working out perfectly,’ she defended. ‘Since I told him about you, and the circumstances behind my inviting you to stay, my uncle hasn’t mentioned the fact that I’m going to Drama School, and that I don’t have the same boyfriend for more than a month at a time, sometimes less than that!’
‘I’m glad to have been of service!’ Dizzy’s sarcasm was barely veiled.
Christi, however, seemed to have missed it completely in her feeling of self-satisfaction. ‘I knew you would be.’ She hugged her. ‘Oh, Dizzy, it’s so good to have you here!’ she told her enthusiastically.
Her expression softened at her friend’s genuine pleasure. ‘It’s good to be here,’ she said wryly.
‘It’s going to be so much more fun now.’ Christi smiled her delight.
Poor pet, thought Dizzy, she really looked as if she had been having a miserable time of it, although the vivacity was fast returning to her enormous blue eyes. ‘I thought there was nothing to do,’ she teased.
‘There isn’t,’ Christi grimaced. ‘But I can never remember a dull moment in your company in the past.’ She brightened.
‘I’m getting too old to be the class clown,’ Dizzy dismissed absently, her gaze drawn towards the window that faced in the direction of the lake she had seen Zachariah Bennett in earlier. ‘But, talking of things to do,’ she turned interestedly back to Christi, ‘does your uncle go—bird-watching, often?’ She arched blonde brows expectantly.
‘Most afternoons,’ Christi confirmed in a bored voice. ‘He says it helps relax him after a morning of intensely draining work!’
Skinny-dipping should certainly blow away the cobwebs!
‘I don’t honestly know why he bothers,’ Christi added disgustedly. ‘He only comes back and buries himself in work for another couple of hours!’
After his nude swim, he probably felt completely invigorated! ‘It must be expensive maintaining a castle,’ she pointed out softly.
‘I suppose so,’ Christi conceded grudgingly. ‘But if he would just release my money I would be willing to help him out.’
Dizzy gave her friend a reproving look. ‘I have a feeling your uncle takes his guardianship role very seriously, so for goodness’ sake don’t even think about offering him any money. I’m sure he would consider it a bribe.’ And if his disapproving eyebrows rose any higher they would disappear into his hairline!
‘I know that,’ Christi dismissed impatiently. ‘Or else I would have done it an hour after my arrival!’ she added mischievously.
‘I’m sure it can’t be that bad here.’ Dizzy shook her head ruefully, sure that a man like Zachariah Bennett would have an extensive library. Her fingers itched to touch all those wonderful books.
‘Give it a few days,’ Christi assured her. ‘Even school was fun compared to this—and you know how I loved school!’ she grimaced.
The daughter of a very happily married couple who unfortunately travelled a great deal, because Christi’s father had been an archaeologist, Christi had been completely miserable at being sent away to boarding-school at only eight. It had been their mutual unhappiness with the situation they had both been thrust into that had initially drawn Dizzy and Christi together that first term. Over the years, they had become as close as sisters, helping each other through those difficult years. Dizzy had been able to keep Christi’s spirits up, not because she didn’t dislike the school as much as her friend did, but because, to her, it was preferable to being at home. Anything had been preferable to that!
‘Look, I’ll give you a few minutes’ peace from my chattering while you shower and change—into something equally as disreputable, please!’ she encouraged gleefully. ‘And then I’ll show you around—what there is to see!’ She made a face.
Dizzy nodded, her smile fading once her friend had left, her attention once again drawn to that window that faced east.
Just over that small tree-covered hill lay the lake where Zachariah Bennett had bathed naked. And, if Christi was right about the ‘bird-watching’, he did the same thing every afternoon…
WHY hadn’t she told Christi about seeing her uncle bathing nude?
The two of them had been together for a couple of hours before they parted to change for dinner, and yet she had remained silent about what she had seen at the lake. And she knew that knowing something like that would certainly help to relax Christi. How could Zachariah Bennett preach to Christi about irresponsibility when only hours ago he had been bathing in a spot where anyone could come along and witness it? She had since learnt that the lake area was part of the castle estate, but, even so, the act hardly fitted in with the professor’s ‘fusty, dusty’ image.
And that was partly what kept her silent.
Christi was right when she claimed Dizzy had deliberately cultivated her life-style of having no tangible ties, where, quite literally, she carried all that she owned on her back. And that also meant, quite contrary to what Zachariah Bennett had been led to believe, that there had been no men in her life. Somehow, admitting to Christi what she had seen that afternoon wouldn’t make that true any more. Christi would want to know all the intimate details, and most prominent in her memory of that afternoon was her own response and attraction to a man she had labelled a ‘Greek god’—Christi’s uncle, a man who believed she went to bed with a man for no better reason than he looked lonely and had soulful brown eyes!
She had spent years evading emotional entanglement, having a small circle of friends that she knew she could rely on completely, and who could rely on her, too. But, like Christi, most of those friends would have liked to see her happily in love, with perhaps a family of her own. Only her lightly dismissive attitude towards men had kept them from anyserious matchmaking on her behalf. And she felt far from lightly dismissive where Zachariah Bennett was concerned!
And so she hugged the memory of that afternoon to herself, wondering how long it would be before she gave in to the temptation to return to that lake one afternoon during her stay…
‘Knollsley Hall in Cornwall,’ remarked an abrupt voice from behind her.
Dizzy spun around as if she had been caught in the act of stealing the family silver, rather than merely gazing up at one of the paintings that adorned the stone walls in the room that had been made into quite a comfortable lounge.
Having showered shortly after she arrived, she had merely had a quick wash and changed her clothes when she had returned from the tour of the castle. Consequently Christi was still relaxing in the bath when she was ready to go down to dinner, and so she had come down without her, indulging in a more leisurely look around. Christi’s whistle-stop—and obviously uninterested—tour had merely brushed the surface of it.
The first things to capture her attention in the lounge were the magnificent paintings on the walls, in particular, the one she now stood in front of, and which Zachariah Bennett had just supplied information about.
She had changed into one of the only two dresses she owned, the ‘simple little black number’ that was supposed to be suitable for any occasion, but which she dragged about with her merely
