Chapter One

‘I CAN’T GO to Leyton Hall on my own!’ exclaimed Annabel, staring at David in disbelief.

David Crosbie, fifty years old and currently the most fashionable interior designer in the country, smiled at her. ‘Of course you can, Annabel. You’ve done enough renovations with me during the past three years to know what’s required.’

‘But that was with you,’ Annabel pointed out. ‘I’ve never done anything on my own.’

‘All the more reason to make a start. You’re twenty-three now. When Martin and I retire to the Seychelles you’ll be taking over the entire business. How can you do that if you’ve never worked on your own?’

Annabel ran her fingers through her long brown hair, pushing the unruly curls back off her face. ‘That won’t happen for years yet! Besides, I thought you’d start me off on something small. Lady Corbett-Wynne probably won’t accept a trainee. I wouldn’t if I were her.’

‘Darling girl, you’ve graduated from art college with Honours and worked alongside me for over three years. If that isn’t good enough for her ladyship then she’ll have to go elsewhere. I haven’t got the time to disappear into the Wiltshire countryside for what will undoubtedly be several weeks while she makes up her mind what she wants. I mean, look at her letter! Did you ever see anything less decisive in your life?’

Annabel smiled. ‘She does sound a bit unsure, but that’s why she’ll need you.’

‘No, it’s why she’s getting you,’ David corrected her. ‘You’ll bring fresh ideas and a much younger approach than I would. I’m getting tired of trying to salvage decaying country houses on tight budgets. Give me a London penthouse any day of the week.’

At that moment Martin Wells, David’s partner and long-time lover, joined them. He was ten years younger than David and whereas David was tall, slim and grey-haired, Martin was short, sturdy and with a mass of dark hair which looked in permanent need of a cut. Despite their physical dissimilarities they made the perfect couple. David was intense and prone to depression; Martin took life far more easily and had a keen sense of humour that not all of their clients appreciated.

‘What’s the trouble?’ he asked, pouring himself a cup of strong coffee.

‘I’ve just told Annabel I want her to take on the Leyton Hall job,’ explained David. ‘She doesn’t think she’s good enough.’

‘You’re good enough for anything,’ said Martin, sinking into a chair with the cup of coffee cradled in his hands. ‘God, how much did I drink last night?’

‘Too much!’ retorted David. ‘Did we wake you when we came in, Annabel?’

‘I hadn’t gone to sleep. I was trying to decide which shade of blue to use in Amanda Grant’s bathroom and …’

‘There you are, that’s precisely why I’ve chosen you for Leyton Hall!’ David said triumphantly. ‘You live your work. Night and day, awake and asleep. All you think about is interior decorating. From what I’ve heard you’ll need all that enthusiasm for Leyton Hall. I haven’t got it anymore, my dear, and that’s the truth.’

‘It will do you good to get away from us,’ said Martin, gradually beginning to feel more like a human being as the coffee took effect. ‘You need to meet some young people, socialise more.’

‘I don’t want to socialise. I love working here with you two. Besides, you’re my family. If my parents ever do come to London I doubt if they’ll think of looking me up. And if they did they wouldn’t recognise me. The last time I saw them I was seventeen!’

‘No one would mistake you for seventeen now,’ agreed Martin, looking at Annabel with detached interest. She always dressed well, and today she was wearing a navy and white striped jacket that ended about four inches above her knee and two inches below a matching mini-skirt. A crisp white blouse with a navy silk scarf tied in a loose bow at the neck completed the outfit and her slim legs were covered by opaque navy tights. The high-heeled navy shoes emphasised her shapely calves and not for the first time Martin wondered why she seemed to have attracted so few boyfriends during her time with them.

‘How am I going to meet young people at Leyton Hall?’ continued Annabel. ‘Lady Corbett-Wynne isn’t young, is she?’

‘No, early forties I’d guess,’ said David. ‘She’s Lord Corbett-Wynne’s third wife, rather pretty in a delicate way as I recall. Good bone structure too, but not young in the way you mean.’

‘There’s a son, though,’ said Martin. ‘I remember the Honourable Crispian very well indeed.’

