and cluttered with hastily packed away bits and pieces.
It was impossible to get any real idea of what the house might once have looked like in grander times because every nook and cranny had been put to use. Work desks fitted into spaces where once sofas and chaises longues might have resided, and in the office where she worked books lined the walls from floor to ceiling.
‘Finished looking around?’
Art turned to find that she had broken off from talking to Phil, who was heading out of the front door, briefcase in hand and a crumpled linen jacket shoved under his arm.
‘Which of the rooms needs the paint job?’ was his response.
‘It’s actually upstairs,’ Rose said, steering him away from the hall and back towards the kitchen where, he noted, no one had seen fit to tidy the paraphernalia of protest. ‘Now—’ she stood, arms folded, head tilted to one side ‘—tell me what you thought of our little band of insurgents.’
‘Well organised.’ Art strolled towards one of the kitchen chairs and sat down. ‘But I’m curious—how long do they intend to stay there and what is the end objective?’
‘That’s an odd question,’ Rose mused thoughtfully. ‘Does your contribution to the cause depend on an answer to that?’
‘I have a strong streak of practicality.’ Art wasn’t lying when he said that. ‘I’m interested in trying to find out if there’s any real chance of you winning with your protests.’
Rose sighed. ‘Perhaps not entirely,’ she admitted, ‘but I really hope we can make some kind of difference, perhaps get the company to rethink the scale of their project. They’re eating up a lot of open land and there’s no question that the end result will be a massive eyesore on the landscape.’
‘Have you seen the plans?’ Art asked curiously.
‘Of course I have. It’s all about houses for wealthy commuters.’
‘The rail link, I suppose...’
‘You’re the only person who has actually taken time out to think this through,’ Rose admitted. ‘And you’re not even from round here. I think everyone somehow hopes that this is a problem that will just go away if we can all just provide a united front. It’s a relief to talk to someone who can see the pitfalls. Just strange that you should care so much, considering this has never been your home.’
‘I have general concerns about the...er...countryside.’ Art had the grace to flush. Yes, all was fair in love and war, and it wasn’t as though this little deception was actually harming anyone, but the prick of his conscience was an uneasy reminder that playing fast and loose with the truth was a lie by any other name.
‘Does that extend to other concerns?’ Rose asked with interest.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Problems on a larger scale. Climate change. Damage to the rainforests. Fracking and the impact on the green belt.’
Art was used to women who were either career-driven—those with whom he came into contact in the course of his working life—or else women he dated. On the one hand, he conversed with his counterparts with absolute detachment, regardless of whether he picked up any vibes from them, any undercurrent of sexual interest. And then, when it came to the women he dated...well, that was sex, relaxation and pleasure, and in-depth conversations were not the name of the game. Quite honestly, he thought that the majority of them would have been bored rigid were he ever to sit them down and initiate a conversation about world affairs. If there was a world out there of smart, sassy women who had what it took to turn him on, then he’d passed them by.
Until now...
Because, against all odds, he was finding that this outspoken woman was a turn-on and he didn’t know why. She should have been tiresome, but instead she was weirdly compelling.
‘Doesn’t everyone think about the bigger picture?’
‘I like that,’ Rose murmured. ‘I really get it that you think about the bigger picture. But you surely must have some form of employment that enables you to take off when you want to, be it here or somewhere else...’ She turned away and began rustling for something to cook.
‘Let me order something in.’ Art was uncomfortable with this.
‘Order something in?’ She looked at him incredulously.
‘There’s no need for you to prepare anything for me.’
‘We both have to eat and it won’t be fancy. Trust me.’
‘Are you usually this welcoming to people who walk off the street into your house?’
* * *
‘You’re a one-off.’ She smiled a little shyly. Yes, she had lots of contact with the opposite sex. Yes, there was Phil and a wide assortment of men she met on a daily basis, either because they lived locally and she bumped into them or in the course of her work. But this was different. This was a reminder of what it felt like to be with a man and she was enjoying the sensation.
Of course, she sternly reminded herself, it wasn’t as though he was anything more than a nice guy who happened to share the same outlook on life as she did.
A nice guy who just so happened to be drop-dead gorgeous...
‘A one-off...?’ He looked at her with assessing eyes and Rose burst out laughing. He sounded piqued, as though someone had stuck a pin in his ego. In a flash of wonderment because he was simply nothing like any man she had ever met before, she gathered that he was piqued because she wasn’t bowled over by him. Or at least because that was the impression she had given. She had turned down his dinner date, had rejected his offer to pay rent and had set him a number of tasks to complete, which was probably a first for a guy like him. He might not have money but he had style and an underlying aggressive sexual magnetism that most women would find irresistible.
Their eyes tangled and Rose felt her nipples pinch in raw sexual awareness, and the suddenness of its potency made her breath catch in her throat.
‘That’s the problem with living in a small community.’ Rose laughed breathlessly, deflecting a moment of madness which had smacked of her being lonely, which she most certainly was not. ‘You tend to know everyone. A new face is a rare occurrence.’
‘Surely not.’
‘Maybe not at this time of year,’ she admitted, ‘when the place is swarming with tourists, but a new face here for something other than the nice scenery and the quaint village atmosphere...that’s a bit more unusual.’
‘Why do you stay?’ Art asked with what sounded like genuine curiosity. ‘And, if that’s the case, then surely you must find it a little dull?’
‘No, I don’t. I’m not just a statistic here, one of a million lawyers sweating to get by. Here, I can actually make a difference. And I don’t know why I’m telling you any of this.’
‘Because I’m a new face and you don’t get to have conversations with people you haven’t known since you were a kid?’
Rose flushed
