Ashley slowed the boat, sweeping it around in a wide arc and sending ripples flowing across the water, before knocking the gears into neutral. Without the roar of the engines it was suddenly very quiet – so quiet, in fact, that she could almost hear the racing of her heart.
“Did you enjoy that?” he asked.
Mo nodded. Even though this was Cashley’s boat and she was stuck with him, it had been a wonderful trip across to the bay. “I loved it. There’s something about being out on the water, isn’t there? It’s a real sense of freedom.”
Ashley glanced at her, a look of surprise on his face. “Yes, that’s exactly it. Mental elbow room.”
As the boat idled he and Mo scanned the water for any signs of the dolphins. The sea was oily calm and the only sounds were the purring of the motors and the gentle slap of the water against the hull. The last time that Ashley and Mo had been at sea and peering into the water, it had been for a very different and rather more urgent purpose. Somehow she knew that he too was thinking about this.
“Nick still isn’t over Penhalligan Girl going down,” she said eventually. “He blames himself.”
Ashley shook his head. “Tell your brother he needs to let it go. Take it from me, guilt’s a big waste of time.”
“He wants to thank you properly. Bobby and Joe might not have made it without you. You took a risk going out to search for them that day.”
He turned and looked at her, and his searching expression made Mo’s stomach lurch like the deck.
“We both took a risk,” he replied, “but some risks are worth taking, aren’t they?”
What was that supposed to mean?
“Besides, they were young boys with their whole lives ahead of them,” Ashley continued, looking past her and out towards the horizon. “It could have so easily gone the other way, of course, but then maybe that’s life? You play the hand you’re dealt as best you can. There’s nothing more anyone can do.”
Mo wasn’t sure what to say to this. She had the impression that they weren’t talking about a sinking fishing boat anymore.
Ashley took a breath. “Mo, I—”
The moment was interrupted by a sudden leap of glistening fin and gunmetal flesh as a dolphin sliced upwards through the water, before breaking the surface with barely a ripple and leaping again. Seconds later two more joined it, racing around the boat and diving beneath it in an elaborate game of underwater tag.
Mo gasped and, turning to Ashley, saw her own amazement reflected in his smile – a smile of such genuine delight that it transformed his usually brooding expression. Whatever it was he’d been about to say had been lost as soon as the dolphins had arrived. These magical creatures lived in the moment, bringing with them such energy and pure joy that nothing else mattered. The time for introspection was over, and maybe their ongoing war of wits had ended too.
For now at least, anyway.
She handed Ashley one of the pasties; it was crushed and crumbling, but in the salty air and with dolphins dancing around them, the picnic was the best thing Mo had ever tasted.
“Not bad as dinner dates go, is it?” said Ashley quietly – and when he turned to kiss her, his mouth on hers softer than the flaking pastry, Mo didn’t have any choice but to agree.
Chapter 6
Mo broke the kiss first, but this didn’t surprise Ashley. He could feel the racing of her heart and saw the flash of panic in her eyes. She’d be furious with herself, of course, and racking those clever brains for an excuse for what had just happened; anything rather than admit that she’d wanted to kiss him just as much as he’d longed to kiss her. He had felt her yearning pass from her soft lips to his own.
Ashley wasn’t scared to admit how she made him feel: there was no point playing games when time was finite. For months, he’d thought about little else but kissing Mo.
“You can’t go blaming this one on alcohol, Red,” he told her with a grin. “You didn’t buy the pork-and-cider pasties.”
Mo raised her chin, clearly wishing that she had plumped for one of Patsy’s weird and wonderful variations. “Don’t read anything into it. I just got a bit carried away with the excitement of seeing the dolphins.”
His grin broadened. “Oh really? Well, they’re just about to swim by again, in case you still feel inclined to get carried away. Don’t stop on my account. In fact, feel free to be as carried away as you like!”
“No, I’m fine. I’m over it now.” Mo crossed her arms and tried to adopt a stern expression, but her flushed cheeks and the way she couldn’t quite look him in the eye were adorable and told Ashley all he needed to know.
She’d enjoyed every minute.
