Siena almost laughed out loud. This guy needed to learn a thing or two about customer service. His eyebrows had merged into one angry slash across his forehead. With a scowl like that he’d scare his passengers back onto their plane.
His face now held a look of bored resignation, the sheet dangling from his hand as if it was too much trouble to even lift it to chest height like the other drivers did.
She checked her phone again. Still no word from Laurie. It was now ten past twelve.
Siena shifted her bag and her weight from foot to foot.
The movement caught the attention of the dark-haired guy at the barrier as he briefly turned around. How could a grown man pout like that and still look attractive? He should have looked ridiculous but that fuller lower lip was really rather cute. She sneaked another look at his face and he swung around properly to give her a baleful glare. As he did, she caught sight of the name on the sheet he held.
Ah merde!
He’d spelt her name wrongly but then most people did, so she could hardly hold that against him. Flashing her best million kilowatt smile, she took a step forward, her head inclining towards her name. He looked down at the name and then back at her, not saying a word. His face didn’t warm one iota, if anything he looked even more forbidding.
Like a Mexican standoff, both of them stood waiting for the other to break and say the first word. They stood there as the seconds ticked away, neither saying anything. Clenching her hands to her sides, the tiredness she’d been fighting won. ‘I’m Siena. Just one ‘n’.’
‘How do you know I’m not here to pick up Sienna, two ‘n’s?’ he grumbled.
Damn, that hadn’t occurred to her. She shrugged, ‘Sorry, my mistake.’
She’d only taken two strides when a hand grabbed her arm.
‘I’m guessing you are Laurie’s sister?’
‘Yes.’ Siena observed him with curious eyes. Piercing blue eyes bored into her, the wide mouth with its full lower lip had flattened into a mutinous line. Gorgeous and grumpy, without an ounce of charm.
‘I had to pick you up. Laurie isn’t around at the moment.’
‘Oh.’ Siena felt a bit put out. ‘Where is she?’
He raised an eyebrow. She hated it when people could do that. ‘Where is she? You’re asking that?’
‘It wasn’t a trick question.’
‘Seriously? You text at six in the evening. Expect her to drop everything. Pick you up and then you ask, ‘Where is she?’’
‘I don’t see what it’s got to do with you.’ Whoever this man was, he had a cheek.
He stood and considered her for a moment, she felt like a model being sized up to see if the designer’s clothes would fit.
‘No, I guess you don’t. You’re right, it has nothing to do with me.’ Despite agreeing with her, he still managed to make it sound like an insult. ‘She’s up in Yorkshire.’
‘Yorkshire!’ Siena felt a bit stupid echoing his words but she didn’t actually know what or where Yorkshire was or why it was up. That sounded decidedly odd, as if it were in space or something, which she was pretty sure she would have heard of, if any part of the world had colonised space.
‘Norah had a fall, Laurie’s been at the hospital for most of the day. She asked me to pick you up. She can’t get a great phone signal there, so couldn’t contact you to let you know she wasn’t around. I’m to take you back to the house for tonight. Laurie will speak to you in the morning.’ He bit out each sentence as if he had a mouthful of tacks he was scared of losing.
Siena vaguely remembered the mention of a Norah from some of Laurie’s recent emails.
‘I thought Norah worked for Uncle Miles. Wasn’t she the housekeeper?’ mused Siena out loud which was stupid because the driver was hardly going to know.
Could a scowl get any deeper? ‘She still is. He’s dead obviously but she’s still the housekeeper at the house.’
‘OK,’ said Siena still doing her best to keep her smile up despite his quelling expression and the confusing information.
Siena felt she’d strayed into very dangerous territory but had no idea what had tipped it over into a fully operational minefield. Any minute now, this rather scary but gorgeous man, might blow. It unnerved her. People were usually nice to her. Most people. It seemed safest to keep smiling and not irritate him further by saying anything. Although her smiles didn’t seem to be having much effect on his mood. The silence stretched out between them until eventually with an exasperated huff, he spoke.
‘Norah is eighty-six,’ he said it slowly followed by a laboured pause, ‘Laurie said she couldn’t just abandon her.’
‘Yes, of course not.’ Siena’s cheeks were starting to hurt but she persevered.
‘So she asked me to pick you up.’
‘Ok, well … Hi, I’m – you know who I am. Laurie’s sister.’
‘I know exactly who you are,’ he replied dryly.
Did he have to make it sound as if she were so unsavoury? She was house trained.
‘Is that your luggage?’ He pointed to her cabin bag and the bulging duty free bag.
She nodded. The cabin bag did look a bit sad on its own but there’d been no time to pack properly. Luckily she’d been able to stock up on all the essentials in duty free.
‘Yes, it’s not much but I need to buy my spring wardrobe soon anyway, so I figured I might as well do it while I’m here. So, yes that’s it, I’m afraid.’
He gave her a dirty look. ‘It’s not a problem, I promise you.’ Without another word he set off, deliberately walking at speed as if to keep a healthy distance between them.
‘Er, excuse me?’ she called after him. He turned. ‘Haven’t you forgotten something?’ He might be a poor excuse for a driver but he should still do the basics. ‘My bags?’
Blue eyes burned bright with indignation and he shook his head, muttering under his breath. He snatched the bags up and marched off. No tip for him then. Oh hell, they used sterling in England didn’t they? There were only euros in her purse.
Following, she tried to keep up with his long-legged stride.
Maybe this had been a terrible idea. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she snatched it up. Laurie? No, Maman. Her diaphragm tensed and for a minute she couldn’t breathe. Flash. Flash. Flash. Like a lighthouse, the beam on her iPhone pulsed with urgency. She stopped and stared down, her finger hovering over the screen.
Ahead of her the man had stopped and turned.
‘Going to get that? Or just stare at it all night. Some of us have places to be in the morning.’
She sighed and caught up with him. Once they got to the car, he would be driving and she could get in the back and sleep until they got to Laurie’s house in Leighton Buzzard. She had no idea what part of London that was or how long it would take to get there but it felt easier not to ask him.
Siena skidded to a halt but didn’t dare open her mouth. He had to be kidding. What sort of Mickey Mouse outfit did this guy work for?
‘Come on,’ he growled over his shoulder as he unlocked the boot of the mud-covered Land Rover. ‘It’s already after midnight.’
‘Seriously?’ She stared at the dirty green paintwork, unconsciously echoing his earlier phrase. ‘This is your car?’
‘Seriously