The Girl from Honeysuckle Farm / One Dance with the Cowboy: The Girl from Honeysuckle Farm / One Dance with the Cowboy

‘But?’

This man was as sharp as a tack! He knew full well that there was a ‘but’. ‘But nothing,’ she replied stiffly. She didn’t want a spanner thrown into the works of her arrangements at this late stage. But Ty Allardyce continued to look back at her, his mind fully at work, she didn’t doubt. ‘Well, I’ve things to do. Thank you for popping by,’ she said coolly, moving towards the door, knowing full well that this wasn’t a social call, but at a loss to know what else one would call it.

‘What you would need,’ he stated thoughtfully, his glance lighting briefly on her long length of leg in the short shorts, ‘is somewhere you can lay your head, and somewhere where at the same time you can stable that—’

‘Her name is Ruby,’ Phinn cut in, starting to bridle. ‘The flea-bitten old nag, as you so delight-fully called her, is Ruby.’

‘I apologise,’ he replied, and that surprised her so much she could only stand there and blink. And blink again when he went on. ‘Do you know, I really don’t think I can allow you to go back to Honeysuckle Farm? It—’

‘How did you know I intended to go there?’ she gasped in amazement. Surely Mickie hadn’t…?

He hadn’t. ‘I didn’t know. That is I wasn’t sure until you just this minute confirmed it.’

‘Clever devil!’ she sniffed. Then quickly realised that she was in a hole that looked like getting bigger and bigger—if she couldn’t do something about it. ‘Look,’ she said, taking a deep breath, ‘I know you’re cross with me—full-time, permanently. But I wouldn’t harm the place. I’d—’

‘Out of the question,’ he cut in forthrightly.

‘Why?’ she demanded, when common sense told her she was going about this in totally the wrong way.

‘There aren’t any services up there for a start.’

‘I won’t need any. I’ve got a supply of candles. And it’s too warm for me to need heating. And…’

‘And what if it rains and the roof leaks?’

‘It doesn’t. I was up there the other…’ Oh, grief—just think before you speak!

‘You’ve been inside?’ he demanded. ‘You still have a key?’

‘Yes and no.’ He looked impatient. She hated him.

‘Yes, I’ve been inside. And, no, I haven’t got a key.’

‘You got in—how?’

It wouldn’t have taken much for her to tell him to get lost, but she was still hopeful of moving back to Honeysuckle Farm tomorrow. ‘I—um—got in through one of the bedroom windows,’ she confessed.

‘You climbed in…’ He shook his head slightly, as if hardly believing this female. ‘You include breaking and entering in your list of skills?’

‘I’m desperate!’ she exclaimed shortly. ‘Ruby’s not well, and—’ She broke off. Damn the man. It must still be shock—she was feeling weepy again. She turned her back on him, wanting to order him out, but ready to swallow her pride and plead with him if she had to.

But then, to her astonishment and to her disbelieving ears, she discovered that she did not have to plead with him at all. Because, staggeringly, Ty Allardyce was stating, ‘I think we can find you somewhere a bit better than the present condition of Honeysuckle Farm to live.’

Things like that just did not happen for people like Delphinnium Hawkins—well, not lately anyhow. She stared at him open-mouthed. He didn’t like her. She definitely didn’t like him. So why? ‘For Ruby too?’ she asked slowly.

‘For Ruby too,’ he confirmed.

‘Where?’ she asked, not believing it but desperately wanting to.

‘Up at the Hall. You could come and live with—’

‘Now, wait a minute!’ she cut in bluntly. ‘I don’t know what you think I am, but let me tell—’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ He cut her off irritably. Then, taking a steadying breath, let her know that she could not be more wrong. ‘While I’ll acknowledge you may have the best pair of legs I’ve seen in a while—and the rest of you isn’t so bad either…’ She refused to visibly blench, because he must be referring to the sight he’d had of her well-proportioned breasts, pink tips protruding. ‘I have better things to do with my free time than want to bed one of the village locals!’

Village locals! Well, that put her in her place. ‘You should be so lucky!’ she sniffed. But, with Ruby in mind, she could not afford to be offended for very long. ‘Why would you want me living up at the Hall?’

‘Shall we sit down?’ he suggested.

Perhaps her legs would be less on display if she sat down. Phinn moved to one chair and he went and occupied the other one. Then, waiting until she looked ready to listen, he began, ‘You did me a service today that will render me forever in your debt.’

‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that.’ She shrugged off his comment, but realised then that he now knew all about his brother’s attack of cramp. ‘See where trespassing will get you!’

‘Had you not trespassed…had you not been there—’ He broke off. ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about,’ he said, his jaw clenching as if he was getting on top of some emotion.

‘Ash wasn’t to know that that part of the pool is treacherous. That you have to stick strictly to the shallows if you want to swim,’ she attempted lightly.

But Ty was not making light of it, and seemed to know precisely how tragic the consequences could have been. ‘But you knew it. And even so—according to Ash when he was able to reflect back—you did the finest and fastest running racing dive he’d ever seen. He said that you dived straight in, not a moment’s hesitation, to get him out.’

‘Had you arrived a little earlier than you did, I’d have happily let you go in,’ she murmured, starting to feel a touch embarrassed. With relief she saw, unexpectedly, the way Ty’s mouth had picked up at the corners and knew her attempt at humour—her intimation that she would quite happily have let him take his chances on drowning—had reached his own sense of humour.

Though he was not to be drawn away from the seriousness of their discussion it seemed, because he continued. ‘You saved my brother’s life with not a thought for your own, when you knew full well about that treacherous side of the pool. You went straight in.’

‘I did stop to kick my sandals off and yank my dress over my head,’ she reminded him, again attempting to make light of it.

But then wished that she hadn’t, when grey eyes looked straight into hers and he commented, ‘I have not forgotten,’ adding in a low murmur, ‘I doubt I ever shall. I thought you’d been skinny-dipping at first.’ He brought himself up short. ‘Anyhow, Ash—for all he’s lost a lot of weight—is still quite heavy. Had he struggled, you could both have drowned. Dear God—’He broke off again, swallowing down his anguish.

Seeing his mental torment, and even if she didn’t like him, Phinn just had to tell him, ‘Ash didn’t struggle. It wasn’t an attempt at suicide, if that’s what you think. It was cramp, pure and simple. The water’s icy there. There’s a deep shelf…He…’

Ty Allardyce smiled then. It was the first smile he had ever directed at her and her heart went thump. He was so handsome! ‘I know he wasn’t attempting to take his own life,’ he agreed. ‘But from that remark it’s obvious that you’ve observed that my brother is…extremely vulnerable at the moment.’

Phinn nodded. Yes, she knew that. ‘I know you blame me in part, but truthfully there was nothing I could have done to stop it. I mean, I didn’t know that Leanne would—er—break it off with him the way she did.’

‘Perhaps I was unfair to blame you,’ Ty conceded. ‘But to get to other matters—Ash tells me you have a problem, with no job and no home for you and your—Ruby. I,’ he stated, ‘am in a position to offer you both.’

A home and a job? Things like this just did not happen. ‘I don’t want your charity!’ she erupted.

‘My God, you’re touchy!’ Ty bit back. But then, looking keenly at her, ‘You’re not…? Are you in shock? Starting to suffer after-effects from what happened today?’

Phinn rather thought she might be. And—oh, grief—she was feeling weepy again. ‘Look, can you go back to being nasty again? I can cope with you better when you’re being a brute!’

He wasn’t offended, but nor was he reverting to being the brute that always put her on her mettle. ‘Have you any family near?’ he asked, quite kindly.

This—his niceness—was unnerving. So unnerving that she found she was actually telling him. ‘My mother lives in Gloucester, but…’

‘I’ll drive you there,’ he decided. ‘Get—’

‘I’m not—’ she started to protest.

‘Stop being argumentative,’ he ordered. ‘You’re in no condition to drive.’ And, when she would have protested further, ‘You’ll probably get the shakes any minute now,’ he went on. ‘It will be safer all round if I’m at the wheel.’

Honestly—this man! ‘Will you stop trying to bulldoze me along?’ she flared crossly. ‘Yes, I feel a bit shaken,’ she admitted. ‘But nothing I can’t cope with. And I’m not going anywhere.’

‘If I can’t take you to your mother, I’ll take you back to the Hall with me.’ He ignored what she had just said.

‘No, you won’t!’ she exploded, going on quickly. ‘Apart from anything else, I’m not leaving Ruby. She’s—’

‘She’ll be all right until you pick her up tomorrow,’ he countered. ‘You can—’

‘You can stop right there. Just stop it!’ she ordered. ‘I’m not going anywhere today. And when I do go, Ruby goes with me.’