‘There’s a girl too,’ said David. ‘She’s Lady Corbett-Wynne’s daughter, and I think she was adopted by her stepfather after the marriage. I’m not sure. I can’t remember her name, either, but she’s probably about your age, and they definitely both live at the Hall.’

‘It doesn’t really matter,’ said Annabel. ‘I’m not interested in the social side of things. It’s the work that interests me.’

‘You should be interested in more than work,’ said Martin. ‘At your age I don’t think I found much time for work. That came later, when passion had dimmed!’ He looked fondly at David and they both laughed.

Annabel sighed. She loved the pair of them and they’d been kindness itself to her, making her feel part of a family again, but she did wish they’d stop trying to push her into the arms of numerous young men. It wasn’t that she didn’t like men – she was beginning to think she had a low boredom threshold. No sooner had an affair started than she found herself tiring of the man in question. Recently she’d stopped bothering to take it that far; it only made it more difficult to disentangle herself without unpleasantness.

‘Have you asked Lady Corbett-Wynne whether it would be all right for me to take the job on?’ she asked David.

‘Not yet, but I intend to this very morning.’

‘And you really think I could do it?’

‘If I didn’t I wouldn’t give it to you. What you have to remember is that this is almost certainly a very bored lady with money to spend, time to kill and no taste at all. You’ll get a virtual free hand. Now, doesn’t that tempt you, even if the Honourable Crispian doesn’t?’

Annabel giggled. ‘I must admit it’s the more tempting prospect of the two!’

‘One day you’ll discover the error of your ways,’ sighed Martin in mock sorrow. ‘You may know all there is to know about textures, colours and fabrics but when it comes to the pleasures of the flesh you’re an innocent abroad.’

‘I rather doubt that a few weeks at Leyton Hall will improve my knowledge in that direction!’ exclaimed Annabel, picking up her car keys. ‘Tell David I’ll meet him at the office. We’re meant to be seeing Amanda Grant at eleven-thirty, don’t let him forget.’

Remembering some of the stories he’d heard about Leyton Hall, Martin wasn’t sure that Annabel was right. If the rumours had any truth in them then she might return to London a changed woman. He hoped so. In his opinion she needed to realise that there was more to life than turning other people’s houses into beautiful homes. That was a very second-hand kind of satisfaction for an attractive young woman.

At the same time as Annabel was driving her way through the busy London streets, the occupants of Leyton Hall were slowly coming awake.

In his third-floor master bedroom, Lord Corbett-Wynne opened his eyes and mentally listed the things that had to be attended to that day. There were the usual estate matters, most of which he suspected his estate manager could handle standing on his head, and also the rather more daunting prospect of telling his wife that he’d invited their new neighbour over to dinner the following Friday evening. Neither of these two tasks caused him any great pleasure, but the third did – the matter of the new girl working in the stables. He’d caught sight of her the previous afternoon, her rounded buttocks tightly encased in jodhpurs as she mucked out Solomon’s stall. She’d looked up at him and smiled in what he could only describe to himself as a knowing way; it was the knowledge behind the smile that he intended to find out about this very morning. At the prospect his heavy, flaccid penis began to stir and he felt a thrill of excitement go through him. There was nothing he enjoyed more than breaking in his new grooms.

In the west wing of the house, Lady Corbett-Wynne had been awake for several hours. Her maid Mary had brought her Earl Grey tea and two slices of toast at eight-thirty and since then she’d been lying staring at the ceiling wondering whether today would be the day she’d hear from David Crosbie. She did hope so. She couldn’t wait to get her redecorating scheme under way. Running her hands absent-mindedly down the sides of her slender body she swung her legs out of bed and rang the bell.

Mary could run her bath, and then she thought that she might take a stroll round the grounds before attending to her needlepoint. For a brief moment it crossed her mind that at forty-four she was rather too young to be spending all her waking moments in solitary pursuits, but the alternative was far worse. At the memory of her husband’s amorous attentions, most of which had been bizarre and brought her no pleasure at all, she shivered. She was better off as she was now, but just the same there were times when she found herself imagining what it might be like if another man, more thoughtful and attentive to her needs, were to take her in his arms. Perhaps touch her where her fingers were roaming now, just between her thighs, the touch feather-light and undeniably sweet.

