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Deafening silence greeted this remark. She hadn’t planned on saying that, but out it had come, and she could have kicked herself. Thankfully she was spared the agony of his contempt by the door being pulled open and they were ushered inside by a short, jolly woman in her sixties who beamed at them as though they were much expected long-lost friends, even though it was nearly ten and she had probably been sound asleep.
Of course there was room for them! Business was never good in winter…just the one room let to a long-standing resident who worked nearby during the week…not that there was any likelihood that he would be leaving for his home in Yorkshire at the weekend…not in this snow…had they seen anything like it…?
The jovial patter kept Aggie’s turbulent thoughts temporarily at bay. Regrettably, one of the en suite rooms was occupied by the long-standing resident who wouldn’t be able to return to Yorkshire at the weekend. As she looked brightly between them to see who would opt for the remaining en suite bedroom, Aggie smiled innocently at Luiz until he was forced to do the expected and concede to sharing a bathroom.
She could feel him simmering next to her as they were proudly shown the sitting room, where there was ‘a wide assortment of channels on the telly because they had recently had cable fitted’. And the small breakfast room where they could have the best breakfast in the village, and also dinner if they would like, although because of the hour she could only run to sandwiches just now…
Aggie branched off into her own, generously proportioned and charming bedroom and nodded blandly when Luiz informed her that he would see her in the sitting room in ten minutes. They both needed something to eat.
There was just time to wash her face, no time at all to unpack or have a bath and get into fresh clothes. Downstairs, Luiz was waiting for her. She heard the rumble of his voice and low laughter as he talked to the landlady. Getting closer, she could make out that he was explaining that they were on their way to visit relatives, that the snow had temporarily cut short their journey. That, yes, public transport would have been more sensible but for the fact that the trains had responded to the bad weather by going on strike. However, what a blessing in disguise, because how else would they have discovered this charming part of the world? And perhaps she could bring them a bottle of wine with their sandwiches…whatever she had to hand would do as long as it was cold…
‘So…’ Luiz drawled as soon as they had the sitting room to themselves. ‘The truth is now all coming out in the wash. Were you ever going to tell me about your background or were you intending to keep that little titbit to yourself until it no longer mattered who knew?’
‘I didn’t think it was relevant.’
‘Do me a favour, Aggie.’
‘I’m not ashamed of…’ She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. It was cosy in here and beautifully warm, with an open fire at one end. He had removed his jumper and rolled his sleeves up and her eyes strayed to his arms, sprinkled with dark hair. He had an athlete’s body and she had to curb the itch to stare at him. She didn’t know where that urge was coming from. Or had it been there from the start?
Wine was brought to them and she felt like she needed some. One really big glass to help her through this conversation…
‘You’re not ashamed of…? Concealing the truth?’
‘I didn’t think of it as concealing the truth.’
‘Well, forgive me, but it seems a glaring omission.’
‘It’s not something I talk about.’
‘Why not?’
‘Why do you think?’ She glared at him, realised that the big glass of wine had somehow disappeared in record time and didn’t refuse when her wine glass was topped up.
Luiz flushed darkly. It wouldn’t do to forget that this was not a date. He wasn’t politely delving down conversational avenues as a prelude to sex. Omissions like this mattered, given the circumstances. But those huge blue eyes staring at him with a mixture of uncertainty and accusation were getting to him.
‘You tell me.’
‘People can be judgemental,’ Aggie muttered defensively. ‘As soon as you say that you grew up in a children’s home, people switch off. You wouldn’t understand. How could you? You’ve always led the kind of life people like us dreamt about. A life of luxury, with family all around you. Even if your sisters were bossy and told you what to do when you were growing up. It’s a different world.’
‘I’m not without imagination,’ Luiz said gruffly.
‘But this is just something else that you can hold against us…just another nail in the coffin.’
Yes, it was! But he was still curious to find out about that shady background she had kept to herself. He barely noticed when a platter of sandwiches was placed in front of them, accompanied by an enormous salad, along with another bottle of excellent wine.
