One Chance at Love

by Carole Mortimer

  As far as she knew, Christi hadn’t seen her uncle since this morning, either, and from the puzzled look her friend was shooting her she had no more idea of the reason for Zach’s anger than Dizzy did.

  Her gaze returned to Zach, loving the springy softness of his hair as it dried in the loose waves even the shortness of the style wasn’t able to deter. Once again he wore the black evening suit and a white shirt, and once again his magnificent virility shone above the ill-fitting clothes. She couldn’t understand why Christi wasn’t able to see just how attractive he was; he was becoming more and more so to her by the hour!

  ‘What did you think I was going to do when I found out Mrs Scott’s daughter had had an emergency operation and that her granddaughter was staying here with her?’ he rasped at their puzzled expressions. ‘Throw them both out into the street?’

  Christi’s face cleared, and she turned to give Dizzy a rueful grimace before answering her uncle. ‘Of course not, Uncle Zach,’ she soothed. ‘Mrs Scott seemed to be handling the situation, and I—we, believed Fredericks would have told you about it if he believed it was important,’ she added triumphantly as the thought obviously just occurred to her.

  Zach didn’t look impressed by the claim. ‘Fredericks obviously didn’t feel it was important,’ he bit out abruptly. ‘But Mrs Scott is full of the fact that my niece and Miss James have been taking care of her granddaughter for her today, that the two of you even drove thirty miles to Kate’s home so that she could be reunited with her favourite doll!’

  ‘That was—’

  ‘—Christi’s idea,’ Dizzy put in softly, shooting her friend a silencing look as she gave a sudden frown. ‘A very thoughtful and kind one, considering that Kate was so upset about not having the doll with her.’ She smiled approvingly at Christi.

  ‘Oh, but—’

  ‘Don’t you think so, Zach?’ she prompted him, giving Christi another warning glance.

  ‘Very,’ he snapped. ‘And I’m sure Mrs Scott appreciated it as much as the child did.’ His expression softened as he looked at his niece. ‘But,’ he added in a controlled voice, ‘if either of you had taken the trouble to tell me about the domestic difficulty Mrs Scott was having, I would have given her the time off to see to her granddaughter and go to the hospital to visit her daughter.’

  And it was because they hadn’t that he obviously considered they believed him to be ‘some sort of monster’!

  Since he was Mrs Scott’s employer, someone probably should have told him about little Kate. Christi still seemed to be floundering under the surprise of hearing herself described as the ‘Good Samaritan’, so she wasn’t going to be much help in explanations just yet!

  ‘We all managed perfectly well, without having to worry you,’ Dizzy placated. ‘This way, Christi and I kept busy, Mrs Scott felt free to take care of your needs, knowing her granddaughter was in Christi’s more than capable hands—’ again Christi frowned at being given the praise for that deed ‘—and I don’t think anyone can doubt Kate’s happiness,’ she rushed on.

  ‘Probably not,’ Zach acknowledged abruptly. ‘Is it my imagination, or did “master of my own home” seem to get forgotten among all this organising?’ He arched questioning brows.

  Dizzy suddenly felt on safer ground, sure that over the years she had become an expert on trying to placate an indignant male. ‘You’re such a busy person, Zach,’ she said warmly. ‘None of us wanted to interrupt your work by bothering you with this trivial problem.’

  His eyes were cold as he looked at her. ‘I doubt Mrs Scott’s daughter considered it trivial.’

  ‘No—well—’

  ‘Or Kate last night, as she cried at the strangeness of her surroundings. Or Mrs Scott, as she tried to comfort her,’ he bit out with controlled violence.

  This wasn’t going at all as she had planned; usually she only had to simper and tell her father how important she realised his work was, and he would become so lost in his own self-importance he would forget what the lecture had been about. Obviously Zach was made of much sterner stuff. Or, more likely, he wasn’t so full of himself that he didn’t have time for other people’s feelings. She was sure that both of those things were true about Zach; he wasn’t about to be side-tracked by effusive compliments about his work, and he obviously cared for other people very much, as much angered by the misery he might have averted if he had known of Mrs Scott’s predicament as he was by the fact that no one had chosen to tell him. She didn’t doubt that, if he had known, he would have given Mrs Scott the time off to go and stay with Kate at her own home rather than having the little girl come here, where nothing was familiar to her. No doubt the cook herself would have realised that, if she hadn’t been in such a panic after yesterday’s emergency.

