CHAPTER FIVE

      NELL’S HEART STUTTERED at the casual way Rick uttered the word proposal. It held such promise and she knew that promise was a lie.

      Oh, not a lie on his behalf, but on hers. She wanted to invest it with more meaning than he could ever hope to give it—a carry-over from her childhood fantasies of making things right over the locket.

      The childhood fantasy of having one true friend.

      But Rick didn’t know any of that. The man in front of her might look like the boy who’d starred in her fantasies, but inside she didn’t doubt that her boy and the real Rick were very different people.

      Life hadn’t been kind to Rick Bradford.

      And she needed to remember he had no reason to think kindly or act kindly towards her.

      He stared at her with those dark eyes and she drew a long breath into her lungs. ‘Proposal?’ She was proud her voice didn’t tremble.

      ‘I was going to leave Sydney at the end of the week.’

      That didn’t give them much time to crack John’s code.

      ‘I’ve holidayed long enough and it’s time to be doing something.’

      She couldn’t help herself. ‘What do you do for work?’ Did he have a regular job?

      ‘I usually pick up some building labourer’s work here and there.’

      So, that’d be a no then.

      He grinned—a lazy insolent thing, as if he’d read her mind. ‘I don’t like being tied down to one thing for too long.’

      She knew then he was talking about women and relationships too.

      ‘I like my freedom.’

      Given how his freedom had been curtailed in prison, she could understand that.

      A prison sentence he should never have had to serve, though. A prison sentence he had served because a woman had taken advantage of him.

      ‘What are you thinking about?’ he suddenly barked and she jumped.

      ‘How awful jail must’ve been.’ It didn’t occur to her to lie, but when his face turned grey she wished she had. ‘I’m sorry you were sent to jail for something you didn’t do, Rick.’

      ‘It’s all in the past.’

      The words came out icily from between uncompromising lips and Nell had to suppress a shiver. He’d carry the scars of jail with him forever. She glanced down at her hands before lifting her chin. She had no right picking the scabs off those wounds. ‘You said you were planning to leave Sydney, as in past tense. Have you changed your mind?’

      His eyes blazed. He stabbed a finger to the table and dust rose up in the air around him. His crisp white shirt, his hands and hair all sported streaks of dust and cobwebs. She guessed the skirt of her dress wasn’t in much better shape. It was the kind of carelessness that as a child had earned her rebuke after rebuke from her mother.

      She forced her chin up higher. Well, her mother was off somewhere with husband number four and Nell was old enough to do what she darn well pleased. She didn’t have to answer to anyone.

      But those dirty streaks on Rick’s shirt reminded her that while he’d been convicted of a crime he hadn’t committed, it didn’t necessarily make him a law-abiding citizen. It didn’t mean he wasn’t a heartbreaker who’d take advantage of weakness when he saw it in others.

      And you’re weak.

      She swallowed. Correction. She had been weak. Past tense.

      He continued to glare at her with those blazing eyes but he didn’t say anything. She made her voice as impersonal as she could. ‘You were saying?’

      He pushed away from the table and paced to the other side of the room before striding back. ‘I’m going to get to the bottom of this bloody mystery!’

      He spat out his bloody with so much anger she couldn’t help wincing.

      He dragged a hand down his face, glancing back at her with hooded eyes. ‘Sorry.’

      She shook her head, cursing her own prissiness. ‘You don’t have to apologise. I understand your venom.’

      ‘You know what, Princess?’ He took his seat again. ‘I believe you do.’

      She didn’t want to follow that conversational thread so she merely said, ‘I think it wise to try and discover who your sibling might be.’

      ‘Except I’ve overstayed my welcome at Tash’s.’

      She doubted that.

      ‘Besides, she’s in love. I’m cramping her style.’ He grimaced. ‘And I can’t stomach much more of her and Mitch’s lovey-dovey stuff.’

      That sounded more like it.

      For some reason, the skin on her arms started to chill.

      ‘So what I was going to suggest is that you let me use this cottage rent-free for the next few weeks. I mean, it’s just sitting here doing nothing.’

      The chill spread up her neck and down her spine.

      ‘And in return I’ll do some work on the big house.’

      The chill disappeared. He didn’t mean to take advantage of her after all?

      ‘What kind of work?’

      He lifted one lazy shoulder. ‘Whatever repairs I manage to get to and maybe even some painting.’

      That would be brilliant! She opened her mouth to snap up his offer before he could retract it, but a glance in his direction had her closing it again. Rick had a look in his eyes that she recognised. A look she’d seen in her father’s eyes—an I’m going to get my own way and I don’t care by what methods look.

      She wasn’t a pushover any more. Her father had discovered that and now Rick could too. She pushed her grandmother’s jewellery box towards him. ‘Put that back where we found it.’

      ‘Is that a yes or a no to my proposal?’

      ‘It’s negotiations are underway but, regardless of the outcome, it doesn’t affect the fate of the jewellery box.’

      He leaned back and folded his arms. For a moment she thought he was going to refuse. And then she started. ‘Heavens, where are my manners? Would you please put the box back in the ceiling?’

      One side of his mouth hooked up. ‘I wasn’t waiting for a please, Princess.’

      ‘I know, but there’s no excuse for bad manners. Have you seen enough of the cottage to satisfy your purposes?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Then I propose we go back up to the house and see if we can come to some arrangement that will satisfy mine.’

      He laughed at that. She wished he hadn’t. He looked younger, nicer, when he laughed and it had the potential to turn her to jelly.

      She didn’t need jelly but steel.

      Without another word, Rick rose and placed the box back in the ceiling. Nell locked the door behind them and pocketed the key. Rick watched her, but he didn’t say anything. In fact, neither one of them spoke on the walk back to the house.

      When they reached it, Nell cleared her