His Irresistible Darling - Sarah Randall Page 0,111

vegetarians?” Mrs Henderson said the word scornfully, like it was a swear word!

Something about the kindly woman, warmly welcoming into her home with wide arms, stopped her from explaining that she very rarely ate a complete meal. “Nope, fully fledged meat eater here,” she said, assuring, and was treated to a full on wide smile. She was glad she hadn’t disappointed.

A few moments later, Matt re-entered the kitchen.

“I’ll be in the stud office,” he announced as he popped a kiss on the older woman’s cheek, the warmth of which shocked Ana but was quickly forgotten as he sailed past her and called back over his shoulder. “No need to tip me this time Miss Harper.” He left through the back door before she could come back with anything. Ana felt like she’d been dismissed.

Mrs Henderson and Pip came to check on her once she’d settled into her spacious yet cosy guest room.

“Yes thank you, but I do have one little problem,” she admitted. “I didn’t expect to travel straight here from Rome so I’ve very little in the way of clothes. A black bikini and a little summer dress aren’t going to be very practical here.” It was obvious that she wasn’t going to be able to squeeze into Pip’s clothes—assuming she could even get her jeans on over her hips, they would look like Peddle Pushers on her longer legs!

Mrs Henderson waved a hand at her. “Oh, right. Well we can sort that out, can’t we Pip. Let’s have a look in Matt’s room. You can roll up a pair of his jeans and there will be some T-shirts for you I’m sure. Come along.”

Matt’s bedroom was next to hers and was not what she imagined a single man’s bedroom looked like. Wait, was he even single? Why had she assumed that?

A super king size bed with white cotton sheets dominated the room. A mahogany dresser was topped with lots of family pictures, both colour and black and white, which seemed to be of his parents and Pip together when they were children. There was also a graduation picture of him and another extremely attractive man. Was it a brother, she wondered? No, on closer inspected he had a Middle Eastern look about him. She spotted a bottle of the cologne that she had smelt earlier on his coat. Yep, bergamot, nutmeg and cedarwood. It was one of her favourites and she had bought it for Alix on his last birthday.

Several modern paintings and prints were dotted around the room including a beautiful pencil drawing of a horse and her foal lying down. She went to step forward to examine the sketch but was interrupted by Mrs Henderson.

“The dressing room’s through here Ana.”

Dressing room… what the hell did a farmer need with a dressing room? Ah, unless he was married, but so far, no sight nor sound of a wife. She followed Mrs Henderson into a room next to the ensuite. It was as big as hers back in Chelsea! A row of stunning suits and dinner jackets hung on the right hand side. She trailed her hand along the suits. Gucci, Dior, Tom Ford, the man was a clothes horse!

God she needed to stop with the horse references.

To the left were shelves with neatly folded t-shirts, shirts, jeans, and jumpers. Underneath were smaller shelves for shoes and boots. It was like two entirely different people used the room: comfy and casual on one side and suited and booted on the other. Since when did Farmer Giles, or should that be Dr Jekel and Mr Hyde, need all these top end clothes? Had she been as guilty as him of making ill-informed assumptions?

Mrs Henderson hummed a tune as she busied herself in the wardrobe before handing her a bundle of clothes including a pair of jeans, t-shirts and a soft cashmere v-neck jumper and several pairs of socks.

“That should keep you going until your friend arrives. Matt has some spare wellington boots in the utility down stairs, a few pairs of socks on you and they should be alright. Oh, and there are lots of coats too. Just leave your delicates in the bathroom each day and I’ll launder those for you.”

“Thank you. Are you sure he won’t mind?” she checked, not entirely comfortable with the idea of wearing this man’s clothes without his permission—but in reality, what else could she do?

“Mind? Dearie he won’t even notice,” she said, chuckling to herself. “He barely wears any of these things