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

Who could fail to? ‘He’s—not ill?’

‘Not in the accepted sense.’

‘Did Leanne do this to him?’ She voiced her thoughts, and saw his mouth tighten.

‘I couldn’t believe that some money-grabbing female could so wreck a man, but—’ He broke off, then resumed, ‘Anyhow, I felt there was no way I could return to London. Not then. Not now—without your help.’

‘I’ll do anything I can, naturally.’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘The job is yours.’

She stared at this man who she had to admit she was starting to like—though she was fully prepared to believe that shock did funny things to people, but still felt no further forward. ‘Er—and the job is what, exactly?’

‘I thought I’d just said,’ Ty replied, ‘I want you to be Ash’s companion.’

Her mouth fell open. ‘You want me to be your brother’s companion ?’ she echoed.

‘I’ll pay you, of course,’ Ty answered, seeing absolutely nothing untoward in what he was proposing.

‘You want me to be his paid companion?’ she questioned again, as it started to sink in. ‘His—his minder?’

‘No, not minder!’ Ty answered shortly. ‘I’ve explained how things are.’

‘Not really you haven’t,’ Phinn stated, and was on the receiving end of an impatient look.

‘The situation is,’ he explained heavily, ‘that while I can do certain parts of my job in my study, via computer and telephone, other matters require my presence in London or some other capital. I’ve been down here for two weeks more than I originally intended already. And, while I have a pressing need to get back to town, I still don’t feel ready to leave Ash on his own.’

Phinn thought about it. ‘You think I might be the person to take over from you for a while?’

‘Can you think of anyone better than someone who has actually risked their own life for him, as you did today?’

‘I don’t know about that,’ she mumbled.

‘Ash likes you. He enjoyed talking to you the other day.’

‘Um—that was the day you told me to leave him alone, to—’

‘I was angry,’ Ty admitted. ‘I didn’t want another Hawkins finishing off what your cousin had done to him. But that was before I was able to reason that he was still so ensnared by her that other women just don’t exist for him. Frankly, Ash wouldn’t fancy you even if you did use your beauty to try to hook him.’

Beauty? Hook him? Charming! At that point Phinn was in two minds about whether or not she wanted the job. She felt sorry for Ash—of course she did. As for her cousin…she was feeling quite angry with Leanne. But…then Phinn thought of Ruby, and at the thought of a stable and a paddock there was no question but that she wanted the job.

‘I haven’t the first idea what a paid companion is supposed to do…I mean, what would I have to do? You wouldn’t expect me to take him down to the pub and get drunk with him every night, I hope?’

‘You like beer?’ he asked sharply.

‘No!’ she shot straight back.

‘You’d been drinking this afternoon,’ he retorted, obviously not caring to be lied to. ‘There was a smell of beer on your breath.’

‘Honestly!’ she exclaimed. And she was thinking of working for this man who could sniff out beer at a hundred paces! But what choice did she have? ‘If you must know, I hate the stuff. But I’ve been having a courtesy swig out of Idris Owens’ beer tankard ever since I was ten years old—it’s a sort of tradition, each time I go to the farrier. It would have been churlish to refuse his offer when I took Ruby to have her hooves checked over by him this afternoon.’

For a moment Ty Allardyce said nothing, just sat there looking at her. Then he said quietly, ‘Rather than hurt his feelings, you quaffed ale that you’ve no particular liking for?’

‘So what does that make me?’ she challenged, expecting something pretty pithy in reply.

But, to her surprise, he replied in that same quiet tone. ‘I think it makes you a rather nice kind of person.’ And she was struck again by the change in him from the man she had thought he was.

‘Yes, well…’ she said abruptly—grief, she’d be going soft in the head about him in a minute. Buck up, she instructed herself. This man could be ironhard and unyielding without any trouble. Hadn’t she witnessed that for herself? ‘So I’m—er—to take over the sort of guardianship of Ash from you while you—um—go about your business?’

‘Not quite,’ Ty replied. ‘What I believe Ash needs just now is to be with someone who will be a sensitive ear for him when he needs to talk. Someone to take him out of himself when he looks like becoming a little melancholy.’

‘You think I’ve got a sensitive ear?’

Again he looked steadily at her. ‘You’ll do,’ he said. And he would have left it at that, but there were questions queuing up in Phinn’s mind.

‘You think it will take as long as six months for Ash to—um—get back to being his old self?’

‘Hopefully nowhere near as long. Who knows? Whatever—I’m prepared to guarantee stabling and a place for you to rest your head for the whole six months.’

‘Fine,’ she said.

‘You’ll start tomorrow?’

And how! ‘You’d better let me have your phone number,’ she requested, overjoyed, now it had had time to sink in, that by the look of it Ruby was going to have a proper stable and a paddock all to herself.

‘Why would you want my phone number?’ Ty asked shortly.

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake!’ she erupted at her new boss. ‘So I can ring Ash and ask him to come and pick me up with my belongings. I can bring Ruby over later.’

‘You want to inspect her accommodation first?’

‘I’d—er—have put it a little more tactfully,’ she mumbled. ‘But, yes, that’s the general idea. I could still ask Mickie if you don’t want Ash to do it.’

‘Who’s Mickie?’

‘He lives in the village. He’s a bit eccentric, but he has a heart of gold. He—er—’ She broke off—that was more than he needed to know.

She quickly realised that she should have known better. ‘“He—er—” what?’

Phinn gave a resigned sigh. ‘Well, if you must know, I’d already arranged for Mickie to take my cases and bits and pieces up to Honeysuckle Farm for me tomorrow.’

Ty Allardyce shook his head, as though she was a new kind of species to him. ‘Presumably he would have kept quiet about your whereabouts?’

‘Well, there you are,’ she said briskly, about nothing, and then fell headlong when, in the same bracing tone, she said, ‘Had I not sold my car, I…’ Her voice trailed away. ‘Well, I did,’ she added quickly. And then, hurriedly attempting to close the interview—or whatever it was, ‘So I’ll get Mickie to—’

‘You sold your car?’ Ty Allardyce took up.

‘Yep.’ He didn’t need to hear more.

And nor did he, she discovered. Because what this clever man did not know he was astute enough to decipher and guess at. ‘According to my lawyers, you paid a whole whack of back rent before you handed in the keys to the farm,’ he commented slowly. Adding, ‘Had I thought about it at all, I’d have assumed that the money came from your father’s estate. But—’ he looked at her sharply ‘—it didn’t, did it?’

She shrugged. ‘What did I need a car for? I thought I’d got a steady job here—no need to look for work further afield. Besides, I couldn’t leave Ruby on her own all day.’ Phinn halted, she’d had enough of talking about herself. ‘Have you told Ash that you were going to offer me a job?’

Ty looked at her unspeaking for some moments, and then replied, ‘No.’

She saw it might be a little awkward if Ash objected strongly. ‘How do you think he’ll take my moving in to be his companion?’ No point in ducking the question. If Ash did not want her there, then the next six months could be pretty miserable all round.