Faith - Lesley Pearse [248]
‘Every chance, but what made you come?’
‘Unfinished business?’
He cupped his two hands on either side of her face and rubbed his nose against hers. ‘Does that mean what I hope it means?’ he whispered.
She was tingling all over, her heart beating so fast it felt it might burst. ‘You’d better tell me what you hope for,’ she whispered back.
‘That you want me,’ he said softly.
She put her arms around him and lifted her face to be kissed.
The years fell away as she was enveloped by the sweetly familiar smell of timber on his working clothes. Then as his lips came down on hers and his arms almost crushed her, she was transported back to that first kiss in Castle Douglas, and the passion that had erupted like a volcano.
But there was timidity on her part now. Back then she’d known she was beautiful and desirable, she had no fear of rejection or of adventure. Even as his lips were devouring hers, she was aware that she was middle-aged, that her flesh was no longer as firm and supple. She wanted him, but she was also afraid.
He broke away first. ‘I’d better make you a cup of tea,’ he said. ‘If someone comes along and sees us snogging like a pair of teenagers the news of it will spread faster than a forest fire.’
Taking her hand, he led her round the side of his cottage, stepping over pieces of timber, fragments of glass, old tree roots and broken fencing. ‘Sorry it’s such a mess,’ he said with a faintly embarrassed chuckle. ‘I had hoped to get it all straight before I came for you.’
They got to the back of the cottage, and before them was an overgrown garden which clearly had once been well tended for there were rose bushes, brick paths and the remnants of a lawn. Beyond that was the loch, just twenty or so yards from the back door.
‘You were intending to come for me then?’ she asked tentatively.
‘Of course I was,’ he said and sounded surprised she had to ask. ‘I just thought you needed time to get yourself together, to find out if you had room in your new life for me.’
Laura held on to before I came for you, it sounded so masterful, so right. Her eyes swept around the neglected garden and she noted a wooden bench under a rowan tree, an upturned rowing boat with long grass almost hiding it, a chicken coop and a large rabbit hutch. She could almost see the old couple who had lived here, and sense the love that they’d felt for the place.
‘I was intending to go back to London and start a new life with Meggie and Ivy,’ she said carefully, afraid to say anything which would make her sound pushy or clingy. ‘But first I went out to Barney’s grave, and I ran into Ted.’
‘How was he?’
‘Sad, but okay. He’s been looking after the grave, and that was very touching. We had a long chat, and things he said made me feel I should take the chance and come up here and see you first, before returning to London.’
‘I’m very glad you did. But I intended to come down there and take you to a few swanky places,’ he said.
In a flash she guessed what had been going on in his mind. Finding this croft, doing it up, living in a wild place, fishing, shooting, that was the kind of life he always wanted for himself, but he believed it would hold no attractions for her. He thought she needed city life, smart clothes, luxury, fancy restaurants and sophisticated people.
He had learned so much about her since he’d come back to help her, yet he hadn’t taken on board that all those experiences had given her a different perspective.
‘I’d rather walk these lanes than go to swanky places,’ she said simply. ‘Now, can I see inside?’
It was a hideous mess. Four dank, dark rooms with plaster falling off the walls, window frames with gaps around them, and the kitchen had nothing but an ancient sink with a rusting tap. The whole place smelled of rot and decay.
‘Enough to put you off?’ Stuart asked, raising one eyebrow quizzically.
‘It’s very Third World,’ she laughed, noting he had a camp bed, a camping stove and a box of groceries. ‘But it’s got great potential. Look how big the rooms are! The fireplaces are lovely, the floors could be stripped and varnished,