The Beautiful Widow - By Helen Brooks Page 0,39
months and months ago. Rumour had it that Barbara Gonzalo had been as passionate and vibrant as her name suggested, but she’d committed the cardinal sin of falling in love with him. She had been very vocal when he’d finished their relationship, even going so far as to storm into the office the morning after and cause a scene that had rocked the building. Toni could just imagine how that had gone down with Steel.
They left the office and entered the lift, and once it had deposited them in Reception he took her elbow as they crossed the foyer. Immediately a heated weakness suffused her body. It was always the same. His slightest touch seemed to set off a chain reaction in her body she was powerless to do anything about.
They were in the Aston Martin and on their way before he said, ‘This project is slightly different from the others, Toni.’
Glad he was speaking at last—he’d been silent and withdrawn so far—she nodded in what she hoped was an efficient way. ‘Oh, yes?’ she asked encouragingly.
‘I’m thinking of buying a house, somewhere I can escape to but which is still not too far from London.’
Completely taken aback, she stared at the expressionless profile. ‘Oh.’ Not exactly an intelligent comment, a separate part of her brain noted. Bringing her mind to bear, she said, ‘And you want me to suggest ideas if you decide it’s what you want? Throw a few facts and figures into the equation?’
‘Exactly. You’re a woman—’
So he had noticed, Toni thought sourly. How kind.
‘And you’ll provide a different viewpoint as well as a creative slant. It’ll need plenty doing to it if I buy it.’
She nodded again. ‘I see.’ She thought of his apartment—ultra-modern and gadget-mad with enough stainless steel and neutrality to satisfy any self-respecting bachelor—and knew she wasn’t going to like this house. She didn’t fool herself that when he spoke of ‘escaping’ it would be by himself, and everything in her baulked at the idea of contributing to a love nest for Steel and his entourage of women. Stifling her emotion, she said quietly, ‘Have you seen the property before?’
‘Had a look at it a few days back.’
Had he been alone then or with someone? Just because the gossip mongers hadn’t got hold of his latest partner it didn’t mean he was currently single. Why would he be?
Once they had left the city behind the road snaked past barren white fields, the grizzled countryside they were beginning to travel past stark and bare but holding a desolate beauty nonetheless. Toni relaxed a little. She loved the country. Both her mother’s and father’s parents had lived deep in Hertfordshire, which was where her parents had grown up and met, and she could recall wonderful summer holidays at their respective homes when she’d been as free as a bird to run wild from morning till night. Real log fires; cottage gardens ablaze with all the old-fashioned flowers like hollyhocks and lupins and sweet peas and a beautifully tended vegetable patch; warm, fresh brown eggs for breakfast from her grandparents’ much-loved and cosseted hens, and listening to the owl hooting outside the house when she was snug in bed—it had been a magical time. She had been truly happy then, before the world and its ways had thrust her into a harsher awareness of life.
They passed a couple of towns and villages and had been travelling for quite a while before Steel murmured, ‘Not much further now. The house is set by itself just outside a village, but a large market town is only ten miles away so it’s not too remote a location.’
Toni nodded but didn’t comment. The journey had been conducted in almost total silence and, for some reason she couldn’t explain, she was feeling nervous. It wasn’t only that she was alone with Steel, although that always caused an agitated trembling deep inside, but he seemed different this morning somehow. Over the last months, working so closely together on his pet projects, she’d thought she had seen all his moods, but this was a new one. The man had more guises than a chameleon.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asked suddenly, pulling off the main road and into a long country lane guarded by sentinel-like trees either side of the high hedgerow.
‘The matter?’ She glanced quickly at him but he was concentrating on a bend in the lane and the hard profile gave nothing away. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘You were frowning.’ He smiled.