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CHAPTER ONE
IT HAD SEEMED like a good idea at the time. If only Lara had remembered her brother Sean’s sage advice to ‘expect the unexpected’, then she might have thought twice about agreeing to stay at their parents’ home while they took a much needed restorative break in the south of France.
But then Sean wasn’t there any more to remind her of that particular little pearl....
And, in truth, she would never have dreamt of refusing her mum and dad’s request to house-sit for them when they were still reeling from the tragedy that had hit them all six months ago. Their son, Sean, Lara’s brother, was dead. He had contracted malaria whilst undertaking the charity work that he loved in Africa and had not recovered from it. It hardly seemed real that such a thing was possible in the twenty-first century, but sadly it was.
Having already been back in the family home for a week now, Lara still expected him to walk through the door with a cheery, ‘Put the kettle on, sis, I could murder a cup of tea!’ just like he had done when they were teenagers.
Time seemed intent on playing tricks on her these days. One minute it passed like a slow and choking mudslide, threatening to cut off her ability to breathe, and the next... The next it seemed to vanish completely, leaving her feeling that she was stuck in a desolate and unhappy dream that she couldn’t wake up from.
Whilst she loved her work, she was glad that the college term had come to an end. Her duties and responsibilities in the library had been particularly arduous this past month, what with so many students wanting help with research to take home with them. But now that that frenetic time was over she had no choice but to fully embrace her grief and process the soul-deep pain that she felt at losing Sean.
But, truthfully, she didn’t relish the prospect of the endless summer days stretching ahead of her as she normally would have done. With nothing to lighten her mood but the daily walks she would go on with Barney, her parents’ devoted Border Terrier, Lara had been dreading the time to be spent alone at her parents’ house.
She could have arranged to go on holiday herself when they returned from France, but she hadn’t had the heart for it. A couple of friends had asked her to join them on a trip to Italy but she’d declined. How could she possibly be good company when she was still grieving so badly for Sean?
Now, in the middle of her second week’s stay at the family home, Lara was sitting at the sturdy oak kitchen table, making a half-hearted attempt at eating a bowl of unappetising breakfast cereal, when the doorbell rang. Such a lyrical bell-like sound shouldn’t pierce her to the very core, but it did. In fact it made her flinch. She seemed to be afraid of everything these days. But Sean being taken from them so suddenly like that had made her fear that nothing good would ever happen to her or her family again.
Rousing himself from the relaxed position he’d assumed, lying across her feet, Barney shot up and started barking and wagging his tail—just as though he was anticipating a welcome friend or visitor. Lara’s nerves were jangled even more. It was eight-thirty in the morning.... Who on earth would be calling at this time?
‘For goodness’ sake,’ she muttered beneath her breath, ‘it’s probably just the postman.’
Forcing herself to relax, she moved down the hardwood hallway in her bare feet, Barney eagerly following her. The day was already promising to be particularly warm, and the sun that shone through the door’s decorated Victorian glass panes lit up the interior with the glare of a powerful spotlight.
Lifting her hand to shield her gaze, she squinted at the tall shadow behind the glass. Even though she didn’t have a clue who it was she knew it wasn’t the postman. Whoever it was, his straight, ominous stance suggested someone official. Lara’s stomach executed a nervous cartwheel. Please, God, not more bad news.
She opened the door warily. ‘Good morning.’
On the other side of the door stood a man with eyes so heartbreakingly blue that the sight of them made her catch her breath. Waves of disconcerting shock flooded her. Staring at the carved, high-cheekboned visage, with its cut-glass jaw and arresting dimple, Lara thought she was dreaming. To be confronted by the man that she’d thought never to see again, and so early in the morning, she found she was both lost for words and stunned right down to her marrow.
He was dressed in an exquisitely tailored dark suit with a dulled gold pinstripe, and the clearly custom-made clothing showed off her visitor’s athletic, broad-shouldered physique to perfection. He had always looked classy, even when he was a student. Some people were just born with that exclusive air about them and this man was one of them.
As the sexy, expensive cologne he wore wafted tantalisingly beneath her nose she wanted to pinch herself, just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.
Her visitor proffered a tentative smile and she immediately sensed his uneasiness, as though for a disconcerting moment he wasn’t sure what the appropriate greeting was.
‘I was wondering if I might have a word with Mr or Mrs Bradley?’ he asked. ‘I’m a— I was a friend of theirs. I’m sorry I’m calling so early in the morning, but I’ve just got back from New York and I wanted to pay my respects to the family for their loss.’
Lara stared hard, her legs threatening to buckle beneath her. She was suddenly aware that Gabriel Devenish, her brother’s best friend at university, hadn’t recognised her.
Her initial reaction was to feel blessedly relieved, but that was quickly followed by a churning in her guts that made her fear she might faint.
The memory of Gabriel had haunted her for years.
He and Sean had studied for the same degree together. But while the big-hearted Sean had elected to go into charity work after graduating, Gabriel had followed in his rich uncle’s footsteps and gone into the more lucrative and some might say cut-throat world of high finance.
Her brother had once told her that he’d heard on the grapevine that his friend had made an absolute fortune since moving to New York, but he’d said it in a way that had implied he almost felt sorry for him.
In any case, from the very first moment that Lara had set eyes on Gabriel, on a blistering-hot summer’s day thirteen years ago, when she’d been just sixteen, she had developed the most massive crush on him. She might have been four years younger, and still at school, but that hadn’t tempered her feelings. And a foolish impulse that she had lived to regret had once driven her to confess them to him.
Her memory was transported back to that night when Sean had thrown an impromptu party for some friends at the house when their parents were away.