And, thinking of fires, it was time she got moving. It was the least she could do to have the place warm by the time Evie got back. And the best she could do was to forget her own unhappiness and put on a festive face, she told herself toughly as she wrapped the full-length, softly padded coat around her too-slender five feet nine inches and ran across the yard to the shed to look for fuel.
Ten minutes later she was squatting back on her heels, holding out her long-fingered hands to the dancing flames curling around the tinder-dry logs in the hearth, her ears straining for the sound of an engine that would let her know Evie was back.
She'd been gone over an hour now. A good half an hour longer than she'd predicted. Standing up, Bella switched off one of the table lamps and walked to the small-paned window, peering out into the near darkness. No need to worry. She forced her tight shoulder muscles to relax. Knowing Evie, she'd probably got into conversation with the farmer's wife, accepted a welcome cup of tea and then another, oblivious to the passing of time. But it was snowing heavily now...
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It was snowing heavily now, the wipers squeaking as they cleared the windscreen. Jake gritted his teeth in a humourless grin. Kitty had said she wanted peace and quiet, time to think. Well, she'd sure as hell get it, stuck out here. And if the snow fell at this rate for a couple of hours there'd be no getting away; she'd have more time than she'd bargained for.
If it didn't stop in the next thirty minutes, he'd insist on driving her out. They could get to Abergavenny, find a hotel. He made his mind up quickly, with typical decisiveness, the deed as good as done. Then thanked his own foresight in hiring the sturdy four-wheel drive.
As the vehicle crested the brow of the hill the powerful headlights illuminated the isolated cottage. He breathed a sigh of relief. There was light shining from one of the downstairs windows. There was no sign of her car so she must have parked it at the rear. At least she'd arrived. The sense of relief told him how much he'd been worrying, wondering how she'd manage if she'd been late setting out, determined to make the rendezvous no matter what the conditions were like.
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Bella saw the headlights and relaxed, smiling now. Evie.
Turning back to the fire, she fed it a couple more logs, dusted down her hands and went through to the kitchen, turning on lights and hanging up her coat on the peg behind the door.
She filled the electric kettle in readiness, taking two mugs down from the dresser. They would put the food away and discuss what to have for supper over a cup of tea. And later they'd open one of the bottles of wine that were lined up on one of the work surfaces. Really get in the festive moodâdress the tree. She owed it to Evie to do her damnedest to enjoy herself because her sister had obviously gone to a lot of trouble and expense to get this set-up organised.
She heard the clunk of the car door closing and hurried through. Evie would probably need a hand unloading. There was a smile on Bella's sultry lips as she tugged at the heavy front door. She wouldn't say âwhat kept you?' or grumble about the length of time she'd been. She'd...
She froze, only her hands moving, going to cover her mouth as if to stern the cry of anguished outrage.
Jake. His tall, lithe body filled the doorframe, his broad shoulders made even hunkier by the sheepskin jacket he wore. Jake. The husband she'd parted from in a welter of anger and pain. The husband she'd never wanted to have to set eyes on ever again!
What in the name of sweet reason had brought him here? And how could she hope to forget him and all the pain and disillusionment, the shattered expectations of their marriage, when the cruellest reminder of all was standing in front of her, crucifying her with those cynical black eyes?
CHAPTER TWO
B
ELLA couldn't speak. The shock of seeing Jake again had paralysed her, and for a long, intense moment he too was silent. But the clenching of his hard jaw, the bitter twist of his mouth, said enough. Said it allâthat she was the last person he had expected or wanted to see, that she was too contemptible to waste his breath on.
Her mouth dried and her stomach clenched sickeningly when he broke the dark, silent punishment, looked beyond her into the shadowy little hallway and called out harshly, âKitty!'
Clenching her hands at the sides of the soft warm leggings she'd chosen to travel in, Bella's eyes went wide. She didn't understand what was happening here, asked herself if the whole world had gone crazy, or if it was only herâor him. Then she met his accusing black stare as he switched his attention back to her.
The black glitter of his eyes was dangerous. Bella tried and signally failed to suppress a shudder. âWhere is she?' he demanded. âIf you and my sister have set this upâ' He left the threat hanging on the airâheavy, implicit.
âI haven't seen your sister. Why should I?' She could answer him now, now the shock was receding, her heartbeat gradually approaching normal. âI can't imagine why you should think Kitty might be here.'
Her water-clear grey eyes glinted coolly, but the small satisfaction of showing an aloofness she was far from feeling, evaporated like a raindrop in the heat of the sun when he remarked icily, âDon't play games with me. I endured them when we lived together. When you walked out on our marriage I no longer had to. I don't intend to lose that freedom now.'
He strode in out of the dark, snowy evening, closing the door behind him while she flinched with pain.