“Really? That’s a shame. And the dolphins are trying so hard to impress you.”
“The dolphins do impress me. It’s just you who doesn’t.”
Ashley pulled a wounded face. “That’s a bit harsh, Red, even for you. Jeez, what does a guy have to do to impress you? Rescue two reckless fishermen? Give you beautiful woodlands? Find a pod of dolphins for you to watch? How about some tap-dancing unicorns?” He slapped his palm against his forehead. “I know! I should have asked the Loch Ness Monster to swim by. Would that have done it?”
Mo pushed her hair away from her face and looked up at him. She really did have the most beautiful eyes, Ashley thought. They echoed the blues of the sea perfectly and were every bit as dangerous for men to drown in.
“Did you just say that you’ve been trying to impress me?”
Ashley replayed his last sentence and groaned inwardly. Nice one.
“I was speaking hypothetically,” he said.
Mo’s lips twitched. “Really? So you did all those things out of the goodness of your heart?”
It was time to call her bluff, thought Ashley. Mo was a tricky one, as easily spooked as any of her young horses and equally likely to kick out. The way she’d kissed him, how her eyes had darkened with desire – these things told him that Mo’s feelings and her spiky words didn’t always match. He had to be so careful with her because beneath the prickly exterior she was porcelain-fragile.
He raised one shoulder. “Of course. I can’t think of another reason I’d have done them, can you?”
Mo was silent. Her eyes slipped to the horizon and her teeth bit her full bottom lip while her hair lifted softly in the breeze. Just looking at her made Ashley’s breath catch in his throat. She had no idea how utterly lovely she was. He wanted nothing more than to pull her close and kiss her again and again.
Christ. This made no sense: she wasn’t his type at all. Ashley usually dated groomed blondes with gym-honed bodies, straightened silken sheets of hair and expensive taste in designer clothes. Mo, with her wild auburn curls, tatty jeans and habitual whiff of horse, was the polar opposite of his usual type. Maybe his attraction to her was to do with that bloody tumour pressing down onto his brain? Abnormal and uncharacteristic behaviour was what his consultant had told him to watch out for. Were his feelings for Mo part of this?
It sounded logical but Ashley didn’t believe it for a second. Still, it might have made things easier if he could have blamed his feelings for Mo on the tumour. Then he could have hidden away in his London house until the helpful surgeon cut the bloody thing, and with it all the complications, out of his life. That way he could have moved on, pulled another leggy blonde and got back to having lots of lovely no-strings sex.
The reality was that this was the last thing Ashley wanted to happen. The way he felt about Mo, and the sparring and the electricity that crackled between them like something the National Grid could harness, were what Ashley was living for. Or rather, they were want he wanted to live for, if only Mo and circumstances would allow it.
No, he couldn’t blame the tumour. There had always been something about Morwenna Tremaine – impossible Mo with her hot temper and her quick wit – that had got under his skin. Unlike most of the women he met, Mo wasn’t impressed by his money and could equal him in any verbal battle. Add to this her wild beau
ty and lush curves and Ashley had been lost from the minute he’d glanced at her across the table at that first PAG meeting. He’d not heard a single word of her angry tirade about the woods or the planning or the history of his house because he’d been utterly mesmerised by her sheer energy and fire. Before the masked ball he had wondered what it would feel like to kiss her. How would her lips taste? Would one kiss be enough to get Mo Tremaine out of his system forever or would she, like the painkillers he’d been taking with increasing regularity, become dangerously addictive?
Ashley knew the answer now. He’d gladly throw all his medication overboard but there was no way he could give Morwenna Tremaine up now that he’d found her. He wanted to spend what time he did have left, be it sixteen weeks or sixteen years, with Mo – which was easier said than done when she seemed to hate his guts.
“Do you get off on playing games with people?” she asked quietly.
“I never play games,” Ashley told her. “I take everything I do very seriously and I think you do too. I’m not playing with you, Mo. I never was.”
Mo threw her hands up despairingly. “But it doesn’t make any sense! You can’t stand me and I certainly can’t stand you.”
“Do you really think that’s true, Red? And besides, who says it has to make sense?”
