by Rosie Harris
Contents
Cover
A Selection of Recent Titles by Rosie Harris from Severn House
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
A Selection of Recent Titles by Rosie Harris from Severn House
CHANCE ENCOUNTERS
GUARDED PASSIONS
HEARTBREAK AND HAPPINESS
THE MIXTURE AS BEFORE
MOVING ON
STOLEN MOMENTS
ONLY LOVE CAN HEAL
Rosie Harris
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
First published in Great Britain and the USA 2017 by
SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of
19 Cedar Road, Sutton, Surrey, England, SM2 5DA.
This eBook edition first published in 2017 by Severn House Digital
an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited
First published 1987 in mass market format under the
title Officers’ Ladies and pseudonym Marion Harris.
Copyright © 1987 & 2017 by Marion Harris.
The right of Marion Harris to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7278-8684-2 (cased)
ISBN-13: 978-1-7801-0858-2 (e-book)
Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.
This ebook produced by
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Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland
Chapter 1
Kate Russell found herself chattering nervously to her companion as they drove out of battle-scarred London towards Somerset. Normally quiet and self-possessed there was an unusual brilliance in her dark brown eyes and her mouth was taut as she chewed uneasily on her lower lip. Ever since she had so rashly invited Robert Campbell to come home with her she had been trying to determine how she was going to handle things once they arrived at Walford Grange.
When she had found him waiting for her at the Barrack gates, just as they had arranged, with the bright May sunshine turning his fiery curls into a banner of gold, her apprehension had turned into excitement. With his strong square face, and compelling green eyes under sandy brows, he was handsome in a rugged rawbone sort of way. Kate tried to imagine what he would look like out of uniform, dressed in jodhpurs and hacking jacket, sitting astride a hunter as powerfully built as he was himself.
It had all started a few weeks before. Halfway through dinner, her father, General Sir Henry Russell, had needed to return to the War Office for an emergency meeting.
‘My driver will run you back after he has dropped me off,’ Sir Henry had told her as they finished their coffee.
‘There’s no need, it is not dark yet,’ she protested.
‘I would rather you used the car. It will worry me to think of you wandering about London on your own.’
After depositing Sir Henry at Whitehall, Kate was startled when the driver turned the Humber round and drove off down the Mall towards Hyde Park.
‘You are going the wrong way,’ she said sharply, leaning forward and tapping him on the shoulder.
‘It is such a lovely evening, I thought you might like to come this way,’ he answered without looking round.
She was so taken aback that she found herself at a loss for words and unsure of how to handle the situation.
A tall slim girl, self-possessed and confident, her aristocratic features were softened by enormous brown eyes and a wide generous mouth. She wore her dark brown hair in a smooth page-boy roll beneath her army cap and her creamy complexion bore only a light trace of make-up. Now, however, her cheeks were stained with an embarrassed flush, her poise shaken, as she tried to ignore the soldier’s familiarity.
It had been a day of brilliant April sunshine and in Hyde Park, daffodils and crocuses pierced the grass and the pink and white blossom of the many flowering trees glowed luminously against the darkening sky.
She suddenly felt homesick. Her thoughts ricocheted back fifteen months to January 1942, when she had received her call-up papers. The memory was so vivid that she could almost hear her mother’s voice ringing in her ears as she passed the letter across the breakfast table for her to read.
‘This is utter nonsense! You must tell them you can’t go,’ Lady Dorothea had exclaimed in outraged tones.
‘Mother, they’re not asking, they’re ordering me to report!’
‘It must be a mistake! Let your father see it.’
Nudged into action, Sir Henry had put down The Times, and scanned her letter, then passed it back with an imperceptible shrug.
‘York. In six days,’ he commented as he shook out his paper and resumed reading.
‘It’s out of the question,’ Lady Dorothea said imperiously. ‘You must speak to someone at the War Office. The idea of Kate dressing up m that awful khaki uniform and pretending to be a soldier is preposterous.’
‘Nonsense! It’s high time the Russell family was represented on active service,’ he announced decisively. ‘If we’d had a son he would have been in the front line long before this.’
Interrupting her reverie, the driver commented: ‘I used to live in the country once. I can still remember the day we moved there. I was only about five years old and as we walked up the track to the farmhouse the grass on either side was chin high. I was scared stiff in case I got lost in it and no one could find me. Have you ever been to Cheshire?’ he asked. ‘On a fine day you can see the Welsh mountains, like enormous purple shadows away in the distance.’
‘And will you go back there when the war ends?’
‘No! My father died before I joined up and the farm was sold. My mother has married again so there’s no future for me there.’
