Chapter Twenty-Six

Christmas Day, Late Evening

Drew pressed his hands down on the arms of the chair. Pain from the right one sprinted all the way up to his neck, reminding him that moves like that were a bad idea. The same as it is a bad idea to be thinking what you’re thinking about the woman upstairs. Good God man, you’re a guest under her roof! She saved your life!

Relaxing his hands, he focused on the flame of the nearest candle. Maybe that was it – the root of his growing … awareness … of Lori. A variation of Stockholm Syndrome. Fixing not on captor but on rescuer. He wasn’t in a good place right now – vulnerable, needy, reaching out for contact – which didn’t mean Lori wasn’t a gorgeous, desirable woman who would stir any man’s senses.

He shifted his head again to stare out at the snow. God, you’re mixed up. Mixed up and messed up. He wasn’t a monk, but since Kimberly he’d been … careful about his relationships. It had been a long time since the curve of a woman’s mouth had made his skin vibrate. If it ever had. He really couldn’t remember.

He wanted to kiss Lori. More than a kiss, if he was admitting the truth, but neither one was happening. She was attractive and apparently free and he got the impression that a kiss – he was torturing himself with a repetition of the word –wouldn’t be entirely unwelcome. But he had to get out of here as soon as he could, and if he started something—

The belated recollection of why he had to get out hit him like a shower of cold snow down the neck. Someone wanted him harmed. Dead. No way was he getting Lori involved in all this. If there had been a husband or partner on the scene he’d have steered well clear, so it could be done. He got up slowly and stood beside the window. A movement on the hillside had his heart jumping straight to his mouth. He froze, then relaxed, smiling. Nothing to worry about. Turning, he padded off to the back door to investigate further.

Lori swung breezily down the stairs. ‘Would you like a – oh!’

The big room was empty. Following a breath of cold, snow-scented air, she hurried to the back door, shoving her feet into her boots and dragging her coat over her shoulders. Surely whoever had snatched him couldn’t have found him again? Could they have taken him silently, without leaving any sign of disturbance …?

She found him standing beside a large greenhouse at the back of the barn. He was wearing what must be Paulie’s wellingtons and an ancient water-proof that probably belonged to Paulie’s gran. Cross and relieved she thumped his back. ‘I thought you’d been carried off again.’

Wincing, he turned, consternation in the dark eyes. ‘Oh shit, I’m sorry.’

‘What are you doing out here?’

‘Look.’ He pointed up the hillside. Lori looked. Her hand was tingling. Shouldn’t have touched him. Shouldn’t have touched him.

The wind had sculpted the snow into uneven patterns. Around the back of the barn and on part of the slope behind, the covering was patchy, with areas of grass showing. The covering on the rest of the slope was thicker. Against the hedges and on one side of the barn, the snow was feet high, in drifts.

Up on the hill where the snow was thinnest, dark shapes were running and hopping in the fragile moonlight. ‘Rabbits.’

‘I think they’re hares,’ Drew said softly. ‘Look at their ears.’

‘I think you’re right.’ Lori watched, fascinated, as the animals loped about in the snow, hunting something edible in the revealed grass. ‘Some of them seem quite small.’

‘Maybe a litter born late in the season?’

Suddenly and without warning, a pale shape swooped silently across the field, scattering the picnic party in all directions.

‘What was that?’ Lori squeaked.

‘It was an owl. Didn’t get any of them.’

‘Good.’

‘Softie. Now the poor owl will go hungry to bed,’ Drew said, slyly.

‘I expect he’ll try somewhere else.’ She took in a deep breath of cold night air. ‘Look at the stars. They’re amazing.’

‘The Beacons are a Dark Skies Reserve. Very little light pollution. Bloody freezing out here though.’ They turned to go back to the house.

Lori breathed again. ‘Sorry I thumped you.’

‘I frightened you.’

Inside and minus the outdoor clothing, Drew went to the window. ‘The view of the sky isn’t so good from here.’

‘Hold on. I’ve got an idea.’ Without thinking Lori put out her hand as she would to Misty. After a tiny pause Drew put his into it. Lori tried not to gulp. Even with the plasters casing the tips of his fingers there was a lot of warm skin pressed against her palm. Is taking him up to the Cwtch a good idea?

Lori dithered, but only for a second. It was done now, and he was standing holding her hand and looking curiously at her. Picking up one of the lamps, she piloted him up the stairs and along the landing to the book-lined gallery at the apex of the building.

‘Wow!’ The valley stretched away below – a long drift of white. Above them the sky was blue-black and full of stars. Lori held the lamp long enough for them to settle in the old leather campaign chairs, then set it down and turned it off. Plunged into darkness, the Cwtch was just a mass of shapes. No way was Drew going to see the contents of any of the bookshelves.

‘Is that Venus?’ Lori pointed to a particularly bright point of light. ‘I can just about put a name to Orion and that’s all.’

‘You need to wait for a while, let your eyes get used to the dark. It would be better for star-gazing if there wasn’t a moon.’

‘It looks good enough to me.’

For over an hour Lori sat, enchanted, as the stars became clearer and clearer and Drew explained the constellations. His voice was soft and mesmerising and the Cwtch seemed to float between earth and sky and they were dark shadows, the only people left alive in an otherwise silent landscape. Eventually Drew’s voice died away and they simply sat and watched.

Together.

Something that was almost painful stirred in Lori’s chest. Drew’s presence beside her in the darkness felt as intimate as a kiss.

‘Earch!’ The unearthly noise came out of the darkness. Lori jumped and the campaign chair rattled as she dropped back into it. ‘Griff!’

The cat prowled into view, stretched, then butted his head against Lori’s feet.

‘I think he wants to go out.’

‘Come on then.’ Lori switched on the lamp and they both blinked, turning away from the light. Having got his way, Griff ambled off, pausing on the landing to make sure she was following. Lori rose, to stumble after him.

‘Here.’ Drew got up quickly to follow her with the light. ‘Be careful. Don’t fall on the stairs.’

Lori turned back as Drew moved forward. For an instant their bodies were so close she could feel his heat, and his breath on her cheek. Then he stepped past her to turn on more lights, Griff yowled again, and the moment was gone.

Lori dragged her thoughts together and followed Griff down the stairs.