She pulled on her Hunter wellies and went outside to see how Mason’s injured leg was doing. The horse wanted to be outside and she very much wanted to comply with his wishes, but she couldn’t risk him injuring himself again. Vets did not come cheap.
Mason looked up expectantly as she entered, almost as though talking to her and she could see his needs in his eyes. She bent and removed the bandage, saw with relief the healing leg and decided a bit of air in the small paddock with the Shetland was the best thing for him.
Having led him out and deposited him with his little friend, she pulled her dressing gown around her and went back into the house for some tea. Richard was already up and sitting at the kitchen table before two mugs of tea. He was wearing his black trousers, but his feet were bare and his shirt was unbuttoned and hanging open, revealing his chest. Once more she wanted to kiss it; she shook herself and turned away, took off her boots and washed her hands.
“How’s the horse?” He asked.
“Better,” she answered. “Much better.”
“Where did he get a name like Mason?”
She turned back to the counter and sat down to drink her tea, smiling reminiscently.
“He’s named after the actor. Apparently he was a great friend of Tilly.”
“Friend?”
“Yes, friend. Men and women can be just friends you know.”
“Perhaps. After last night I’ve got my doubts. What was that? Friends with benefits?”
She made no reply. She didn’t have an answer for him really, as she had no idea what it was and she didn’t think he did either.
CHAPTER FOUR
Richard poured more tea and sat drinking it while he waited for Tamsyn to get dressed. He felt bewildered and angry with himself, tried to collect his thoughts and think about how to salvage the mess he’d made of this meeting.
He had come with a plan. He was going to see if he could con some money out of his naïve cousin. He remembered her from that wedding and somehow in his memory time had preserved her as she had been then. He remembered her being really sweet and friendly, and that hadn’t changed, but she’d been betrayed by a cheating husband since then, a husband for whom she had given up the opportunity of a dazzling career. Her heart had become hardened so he doubted he would have managed to get any financial assistance anyway, not unless he told her the truth, and he didn’t want to do that. Yesterday, it wouldn’t have mattered so much, but now? Now he cared too much about her opinion.
He thought it a good plan to pretend it was a divorce holding things up and making him short of money. He wasn’t about to tell her he was accused of a crime and needed the money for his defence or he’d be stuck with a public defender who didn’t care one way or the other. He didn’t tell her he had to pay the mortgage on his very expensive London flat, or it would be repossessed. He wasn’t about to tell her what a hole he was in and without a good defence, he might go to prison for at least a couple of years.
He shuddered at the thought. He didn’t think he could cope with that. From what he’d heard, they were nasty places with very nasty men.
And now he had begun their reunion with lies, how was he going to backtrack without her feeling contempt for him? It hadn’t been just one lie, either. He had to find a way to explain the absence of the car; right, he’d tell her he no longer had it, explain that he felt too embarrassed to admit it. He thought she might understand that. But he’d also told her he was separated from his wife and in the middle of a divorce. That was a lie he didn’t expect her to understand. He didn’t know her well, but it seemed unlikely.
He hadn’t lied about his feelings for Donna. He’d never thought of divorce before, but it wasn’t something which would upset either one of them. Donna was only ever interested in his money and now he had none, she’d probably piss off anyway.
All he had to do was keep Tamsyn from finding out they were not separated. He might keep that from her, but how was he going to keep her from finding out he was out on bail?
***
From upstairs Tamsyn could see into the lane outside, could see for a mile or so from the front gate; what she couldn’t see was a BMW or any other sort of vehicle. Either Richard had lied or his car had been stolen. She had a feeling it was the former and she thought she would just keep quiet for a while and see what happened, see if he mentioned it.
If she’d seen this before she climbed into his bed with him, she would have demanded an explanation; now she was afraid of what she might hear. She’d been badly hurt in the past and she wasn’t prepared to give herself to another liar; far better not to know.
As she stood at the window looking down towards the front gate, she saw a large wooden box which hadn’t been there yesterday. From here, it looked like one of those old tea chests removal firms used to give to people to pack their stuff in. She hadn’t seen one of those in years; people used cardboard boxes nowadays. She folded her arms angrily.
Obviously someone had decided her farm would be a good place to dump their old rubbish and she wondered what sort of crap she’d find inside. That was the problem with being so remote and the gate being such a long way from the house; it wasn’t the first time someone had thought it was a good place to dump their junk.
She made her way downstairs and found Richard sitting on the wrought iron chair outside the front door. He looked up at her and smiled, but she didn’t smile back.
“What’s up?” He asked.
“Some scumbag’s dumped their rubbish outside the gate.”
As she marched down the long drive, he got to his feet and followed her.
“How do you know it’s rubbish?” He asked. “It might be a donation, old horse rugs or something.”
“It’s possible, but unlikely. Anyone wanting to donate would more likely bring stuff up to the house or at least to the stable yard. They usually wanted thanks if nothing else and they’re not likely to leave them in a tea chest. I mean, who uses a tea chest nowadays?”
