The Aristocrat and the Single Mum. Michelle Douglas
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talk. Fanciful.
She was a single mother with a child. She didn’t do fanciful.
Not any more.
Her tourist had dark eyes that crinkled at the corners. They were nice eyes and they looked at her with concern. ‘I’m sorry. Yes, I’m fine. Just a bit distracted.’ By him. But she didn’t want him to know that.
She blew a strand of hair out of her face and ordered herself to stop ogling the poor man, decided she’d buried herself in her work for far too long and that she’d better start getting out a bit more. ‘I’m just having one of those mornings, you know?’
‘Yep.’ He gave one hard nod. ‘Know exactly what you mean. Today, I can absolutely relate to that.’
Their gazes met and a surge of fellow feeling passed between them. In the dim light of her office she couldn’t work out if his eyes were brown or dark grey. She’d need to be closer to tell for sure, but they were clear and direct and she found herself liking them.
Her day suddenly started to look up. ‘How can I help you?’ She pulled the reservation book towards her.
He smiled again and her knees gave a funny little wobble. She’d bet she looked a wreck. She resisted the urge to pat down her hair and straighten her shirt.
He didn’t look a wreck. He looked impeccable in a charcoal-grey suit. Italian, she’d bet. Actually, she wouldn’t know an Italian suit if it leapt up and bit her on the nose. It could be Bond Street for all she knew.
She knew shoes though, and those shoes were definitely Italian leather.
‘I actually want to speak to your employer, Kate Petherbridge.’
Kate blinked.
‘I was here at nine o’clock this morning.’ He pointed to the glass door, which had the office hours printed across it. The previous owner’s office hours. Kate hadn’t got around to having them changed yet. ‘Nobody showed up, which at the time I thought pretty unprofessional.’
She’d moved into this office two days ago. She’d figured they’d need the extra room at home now. But there was still so much to do. Her shoulders started to sag. He smiled again. Her knees gave another funny wobble. Outside, a magpie started to warble.
‘But if you’re having one of those kinds of days then—’ he shrugged ‘—it can’t be helped.’
He glanced down at the items spread across her desk—the contents of her bag drying out after their dunking in the bay. Without warning, the strap had given way when she’d raced the passenger list down to Archie. It was her best shoulder bag too. Only quick reflexes had saved the bag, contents and all, from sinking to the bottom to lie cradled against the oyster-encrusted rocks metres below. They seemed a paltry treasure—two bank cards, her driver’s licence and medical card, a diary-cum-address book, the little paper money she’d had on her, a tab of aspirin that for some reason she hadn’t thrown away, and a couple of soggy photographs. The one of Danny and Felice before they’d set off on their honeymoon was completely ruined.
‘My bag fell in the bay.’
It was a completely ludicrous statement—self-evident—but the man opposite didn’t laugh. He nodded as if he understood.
‘That was right after I’d buried Moby—the goldfish.’ That had not been a good start to the day. It was why she’d taken her favourite shoulder bag—to try and cheer herself up.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Thank you.’
He lifted one hand. ‘For what it’s worth, I hit a kangaroo in my hire car this morning.’
Even as she winced at the picture his words created, Kate decided then and there that their joint dispiriting tales of woe made this man a good omen. ‘How fast were you travelling?’
‘Eighty kilometres an hour.’
She winced again. Kangaroos didn’t survive eighty-kilometre-per-hour collisions.
He suddenly shook himself. He leaned forward and offered his hand. ‘I’m Simon Morton-Blake.’
Kate placed her hand inside his immediately. His long fingers curled around hers and he squeezed briefly. She squeezed back. They both smiled. His hair gleamed richer, darker. Reluctantly, or so it seemed to Kate, their hands parted company again. ‘Pleased to meet you. I’m—’
The smile slid off her face. ‘What did you say your name was?’
‘Morton-Blake. Simon.’
What?
His eyes narrowed. ‘Why? Do you recognise it?’
Of course she recognised it, but Felice hadn’t mentioned anything about family.
‘The full title is Simon Morton-Blake, the seventh Lord of Holm—’ his lips twisted in self-derision ‘—but I don’t expect you’ve heard of that.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘You’re a lord? Like…a real lord?’
‘I am. Are you impressed?’
He raised an eyebrow and she wasn’t sure who he was sending up—her or himself.
‘It doesn’t seem to hold much cachet in Australia,’ he commented.
‘No, I don’t suppose it does, but…’ she peered up at him ‘…do you, like, have your own castle?’ She could imagine him living in a castle. She could imagine him in a kilt.
Don’t be ridiculous! He’s English, not Scottish.
Still…she’d give a lot to see him in a kilt.
‘The estate does have a fifteenth-century manor house and quite a few sheep, but no castle, I’m afraid. Not even the ruins of a castle.’ He gave a mock grimace. ‘Have I fallen in your estimation?’
Kate laughed. Even though his name was Morton-Blake and he had to be some kind of relative of Felice’s. Even though Felice hadn’t mentioned anything about family, let alone family as distinguished as the seventh Lord of Holm.
He must be a distant cousin or something. Perhaps Felice had sent him a postcard extolling the beauties of Port Stephens—and it had many—and how much fun she was having working for Kate’s dolphin tour business.
But why hadn’t she mentioned him? Why had Felice let Danny and Kate think she had no family at all?
‘And you are?’
Kate snapped back to attention. ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ She drew in a breath, tried to smile. ‘I’m Kate Petherbridge.’
His face darkened and his eyebrows drew down low over his eyes as he placed his hands on her desk and leaned across it towards her. His eyes weren’t brown but a dark smoky-grey.
‘Then perhaps you can tell me where the hell my sister is?’
Very slowly, Kate sat. ‘Sister?’ Her mouth went dry. ‘Felice is your sister?’
‘Yes!’ he shouted. ‘And I want to know if she’s okay.’
She sensed the concern behind his anger. ‘Of course she is.’ She made her voice crisp and businesslike, wanting to allay his worry as quickly as she could. ‘Felice is perfectly fine and dandy.’
He closed his eyes, dragged a hand down his face and fell into the seat opposite. ‘Thank God for that.’
His lovely broad shoulders went suddenly slack and it was only then that Kate realised how tightly he’d held himself. She frowned. She knew what it was like to worry about a younger sibling.
‘I didn’t know Felice had family.’ In fact, Felice had led them to believe she was alone in the world. If Simon was a lord, what on earth did that make Felice?
And, more importantly,