Page 6 of All We Want for Christmas
Flynn showered while the machine brewed his espresso, looking forward to a small comfort. He thought of messaging Lara, then decided not to put her under more pressure. The decision about the chalice had to be hers alone.
He’d managed to pull up his boxers when he received a message that drinks and nibbles were waiting in the sitting room and would he like to go along ‘when he was ready’.
It was probably the first time a work induction with an employer had been framed in those terms, but he’d already met Henry and Fiona when he was their Halloween guest and liked them a lot. How could he refuse Henry’s appeal for immediate help when the man, who was in his late seventies, had sounded so desperate and stressed out?
He felt terrible about startling Lara, and seeing her so conflicted about whether to tell the Penhaligons. He wishedshe’d let him take the blame, although he understood why she wouldn’t. She was professional and honest; she played things straight.
The image of her in that crimson velvet dress at Halloween came back to him. That evening she’d worn her strawberry blonde hair long, so it had brushed the ‘v’ that had revealed her bare back. This afternoon, her hair had been restrained in a ponytail. Even in a Ravendale Castle fleece, eyes glittering with stress, he’d fancied her every bit as much as at Halloween.
No, he was lying. He fancied hermore.
There hadn’t been a day – or night – he hadn’t thought about her since he’d left to ride home to Cornwall.
Deep down, he’d known from that moment that he’d take the castle job, despite his rational side telling him all the reasons why he shouldn’t, like giving up his plans to take his first break from working in twenty years to follow his travel dreams.
He finished shaving hastily, nicking himself in the process and swearing again.
Ignoring the sting, he spritzed on the aftershave that he saved for special occasions. Finally, after hastily downing the now-lukewarm espresso, he decided what to wear. It wasn’t a difficult decision when his wardrobe was ‘capsule’ at best, yet he hoped his shirt and jeans would be suitable for drinks with the Penhaligons.
Although he’d worked in and outside plenty of stately homes, he had to admit Ravendale topped them all for impact and grandeur. The castle – really a fortifiedhouse – had been built around a five-storey square tower with battlements on the top. Various wings had been added over the centuries and it was all surrounded by parkland that blended in perfectly with the rugged Lakeland landscape.
He’d been looking forward to taking the Harley out for some rides over the mountain passes, although now that he needed to take immediate control of the Winter Spectacular, that would have to wait until New Year. That is, if he lasted until New Year … his first day had hardly given him much optimism in that direction.
He’d swept and slicked his hair back as tidily as he could when his phone pinged with a message from Lara, whose number was still in his phone.
Still undecided. See you soon.
Still undecided… which meant he mustn’t say anything about the chalice incident. Not that he would have dreamed of doing so without her permission.
He glanced in the mirror and sighed again. His first meeting with the Penhaligons as his employers – and with Lara as his colleague – was going to be challenging.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘Ah, here he is! The man of the hour!’
Henry strode forward to meet Flynn, who wore a smile that looked as forced as hers.
In their brief exchange of messages, she and Flynn had agreed not to even mention their encounter in the treasury during the Penhaligons’ welcome drinks. While the subterfuge kept Lara’s options open, it also added another layer of deception. There would be many more, if she decided to go along with the plan of secretly having the chalice repaired.
Tonight should have been a chance to be introduced to Flynn as a new colleague. Instead, she felt as if her co-conspirator had walked in and the guilt was weighing on her like the granite the castle was made of.
Her butterflies weren’t helped by the fact he looked like a Byronic hero, with his dark hair slicked back, black jeans, and a chunky jumper the colour of fir trees.
‘Of course, there’s no need to introduce you to each other.’ Fiona’s eyes twinkled.
Flynn put on a winning smile. ‘No, we got to know each other pretty well at Halloween.’ He looked directly into Lara’s eyes, as if daring her to glance away, sending her temperature soaring.
Fiona invited them to sit down. Since Henry had chosen his wing-backed armchair and Fiona took a club chair, Lara and Flynn were forced to share the Chesterfield. She was close enough to inhale a subtle trace of his spicy aftershave, and tried not to fidget in her seat.
‘Now, isn’t this cosy?’ Fiona asked, with a beam directed at Lara and Flynn as if they were her two favourite children.
Lara answered with a weak smile. ‘Cosy’ was not a word she would use to describe her sexy new colleague – and, she reminded herself, that was what he was. They would be working together in close proximity from now on and it would not be a good idea to get involved with him beyond a professional connection. She was still bruised and battered from her last workplace relationship, and she and Flynn needed no distractions from the important task in hand.
Henry huffed. ‘It was blindingly obvious we should have taken on a temporary maintenance manager as soon as Gerald went off sick, but we kept bumbling on and letting other stuff get in the way of appointing a temp, until finally Gerald hinted he actually wanted to retire. All that time, poor Lara was shouldering the burden. Apologies, my dear.’
‘Please don’t worry, Henry. I was managing,’ Lara replied. ‘But some professional help will be very welcome …’
‘Experienced maintenance staff are like gold dust in our remote little corner of the Lakes.’ Fiona directed the comment at Flynn. ‘And we didn’t want to disappoint Lara – or the team – if you couldn’t take the job.’