A tap on the door interrupted her thoughts and she quickly withdrew her hand and lay back on the bed again, astonished at her own behaviour. It must be the time of year, she thought as Mary began to run her bath. May was such a lovely month, and it always promised so much.

Back on the third floor, Lady Corbett-Wynne’s daughter Tania was also awake, but unlike her mother she wasn’t alone. She was lying crouched on all fours, her weight supported on her arms and legs while her stepbrother, the Honourable Crispian Corbett-Wynne, groaned beneath her as she clenched and released her internal muscles around his bursting erection. His hands cupped her firm upthrusting breasts tightly and when she ground her buttocks down hard against his lower abdomen he squeezed even harder, so that she whimpered with the delicious pressure.

‘Let me come, damn you!’ muttered Crispian.

Tania laughed. ‘Not until you apologise for flirting with Amanda last night.’

‘I wasn’t flirting, I was simply being polite. You know what Pa’s like. He wants me to marry her; surely you can’t blame me for making civilised conversation.’

His stepsister’s green-grey eyes were bright with malice and she suddenly sat upright facing away from him, ruining the steady build-up of tension that her skilled muscle movements had been arousing.

‘I think I’ll go for a ride before breakfast,’ she announced, and before Crispian realised what was happening she’d slid off him and was standing at the foot of the bed. ‘You’d better get back to your own room,’ she said sweetly. ‘What would your papa say if he found you here like this?’

Crispian glared at her. ‘You can’t just leave me now!’

‘I most certainly can. Perhaps we’ll finish later, after breakfast?’

‘I’ve got to go to some boring meeting with Pa and the estate manager.’

‘Too bad!’

‘You’re a bitch, you know that, don’t you?’ muttered Crispian thickly.

Tania picked up a brush and pulled it through her short auburn hair, smoothing it down into a pageboy style. ‘That’s why you love me,’ she declared.

Crispian stood behind her, his erection nudging against the cheeks of her bottom. ‘Bend over,’ he whispered. ‘Let me take you like this. You want it as much as I do.’

Tania shivered. He was right, she did want him, but he would have to wait. She liked to be in control, to keep him waiting until she drove him over the edge and he lost control. That was when she enjoyed it best; when he forgot everything except the sensations. ‘Later,’ she repeated as she started to dress. ‘Run off to Papa now. You don’t want to annoy him again, do you?’

‘I can’t afford to annoy him again,’ retorted Crispian. ‘If I’m not careful he’ll cut off my allowance, and then what would I do?’

Tania laughed. ‘You’d have to find a job. Or marry a rich wife.’

‘You know I’ll never marry anyone except you,’ Crispian said, suddenly fierce.

Tania’s eyes turned cold. ‘But I’m not good enough for your papa, am I? My mother was good enough for him, but he has his sights set higher for his son and heir.’

‘That’s because your mother’s a lady, and you’re not!’ Crispian taunted her.

Tania didn’t care. She knew that if she was more like her mother, Crispian wouldn’t be so enthralled, and she had no intention of leading the kind of life her mother did, shut up in the west wing doing needlepoint. She’d rather die.

Tania Corbett-Wynne was in another man’s thoughts that morning, apart from her stepbrother’s. As Sir Matthew Stevens walked around the Old Mill, a rambling seventeenth-century stone millhouse whose land adjoined Leyton Hall, he was thinking about the auburn-haired girl he’d seen riding near the boundary of his land. She’d glanced sideways at him the previous day when she’d passed him in the lane, as well.

Recently widowed, Matthew saw all women as a challenge. Since he stood six feet tall, had dark curly hair and a tanned face with an interestingly enigmatic expression he rarely had any difficulty in overcoming any initial opposition. Once he’d made his conquest he lost interest. It was rather like fox-hunting he supposed; it was the chase that provided the greatest thrill.

Whistling for his labrador which had gone off after an interesting scent, he wondered whether or not Tania would present much of a challenge. He doubted it, but it would still be worth the hunt. She was bound to know one or two interesting little tricks, and if she didn’t then he’d teach her some of his. Cheered at the prospect, and knowing that he would be dining with her family three days later, Matthew strode on. He loved May mornings.

