She hurried across the garden to the gate, Harvey bounding at her heels, and tapped on the driver’s window. It lowered. This time she kept the light just clear of his eyes but allowed the torch to give her a clear view of his face. It was an interesting face. Not handsome exactly—it was too rugged for that and the bright light showed up a scar on one chiselled cheekbone, but it had something which would make any red-blooded woman take a second glance. His hair was ebony-black but she couldn’t determine the colour of his eyes with the brightness of the light distorting everything.
‘I can’t stay out here all night,’ she muttered. ‘There might not be anyone else pass by.’
‘Sure fire bet,’ he agreed pleasantly. ‘My house is the only other building along here and the lane finishes at my front garden.’
And he had just been going to drive off knowing that? ‘Where do I put Harvey?’ she asked stiffly.
In reply he got out of the car and opened the back of the estate. Harvey jumped in and settled on the big blanket there as though he had been doing it all his life. Beth glared at the animal as Travis pulled the door down. He then walked round the vehicle and opened the passenger door for her without saying a word, but she just knew he was smiling inside.
She slid in. ‘Thank you.’ It was said through gritted teeth.
‘My pleasure.’ He closed the door very gently.
Once he had joined her in the car she became even more aware of the height and breadth of him and felt all the more vulnerable because of it. She also became rather more aware of the truly disgusting smell emanating from her clothes. ‘I hope I don’t spoil the seat,’ she said in a small voice as the car began to move. She had noticed the car was a top of the range Mercedes Estate. She bet it was the first time the beautiful interior had been subjected to such abuse.
‘It’s leather; it’ll sponge down if necessary. Once we get to my place you can have a shower and I’ll sort out something clean for you to put on. It won’t be pink, though,’ he added, deadpan.
‘Not your colour?’ Beth asked in the same tone.
‘Clashes with my eyes.’ He grinned without looking at her.
‘Right.’ He was trying to put her at her ease. And, she reminded herself, he was providing a roof over her head for the night and if he hadn’t come along she would have been in a real fix. ‘This is very kind of you,’ she said belatedly.
‘That’s me all over. Orphans, strays, lost sheep…’
‘Yeah, right.’ He was joking but the way she was feeling it was a little too near the mark. Beth forced all emotion out of her voice as she said, ‘If yours is the only place on this road I was lucky you came along.’
‘Especially as I don’t live here all the time. I mostly work and live in Bristol.’
‘Oh, yes?’ She glanced at the hard profile. ‘What do you do?’ He wasn’t the type of man you could easily pin a label on.
‘Industrial design.’
That covered a thousand and one possible avenues, but as his voice had been dismissive Beth didn’t like to ask what he specialised in. Instead she said, ‘So your home here is a sort of weekend place?’
‘More of a bolt-hole,’ he said shortly. ‘And you? Do you work?’
She nodded. ‘Although I’m taking a break for a while. I’m an architect.’
She waited for the surprise which normally—and, as far as Beth was concerned, unflatteringly—followed this statement when she was talking to a man socially. As far as the male race seemed to think, the fact that she was slender and finely boned with honey-blonde hair and big blue eyes precluded her from having a profession which involved visiting construction sites and dealing with builders, among other things. The least of the offenders usually attempted to hide their amazement and say something like, ‘Really? How interesting,’ as they eyed her up and down blankly. The worst guffawed and said they didn’t believe it.
Travis merely nodded. ‘Work for a practice or local authority, or freelance?’
‘A practice. They’re holding my job for six months.’
She’d anticipated more questions but when none were forthcoming settled more easily into her seat, having become aware she was holding herself as taut as piano wire. The trees either side of the narrow lane formed a canopy overhead and the night was pitch black, the car’s powerful headlights cutting through the darkness but somehow emphasising the loneliness of her surroundings. Her stomach kept flipping over like a pancake on Shrove Tuesday.
And then suddenly there were massive gates in front of them which Travis opened by remote control within the car. They drove through on to a pebbled drive and almost immediately the vista opened up and Beth saw a large house a hundred yards or so in the distance.
She didn’t know what she had been expecting—probably a cottage similar to the one she was renting or something a little bigger—but it wasn’t this mansion of a place in what was virtually a small park. She glanced at Travis—a quick look—but his eyes were on the windscreen. As bolt-holes went, this certainly wasn’t the norm. Mind you, she was beginning to think Travis wasn’t exactly the norm either, she thought ruefully.
Well-tended landscaped grounds stretched either side of the winding drive, and by the time they drew up in the horseshoe-shaped pebbled area in front of the house Beth had to admit privately to being somewhat overawed. Even if she had been dressed to the nines and perfectly coiffured she’d have felt a bit intimidated, she told herself silently. As it was…
Her thoughts made it all the more incongruous when Travis exited the car and walked round the bonnet to help her out of the vehicle as though they were on a date or something. She tried to be as graceful and dignified as present circumstances allowed—which wasn’t saying much.
Outside lights situated at the front of the house had clicked on automatically as they’d arrived, but, flustered as she was, Beth had been concentrating on the absurdity of her situation rather than anything else. Now, as she slid out of the Mercedes with his warm hand supporting her, she looked at him—really looked at him—for the first time. A little bolt of electricity caused her breath to catch in her throat. Grey, she thought inconsequentially. His eyes are grey.
‘What’s the name of your dog?’
‘What?’ The cool voice had registered but her scrambled brain hadn’t been able to compute.
‘Your dog?’ he repeated patiently.
She became aware of the barking. Harvey was taking exception to being stuck in the vehicle when they were outside. ‘Oh, Harvey. His name’s Harvey.’
‘I suggest you get ready to reassure him. He’ll be meeting my dogs in a moment and I’d prefer him to be friendly.’
The slight hiccup in her thought processes caused by the piercing quality of the deep grey eyes fringed by spiky black lashes evaporated. ‘Harvey is always friendly,’ she said tightly before she realised it didn’t exactly reaffirm his guard dog persona.
‘Good. Sheba and Sky aren’t.’
The next moment he had opened the back of the estate car and Harvey had jumped down and, before she could ask him what he’d meant, he was turning the key in the lock of the front door. Immediately two grizzly bears—or that was what they looked like to Beth—bounded on to the drive.
There was a tense moment or two, on Beth’s side, while the two dogs circled Harvey, but his wagging tail and lolling grin didn’t falter. Within seconds the three dogs were inspecting each other’s rear ends and introducing themselves. Beth sighed with relief. ‘They’re lovely,’ she said unconvincingly, keeping her eye on the dogs in case they suddenly decided to go cannibal and give Harvey a hard time. ‘What are they?’
‘Apart