The House on the Shore by Victoria Howard

Author:Victoria Howard [Victoria Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781935407249
Google: AldDPQAACAAJ
Amazon: 1937227340
Barnesnoble: 1937227340
Goodreads: 5989322
Publisher: Vanilla Heart Publishing
Published: 2012-10-09T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Anna sank down into the tub of hot water and thought about the events of the last twenty-four hours. Morag was her only visitor, or had been until Luke showed up. Luke…now there was an enigma. A man who, by his own admission, was successful, yet he’d sailed across the Atlantic on a whim. Why? Morag had said something—what was it? Oh, yes. Something about looking for a past he didn’t know he had. If he was seeking his ancestors, what did they have to do with her and Tigh na Cladach?

Pondering the answers, she poured a dollop of shampoo into her hand and massaged it into her hair.

The croft had been in her family for generations. Surely, her grandmother would have told her if any of her ancestors had emigrated.

Luke should have been unprepared for the croft’s remoteness and inaccessibility. Yet he hadn’t seemed surprised. What if he’d been acting? That would explain why he’d made such a big deal about her staying there on her own.

He was in an ideal position to kill her. All he had to do was row across the loch and bash her head in. However, that wasn’t the man she was getting to know. He’d shown up yesterday morning full of concern. No, she reasoned as she towelled herself dry, Luke couldn’t be the prowler. Besides, when he looked at her, the air positively crackled with sexual tension, and just thinking about the way his mouth felt on hers made her lips tingle and her pulse quicken all over again.

A knock on the bathroom door interrupted her thoughts. “Dinner’s ready.”

“I’ll be down in a tick!” She zipped up her denim skirt, fastened the buttons of her blouse, and scurried down the stairs into the kitchen.

“I hope this is all right,” Luke said placing a bowl of soup in front of her. “There’s cheese and ham, and salad too.”

“It’s perfect. Thank you, Luke. Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Go ahead.”

“On still nights, sound carries clear across the loch, so I was wondering…the night someone tried to break in, did you hear anything?”

“I tend to listen to the radio before I go to sleep, it helps me relax. I’m sorry, I didn’t hear a thing.”

“In that case, do you recall if there were any other boats anchored in the loch that night?”

“The loch doesn’t run straight to the sea, it narrows into a dog-leg about a third of the way down. You know that. I guess it’s possible another vessel was anchored further out. Why do you ask?”

“If my midnight caller arrived and left by car, the dogs would have heard its engine. I probably would have done so, too. I didn’t. Either the prowler came on foot, in which case he’s familiar with the terrain, or he came by boat.”

“I see what you’re getting at.” His gaze caught and held hers as his mouth spread into a thin-lipped smile. “You’re not suggesting it was me, are you?”

Anna moistened her dry lips, and avoided looking at him.

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