‘What will you do then, stay on in the army?’
‘I had thought about that.’ His green eyes locked with hers. ‘I wouldn’t mind … if I could get a commission. Perhaps if you were to put my name forward …’
‘Me! I couldn’t do that. Your application would have to go through your CO.’
‘I’ve tried that, he wants me to stay as a driver.’
Amused by his audacity she agreed to do as he asked …
It was two weeks before
she dined with her father again and as they left the Savoy she noticed it was an ATS driver holding the car door for them.
After Sir Henry had barked instructions about where they wanted to go he leaned back in his seat with a snort of irritation.
‘Don’t know what’s happened to my usual driver,’ he grumbled. ‘Probably on leave, I’ll have to check it out. Hope I haven’t lost him, one of the best I’ve ever had. It is always the same, if they’re any good they seem to move on to something else,’ he muttered as he settled himself more comfortably.
Kate was tempted to tell him that his usual driver was probably on an Officer’s Training Course. Knowing that she would also have to explain how she knew, and the part she had played in his getting there, made her hold back and the moment passed.
As her father’s car pulled away, Kate was startled when a tall, powerfully built man materialised out of the darkness and spoke to her. Then, as she recognised Robert Campbell, although her heart continued to beat wildly it was for a very different reason.
‘What … what are you doing here dressed in civvies?’ she exclaimed in bewilderment.
‘Waiting to take you for a drink,’ he grinned.
Before she could protest, he steered her briskly away from the Barrack gates and down the road towards a nearby pub.
She sat down at a corner table, trying to sort out the thoughts hammering inside her head. Instead, she found herself studying him as he towered over the other men standing at the bar. Without his forage cap, his hair seemed almost flame red. His army hair-cut left the back shaved close to the nape of his neck, but the rest curled crisply and thickly over the top of his well-shaped head. His lean tanned profile had an angular strength that gave him a bold, handsome look. Yet there was a ruthlessness about his mouth that she found disturbing.
With that colour hair he probably has a fiendish temper, she mused.
Their eyes met as he turned round and her heart raced as she met the challenge in their brilliant depths. As he sat down beside her, his muscular thigh brushed against her leg and she felt a tingle of excitement pulse through her.
‘What are we drinking to?’ she asked nervously as she picked up her glass of sherry.
‘I just wanted to say “thank you” for putting my name down for an OTC,’ he told her, raising his glass of beer in her direction.
‘To your success on the Course.’ She raised her own glass towards his before taking a sip. ‘Do you know when it starts?’
‘In ten days’ time. After my leave.’
‘I see.’ She took another sip of her sherry. ‘Where are you spending your leave … back home in Cheshire?’
‘No, I’m staying in London. I was hoping that we could meet again. Go for a meal one night, maybe.’
‘I am going on leave myself tomorrow.’
‘To Walford Grange?’ he asked, his eyes narrowing.
‘Of course.’
‘Stay in London. We could spend some time together … get to know each other.’
‘That’s impossible.’ She stood up, checking her watch. ‘I must get back.’
‘I’ll walk to the gates with you.’
‘We had better say goodnight here,’ she said, stopping a short distance from the pub. Although he was not in uniform, being with him was still breaching the rules.
‘I understand.’
‘Thank you for the drink,’ she murmured and self-consciously held out her hand.
He held it firmly between his own. Then, without warning, he bent forward and before she was aware of his intention his mouth was on hers.
The sweetness of their kiss left her breathless. His mouth encompassed hers like a band of steel, enmeshing her in its warmth, melting all her resistance. She found herself swaying towards him so that when one of his hands encircled her waist, steadying her and at the same time holding her tightly pressed against his long lean body, she closed her eyes and gave herself up to the magic of the moment.
‘I wish you were staying in London,’ he breathed.
‘It’s out of the question,’ she answered, quickly, her thoughts in turmoil, fighting back the tantalising prospects such a suggestion offered.
‘When do you go?’
‘Tomorrow, as soon as I come off duty.’
She found the naked longing in his green eyes so devastating that it made her feel guilty, as if she was deserting him. She fought against his magnetic hold on her then hated herself for being so weak.
‘Look,’ she said, struggling desperately to make amends, ‘why don’t you come with me? … if you have nothing better to do.’
‘To Walford Grange!’ His astonishment was as great as her own.
‘Why not? You would probably quite enjoy it,’ she said defensively.
‘I’m sure I would, but what about the rest of your family?’ he commented softly and his thin lips twisted in a sardonic smile.
‘You already know my father.’
