Priceless

I checked and saw three new messages. I didn’t know what I expected but what I got was not it.

Shit! My grad student, who sounded very feminine, was lost and off the road in the dark apparently. I checked my watch again and grimaced. The first call had been left nearly three hours ago and it was black outside now. I grabbed my car keys and headed for the garage, hitting redial as I went.

A tremulous voice answered on the third ring. “Hello?”

“Is this Gabriel Hargreave?” I asked. “Where are you? I can come down in the Rover and collect you or at least lead you up the proper road.” I tried to keep the harshness from my voice. I didn’t want him to quit, before I could fire him at any rate.

“Not Gabriel, I’m Gabrielle. Gabrielle Hargreave. And how the hell should I know where I am? I told you I’m lost. And it’s dark out here.”

“Oh, my bad, Gabrielle, you’ve been driving around with no idea where you’re going for three hours?” I was pretty shocked by what she’d just told me. “Why on earth would anyone continue driving while they’re lost in the dark? You’re supposed to stay put and wait for help. Didn’t you ever watch a survival show?”

“Nobody came and I thought I could find my way,” she wailed into my ear. “It’s raining and I just drove through a stream across the road.” She sounded hysterical now, and I couldn’t help wincing as I moved my mobile away from my ear.

I tried to adopt a patient tone. “But I cannot come and collect you if you keep driving around.” Dead silence greeted me, and I wondered if I’d had lost connectivity for a moment, until I heard her breathing. “What landmarks can you see?”

A muffled sob came through loud and clear, and I felt a moment’s guilt for not catching her calls, when she actually rang for help. I really needed to stop setting my mobile down in random places—

“I already told you before, I can’t see a bloody thing!” she blasted back at me.

“Well, you need to calm down, Miss Har—”

“Wait! I can make out the profile of some low hills to my right. And there’s nothing but fields to my left. I swear I can hear waves crashing below me. Please say you know where I am!”

Was she crying? Unease started to settle in my gut. Maybe this person was not cut out for the job after all. “Are you outside of your car? I think I can find you but you need to hang on and get back in your car. Turn on your headlamps and whatever the hell else you do, for the love of Christ, stop driving and wait for me.”

I headed out in the Rover, glad for the four wheel drive over country roads that had turned to slopping mud. She’d sounded frantic. The part about hearing waves crashing below her did not sit well either. There were sections of the cliff side where a person could simply slip over if they were not aware of their bearings. And Miss Hargreave was certainly not going to be the poster girl for Outdoor Magazine anytime soon, I could safely wager.

The drive was slow going due to the rain and mud until I got to the main road. I traversed that for a good two kilometers before turning off again, for where I thought she might be. When headlamps came into view I breathed out a heavy sigh in relief and pulled up alongside what I assumed was her Volkswagen.

The economy did not look promising for making it up the muddy road tonight. I came up to the driver’s window and looked in. Where was she?

“Miss Hargreave?” I called out.

Only the sound of rain and the rumble the windscreen wipers from the Rover filled the darkness.

OH dear God, he was here.

I’d seen the lights of the Range Rover as soon as it pulled up alongside my rental but I couldn’t just pop out to greet my new boss with my jeans around my ankles, now could I? I’d needed the loo hours ago and my bladder was past the point of negotiation.

Far, far past.

The tree I’d chosen to shield my privacy was an ancient thing, and as soon as I was restored to my former self, I called out to the tall form bent over, peering into the window of my car. “I’m over here. Mr. Everley? That is you, right?”

His head whipped around so fast it gave me a moment’s pause and I stumbled.

“Of course it’s me. Who else would it be? What in the hell are you doing hiding under a tree? Why aren’t you waiting for me in your car where it’s dry?” Mr. Everley sounded very annoyed. Like an asshole, too.

“I had—I needed to—I was desperate for a loo if you must know.” Seriously, did he talk to everyone this way? It wasn’t like I’d tried to get lost or that I was actually responsible for the torrential summer rain.

The stiffness of my legs combined with the mud, the cold, and the general awkwardness of this whole situation did not help me with my balance one bit.

I slipped again and went down on my ass in the sticky mud, right at Mr. Everley’s feet.

A large hand reached down to help me up. “You’ll get mud all over my leather seats now,” he said blandly.

I took his offered hand and let him haul me up. “No, I won’t. I’ll follow you in my car.” I was so mortified at this point, walking in the mud and the rain sounded like a damn good idea. Closed inside a vehicle with my new boss scowling and growling at me, with mud all up my backside? So out of the question.

Mr. Everley took one sneering look at my car and shook his head at me. “That little thing will die a muddy death if you try it. You don’t have a choice. Get in.” He certainly had no trouble ordering me around. Must be the duke or earl in him.