He must be cold, she thought, taking a blanket from the cupboard and creeping to the bed, hoping to lay it down without waking him. But his eyes opened as she leaned over.
‘Hello,’ he whispered.
‘I just brought you this so that you don’t catch cold,’ she said.
She wasn’t sure if he heard her. His eyes had closed again while his hands found her, drawing her down against him. There was nothing lover-like in the embrace. She wasn’t even sure he knew what he was doing. But his arms were about her and her head was on his chest, and he seemed to have fallen asleep again.
It would have been easy to slide free, but she found she had no desire to do so. The feeling of Roscoe’s chest rising and falling beneath her head and the soft rhythm of his heart against her ear were pleasant and peaceful. That was missing in her life, she realised. Peace. Tranquillity. This was the last man with whom she would have expected to find those elusive treasures, yet somehow it seemed natural to be held against him, drifting on a pleasant sea in a world where there was nothing to fear.
Which just went to show.
Show what?
Something or other.
She slept.
She was awoken by a sudden movement from Roscoe. His hands tightened on her and he looked into her face, his own eyes filled with shock.
‘What…how did you…?’
‘You pulled me down while I was putting a blanket over you,’ she said sleepily. ‘It was like being held in an iron cage, and I was too tired to argue so I just drifted.’
He groaned. ‘Sorry if I made you a prisoner. You should have socked me on the jaw.’
‘Didn’t have the energy.’ She yawned, letting him draw her back against his chest. ‘Besides, you weren’t doing anything to deserve getting socked.’
And what would I have done if you had? The words ran through her mind before she could stop them.
‘Are you sure? Pippa, tell me at once—did I…I didn’t…?’
‘No, you didn’t. I promise. You were right out of it. You wouldn’t have had the energy to do anything, any more than I’d have had the energy to sock you.’
She was laughing contentedly as she spoke and he relaxed, also laughing.
Suddenly he said, ‘What on earth is that?’
He’d noticed the shabby toy on her bedside table. Now he reached out and took it.
‘That belonged to my Gran—the one in that photo,’ she said. ‘She called him her Mad Bruin, and I think he represented Grandpa to her. After he died she cuddled Bruin and talked to him all the time.’
Roscoe surveyed Bruin, not with the scorn she would once have expected from him, but with fascination.
‘I’ll bet you could tell a secret or two,’ he said.
Pippa choked with laughter and he drew her close, laying the little bear aside as carefully as though he had feelings.
‘Will you believe me if I say I never meant this to happen?’ he murmured against her hair.
‘Of course. If you’d had anything else in mind you would have gone to Teresa.’
‘Teresa isn’t you,’ he said, as though that explained everything.
‘Ah, yes, you couldn’t have talked stern practicalities with her.’
‘As a matter of fact, I could. She’s my oldest friend.’
‘She’s a great beauty,’ Pippa mused. ‘Useful kind of “friend”.’
‘The best. She’s helped me out of several awkward situations. Her husband was also my friend. In fact I introduced them. He died a few years ago but she’s never looked at anyone else, and I don’t think she ever will. She’s still in love with his memory.’
Roscoe wondered why he was telling her all this. Why should he care what she thought? Then he remembered her with Charlie the other night, holding his face tenderly between her hands. And he knew why.
He waited for her to say something, and was disappointed when she didn’t. He couldn’t see that she was smiling to herself.
AFTER a moment Pippa summoned up her courage and said, as casually as she could manage, ‘So you went on being friends with her husband? He didn’t steal her from you?’
‘Goodness, no! Teresa and I had just about reached the end of the line by then. She was a lovely person—still is—but that connection wasn’t there. I don’t know how else to put it. I enjoyed our outings, but I wasn’t agog with eagerness for them.’
‘Now that’s something I can’t imagine; you, agog with eagerness—not over a woman. A new client, yes. A leap in the exchange rates, yes. But a mere female? Don’t make me laugh.’
He was silent and she feared she’d offended him, but then he said quietly, ‘It might really make you laugh if you knew how wrong you were.’
The proper response to this was, You don’t have to tell me. I didn’t mean to pry.
But she couldn’t say it. She wanted him to go on. If this lonely, isolated man was about to invite her into his secret world then, with all her heart, she wanted to follow him inside. If he would stretch out his hand and trust her with his privacy it would be like a light dawning in her life.
‘Well, I’ve been wrong in the past,’ she mused, going carefully, not to alarm him. ‘If you knew the things I was thinking about you that first day, and even worse on the second day.’
‘But I do know,’ he said, and even from over her head she could hear the grin in his voice. ‘You didn’t bother to hide your terrible opinion of me—grim, gruff, objectionable. And that was when you were thanking me for helping you over those lost papers. When I landed you the job from hell with Charlie your face had to be seen to be believed.’
‘But I soon realised that you were right,’ she said. ‘I’m the ideal person to do it because I can enjoy the game. A woman with a heart would be in danger.’
‘And you don’t have a heart?’
‘I told you, my fiancé finished all that.’
‘I’ve begun to understand you,’ Roscoe said slowly. ‘You come on like a seductive siren but it’s all a mask. Behind it—’
‘Behind it there’s nothing,’ she said lightly. ‘No feeling, no hopes, no regrets. Nothing. Just a heartless piece, me.’
‘No!’ he said fiercely. ‘Don’t say that about yourself. It’s not true. Once I thought it was but now I know you better.’
‘You don’t know me at all,’ she said, fighting the alarm caused by his insight. ‘You know nothing about me.’
‘You’re wrong; I do know. I know you’re kind and sweet, gentle and generous, loving and vulnerable—all the things you’ve tried to prevent me discovering, prevent any man discovering.’
‘Nonsense!’ she said desperately. ‘You’re creating a sentimental fantasy but the truth is what’s on the surface. I have no heart because I’ve no use for one. Who needs it?’
‘That’s your defence, is it? ‘ he asked slowly. ‘Who needs a heart? I think you do, Pippa.’
‘Mr Havering, I am a lawyer;