  ‘It wasn’t a deliberate omission on anyone’s part, I’m sure,’ Dizzy shrugged uncomfortably.

  ‘It was just that no one thought I would be interested!’ Zach rasped.

  She grimaced. ‘Yes. I mean—no. I mean—’

  He drew in an impatient breath, turning to his niece. ‘Is that what you thought, too?’

  Christi frowned. ‘I—’

  ‘Of course it isn’t,’ Dizzy defended, aware that Christi was fast losing ground in her uncle’s esteem. ‘Christi—’

  ‘—is perfectly able to answer for herself,’ Zach finished firmly. ‘Do you have anything to say, Christi?’ His voice softened a little as he spoke to her.

  Her head went back. ‘Yes, I do.’ She looked at Dizzy before turning back to her uncle. ‘We didn’t commit any crime, Uncle Zach, unless it was by omission,’ she defended firmly. ‘At the time, we were more concerned with Kate than your possible hurt feelings.’

  Dizzy stared at her friend in amazement. She didn’t need anyone to tell her what was happening, after all the years she had known Christi she knew that, although slow to anger, when Christi reached a saturation point she nevertheless bubbled over. And she was fast approaching that point when it came to impressing her uncle with her maturity and kindness. Dizzy was aware that taking the credit for collecting Kate’s doll had probably contributed to it; although Christi didn’t mind having a little fun at her uncle’s expense, she found the subject of Kate’s distress too serious to be played around with.

  So did she! But thoughtfulness towards a child hardly fitted in with the selfish drifter she was supposed to be!

  Zach looked slightly taken aback by the attack, gently made as it was, and then his expression softened. ‘You’re right,’ he sighed. ‘The important thing is that the situation has been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. And Kate was definitely looking bright enough when I saw her in the kitchen just now,’ he added indulgently.

  ‘I knew you would understand, Uncle Zach.’ Christi gave him a spontaneous hug, grinning up at him affectionately as she pulled back.

  Dizzy watched with longing as Christi did easily what she had longed to do since the moment she had first seen Zach, what she had also been fighting against in an agony of doubt and confusion.

  Over the years she had chosen her friends well, felt able to relax and share affection with them, but falling in love with a man was a different matter altogether, involved a commitment she had sworn never to make to any man. These feelings she had, to lose herself in Zach’s arms, were as frightening as they were unsettling.

  ‘Speaking of kitchens,’ he was telling Christi now, ‘as I’ve given Mrs Scott the rest of the evening off so that she can spend it with Kate, we have the little problem of who is to serve up the supper she has left prepared for us. I thought the two of you could do it,’ he told them blandly.

  The two women burst out laughing at his totally innocent expression, Christi hugging him again.

  ‘You’re just a big softie, after all,’ she chuckled indulgently.

  Blond brows rose over honey-brown eyes. ‘Did you have some reason to suppose I wasn’t?’

  ‘No, of course not,’ Christi denied instantly. ‘Come on, Dizzy,’ she added b
riskly. ‘Let’s go and see to the food before it spoils.’

  Mrs Scott might have been given the evening off by her employer, but she hadn’t gone until the soup, chicken dinner and dessert had been prepared. There was little for Dizzy and Christi to do except put the food into the vegetable dishes, ready for Fredericks to bring into the dining-room for them.

  ‘That was a close thing,’ Dizzy remarked as she strained the vegetables over the sink. ‘I thought you were going to lose your temper just now,’ she explained at Christi’s questioning look.

  ‘So did I,’ her friend grimaced. ‘I know why you gave me the credit about Kate’s doll.’ She held up her hands defensively. ‘But I wasn’t comfortable with it; I suddenly wasn’t comfortable with the whole situation,’ she admitted ruefully. ‘Uncle Zach’s a strange one.’ She shook her head. ‘I just think I have him taped, and he shows me yet another side of his character.’

