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'Please go' She turned and walked into the sitting roo what she would do if he didn't follow her He did
As she opened the front door and stood aside for him to leave, he paused in front of her 'I shall pick you up for Sunday lunch at twelve,' he said quietly 'On the dot, OK?'
She looked at hied at his te her voice, she said, 'You are the last person in the world I'd have lunch with, Travis, so don't waste your ti'
'Twelve, on the dot' He bent, kissing her swiftly with the lightest of kisses on her lips, before walking out of the cottage The evening shadoed him up and he didn't look back
She didn't wait to see if he reached his car before she closed the door, leaning against it as she felt her legs threaten to let her down Harvey was at her feet whining, and it was only when she stroked his coarse fur to reassure hiht that she realised how badly she was tre
It had been the briefest of kisses, barely a kiss at all, so why had it affected her so deeply? The silent room provided no answer Not that she had expected it to
After a th tointo the kitchen and surveying the remains of the casserole 'A social nicety' She said the words out loud as though that would help convince her how ridicu¬lous she was being That was all such a kiss was to ayou did when you left a dinner party or so
She put her hands to her hot face, her head whirling with so iddy It didn't help that her lips were burning where his had touched or that for the short fleeting moment when his flesh had touched hers time had stood still The s and she didn't want it to She didn't want to feel like this She didn't want him to affect her at all
She groaned, shaking her head at her weakness He had called Keith dangerous, but Travis was in a league all of his own What was she going to do?
She was still asking herself the saht, emotionally and mentally ex¬hausted Endless post esture, every nuance in Travis's voice hadwas certain, she told herself as she lay in the war roses outside her openShe was not going to have Sunday lunch with hiht after the way the evening had gone It was proof of how arrogant he was
An owl hooted in the woods surrounding the cottage, the el¬e in a forever kind of way In all the trau pain she'd felt at losing her parents so unexpectedly and then the hurt and betrayal by Keith, this wood had gone on for generations Some of the old oak trees had been here a century or two before she'd been born and would still be here when she was gone
Beth pulled the thin linen sheet up round her ears and de¬terhts quietening suddenly She couldn't stop Travis co but she could make sure she wasn't in And that wasn't cowardice It was si at all to do with hi
In spite of her conviction she was doing the only thing possible in the circuinordinately guilty as she left the cottage at ten o'clock on SundayShe had packed a picnic lunch for herself and Harvey and intended to spend the hot and sunny su countryside And she would think of nothing at all All day
She spent what should have been an idyllic day in the fresh air, returning horass beneath her feet was soft and shiht as the war as they prepared for darkness in the trees and bushes and a flock of sheep placid and silent in the fields below the cottage as she eate eight large birds circled overhead in the last rays of the setting sun, the delicate pattern on their wings turning to purest gold where the light touched them The beauty of the moment took Beth's breath away
So hen she'd had a perfectly lovely day with Harvey and everything was so peaceful and tranquil, should she be feeling so wretched? she asked herself, opening the gate All day she had been fighting thoughts of Travis but no matter how she had tried to keep hi himself into the front of her mind