He had to hurry to keep up with her and as he did he was surprised to find his heart skipping, his memory showing him every detail of the previous night. What was that all about? He’d slept with loads of women in his lifetime and never given the experience a second thought, yet here he was stirring all over again for a memory.
But she was beautiful. He hadn’t realised how beautiful until last night. Her blonde hair shone in the sunlight, the waves cascading about her perfect face and the thin line of annoyance on her lips only made her all the more appealing.
She got to the tea chest first and caught her breath in a gasp as she bent over it.
“See,” he said as he caught up with her and peered into the chest. “I told you it was a donation.”
She turned to look at him and her eyes filled with tears. Inside the rough, wooden tea chest was a dog, a creamy coloured retriever and she was very, very pregnant.
“Quick, help me,” she said.
She expected him to lift one side of the chest so they could carry it between them, but he swooped down and scooped the dog up into his arms like a baby, despite her size. He carried her back to the house, Tamsyn running along beside him.
She was leaking all sorts of fluids from her lady parts and those fluids were spilling all over his designer shirt and his Armani trousers, but he didn’t seem to care.
“Bastards!” She shouted. “How could anyone abandon a beautiful dog, just when she needs them most? Bastards!”
“She’s safer with us,” he answered. “Where do you want her?”
“In the house,” she answered. “In the living room. I have a puppy pen somewhere that someone donated once, though what they thought I would want it for I can’t imagine.”
“Perhaps they had a premonition.”
He carried the dog into the living room while she went out to the store room to get the puppy pen and bring it back to the house. Richard was sitting with the dog on his lap so she didn’t leak all over the furniture and now he watched as she unfolde
d the pen and clasped it together; Tamsyn ran upstairs and brought down a quilt to line the pen and make it comfortable.
“What now? Should we get the vet?”
Tamsyn nodded.
“I have to phone the trustees to release the money. I’ll ring the vet first.” She turned to him, noticed the compassion in his eyes, and squeezed his hand. “Thank you,” she said.
While he waited he repeated in his mind her words: she would have to get the trustees to release the money for the vet. So she hadn’t inherited Tilly’s money either. He didn’t think she’d be asking for the money if she had some herself.
***
They sat up all night with the dog while she gave birth to four puppies and by the time the sun rose in the morning, Tamsyn knew she had found her soul mate. She remembered Kevin’s words when she decided to come here, to help Aunt Tilly look after the animals.
“You’re too good looking to spend your time buried in the country, nursing a lot of filthy animals.”
That’s what he said and it was the final nail in the coffin of their marriage. He’d been trying to get her to take him back, but those words finished the whole idea.
Now she looked at the man who had spent the night helping this dog, remembered his smiles of joy every time a new little life was brought forth and she knew she could find no better.
The vet came straight away and checked the bitch over, said she seemed strong enough and looked like she’d been well looked after. Given that, they had to wonder why she’d been so callously abandoned.
“Well, you never know, do you?” The vet told them. “This is a pedigree dog. It’s possible she was got at by a mongrel and her owner thought she was damaged goods. A lot of pedigree owners think like that. They certainly left it late enough, so they might have had a conscience about it. And they left her in the right place.”
Tamsyn was still angry.
“They should have brought her up to the house,” she said. “We might not have seen her in time, leaving her by the gate like that.”
“Probably ashamed to be seen,” said the vet. “Anyway, she’ll get a good home with you. If you need anything, give me a ring. I might be able to help find good homes for the puppies when they’re old enough.”
When he left, she settled down with Richard to watch the miracle which was taking place in her living room. They cleaned each puppy as it was born and Richard guided them to find the mother’s teat and start to feed. The look in his eyes stirred her to put her arms around him and kiss his cheek.
She looked down at the mucky spillage on his expensive black trousers.
“They’ll be ruined,” she said. “You’ll never get that off.”
His eyes followed hers and he shrugged, as though he had only just noticed.
“Can’t be helped. I don’t suppose you’ve got anything about the place I can wear, have you?”
She nodded.
“I might have a few of Kevin’s clothes still, but they’ll be things he didn’t deem fit to keep. I think there was some of his stuff in the suitcase I grabbed. I’ll go have a look.”
She moved to get to her feet, but he caught her arm.
“There’s no rush. Let’s just sit here and enjoy this sight. It’s not something I’m likely to see again.”
“It is rather wonderful.”
“What are you going to call her?” He asked as he gently stroked the dog’s head.
“What do you think?”
“She’s not my dog.”
Why did those words tug on her heartstrings? It seemed she’d begun to think of them as an item, as two people who would share. Strange idea to have about a man she barely knew. But she couldn’t help recalling last night and how she’d abandoned her own principles and slept with a man she barely knew. Why had she done that? Because she wanted to, because she suddenly realised she was lonely and needed something more than the love of a horse. Did she regret it? No, and the more she gazed at the enchantment on his face, the more she wanted to do it again.
