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Her thick auburn hair, which when loose fell well past her shoulders since she had decided to grow it again, was tied back with a black ribbon at her nape Her apple-green eyes shone clear against her flawless skin, but the swollen reddened state of her eyelids betrayed the physical signs of her grief

The knowledge that she would soon have to thank Angelo van Zaal for arranging her trip to Ari seven-letter-word of a man! His as laithin his family circle, at his offices and even beyond those boundaries, for such wealth as his carried considerable power and influence in every sphere Flora, of course, had never liked being told what to do She had learned to put up with it when she was an employee She had also learned to keep her teuest house, to nod and sht rain shower

But Angelo van Zaal could put Flora’s back up without even trying He had not even had the courtesy to phone her personally when her sister and his stepbrother had died within hours of crashing their car, she reflected bitterly Instead he had instructed his fa and break the news for him It was a dispassionate decision that was typical of his deterth fro his own authority and the absence of a true familial connection between them

But if she was honest—and Flora always liked to be honest with herself—her prilance, he had turned her head as easily as if she were a dizzy adolescent Even though eighteenfirst encounter, her cheeks could still burn at the mere memory of the effect he had on her—in spite of the fact that a ive her so lance

Angelo was undeniably drop-dead gorgeous and Flora found it a terrible challenge not to stare at him and just float off into fantasy land He flustered her and made her blush and stammer and, no matter how hard she tried to suppress her responses, she was already on the edge of her seat with anticipation at just the thought of seeing hiain There was no rhyme or reason to sexual attraction, she reminded herself impatiently But all the same it exasperated her that even after her past unhappy experiences with less physical reaction In truth, she was convinced that if sexual weakness could be inborn she had undoubtedly inherited that dangerous flaw froement that she could be drawn to someone she didn’t even like shocked and affronted her, but she would have chewed off her own arelo van Zaal reason to suspect her weakness for him

Furtherined that sheto stand back and just allow hiht for the right to take Mariska back to England with her so that she could raise Julie’s child as her daughter Why should Angelo autouardian for a baby girl?

After all, Flora owned a coe of Charlbury St Helens and was in a position to offer her niece her care and attention At present, Flora, who also had a childcare qualification, ran a successful bed and breakfast business frouests until Mariska was of an age to attend school Financially she could handle that teood deal of ht not like to think about where that et it, but the very fact of its existence surely had to i considered a suitable adoptive parent

As Flora detached herself fro memories of the very different life she had led as a city career woreat-aunt’s hoe, she was painfully conscious of the ache of loss in her heart Julie was gone and, sadly, Flora had seen all too little of her vivacious younger sister since she’d moved to the Netherlands She had only seen Willem and Julie when they’d come over to the UK Only once had Flora contrived to visit them in Amsterdam, for Willem and Julie had led very busy lives and it had quickly becouests rather than hosts

Yet once upon a ti five years her junior had been very close, although nobody who’d known the background fro women had corown up as an only child in an unhappy e Her father had been a chronic womaniser and she had few childhood round of raised voices and the sound of her ile parent had often intimated that she would leave her unfaithful husband if only she could afford to do so, a laain the highest possible educational qualifications in the hope of ensuring that she never had to rely on a man to keep a roof over her head

Flora’s parents had finally divorced while she’d been at university and she had then withstood the shock discovery that her father already had a second fa only a few streets away from her childhood home! Evidently he had carried on an affair with Julie’s e to Flora’s ht after the divorce and there had been a huge fahters to each other Even when that second e had also broken down in a welter of accusations of infidelity, Flora and Julie had stayed in touch, and when Julie’s e she’dtwo years, which had encoreat upheaval and unhappiness for Flora at work and in her personal life, the sisters had become close

Flora’s eyes sith tears while she allowed herself to picture her late sister as she had last seen her A small pretty blonde, Julie had been bubbly and chatty Withinin London, Julie had decided to abandon her studies so that she could live on a houseboat in A all Flora’s cautious advice to the contrary, Julie had put love first with the wholehearted deter Within weeks she had announced her pregnancy and soon afterwards a rather hasty e had taken place

Angelo van Zaal had paid for the civil wedding and the small reception that had been held in London Flora had only met him for the first time that day and, already warned what to expect from him by her sister, she had not been impressed by his chilly disapproval

‘I’h educated and too cheeky for a woman,’ Julie had told her with a scornful toss of her pretty blonde head ‘Catch s full, sir” like Willeed to elo’s expectations’

And to be fair to Angelo van Zaal, he had made no attempt to pretend that he approved of her sister’s relationship with his stepbrother ‘They’re far too young and immature to be parents This is a disaster,’ he had pronounced with gri down at Flora with cold-as-ice blue eyes

‘It’s a little late now,’ Flora had countered, being of a naturallyat the unearthly beauty and unusual hue of those eyes of his ‘They do love each other and, thank goodness, t

hey’ll have Wille—’

Angelo’s lean bronzed face had frozen ‘Where did you get that idea from? Willem won’t come into his trust fund for another three years’