She bit her lip as she thought about this for a moment. “Nobody, I guess. But even so, Ashley, we’re everything we hate to each other.”
He reached out and hooked a stray curl behind her ear.
“Ah, and didn’t I once try and warn you that those two emotions – love and hate – are actually very similar for women?”
“And didn’t I throw a pint of cider over you for being such a sexist pig?”
He laughed. “And I totally deserved it. Look, I don’t want to freak you out, Mo, but can’t you accept that I actually like you? I know we’ve been at loggerheads for pretty much as long as we’ve known one another, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you; quite the contrary. That fire you have might be bloody annoying when I’m trying to push my planning through but I admire it and, if I’m honest, I enjoy engaging with it. You care about things and you’re passionate about what you love. That’s one of the reasons why I gave you the woods.”
“What are the other reasons?”
God, she was sharp. For a moment he toyed with telling her, before pulling himself up short. Not yet. If ever.
“Like I said before, maybe I just thought it was the right thing to do?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Unlikely. It’s probably a tax dodge or something.”
Ashley grinned. This was more like it. “Red, I can assure you it’s not.”
“So you say. Why should I believe a word?”
“Because you like me, I’m a good kisser and, most importantly, I’ve got what’s left of your pasty.” Ashley handed her the bag. “Now shove that in your mouth, Red, and keep quiet will you? Otherwise you’ll scare those dolphins off. They’re sensitive to screechy sounds.”
Mo took the pasty and bit in. “FYI, I’m eating it because I’m starving,” she told him through a mouthful of swede and steak, “and not because you’ve asked me to.”
Ashley did his best to keep a straight face. “I didn’t doubt it for a minute. Now let’s see if we can find where those dolphins have gone to, shall we? Unless you want to molest me again?”
“In your dreams, Carstairs,” said Mo, but he heard the laughter in her voice. “Now, are we going to see these dolphins or not? And I think there was talk of a Loch Ness Monster too? You’d better deliver or I may start telling people you’re not quite as nasty as you make out.”
“Dear God, I can’t have that. The Pollards will take total advantage of me,” said Ashley, pulling an alarmed face. He clicked the throttle into gear and the boat crept forward. “Here Nessie! Good Nessie!”
The dangerous moment was skirted and his secret was safe. Their kiss was also swept neatly under the carpet in an elephant-shaped bulge, but Ashley wasn’t worried about that. He knew that Mo would kiss him again. It wasn’t a matter of if but of when. Feeling more cheerful than he had for ages, he pointed Big Rod out to sea and began to scan the waters for dolphins. This was turning into a great dinner date.
The shadows were starting to lengthen across the yard by the time Mo returned to the stables. The boat was tied up in the marina, several more hours of spotting dolphins had been enjoyed (and only spotting dolphins; Ashley had been on his very best behaviour) and now Ashley had walked up to the equestrian centre with Mo. He was exhausted and his head was thumping but he didn’t want the day to end just yet. Time suddenly felt as though it was accelerating and he couldn’t bear to waste a moment. Besides, it was only gentlemanly to make sure that your dinner date was safely home. Then again, usually this meant driving the lady in question home in his sports car – not trudging up a very steep hill and walking through several hundred-thousand pounds’ worth of woodland that he’d recently parted with.
“Where’s the penis-extension car?” Mo had asked once the boat was moored and they were back on dry land. Ashley didn’t think for one minute that she’d bought his excuse about wanting to walk a bit more and save the environment. After all, eco types didn’t tend to drive fuel-guzzling four-by-fours or Ferraris. But she didn’t question him either, so he was saved from having to come up with a plausible cover story and telling fibs. He didn’t like lying at the best of times, and not being truthful with Mo was already proving difficult enough.
Mo opened the gate, giving Ashley time to catch his breath, and made a beeline for the furthest loose box, where a huge bay horse was kicking the door and whinnying.
“This is Mr Dandy,” she called over her shoulder. “He’s the one I was hoping to take to Gatcombe, but his tendon’s injured so he’s on box rest for a few months.”