At one o’clock when the estate meeting was over, Crispian and his father returned to the Hall for lunch. To the surprise of both of them, Crispian’s stepmother was waiting in the dining room. It was rare for her to venture forth from her own wing these days unless they were entertaining, and her husband immediately thought something must be wrong.

‘What is it, Marina?’ he asked testily. He always became testy when unsettled.

She raised her perfectly arched eyebrows in a genteel expression of surprise. ‘Am I not allowed into the main part of the house? Strange, I imagined I lived here.’

‘Of course you live here, damn it, but it’s pretty difficult to remember that since you persist in shutting yourself off from the rest of us these days.’

‘I wanted to talk to you about redecoration,’ said his wife. Her voice sounded far more assured than she really felt.

Her husband’s face turned sullen. ‘I’ve told you, we can’t afford to spend a fortune. Things are hard enough as it is at the moment. Only this morning we were discussing …’

‘If you remember,’ his wife said in an icy tone, ‘I do have a considerable amount of money of my own. Some of that money I would happily use to civilise your family seat a little. Having failed with the human members I thought I’d turn my attention to the Hall itself.’

James, who could think of very little apart from the young groom he was due to see straight after lunch, did at least grasp that Marina was willing to spend some of her own money and he forced himself to smile at her.

‘In that case I’m sure we could find a way,’ he assured her.

‘I’ve also managed to secure the services of David Crosbie,’ his wife said, with what seemed to James to be a deceptively sweet inflection.

‘Good God! How much money are you planning to throw away?’ exploded James. ‘You must be mad. He’s the most expensive man in the country.’

‘He is also the best. However, it isn’t quite as bad as it seems. His assistant will be coming in his place. He assured me over the telephone this morning that she was highly qualified and extremely gifted. She will arrive on Friday morning and stay in the guest rooms for however long it proves necessary.’

‘A female! How old?’ asked Crispian.

Marina glanced at her stepson with distaste. ‘It never crossed my mind to ask.’

Crispian grinned. ‘I don’t suppose she’ll be young. Never mind, more fodder for you, Pa!’

‘Your father’s taste runs to young women,’ his stepmother responded in a crisp manner. ‘In any case, the lady in question is here to work on the house, not provide the gentlemen with entertainment.’

‘Talking of entertainment,’ her husband said swiftly, grateful for the lead-in, ‘I’ve invited our new neighbour over to dinner on Friday. He’s Sir Matthew Stevens, the one whose wife died a few months ago. I think he was knighted for services to industry or something like that. Anyway, now that he’s living at the Old Mill I thought we should have him over. You can manage that, dear, can’t you?’

‘Of course. Do you want him to be the only guest, or had you intended inviting others to keep him company?’

James shrugged. ‘Hadn’t really considered it. Tell you what, invite this designer woman to join us and that will make the numbers equal. He probably isn’t up to large dinner parties yet, still in mourning most likely.’

‘I thought mourning had gone out of fashion,’ remarked Marina, turning to leave the room. ‘I can’t imagine you’d be grieving for very long if I were to die.’

Crispian snorted with laughter. ‘She’s got a point,’ he remarked as soon as his stepmother had left the room. ‘Why should Sir Matthew be in mourning?’

‘Don’t suppose he is, but I couldn’t be bothered to think of any other people to invite. As for your stepmother, I might mourn her more if she were a proper wife to me.’

‘Lucky for you we keep a full stable,’ retorted Crispian. ‘No shortage of nubile girls around!’

‘I wish you’d take more interest in nubile girls, in the plural, rather than one extremely nubile but totally unsuitable girl!’ commented his father.

‘You live your life and I’ll live mine,’ said Crispian, flushing with annoyance. ‘After all, Tania’s mother was good enough for you.’

‘When Marina dies, most of her money goes to that son of hers. Since he’s married with children of his own that won’t leave very much for young Tania. You need to marry money, Crispian. Screw the girl as much as you like, but for God’s sake find yourself a wife. You heard Robert today. We need an injection of money into the place.’

‘Perhaps you can open the place up to visitors once Step-mama’s had it decorated,’ suggested Crispian. ‘Got to go now. Urgent appointment, if you know what I mean.’

