One Chance At Love. Carole Mortimer
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kind invitation.’
He gave her a look which clearly indicated that if it had been left to him she would have been looking for the park bench, nodding curtly before moving agilely up the wide stone stairway.
Dizzy instantly turned to Christi as she pulled her towards the stairs. ‘What do you—–’
‘Ssh,’ her friend warned, looking frantically about them to see if they could be overheard. ‘We can talk when we get to your room,’ she muttered.
‘But—–’
‘Dizzy, I am not in the mood to be argued with!’ Her voice rose shrilly.
She did sound more than a little strained—and she was probably going to be even more so once Dizzy told her she didn’t think this plan of hers could possibly work.
If only she could have spoken to Christi when she’d called earlier, or at least before she’d had to meet the uncle! The way things stood at the moment, she had no choice but to continue with the plan Christi had started before she’d arrived. Unfortunately, it was a plan she felt was doomed to failure, although Christi didn’t agree with her.
They had strolled up the stairway together, Dizzy having assured Fredericks, when he quietly appeared back in the entrance hall, that she could manage her own shoulder-bag and backpack. She smiled, as if she hadn’t seen his scandalised look that that was all of her luggage.
Christi gave her a running commentary as they went. ‘Only the east wing has been renovated for habitation so far,’ she pointed out, then explained why the rest of the castle was closed off to them. ‘Uncle Zach has the work done as he gets the money. He must get paid very well to have the work done at all,’ she added in a whispered aside. ‘But what he’s had done so far is lovely,’ she continued in her normal voice.
For her uncle’s benefit, Dizzy acknowledged wryly. There wasn’t an angle possible that Christi wasn’t playing, and it was all so unnecessary, when just being herself would probably have made the best impression.
The renovation that had so far been done to the castle was very impressive, and looked very much as it must have when it was first built in the fifteenth century. Dizzy realised it also had some of the discomfort that must have gone with it at that time, as she gave an involuntary shiver from the cold. Obviously Zachariah Bennett had gone for complete authenticity, omitting the central heating that might have made the castle more appealing. She could only hope that authenticity hadn’t gone as far as the plumbing; carrying buckets of water up the stairs for her bath didn’t exactly appeal to her!
‘I’ve given you the bedroom next to mine.’ Christi threw open the heavy oak door.
Dizzy was mesmerised from the first, from the tapestry that was the height and breadth of one wall, to the four-poster bed that totally dominated the huge room.
As she walked dazedly into the room, she touched the brocade curtains on the bed wonderingly, knowing by their thickness that they would pull completely around the sides and bottom of the bed, affording its occupant complete privacy. Her eyes aglow with pleasure, she walked across the room to gaze out of one of the long, narrow windows that graced two walls of the room. The view was magnificent—lakes and mountains as far as the eye could see. Heat warmed her cheeks as she realised that the small lake Zachariah Bennett had swum in earlier was just behind the first hill to the east, that it might even be part of the land that obviously adjoined the castle.
She was never going to get tired of the scenery if every time she looked out of this window she remembered Zachariah Bennett’s nakedness so vividly!
‘—so far, don’t you think?’
She turned back to Christi, realising she had missed half the conversation in her musing over Zachariah Bennett. From the sudden impatience in Christi’s expression, she had realised it, too!
‘I said,’ her friend bit out with slow emphasis, ‘I think everything is going well so far, don’t you? Or, at least, it would be, if you would enter into the spirit of the thing a bit more,’ she added critically.
‘Christi, I don’t think this is going to work.’ Dizzy put all thoughts of Zachariah Bennett’s nakedness from her mind, as she concentrated on convincing Christi that her plan wasn’t such a good one, after all.
Thankfully, she noted, as she turned back into the room, that an adjoining door revealed a fully fitted bathroom. It wouldn’t be as good as a naked swim in a lake, but a bath would certainly refresh her!
‘It’s obvious you’re trying to convince your uncle I’m some sort of leech,’ she sighed. ‘But, personally, I think you’ve gone over the top. You’re making me out to be little more than a parasite to everyone I’ve ever known. No wonder he disliked me on sight!’ she grimaced.
‘Oh, that didn’t have anything to do with being a leech,’ Christi shook her head with certainty.
Her expression became wary. ‘Then what did it have to do with?’
Christi shrugged. ‘Henry.’
‘Henry?’ she repeated in a puzzled voice. ‘What does your dog have to do with this?’
‘Nothing, really.’ Christi began to smile, starting to relax, at last.
‘Then—Christi, what is going on?’ she demanded impatiently.
Her friend was really having trouble not openly laughing now. ‘Oh, Dizzy, it couldn’t have worked out better if I’d planned it that way!’ she said excitedly. ‘Of course I didn’t,’ she assured hastily.
‘What are you talking about?’ she prompted warily, sure that, whatever ‘it’ was, it didn’t augur well for her!
Christi grimaced. ‘You remember this morning that I told you I heard someone coming, and quickly ended our call?’
‘Vaguely,’ she dismissed with a sigh. ‘I don’t function too well at six o’clock in the morning!’
‘Well, apparently my uncle does,’ Christi said drily. ‘He was the one I heard. It seems he likes to take long walks first thing in the morning, before starting work for the day. He asked who I was talking to on the telephone.’ She pulled a face. ‘And so I explained that you had got my number from another schoolfriend, and asked if you could come and stay.’
That part of things seemed to be clear enough; it certainly explained the change of plans about her supposed arrival at the castle. ‘OK, I accept that you had no choice about that,’ she said wearily. ‘Although I think you might have warned me about it,’ she added sternly.
‘I haven’t had a minute to myself since I called you at six o’clock!’ Christi protested indignantly. ‘Uncle Zach insisted I join him for his walk, and then, when we got back, he watched over me while I ate a nauseously enormous breakfast.’ She shuddered at the memory and Dizzy remembered that she was ordinarily only a coffee drinker for her first meal of the day. ‘He thinks I don’t eat enough,’ she grimaced. ‘Then, of all things, he decided we hadn’t spent enough time together during my stay, and dragged me off for a tour of the area. I have never been so bored in my entire life, Dizzy. He really—–’
‘Christi, this is all very interesting,’ she cut in with a decided lack of sympathy. ‘But we seem to have forgotten Henry,’ she reminded.
‘Henry?’ Her friend frowned. ‘What on earth—oh! Oh, yes.’ Her expression cleared, and she bit her lip to once again stop herself from smiling. ‘Uncle Zach was quite shocked at the idea of your taking a man into your bed just because he has soulful brown eyes and looks lonely!’
‘Taking a man—–’ Dizzy stared at her in horrified disbelief. ‘What man?’ She shook her head dazedly.
Christi was choking with laughter. ‘Surely you remember what you said on the telephone about—–’
‘—about letting your dog sleep