The Prince’s Outback Bride

turned away.

Good.

But increasingly their disassociation seemed ever so slightly silly. And she had to admit that she missed him. She looked up termagant in the dictionary and huffed in indignation-but it was a bit lonely to huff by yourself.

‘You’ve been by yourself for years,’ she scolded herself, but it didn’t work.

She’d sort of got used to Max.

But the avoidance seemed to be working both ways, and a girl had some pride.

On the fourth day she finished breakfast, looked at the day stretching out in front of her and decided on a walk. ‘Right round the castle grounds,’ she told the kids and they groaned.

‘But Beattie’s grandkids are coming,’ Marc said. ‘Beattie says Sally’s the same age as me and Rodrick’s the same age as Sophie and Claire. Aimee’s bigger than everyone but Beatrice said she knows skipping games.’

‘They’ll be fine with me,’ Beatrice told her. She’d been making their bed-Pippa wasn’t even permitted to do that. ‘I promise I’ll keep them with me all the time. Why don’t you go for a walk by yourself?’

Because I’m scared of meeting Max, she thought, but that was a dumb reason. She couldn’t voice it. She looked helplessly across at Beatrice and Beatrice smiled.

‘He’s not an ogre, dear,’ she said gently. ‘Blake says he’s a sweetheart. He says he takes after his lovely mother. Bless him.’

Oh, great. Yeah, he’s a sweetheart and that’s the whole problem, she thought, but she couldn’t say that either.

Right. A walk. She gave herself a firm talking-to, which consisted of standing in front of her six-dimensional mirror and talking severely to all six of her. Then she waved goodbye to her various images and went to find Dolores.

But Dolores wasn’t interested either. Sixteen was really old for such a big dog, and she’d suffered badly this winter. Here she moved from fire to sunbeam and back again, soaking up the warmth with the same intensity she’d once reserved for rabbits. She was stretched out now on the patio, soaking in sun, and as Pippa bent to pat her she barely raised the energy to wag her tail. As Pippa stroked her she gave a long, slow shudder of pure, unadulterated bliss.

‘At least I’ve done the right thing by you, girl,’ Pippa whispered, blinking hard. She knew Dolores didn’t have long. To give her another summer…

She’d done something right.

But she missed her dog by her side. She now had no kids, no work, no dog. The sensation as she took herself off for a walk was strangely empty.

‘Other people have holidays,’ she told herself. ‘Get over it.’

But she couldn’t. What she saw stretching out before her was strange-a life here as the children’s guardian. A life that wasn’t her life.

A life even without Dolores?

‘Oh, forget it with the maudlin,’ she told herself. ‘Walk.’

She walked. It was a long way around the castle grounds-too far to walk in a morning. She walked for an hour, around a vast lake, through woods where she startled deer, into the hills behind the castle, but she still wasn’t halfway round. Finally she gave up on the perimeter and veered cross country.

The woods here were so dense they were almost scary, but there was hammering and shouting and sounds of construction in the distance. Where there was construction there was civilisation, so she pushed her way through overgrown paths to find it.

It was a construction site. It was a small cottage, with what looked like an extension being built at the back.

Max was up on the roof. He was wearing faded jeans and a heavy cotton workman’s shirt, open at the throat and with sleeves rolled up to the elbows. He was fitting roofing slates. The sun was glinting on his dark hair. He was laughing at something someone below had just said.

He looked…

Whoa.

She would have backed away-fast-but he saw her. His hands stilled. The slate in his hand was set down with care.

‘Pippa,’ he said and the pleasure in his voice gave her a completely inappropriate wash of warmth. Maybe he’d found the last four days as long as she had.

He didn’t look bored, she thought with a pang of jealousy. He looked…

Whoa again.

‘Hi,’ she managed, trying to keep her voice in order. ‘I’ve been walking.’

‘Hiking, more like. You’re miles from home. Did you bring a packed lunch?’

‘No, I-’

‘You’re bored?’

‘No,’ she lied, looking about her. There were three other men on the site, elderly men-of course-working on a pile of bricks.

‘They don’t need help at the dairy?’ Max asked.

‘They say it’s not seemly.’ She glowered. ‘How come it’s seemly for you to fix roofs but not for me to milk cows?’

He grinned. ‘Desperate times lead to desperate measures. Sleeping by the pool is great for an hour but I get itchy fingers. You want to clean some bricks? Is your back up to it?’

‘My back’s fine. Why are you cleaning bricks?’

‘This house is for Blake and Beatrice.’ He motioned to one of the elderly men who raised his cap in a deferential greeting. ‘You’ve met Blake? He and Beatrice lived here for over forty years. But five years ago there was a storm and the back section collapsed. See that pile of bricks over there?’ She looked to where he was pointing. ‘That’s the remains of the fireplace. Anyway Blake and Beatrice moved into the servant’s quarters in the palace but the servant’s quarters needs a bomb. It’ll take time and patience to get it brought up to scratch. Meanwhile I thought we could rebuild.’

We. She looked cautiously around her, recognising the butler, the valet, and one of the footmen. Average again about ninety.

‘Right,’ she said.

‘The boys are chipping old mortar off the bricks. Want to help?’ And he smiled.

Damn him, why did he do that? He just had to let those dark eyes twinkle and she was lost.

She should go.

But this was a real job. She ached for a job. Of the three geriatrics, one was holding the ladder in case Max ever came down. The other two were chipping gamely at old mortar.

She watched them work for a minute. At this rate they’d be lucky if they had the bricks cleaned by the end of the millennium.

But why was Max here? ‘I thought you said there were lots of administration things that needed doing.’

‘Not until the succession’s in place. The lawyers are working on it.’ He picked up his slate with purpose. ‘Meanwhile are you going to help or are you going to stand there distracting me?’

‘I’m not distracting you.’

‘Little you know,’ Max growled. ‘Give the lady a pair of gloves, Blake, and let’s get this moving.’

He sat on the roof replacing tile after tile, his hands moving methodically but his mind all on the lady beneath him.

She was amazing. She was cleaning at a rate more than double that of the old men, but she chattered to the men as she worked, distracting them just as much as she was distracting him, but for a purpose. As she cleaned she slipped her finished bricks into one of three piles, so the piles in front of her companions were growing at the same rate as hers. Giving them back their pride.

The men were enjoying her. They worked together, they paused and laughed and wiped their brows and they stopped for a drink, but she methodically worked on. Jean, the footman who’d been holding the ladder, decided it didn’t really need holding and went over to help.

Well, why wouldn’t he? She was…magnetic.