Sarah Randall - Forever His Darling

Chapter One

“You’ve done what!? Tell me you’re joking!” Matt yelled, spinning around to face his younger sister., burning his tongue and dropping the spoon on the floor.

Pip glanced up at him from her laptop as she sat at the large table in the middle of the kitchen. Her eyes were wide with innocence behind the modern thick framed glasses but that old trick wasn’t going to work on him this time. She’d gone too far and he was angry; Tired and angry.

“Here,” Mrs Henderson thrust a glass of water into his hands; expertly maneuvering him away from the Aga and her bubbling stew. “I agreed to let them use Melville House to do a fashion shoot. It’s for Alix Anderson, the famous designer. He’s launching his new country wear range and using Anastacia as the model. It’s a no brainer Matt, it’s so exciting, I thought you’d be really pleased. I know I am!”

He bit on his lip hard, putting a halt to his planned volatile response as he watched Pip do a little jig in her chair. It had been a long time since his little sister had seemed happy and excited about anything. Since the summer, she’d agreed to take on more responsibility and assist Henry with the stud farm and house management. In reality Matt was still making all of the important day to day decisions, but he felt that Pip needed something to fill her time until she decided whether or not she was going back to university in Leeds to finish her business course. Which of course she was, she just needed to come to that conclusion on her own..

Clearly, he’d missed out on making this decision. It would certainly have been a “no brainer” to him…"No way in hell" would’ve been his standard reply to such an enquiry to use the house. Peace and tranquility were all he was interested in nowadays. He wasn’t about to let himself or his family become the focus of village tittle-tattle ever again.

Such requests weren’t unique. He’d frequently received pleas from film companies and the like to use the house and its grounds for film sets depicting a romantic, bygone era… films which were utter twaddle.Their mother had always put them off with one excuse or another, fearing upheaval to the house and village, and he’d simply followed her sensible stance. Generous financial enticement didn’t sway Matt; he didn’t need the money.

“Why the hell would you agree to it?” Matt held his arms out wide in question, accidentally spilling some of the water on the floor in the process and muttering a curse.

“Well duh, it’s Anastacia for goodness sake. And I did try to speak to you about it.” Pip rolled her eyes at him as she reached for a tube of Smarties next to her computer. “And I told them that they’d have to make a huge donation to your charity, so you see, you can’t possibly object, can you Matt?” she said, a pleading look on her face.

He narrowed his eyes; bemused as she tipped the Smarties out on the table and proceeded to pick out all the orange ones and pop them one by one into her mouth.

He shook his head at her weirdness before continuing. “But it’s our home, Pip, and when the hell did you try to tell me about it—wait, just wait,” he added with his hand in the air, “who’s coming?” He moved towards Pip and tried to dislodge George from beneath his feet. “George, bed,” he demanded, pleased that at least someone was listening to what he had to say as George trotted off to his bed obediently.

“Anastacia Harper, the top model,” both women giddily exclaimed in unison and laughed at each other.

Matt turned to Mrs Henderson. The woman had been the housekeeper at Melville since before he was born and liked to think of herself as his second mother. She was just as important to him.

“ You know who this woman is?” raising his eyebrow at her.

“Of course sweetie, who doesn’t?” she responded, before turning back to the Aga and busying herself seasoning her stew. “Well, apart from you,” she called back over her shoulder.

Pip mumbled around the rest of the Smarties she was munching her way through, “Honestly Matt, you need to get your head out from those horses’ butts and keep up to date with what’s going on in the world. Here, catch.” Pip threw him the fashion magazine perched on the kitchen table. “I tried to talk to you about it a couple of weeks ago but you and Henry were in with the horses so I made an executive decision.”

“Pip, I hardly think that keeping up with fashion and the celebrity gossip can be classed as—”

Matt caught sight of a tumbling waterfall of vibrant red wavy hair framing a stunning pale oval face with a smattering of cute freckles on a pert nose,, vivid eyes as green as the fir trees in the forest surrounding Melville staring straight at him from the page of the magazine. A detached but beautifully refined look on the temptress’s face. It was a heady combination. He swallowed and paused for breath, acknowledging that perhaps he should pay more attention to the celebrity news.

He allowed his eyes to trace further down the page and acknowledge the rest of the photograph. It was obvious that this woman was not the traditional stick thin model usually favoured. No, this photograph showed off an hourglass figure through the black evening dress. She definitely had curves in all the right places, reminiscent of a Hollywood starlet from the 1950’s. Curves a man could no doubt spend hours worshipping and wow, that hair. He tentatively touched the page, running his fingers over her shoulders, imagining what it would feel like to run his hands through that hair and then grab a fist-full at the nape of her neck, forcing her to look up into his eyes, before seeking the comfort of her lips. He would later try to convince himself that the action had been entirely subconscious, but it was an argument even he wasn’t claiming to win. What it would feel like to make this woman lose control and scream out in ecstasy? He felt a long-forgotten stirring in his groin and quickly slammed the door to that emotional rollercoaster firmly shut. Getting involved or even interested in another woman was so not in his plan, but perhaps he did need to start thinking about satisfying his more basic needs, which had apparently decided to come out of hibernation, stretch languidly, and show interest in a certain Jessica Rabbit like redhead.

He suddenly became conscious of the fact he’d been staring at the page for a while and quickly cleared his throat and nonchalantly dropped the magazine back on the kitchen table. Christ, he hoped neither of them had seen him trailing his finger over the magazine. He hadn’t had such a reaction to a woman in a magazine since his father had given him some interesting reading in his mid-teens…and he was embarrassed now by his reaction. In his defence, he decided that the photo was most likely cleverly edited as was the norm nowadays. No-one would look that good in real life.

“Besides,” Pip continued, seemingly unaware of his peculiar interest in the magazine, “it will be exciting for the village and excellent PR for the Stud and your children’s charity. Things could do with being shaken up around here, don’t you agree Mrs H? You need to come out of that hibernation or whatever it is you’ve been in since what happened with Emily I—”

Matt’s head shot up and Pip cut herself off at the no doubt thunderous scowl on his face. “Don’t ever mention her name in this house again Pip,” he growled at her, but he winced inwardly as he saw his sister flinch and it angered him even more that that woman still had the power over him to warrant that reaction.

Thankfully Mrs Henderson swept away the lingering tension.

“Oh yes dear. I was telling Beatrice and Phyllis at the shops the other day all about it and you know how they like to spread the news. The whole village knows about it by now. Maybe that designer chap would donate something for us to raffle off at the charity ball on Saturday night.”