Ty Allardyce observed the determined look of her. And, plainly a man who did not take defeat lightly, he gave her a stern expression of his own. ‘I’ll make you some tea,’ he said, quite out of nowhere—and she just had to burst out laughing. That just made him stare at her.

‘I’m sorry,’ she apologized, and, quickly sobering, ‘I know tea is said to be good for shock, but I’ve had some tea and I don’t want more. And please,’ she went on before he could argue, ‘can we just accept that I know you truly appreciate my towing Ash back onto terra firma this afternoon and then forget all about it?’

Steady grey eyes bored into her darkened blue ones. ‘You want to go back to me being the brute up at the Hall who keeps trying to turf you off his land?’

Phinn nodded, starting to feel better suddenly.

‘And I’ll go back to being the—er—village local…’ Her lips twitched, and she saw his do the same before they both sobered, and she went on. ‘The village local who thinks you’ve one heck of a nerve daring to stop me from doing things I’ve always done on Broadlands land.’

He nodded, but informed her, ‘You’re still not going back to Honeysuckle Farm to live.’

‘Oh, come on!’ she exclaimed. ‘I have to leave here tomorrow. Geraldine wants the flat for a member of her staff, and I’ve promised I’ll move out.’

‘That, as I’ve mentioned, is not a problem. There’s a home and a job waiting for you at the Hall.’

‘And a home for Ruby too?’

‘At the moment the stable is being used for storage, but you can clear it out tomorrow. It’s dry in there and—’

‘It has water?’

‘It has water,’ he confirmed.

‘You have other horses?’ she asked quickly, and, at his questioning look, ‘Ruby’s a kind of rescue mare. She was badly treated and has a timid nature. Other horses tend to gang up on her.’

‘You’ve no need to worry on that score. Ruby will have an idyllic life. There’s a completely fenced-off paddock too that she can use.’

Phinn knew the paddock, if it was the one she was thinking of. As well as being shaded in part by trees, it also had a large open-ended shed a horse could wander into if it became too hot.

All of a sudden Phinn felt weepy again. She would be glad when this shock was over and done with! Oh, it did sound idyllic. Oh, Ruby, my darling. ‘This is a—a permanent job?’ she questioned. ‘I mean, you’re not going to turf me out after a week?’

‘It wouldn’t be a permanent position,’ he replied. Though he added before she could feel too deflated, ‘Let’s say six months definite, with a review when the six months are up.’

‘I’ll take it,’ she accepted at once, not needing to think about it. She would have six months in which to sort something else out. Trying not to sound too eager, though unable to hold back, she said, ‘I’ll do it—whatever the job is. I can cook, clean, garden—catalogue your library…’

‘With a couple of part-time helpers, Mrs Starkey runs the house and kitchen admirably, and Jimmie Starkey has all the help he needs in the grounds.’

‘And you don’t need your library catalogued?’ she guessed, ready to offer her secretarial skills but suspecting he had a PA in London far more competent than she would be to take care of those matters.

‘The job I have for you is very specialised,’ Ty Allardyce stated, and before she could tell him that she was a little short in the specialised skills department, he was going on. ‘My work in London and overseas has been such that until recently I’ve been unable to spend very much time down here.’

At any other time she might have thrown in a sarcastic We’ve missed you, but Ty Allardyce was being deadly serious, so she settled for, ‘I expect you keep in touch by phone.’

He nodded. ‘Which in no way prepared me for the shock I received when I made what was meant to be a snatched visit here a couple of weeks ago.’

‘Ah—you’re talking…Ash?’

‘You’ve noticed the change in him?’

Who could fail to? ‘He’s—not ill?’

‘Not in the accepted sense.’

‘Did Leanne do this to him?’ She voiced her thoughts, and saw his mouth tighten.

‘I couldn’t believe that some money-grabbing female could so wreck a man, but—’ He broke off, then resumed, ‘Anyhow, I felt there was no way I could return to London. Not then. Not now—without your help.’

‘I’ll do anything I can, naturally.’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘The job is yours.’

She stared at this man who she had to admit she was starting to like—though she was fully prepared to believe that shock did funny things to people, but still felt no further forward. ‘Er—and the job is what, exactly?’

‘I thought I’d just said,’ Ty replied, ‘I want you to be Ash’s companion.’

Her mouth fell open. ‘You want me to be your brother’s companion?’ she echoed.

‘I’ll pay you, of course,’ Ty answered, seeing absolutely nothing untoward in what he was proposing.

‘You want me to be his paid companion?’ she questioned again, as it started to sink in. ‘His—his minder?’