‘Yes!’ he gave a short harsh laugh. ‘I do, but I don’t suppose he knows me. To him I’m just a khaki-clad robot who drives him from point A to point B.’
‘He speaks very highly of you,’ she contended. ‘He was quite annoyed to find you had been replaced by an ATS driver.’
‘Yes, I can well see that wouldn’t please him,’ Robert Campbell agreed with a derisive laugh. ‘Nor would it please General Sir Henry Russell to find me facing him across his breakfast table.’
‘If, as you just said, he thinks of you only as some kind of khaki-clad automaton then he isn’t likely to recognise you, is he,’ Kate said mischievously.
‘He just might.’
‘If you’re too scared to accept my invitation why don’t you say so,’ she taunted. Although she recognised the truth of Robert Campbell’s remark she very much resented its implication.
‘You really do mean it,’ he said pulling her back into the circle of his arms. His green eyes shone like diamond chips as they searched her face before he accepted the challenge. ‘Very well, I will come. Where shall we meet … Waterloo Station?’
‘No, meet me here. I come off duty at twelve.’
‘Looking for someone to carry your kitbag, are you?’ he mocked, kissing the tip of her nose.
‘No, it just seems pointless going all the way to Waterloo Station when I can drive you home from here,’ she told him coolly.
Before he could reply she was walking towards the Barrack gates, her heart racing at the enormity of what she had just done.
Now, as the mellow outline of Walford Grange became visible through the long avenue of trees, she didn’t dare think what her father’s reaction would be. He could hardly order a guest out of their home, she thought defiantly. Yet, knowing her father’s strict adherence to regimental protocol, she knew he might well be tempted to do so.
‘We’ve arrived,’ she informed her passenger briskly as they turned into the wide gravel drive and stopped in front of the house. ‘Come and meet my mother.’
‘And the formidable nanny,’ he grinned.
On the journey down she had explained about Mabel Sharp, her ex-nanny who was now more of a companion and housekeeper to Lady Dorothea. She also warned Robert not to mention to either of them that he was Sir Henry’s driver. Time enough for that revelation when her father arrived home in two days’ time. By then, with any luck, Robert would have charmed them both over to his side.
Nervously she pushed open the studded oaken door and led the way into the lofty panelled hall. She heard Robert whistle softly as he paused, feasting his eyes on the massive stone fireplace, flanked by antique guns and powder flasks.
‘Quite some place,’ he murmured as she hurried him past the wide sweeping staircase lined with gilt-framed family portraits. ‘Elizabethan?’
‘This part is. The rest is late Georgian.’
‘It is certainly impressive.’
‘Come on, you can look round later,’ she said, leading the way through an arched doorway towards the back of the house.
&n
bsp; She made straight for the morning room. Because it was a warm day the french doors, which looked onto a flower-filled walled garden, were opened back and the drone of insects, mingling with birdsong, drifted in.
Her mother, wearing a white cardigan over a royal blue cotton dress, was sitting out on the terrace reading, two black spaniels sprawled at her feet. Her smile when she saw Kate softened her rather severe features.
Heart in mouth, Kate introduced Robert Campbell. To her relief, Lady Dorothea accepted that he was an ‘army colleague’ and asked no awkward questions at all.
Mabel Sharp was not won over quite so easily. Her beady hazel eyes riveted themselves on Robert. Her quick fire questions left him speechless. It reminded Kate of the days when Mabel had been her nanny and she had brought a new friend home from school.
‘That was worse than my OTC interview,’ he breathed to Kate when Mabel Sharp eventually left them together.
‘Never mind, I think you came through it OK,’ she smiled. ‘I did warn you she was quite a formidable character. I know I never got away with very much when she was in charge of me.’
‘It’s a wonder you have managed to grow up as normal as you have,’ he told her with a wicked grin.
Although he had passed Nanny’s initial interrogation, she continued to regard him with suspicion. She allocated him a bedroom as far away from Kate’s as possible and seemed to go out of her way to see that they were never left alone for more than a few minutes.
‘I don’t think she trusts me,’ Robert remarked rather irritably later that first evening when, for the third time in less than an hour, Mabel Sharp came into the sitting room where they were playing records. ‘She’s making me quite nervous.’
‘Nanny’s got a heart of gold, really,’ Kate soothed.
‘And a highly suspicious nature,’ he remarked rather sourly.
Mabel Sharp’s antagonism worried Kate. It meant she must contrive for her father to learn the identity of their guest without Nanny being present and the only sure way of doing that was for them to meet him off the train.
Lady Dorothea looked mildly surprised when Kate told her on Friday morning that they were going to spend the day in Taunton.
