HANNAH greeted them in a slightly flustered manner, and no wonder, Rue reflected, looking meaningfully at her friend as she told her how surprised she had been to be offered an escort.
‘When you told me this was a business dinner, I had no idea that Neil was your potential client.’
Hannah gave her a sweetly vague smile. ‘No, well, I don’t suppose you would,’ she agreed mildly. ‘Oh, and I haven’t thanked you yet for passing my name on to him. He’s invited me to go round to the house as soon as I’ve got a free afternoon. Apparently he wants me to organise a suite of rooms for his mother. She lives in Brighton, but she comes to visit him several times a year. He was telling me that this is the first proper home he’s owned,’ she added conversationally as her husband drew Neil out into the garden to show him the progress they were making with their plans to install a swimming pool.
The small Georgian rectory Hannah and her husband had bought several miles outside the local market town had been very dilapidated when they took it over. Now every single one of its rooms was a charming testament to Hannah’s skill and homemaking qualities.
‘It was such short notice that I’ve only been able to throw together a rather scratch meal,’ Hannah apologised as Rue followed her into the kitchen.
‘Why go to the bother of having a dinner party at all?’ Rue asked her. ‘Obviously Neil intends to give you the business.’
‘Well, yes, but when he said that he was living on his own and hadn’t had time to find a housekeeper yet, I thought how lonely it must be for him. He told me that he hasn’t been here long enough to get to know many people, although I must say that I’m rather surprised at you,’ she added, arching her eyebrows. ‘You never said a word to me about having a new neighbour.’
Rue shrugged and turned her back on her friend so that Hannah couldn’t look at her too closely. ‘You know how it is for me at this time of the year. The last thing I want at the moment is to be constantly pestered…’
‘Pestered?’ Hannah interrupted her laughing. ‘By a man like Neil? My dear, I know at least twenty women who would give their eye-teeth to have a man as eligible as he is move in next door to them.’
She saw the way her friend’s mouth tightened and apologised instantly. ‘I’m sorry, Rue. I forget sometimes what a hard time you’ve had, but all men aren’t like your husband, my dear.’
‘Aren’t they?’ Rue asked her bitterly. ‘Why exactly do you think Neil Saxton agreed to bring me here tonight, Hannah?’
Hannah looked flustered and turned her attentions to the watercress soup she was ladling out into bowls. ‘Oh, I…’
‘Not because he’s attracted to me, if that’s what you’re thinking,’ Rue told her brutally. ‘It’s my land he wants, not my body, although I suspect he’s quite capable of pretending that there’s nothing he wants more than to take me to bed, if he thought that would make me sell the land to him.’
‘Oh, Rue, no, I’m sure you’re wrong!’ Hannah exclaimed in shocked accents. ‘He doesn’t strike me as that kind of man at all.’
Rue gave her a mocking look and said caustically, ‘They’re all that kind of man.’
Suppressing a faint sigh, Hannah acknowledged that it was pointless to argue with Rue. She, personally, had found Neil Saxton charming, and, very much in love with her husband though she was, she had been pleasurably aware of Neil’s very vibrant maleness.
Poor Rue, she reflected sadly as she allowed her friend to help her carry in the bowls of soup. She had no idea what she was missing. Hannah herself had been so lucky in her marriage, in her husband, in virtually everything in her life, she acknowledged a
s she went to call the men in from the garden.
Surprisingly, the evening passed very quickly, Rue discovered when the plates had all been cleared and stacked in the dishwasher by Neil and Tom Ford, while she and Hannah prepared the coffee and carried it into the conservatory.
‘I’d like to do something like this with mine,’ Neil commented, looking approvingly round the lacy Victorian edifice which Hannah had decorated so simply and so attractively. ‘Something like this would look much better in my conservatory than the furniture which is already there. Don’t you agree, Rue?’ he questioned, looking across at her.
Rue gritted her teeth as she caught Hannah’s surprised glance, her irritation growing as Neil continued blithely, ‘I invited Rue round for dinner last night. I wanted her advice on what I could do to improve the rooms I’m putting on one side for my mother, but she very properly directed me to you.’
Rue could have killed him. She could see the speculation and curiosity brightening Hannah’s eyes. Her friend was an incurable romantic and refused to believe that Rue would not be far happier married than she was on her own. Unable to stop herself from scowling Rue put down her coffee-cup.
‘I really ought to go,’ she said abruptly. ‘I have to be up early in the morning. The weather forecast isn’t too good. They’re predicting thunderstorms within the next couple of days.’
‘Oh, Rue, just when you don’t want them!’ Hannah exclaimed, instantly sympathetic. ‘What will you do? Will you be able to get your crop in in time?’
‘Yes, I think so,’ Rue assured her, ‘although the flowers could have done with another two or three days.’
She was unaware of how much her voice revealed, her shoulders hunching slightly as she acknowledged how very hard she was going to have to work.
‘What exactly is involved?’ Neil questioned sharply, breaking the silence that had fallen. ‘Do you employ anyone to help you gather the blossoms?’
‘I was going to,’ Rue admitted, ‘but there isn’t time now. I normally ask Mrs Dawson at the post office to find out if any of the local teenagers want to earn some extra pocket money, but by the time I’ve got something organised it would be too late. I was hoping for another week of this good weather.’
‘I’d offer to come and help you,’ Hannah told her, ‘but I just can’t at the moment.’
Rue shook her head tiredly. ‘If I could use your telephone to ring for a taxi…’