‘No, not minder!’ Ty answered shortly. ‘I’ve explained how things are.’

‘Not really you haven’t,’ Phinn stated, and was on the receiving end of an impatient look.

‘The situation is,’ he explained heavily, ‘that while I can do certain parts of my job in my study, via computer and telephone, other matters require my presence in London or some other capital. I’ve been down here for two weeks more than I originally intended already. And, while I have a pressing need to get back to town, I still don’t feel ready to leave Ash on his own.’

Phinn thought about it. ‘You think I might be the person to take over from you for a while?’

‘Can you think of anyone better than someone who has actually risked their own life for him, as you did today?’

‘I don’t know about that,’ she mumbled.

‘Ash likes you. He enjoyed talking to you the other day.’

‘Um—that was the day you told me to leave him alone, to—’

‘I was angry,’ Ty admitted. ‘I didn’t want another Hawkins finishing off what your cousin had done to him. But that was before I was able to reason that he was still so ensnared by her that other women just don’t exist for him. Frankly, Ash wouldn’t fancy you even if you did use your beauty to try to hook him.’

Beauty? Hook him? Charming! At that point Phinn was in two minds about whether or not she wanted the job. She felt sorry for Ash—of course she did. As for her cousin…she was feeling quite angry with Leanne. But…then Phinn thought of Ruby, and at the thought of a stable and a paddock there was no question but that she wanted the job.

‘I haven’t the first idea what a paid companion is supposed to do…I mean, what would I have to do? You wouldn’t expect me to take him down to the pub and get drunk with him every night, I hope?’

‘You like beer?’ he asked sharply.

‘No!’ she shot straight back.

‘You’d been drinking this afternoon,’ he retorted, obviously not caring to be lied to. ‘There was a smell of beer on your breath.’

‘Honestly!’ she exclaimed. And she was thinking of working for this man who could sniff out beer at a hundred paces! But what choice did she have? ‘If you must know, I hate the stuff. But I’ve been having a courtesy swig out of Idris Owens’ beer tankard ever since I was ten years old—it’s a sort of tradition, each time I go to the farrier. It would have been churlish to refuse his offer when I took Ruby to have her hooves checked over by him this afternoon.’

For a moment Ty Allardyce said nothing, just sat there looking at her. Then he said quietly, ‘Rather than hurt his feelings, you quaffed ale that you’ve no particular liking for?’

‘So what does that make me?’ she challenged, expecting something pretty pithy in reply.

But, to her surprise, he replied in that same quiet tone. ‘I think it makes you a rather nice kind of person.’ And she was struck again by the change in him from the man she had thought he was.

‘Yes, well…’ she said abruptly—grief, she’d be going soft in the head about him in a minute. Buck up, she instructed herself. This man could be ironhard and unyielding without any trouble. Hadn’t she witnessed that for herself? ‘So I’m—er—to take over the sort of guardianship of Ash from you while you—um—go about your business?’

‘Not quite,’ Ty replied. ‘What I believe Ash needs just now is to be with someone who will be a sensitive ear for him when he needs to talk. Someone to take him out of himself when he looks like becoming a little melancholy.’

‘You think I’ve got a sensitive ear?’

Again he looked steadily at her. ‘You’ll do,’ he said. And he would have left it at that, but there were questions queuing up in Phinn’s mind.

‘You think it will take as long as six months for Ash to—um—get back to being his old self?’

‘Hopefully nowhere near as long. Who knows? Whatever—I’m prepared to guarantee stabling and a place for you to rest your head for the whole six months.’

‘Fine,’ she said.

‘You’ll start tomorrow?’

And how! ‘You’d better let me have your phone number,’ she requested, overjoyed, now it had had time to sink in, that by the look of it Ruby was going to have a proper stable and a paddock all to herself.

‘Why would you want my phone number?’ Ty asked shortly.

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake!’ she erupted at her new boss. ‘So I can ring Ash and ask him to come and pick me up with my belongings. I can bring Ruby over later.’

‘You want to inspect her accommodation first?’

‘I’d—er—have put it a little more tactfully,’ she mumbled. ‘But, yes, that’s the general idea. I could still ask Mickie if you don’t want Ash to do it.’

‘Who’s Mickie?’

‘He lives in the village. He’s a bit eccentric, but he has a heart of gold. He—er—’ She broke off—that was more than he needed to know.

She quickly realised that she should have known better. ‘“He—er—” what?’

