Falling In Love. CHARLOTTE LAMB

he was giving her this cottage so that she could either live here, or sell the cottage, to provide for her future.’

      Laura frowned. ‘Just a letter? But surely that isn’t a legally binding document?’

      ‘Aye, it was, the way he phrased it. It was like a codicil to his will, you see. The lawyer had that, but Jack’s letter was dated later than the will, so it was a legal codicil, and Jack had left a sealed letter with his lawyer which said the same thing. Well, when Jack died, Josh Kern challenged her right to the place. She stayed on here until the court found in her favour, because she was afraid that, if she left, Josh Kern would take possession and she would never get it back. The court decided in her favour, and then she moved out and asked me to sell the place for her.’

      ‘She moved away out of the area?’ asked Laura, walking into the main bedroom at the front of the cottage.

      ‘She’s living in Salisbury with a widowed sister.’ Mr Dale looked around with more approval. ‘Now this is my favourite room—very pretty.’

      Laura looked at the cream wallpaper sprigged with pink, the curtains in pale pink wool, the frilled pink lampshades on the small bedside tables on each side of the double bed, which had a cream coverlet. The deep-piled carpet was cream, too. It was a very soothing, ultra-feminine room.

      ‘When will she move her furniture out?’ asked Laura, as Mr Dale showed her the en suite bathroom leading out of the bedroom.

      ‘She’s taken what she wanted, all her personal things—letters, photographs, ornaments. But she didn’t want the furniture. I’m to sell it in auction, unless whoever buys the cottage wants it. I got the feeling she wanted to shut the door on it all, forget her years here.’

      Suddenly Laura was moved, her green eyes filling with sympathy. ‘She may regret that later.’

      ‘She may, that’s what I told her,’ he said in his gruff voice, his weathered face blank. ‘But she didn’t change her mind.’

      Laura looked around her, sighing. ‘Well, if I do eventually buy it, I’d like the furniture—and I’d always let her have it back if she did change her mind later. It seems terribly sad to turn her back on twenty years of her life!’

      ‘That’s very kind of you, miss. So, what do you think, then? Going to buy it?’

      ‘I like it, Mr Dale,’ Laura cautiously said, ‘but you’ll appreciate that my fiancé must see it before we make a decision. As soon as he is well enough we’ll come back to look at it again. I’ll ring you within the week, I expect.’

      He nodded, not surprised. ‘Aye, well, remember I’ll be showing other clients around it in the meantime, and it is a bargain, especially fully furnished. Don’t wait too long, Miss Grainger.’

      She nodded. ‘I’ll be in touch as soon as my fiancé is better.’ Then she had called the models, who had come trooping out from other rooms.

      ‘Back in the car, girls; we’ll have to hurry to get back to York in time for your second session!’

      ‘Bye bye, Mr Dale,’ the girls chirped, waving scarlet-tipped fingers at him, and he had grinned back at them appreciatively.

      ‘Nice to meet you, girls.’ Then he shook Laura’s hand in his bone-scrunching way, nodding at her. ‘I’ll hope to hear from you soon, then, Miss Grainger, and don’t you fret about Josh Kern. His bark is worse than his bite.’

      She hoped so. His bark was quite bad enough. A thought occurred to her and she asked, ‘By the way, did he say he had offered to buy the cottage?’

      ‘No, he made an offer, and she refused it.’

      ‘Why? Was it too low?’

      ‘No, he offered a good enough price.’ Mr Dale paused, frowning. ‘I forgot to tell you, with all the harassment we got from Josh...there is a covenant on the cottage, to the effect that whoever buys it must not resell to Josh Kern while Mrs Forest is alive.’

      Startled, Laura stared. ‘That can’t be legally binding, surely?’

      ‘If you don’t sign the covenant, she won’t sell, and if you do sign the covenant it’s legally binding,’ said Mr Dale with one of his shrewd grimaces.

      Laura had forgotten to tell Patrick about that. She must remember to tell him tomorrow when she rang. It might make a difference to his decision; such a binding agreement might be a problem later if they wanted to sell and couldn’t find a buyer.

      They might then wish they could sell to Josh Kern, although Laura was already feeling very sympathetic towards Mrs Forest’s desire to keep him out of the property. It would give her a lot of pleasure to do anything that annoyed Josh Kern.

      She only hoped she wouldn’t see much of him, if she and Patrick did decide to buy Fern Cottage. She bit her lower lip. Why pretend she wasn’t sure? She wanted the place. She had loved it on sight, and when she’d seen the beautifully restored interior she had wanted it badly. If someone else bought it before Patrick could see it she was going to be very disappointed.

      In fact, it was exactly a week before she and Patrick drove out along the Castle Howard road again, and Mr Dale had been too busy, he said, to come with them, so he had given them the key to the cottage and left them to view the place alone.

      ‘Lucky he was busy. I much prefer to view a house without having an agent hovering about trying to push us into a quick decision,’ Patrick said cheerfully as they turned on to the rough track which led to the cottage.

      Laura was driving, but her concentration wasn’t quite as fixed as usual. She kept looking across the fields on either side, her body tense, half expecting Josh Kern to appear at any moment. She had a shrewd idea why Mr Dale had been too busy to come out here again. She felt the same: she would rather not face Josh Kern again, even with Patrick there. In fact, having Patrick there somehow made it more nerve-racking, because Josh Kern didn’t look as if he would use violence against a woman. His face had been contemptuous and hostile, but she hadn’t actually been afraid of him. But Patrick was a man, and she sensed that Josh Kern’s rules would be very different with another man.

      He might well push Patrick into a fight, and, much as she loved him, Laura knew Patrick was no fighter and never had been; he wasn’t a coward, he just lacked aggression. He believed in negotiation, not confrontation, discussion, not argument. Patrick was a reconstructed man, wanting to live peacefully in the world, in harmony with his friends and his woman.

      Laura’s mouth curled in a little smile as she looked sideways at him, and Patrick caught that glance and asked, ‘What? What are you smiling at? Tell me the joke.’

      ‘I was just thinking how much I love you,’ she said, leaning over to kiss him.

      Just as their mouths touched, a horse leapt over a hedge right next to the car.

      Laura gave a sharp cry, instinctively ducking her head. Patrick went white. Out of the corner of her eye, Laura saw the big black animal leap over the bonnet, tucking its hooves neatly under it as it sailed across in front of the windscreen. She had to admire the precision of the jump and the way the horse swung round on landing and galloped on down the lane before slowing, turning, and coming back towards the car at a slow trot.

      ‘Is that...?’ Patrick whispered in a dazed voice.

      ‘Yes,’ Laura grimly said. ‘That’s him. Josh Kern.’

      ‘He must be out of his mind!’ Patrick’s hands were not quite steady and he still looked pale.

      ‘Way out,’ she agreed, scrambling out of the car as the black horse came to a halt next to it. Laura stared angrily up at the rider, her green eyes glittering with the resentment of someone who had just had a physical shock.

      ‘You madman!’ she yelled at him. ‘What a crazy, dangerous thing to do!’

      ‘How was I to know your car was parked there?’ Josh Kern drawled, smiling with mockery in a