CHARLOTTE LAMB - Falling In Love

‘They’re nice girls, though, when you get to know them.’

At that instant a tractor turned out of one of the fields and chugged noisily towards them only to stop dead, the engine throbbing, while the driver stared at them with a dark scowl on his face.

He shouted something Laura couldn’t hear above the noise of his tractor, and waved his arms at them.

Mr Dale groaned.

‘What did he say?’ asked Laura, but before the estate agent could answer the tractor driver switched off his engine and shouted again, and this time they all heard what he said.

‘How many times do I have to tell you? Get off my land or I’ll set my dogs on you!’

The models shrieked and ran back towards the car.

‘His land?’ Laura asked Mr Dale. ‘I don’t understand; is this his cottage?’

‘No, no, it belongs to a lady who’s lived here for years.’

‘Then what does he mean, his land?’

Mr Dale didn’t answer. He was looking nervous. The tractor driver had jumped down, was striding towards them, long, muscled legs rapidly covering the ground. Laura tensed with an instant hostility. He was everything she disliked in a man. Tall, broad, with thick, windswept black hair, he certainly couldn’t be accused of charm or good looks. His face rugged, powerful, he had a jaw she recognised as belligerent, even at a distance, and piercing grey eyes glittering with rage.

‘Ooh...’ giggled the models, clustering behind Laura, as if for protection. ‘He looks real mad, doesn’t he? Wouldn’t want to meet him on a dark night.’

‘Don’t know about that! Wouldn’t mind at all, actually!’ Yasmin whispered and set them all shrieking with laughter, which didn’t soften the lines of the man’s angry face.

‘Who is he?’ Laura hurriedly asked Mr Dale, who crossly muttered back,

‘Josh Kern. He owns the farm, all this land...’ His voice broke off as the dark man reached them and stopped, his legs apart in a threatening stance.

Mr Dale was not the nervous type, but Laura saw his throat move convulsively as he swallowed.

‘For the last time, will you get off my land?’ snarled Josh Kern.

Mr Dale stood his ground, facing up to him. ‘Mr Kern, you don’t own this cottage, and the owner has been using this right of way for many years, as you know perfectly well.’

‘There’s no right of way; this is a private road, and I’m taking legal steps to establish that fact!’ Josh Kern snarled. ‘Now, get these women out of here, and don’t come back!’

Laura bristled. ‘I came here to see this cottage, Mr Kern, and as you don’t own it you can’t stop me!’

He slowly swung his head in her direction, his grey eyes full of menace.

‘Don’t be so sure about that, whoever you are.’

‘She’s Laura Grainger,’ Yasmin told him, her face flushed with the excitement of the conflict, and determined to get his attention. She wasn’t frightened. In fact, this was her idea of fun, watching an angry man bellowing at someone, especially a man this sexy. It beat hanging around waiting to be photographed any day!

She was disappointed, however. Josh Kern ignored her. He went on staring narrowly at Laura, from her clouds of blonde curls and full pink mouth to her long, slender legs and tiny feet, his cold eyes contemptuous.

‘Who are all these people, Dale? Actresses?’ he bit out, flicking a glance over the other girls with the same distaste.

‘Models,’ Mr Dale growled.

Josh Kern’s mouth tightened. ‘Models!’

The girls posed for him, smiles inviting.

His face tightened. ‘My God! Are they all planning to move in here? Not if I can stop it. Listen to me, Miss...whatever your name is...if you’re the one who might buy this place... Did Mr Dale explain that this cottage really belongs to my farm? That it was given to someone, not sold, and that I want it back? I hoped to get it back legally, because there was no legal conveyance, just a scribbled paper saying the cottage was a gift, but the court upheld it. Then I tried to buy it back, but my offer was refused although it was far more than the cottage is worth on the open market. The present owner insists she’ll only sell to someone else. Anyone else, so long as it isn’t me, apparently!’ His eyes flashed. ‘Apparently, I can’t force her to sell it back to me...’

Clearly, thought Laura, he wished he could!

He went on fiercely, ‘But I can refuse to let anyone who buys the place use my land as an access road, so be warned! If you do buy Fern Cottage you’ll be buying yourself a lot of trouble.’

‘Don’t you threaten me!’ Laura bit back at him, her head up and her green eyes very angry.

‘I’m not threatening, I’m warning,’ Josh Kern said very softly, and something in that dark face made her skin turn cold.

The other girls gazed, transfixed, their eyes wide and incredulous.

Laura knew how they felt; this man was not someone you could ignore or forget. He had such penetrating eyes; in his rage they turned silvery, as though white-hot.

Mr Dale cleared his throat and nervously suggested, ‘Shall we go and look round the cottage now, Miss Grainger?’

‘Yes,’ she murmured, her eyes still held by Josh Kern’s menacing stare.

‘I meant every word,’ he said in that soft, dangerous voice, and she believed him. He had the look of a man who always meant what he said.

Maybe she should forget any idea of buying Fern Cottage?

‘HE CAN’T do anything to stop us using his road! If someone lived in that cottage for years and used his road all that time then that makes it a legal right of way,’ Patrick said on the phone later that day when Laura rang him to report on the cottage.

‘That’s what Mr Dale said. He told me to ignore the threats; there was no way we could be denied access if we bought the cottage.’

‘Mind you,’ Patrick said thoughtfully, ‘this farmer chap...what did you say his name was?’

‘Josh Kern,’ said Laura, investing the name with scorn.

Patrick gave a hoarse crow of amusement. ‘Josh Kern! How could I forget that? But seriously, darling, he could make life rather awkward, couldn’t he? I wonder if it’s worth it to go ahead? Do we want to find ourselves in the middle of a war with our neighbours?’

‘I’m not being frightened off by some hulking great brute of a farmer huffing and puffing at me!’

‘I can’t imagine you being scared, even by a hulking great brute.’ Patrick laughed, then more seriously added, ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t there to take him on, darling. Damn this flu; why do illnesses always come at such inconvenient times? From what you say about the cottage it’s just what we were looking for, and the price is way below what we would have expected. We should have guessed there would be snags. What did you say to Dale?’

‘That you’d have to see the cottage before we could give him a decision, so we have time to think about it. I’m glad your headache’s better, even if your throat sounds worse. Shall I come round tomorrow morning and cook you some lunch?’

‘I don’t want you to catch this, Laura. Better not come over. I’m not hungry, anyway. I’m drinking lots of fruit juice and I ate an orange just now. I’ve got plenty of eggs and cheese; I can always whip up an omelette if I do get hungry.’

Wryly, she said, ‘And your omelettes are ten times better than mine! In fact, anything you cook is ten times better.’

He laughed, but didn’t deny it. Instead he yawned, then said, ‘Sorry, darling...I’ve been sleeping on and off all day, but I still seem very tired.’

‘Then I’ll let you get back to sleep,’ she said. ‘Get well soon; I miss you.’

She put the phone down and stared out of the window at the busy York street below. Yes, it was a pity Patrick hadn’t been with her. Maybe then that man wouldn’t have talked to her, looked at her, the way he had. Her face ran with scarlet, remembering Josh Kern’s contemptuous eyes as he’d looked her up and down. She could never remember meeting anyone she disliked more; it had been like running into a stone wall. Her whole body still ached with the shock of it.