Unforgettable Embrace (20 page)

Rachel decided to change the subject, thinking she might have made Batt feel uneasy.

"I like those brass German Shepherd dogs you have there," she said, pointing to the two statues that were guarding the fireplace.

"They were a present from my mother," Batt replied, back to his normal colour again. "She was as passionate about dogs as me. We had a German Shepherd when I was growing up, Bella, and she's what instilled in me my love of them. She was my best friend growing up on the farm. We'd walk or miles on adventures together. She followed me everywhere."

"They're such an intelligent animal," Rachel said, "and so loyal."

"Very intelligent, " Batt agreed, "and a very easy animal to train."

"Did you train Sheba?" Rachel asked. "I actually had my own dog-training school in France," Batt explained.

"I had fourteen German Shepherds of my own, as part of my breeding programme and security company and I also trained dogs for the police."

"Goodness gracious!" Rachel was impressed.

"I loved my dogs, especially Luca and Sabre. They saved my life."

"Really?" Rachel was intrigued.

"They certainly did, I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for them. I'd brought the dogs to the beach as a treat because they loved swimming and splashing about in the water. We were in a fairly remote part of the beach, as some people tend to be quite scared of such big dogs and probably wouldn't fancy getting up close and personal with them in the water. So, I went for a swim myself and I'd taken a rest on a large reef in the middle of the water. I decided to dive off, not realising how far the reef extended, and I caught my shin on a very sharp, jagged piece of rock."

"Ouch," Rachel cried, flinching at the thought, she hated the sight of blood.

"Anyway, the pain completely winded me, and I was gasping for air, which of course meant I swallowed some water. I managed to gather myself together enough to whistle for Sabre and Luca who were playing together on the shore. They heard me straight away and came swimming out to me as fast as they could. I grabbed their coats and they swam me back to shore. They saved my life, for sure, those two angels."

"Wow, that's an amazing story," Rachel said, enthralled.

"Thanks, it's quite flattering to have such a captivated audience," Batt teased.

"I feel like I've been doing all the talking," Batt said, "tell me about you."

"Oh, gosh, I dunno where to start," Rachel squirmed in her seat. She took another sip of her wine. "Umm, well, I've taken a year out of my life, to travel around Ireland," she finally managed.

"Lucky you," Batt smiled encouragingly, "what's been the highlight so far?"

She thought to herself that tonight was the highlight, but decided against saying it, for fear of sounding too flirtatious.

"I thought the cliffs at Slieve League were awesome, in the true sense of the word," she said instead.

"They are outstanding, that's for sure," Batt agreed, "I haven't seen that much of Ireland myself. It’s funny how you forget to explore your own country and spend your holidays discovering the rest of the world."

"I realised that as I was travelling around," she continued, "there are so many hidden little gems in Ireland, and the weather isn't all that bad, after all we're used to it."

"That's true," Batt laughed.

"Have you done much travelling yourself?" Rachel asked, attempting to deflect the attention away from herself.

"I've done quite a bit actually," Batt replied, "I've travelled all over Europe and the Caribbean Islands."

"Gosh," Rachel said, "where's your favourite place?" "I adore The Alps," Batt said, "I had a fantastic time there with my dad. We went on our motorbikes from Ireland to The Alps. We had an encounter with some gendarmes. We'd pitched our tents for the night, just off the road. Anyway, we were rudely awoken from our sleep by something poking us. We shot up only to be met with a gun in our faces. Apparently, the police thought we were dead!"

"That must have been some sleep," Rachel laughed, "sounds like that trip Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman did on their motorbikes across Europe."

"It was actually," he smiled, "obviously they covered more miles than us."

"Their bikes were cool," she said.

"Not as cool as mine," Batt said with a twinkle in his eyes, "I know it's boastful but I am totally and utterly in love with my motorbike."

"They had BMW motorbikes," she said.

"Yes, but theirs was only a trail bike and mine is a touring bike, the BMW K1200 LT, to be precise." "Sounds impressive," Rachel said.

"I'll give you a spin on her tomorrow if you like," he said.

"I'd love that!" she exclaimed in excitement, "I've never been on a bike before, but I've always wanted to try it."

"I'll take you for a spin out to Achill Island," Batt said. "We can spend the day there. Hopefully, it will be a sunny day, because there is a beautiful beach, Keel beach, that's lovely for a walk."

"I can't wait," she said.

Chapter 27

"Where am I?" Rachel awoke with a start and sat bolt upright in bed.

She'd momentarily completely forgotten where she was. She surveyed the pretty but unfamiliar bedroom cautiously.

"Batt's house," she sighed with relief and snuggled back under the duvet.

Last night came flooding back to her and she was filled with a warm, contented glow. Delicious food, scintillating conversation, fine wine, attractive company, what more could anyone want?

Well a kiss would have been nice, Rachel mused.

They'd been up 'til the early hours of the morning, chatting and drinking. She'd thought he was going to kiss her a few times, with the way he'd held her gaze and leaned in close, but, disappointingly, he had been the perfect gentleman.

She was too shy to instigate the first kiss, after all, the only man she'd ever kissed in her life so far was Tony. Batt had lead her upstairs when the food and the wine and the warm fire started to become too much for her and she started yawning uncontrollably, despite her best efforts to stifle the yawns. She'd thought, for a brief moment at the top of the stairs, that he was going to bring her to his bedroom and have his wicked way with her, but instead he showed her to the guest room and handed her some clean towels.

"Goodnight, Rachel, sweet dreams," he'd said, kissing her softly on the cheek.

"Goodnight," was all Rachel could manage, overwhelmed by the manly scent of him, a mix of lemony soap, wood and musk.

