Page 2 of Hunter

She grimaced. “That’s because he doesn’t know yet.”

“I hope you will be here for luncheon, at least?” the butler encouraged. “Mrs. Chenoweth will be so pleased and is sure to make your favorite meal of shepherd’s pie.”

Zoey laughed for what felt like the first time in forever, the bleakness of the past ten days having not been conducive to humor. “That would be lovely, thank you, Penrose. Pass on my best wishes to Mrs. Chenoweth, please,” she requested as she took off her coat and handed it to him.

“I will.” The butler smiled warmly.

“I’ll probably stay overnight,” she added, knowing that by doing so, it would guarantee another one of her favorite meals being cooked for dinner, and probably breakfast too.

“Mr. Willis is in his study, Miss Zoey,” Penrose informed her before leaving to put her coat away.

Of course Edgar was in his study. He was nothing if not predictable.

But perhaps she needed that predictability after the recent traumatic events in Scotland? Something had definitely compelled her to come to Cornwall.

Being invited to spend Hogmanay in the Scottish Highlands, with the family of a fellow student and housemate, was supposed to have been a fun time.

And it had been, until it ended in disaster.

Ben McGregor was one of the people she shared a house with in London. There were three girls and three guys, but none of them were romantically involved. They shared the house out of financial necessity.

Ben had gone home to Scotland before Christmas, but the other five of them had traveled up by train before the New Year after spending Christmas with their own families.

Except Belle. She was another one of the six students staying in the London house, and because she didn’t have any family, she had decided to remain at the shared house on her own.

Zoey had thought about inviting Belle to spend Christmas with her in Cornwall, but Edgar wasn’t the most hospitable of people at the best of times. Having a third person in the house, someone he didn’t know, would probably have sent him into a spiral of behaving even more rudely than he usually did.

Goodness knows, Zoey had been relieved to make her own escape from his company the day after Boxing Day.

The Hogmanay celebrations in the Highlands had been everything Ben had told them they would be, with lots of the people in the Scottish village enjoying copious amounts of food and drink over two days and nights rather than just New Year’s Eve.

But all that revelry had come to an abrupt end on the third day when Ben had fallen to his death off one of the mountains near his home.

Ben, like several other local men, had been searching for Belle after she had gone for a walk and then become lost in the majestic mountains surrounding the village.

Belle had been located, safe and sound inside the cave where she had taken shelter, thank God, by another one of the locals shortly after Ben’s broken body had been found.

It hadn’t felt right to continue staying with the McGregor family after Ben’s death, but the nearest place to stay was ten miles away, in a nearby town.

As none of them had hired a car and there was still snow on the ground, it had been encouraged by Ben’s family, after they had announced that Ben’s funeral would be very small and private, for Zoey and the other remaining housemates to immediately travel back to London by train.

Belle had decided to stay in Scotland a little longer so that she could fully recover from her ordeal. She had accepted the invitation to stay in the home of the Drake brothers. One of whom was responsible for finding and rescuing her.

Not that Zoey could blame Belle for choosing that option. The Drake brothers were something else. Well…the two Zoey had met when she said her goodbyes to Belle were. The impressive Lachlan and Ranulf Drake had been present that day, flanking Belle like two huge, impenetrable and protective sentinels.

Both men were easily six and a half feet tall, with powerfully wide shoulders, tapered waists, and long, long legs. They were probably aged in their early to midthirties, their handsome faces appearing as if they had been carved from one of the sheer rock faces of the mountain behind their home. Lachlan had piercing silver-gray eyes; Ranulf’s were a deep, dark green.

Zoey knew what color the men’s eyes were because she had found herself unable to look away from either of them as she said her goodbyes to Belle. There was something about the two men that held Zoey enrapt.

Somethingmore.

It was hard to explain, but the longer Zoey had stared at the Drake brothers, the more she had become aware of the aura of power that surrounded them. As if, despite their already impressive height and size, they were somehowbiggerstill. Zoey had felt as if there was something more to both of them than what could be seen with the naked eye.

Having met two of the Drake brothers, Zoey was no longer surprised that Belle, who until now she had always thought of as being a little prudish, had accepted the invitation to recover in the home of such overwhelmingly gorgeous men. Lachlan, of the silver eyes, the brother who had rescued Belle, had seemed especially solicitous toward her.

Zoey’s decision to come down to Cornwall a week after returning from Scotland had been completely on impulse. Possibly because the London house had seemed so very empty without Belle’s and Ben’s presence.

The latter was very much a painful reminder of the recent tragedy, although Belle had sent a text letting them know that the funeral had taken place, quietly and privately as the family had wished, three days ago. Hopefully, this would now allow the McGregor family to start the process of closure and healing from their terrible loss.

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