Stolen Feelings. Margaret Mayo
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and would afford her some degree of privacy—until she poked her head inside and saw Ian’s possessions! She almost blurted out there and then that she and Ian weren’t married, only the fact that she knew her twin would be furious stopping her. She had already done enough damage by speaking to Cameron Storm as though he was a nobody.
‘I’ll leave you to get settled,’ he said, a touch of humour lurking on his lips.
Julie looked into the intent blueness of his eyes, and to her utter, utter astonishment felt a faint pull of atttraction. Lord, what was happening? Something like this would be fatal; it would completely ruin her brother’s chances of staying here and furthering his career.
Besides, she had come out here to get over Roger, not to trip headlong into another relationship. Her chin came up. ‘And then what?’ She did not realise how aggressive her voice sounded.
An eyebrow slid smoothly upwards. ‘Nothing much for today. I’ll show you the tent I use as an office and when Raul, our present cook, returns you will be able to see how things are run in the kitchen.’
Julie frowned, a suspicion dawning. ‘How many am I expected to cook for?’
‘Why, all of us.’ He looked surprised at her question.
‘And how many is all of us?’
‘At the moment about twenty.’
‘Twenty?’ she echoed. ‘I didn’t know that; it wasn’t the impression I got. I actually thought, naive as it seems, that you’d rented a house and needed a cook-cum-typist.’
He gave a bark of laughter, and it was surprising how it softened the harsh lines of his face and made him look more human. ‘Actually you’re half right. You, Ian and myself are moving to Isla Fragata, or Vulcan Island as it is more commonly known.’
‘Just the three of us?’ she asked cautiously.
‘Yes.’ He grew serious again. ‘It should prove very—interesting, from many points of view. Ian is very eager to learn, but—’ his tone sharpened ‘—his success depends upon you.’
Julie frowned. ‘Me? What do you mean?’
‘You’re fully aware of my stipulation?’
‘That you wouldn’t take him on your team if I didn’t come too?’
‘That’s right.’
‘I can’t understand why,’ Julie said strongly. ‘If you’re afraid of being chased by single girls you could have employed a man.’
‘Afraid, Mrs Drummond? Me?’ He looked considerably amused.
Julie shrugged. ‘Ian said that was the reason.’
Cameron Storm’s mouth twisted cynically. ‘I suppose it was a natural assumption, but he’s wide of the mark. The truth is I did not think it fair to part him from his wife for twelve long months; it could put his—marriage in jeopardy.’
He paused a moment, as though expecting her to say something. Julie hid her unease but remained silent. He couldn’t possibly know that she wasn’t Ian’s wife, she was being too sensitive.
‘Besides,’ he went on briskly, ‘I happened to need someone with your qualifications. You can—er—type, I presume?’
Julie inclined her head, her eyes flashing her impatience at such a question.
‘You’re not exactly what I expected,’ he added surprisingly. ‘I rather thought Ian’s wife was a blonde; I don’t know why. But then—’ he grinned widely, showing amazingly white teeth ‘—it’s amazing what you can get out of a bottle.’
Julie could not believe this man. He was totally confusing her and she wanted to get away from him, she wanted to speak to Ian, she wanted to ask him what, if anything, he had said. God, already it was so difficult.
‘All I ask,’ he said, the humour gone now, his voice brusque, ‘is that you don’t let your husband down.’
Taken by surprise, she asked sharply, ‘And what is that supposed to mean?’
‘I think you know.’ His blue eyes narrowed upon hers and Julie felt a quiver of unease. Another thought struck her. Surely he wasn’t aware that she already felt a faint pull of attraction? Surely she hadn’t given herself away in this short space of time? He didn’t think, he couldn’t think, that she was like this with every man she met? Could he?
‘If you can’t cope,’ he added crisply, ‘say so now and you and Ian can go back to England before we get started.’
Julie deliberately misinterpreted him. ‘I have no doubt at all that I can cope with the job.’ It had taken them ages to get their permits to stay and work here; Ian would never forgive her if she fouled things up now.
‘And everything else?’ he persisted, and this time there was no doubt what he meant.
‘But of course.’ She kept her eyes steady on his.
‘And may I suggest that you do something with your hair.’ His eyes raked over its long length. ‘Either tie it up or get the scissors to it. It’s totally impractical in this heat.’
She tossed her head. ‘You don’t have to tell me, I’ve already found that out. I have every intention of tying my hair back just as soon as I’ve had a shower and changed.’
‘Showered?’ He looked at her as though she were out of her mind. ‘There are no mod cons here.’
Julie felt slightly foolish, but she was damned if she would show it. She lifted her chin defensively. ‘Whatever.’
In the privacy of the tent Julie flung herself down on one of the camp-beds and wondered what she had let herself in for. Apart from the difficulty of the masquerade, she had never imagined anything like this. Had Ian known they would be sleeping under canvas? Had he deliberately misled her? Or had he thought it would be different too?
Throughout the flight from England to Ecuador she had tried to imagine what life in the Galapagos Islands would be like. Nothing had prepared her for camping out on the beach. She actually did not like sleeping under canvas.
When they were young, she and Ian had gone on a camping holiday with their parents and a violent thunderstorm had blown down the tent in the middle of the night. Several dozen frightened cows had come charging through their camp and frightened her even more than the storm. They had never managed to persuade her to sleep under canvas again.
It was a pity, Julie thought now, that she and Ian had not been able to fly out here together. They’d actually had difficulty in getting flights, and in the end he had come out more than a week before her.
She had stayed one night in Ecuador at a hotel in Quito, and had somehow expected things to be equally as civilised here. Perhaps, if she had thought about it properly, she would have realised that it wasn’t possible, that living in a tent was far more practical when it was necessary to move camp from one island to another—except that she hadn’t known they would be moving!
It was hot inside the tent and totally airless, and it was easy to see why most of them had no sides—obviously Cameron had thought that she and Ian needed their privacy!
Eventually she sat up and hugged her knees and looked about her. There was not exactly a lot of room and only one small area to store and hang their clothes. She had brought far too much, most of it totally impractical. When would she ever wear dresses, for instance? And high heels? She had thought they would dine out sometimes, that it wouldn’t be all work and no play. It certainly didn’t look like that now.
She knew that Santa Cruz was the second largest island and the main tourist centre, with the Charles Darwin Research Station stituated here, but she hadn’t really understood how remote their camp was going to be. And she was afraid to imagine what it was going to be like when they went to Vulcan Island. The stress would be intolerable.
Julie