-honed expertise is apparent at each and every perfectly-plotted twist and turn of this story. – Romance Reviewed
Liz Fielding’s The Secret Life of Lady Gabriella is charming and funny, but has some dark emotional moments too. A keeper. – Romantic Times
“Fielding’s deft handling is a triumph. The characters are fabulous, the relationship between them complex and nuanced…and keep a tissue handy at the end!”
SOS: Convenient Husband Required – Romantic Times
About the author
Award winning author, LIZ FIELDING, was born with itchy feet. She was working in Africa before her twenty-first birthday and - gathering her own special hero and a couple of children on the way - lived in Zambia, Botswana, Kenya and the all over the Middle East, with pauses for sightseeing pretty much everywhere in between.
She finally came to a full stop in a tiny Welsh village cradled by misty hills, and now mostly leaves her pen to do the travelling.
The author of more than sixty romances, Liz has been nominated seven times for the Romance Writers’ of America RITA® award, winning twice with The Best Man & the Bridesmaid and The Marriage Miracle. She has also been nominated four times for the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association “Romance Prize”, winning with A Family of His Own and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for her work by Romantic Times BOOKclub magazine.
She gives talks and holds workshops on writing romance.
For news of upcoming books visit Liz’s website at http://www.lizfielding.com, visit her blog at http://lizfielding.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter @lizfielding
Some recent books by Liz Fielding
The Beaumont Brides Collection
Eloping With Emmy
A Stranger’s Kiss
Old Desires
Flirting With Italian (Harlequin)
Secret Baby, Surprise Parents (Harlequin)
The Sheikh’s Unsuitable Bride (Harlequin)
A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge (Harlequin)
Non-fiction
Liz Fielding’s Little Book of Writing Romance (Classic Romance)
A full list of her books is available at http://www.lizfielding.com
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
Bonus Read
Praise for Liz Fielding
About the author
Some recent books by Liz Fielding