Carole Mortimer - Trust In Summer Madness

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Cover

Title Page Trust in Summer Madness Carole Mortimer www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

Copyright

‘HEY, Sian, have you heard the news—Jarrett King is coming back!’ Ginny cried excitedly as she bounded back into the office, her short dark hair framing her gaminely attractive face, her eyes a deep smoky blue, her lashes long and dark.

Jarrett King is coming back… Sian had waited three years to hear those words, and now it was too late!

Her hands shook as she continued to file the cards away under the name of the animal’s owner, morning surgery in this busy veterinary surgery over half an hour ago; the daily ritual of putting the cards back in the files was part of her job as receptionist and secretary.

‘Sian, did you hear what I said?’ Ginny had just come back from an early lunch, an afternoon of operations as her brother, Chris Newman’s, assistant ahead of her. ‘I said—’

‘I heard you.’ Sian stood up to put the drawer back in its slot before going on to take out the next drawer. ‘Someone has been in these files again,’ she muttered, taking a P card out of the R section and refiling it.

‘Probably Chris,’ his sister dismissed, sitting on the edge of Sian’s desk in the reception area. ‘He’s hopelessly untidy. Mum’s in despair of him at home.’

Sian knew all about Chris’s untidiness, and of Sara’s constant complaining about it, and she preferred to think of it as forgetfulness. Chris was a dedicated vet, often preoccupied, and hopeless when it came to the paperwork involved. Luckily Sian had been able to take away most of the pressure of that since coming to work for him two years ago.

Ginny looked put out. ‘Aren’t you in the least interested in the fact that Jarrett King is coming to Swannell?’

Again that slight trembling of her hand at the mention of his name, even after all this time. ‘Should I be?’ Sian asked coolly, marvelling at the way she could remain so composed.

But with her flaming red hair and fiery hazel eyes she was the level-headed one of her family, the one who thought with logic and not emotions, and she knew that just because Jarrett was coming back here it didn’t follow that she would see him. The opposite, she would, have thought!

Sian moved about the office with all the grace of a young gazelle, her legs long and shapely, her body curved in all the right places for her gender, but slenderly so, the brown tailored skirt and fitted cream blouse giving her a look of cool efficiency.

‘I would have thought so,’ Ginny continued stubbornly.

Sian’s dark brown brows rose, her lashes the same naturally dark colour. ‘I don’t understand your interest in the man, Ginny,’ she mocked gently. ‘He’d moved from Swannell before you even came to live here.’

‘Everyone knows of Jarrett King,’ the other girl scorned; she was a girl of Sian’s own age, twenty-two, and had been happily married to the other vet in the practice, Martin Scott, for the last eighteen months.

And Ginny was right, everyone did know of Jarrett King. At least, in Swannell they did. He was the local man made good, the one who had left this small town to control a multi-million-pound building empire in America, taking over from his uncle. For years Jarrett had run the English side of the business, but he had soon put his own personalised stamp on the whole of the King building empire. Yes, everyone knew Jarrett King in Swannell, despite the fact that he had only lived here for five years before leaving, and none better than her.

‘And I heard that you more than knew him once,’ Ginny added slyly.

Sian’s breathing seemed to stop—and then start again. ‘Really?’ she enquired coolly. ‘I won’t ask which gossip told you that.’

‘And I won’t tell you! Oh, Sian, I didn’t mean to be bitchy,’ Ginny was genuinely contrite, the two of them had a good friendship, ‘but I thought you would show more interest than this.’

Sian smiled. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, love, but Jarrett King’s comings and goings to Swannell don’t interest me in the least.’

‘He hasn’t been here for three years—you make it sound as if he flits back and forth from America all the time!’

Sian shrugged. ‘I doubt he’ll stay long this time.’

‘I heard—’

‘Ginny, for God’s sake get in here!’ Chris stood agitatedly in the doorway to the surgery. ‘I’ve been waiting for you for over ten minutes. I’d like to get started—if you wouldn’t mind?’ he finished with biting sarcasm.

‘I don’t mind at all, brother dear,’ Ginny smiled sweetly.

‘Well?’ he prompted impatiently as she made no effort to join him.

Ginny looked unimpressed with his anger. ‘I’ll be with you in a moment.’

He closed the door, muttering something about the unreliability of working with one’s family.

Ginny grinned. ‘He knows I’m a damned good assistant.’

‘Modest too,’ teased Sian, relieved to have the pressure off her.

Ginny slid off the desk-top. ‘I suppose I’d better go and help him, he might do the unexpected and get nasty if he’s kept waiting any longer.’

‘That didn’t seem to bother you a few seconds ago,’ Sian laughed, feeling on safer ground now that they were no longer talking about Jarrett.

Ginny grimaced. ‘I lived with him for twenty years, and he doesn’t frighten me. He could have paid you a bit more attention, though. You are engaged.’

‘We’re also at work,’ Sian reminded her dryly.

‘So what, Martin often sneaks me a kiss.’ Ginny walked to the door. ‘But not Chris. I don’t know what you see in him.’ She frowned.

Sian laughed. ‘That’s because you’re his sister.’

‘Maybe,’ Ginny smiled, going through to the surgery.

As soon as she could Sian tidied up her desk and left for the afternoon, locking the door behind her. The afternoon was hers until four, when she came back for the evening surgery.

At least, it should have been. But she had the shopping for lunch to do, had to get home in time to cook the meal for her father and sister. They always had a hot meal at lunchtime; her own job at the surgery and her sister’s job as a hairdresser meant it wasn’t practical to cook in the evenings, and they just grabbed a snack when they got in.

But today she didn’t shop with her usual speed, finding herself thinking of Jarrett in spite of herself. Could he really be coming back to Swannell? Could he already be back? After three years it didn’t seem very likely, but even so she was wary as she walked around the shops, thinking she was going to walk into him around every street corner.