She had never played games with him. Never. Not in the way he obviously meant. She had never told him lies. And it was he who had first walked out, not she. And although, as he'd stated, his freedom from their relationship was a relief, he was turning the tables, heaping all the blame for what had happened on her head. Did he actually enjoy hurting her? Couldn't he see that part of the blame was his? That he had driven her to do what she had done?
For a brief, poignantly remembered time he had given her joy. Now he only gave her pain.
Her mouth trembled and her eyes brimmed with tears, turning them to shimmering, transparent silver. Barely giving her white features a glance, Jake strode into the living room, and after a moment she reluctantly followed, only to hear his steps pounding up the narrow wooden stairs that led from the kitchen to the floor above.
She'd told him Kitty wasn't here and he didn't believe her. She crossed to the brightly burning fire and wrapped her arms around her body, shivering; the combination of the chill of the hallway and the spiralling nervous tension made her whole body shake.
She could hear him opening and closing doors. For some obscure reason he thought she and his sister had set this meeting up. But why on earth should they do that? It didn't make sense. Did he think she was angling for a reconciliationâtired of earning her own living, missing his wealth, the hedonistic, self-centred lifestyle that had been hers for the taking?
Whatever, his attitude left little room for believing that he would want any part of such an obviously untenable scenario!
She pressed her fingertips to her suddenly throbbing temples. Where the heck was Evie? What on earth could be keeping her? She should have been back ages ago. With her sister around for moral support she could tell Jake where to go, where to put his nasty suspicions. Evie would back her up. They hadn't seen Kitty and didn't expect to.
Hearing him descending the stairs, she resisted the impulse to blindly run and hide and stood straighter, pulling air deep into her lungs, the midnight-jet of her long silky hair heightening her pallor.
But he didn't seem to see her as he walked straight through and out into the night, and she thought, Thank God, he's leaving! and collapsed onto a chair and clasped her hands around her knees to stop them shaking. She let the fettered tears fall freely now because he was no longer here to see her weakness.
But he was. Within minutes he was back inside, snowflakes glittering on his thick dark hair. “There's no sign of her car. Any car. She hasn't arrived yet.' His black brows bunched with concern. âAnd how did you get here?'
âOn my broomstick!' His reappearance, his witnessing the hateful feebleness of her tearsâthe shock of seeing him here at allâmade her tongue acid. But the level look he turned on her had her muttering defensively, âI came with Evie. She had to go back to the farm for provisions. We're spending Christmas here.'
A Christmas break that was meant to take her mind off the traumatic events of a year agoânot bring her face to face with the man who had set those events in train, the husband who now obviously loathed and despised her, considered himself well rid of her!
Where are you, Evie? she agonised. She felt distraught, her sister's inexplicable lateness adding to her distress. Her mind was painting pictures of the little car stuck on an icy incline, or toppled over one of the precipitous drops that seemed to cluster around each and every one of the hairpin bends that made the mountain tracks so picturesque.
She gritted her teeth. Picturesque she could do without. She wished Evie had never had the bright idea of arranging this holidayâand then her insides churned around. What if Evie had invited Kitty along, too? It was possible, given Jake's conviction she'd be here.
She, Bella, had always got along well with Jake's sister, but Kitty and Evie had struck up a firm friendship shortly after the wedding, where they'd met for the first time.
Jake was convinced his sister was due hereâhad she told him that much? Had he needed to get in touch with her for some vital reason or other and couldn't, not without coming in person, because there wasn't a phone?
Had he reluctantly driven up, swallowing his dislike of seeing his estranged wife again, because he had to talk to Kitty for some important reason?
If so, he would be desperately worried over her non-appearance, just as she was worrying over Evie. She took a deep breath and said, âWas Kitty supposed to be joining us?'
She would have thought it highly unlikely, given that her own sister had booked this break in order to take Bella's mind off her broken marriage at this special and, for her at least, traumatic time of year. But, given his unshakable conviction, his very obvious concern...
Jake Fox dragged air deep into his lungs and exhaled it slowly, shudderingly, through gritted teeth.
She'd lost the small amount of weight she'd gained during their marriage, he noted bitterlyâit had to be because of her return to her modelling career, he thought. But she was still the beautiful, sensuous woman who had drifted in and out of his dreams so maddeningly over the past twelve months. He could order his long waking hours with almost military precision, but he had found it impossible to regulate his dreams.
However, he was working on it.
He took a step towards where she was sitting, defensively hunched in an armchair that dwarfed her delicate frame, his body moving without direction from his brain.
Something about the hunted look in those crystal eyes, the tremulous droop of the lush mouth that had been responsible for the birth of many a male fantasy, touched him despite himself.