His father made a sound of irritation and watched his son hurry away. He knew only too well what he meant.

Crispian tapped on his stepsister’s door and felt a rush of relief when she called out for him to enter. She would know it was him, he thought with a wry smile. No one else in the house ever tried to go into Tania’s room. She regarded it as her very own, a private retreat from the world, only shared with those closest to her, and even then only by invitation.

As usual the room was in chaos. Her riding boots had been pulled off and thrown carelessly against a chair, her jodhpurs and hacking jacket lay in a heap in a corner of the room and a trail of underwear led from the burgundy coloured damask curtains at the head of her bed to the adjoining bathroom.

Tania however was looking immaculate. Crispian’s heart started to pound loudly in his ears as he took in the sight of her. She was clad from head to toe in an olive-green figure-hugging bodysuit that totally covered her legs and trunk but left bare her arms and an inviting semicircle of creamy white flesh at the base of her neck. Matching three-quarters length silk gloves and very high-heeled shoes completed the outfit, while her auburn hair had been gelled and teased into exciting disarray.

She was lying across her bed, her full lips pouting provocatively, and he started to unbutton his check shirt. ‘Leave it,’ she said sharply. ‘I’m in charge today.’

Crispian swallowed hard and swept his long fair hair back off his forehead. When she behaved like this he always had an overwhelming urge to take her by force, and sometimes he did, but looking at her almost cat-like eyes he knew today it would be best to do as she said.

She slid off her bed and walked over to him, standing on tiptoe so that she could reach his top button. His breath quickened at the brush of her gloved hands against his chin as she struggled to unfasten the button; he stared down at her.

Tania moistened her lips with her tongue and slowly unfastened all his buttons. To his surprise she didn’t remove the shirt but instead walked round behind him and pressed her silk-clad body against him, letting her hands wander round until the silk gloves reached his bare midriff. She pressed down lightly with her fingertips and he sighed softly.

For several minutes she let her fingers move up and down his chest and he thought he’d go out of his mind if she didn’t do something more. She moved round to the front of him and unfastened his brushed cord trousers. Easing them over his hips she drew them down until they reached the floor and then stood up again.

She stared into his eyes and he saw the gleam of sexual arousal flickering deep in their depths. Slowly her arms reached up and she pressed on his shoulders until he at last gave in to her and sank slowly to the floor. Once he was prone at her feet she removed his shoes and socks and then finally his cords. ‘Bend your knees up,’ she whispered.

Again he obeyed, his excitement now so great that his erection was straining against the waistband of his boxer shorts. Tania stepped carefully over him, then lowered herself onto his body and leant back against his legs. The caress of her bodysuit against the naked patches of his skin was all the more arousing for being intermittent, and Crispian reached up to grab her by the waist.

‘Don’t touch me!’ snapped Tania. ‘If you do I shall stop.’

Crispian muffled a curse and felt the points of her high heels touch the cheeks of his bottom through his boxer shorts. At this reminder of her absolute control his penis swelled yet more and he thrust upwards against her body.

With a tiny laugh Tania turned herself around so that he could no longer see her face, and her gloved hands lifted the constricting waistband so that his engorged glans was at last free. For several seconds she let her gloved fingers tease it, watching with interest as clear fluid filled the tiny slit in the top and began to seep over the purple head and down the sides.

‘What an eager boy,’ she murmured, then she bent her head and flicked her tongue delicately at the fluid, until it was all gone.

Crispian felt a tightness in his testicles and the end of his penis started to tingle. He ran his hands over Tania’s small, firm buttocks and let them stray against the material that covered the cleft there.

At once Tania stood up. ‘I said, don’t touch me!’ she reminded him. ‘Now you’ve spoilt it. You’ll have to wait until tonight.’

To his amazement she started to walk away from him, but he was too quick for her and his right hand shot out and grabbed her round the ankle. ‘I am not waiting until tonight,’ he said breathlessly. ‘In fact, I’m not waiting more than five minutes.’

Tania kicked out, but Crispian had anticipated the move and she failed to make contact. Instead she lost her balance and fell in an awkward heap on top of him.

