‘Why, isn’t this nice?’ he said in a voice that made Paulie jump. ‘Both of us so concerned about Selena that we couldn’t sleep until we knew she was fine.’
Paulie gave him a glassy smile. ‘Can’t neglect a guest.’
‘Paulie, you’re an example to us all.’
Leo was moving into the room as he spoke, switching on the light. Then both men stopped, taken aback by the sight of the empty bed.
‘That tomfool female has gone back to the stables,’ Leo muttered.
‘No I haven’t,’ came from a heap on the floor.
Leo switched on the bedside light and saw the heap separate itself into its various parts, which included a blanket, a pillow, and one tomfool female whose red hair stood up on her head in a shock.
‘What is it?’ she asked, sitting up. ‘Has something happened?’
‘No, Paulie and I were concerned for you, so we came to see how you were.’
‘That’s very kind,’ she said, guessing the truth at once. ‘I’m fine.’
‘She’s fine, Paulie. You can go to bed now, and sleep tight.’ Leo sat down on the floor beside Selena with the air of a man taking root.
‘Er-well, I just-’
‘Goodnight, Paulie.’ They spoke as one.
Forced to accept defeat, Paulie backed himself out of the door. The last thing they saw was his scowl.
‘I could have coped, you know,’ Selena said.
‘When you’re well, I’m sure you could,’ Leo said tactfully. ‘But let’s wait until then. Underneath Paulie’s flabby exterior there’s a very ugly customer waiting to get out.’
‘I reckoned that. But that’s three times in one day you’ve come galloping to my rescue. I just don’t want you to think I’m a wimp.’
‘After the day you’ve had, aren’t you entitled to be just a bit of a wimp?’
‘Nobody is entitled to be a wimp.’
‘Sorry!’
‘No, I’m sorry,’ she said contritely. ‘I didn’t mean to be rude. I know you were trying to be kind, but all this rescuing is getting to be a bad habit.’
‘I promise not to do it again. Next time I’ll abandon you to your fate, I swear.’
‘Do that.’
‘Are you all right on the floor?’
‘I put up with the bed as long as I could,’ she complained, ‘but it’s insane. Every time I turned over I went six feet in the air. This is much better.’
‘I’d better leave before I fall asleep.’ Suddenly he found himself vague. ‘Where am I? Is the party over?’
‘Must be.’ She smiled, fully understanding. ‘Was the whisky very good?’
‘Barton’s whisky is always good. And I should know. I had plenty of it.’
‘Shall I help you back to your room?’
‘I think I can make it. Lock your door when I’m gone. I wouldn’t put it past Delia’s little boy to try again.’
But then he remembered that the door it didn’t lock. He sighed. There was only one thing for it.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked as he returned to the bed and scooped up a blanket and pillow.
‘What does it look as if I’m doing?’ he said, dropping to the floor and stretching out across the door. ‘If he can open this door now he’s a better man than I take him for.’
‘You promised to leave me to my fate next time,’ she reminded him indignantly.
‘I know, but you can’t trust a word I say.’
Blessed sleep was overtaking him. His last coherent thought was that he’d be made to suffer for this in the morning.
But at least she would be safe.
He awoke feeling better than he had any right to after what he recalled of the barbecue. Already he could sense the house stirring about him, and reckoned it was safe to leave her.
It was better to be gone before she awoke. He wouldn’t have known what to say to her. Inside him he was jeering at himself for going into what he ironically called ‘chivalrous mode’.
That was something he’d never done before in his life. The women whose company he sought were cut from the same cloth as himself, and after much the same things. Fun, laughter, uncomplicated pleasure, a good time had by all, and no hearts broken. It had always worked beautifully.
Until now.
Now, suddenly, he found himself acting like a knight in shining armour, and it worried him.
Chivalry or no, he dropped gently down beside her sleeping form, and studied her face. Her colour had improved since last night and he could see that she slept, as he always did himself, dead to the world, like a contented animal.
She’d removed her dressing, so that the cut and bruise on her forehead showed up starkly against her pallor. She had a funny little face, he thought, right now looking as vulnerable as child’s, with the caution and worldly wisdom smoothed from it by sleep.
He reflected on the story she’d told him the night before, and guessed that she’d learned too much of the world in one way, and not enough in another.
He had an almost overmastering desire to lean down and kiss her, but the next moment he was glad he hadn’t, because she opened her eyes. They were wonderful eyes, large and sea deep, and they made the child vanish.
‘Hi,’ he said. ‘I’m off now. When I’ve showered I’ll go downstairs, trying to look like a man who slept in his own room. Perhaps you should try to look as if you slept in this bed, for Delia’s sake.’
‘You think she’d be offended?’
‘No, I think she’d be afraid the bed wasn’t soft enough, and heaven knows what you’d find on it tonight.’
They laughed, and he helped her up. She was wearing a man’s shirt that came down almost to her knees.
‘How are you feeling this morning?’ he asked.
‘Great. I just had the most comfortable night of my life.’
‘On the floor?’
‘This carpet is inches thick. Perfect.’
‘Cross your fingers that I don’t get seen leaving here.’
‘I’ll check the corridor for you.’
She looked and gave him the thumbs up. It took just a brief moment to dash back to his own room, and safety. True, he thought he heard the girls giggling again, but that was probably just paranoia.
He showered and dressed in a mood that was unusually thoughtful, for him, because he was uneasily aware that he didn’t have a completely clear conscience. Without actually saying anything untrue he’d left Selena with the impression that he was almost as poor as herself. She’d seen him in worn clothing, heard him talk about living rough, and taken on board the fact that he was illegitimate.
But he’d neglected to mention that his uncle was Count Calvani, with a palace in Venice, and his family were millionaires. What he had casually referred to as his farm was a rich-man’s estate, and if he helped out with the rough work it was because he preferred it that way.
He hadn’t made these things clear because of a deep, instinctive conviction that they would have made her think badly of him.
He remembered her words, just after the accident.
‘You’re all the same. You rush around in your flash cars as though you owned the road.’
His car back home was a heavy duty, four-wheel drive, suitable for the hills of Tuscany. A working man’s car, but a rich working man, who’d bought the best because he never bought anything else. In that he was a true Calvani, and now his sense of self-preservation was telling him that this would be fatal in Selena’s eyes.
And why risk a falling out when he would only be here a couple of weeks, and then they would never see each other again?
In the end he did the only thing a sensible man could possibly do.
Pushed it to the back of his mind and hoped for the best.
He spent the day with Barton, riding his friend’s acres. Barton reared cattle for money and horses for love; he bred and trained them for the rodeo.
