A short, stocky man with rusty brown hair ran down the steps from the house to jerk open her door so suddenly that Vanessa almost fell out at his feet.
‘My God—is that you, Flynn?’ he said, his incredulity turning to frank amusement. ‘I thought it was Mario Andretti!’
Vanessa recovered herself and straightened to her full height. ‘B—Mr Savage didn’t say that you were expected, Mr Judson.’
He grinned at her stiffness, his twinkling brown eyes curious as she tried to smooth back the curly, wind-swept mass of her hair.
‘I live to surprise him,’ he murmured, pretending not to notice the tear-stains on her cheeks. ‘Though I get the feeling that this time I’m the one in for the surprise. Mrs Riley said you two were on a picnic. Didn’t Ben come back with you?’
‘I didn’t ask,’ she snapped with perfect truth and flushed as his curiosity intensified. She was searching for some innocuous comment to temper her rudeness when a woman emerged from the house behind him.
She was in her late twenties, petite and perfect, a dainty, slender woman who looked as fragile as she was beautiful, her flame-red hair emphasising the pale translucence of her skin and the brilliance of the slanted green eyes. Her classic suit matched her eyes and screamed Chanel.
‘Have you found out where Benedict is yet, Dane? Goodness, who on earth is this?’ The amused drawl and the slow, critical sweep of the green eyes made Vanessa’s hackles rise instantly.
‘I’m Mr Savage’s butler,’ she said crisply.
‘You’re kidding? She’s kidding, right?’ The woman arched incredulous brows at Dane who shook his head with a grin as he lifted a suitcase out of his car.
Vanessa found herself on the receiving end of a careless shrug of dismissal. ‘Oh, well, I suppose Benedict likes to have his little eccentricities. What does he call you?’
Darling, Vanessa was tempted to reply caustically.
‘Flynn.’
‘Well, Flynn, if you are a butler you’d better help Dane bring in the suitcases.’
‘You’re staying?’ Vanessa blurted inadvertently.
‘Of course we’re staying,’ the woman answered impatiently. From her accent she was an American and Vanessa wondered if she and Dane were an item. It was fortunate that Vanessa had assumed her professional mask of polite rigidity because the next comment came as a searing bolt out of the blue.
‘I certainly didn’t come all this way to be fobbed off on any hotel. Benedict and I have a lot of planning to do. He’s under a lot of pressure and I can understand him needing a break, but he has to make some decision about our engagement—’
‘Engagement?’ Vanessa echoed helplessly.
‘Yes. I’m Lacey Taylor.’ She said her name as if she expected thunderous applause, or at least a glimmer of recognition. She got neither.
‘He—Mr Savage never mentioned a fiancée,’ Vanessa managed to say.
‘Benedict is a very private man. I don’t suppose he sees any need to discuss his personal relationships with domestic staff,’ she was informed pointedly. ‘Now, perhaps you’ll direct me to my room so that I can freshen up before he gets back from wherever he’s disappeared to. Come, Dane.’
Then she was gliding away, her high heels crunching prettily over the gravel.
Vanessa looked at Dane Judson blankly.
‘Why do I feel like a dog being called to heel?’ he said ruefully. ‘If you see Ben before I do, tell him not to blame me. When Lacey gets an idea in her head it’s pretty tough to shift and I didn’t think Ben would appreciate her turning up here on her own.’
‘But...who is she?’ Vanessa was trying to come to terms with the knowledge that all the while that Benedict had been stubbornly burrowing his way into her heart he had already been committed to another woman. So much for not being able to despise him. He was worse than despicable!
‘An architect—a very clever one, too. She works for his father’s firm. Her parents are great friends of the Savages.’
Oh, great. Loaded with brains as well as beauty, and almost part of the family already. If Vanessa hadn’t been so furious she would have burst into tears.
‘How long have she and B—Mr Savage been engaged?’
‘Ask me that again in a couple of hours and I might be able to give you an answer,’ Dane said drily, picking up the two heaviest cases and carrying them up the steps, leaving Vanessa to trail behind with the other one as she turned his cryptic words over in her head.
Did he mean that the engagement had been secret, even from Benedict’s b