‘You went to a boarding school. I went to the local comprehensive where people sniggered because I was one of those kids from a children’s home. Sports days were a nightmare. Everyone else would have their family there, shouting and yelling them on. I just ran and ran and ran and pretended that there were people there cheering me on. Sometimes Gordon or Betsy—the couple who ran the home—would try and come but it was difficult. I could deal with all of that but Mark was always a lot more sensitive.’
‘Which is why you’re so close now. You said that your parents were dead.’
‘They are.’ She helped herself to a bit more wine, even though she was unaccustomed to alcohol and was dimly aware that she would probably have a crashing headache the following morning. ‘Sort of.’
‘Sort of? Don’t go coy on me, Aggie. How can people be sort of dead?’
Stripped bare of all the half-truths that had somehow been told to him over a period of time, Aggie resigned herself to telling him the unvarnished truth now about their background. He could do whatever he liked with the information, she thought recklessly. He could try to buy them off, could shake his head in disgust at being in the company of someone so far removed from himself. She should never have let her brother and Maria talk her into painting a picture that wasn’t completely accurate.
A lot of that had stemmed from her instinctive need to protect Mark, to do what was best for him. She had let herself be swayed by her brother being in love for the first time, by Maria’s tactful downplaying of just how protective her family was and why…And she also couldn’t deny that Luiz had rubbed her up the wrong way from the very beginning. It hadn’t been hard to swerve round the truth, pulling out pieces of it here and there, making sure to nimbly skip over the rest. He was so arrogant. He almost deserved it!
‘We never knew our father,’ she now admitted grudgingly. ‘He disappeared after I was born, and continued showing up off and on, but he finally did a runner when Mum became pregnant with Mark.’
‘He did a runner…’
‘I’ll bet you haven’t got a clue what I’m talking about, Luiz.’
‘It’s hard for me to get my head around the concept of a father abandoning his family,’ Luiz admitted.
‘You’re lucky,’ Aggie told him bluntly and Luiz looked at her with dry amusement.
‘My life was prescribed,’ he found himself saying. ‘Often it was not altogether ideal. Carry on.’
Aggie wanted to ask him to expand, to tell her what he meant by a ‘prescribed life’. From the outside looking in, all she could see was perfection for him: a united, large family, exempt from all the usual financial headaches, with everyone able to do exactly what they wanted in the knowledge that if they failed there would always be a safety net to catch them.
‘What else is there to say? I was nine when Mum died.’ She looked away and stared off at the open fire. The past was not a place she revisited with people but she found that she was past resenting what he knew about her. He would never change his mind about the sort of person he imagined she was, but that didn’t mean that she had to accept all his accusations without a fight.
‘How did she die?’
‘Do you care?’ Aggie asked, although half-heartedly. ‘She was killed in an accident returning from work. She had a job at the local supermarket and she was walking home when she was hit by a drunk-driver. There were no relatives, no one to take us in, and we were placed in a children’s home. A wonderful place with a wonderful couple running it who saw us both through our bad times; we couldn’t have hoped for a happier upbringing, given the circumstances. So please don’t feel sorry for either of us.’ The sandwiches were delicious but her appetite had nosedived.
‘I’m sorry about your mother.’
‘Are you?’ But she was instantly ashamed of the bitterness in her voice. ‘Thank you. It was a long time ago.’ She gave a dry, self-deprecating laugh. ‘I expect all this information is academic because you’ve already made your mind up about us. But you can see why it wouldn’t have made for a great opening conversation…especially when I knew from the start that the only reason you’d bothered to ask Maria out with us was so that you could check my brother out.’
Normally, Luiz cared very little about what other people thought of him. It was what made him so straightforward in his approach to tackling difficult situations. He never wasted time beating about the bush. Now, he felt an unaccustomed dart of shame when he thought back to how unapologetic he had been on every occasion he had met them, how direct his questions had been. He had made no attempt to conceal the reason for his sudden interest in his niece. He hadn’t been overtly hostile but Aggie, certainly, was sharp enough to have known exactly what his motives were. So could he really blame her if she hadn’t launched into a sob story about her deprived background?
