hauled himself slowly to his feet and began the weary trek, stair by stair, but waving the two women away if they seemed to get too close. They contented themselves with keeping a respectful distance, following him up and into his room, where he sat heavily on the bed.
‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘I can manage.’
‘No, you can’t,’ Harriet firmly. ‘If we leave now you’ll just stretch out and go to sleep in your freezing wet clothes. Next stop, pneumonia.’
‘Now, look—’
‘No, you look. I didn’t give up my evening to come out to sea and fetch you to have you throw your life away through carelessness. You’re going to take off those wet clothes and put on dry ones.’
Darius looked warily from one to the other, and seemed to decide against argument. His eyes closed and Harriet thought for a moment he would lose consciousness. But when he opened them again an incredible change seemed to come over him.
Astonished, Harriet saw a faint grin that might almost have been good-natured, or at least resigned. Then he shrugged.
‘I’m in your hands, ladies.’
He unbuttoned his own shirt and shrugged it off, then unzipped his trousers and stood while they removed them. Kate fetched towels and a bathrobe that Harriet helped him put on. He tried to draw the edges together before removing his underpants, but his grip was weak and they fell open at the crucial moment.
Harriet quickly averted her eyes, but not before she’d seen his nakedness. Just a brief glimpse, but it told her what she didn’t want to know, that his personal magnificence measured up to his reputation in business.
Hastily, she began opening drawers, asking, ‘Where are your pyjamas?’
‘I don’t have any. Sleeping in the nude is more comfortable.’ He raised an eyebrow at her. ‘Don’t you find that?’
‘I really wouldn’t know,’ she said primly. It was incredible to her that he’d chosen this moment to tease her. He was half dead, for pity’s sake! Did nothing crush him?
‘I’m making you a hot tea,’ she declared, ‘and when I come back I expect to find you in bed.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ he said meekly.
Now Harriet was sure she could see a gleam of humour far back in his eyes, but she couldn’t be sure.
‘I’ll leave you in Kate’s capable hands.’ Some defensive instinct made her add, ‘Don’t stand any nonsense from him, Kate.’
‘Don’t you worry,’ Kate said significantly.
‘Harriet!’ She turned at the door in response to Darius’s voice. ‘Thank you,’ he said quietly.
‘Don’t mention it.’
She departed hurriedly. Downstairs, she made the tea but only took it halfway up the stairs before calling Kate and handing it to her. Suddenly it was important to escape him, above all to escape his knowing look that said he would tease her if he wanted to, and what was she going to do about it?
There was nothing to be done, except get back home—a place of safety, where she knew what was what.
When she got there safety greeted her in the form of Phantom. As they snuggled down under the covers she discussed the matter with him, as she discussed everything.
‘What a night! Him of all people. And it seems he’s not like… Well, I don’t know what he’s like any more. He was nice to Kate, I’ll admit that. Maybe we were wrong about him. No, not we. Just me. You always liked him, didn’t you?
‘If you could have seen him getting undressed tonight. It was an honest accident—at least, I think it was. But what I saw was impressive and maybe he meant me to see and maybe he didn’t.
‘He ticks the boxes—great thighs, narrow hips and the rest—well, never mind. But Brad also ticked the boxes, and he knew he ticked them. A man like that wasn’t going to confine himself to me, was he? And he didn’t. So if His Majesty Falcon is expecting me to be impressed he can just think again.
‘You agree with me, don’t you? Well, you do if you want that new stuff I bought for your breakfast tomorrow. Yes—yes—that’s a lovely lick. Can I have another? Thank you. Now, let’s go to sleep. And move over. Give me some room.’
HARRIET spent the next morning at her shop, which was doing well. She’d recently taken on a new assistant who was good at the job, something she was glad of when Kate rang, sounding frantic. ‘Darius is driving me crazy wanting to do all sorts of daft things.’
‘Hah! Surprise me.’
‘He’s got a nasty cold, but he insists on getting up. He says he’s got to go out and buy another cellphone. He’s ordered a fancy one online but it’ll take a few days to arrive so he’s determined to get something basic to fill in. And then he wants to come and see you.’
‘All right, I’m on my way. Don’t let him out. Tie him to the bed if you have to.’
Distantly, she heard Kate say, ‘She says I’m to tie you to the bed,’ followed by a sound that might have been a snort of laughter, followed by coughing.
‘You hear that?’ Kate demanded into the phone. ‘If you—’
Her voice vanished, replaced by a loud burr. Harriet hung up, very thoughtful.
Before leaving, she took out an object that until then she’d kept hidden away and looked at it for a long time. At last she sighed and replaced it. But then, heading for the door, she stopped, returned and retrieved it from its hiding place. Again, she gazed at it for several moments, a yearning expression haunting her eyes. Her hand tightened on it and for a moment she seemed resolute. But then she returned it firmly to its hiding place, ran out of the room and downstairs, where she got into her car and began the journey to Giant’s Beacon.
Halfway there she stopped, turned the car and swiftly headed back to streak up the stairs, snatch the precious object, ram it into her pocket and flee.
She’d done it now, the thing she’d vowed never to do, and that was that. She told herself it was time to be sensible, but she made the journey with her face set as though resisting pain
Kate was waiting for her on the doorstep, calling, ‘Thank goodness you’re here!’
‘Kate, is that her?’ cried a hoarse voice from the back of the house.
‘I’m coming,’ she called, hurrying into the room he’d turned into an office.
At first she was bewildered by the array of machinery, all of it obviously state-of-the-art. Kate had spoken of wonderful things, but still the variety and magnificence came as a surprise. And one man could control all this?
Darius, in his dressing gown, was sitting at a large screen, his fingers hovering over a keyboard.
‘Don’t
