Passionate Harvest (3 page)

Lucy grabbed her bag and a soft wool sweater ready to answer the door. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so jittery. And, even though she’d been expecting it, the sharp imperious trill of the doorbell still made her jump. Sucking in a breath, she tugged the door open, mentally bracing herself ready to meet Dominic again.

* * *

Dominic paused on the step of Maggie’s house for a moment before pushing the bell. He’d lain awake half the night trying to work out all the different options for the future of the vineyard in his head. Despite sacrificing his sleep, he still had no answers. Whichever way he looked at it, whether Lucy decided to stay and work for a year or, if she decided to abandon her inheritance, the outcome couldn’t be good.

He scarcely had time to lift his finger from the bell push when the door opened.

“I’m all set.” Lucy lifted her lightly tanned arm to show him her sweater and bag.

“Are you wearing flat shoes?”

A flash of dismay crossed her face. “These are the best I’ve got with me. Obviously I only packed a few things.” She raised one leg to display a slender foot encased in a denim blue canvas wedge heeled shoe.

“You’ll have to be careful when we walk beside the vines. The ground is uneven.” He opened the passenger door of the car for her. Lucy might have very pretty feet but he could only hope she wouldn’t twist her ankle in a rabbit hole in her impractical shoes.

“Did Nick tell you anything about the vineyard?” He glanced at her. 

The morning sun streaming in through the side window lit up her honey blonde hair like a halo.

“He talked about it quite a lot. How many bottles he expected to get, about the shop and the craft place he had planned in the barn.” He heard her sigh, soft and breathy, “I can’t believe he left me his shares though. It was a longstanding joke of his that he’d leave me a drink in his will, but this is crazy.” She shook her head as if still unable to take it all in.

“He never mentioned his intentions to you?” Nick certainly hadn’t said anything to him. Dominic hadn’t liked to ask too much even when he could see Nick’s health was failing. He’d tried to bring the conversation round to it a couple of times but Nick would simply clap his hand onto Dom’s shoulder.
‘All taken care of. Nothing to worry about, I promise.’

He risked another peep at her as the traffic slowed. Her eyes were downcast and she worried the skin of her bottom lip between her teeth. The action was surprising sensual. “No, never.” She shook her head again and her hair shimmered in the sunshine like molten gold.

“He didn’t say anything to me either,” Dominic said grimly, and turned off the main road into a country lane. Having Lucy as a passenger was oddly disturbing to his senses. 

“Typical Uncle Nick.” Her voice wobbled.

“Mr Fullwood said Nick was your godfather?” He pulled into a lay by to allow a tractor to pass and took another look at her face. Lucy Morgan wasn’t at all like the young woman he’d imagined when she’d been late for the funeral.

“Yes, he was my father’s best friend when they were young. I moved in with Nick when I was young and he and Maggie bought me up. I’ve always called them aunt and uncle even though we aren’t really related.”

“What happened to your parents?” His curiosity was aroused by the flat matter of fact tone of her voice.

“Nothing. They had me and then after a few years, when I was six, they decided that they weren’t really cut out to be parents. I got sent to boarding school and they took off around the world. I hear from them every few months when they end up somewhere with internet connections. I’ve left messages for them to tell them about Nick.” Her voice had regained its strength and she stared straight ahead, yet he suspected she wasn’t actually looking at the field in front of them.

“That must have been, must still be, very hard.” He couldn’t imagine anyone doing that to a child, especially at such a young age. His own family, though small, had always been close. At least they had been until his brother Jake had fallen in love with Sasha and Dom’s world had fallen to pieces. 

Even though the road was clear he made no move to continue their journey.

“I ran away from boarding school when I was twelve. I made a big bonfire of my uniform, Uncle Nick and Aunt Maggie took me in. To all intents and purposes they’ve been my parents.”

Tears sparkled unshed in her eyes and the proud tilt of her chin told him of her struggle to remain in control of her emotions. 

Dom groaned as he remembered how he’d greeted her, “And then to make things worse I behaved like a complete arse when I met you yesterday.” God, he couldn’t have been more hurtful if he’d tried.

