Page 20 of One Summer Weekend
Chapter Seven
I stared at him in horror. ‘Theywhat?’
He turned back to me with an appraising look. ‘I know, not an ideal situation. Let me explain.’ His tone was calm, almost conversational. ‘Whenever I’ve visited them here, in the last year or so – which hasn’t been as often as I’d have liked, but still – I’ve always been on my own. So when I first mentioned bringingyou … Well, before I knew what was happening, they’d made all sorts of assumptions – and I didn’t have the heart to disappoint them.’
I let out a long, shuddering breath. ‘You can’t be serious.’
The ghost of a smile. ‘We’ll just have to make the best of it. You never know, it might even be fun.’
‘I’m not here to havefun,’ – I almost spat the word at him – ‘I’m here to work.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Can’t you do both at the same time?’
Not any more. Not since I had ‘fun’ with my Californian coach. And even then, I took it all far more seriously than he did …
A shake of my head, an attempt to dismiss the tainted memories of one man and the disturbing revelations of the other. ‘This isexactlythe kind of compromising situation I warned you about, andI’ll be taking the appropriate—’
‘Look, as you’ve just said, you’ve got a job to do – we just need to play our parts well enough so that you can do it.’ He added, almost casually, ‘And anyway, it’s only what you suggested last night, in the restaurant.’
This brought me up short. ‘The restaurant?’
‘Yes, when you made out to Karina that we were on a date.’
I felt the colourflood my face. ‘That was different—’
‘How?’
‘It justwas.’
An awkward pause, filled by the hum of the lawn mower. When it sputtered to a stop, all I could hear was the thump, thump, thump of my heart.
He glanced out of the window. ‘She’s seen us, we haven’t got much time.’ As if sensing my fear, he went on, ‘I’ve already told you, you’re safe with me. So really, this isthe perfect solution. We’ll put on a show for the McGraws, but whenever we’re on our own it’s back to normal.’
But what exactly was ‘normal’ between the two of us? Coaching him was becoming more and more like – like sinking into quicksand. ‘I don’t—’ I began, but my throat was too tight to go on.
‘Alicia, trust me. It’ll be okay.’ He reached over and covered my hand with his. Lightly,no doubt to reassure. It did anything but.
I grabbed the door handle with my other hand – God knows why, there was nowhere to run. In any case, it was too late; the woman – Midge – was hurrying towards us. Jack released my hand and got out of the car, leaving me to deal with the lingering heat of his touch. I watched him scoop her into a bear hug, heard their laughter. From what I couldsee, she was indeed small, and fiftyish, with a nut-brown face and spiky fair hair. Nothing like Karina – which was something to be thankful for. But that didn’t mean that I was ready to play along with Jack’s idea of ‘fun’.
Then he was opening my door, looking down at me with an expression that I couldn’t read. ‘Ready for this?’ It was spoken softly, so that only Icould hear.
Witha deep, slightly ragged breath, I left the relative sanctuary of the car and offered Midge a tentative hand, which she ignored.
‘Och, Alicia, don’t be shy.’ She embraced me warmly and kissed me on both cheeks. ‘The way Jack talks about you, I feel as if we’ve known each other for years.’
What the hell had he said? More to the point – if there was a script, shouldn’t he have sharedit with me first? But I forced a smile and said politely, ‘Lovely to meet you too.’
‘Where’s Bill?’ Jack said.
‘In the back garden with the barbecue, I’ve got Keswick Fire Brigade on standby.’ An impish grin. ‘First things first. Come with me, both of you – I need to show you something.’
‘I’ll get Alicia’s case,’ Jack said, while I followed Midge into the cottage and up a narrowstaircase onto a landing. A tiny landing, with only two doors. The implications were obvious, and my stomach lurched.
‘By the way, Midge,’ – Jack’s voice, behind me – ‘I’ve got a bit of a cold coming on, so I told Alicia she could have the spare bedroom all to herself.’ I felt my body relax; at least we wouldn’t have to share anything other than a pretence. He went on, ‘I’ll make do withHermann.’
I turned to him with a nervous laugh. ‘Who’s Hermann?’
‘Our old motorhome,’ Midge put in. ’A Hymer, so we had to go with something German.’