She tried to shut out the idea; she realised she was about to walk down the path that led to heartache all over again.
“She’s as much yours as she is mine,” she answered.
He smiled, gently stroked a puppy’s head with the backs of his fingers.
“You know where we found that tea chest? I went out this morning to see if there was a note or anything and you know what I found?”
She shook her head and shrugged, half expecting some new horror.
“What?”
“I found, underneath the chest, a flowerbed full of squashed daisies. So that’s what we should call her; Daisy.”
She reached out and put her arms around his neck, pulled him toward her and kissed his face.
“What was that for?” He asked.
“Just for being you.”
***
Richard was struggling with his conscience. He’d come here hoping to charm his cousin into giving him shelter and it seems he’d achieved his purpose, but he hadn’t expected to be so very attracted to her and he hadn’t expected anything like the events of last night.
He’d meant to stay a couple of days at the most, maybe con some money out of her. When he’d heard she was still here after Aunt Tilly’s death, he assumed she’d inherited the place and was hoping to get a share of that himself. He felt he had as much right to it as she did. Watching the tender way she cared for the animals, he admitted he had no such right.
He thought it would be easy to tempt her into letting him invest her money; after all, he was in the right business, before all this mess. He’d thought it a good idea to pretend he didn’t know about the old girl’s death, thought it would look better than simply turning up straight after. That made him look like a vulture, which he supposed he was, and he thought it best to work his way up to what he had really come for.
Even as he walked down the driveway and towards the stables, even as he watched the way she dealt with the injured horse, his resolve had softened. She looked so caring, so compassionate, and that wasn’t a quality he was accustomed to seeing in the sort of women he was used to mixing with.
He had no idea how she’d ended up in his bed. It hadn’t been something he’d planned, hadn’t been something he’d even thought about, but she looked so appealing, lying there in fits of laughter, the urge to kiss her was overpowering. He hadn’t felt that urgency for Donna for years, if he ever had, but he’d always been faithful to her. He believed she’d also been true to their vows, but afterwards, falling asleep with Tamsyn in his arms, he hadn’t given Donna a second thought.
Then when they’d found the pregnant dog, her anger had endeared her to him even more. When he’d watched the way she cared for her and her puppies all night, he had to admit that he’d fallen for her in a big way.
It wasn’t just sexual attraction either. There was that, the night before, which he hadn’t expected at all, but he’d wanted her more than he’d ever wanted any woman, despite her western shirt and jeans, her pulled back hair and her bare face, tanned by the sun. There was something about her, something genuine and sincere. Something opposite to his own deceit and thinking of that made him feel deeply ashamed.
And now he was in a quandary because he was falling for this woman and he had already lied. Should he tell her the truth? Would he lose any chance he might have to win her if he did? Or should he risk her finding out later and thinking the worst?
And what about Donna? He’d also told Tamsyn he was going through a divorce, that he had no money because his wife had managed to get his accounts frozen. That was another lie; he wasn’t getting a divorce, he hadn’t even separated from Donna. He no longer loved her, that much was true, but there was no divorce and the freeze on his money was for an entirely different reason. The police believed the money was obtained by fraud and until he could prove otherwise, he had no money to freeze.
The bald fact was he was out on bail for insider trading and was hoping to get his hands on some
of Aunt Tilly’s money to pay off the firm and walk away from one awful mess.
It was an easy enough plan when he set out, by train and taxi because the car had been repossessed. He was sure Tilly would have left it all to Tamsyn, and from what he remembered she was a fair person. He’d just come along, pretend he wasn’t trying to pick Tilly’s bones before she was cold, give her a sob story and if that didn’t work, he’d tell her straight he was going to contest the Will, get his share.
Now it was all changed. He could hardly contest a trust fund set up for the animals, could he? Such a trust would take years to break and his conscience would trouble him anyway.
Coming here had seemed the answer to his troubles; now he was in an even worse situation than he’d been before.
CHAPTER FIVE
Richard had planned to stay at the farm for a while and that’s what he’d told Donna. Of course, he hadn’t told her his cousin was a beautiful young woman; he hadn’t even thought about it. He hadn’t known how she’d turned out, how the years had treated her.
He knew her ex-husband was well off, though. He remembered the house in Epping; he’d passed it once or twice and knew it was worth millions, so he’d just assumed she would be the same spoilt, artificial sort of woman as his wife.
Obviously, he was wrong. He was wrong about everything and now he had no idea where to turn next.
She said the puppies and their mother would be ok now, so he’d retreated to the spare room that night. He didn’t invite Tamsyn to join him, although he wanted to. What they had done before had been spontaneous, brought about by mutual consent. He didn’t want to take advantage of her, not now he knew he was falling in love with her.
He lie awake, his arms behind his head and contemplated the pattern on the ceiling. He needed to think, needed to find a way he could rid himself of his wife, stay out of prison and marry Tamsyn.
Fallen Stars: Lies: Book One of Fallen Stars Romance Series Page 3