“Yes, you did,” She agreed levelly, “But, you did make it up afterwards by taking me to see the floral tributes. I really appreciated that.” She gave him a watery half smile. “We should get moving again before the tractor comes back.”

He hesitated for a moment unsure if he should try and say something to console her. Deciding he would probably only make things worse, he obeyed her instruction to drive on. Silence hung heavy in the air between them and, sensing Lucy wasn’t in the mood for conversation, he turned on the CD player. They finished the journey to the strains of
Take That
, not his usual taste in music but one he suspected Lucy probably quite liked
.

He parked the car in one of the spaces reserved for him and Nick outside the converted barn which served as the nerve centre of the vineyard. Lucy looked around with interest.

“Wow, I didn’t realise it would be like this. I mean I’ve seen some pictures of it before, obviously, but it looks so much bigger than I expected.” 

Dominic had grown used to the surroundings of his workplace barely noticing the busy car park, the path leading to the small courtyard which Nick had planned to develop as a craft centre, and the restaurant and shop.

“What’s over there?” She nodded towards the other large barn on the far side of the car park.

“The functional end of things. That’s where the magic happens and the grapes get turned into wine, bottled, and stored.”

She nodded, a thoughtful frown on her face. “Uncle Nick showed me pictures of the grapes growing and the inside of the shop. It’s hard to grasp the scale of the place just from looking at pictures though.”

“There are less than ten commercially producing vineyards in the UK, this is one of the largest. We grow a few grape varieties and our best seller is our sparkling white wine. I think it’ll be better to show you the fields first while the weather is good.” 

He set off towards the path that led to the vineyard trail, a signed circular walk which led around the grape growing areas and through the orchard where they grew pears and apples for cider production. Lucy hurried to keep pace with him so he adjusted the length of his stride allowing her to keep up. 

Within a couple of minutes they were surrounded by long rows of vines. He paused along the trail to show her the different types of grapevines, explaining how they were secured to the wires. It was quite a long trek and he had a lot to explain to her as they walked.

“I knew you produced red and white wine. I didn’t realise you made sparkling wine although Uncle Nick did mention something about cider.” 

They stopped at the top of the ridge, at the highest point so Lucy could look down along the rolling lines of vines. He hoped she wasn’t struggling too much in her ridiculous shoes.

She appeared to be glad of the breather, her small pert breasts rising and falling as she studied the view. Guiltily he tore his gaze away and forced himself to focus on the vines. 

“Yes, we don’t produce the cider ourselves, we grow the fruits and sell it on but I think Nick would have liked his own label cider.” A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Nick was always full of plans, always full of life. Maybe he should have pressed him a little harder about the disposal of the shares when he’d first become ill. Somehow it hadn’t seemed appropriate and Nick had blithely assured him that everything was taken care of. Plus, he’d thought, and Nick had thought too, that he’d recover.

“Sounds like Uncle Nick, he was a pretty hands on kind of man,” Lucy agreed.

The ground grew more uneven as they started the descent, recent heavy rains had washed away some of the gravel exposing the rocky undersurface. He would have to get one of the workers to make some repairs. The path narrowed before the entrance to the orchard and he took the lead, walking ahead of Lucy.

The sound of shoes sliding on the loose screed and an anguished yelp made him turn. He was just in time to take hold of her arms and prevent her from falling. She clutched at the sleeves of his sweater, her eyes wide with alarm. Once again, his body tingled as he steadied her and his breath caught in his throat.

“You were right about these shoes not being very good for walking along here.” Her voice was breathy as he released her arms and he wondered if she too had felt the electricity between them.

“The path needs some repairs. I’ll get Bob to look at it later.” 

* * *

Lucy tucked her hair behind her ears and prepared to tackle the final few yards of the path. She hoped her expression hadn’t betrayed her when Dominic had unexpectedly turned to break her fall. She had to have imagined the spark she thought she’d felt when he’d caught her in his arms. After all, she wasn’t sure she even really liked him, especially now he’d route marched her through the vineyard.

The path broadened out once more as they rounded the side of the hill.

