Rebel's Bargain

‘Totally different,’ he murmured. ‘I’m glad you like it.’

‘How could I not?’ She swung around. ‘It’s glorious.’

He didn’t smile back, but something that looked like pleasure lurked at the corner of his mouth and a long dimple grooved his cheek. With his dark, unshaven jaw and wind-tousled hair, and the early sun highlighting the tiny creases beside his eyes, he looked exactly what he was: an adventurer. Like the highwaymen and pirates she’d fantasised about in her girlish dreams.

Poppy’s heart careered as her eyes met his and she saw a glow of warmth.

‘Not everyone appreciates the solitary splendour of it. Some prefer bright lights, glamour and bustle.’

‘Is that what you think of me?’ Their focus had always been on the present, never what had gone before.

Orsino shrugged. ‘We met in the city. You lived and worked there the whole time I knew you.’ Poppy swallowed, wondering why his use of the past tense saddened her. ‘We were always going out to clubs or opening nights.’

Poppy nodded. Their marriage had been a whirl of activity. Until it had fallen apart. Who’d have guessed they could talk so amicably now?

She kept her voice low, aware they weren’t alone. ‘I was brought up in the country. I loved getting up as the sun rose to go for a long ride.’ Until her father sold her old pony, trying to pay debts.

‘What else did you enjoy?’

Poppy turned and looked at the slowly drifting landscape. In the distance she saw their chateau straddling the river, surrounded by its geometrically patterned gardens and the forest beyond. The scene’s delicate beauty stole her breath.

‘Would you believe, fishing?’ It had been so long, she’d almost forgotten. ‘Our neighbour was an expert. I used to tag along.’ Those were the days she found any excuse to get out of the house and away from her father.

‘Somehow I can’t imagine you in waders.’ Orsino’s breath breezed the back of her neck and she shivered, pulling her warm jacket closer.

‘You’d be surprised.’ She smiled. ‘The first time I actually hooked a fish I was so stunned I stumbled and ended up drenched from head to toe.’

Orsino chuckled. ‘I’d never picked you for a lover of the great outdoors.’ He paused and when he spoke again his voice was sober. ‘Maybe I should have brought you somewhere like this five years ago. I love the peace up here. It’s like climbing. Just you in the vast wilderness. It’s … cathartic, pitting yourself against nature. There’s something clean and real about it. No room for falsehood or empty words. No pretence. What you see is what you get, however harsh.’

Poppy swivelled around but it was hard to read his face. He’d donned his dark glasses as the sun rose and the light intensified. Every instinct clamoured that here was something absolutely vital to Orsino. These adventures weren’t just fun for him. They were necessary.

‘I would have liked that.’ Poppy swallowed, wondering how different things would have been if he’d shared some of this with her years ago. ‘I didn’t know you were a balloonist.’

Orsino turned and gestured to the lanky Frenchman piloting them. ‘Thierry is the balloonist. I was always just along for the ride.’

‘I’m glad you admit it at last, Orsino,’ Thierry said in accented English, his smile flashing. ‘That trip across South America you were pure baggage, except when we landed and you got to pose for the cameras.’

Orsino laughed, the sound far too appealing, and the mood lightened.

Thierry poured mugs of rich hot chocolate from a large thermos and passed them around. Poppy wrapped gloved hands around hers and inhaled the fragrant steam.

She looked from one man to the other, reading the camaraderie and genuine respect behind their banter as they relived past trips with anecdotes that grew more and more outrageous. ‘You two shared a balloon for weeks?’

‘It was for charity, you understand, and Orsino brought the media attention.’ Thierry winked. ‘I suppose he was useful in his own way, but if I do something like that again, perhaps you’d consider coming with me instead, Mademoiselle Graham.’

‘Don’t even think about it,’ Orsino drawled. ‘Try your fabled charm elsewhere, Thierry. She’s taken.’

Poppy’s eyes bulged. Taken? Did Orsino realise that implied longevity in a relationship that was due to end soon? Or was it part of his joking rivalry with his friend?

The roar of the burners stopped further conversation and Poppy turned to lean against the basket and gaze at the view.

She was glad she’d agreed to come with Orsino today on her day off.