Crispian laughed, grabbed her by the wrists and then forced her to the floor, so that now he was the one straddling her body. She looked up at him, her eyes bright with excitement.

Crispian let his hands roam over her covered breasts and at once the large nipples that he knew so well pressed against the material. He licked at them, then sucked both material and nipple into his mouth while his hands moved down lower and stroked his stepsister’s hipbones.

This time it was Tania whose breathing became ragged. ‘I’m meant to be in charge,’ she protested, but he knew that it was only a token protest. Her body’s responses told him that. Pulling off his boxer shorts he let his erection press against her lower belly through the bodysuit. ‘Don’t you want this?’ he teased.

Tania didn’t answer him. Her body was pulsating within the confines of her outfit and her need for him was making her ache in her belly and between her thighs. She felt one of his fingers stray along the creases of her inner thighs and shivered. He smiled down at her, the smile not entirely kind.

‘Where shall I touch you next?’ he asked softly.

Tania’s hips bucked in reply as she tried to brush her moist vulva against his hand. ‘Not just yet,’ he murmured, and then he wrenched at the scoop neck of the bodysuit and before she realised what was happening he’d torn it open so that her breasts and rib cage were totally exposed.

Crispian loved her breasts. They were large considering how slight the rest of her was, but they were also firm and creamy white with a faint dusting of freckles in the valley between them. Burying his head there he nipped at the tender flesh and then let his teeth graze over the surfaces of both breasts while at the same time his hands were sliding down beneath her buttocks lifting her against him so that she could feel his excitement more clearly.

Between Tania’s thighs her bodysuit was wet with excitement and he laughed as she desperately strained against him. At last, when he sensed that neither of them could wait any longer, he tore the suit right off her, dragging it down over her legs without thought for anything except their final pleasure.

Tania moaned with relief and then she felt Crispian’s hands turning her face down on the faded, threadbare rug. Immediately she raised her bottom high into the air. Crispian slapped her buttocks lightly with his fingertips and reached across to the box that she kept at the foot of her bed. From it he withdrew what he wanted and Tania suddenly felt the delicious touch of cool jelly being spread around her rear opening.

Crispian took the slim, smooth latex probe out of its box and slowly inched it into his stepsister’s lubricated opening. She whimpered with ecstasy as she felt it invading her, and when he turned the switch and it started to squirm and gyrate against her sensitive inner walls she felt the wonderful tightness deep inside her, while sparks of desire flashed upwards through her belly.

‘Lift yourself higher,’ Crispian muttered hoarsely, and Tania strained to obey. Her whole body was throbbing now with the mounting tension and when Crispian finally slid his penis between her sex lips, penetrating deeply into her second opening, she felt her muscles bunching as they prepared for orgasm.

‘Wait for me,’ muttered Crispian, his own climax dangerously near, but Tania didn’t want to wait and she tightened her vaginal muscles around him to increase all her sensations. Tendrils of excitement were snaking across every inch of her and she was no longer aware of her stepbrother, only her own body. The rectal probe continued its relentless squirming and she teetered on the edge of blissful release.

Realising that she either couldn’t or wouldn’t wait, Crispian started to thrust frantically in and out of her, until he knew that he was about to pass the point of no return. At that moment he reached round beneath Tania, his fingers swiftly locating the moist, swollen clitoris standing out proudly from its covering. As he felt his seed rushing upwards through his shaft he grasped the clitoris between the tips of two fingers and squeezed firmly.

For Tania this sudden fierce sensation, so different from the other, softer feelings that were washing over her body, proved the trigger for release as well and with a scream of excitement her body tightened and she bucked violently with the intensity of the explosion that shook her from head to foot.

Trapped deep within her, Crispian felt her well-trained muscles contracting even more furiously around him as her body became lost in the blissful spasms of orgasm, and even though his own climax was over her muscles kept him trapped until her body was finally quiet. Slowly he withdrew, but when he went to remove the probe from her back passage Tania made a second protest. He moved it gently within her. ‘What is it?’

‘Leave it there. I think I can come again,’ she said huskily.

‘There’s no time,’ replied Crispian, and without any warning he withdrew the implement from between her rounded buttocks.