She smiled to herself as she thought of how old-fashioned and gentlemanly he had been towards her. I wonder what time is it, she groaned, rolling over to check the clock-radio on the locker beside her bed. Nine o' clock, time to get up, she decided. She struggled into a sitting position and looked around the room. It was so pretty, all pink and cream. The duvet was covered in a flowery design and the lace curtains on the windows matched. She padded into the en
suite bathroom, which had floor to ceiling tiles in peach and white. She brushed her teeth and rubbed the black mascara circles from under her eyes.

She'd been too tired to bother removing her makeup last night. She pulled on the white, thick cotton bathrobe that was hanging on the bathroom door and made her way slowly downstairs. She wondered if Batt was awake yet as she couldn't hear any noise from the kitchen. Unusual for a farmer to be in bed this late, she thought to herself. She pushed open the kitchen door, which was wonderfully warm from the Aga. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and sat at the kitchen counter. There was a note on the fruit bowl from Batt. He said he was out milking the cows and mending some fences and would be back around ten. He told her to help herself to anything she wanted in the fridge.

She opened the huge fridge door. It was an American style fridge-freezer, very fancy with an ice machine at the side. The fridge was packed with food. She rummaged around and found some bacon and eggs. She chopped some mushrooms and flung them all in Batt's stainless steel frying pan. She poured coffee into the coffee machine and set out two plates for breakfast. The kitchen was flooded in the brilliant summer sunshine. She stood at the kitchen window, gazing out at the mesmerising view of the lake.

"Something smells good," Batt said, arriving into the kitchen.

Rachel jumped, so lost in her thoughts was she.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he said, kicking off his boots, "did you sleep well?"

"Like a baby," she replied.

"Good, I'm glad to hear that, there's nothing like fresh air to make you sleep soundly."

"That, and too much wine."

Suddenly she felt shy, and busied herself at the cooker to disguise her pink cheeks. He brushed past her on his way to the sink to wash his hands and she felt a tingle run up her spine.

"I'm starving," Batt tucked into his breakfast and had most of it eaten before Rachel had even finished her first piece of toast.

She savoured her coffee and nibbled at some bacon. She rarely felt like eating much first thing in the morning, especially when she'd had too much to drink the night before. It often took her body a few hours to wake up.

"Are you still on for that bike ride today?" Batt asked.

"Absolutely, can't wait."

"I have a spare helmet in the shed somewhere and a leather jacket I think. They'll probably be a bit big for you, but at least you'll be protected."

"You fancy heading out in an hour or so? I'd like to grab a shower before we set off.
I can't go around smelling of cows all day."

"You smell lovely," Rachel said.

He looked at her and grinned. He had a dimple in each cheek which Rachel hadn't noticed last night. He looked like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth when he smiled. "I bet you get away with murder with those dimples," she couldn't resist saying. He laughed then and gave her a cheeky wink.

Rachel spent a long time under the warm shower, relishing the luxury of not having to worry about how much water she was using. It had been a quite a while since she'd had a long shower, five minutes was the longest shower she'd had in the camper, otherwise she'd run out of water and she wasn't always close to a service station to refill her supply. She loved her campervan but sometimes she missed her home comforts. It was amazing what you took for granted when you lived in a house; electricity, water, heat, bins, flushing a toilet and not having to look for a public toilet to empty the portaloo.

Chapter 28

"I know, I know, I have an inordinately large head, you can stop laughing now, ha ha very funny joke's over," Rachel was trying to pull the bike helmet onto her head but it was stuck just over her ears.

She'd always had a disproportionately big head. She found it difficult to find hats that were large enough. Wool hats, without any elastic band restriction were the best fit for her, but even they looked a bit skimpy on her head. Batt was in convulsions of laughter with tears rolling down his face.

"That's the best laugh I've had in a while," he gulped, in between gasping for air.

"I can't believe your head is bigger than mine."

"Ah, don't be so smug," she retaliated, "it takes a head this size to hold all my brilliant brains." This outburst made Batt laugh even more. Meanwhile, his helmet was sitting perfectly on his head, tied neatly under his chin.

"Are you going to help me or are you just going to stand there all day watching the show?" she asked.

"I suppose I'd better help you, otherwise we'll never get on the road," he chuckled. He grabbed the two straps on either side of her helmet and pulled very hard.

"Ouch!" she yelped, as one last tug and the helmet was finally sitting correctly, but not very comfortably on her head.

"Gorgeous," Batt said, tying the straps under her chin.

Batt's motorbike was indeed a magnificent machine. It was a luxurious silver-grey touring bike with side panniers, a top box and even a six stack CD player with a radio. Rachel was amazed at how comfortable the seats felt. It was her first time on a motorbike, and she expected to be nervous, but she felt somehow very safe behind Batt, with her arms wrapped tight around him. He was a very considerate driver, taking it nice and steady for the first few kilometres.

They had a two-way intercom system through which Batt kept up a steady chat with Rachel, assuring her when he was going to increase the speed and letting her know when to lean into a bend. It was a wonderful sense of freedom on the motorbike. Somehow, she felt more connected to nature as she rode on the back of the bike. She imagined this is what it must be like to be a bird flying.

The road to Achill was quite bumpy and windy, but the scenery was spectacular, as they drove past Ballycroy National Park. There were kilometres of bog, which stretched as far as the horizon. There were forests of trees reaching high up to the sky, like a small child looking for a hug. Austere mountains surrounded the landscape, the first frost of winter already decorating their icy white peaks. The brilliant winter sunshine beamed down on them as they travelled, smiling its warmth on them. Rachel had an overwhelming sense of peace and freedom.