Strangely, he felt a tug of admiration for the way she had managed to forge a path for herself through difficult circumstances. It certainly demonstrated the sort of strength of personality he had rarely glimpsed in the opposite sex. He grimaced when he thought of the women he dated. Chloe might be beautiful but she was also colourless and unambitious…just another cover girl born with a silver spoon in her mouth, biding her time at a fairly pointless part-time job until a rich man rescued her from the need to pretend to work at all.
‘So where was this home?’
‘Lake District,’ Aggie replied with a little shrug. She looked into those deep, deep, dark eyes and her mouth went dry.
‘Hence you said that they went somewhere that had sentimental meaning for you.’
‘Do you remember everything that people say to you?’ Aggie asked irritably and he shot her one of those amazing, slow smiles that did strange things to her heart rate.
‘It’s a blessing and a curse. You blush easily. Do you know that?’
‘That’s probably because I feel awkward here with you,’ Aggie retorted, but on cue she could feel her face going red.
‘No idea why.’ Luiz pushed himself away from the table and stretched out his legs to one side. He noticed that they had managed to work their way through nearly two bottles of wine. ‘We’re having a perfectly civilised conversation. Tell me why you decided to move to London.’
‘Tell me why you did.’
‘I took over an empire. The London base needed expanding. I was the obvious choice. I went to school here. I understand the way the people think.’
‘But did you want to settle here? I mean, it must be a far cry from Brazil.’
‘It works for me.’
He continued looking at her as what was left of the sandwiches were cleared away and coffee offered to them. Considering the hour, their landlady was remarkably obliging, waving aside Aggie’s apologies for arriving at such an inconvenient time, telling them that business was to be welcomed whatever time it happened to arrive. Beggars couldn’t be choosers.
But neither of them wanted coffee. Aggie was so tired that she could barely stand. She was also tipsy; too much wine on an empty stomach.
‘I’m going to go outside for a bit,’ she said. ‘I think I need to get some fresh air.’
‘You’re going outside in this weather?’
‘I’m used to it. I grew up with snow.’ She stood up and had to steady herself and breathe in deeply.
‘I don’t care if you grew up running wild in the Himalayas, you’re not going outside, and not because I don’t think that you can handle the weather. You’re not going outside because you’ve had too much to drink and you’ll probably pass out.’
Aggie glared at him and gripped the table. God, her head was swimming, and she knew that she really ought to get to bed, do just as he said. But there was no way that she was going to allow him to dictate her movements on top of everything else.
‘Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Luiz Montes!’
He looked at her in silence and then shrugged. ‘And do you intend to go out without a coat, because you’re used to the snow?’
‘Of course not!’
‘Well, that’s a relief.’ He stood up and shoved his hands in the pockets of his trousers. ‘Make sure you have a key to get back in,’ he told her. ‘I think we’ve caused our obliging landlady enough inconvenience for one night without having to get her out of bed to let you in because you’ve decided to take a walk in driving snow.’
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mrs Bixby, the landlady, heading towards them like a ship in full sail. But when she began expressing concern about Aggie’s decision to step outside for a few minutes, Luiz shook his head ever so slightly.
‘I’m sure Agatha is more than capable of taking care of herself,’ he told Mrs Bixby. ‘But she will need a key to get back in.’
‘I expect you want me to thank you,’ Aggie hissed, once she was in possession of the front-door key and struggling to get her arms into her coat. Now that she was no longer supporting herself against the dining-room table, her light-headedness was accompanied by a feeling of nausea. She also suspected that her words were a little slurred even though she was taking care to enunciate each and every syllable very carefully.
‘Thank me for what?’ Luiz walked with her to the front door. ‘Your coat’s not done up properly.’ He pointed to the buttons which she had failed to match up properly, and then he leaned against the wall and watched as she fumbled to try and remedy the oversight.
‘Stop staring at me!’
‘Just making sure that you’re well wrapped up. Would you like to borrow my scarf? No bother for me to run upstairs and get it for you.’
‘I’m absolutely fine.’ A wave of sickness washed over her as she tilted her head to look him squarely in the face.