Tania collapsed onto the floor, then turned her head to look at him. ‘Why did you do that?’

‘Because I wanted to.’

She wriggled sensuously against the rug. ‘I’m not finished.’

Crispian laughed. ‘I’m afraid I am.’

Tania rolled onto her back and stared up at him and immediately he knew that he wanted her again. ‘Give me five minutes!’ he protested.

‘Use the crop on me,’ she whispered. ‘Please!’

Dark excitement filled Crispian’s brain. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course I’m sure. You can tie me up first if you want,’ she added, knowing how much he liked that.

Crispian felt his hands starting to shake. ‘All right, I’ll …’

There was a sudden tap on the door. The two of them looked at each other in surprise, but it was Tania who pulled herself together first. ‘Who is it?’ she asked in a lazy drawl.

‘It’s your stepfather. Is Crispian in there?’

Tania had difficulty suppressing a giggle. ‘In where?’

‘In your room,’ James said furiously.

‘Sorry, no. Perhaps he’s taken one of the horses out.’

‘I’ve checked the stables. He’s in there with you, isn’t he?’

‘No,’ drawled Tania. ‘Now go away. I’m trying to rest.’

‘When you see him, tell him I want him in the stable block straight away. We’ve got a mare coming this afternoon for Solomon to cover and no one’s got a damned thing ready.’

‘Okay,’ said Tania. ‘If I see him I’ll let him know.’

They both stayed very quiet until James’s footsteps had died away along the corridor. ‘Blast,’ muttered Crispian. ‘I’ll have to go. We can’t afford to mess up on this. Solomon brings in a fortune.’

‘He should put you out to stud, you’d probably bring in a fortune too!’ laughed Tania.

Crispian began to pull on his clothes. ‘We’ll finish tonight,’ he promised.

‘I might not be in the same mood tonight,’ said Tania, slowly getting up from the floor and walking towards her bathroom. ‘In fact, I’m almost sure I won’t be. Maybe tomorrow.’

Crispian caught hold of her shoulder. ‘Why do you do this? Why can’t you be honest and admit that it’s what you want to do all the time?’

‘Because it isn’t,’ lied Tania, who knew very well that this was the best way to keep Crispian bewitched. ‘Sometimes I like a rest. Run off to your papa now, he’s waiting, remember?’

Crispian left. Sometimes he wished that Tania didn’t have such a hold over him, but as yet he hadn’t met anyone who could excite him in the same way as she did, or who took such delicious delight in the more outlandish practices that enthralled him. He couldn’t imagine ever meeting anyone to match her.

‘You mean, you’ve told her?’ asked Annabel at the end of the day.

David Crosbie nodded. ‘She took it very well. I explained that you would soon be in great demand and that this gave her the opportunity of being one step ahead of everyone else. She’d be able to boast that you’d done Leyton Hall long before you were famous. She’s probably planning to claim credit for having asked for you by the time you’ve finished.’

‘But what if she doesn’t like my ideas?’ protested Annabel.

‘She’ll like them. She’d probably like anyone’s ideas, but in your case she’s getting a genuine bargain, far more than she deserves.’

Annabel sighed. ‘You don’t know what she deserves. She might be a very nice, knowledgeable lady.’

‘And pigs might fly.’

‘I’ve got a feeling I’m not going to enjoy myself very much,’ said Annabel. ‘I hope I’m not there long.’

‘It shouldn’t take more than three weeks at the outside,’ David assured her. ‘Martin and I will take you out for a meal tonight, to celebrate your first solo venture. How about that?’

Annabel smiled. ‘It sounds more like a bribe to me, but a very nice one.’

‘Good, then that’s settled.’

It was nearly midnight when the three of them returned from the promised meal, and Annabel felt pleasantly cheerful after the delicious food and excellent wine. ‘I hope the food’s like that at Leyton Hall,’ she sighed. ‘Then the three weeks would fly by.’

‘It isn’t,’ said Martin, glancing at David, who busied himself pouring them all brandies. ‘Hasn’t David told you we spent a weekend there once ourselves?’

‘No,’ said Annabel in astonishment.

