‘Would you mind not talking about me as if I wasn’t present?’ Ally said indignantly, chewing a sandwich with limited enthusiasm. It tasted like sawdust. ‘How do you know each other? And while you’re at it, perhaps you’d better fill me in on how you know half the mountain rescue team as well.’
‘I grew up here,’ Sean said shortly, and she saw something slam shut in his eyes.
‘And?’
He placed his coffee-cup carefully down on the table, his eyes cool and discouraging, all traces of humour gone. ‘And what, Dr McGuire?’
‘Well, there must be more to it than that.’ She gave him a curious look, sensing the barriers he’d just erected. ‘Did you go to school with Jack? Did Will deliver you as a baby?’
The smile faded from Will’s face and he glanced warily at Sean.
‘I didn’t know you were so interested in me.’ His handsome face was taut, and she swallowed. Obviously Sean Nicholson did not want to talk about his past.
‘Just making polite conversation,’ she said quickly, wondering what had caused those shadows around his eyes. Whatever it was, Sean didn’t want to talk about it. There was no doubt about that.
‘Sean was working in Accident and Emergency last,’ Will said quickly, smoothing over the tense atmosphere in the cosy staffroom. ‘He’s pioneered certain aspects of immediate care—stimulated by your army experiences, I suppose?’
Sean nodded and his shoulders relaxed slightly. ‘That’s right. When you’re stuck in the field with an injured man you have to do the best you can with limited equipment.’
So that was why he’d handled the mountain rescue with such ease. And why Will had laughed when Sean had mentioned her abseiling tuition. ‘I suppose you abseiled a lot in the army?’
His lips twitched. ‘Just a bit.’
Will stretched his legs in front of him. ‘Have you fixed somewhere to stay?’
‘Not yet.’ Sean pulled a face and helped himself to a sandwich. ‘I plan to have a scout around this weekend. Unless you know of anywhere?’
Will concentrated on peeling an apple, not looking at Ally. ‘Ally is looking for a lodger.’
Ally gasped. ‘Will! I’m not! I—’
Will looked up, his expression unreadable. ‘You told me you needed to get a lodger now that Fiona has gone back to London.’
‘Well, I do, but not—I mean, that’s different.’ Ally licked her lips. She’d kill him! ‘Fiona was a midwife—’
Sean contemplated her with silent laughter. ‘I can deliver a baby if that’s one of the requirements.’
‘That’s not what I meant and you know it.’ Ally gritted her teeth. There was no way she was going to have this man lodging with her, even if she did need the money. He’d find out she’d misled him about her personal life for a start. The only person she was involved with was her daughter. And what would he do when he found that out? He needed to be kept at arm’s length.
‘What she means is she doesn’t want me,’ Sean murmured, his dark eyes challenging.
She shifted under his laughing gaze, hating the way he made her feel. As if she was a coward—which, of course, she was when it came to men.
‘Of course she wants you. It makes sense, Ally,’ Will said firmly. ‘That barn drains every penny you earn.’
‘Barn?’ Sean was looking at her curiously. ‘You live in a barn?’
‘It’s in the middle of nowhere and you’d hate it,’ Ally said flatly, giving Will a threatening look which he met with a smile. Ally almost snarled. He was doing it again! Matchmaking! Trying to pair her up with anything male under the age of ninety. Why couldn’t he just leave her alone?
‘It’s the perfect solution,’ Will said happily. ‘You need a lodger and Sean needs a place to stay.’
Ally opened her mouth to refuse for the final time and then caught the wistful look on Will’s face and closed it again. Oh, blow the man! How could he do this to her? He had been so good to her for so long. In fact, without him she didn’t know how she would have survived. She owed him so much and he made her feel churlish every time she avoided his attempts to liven up her life.
Maybe if she let Sean stay in her barn it would keep Will quiet. Stop his matchmaking. Prove to him once and for all that no matter how many men he paraded in front of her she wasn’t interested. It just wasn’t fair on Charlie. She needed constancy in her life, not a continual throughput of men who walked out when the going got tough. No, a lodger was all Sean would ever be, and even then it wasn’t as if they would really be sharing accommodation. The stable wing attached to her barn was quite self-contained. All she had to do was pass him on the driveway occasionally.
‘Do you mind sleeping in a stable?’ Her voice sounded unwelcoming but Sean just smiled.
‘Is the horse still in it?’
She gave him a withering look and the smile deepened.
Will stood up and deposited his mug and plate in the sink. ‘Ally’s stable is gorgeous—she’s spent a lot of money converting it.’
‘Has she now?’ Sean’s eyes meshed with hers and she forced herself to hold his gaze. ‘And doesn’t your husband mind having lodgers?’
‘Oh, Ally’s not married,’ Will said blithely. ‘Didn’t I mention it?’
Thanks, Will! Ally thought, feeling her colour rise. Thanks a lot. Now that he’d well and truly set the scene she didn’t know whether to laugh or kill him.
‘But she lives with someone,’ Sean murmured, giving her an odd look that she couldn’t interpret.
‘Lives with—? Well, yes, Charlie, but not…’ Will glanced at Ally with a frown, which deepened as he met her pleading look. His mouth tightened. ‘Oh, I see. Well, I’ve got calls to make so I’ll leave the two of you to sort out the details.’
With that he left the room, leaving Ally gaping after him, boiling with frustration, knowing she’d been totally outmanoeuvred.
Sean stood up and made himself another cup of coffee. ‘Subtle, isn’t he? More coffee?’
‘No, thanks.’ Ally felt swamped with embarrassment by Will’s obvious games. ‘I don’t know what’s come over him.’
Sean gave a wry smile. ‘Well, if that’s really the case then I go back to my first impression of dizzy blonde. He’s matchmaking, sweetheart, as you well know, and what I want to know is why he’s matchmaking when you’re already attached.’
Ally blushed furiously. ‘I don’t know.’
One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘No?’
‘No.’ She started to clear away the remains of the sandwiches to hide her awkwardness. ‘And, anyway, it’s totally irrelevant because I wouldn’t have a relationship with you if you were the last man on earth.’
Sean dropped into one of the chairs and stretched long legs out in front of him, his eyes amused. ‘Is that so?’
She warmed to her subject. ‘Yes, it is. You, Dr Nicholson, are the original male chauvinist pig who thinks that a woman’s place is in the home, keeping it warm for her man. I don’t suppose you’ve ever even heard of New Man, have you?’
Sean smiled politely. ‘New Man?’
‘Yes, you know—the sort of partner who respects women as equals, who doesn’t mind doing the ironing or the