Page 25 of Enticement
“Nice seeing you too,” muttered Kit.
“Bother!” Evie cursed at Lillianna’s retreating back, although a much stronger expletive rang in her head. “Now the whole village is going to think we’re having an affair, threesome or both.”
“Let ’em,” said Kit. “Who cares what they think?”
“What about Ross? What’s he going to think when people start spreading rumours about us?”
“That his neighbours are inveterate gossips and that they should mind their own goddamn business. He sent me over here, by the way. Thought you might like taking out for lunch. Obviously he can’t do it himself, so I’m the substitute.”
“I’m at work.”
“Um, don’t you finish at two?” He lifted his wrist and glanced between his watch and the clock on the wall counting down the last forty seconds of the hour. “There, you’re finished. So, name your location, lady, and I’ll chauffeur you over there.”
“Home,” she muttered, dubious about being seen in public with Kit considering the rumours Lillianna was probably spreading even as they spoke. Lilli knew everyone and she was the gossip queen, particularly if it was a nice fat juicy bit of scandal or involved an attractive bloke. By the end of the day, once the Chinese Whispers had gone around the village a few times, it’d probably be widely regarded that she was carrying twins with two fathers and that she and Ross regularly hosted orgies in their shed, or worse, although, she couldn’t actually envisage much worse. Having it put about that they had a live-in lover seemed bad enough.
“I’m not taking you home. Pick somewhere else. Somewhere that actually serves food and has a wine menu.”
“There’s the Black Bull,” she muttered dubiously.
“At Thirl?’
“Yeah.” The next village over seemed like a safe enough choice. Although only five miles down the road, there wasn’t much to-ing and fro-ing between the two communities, so hopefully them being out for dinner sans Ross would pass un-remarked upon. It was unlikely she’d even be recognized. “I just need to get Josie to take over serving.” She stripped off her frilly Edwardian style apron and hung it on a peg inside the store cupboard. “She’s probably parked in front of the fire in the morning room. And I can’t be long. I’m not actually finished. There’s a planning meeting for the Spring Bazaar at four.”
“Two hours should be plenty,” Kit said with a worrying glint in his eyes.
Chapter Six
Kit pulled off the dressing on his brow on the way over to Thirl in the car. To be fair, he did look better without it, and the wound itself didn’t look too bad, just as if someone had drawn a second brow above the first with a crimson lip-liner. It might even look sexy once it was no longer matted with glue and had turned silver.
The Black Bull was boarded up when they got there with a large “Rent this Pub” sign prominently displayed on the roadside. They parked up regardless and strolled into the centre of the cobbled village planning to resort to fish and chips. In the end the only place open was a specialty coffee and ice-cream parlour with a selection of cast iron furniture in a sheltered courtyard out back. The place was deserted. Evie sat under an ivy-strung arbour shivering with her hands stuffed inside her pockets. “I bet you have to fight for a seat in the summer.”
“What’ll you have?” Kit asked, glancing at the menu. He wasn’t shivering, but the tips of his fingers did look cold. “I was thinking hot chocolate and marshmallows. Ice cream might be a bit hard on the stomach.”
“Was that snow?” Evie rubbed at a cold droplet that had just hit her nose and glanced suspiciously up at heavily clouded sky. “I think it was. I’m not sure this is a good choice. Let’s get some drinks and go back to the car with them. I’m not bothered about lunch. I normally skip it anyway.”
“Okay, I can go with that.” Kit pushed himself up again. “Although, I have to say, I’ve never known taking a woman out for lunch to be so difficult.”
Laden with steaming beverages, and several bags of tortilla chips, they traipsed back to the car. Evie, content to be inside with the heating on, was happy to stay in the car park, but Kit was having none of it. He drove them back along the narrow winding lane with its parallel dry-stone walls on either side and parked up in a lay-by overlooking a vast rolling swell of the moors that reminded Evie of a beloved threadbare rug.
The sky above was white, with only the faintest hint of blue on the very edge of the horizon. As the last purr of the engine died away, the first flurry of snow softly pattered against the windscreen and stuck, obscuring the view with a crystalline lattice work.
Evie cradled her drink, warming her hands through the corrugated cardboard as she watched Kit flip the lid off his chocolate and fish the marshmallows out with his fingers. He held one between his forefinger and thumb, and curled his tongue around the sticky white blob, before popping it into his mouth to savour. A dribble of chocolate ran down his chin.
“I guess you know Lillianna,” she said, offering him a tissue.
Kit looked nonplussed at the tissue, and wiped the drip away with the back of his hand. “Not really. No more than anyone else in Kirkley.”
“Oh! I just thought from her reaction that you must have known one another pretty well. Like you’d gone out or something.”
That earned a hurried shake of the head and a scowl of distaste. “Not my type. I don’t do smokers.”
“Right.” Evie sagged a little deeper into the passenger seat, wishing now that she’d pressed Lillianna a little harder for information. Obviously, she knew something about Kit’s past life in Kirkley, before he’d trotted off to Japan to work in whatever dubious trade he’d been part of, and she felt she could use a bit of insight into how his mind worked. Something told her there was more to him being here than Ross suggesting they get better acquainted. Actually, she wasn’t sure Ross would have made that suggestion at all. He’d been slightly twitchy all week about her interest in Kit. But curiosity was natural, and the guy was staying in their house. She dug out her phone and started tapping out a message.
“What are you doing? Put that away.”
“I thought I’d warn Ross about what’s coming.”
“Why?”
