Liz Fielding: The Secret Life of Lady Gabriella

Since this was reality, and she was built on rather more substantial lines than the average heroine of a romance-who wasn’t?-she fell on him like the proverbial ton of bricks, and they went down in a heap of tangled limbs.

And Emily Brontë gave him a cuff round the ear with her leather binding for good measure.

‘Idiot!’ she finally managed. But she was winded by her fall, and the word lacked force. Ellie sucked in some air and tried again. ‘Idiot!’-much better-‘You might have killed me!’ Then, because he’d somehow managed to walk through locked doors into a house she was caretaking-as in ‘taking care of’-she demanded, ‘Who the hell are you, anyway?’

Then, as her brain finally caught up with her mouth-and because burglars rarely stopped to exchange must-read titles with their victims-the answer hit her with almost as much force as she’d landed on him with.

There was only one person he could be.

Dr Benedict Faulkner.

The Dr Benedict Faulkner whose house she was sitting.

The Dr Benedict Faulkner who was supposed to be on the other side of the world, up to his eyes in ancient tribal split infinitives.

The Dr Benedict Faulkner who wasn’t due back for another nine months.

Now she had time for a closer look, it was obvious that he was an older incarnation of the lovely youth in a faded black and white photograph on the piano in the drawing room. The one she always gave an extra rub with the duster.

Older, but definitely not ‘aging’.

She’d somehow got this picture of him wearing tweeds and glasses, with the stooped and withered shoulders of someone whose life was spent poring over ancient manuscripts.

Not so.

It would seem that he had been either a very late surprise for his mother, or the offspring of a second, younger wife-because while he was wearing a tweed jacket, that was as far as the cliché went.

The man lying beneath her, it had to be said, could have stepped right out of the pages of one of her own romances. The ones that her own sister insisted on referring to as ‘fairy tales for grown-ups’.

She was being condescending-a little unkind, even. Stacey, a high-flying corporate lawyer, was so utterly practical and businesslike that it sometimes seemed impossible that they could be sisters-but Ellie was delighted with the description. Only dull, unimaginative people grew out of fairy tales. Didn’t they?

And falling on a man of such hero potential was pure fairy tale-although surely in the fairy tales it didn’t hurt quite so much?

Whatever.

Opportunities like this didn’t come her way often-make that never-which was why she should be making the most of it. Purely for research purposes. But typically, instead of lying dazed in his arms, her cheek pressed firmly against his accommodating chest, listening to his heart skip a beat as he appreciated the colour of her hair, the softness of her ivory skin, the subtle scent of the lavender furniture polish with which she’d been tending his furniture, she’d berated him like a fishwife.

She groaned and let her head sink back to his chest while she recovered her breath along with her wits.

This was no time to let her wits go wandering. It was a disaster! If he was home, he wouldn’t need her to house-sit; she wouldn’t have anywhere to live.

Worse.

She wouldn’t have his house to fire her imagination on a monthly basis for Milady .

Then, realising somewhat belatedly that he hadn’t responded to her less than ladylike reaction, or to her demand for identification, she took a closer look at him-no point pretending to swoon; even if he’d been conscious she’d completely messed up the fainting-violet moment-and the swirling confusion of thoughts and impressions coalesced into a single feeling.

Concern.

‘Dr Faulkner? Are you okay?’

He didn’t look okay.

His eyes were closed and he looked somewhat yellow. As if his colour had drained away under a light tan.

She knew she hadn’t killed him. Under her hand-which had somehow found its way inside his jacket, to lie flat against his chest-his heartbeat was as steady as a rock. It was, however, entirely possible that she, or more likely Emily’s solid leather-bound spine, had knocked him out cold.

‘Dr Faulkner?’

His mouth moved, which was encouraging, but no sound emerged. Which was not.

Fully prepared, despite her own close call-and a growing awareness of pain in various bits of her body-to leap heroically into Florence Nightingale mode, Ellie lifted her head to take a better look.

‘Where does it hurt?’

His response was little more than a grunt.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t catch that.’

‘I said,’ he repeated, eyes still closed, teeth tightly gritted, ‘that you don’t want to know.’

She frowned.

‘Just move your damned knee…’

‘What?’ Ellie leaned back, provoking a very audible gasp of pain. Belatedly realising exactly where her knee was lodged, she swiftly lifted herself clear, provoking another grunt as she levered herself up off his chest with her hands. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered. ‘But it was that or the…’ She managed to stop her runaway mouth before it reminded him about the knee.

Obviously at this point any fictional heroine worth her salt would have picked up her injured hero’s hand and held it clasped against her bosom as she stroked back the lick of dark honey-coloured hair that had tumbled over his high brow. Or maybe administered the kiss of life…

Confronted by reality, Ellie didn’t need telling that none of the above would be either appropriate or welcome, and so she confined herself to a brisk, ‘Is there anything I can do?’

The second the words were out of her mouth she regretted them, but Dr Faulkner manfully resisted the opportunity to invite her to kiss it better. Or maybe it was just that he needed all his breath to ease himself into a sitting position. He certainly took his time about it, as if fearing that any injudicious move might prove fatal.

She watched him, ready to leap to his aid should the need arise. It wasn’t exactly a strain. Looking at him.

He was-local damage excepted-far from doddery. Or old. On the contrary, Dr Benedict Faulkner’s thick, shaggy sun-streaked hair didn’t have a single grey hair, and she was prepared to bet that under normal circumstances his pared-to-the-bone features lacked the library pallor of the dedicated academic. As for the exquisitely cut fine tweed jacket he was wearing-and it did look very fine indeed, over a T-shirt and jeans worn soft with use that clung like a second skin to his thighs-it was moulded to a pair of shoulders that would not have been out of place in a rugby scrum, or stroking an oar in the university eight.

And, to go with the great hair and the great body, Dr Faulkner possessed a pair of spectacularly heroic blue eyes. Ellie-again from a purely professional stand-point-considered appropriate adjectives. Periwinkle? No, too girly. Cerulean? Oh, please…Flax? Not bad. Flax had a solid, masculine ring to it-but was it the right blue…?

‘What about you?’Dr Faulkner asked, breaking into her thoughts.

‘What about me?’ Ellie responded, as for the second time that day she was yanked back to reality.

‘Who the hell are you ?’

So, he hadn’t been unconscious, then. Just in too much pain to move.

‘I’m Gabriella March. I work for your sister. Adele,’ she added. Who knew what damage she’d done? ‘She asked me to house-sit for you while she was away, since she wouldn’t be around to take care of things.’

‘House-sit? How long for?’

‘Twelve months.’

He responded with a word that suggested he was not noticeably impressed by his sibling’s thoughtfulness.