Very hurriedly, she let herself out of the house while Luiz turned to Mrs Bixby and grinned. ‘I intend to take up residence in the dining room. I’ll sit by the window and make sure I keep an eye on her. Don’t worry; if she’s not back inside in under five minutes, I’ll forcibly bring her in myself.’
‘Coffee while you wait?’
‘Strong, black would be perfect.’
He was still grinning as he manoeuvred a chair so that he could relax back and see her as she stood still in the snow for a few seconds, breathing in deeply from the looks of it, before tramping in circles on the front lawn. He couldn’t imagine her leaving the protective circle of light and striking out for an amble in the town. The plain truth was that she had had a little too much to drink. She had been distinctly green round the gills when she had stood up after eating a couple of sandwiches, although that was something she would never have admitted to.
Frankly, Luiz had no time for women who drank, but he could hardly blame her. Neither of them had been aware of how much wine had been consumed. She would probably wake up with a headache in the morning, which would be a nuisance, as he wanted to leave at the crack of dawn, weather permitting. But that was life.
He narrowed his eyes and sat forward as she became bored with her circular tramping and began heading towards the little gate that led out towards the street and the town.
Without waiting for the coffee, he headed for the front door, only pausing on the way to tell Mrs Bixby that he’d let himself back in.
She’d vanished from sight and Luiz cursed fluently under his breath. Without a coat it was freezing and he was half-running when he saw her staggering up the street with purpose before pausing to lean against a lamp post, head buried in the crook of her elbow.
‘Bloody woman,’ he muttered under his breath. He picked up speed as much as he could and reached her side just in time to scoop her up as she was about to slide to the ground.
Aggie shrieked.
‘Do you intend to wake the entire town?’ Luiz began walking as quickly as he could back to the bed and breakfast. Which, in snow that was fast settling, wasn’t very quickly at all.
‘Put me down!’ She pummelled ineffectively at his chest but soon gave up because the activity made her feel even more queasy.
‘Now, that has to be the most stupid thing ever to have left your lips.’
‘I said put me down!’
‘If I put you down, you wouldn’t be able to get back up. You don’t honestly think I missed the fact that you were hanging onto that lamp post for dear life, do you?’
‘I don’t need rescuing by you!’
‘And I don’t need to be out here in freezing weather playing the knight in shining armour! Now shut up!’
Aggie was so shocked by that insufferably arrogant command that she shut up.
She wouldn’t have admitted it in a million years but it felt good to be carried like this, because her legs had been feeling very wobbly. In fact, she really had been on the point of wanting to sink to the ground just to take the weight off them before he had swept her off her feet.
She felt him nudge the front door open with his foot, which meant that it had been left ajar. It was humiliating to think of Mrs Bixby seeing her like this and she buried herself against Luiz, willing herself to disappear.
‘Don’t worry,’ Luiz murmured drily in her ear. ‘Our friendly landlady is nowhere to be seen. I told her to go to bed, that I’d make sure I brought you in in one piece.’
Aggie risked a glance at the empty hall and instructed him to put her down.
‘That dumb suggestion again. You’re drunk and you need to get to bed, which is what I told you before you decided to prove how stubborn you could be by ignoring my very sound advice.’
‘I am not drunk. I am never drunk.’ She was alarmed by a sudden need to hiccup, which she thankfully stifled. ‘Furthermore, I am more than capable of making my own way upstairs.’
‘Okay.’ He released her fast enough for her to feel the ground rushing up to meet her and she clutched his jumper with both hands and took a few deep breaths. ‘Still want to convince me that you’re more than capable of making your own way upstairs?’
‘I hate you!’ Aggie muttered as he swept her back up into his arms.
‘You have a tendency to be repetitive,’ Luiz murmured, and he didn’t have to see her face to know that she was glaring at him. ‘And I’m surprised and a little offended that you hate me for rescuing you from almost certainly falling flat on your face in the snow and probably going to sleep. As a teacher, you should know that that is the most dangerous thing that could happen, passing out in the snow. While under the influence of alcohol. Tut, tut, tut. You’d be struck off the responsible-teacher register if they ever found out about that. Definitely not a good example to set for impressionable little children, seeing their teacher the worse for wear…’
‘Shut up,’ Aggie muttered fiercely.