  ‘He was certainly angry at not being told about Mrs Scott’s daughter,’ Dizzy replied non-committally, not willing to get into a discussion about how fascinating she found the different facets of Zach’s nature!

  Christi grinned. ‘Not so angry he couldn’t make a joke about giving us this work to do.’ She placed the last of the serving bowls in the food warmer. ‘I know one thing,’ she announced with satisfaction as they left the kitchen together. ‘I’ve certainly been proven correct about there never being a dull moment when you’re about! So far we’ve spent the day chasing after a doll, taken over the castle kitchen for the evening, and you’ve had the strangest effect on—’

  ‘Yes?’ Dizzy prompted sharply as she broke off abruptly, Christi’s eyes wide as she looked at her as if she had never seen her before. ‘Christi!’ she prompted with suspicion. ‘What is it?’

  Christi gave a start of surprise at having her train of thought interrupted, shaking her head as she gave a sudden, overly bright smile. ‘Nothing,’ she dismissed, a little too lightly for Dizzy’s peace of mind. ‘Shall we rejoin my uncle?’

  Dizzy didn’t like it when Christi became secretive; it usually meant she was up to something. ‘Christi,’ she began warningly, ‘you—’

  ‘Fredericks is ready to serve the soup,’ her friend prompted, as the butler appeared in the corridor behind them with the tureen.

  Dizzy gave her a look that promised this wasn’t the end of the subject. Her uneasiness increased as Christi seemed to be watching her closely through dinner.

  She deliberately kept her conversation light, although she noticed that Christi stayed pretty much out of that, too, leaving it up to Dizzy and Zach to keep the conversation flowing.

  By the end of the meal, Dizzy was feeling decidedly uneasy by Christi’s preoccupied expression. Her friend was plotting something, and this time she wanted to know what it was before she was thrown into the situation.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Christi denied, after Dizzy had followed her to her bedroom and demanded to know what was going on.

  ‘Christi—’

  ‘It was pretty decent of Uncle Zach to help with the washing up like that,’ Christi commented as she unzipped her dress.

  It had been a little too cosy in the kitchen, with the three of them doing the washing up, for Dizzy’s peace of mind, but she had to agree that it had been a pleasant surprise when Zach had offered to help them. If it had been her father in that situation, he wouldn’t have given Mrs Scott the evening off in the first place, let alone helped do some of the work.

  But she hadn’t needed Zach’s show of kindness to know he was nothing like her father, she had known that instinctively. It was the commitment of a relationship that she feared, rather than the man himself.

  Her father hadn’t remarried after his divorce from her mother, and when she was older Dizzy had secretly wondered if that weren’t because the role of a wronged man who had never got over the loss of his wife was considered rather appealing to the electorate. Maybe she was being unfair to him because of her own feelings of resentment towards him, but she had known he hadn’t felt her mother’s betrayal enough not to have had a succession of quietly discreet affairs over the years. As for her mother, if newspaper reports of her life were to be believed, each successive lover was younger than the last. They would soon be younger than Dizzy herself!

  Being brought up in a background like that didn’t make for a trust in everlasting love. Even the happy marriages of several of her friends could not change years of mistrusting the sort of love that left one open to pain and disillusionment.

  Knowing how close she was to feeling that sort of love for Zach Bennett, she should be running away from here as fast as her legs would carry her. But instead she stayed, and it wasn’t just for Christi’s benefit, either.

  ‘Very nice of him,’ she answered Christi’s comment. ‘But stop changing the subject and tell me what you’re plotting in that devious little mind of yours.’

  Christi gave a pained frown. ‘I think I take exception to the “little” part of that.’

  ‘You’re up to something.’ Dizzy wasn’t to be diverted. ‘And I want to know what it is!’

  She wasn’t at all reassured by Christi’s look of pained innocence at the accusation.

  ‘All right.’ She dropped the act as Dizzy simply continued to look at her. ‘But I’m not up to anything, or planning anything. In fact, this development could completely ruin everything for me,’ she added ruefully, but without too much real distress, as if the price she had to pay was worth it.

  Dizzy tensed, looking at her friend warily. ‘What do you mean?’