That protective streak rearing its head again, he decided cynically.
âWe need to get the facts out in the open.' Purposefully, he took the chair opposite hers. His heart was banging about under his ribcage but he'd sounded cool, in control, thank the Lord. He'd give up significantly more than his eye-teeth rather than let her know how she could still affect him and touch his heart.
He gave her a narrow-eyed stare. Her unbelievably long and heavy dark lashes had fallen, hiding her expression. The truth had always been there in her eyes if you looked long and hard enough to find it As he'd found itâhad had it forcibly thrust upon himâwhen he'd walked in on her and that creep, Guy Maclaine.
Abruptly he shifted his mind from that often-replayed scenario, watching her closely.
âYou're here to spend a quiet Christmas with Evie, and you claim you had no idea Kitty was expected,' he stated levelly.
That was obviously what she meant him to believe. But he knew differently. Kitty, damn her, had used the ruse of needing to talk her problems over with him to get him here. She had needed peace and quiet, she'd said. Just the two of them. If her troubles had been as dire as she'd intimated she wouldn't have wanted his estranged wife and her sister around to add to the jollity!
Kitty wouldn't be turning up. That had never been her intention.
He watched Bella closely. Her confusion was very convincing. But to rise to the dizzy heights of top photographic model, internationally sought-after and universally fêted, she would have had to become a reasonably proficient actress. She could have set this whole thing up, drawing his own sister, and hers, into her web of deceit. Deceit had turned out to be her middle name.
She said nothing, merely nodded after considering his statement, the silky swathes of her hair falling forward, hiding her face.
âAnd I'm here because my sister begged me to be. She's in trouble, or so she said. She needed to talk and a friend had offered her the use of this place.'
The sardonic explanation of his presence brought her head jerking up, her silver eyes locking with his, clouded with more expertly portrayed confusion, her soft lips pouting with almost child-like perplexity. Over-acting, Jake decided, feeling his heart go hardâa not unusual occurrence these days. Her betrayal and subsequent defection had atrophied that particular organ.
âThe three of you set this up.' A cold statement, spoken with concise deliberation. He could find no other explanation for the way he'd been tricked into coming here. âIf you'd wanted a meeting you could have made an appointment with my secretary. There was no need to go to such ridiculous lengths.'
He glanced impatiently at his watch. He had no intention of prolonging this farce. She deserved to be left here to stew, but his conscience wouldn't let him take that road.
He'd seen no sign of a phone when he'd investigated this place, so she couldn't contact anyone for transport out of here, and the way the weather was looking she could be marooned in the mountains for weeks. He'd drop her off at the first hotel they happened across on his way to Kitty's home in Chester. He'd rout his sister out of her cosy love-nest and give her the tongue-lashing of her lifetime for her part in this time-wasting piece of lunacy.
Bella pushed the hair off her face with the back of her hand. He was accusing her of conniving with their respective sisters to get him here. There could be only one reason why she would stoop to doing thatâcouldn't there just? To âpersuade' him to take her back.
âIn your dreams!' She answered his accusation rawly. As if she would! His conceit was beyond belief!
She snapped to her feet, anger drenching through her. He had always treated her like a mindless doll, with no needs of her own, no thoughts that weren't his, without direction unless he pulled her strings. Simply a body to be seen on his arm, making him the envy of every red-blooded male around, and a gratifyingly willing body in his bed whenever he decided to remember to come home.
He wouldn't be able to believe she could exist and prosper without him. Even though he didn't want her anywhere near him, his conceit would make him believe she couldn't carry on without him and would go to any lengths to get him back.
He was on his feet, too, and the sheer breadth and height of him swamped her, was in danger of sapping her will. But she wouldn't let his masculinity intimidate her. She would not! Drawing breath to tell him to get out of here, now, she held it, ears straining as she caught the distant sound of an engine.
âEvie!' she breathed, her eyes glowing with vindication. And not before time! She would back her up, tell this arrogant beast that any conspiracy was all in his twisted mind. Why should she want him to take her back when he was unable to give her the one thing she craved?
âBravo!' Black eyes glinted with sardonic applause, even a hint of humour. âNice touch. But we both know your sister won't be showing her face within a hundred miles of this place, don't we?'
The story about Evie having popped down the road to pick up the groceries was thin, and that was putting it mildly. And Bella was still hamming it up, making a show of listening intently, so he, too, listened to the resounding silence, then snapped out an order.
âGet your things together while I rake out what's left of this fire. We're leaving. I'll drop you at a hotel.'
The faint sound of the engine had long since faded. A farmer making his way home along one of those tortuous mountain tracks, she decided tiredly. Disappointment hit her like a charging elephant. And then came the cruelly sharp anxiety. She stared at him, frowning, shaking her head.