Phinn gave a resigned sigh. ‘Well, if you must know, I’d already arranged for Mickie to take my cases and bits and pieces up to Honeysuckle Farm for me tomorrow.’

Ty Allardyce shook his head, as though she was a new kind of species to him. ‘Presumably he would have kept quiet about your whereabouts?’

‘Well, there you are,’ she said briskly, about nothing, and then fell headlong when, in the same bracing tone, she said, ‘Had I not sold my car, I…’ Her voice trailed away. ‘Well, I did,’ she added quickly. And then, hurriedly attempting to close the interview—or whatever it was, ‘So I’ll get Mickie to—’

‘You sold your car?’ Ty Allardyce took up.

‘Yep.’ He didn’t need to hear more.

And nor did he, she discovered. Because what this clever man did not know he was astute enough to decipher and guess at. ‘According to my lawyers, you paid a whole whack of back rent before you handed in the keys to the farm,’ he commented slowly. Adding, ‘Had I thought about it at all, I’d have assumed that the money came from your father’s estate. But—’ he looked at her sharply ‘—it didn’t, did it?’

She shrugged. ‘What did I need a car for? I thought I’d got a steady job here—no need to look for work further afield. Besides, I couldn’t leave Ruby on her own all day.’ Phinn halted, she’d had enough of talking about herself. ‘Have you told Ash that you were going to offer me a job?’

Ty looked at her unspeaking for some moments, and then replied, ‘No.’

She saw it might be a little awkward if Ash objected strongly. ‘How do you think he’ll take my moving in to be his companion?’ No point in ducking the question. If Ash did not want her there, then the next six months could be pretty miserable all round.

‘My brother feels things very deeply,’ Ty began. ‘He has been hurt—badly hurt. In my view it would be easier for him if he didn’t know the true reason for your being at the Hall.’

‘I wouldn’t be able to lie to him,’ Phinn said quickly. ‘I’m not very good at telling lies.’

‘You wouldn’t have to lie.’

Phinn looked into steady grey eyes and felt somewhat perplexed. ‘What, then?’ she asked. ‘I can’t just ring him out of the blue and ask him to come and get me.’

‘It won’t be a problem,’ Ty assured her. ‘Ash knows that you and Ruby have to leave here. I’ll tell him that, apropos of you having nowhere to go, I called to thank you for what you did today and offered you a temporary home.’

Phinn’s eyes widened. ‘You think he’ll believe such philanthropy?’ she queried—and discovered that her hint of sarcasm was not lost on him.

‘My stars, I pity the poor man who ends up with you!’ he muttered under his breath, but then agreed, ‘Normally I doubt he’d believe it for a moment. But, apart from him not being too concerned about anything very much just now, he’s as grateful to you as I am that you were where you were today.’ The matter settled as far as he was concerned, he took out his wallet, extracted his business card, wrote several numbers on it and, standing up, handed it to her.

Phinn glanced at the card in her hand and read that he had given her his office number, his mobile number, the phone number of his London home and the one she had asked for—the number of the Hall.

‘No need to have gone raving mad,’ she commented. She had only wanted one telephone number, for goodness’ sake!

‘Just in case,’ he said, and she realised he meant her to ring him if she felt things were going badly for Ash. ‘Feel free to ring me at any time,’ he added.

‘Right,’ she agreed, and stood up too. She found he was too close and, feeling a mite odd for no reason, took a step away.

‘How are you feeling now?’ he thought to ask before he turned to the door.

‘Feeling?’ For a moment she wasn’t with him.

Without more ado he caught hold of both of her hands. When, his touch making her tingle, she would have snatched her hands back, he held on to them. ‘You’re not shaking,’ he observed—and then she was with him.

‘Oh, I think the shock has passed now,’ she informed him, only then starting to wonder if this man—this complex kind of man—had stayed talking with her as long as he had so as to be on hand if she looked like going into full-blown shock. ‘You’re kinder than I thought,’ she blurted out, quite without thinking—and abruptly had her hands dropped like hot coals.

‘Spread that around and I’ll have to kill you,’ he said shortly. And that was it. He was gone.

Starting to only half-believe that Ty Allardyce had been in the flat and made that staggering, not to say wonderful job and accommodation offer for her and Ruby, Phinn went quickly to the window that overlooked the stableyard.

He was there. She had not dreamt it. Ty Allardyce was in the stableyard talking to Geraldine Walton. What was more, Geraldine was smiling her head off. Never had Phinn seen her look more animated or more pleasant.