Flashes of blue flame were licking hotly round the fragrant logs, denoting the fire had taken firm hold, and she rose to her feet from her kneeling position in front of it, dusted her hands over her jeans and returned to the worn maroon armchair opposite her guest. Charlie continued to slumber blissfully in his curled-up position on the couch, his plump cheeks rosy as the sweetest red apple even though the warmth of the fire had not yet permeated the room. Sophia moved her glance to Jarrett. The long muscular legs in faded black denim were stretched out in a relaxed pose as he sipped at the mug of tea she’d made him, and she couldn’t help admiring his apparent ability to be so at ease.
‘Great idea of yours to light a fire,’ he remarked, and his sinfully velvet-rich tones elicited an outbreak of goosebumps up and down her skin.
‘It’s cold enough for one,’ she said and smiled. “Cast not a clout ‘til May is out” my grandmother used to say—and it’s true. Funny how the old sayings are such a comfort … even when you’re little and don’t understand them.’
‘I know what you mean. Was the grandmother you mentioned your father’s mother or your mother’s?’
Making herself as comfortable as she could manage in the hard-backed armchair—not easy when the seat cushion beneath her was worn flat as a pancake from use and old-age—Sophia took a careful sip of her hot sweet tea, then lowered the mug to rest it against her denim-covered thigh. ‘She was my dad’s mum. My mother was an orphan. I didn’t know any of her family. And, before you quiz me about that, don’t you think it’s time you told me a little bit about yourself?’
‘Fair enough.’ He leant forward a little, glinting blue eyes watching her with the same deceptively languid curiosity of a cat. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘Have you always lived round here?’
‘No. I moved to the area about ten years ago, when my sister got married and set up home in the village. Before that I lived in lots of different places … mainly abroad.’
‘I take it that you and Beth are close, then?’
Despite being irked that Beth had suspected him of trying to get close to Sophia in order to persuade her to sell him High Ridge, and hadn’t entertained the idea that he genuinely liked her, Jarrett couldn’t deny that they were indeed close.
‘We lost our parents when we were in our teens. That kind of tragedy helps to forge a close-knit bond with a sibling. Beth is a couple of years older than me, and I suppose she took it upon herself to be my guardian. Unfortunately—even though I’m thirty-six and have been independent for a hell of a long time—she occasionally still likes to assume the role. Needless to say I hardly welcome it.’
‘ So you came back from your travels to be near her?’
‘Perhaps.’ Feeling uncomfortable at admitting as much, Jarrett was wary of Sophia judging him and making the assumption that he wasn’t psychologically strong enough to get on with his life without Beth being close by. ‘I think most people are always looking for a point of reference—a sense of belonging somewhere where they’re unconditionally accepted and known … don’t you?’
‘You mean like home?’
His companion’s voice softened audibly and her small, perfect hands curved round the cheerful yellow mug of tea as if to try and contain her feelings. ‘Yes,’ he answered, intuiting that her mind had wandered back into the past … perhaps back to the series of events that had led her to come to High Ridge and into a whole new mode of existence where she had to raise her son on her own.
The pretty green eyes that still glanced cautiously at him from beneath dark brown lashes were full of painful shadows, Jarrett saw. In that instant the compulsion to offer comfort was so strong that he scarcely knew what to do with it. But the last thing he wanted was to scare or overwhelm her. In the end he simply put down his mug of tea and bided his time until she started talking again.
‘I’d like to make a home here too,’ she confided at last, her tone wistful, ‘for me and Charlie. But the truth is I don’t know if I’ll be able to. Not in this house anyway.’
‘Why?’
‘Look at the size of this place … the responsibility is overwhelming. You’ve only glimpsed how much work needs doing—and that’s just the gardens and the downstairs. Upstairs there are eight rooms … eight! Thanks to my great-aunt Mary I own the house outright, but that doesn’t mean I can afford to keep it.’
‘You don’t earn enough from your photography to maintain it and pay the bills?’
‘You must be joking! I’m only starting to build my career after a long period of not being able to pursue it. I’ve managed to secure a couple of potentially lucrative commissions, thanks to some old contacts, but nowhere near enough work to be able to relax and not worry.’
Jarrett frowned. ‘Didn’t your late husband leave any provision for you and Charlie? At the very least he must have had life insurance?’
Sophia reddened and lowered her gaze. ‘The answer is no to both those questions.’ When she glanced up again, her expression easily revealed that memories of her husband still had the power to cause her tremendous pain. ‘The only person he ever provided for was himself.’
‘I see. I’m sorry.’
‘The truth is, as much as I love the idea of spending the rest of my days living in this beautiful old house, maybe I should be a bit more realistic. Maybe what I need to do is just sell it and buy something a lot smaller and more manageable for Charlie and me.’
Jarrett could hardly believe what he was hearing. But even as his heart leapt at the possibility of making an offer to Sophia to buy High Ridge from her—the house that he’d long dreamt of owning—in all conscience he found he suddenly couldn’t. It was already clear as crystal to him that she was looking for a safe haven from her painful past, and right now he intuited that this historic old house was it. She’d had family here … blood ties. That sense of an ancestral link, of familial continuity, more importantly of belonging, must be important to her and Charlie right now, given their situation.
Wasn’t that why Jarrett himself had made his permanent home here? Just so that he could be near his sister? Because at the end of the day there was no one else who cared if he lived or died. Despite their sometimes vociferous differences of opinion, and her perhaps not-so-flattering speculation on his intentions earlier today, he firmly believed that family was important.
If his competitors ever learned that he hadn’t leapt at the chance to secure High Ridge Hall, he didn’t doubt they would seriously think that he’d lost that renowned single-minded steely edge that had helped make him one of the wealthiest landowners in the county. But right then Jarrett didn’t care. For maybe the first time in his life he was genuinely considering someone else’s wellbeing above his own. The truth was that Sophia Markham had disarmed him. The defences that he’d kept stoically intact for so long were swiftly and devastatingly crumbling every time he saw her …
‘Jarrett? Did you hear what I said?’
‘Hmm?’ Distracted because his feelings had stolen a march on him, he stood up and crossed to the now blazing fire. ‘If you want to make a home here for you and Charlie, then in my opinion I don’t think you should give up on the idea of keeping the house simply because of finances. In the meantime I could make