  Christi’s face was full of affection, her blue eyes softened with love. ‘You and Uncle Zach are so aware of each other, the air simply crackled with it tonight at dinner,’ she said softly.

  Fiery colour burnt Dizzy’s cheeks. ‘What nonsense!’ she finally managed to splutter. But it wasn’t; as she and Zach had talked tonight she had been fully aware of him, and Christi had just confirmed that she hadn’t imagined Zach’s response to her.

  Christi squeezed her hand. ‘We can’t let him go on thinking those things about you, love—’

  ‘You really are imagining things, Christi.’ She deliberately made her voice lightly scoffing. ‘The fusty, dusty professor and me!’ She shook her head as if Christi had gone slightly insane.

  Her friend looked unmoved by the act. ‘How long did you continue to think of him as fusty and dusty?’ she gently chided.

  She never had; how could she when her first sight of him had been as he swam naked only feet away from her?

  Her guilty blush gave her away. ‘All right, so I don’t think of him that way,’ she admitted sharply. ‘But I don’t think of him in connection with husband and children, either! Leave things as they are, Christi, please,’ she pleaded.

  ‘Dizzy, would you recognise love if it came up and bit you on the nose?’ Christi prompted softly.

  ‘Would you?’ she attacked, completely on the defensive.

  Her friend didn’t look in the least offended. ‘I’ve had my moments,’ she shrugged. ‘Nothing like the electricity flowing between you and Uncle Zach, though,’ she said with satisfaction.

  ‘I think you’ve been reading too many happy-ever-after stories,’ Dizzy dismissed. ‘Real life just isn’t like that.’

  ‘It can be,’ Christi told her quietly.

  ‘Not for me!’ She strode angrily to the door. ‘So please keep your matchmaking efforts to yourself!’

  ‘All right,’ her friend shrugged.

  ‘I mean it, Christi.’ She was breathing raggedly in her agitation, not trusting Christi’s ready agreement one little bit. ‘If you try to get your uncle and me together, I’ll leave here so fast, you’ll have some difficult explanations to make.’

  ‘I said all right,’ Christi said irritably, picking up her nightgown and robe, in preparation of taking a shower. ‘But the two of you could be good for each— All right,’ she snapped frustratedly at Dizzy’s furious glare. ‘But don’t
blame me if you’re passing up your one chance at love.’ She slammed into the adjoining bathroom.

  Dizzy left the room slowly, deeply disturbed. The last thing she would have wished for was that Christi would realise her awareness of Zach. Or accuse him of being equally aware of her! Was that really true? There was an electricity between them, that couldn’t be denied, but was Zach really aware of it, too? If he was, she was surprised he wasn’t the one running away!

  Once again she had trouble sleeping after her nightly read, getting up to move restlessly about the room. She had purchased the pilchards today, and a glass of milk and something to nibble on might have helped her to relax enough to sleep, but after her conversation with Christi, and what had happened last night, she was loath to venture downstairs. Her defences were a little dented tonight, and if Zach should come down again … She dared not risk it.

  Instead, she sat in front of one of the windows and looked out at the mountains and lakes that were clearly visible in the bright moonlight, hoping to gain some relaxation from their soothing presence, but finding the memories of the lake she tried to keep her gaze averted from too disturbing.

  How long she had been sitting there when the gentle knock sounded on the door she had no idea, but she knew it had to be very late—or very early, as Zach had pointed out the night before. Damn, he was in her thoughts so much now, she was even starting to refer to his comments and opinions.

  She almost fell over with shock when she opened the door to find him standing there!

  She had been expecting it to be Christi, believing her friend couldn’t sleep either. Instead it was Zach, dressed just as he had been last night, and he was carrying a tray.

  He smiled as her gaze rose shyly from the milk and biscuits on the tray to his face. ‘I’m afraid I just couldn’t bring myself to open the tin of pilchards,’ he teased softly, as he carried the tray into the room and placed it on the side of the dressing-table Dizzy quickly cleared. Then he turned to face her, his hands thrust into the pockets of his robe.

  ‘I didn’t expect—you didn’t have to bring me this.’ She shook her head dazedly, even more disturbed by his presence in her bedroom than she had been at being caught in the kitchen last night.