‘Well, it wasn’t a great success, that’s probably why he kept quiet. The food was dreadful, and the company even worse.’

‘David, is this why you won’t take on the commission?’ Annabel asked accusingly.

For once David had the grace to blush. ‘Not exactly, darling. Let’s just say that the countryside and I are not entirely at ease with one another.’

‘But you do know Lord and Lady Corbett-Wynne?’

‘Yes,’ David admitted reluctantly. ‘That’s to say, I’ve talked with them. I wouldn’t for one moment suggest that I know them.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me that before?’

‘It wasn’t relevant,’ retorted David, beginning to sound irritable. ‘I really don’t know why Martin’s mentioned it now.’

‘Of course it’s relevant!’ she exclaimed. ‘For heaven’s sake, tell me what they’re like.’

‘Pretty typical of their kind. Lord Corbett-Wynne’s tall, heavy-set, with greying hair and one of those florid, rustic complexions. He manages to get to the House of Lords about once a month, the rest of the time he’s busy with Leyton Hall. At least he’s busy with the girl grooms at Leyton Hall!’

‘What about his wife?’ asked Annabel, intrigued. ‘Doesn’t she mind?’

‘She’s probably grateful!’ laughed Martin. ‘As I remember she’s one of those fine-boned, beautifully turned out women who seem totally asexual. It would be difficult to imagine her in the throes of any sexual passion, don’t you agree, David?’

‘Possibly, certainly not with that husband of hers anyway. Her daughter’s the exact opposite. According to her stepfather she’s quite a handful. Not that he went into any detail, but he certainly gave that impression.’

‘And the son?’ asked Annabel.

‘Gorgeous!’ declared Martin. ‘You’ll fall for him immediately, Annabel. He’s tall, fair-haired and tanned, with that deliciously languid air that’s so irresistible.’

‘I’m sure I’ll be able resist him,’ retorted Annabel. ‘Whose son is he then?’

‘Don’t you listen?’ asked David, clearly wanting to change the subject. ‘He’s the Honourable Crispian Corbett-Wynne, heir to Leyton Hall. Tania, his stepsister, is Lady Corbett-Wynne’s daughter by her first marriage. That husband died or got himself killed jumping a hedge, something like that.’

‘If you stayed there you must have been a friend of theirs, so why aren’t you doing the Hall for them?’ asked Annabel.

‘I’m tired,’ said David shortly. ‘I’ll leave you two to finish your drinks and lock up. Sleep well, Annabel.’

After he’d gone she turned to Martin in surprise. ‘What’s all that about?’

Martin laughed. ‘David’s embarrassed. He used to know James – that’s Lord Corbett-Wynne – quite well, which is why we were invited there soon after he remarried for the third time. Unfortunately it was a disaster.’

‘Why?’

‘Because no one had told Tania about David and me. She thought we were just business partners and made a very blatant and somewhat drunken pass at him. Before he could explain, her stepbrother was trying to make something out of it, threatening to take David outside and thrash him with a riding crop, all very melodramatic!’

Annabel laughed too. ‘I can’t imagine David being threatened with a thrashing!’

‘We left the next morning. David said we’d been called back to London unexpectedly, and everyone accepted that. Probably Tania had been told the truth by that time and they were all glad to see us go.’

‘But it didn’t stop Lady Corbett-Wynne asking David to do the Hall for her.’

‘She might not have known what went on. Even then, which was early on in the marriage, she seemed to be quite separate from the rest of them. She was always retreating to her own rooms. I liked her but thought she’d made a disastrous marriage. They were the most mismatched pair I’ve ever come across.’

Annabel wrapped her arms round her knees. ‘It’s beginning to sound more interesting now. I wish David had told me earlier.’

‘He really does want you to start taking on some work of your own,’ explained Martin. ‘I suppose he thought that if he told you about our social disaster you’d think you hadn’t been given the job on merit.’

‘Maybe. Anyway, now that I know more about them all it makes it more real. I think I’m beginning to look forward to it, although that might be the champagne and brandy!’

‘It will certainly be an experience for you,’ said Martin. He looked thoughtful.

Annabel nodded happily, blithely unaware of exactly what kind of an experience it would turn out to be.