After he disappeared, she stood there shaking like the ground under her feet during a California earthquake.
On her return from Angers the next day, Dana parked around the end of the château and carried the groceries and other purchases into the kitchen through the side entrance. She’d purposely unlocked it before leaving.
Her father liked to eat at twelve-thirty sharp. She checked her watch. It was almost that time now. She hurriedly put things away, then made both lunches and packed them in the two baskets with a thermos of hot coffee each.
As soon as everything was ready she went in search of her father. He was in the grand salon opposite Alex’s office talking with the two leads. In no time at all the staff had brought down furniture and everything was starting to take shape. Under Paul’s watchful eye the place had become a beehive of organized commotion.
Knowing better than to disturb her dad, she stepped inside the room and put the basket next to the door. He didn’t even glance at her before she darted back to the kitchen. Now she was free to deliver the second basket to the unforgettable male responsible for last night’s insomnia.
Once she entered the orchard, the sound of sawing reached her ears. Alex had put the ladder against a different tree this time. Slowly but surely he was making progress. She admired him so much for doing everything single-handedly, she wanted to shout to the world how remarkable he was.
It seemed a shame he had to come down out of the tree for his lunch. Adrenaline gushed through her veins at the idea of taking it up to him. Why not? There was so much foliage, he could find a spot to secure the basket while he ate.
Without hesitation she started up the rungs, excited to repay him any way she could for his generosity. Almost to the top she called to him. “Alex?”
The sawing stopped. “Dana?” He sounded shocked. Evidently he hadn’t seen her. “Where are you?”
Two more steps and she poked her head through the leaves. “Right here. The mountain decided to come to Mohammed,” she quipped, but she didn’t get the reaction she’d hoped for. His eyes pierced hers in fury.
In an instant his expression had grown fierce. Lines deepened around his hard mouth, giving him a forbidding expression. “Whatever possessed you to climb all the way up here? If you fell from this height, you could break a great deal more than your lovely neck.”
She’d been prepared for a lot of things, but not his anger. “You’re right. It was foolish of me. I didn’t stop to think how guilty you would feel if anything happened to me and you’d be forced to report it to my father. My mistake. Here’s your lunch.” She formed a nest of leaves and propped it as securely as she could in front of him. “Bon appetit.”
“Dana—” he ground out, but she ignored him. Without any encumbrance she was able to go back down the ladder in record time. He called to her again, this time in frustration.
“Stop worrying, Alex. You had every right to be angry!” she shouted back before running around the side of the château.
Since the rest of her day was free, she would go sightseeing. After grabbing her purse from the pantry, she made sure the door was locked, then got in her car and backed around to the front.
Her heart didn’t resume its normal beat until she’d driven a good fifty kilometers on the repaired tire. At the next village she pulled off the road into a park. In the distance she saw some swans on a lake. The serene scene mocked the turmoil going on inside of her.
After the experience with Neal she’d promised herself she wouldn’t get close enough to a man again to expose her deepest feelings. But the pathetic little stunt she’d just pulled revealed holes in her best intentions, forcing her to come face-to-face with her own idiocy.
The need to channel her roiling emotions drove her from the car. She spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the lake, making plans that had nothing to do with Alex. On the way back to the château she stopped for a meal and didn’t return to Rablay until five-thirty.
She was relieved no one had gone to their hotels yet. With everyone still around, Alex would make himself scarce. That gave her time to reach her room without him noticing. She’d hibernate there until tomorrow. New day, new beginning.
No sooner had she started down the upstairs hall than she saw Saskia coming out of her bedroom. The brown-haired model turned actress could turn any man’s head, but she didn’t have the same effect on Dana. The invasion of privacy infuriated her under any circumstances, but if she’d been snooping around on orders from Dana’s father, she was ready to declare war.
“Hi!” Saskia was a cool customer. She didn’t have the grace to blush or act embarrassed. Dana couldn’t bring herself to reciprocate with a greeting. “What did you have to do for the owner of this fabulous estate to give you special privileges?”
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
“I haven’t met him yet, but the girls in makeup tell me he’s beyond gorgeous.”
That was one way of describing him. Saskia’s jaw would drop when she saw Alex for the first time. “Didn’t Paul tell you the petit salon and this bedroom were off-limits?”
“I didn’t think he meant me.”
“Why not?”
Throwing back another question managed to unsettle her a little. “Actually I was looking for you in the hope we could talk.”
“About what?”
“Now you’re being obtuse. You know very well your father and I aren’t getting along right now. I was hoping you’d be able to tell me what I’m doing wrong.”
“I can’t fault you for anything, Saskia. I wouldn’t presume.”
“That’s no help.”
Dana took a steadying breath. “That’s because there is no answer. You’re not my mother, but you’ve always known that, so the truth couldn’t be a surprise to you. If it’s any consolation, I can’t do it right, either.”
Saskia flashed her a shrewd regard. “Maybe if I stayed here at the château, Jan would worry about me sometimes? See me in a different light?”
You mean, as mistress of the manor with a real live Frenchman attached? Now things were beginning to make sense. She’d been looking for Alex…
“I’m sure I don’t know.”
“Do you think the owner of the château would let me stay here?”
“Haven’t a clue.”
She pursed her lips. “I suppose it helped that you’re Jan’s daughter. Maybe being his girlfriend would work for me.”
“It’s worth a try.”
Her green eyes gleamed in anticipation of confronting Alex. “I agree. Thanks for the talk.”
Dana watched her slender figure disappear before she went to her bedroom. Saskia had been fighting a losing battle when it came to Dana’s father. No doubt seeing the eight-by-ten photograph of Dana’s mother and a smaller photograph of her parents propped on the dresser underlined the futility of Saskia’s relationship with him.
As for Dana, she had her own problem in the futility department where Alex was concerned. He couldn’t leave for the States fast enough. How ironic that because she’d seen his ad on the Internet, she’d unwittingly made it possible for him to reach his goal sooner. Saskia could dream all she wanted, but she was in for a shock.
Alex worked in the orchard until twilight. One more trip to the landfill and he’d call it a night. The delicious, filling lunch Dana had delivered air express without consideration for her personal safety had kept him going through the dinner hour.
Much