The Impoverished Princess by Robyn Donald

Author:Robyn Donald
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

THAT night Serina slept well and the next morning Alex showed her around his garden, but for the first time ever she couldn’t fully concentrate on the beauty and harmony of flowers and foliage and form. Her attention was fixed on the man beside her.

She wondered dismally if this—whatever—she felt for Alex was going to destroy her pleasure in gardens.

Not that it could be love. The mere thought of that shocked her.

She couldn’t afford to love him. He’d made his attitude brutally clear; the unfulfilled desire that pulsated between them indicated a relationship, nothing more.

It was a relief to get into the Land Rover for a quick overview of the station. The track wound up to an airstrip along a ridge, providing a magnificent view over green hills and bush-clad gullies and the Pacific Ocean, a wide stretch of brilliant blue under the bright winter sky.

‘Tomorrow we’ll go down to the nearest beach,’ he told her on their way back to the home stead. ‘I hope you have some warm clothes with you?’

‘Of course I have,’ she returned crisply. ‘But you don’t need to entertain me, you know. Tomorrow I’ll see about hiring a car so I can visit some of the gardens in the guide book you found for me.’

He gave her a narrow glance. ‘Have you ever driven on the left?’

‘Oh, yes,’ she said absently, trying not to look down the hill. Although the track was well-maintained, the ground fell away sharply on her side without any barrier and she refused to let him see how nervous she was. Heights intimidated her.

But he must have sensed it because he slowed the Land Rover down. ‘When? And how much?’

Warmed by his unspoken consideration, she said, ‘I used to visit Doran at his school in England. Also, when our nanny was ill I drove down to Somerset quite frequently to visit her.’

And on other occasions when she’d been checking out gardens and interviewing their owners.

He said, ‘So you’re experienced on both sides of the road.’

‘And I’m a careful driver.’ Scrupulously, she added, ‘I did once set off from an intersection and head straight towards the wrong side. I was lucky—there was no other traffic, but it scared me and I’ve been super-cautious ever since.’

‘If there had been other traffic you’d probably have kept to the left,’ Alex said. He glanced at her. ‘You don’t need to hire a car; I’ll drive you around.’

‘I can’t ask you to do that,’ she pro tested, hiding her quick flare of pleasure.

‘You didn’t,’ he said, reacting instantly when a bird sunning itself in the gravel flew up suddenly in front of the Land Rover.

Serina’s sharp intake of breath wasn’t necessary. Without stamping on the brake, Alex slowed the vehicle but held it to the line.

‘Never try to avoid a bird or an animal,’ he said calmly. ‘Probably more people have been killed taking abrupt evasive action than actually hitting something. Always stay on the road, and on your side if it’s a public road.

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