couldn’t understand why any right-minded woman wanted to get married at all. Why put yourself in a position where your happiness depended on the good nature and fidelity of one man? Generally speaking, she liked men, enjoyed their company and valued their friendship. But she would never surrender her independence to one; she knew what it had done to her mother and, in consequence, to her. And had heard enough about disastrous marriages to make any sensible female wary.
So footloose and heart-free she would remain, a citizen of the world, a happily independent lady answerable to no one but herself.
‘Fen!’ A sharp nudge in her ribs brought her wandering mind back to present circumstances. Blinking, she focused on the tray of glasses, the white-shirted, impassive-faced waiter who held it. Then, champagne in hand, she took in her surroundings. Acres of emerald-green, closely mown grass quartered by stoneflagged paths, parterres of flowers cut into the sward, punctuated by tall trees, their leaves whispering softly in the gentle summer breeze. And, beyond and above the long sweep of a closely cut yew hedge a few hundred yards away, the glimpse of the tumbled roofs of an impressive Tudor house.
Some country pad, she thought sourly, contrasting it with the humble stone cottage, the only place that had ever remotely come to resemble a home, a bare twenty miles away as the crow flew.
But at least there was no sign of the owner, so be grateful for small mercies, she told herself, wondering if they could possibly manage to avoid him all afternoon.
‘What do we do now?’ she asked. ‘Plant ourselves in front of the camera crews and grin?’
‘We circulate and give each other adoring glances,’ he said firmly. ‘Drink your fizz; it might put you in a better mood.’ He whisked her along paths and over expensively maintained lawns, mingling with various groups of guests, introducing her simply as Fenella, doing nothing at all to dampen the often openly inquisitive stares she was getting, speculative eyes watching her every move. She could almost hear them thinking, debating whether she was with Alex for love or for money.
There was a lot of well-mannered back-slapping, a lot of preening and a fair amount of talking shop and by the time they had worked their way through to the terrace beyond the hedge Fen had had more than enough.
The paving ran along the entire frontage of the spectacularly lovely house and was set with white-clothed buffet tables and bars, all perfumed and punctuated by terracotta pots brimming over with stately lilies. And in the middle distance, surrounded by a group of obvious sycophants, was Saul Ackerman.
Fen recognised him with a curious jolt right in the pit of her stomach. He was easily the most impressive male around—the handful of sexily handsome actors she had encountered notwithstanding.
Oh, drat it to Hades! She had really hoped she wouldn’t have to see him. Guilty conscience, she supposed. She had behaved badly that first time they’d met. Which didn’t mean she wouldn’t behave twice as badly if there happened to be a second time. And that wouldn’t do Alex’s career prospects a whole heap of good, she admitted. But then, she had never encountered anyone, male or female, who had aroused her to such a pitch of unthinking animosity. Her blood boiled whenever she thought of him!
‘We could leave now,’ she whispered to Alex out of the side of her mouth. ‘You must have spoken to everyone here.’
Except Saul, and she wasn’t about to remind him of that. She was sick of being on show, being talked about. Most of the people here would have read at least one scandal-mongering piece of so-called journalism. Most of the men, with varying degrees of interested speculation, had ogled her, while she was sure all the women were bitching about her inside their heads. She was getting paranoid, she recognised, but that didn’t stop her wanting to hit Alex when he scoffed, ‘What, and miss out on all that gorgeous food? Besides, I haven’t paid my respects to Saul yet. Got to keep a high profile. If Jean were here she’d say the same.’
‘Go ahead,’ Fen told him, feeling tight-lipped. ‘You’ll deserve a medal if you can drag him out from under all those female admirers.’ She had just recognised the lushly sensual, scarlet garbed figure of Vesta Faine hanging adoringly on to his arm. No doubt she was his current lady. Seen twice already in his company, she must be all set to break the record—if what Alex had said about the staying power of his ladies was true. ‘And I need to go to the loo,’ she grumbled untruthfully. ‘Where is it?’
‘Go to the house. You’ll find doors if you look for them. Saul won’t have Portakabins labelled “His” and “Hers” on his sacrosant property.’ He gave her arm a little squeeze. ‘Don’t be long. I’ll get us some food and try to grab Saul’s attention. After all, he did expressly invite you to come.’
Which wasn’t what she wanted to hear, Fen thought as she swayed her way along the terrace, skirting the lily pots and knots of festively dressed personalities with an empty smile fixed on her face.
She had no need to find a bathroom—just a bit of empty space. And she had no intention of returning before she had got herself nice and calm again. Alex could manage on his own; she’d done quite enough.
To the side of the house she found a swimmingpool complete with loungers and white-painted wrought-iron tables. And people. Quickly, she withdrew her inquisitive nose from the trellis of billowing roses that formed part of the pool surround and explored further.
And eventually found just what she’d been hoping for: utter seclusion. A small secret garden, enclosed on three sides by tall yew hedges, the fourth side open to a vista of sweeping fields and the thickly wooded river valley below. No one in sight. Just the sun, the warm soft air, the patchwork of greens, the song of the birds. Heaven.
Ignoring the stone bench seat, strategically placed for peaceful contemplation of the breathtaking view, she kicked off her shoes and sank down on the soft, sun-warmed grass, pulling her hat down over her face to shade her creamy pale skin from the damaging rays.
If she weren’t so tense she would be asleep within seconds; she hadn’t realised just how exhausted she was. The past four years she’d been travelling round Europe, flitting from one job to the next like a demented gnat, enjoying every hectic moment. Eighteen months ago, after her father’s sudden and unexpected death from a heart condition, she had taken two months off to get her distraught mother settled with an old schoolfriend—recently widowed herself—in Australia. And that had been no easy ride.
She had grieved for her father, of course she had, her sorrow taking the form of deep regrets. Regret that he had barely ever acknowledged her existence and, when he had, only because of her nuisance value. A selfish man, there had been no room in his life for anything outside his work as a highly respected travel writer. He’d travelled the world, dragging his wife along behind him and, much later, the child he had never expected or wanted. Not that he’d had to drag his wife, exactly. She’d been too dependent on him, too besotted, to let him out of her sight! And now that he had gone, her mother didn’t know what to do with her life. So no, that two months spent trying to help her mother come to terms with the loss she vowed she would never be able to accept had not been a picnic.
And a few weeks ago, during one of the frequent calls to Australia she made from wherever she happened to be, her mother had instructed mournfully, ‘When you’re next in the UK I want you to arrange for the cottage to be sold. I couldn’t bear to go there again, not without your father. It would kill me. You can crate up any of his books and papers that are still there and send them out to me. I’d ask Alex and Jean, but you know how busy they are. Alex has better things to do with his time than bother himself with my affairs.’
And so, after a job that had taken her to the English Midlands, Fen had dropped