Catching sight of his mistress, Mr Dandy kicked the door twice as hard while the youngsters in the paddock came thundering over to the gate and stared at Mo hopefully.
“They’re very pleased to see you,” remarked Ashley, impressed with how the huge animals responded to her arrival. Mo didn’t have many people skills but animals obviously appreciated her.
“Don’t be fooled. They just want their dinner,” said Mo, scratching Mr Dandy’s neck and dropping a kiss onto his nose. “It’s total cupboard love. I’m a little bit late so they’re not at all happy. I’d better get a move on. Don’t let me keep you.”
“Do you need a hand?”
She laughed. “Apart from the fact that you’re hardly dressed for it, I think I’ll cope. Only Mr Dandy’s in; I’ll chuck some hay to the others and then I’ll fetch my youngsters in and lunge them. I might work Monty in too. He’s my latest project and really green. He’s supposed to have the potential to go to three star but he crib-bites, which is why he was cheap. Still, I like him. He’s scopey.”
Ashley had no idea what on earth she was on about. It was like another language. While Mo tossed hay over Mr Dandy’s door, Ashley leaned against the fence and patted a big grey horse that had ambled over and was nudging his pockets for treats. Warm grassy breath tickled his neck, and as Ashley scratched away under her mane the horse closed her eyes in ecstasy. If only I had the same effect on Mo, he thought wryly.
“Hey, that’s amazing. Desdemona never usually lets anybody near her apart from me. Especially a man.”
Ashley glanced around. Mo was standing behind him with a frown crinkling her brow.
“She’s obviously got taste then,” he said. “Haven’t you, girl?”
“Or she really is as nuts as I thought she is,” Mo teased. Joining him, she fished a Polo out of her pocket and offered it to the mare. “She’s supposed to be my up-and-coming for next season but she’s had a few issues with water,” Mo explained. “Unless I can get that sorted her eventing career’s over. I don’t suppose mine will be far behind it.”
Ashley had only been in the yard for about ten minutes but already he’d come to some swift conclusions abo
ut the state of Mo’s finances. The horses were clearly well looked after and their paddocks were maintained beautifully, but the peeling paintwork, the weed-choked cobbles and the rickety caravan she lived in spoke volumes. Ashley could fit all he knew about horses on a postage stamp and still have room to spare, but there was one thing he was certain of: horses and three-day eventing cost serious money. Money that Morwenna Tremaine didn’t have.
Suddenly her bad temper and the violet smudges under her eyes made a lot more sense. Mo was proud and would never ask for help. Even if she did, everyone knew that the Tremaines made the church mice in St Wenn’s look like the Rockefellers. In the brief time that Ashley had been back from London, one trip to the newsagents and another to the pub had filled him in on all the local gossip – which in this small village generally included one Tremaine or another. Apparently Jake’s girlfriend was about to be embroiled in a nasty and very costly court case with her ex; Danny was desperately trying to deal with his estranged wife; and Symon’s money was tied up in the restaurant. There wasn’t any cash in the family pot to help Mo out. She was well and truly on her own.
Even though his head was pounding and he could hardly wait to drag himself home and collapse into bed for a few hours, Ashley’s clever mind was whirring. There had to be a way that he could help Mo out, a way that didn’t look obvious or, God forbid, like charity. She needed a rescue plan.
And, judging by the state of the yard, he’d better come up with one soon.
Chapter 7
“Am I hearing you right?” Mo stared at Ashley. She couldn’t have been more stunned if he’d announced he wanted to take a flight to the moon. Actually, she wouldn’t put it past Cashley to have his own personal spacecraft stashed away somewhere – and he was probably thick as thieves with Richard Branson, too. All the same, to arrive at her yard and announce that he wanted to buy a horse and stable it with her?
Well, that just didn’t make sense at all.
“Why are you looking at me as though I’m speaking Chinese?” Ashley asked. His brown eyes were shining with enthusiasm and he certainly looked the part in his brand new Dubarry boots, cream breeches, check shirt and gilet. He tapped his new crop against his boots and raised his eyebrows suggestively. “Or is seeing me like this doing it for you?”
A Time for Living: Polwenna Bay 2 Page 6