“Oh, it’s beautiful!” Lucy halted, astonished by the scene before her. She’d forgotten quite how beautiful England in the spring could be. Now she was confronted by several acres of apple trees all in full bloom. The delicate pale pink blossom carpeted the trees turning the orchard into fairyland.

Dominic stopped next to her and stared at the trees, his hands buried deep in the pockets of his worn corduroy trousers. “Hopefully we’ll get a good crop this year.”

She pressed her lips together, preventing her from blurting out an inappropriate remark about him clearly having no romance in his soul. Unless being around the plants and trees all the time somehow blinded him to their beauty. Either way, it made her a little bit sad.

The trail walk had taken them well over an hour and Lucy’s stomach started to rumble when they arrived back at the barns. She wondered if she should drop a hint about getting some lunch before going on to the tour of the offices, winery and shop. Her head ached from all the facts, figures and information he’d given her during the trail walk. Not to mention the pain in her calves and thighs from walking so far in her heels.

“Boss! Watch out!” She turned at the warning shout to discover a large black dog heading straight for them. A very large and muddy dog of indiscriminate parentage, trailing a leash.

“Down, Mutley.” Dominic dived for the dog just as it placed generous dollops of mud on the legs of her jeans.

“I’m sorry boss, he got away from me by the lake and then when he saw you, he took off like a steam train.” A stocky middle-aged man wearing working clothes and a flat cap came panting up to them. Dismay coloured his florid cheeks as he noticed the mud on her clothes.

“Bob, this is Lucy Morgan, Nick’s god-daughter and new half owner of the vineyard.” Dominic yanked on the dogs leash and it sat contentedly at his feet.

Bob snatched his cap from his head. “I’m sorry about the dog, Miss. Your clothes are ruined.”

She tried to look unconcerned at the state of her beloved designer jeans. The ones she’d saved so hard for and which made her bum look two inches smaller. “It’s okay, they’ll wash.” What else could she say? The poor man looked mortified.

“We’ll take him back to the cottage, Bob. I’ll need to hose him down and it’ll give you chance to get cleaned up, Lucy.” Dominic scowled at the dog.

Bob scuttled off as if glad to make his escape.

“This is your dog?” Lucy asked. She hadn’t pictured Dominic as having a pet. In the short time she’d known him she’d pictured him as solitary, closed off figure.

“Yes, unfortunately he is.” Mutley looked up at the sound of his master’s voice. “We’d better go and get your jeans cleaned off.” 

He tugged on the dogs leash and they set off down a small track leading away from the main courtyard. Lucy tried to walk a little behind Dominic and his pet as the path was too narrow for them to walk side by side. Unfortunately as the dog happily loped along, sniffing for rabbits in the hedgerow his tail swishing, more particles of mud flew from his coat and attached themselves to her already dirty jeans.

By the time they reached the five barred gate at the end of the track Lucy’s legs were tired and she suspected her poor jeans needed far more than a quick rub over with a damp cloth. The dog scrambled through the gap under the gate as Dominic climbed over the top. She stared at the padlocked barrier with a sinking heart. Gym had always been her least favourite subject at school and the combo of tight jeans, aching legs and general clumsiness meant tackling the gate wouldn’t be a piece of cake.

Dominic stood waiting for her on the other side. “Do you need a hand to get over?”

Her body heated as his level gaze took in her muddy clothes and dishevelled appearance.

 “I think I can manage.” She grasped the wooden post at the top of the gate and began to climb up to the point where she would be able to swing her leg over the top. The tightness of the denim combining with fatigue made it a struggle and she teetered on the crossbar trying to summon enough energy to adjust her position.

“Lucy!” Dominic moved forward just as she lost her balance.

“Oof!”

She lay sprawled on the wet turf on top of Dominic with his dog attempting to lick her face. Heat licked along her body at the warmth from their contact. Temporarily winded from her fall she was horrified to see he had his eyes shut and a pained grimace on his face.

“Are you okay?” She pushed the dog aside and scrambled to her feet ignoring the hard, hot heat from where she’d been on top of Dominic.

“I think I’ll live.” He groaned, rolling onto his side before getting to his feet. He glanced down ruefully at his clothes. “I think I’m as muddy as you now.”