The Greek's Convenient Cinderella by Lynne Graham

Author:Lynne Graham [Graham, Lynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-12-03T14:45:28+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

THE HELICOPTER LANDED in what looked like a forest glade.

Tansy jumped out, full of curiosity. ‘You have a cabin in the woods?’ she remarked in surprise, briefly forgetting that she wasn’t actually speaking to Jude as yet. Ironically, though, the fact that he hadn’t even tried to communicate with her during the flight had left her feeling ridiculously excluded.

‘No, not a cabin,’ Jude asserted, leading the way down a path through the pine trees, dense vegetation on all sides preventing her from catching much of a view of anything.

But the smell of the sea flared her nostrils and she saw a glint of water through the forest of tall straight trunks surrounding her. They emerged out of the shade into the evening sunshine and her eyes went wide as she saw the ancient stone walls intersected by ornamental turrets rising in front of her. ‘A castle?’ she whispered in disbelief.

‘I saw it from the water one afternoon a few years ago. It was a medieval ruin until it was illegally developed by a rich eccentric in the nineteen twenties. It was almost derelict again by the time I bought it and fixed it up. It’s the smallest property I own. I had to renovate a terrace of farmworker cottages nearby to accommodate staff.’

‘I suppose it’s unthinkable that you could manage for yourself,’ Tansy sniped.

‘I will never be able to live safely without security, nor will you. The family name does come with a downside of high risk,’ Jude told her drily.

‘Oh, believe me,’ Tansy said tartly, ‘I’ve already seen that for myself!’

Jude gritted his even white teeth and shot her a shimmering dark golden glance of condemnation. ‘You’re wrong about me, very wrong!’

Tansy said nothing more, accompanying him into an unexpectedly cosy hall and up a stone staircase into a spacious bedroom, made airy by contemporary furniture in spite of the natural stone walls and narrow window embrasures through which sunshine glimmered in long shards across the floor. ‘A drink?’ Jude prompted.

‘Wine,’ Tansy said flatly. ‘Please…’

‘Althea and I…a tangled tragic tale,’ Jude murmured grittily as he opened a cupboard kitted out with a comprehensive bar and refrigerator. ‘We were childhood sweethearts with the approval of both families. Isidore very much approved of the Lekkas pedigree, if not their lack of fortune. At sixteen, she was my first lover and I was hers and I adored her. My best friend, Santos, was in love with her as well but I trusted him, I trusted them both…’ Jude glanced up from the beer he was pouring and saluted her with it, a cynical curve to his expressive mouth. ‘You’re only that young and innocent once.’

As Tansy guessed with a sinking heart where the tale seemed to be going, she tensed, suddenly feeling that she was being made aware of stuff she wasn’t entitled to know, and then reddening on the memory that she had seen him in Althea’s arms and that, as his wife, she did have a right to know their back story if it was relevant.

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