Eleanor Jones - A Place Called Home

Dear Reader

Title Page A Place Called Home Eleanor Jones www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author ELEANOR JONES was brought up on a farm in the north of England and learned to love animals and the countryside from an early age. She has ridden all her life, and after marrying her husband at just eighteen years old and having two wonderful children, they set up a riding centre together. This is still thriving over thirty years later, doing hacks, treks and lessons for all ages and experiences. Her daughter competes at the national level, and she is now a partner in the business and brings her adorable three-year-old son to work with her every day. Eleanor’s son is also married with two children, and they live nearby. Eleanor has been writing for what feels like her whole life. Her early handwritten novels still grace a dusty shelf in the back of a cupboard somewhere, but she was first published over fifteen years ago, when she wrote teenage pony mysteries.

Dedication I would like to dedicate this book to my husband, Peter, who has to put up with my head being in the clouds most of the time.

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN CHAPTER TWENTY CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Copyright

ELLIE CLUNG TO her seat, fingers wrapped fiercely around soft cream leather as the hedgerow spun by her window in a blur of mottled greens. For a moment the fuzzy images brought her paintings sharply to mind...until the fast-moving vehicle hit a sharp bend in the road. Then all she could think of was survival.

She tightened her grip, fear rising as she watched Matt fighting for control. His jaw was set, his profile firmly etched, displaying his annoyance at having had to leave work midafternoon to come and pick her up. But if they were going to get back home in one piece, then she had to say something, no matter how angry he was.

“Come on, Matt... I’m sorry that my car broke down, but if you keep driving like a madman, you’ll put us both into the hedge. If I’d known you were going to be like this, I’d have gotten a ride into the village with the tow truck, then caught a bus or something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I could hardly leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere. You just don’t understand...” Matt increased his speed as the road leveled out. “I’m putting together an important deal and I need to get back to the office.”

“When aren’t you putting together a deal?” groaned Ellie. “But if you keep up this speed, you’re not going to be there to finalize it anyway—you’re going to be in the hospital.

“I can handle this car with my eyes shut,” Matt insisted, his voice softening as he mentioned his beloved BMW. “And what were you doing in this miserable place?”

“I told you yesterday I was going on a painting excursion today. There’s a chance I might be able to show some of my pieces at an exhibition in a couple months, and I need more material.”

Matt swung the wheel hard right, a sparkle of elation in his eyes as the powerful car responded.

“About that...” he began, concentrating all his attention on the road.

“What about it?”

The vehicle straightened out and he glanced across at her, a hint of amusement in the curve of his lips. “Your new paintings...”

Ellie frowned. Matt rarely took any notice of her work.

“No offense, Ellie, but are you really sure you’re going the right way with it? All those faded blurry bits make the pictures look kind of strange. Why can’t you just paint nice scenes with proper animals, if that’s what you want to concentrate on?”

Respecting the fact that Matt had gone out of his way to pick her up, Ellie had been trying to stay reasonably calm. His derogatory comment about her work, however, made her blood boil. Plus, he knew nothing about art.

“I don’t tell you how to do your deals,” she retaliated. “So why don’t you just keep your opinions on my painting to yourself. For your information, I’m taking a contemporary slant on animals and the countryside, and if you had any interest at all you would have noticed that I’ve been changing my style for a while.”

Matt turned his attention back to the road, negotiating another tight curve in the narrow lane. The car swerved sideways, tires screaming and Ellie tightened her grip on the seat, wishing she was anywhere but here.

“Slow down, Matt!” she yelled.

“And maybe you should keep your opinions on my driving to yourself,” Matt responded. “I’m perfectly in control.”

“Until we hit a tree or a tractor or something. Are you trying to kill us both?”

As they cleared the corner, Ellie took a breath, leaning back. She and Matt may have been engaged for only a few months, but these days it felt more like a lifetime. They seemed to be pulling in different directions, arguing about anything and everything. Determinedly shrugging off her irritation, she tried again.

“Look, Matt...I know it’s a pain for you having to come out here, and I do appreciate it...”

He cut her off midsentence. “No, Ellie, you have no clue how much of a pain it is for me to drop everything in the middle of a big deal. But I’m not so selfish that I’d leave you stranded. In fact...” He glanced across at her, his gray eyes cold as ice. “Sometimes I think you don’t actually have much of a clue about anything to do with me.”

“What!” Ellie froze. “ I don’t have much of a clue about you ? You’ve got that the wrong way around. If you understood anything at all about me, you’d know that my stupid paintings are actually beginning to do quite well. In fact, Mel says...”

“And that’s another thing,” he blurted, pushing his foot down on the gas again. “I’m sick of you going on about this Mel bloke. I’m your fiancé, remember.”

“How could I forget that? Clearly, though, you’ve forgotten that Mel is the owner of the gallery that might be exhibiting some of my paintings, and she just happens to be a woman.”

For a fleeting instant, she detected a flicker of amusement in his face as her information sank in. He glanced across at her, his expression softening, but before she could respond, a bright flash of russet against the vivid green of the grass shoulder up ahead caught her attention.

“Watch out!”

His automatic reaction was to stand hard on the brakes. As if in slow motion, the car skidded out of control, sliding helplessly toward the terrified creature that was running in terror alongside the gray stone wall, desperate to escape the oncoming vehicle. To Ellie, it was as if time was temporarily suspended. The inevitable thud made her stomach turn, and suddenly she found her voice, screaming at him to stop, her door already half open. As the car came to a standstill, she leaped out, running back to where the animal now lay motionless in the dirt.