Cover Story by Jane Donnelly

Author:Jane Donnelly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1994-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

WHEN Millie reached Adam he put an arm around her shoulders and it seemed the most natural thing in the world. Tomorrow her antagonism could flare as fiercely as ever but out here in the shifting moonlight, with the sea crashing on the rocks below and the ancient abbey looming above them, a strange magic was in the air.

They walked the cloisters. Under the grass she could feel the odd stone that was all that remained of the paved ways, surrounded by arches, along which the hooded monks in their brown habits had walked on sandalled feet.

Adam told her the cloisters had gone with the sacking of the abbey. Most of the stones that remained had been used in repairs to the rest of the building when it was turned into a fortified manor house for one of the king’s cronies. Later the whole place was almost a ruin until an ancestor of Adam’s had rebuilt it two hundred years ago.

‘And it’s been like this ever since?’

‘Not quite.’ On the cliff’s edge they were turning to look back. ‘My grandfather was a landowner; he thought the money would come in for ever. My father died in a plane crash...’ She knew that—both his father and his mother before Adam reached his teens. ‘He’d been going through resources at a rate of knots. When my grandfather died we were heading for bankruptcy.’

The dossier hadn’t said that, nor had Jack. Perhaps that wasn’t generally known, but now Schofield Enterprises were riding high. She asked, ‘What did you do?’

‘Sold off here and there and got to work.’ He sounded as if it had been easy but of course it hadn’t. ‘I was lucky,’ he said. ‘I’ve usually been lucky.’

The wind was blowing her hair across her face. He held it back with gentle fingers. ‘Never luckier than when I met you,’ he said, and she hoped the night was dark enough to hide the flame of colour that sprang up in her cheeks.

There was a handrail here, a path leading down and beach below, and she asked, ‘Can we go down?’ because his cool fingers must feel the heat in her face, and she had to turn her head away.

‘Do you want to go down?’

‘Please,’ she said.

The path was steep, but safe enough if you held the iron handrail and watched your step. Adam went just ahead of her and at the bottom was shifting shingle, pebbles and rocks. High tide mark gleamed in the moonlight, the tide had turned now and they walked to where the foam was still breaking at their feet.

She looked for the lighthouse and he pointed. ‘It’s hard to see in this light but it’s on the rocks to the right out there. You can walk to it at low tide, or use a dinghy, of course.’

‘Will you take me there some time?’

‘Of course.’

Even after the wedding his house might still be full of guests but surely they would find some time to be alone together, and tonight she was beginning to wonder if she could talk to him.

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