DONNA ALWARD - The Girl from Honeysuckle Farm / One Dance with the Cowboy - The Girl from Honeysuckle Farm / One Dance with the Cowboy

Though he was not to be drawn away from the seriousness of their discussion it seemed, because he continued. ‘You saved my brother’s life with not a thought for your own, when you knew full well about that treacherous side of the pool. You went straight in.’

‘I did stop to kick my sandals off and yank my dress over my head,’ she reminded him, again attempting to make light of it.

But then wished that she hadn’t, when grey eyes looked straight into hers and he commented, ‘I have not forgotten,’ adding in a low murmur, ‘I doubt I ever shall. I thought you’d been skinny-dipping at first.’ He brought himself up short. ‘Anyhow, Ash—for all he’s lost a lot of weight—is still quite heavy. Had he struggled, you could both have drowned. Dear God—’He broke off again, swallowing down his anguish.

Seeing his mental torment, and even if she didn’t like him, Phinn just had to tell him, ‘Ash didn’t struggle. It wasn’t an attempt at suicide, if that’s what you think. It was cramp, pure and simple. The water’s icy there. There’s a deep shelf…He…’

Ty Allardyce smiled then. It was the first smile he had ever directed at her and her heart went thump. He was so handsome! ‘I know he wasn’t attempting to take his own life,’ he agreed. ‘But from that remark it’s obvious that you’ve observed that my brother is…extremely vulnerable at the moment.’

Phinn nodded. Yes, she knew that. ‘I know you blame me in part, but truthfully there was nothing I could have done to stop it. I mean, I didn’t know that Leanne would—er—break it off with him the way she did.’

‘Perhaps I was unfair to blame you,’ Ty conceded. ‘But to get to other matters—Ash tells me you have a problem, with no job and no home for you and your—Ruby. I,’ he stated, ‘am in a position to offer you both.’

A home and a job? Things like this just did not happen. ‘I don’t want your charity!’ she erupted.

‘My God, you’re touchy!’ Ty bit back. But then, looking keenly at her, ‘You’re not…? Are you in shock? Starting to suffer after-effects from what happened today?’

Phinn rather thought she might be. And—oh, grief—she was feeling weepy again. ‘Look, can you go back to being nasty again? I can cope with you better when you’re being a brute!’

He wasn’t offended, but nor was he reverting to being the brute that always put her on her mettle. ‘Have you any family near?’ he asked, quite kindly.

This—his niceness—was unnerving. So unnerving that she found she was actually telling him. ‘My mother lives in Gloucester, but…’

‘I’ll drive you there,’ he decided. ‘Get—’

‘I’m not—’ she started to protest.

‘Stop being argumentative,’ he ordered. ‘You’re in no condition to drive.’ And, when she would have protested further, ‘You’ll probably get the shakes any minute now,’ he went on. ‘It will be safer all round if I’m at the wheel.’

Honestly—this man! ‘Will you stop trying to bulldoze me along?’ she flared crossly. ‘Yes, I feel a bit shaken,’ she admitted. ‘But nothing I can’t cope with. And I’m not going anywhere.’

‘If I can’t take you to your mother, I’ll take you back to the Hall with me.’ He ignored what she had just said.

‘No, you won’t!’ she exploded, going on quickly. ‘Apart from anything else, I’m not leaving Ruby. She’s—’

‘She’ll be all right until you pick her up tomorrow,’ he countered. ‘You can—’

‘You can stop right there. Just stop it!’ she ordered. ‘I’m not going anywhere today. And when I do go, Ruby goes with me.’

Ty Allardyce observed the determined look of her. And, plainly a man who did not take defeat lightly, he gave her a stern expression of his own. ‘I’ll make you some tea,’ he said, quite out of nowhere—and she just had to burst out laughing. That just made him stare at her.

‘I’m sorry,’ she apologized, and, quickly sobering, ‘I know tea is said to be good for shock, but I’ve had some tea and I don’t want more. And please,’ she went on before he could argue, ‘can we just accept that I know you truly appreciate my towing Ash back onto terra firma this afternoon and then forget all about it?’

Steady grey eyes bored into her darkened blue ones. ‘You want to go back to me being the brute up at the Hall who keeps trying to turf you off his land?’

Phinn nodded, starting to feel better suddenly.

‘And I’ll go back to being the—er—village local…’ Her lips twitched, and she saw his do the same before they both sobered, and she went on. ‘The village local who thinks you’ve one heck of a nerve daring to stop me from doing things I’ve always done on Broadlands land.’

He nodded, but informed her, ‘You’re still not going back to Honeysuckle Farm to live.’

‘Oh, come on!’ she exclaimed. ‘I have to leave here tomorrow. Geraldine wants the flat for a member of her staff, and I’ve promised I’ll move out.’

‘That, as I’ve mentioned, is not a problem. There’s a home and a job waiting for you at the Hall.’

‘And a home for Ruby too?’

‘At the moment the stable is being used for storage, but you can clear it out tomorrow. It’s dry in there and—’

‘It has water?’

‘It has water,’ he confirmed.

‘You have other horses?’ she asked quickly, and, at his questioning look, ‘Ruby’s a kind of rescue mare. She was badly treated and has a timid nature. Other horses tend to gang up on her.’

‘You’ve no need to worry on that score. Ruby will have an idyllic life. There’s a completely fenced-off paddock too that she can use.’

Phinn knew the paddock, if it was the one she was thinking of. As well as being shaded in part by trees, it also had a large open-ended shed a horse could wander into if it became too hot.

All of a sudden Phinn felt weepy again. She would be glad when this shock was over and done with! Oh, it did sound idyllic. Oh, Ruby, my darling. ‘This is a—a permanent job?’ she questioned. ‘I mean, you’re not going to turf me out after a week?’

‘It wouldn’t be a permanent position,’ he replied. Though he added before she could feel too deflated, ‘Let’s say six months definite, with a review when the six months are up.’

‘I’ll take it,’ she accepted at once, not needing to think about it. She would have six months in which to sort something else out. Trying not to sound too eager, though unable to hold back, she said, ‘I’ll do it—whatever the job is. I can cook, clean, garden—catalogue your library…’

‘With a couple of part-time helpers, Mrs Starkey runs the house and kitchen admirably, and Jimmie Starkey has all the help he needs in the grounds.’

‘And you don’t need your library catalogued?’ she guessed, ready to offer her secretarial skills but suspecting he had a PA in London far more competent than she would be to take care of those matters.

‘The job I have for you is very specialised,’ Ty Allardyce stated, and before she could tell him that she was a little short in the specialised skills department, he was going on. ‘My work in London and overseas has been such that until recently I’ve been unable to spend very much time down here.’

At any other time she might have thrown in a sarcastic We’ve missed you , but Ty Allardyce was being deadly serious, so she settled for, ‘I expect you keep in touch by phone.’

He nodded. ‘Which in no way prepared me for the shock I received when I made what was meant to be a snatched visit here a couple of weeks ago.’

‘Ah—you’re talking…Ash?’

‘You’ve noticed the change in him?’