A Convenient Proposal. HELEN BROOKS

left them, which were demanding attention—and after reorganising the layout of the sitting room to give her maximum light she set to work on the images that had burnt themselves on her mind first thing that morning.

      At four o’clock, as the light began to fade rapidly, she emerged from the frenzy which had gripped her all day and realized the cottage was freezing and she was starving hungry.

      Once the fire was blazing she cooked herself the rest of the steak and finished off the bottle of wine before selecting a book from Essie’s bookcase and curling up on the sofa until ten o’clock. A hot bath, a mug of cocoa and she was in bed at half past and dead to the world a minute later.

      It was another five days before empty cupboards drove her out to get supplies, but at least she had phoned Essie and Xavier and unpacked by then. And she had the makings of a terrific picture too, she told herself, as she persuaded the reluctant Fiesta up the snow-packed lane and out on to the main road towards the town a few miles away.

      She had to pass Quinn’s veterinary practice on the way into town but she didn’t glance at it, not even for a moment.

      He hadn’t phoned.

      And that was fine, perfect, wonderful. Sure it was. It meant he had listened to what she had said and received the message loud and clear. And she wasn’t going to acknowledge the little voice at the back of her mind that kept nagging as to the reason for the bitterness evident in his voice and face either. His past was his own affair, as was hers.

      Had Essie told Quinn anything about her? It was another thought which had been popping up fairly frequently over the last five days.

      She hoped not. Not that she had anything to be ashamed of, she told herself militantly; it was just her business, that was all. Her grandmother being the town’s tramp, which had caused her mother, Natalie, to be raped by one of her grandmother’s unsavoury ‘friends’ when her mother had been a child of fourteen wasn’t exactly the normal family background people expected. Her poor mother… She thought of the photograph Xavier had given her when she was a young girl which was all she had to remind her she had ever had a mother.

      Her mother had died giving birth to her. She had found that very hard to come to terms with, in spite of Xavier’s gentleness and tenderness when he had told her. And Natalie had been just fifteen years old. Although the tragedy had jolted her grandmother out of her life of dissipation until she died, eight years later, the damage had been done, but Xavier had fought their reputation every inch of the way.

      Of course, once he had made his first million nothing had ever been said openly any more. Candy’s soft mouth twisted cynically. But in her home town there had still been men who knew the family history and thought they were on to a good thing with her. Not that she had ever told Xavier; he would have knocked them into next week. He had virtually brought her up and she was to all intents and purposes a daughter in her uncle’s eyes.

      Her background was one of the reasons why she had thought Harper was so wonderful; he had respected her, he had treated her as though she was a piece of precious Meissen porcelain.

      She forced her mind away from Harper. How could she have been so naive, so trusting, so utterly pathetic and dumb? No, it didn’t matter now. She breathed deeply, willing the sick feeling that always accompanied his name to die. Harper was gone, killed in a mass of twisted metal that had borne no resemblance to the car it had been once it had finished rolling down the mountainside.

      She was now on the borders of the small Sussex town, and on entering the main street a minute or two later she spied a parking slot to one side of the ancient cobbled marketplace and took it quickly, before she lost the chance.

      It was a tight squeeze between a large four-by-four on one side and a badly parked BMW on the other, which was probably why it was still vacant when everywhere else was packed. However, Xavier had taught her to drive in the acres of ground surrounding his lovely home in Vancouver when she’d barely been out of pigtails, and he had coached her so well she could virtually park on a postage stamp.

      Manoeuvring completed, she cut the engine, carefully wriggled out of the door and turned to look about her—straight into a pair of dark approving black eyes.

      ‘Very nice.’ Quinn indicated the Fiesta with a wave of his hand as he grinned at her. ‘Do all Canadian women drive like you?’

      Candy had frozen. He was standing inches from her and he was even bigger and darker than she remembered, and undeniably drop-dead gorgeous, from the top of his raven head to the soles of his muddy boots. And he was muddy. Filthy, in fact.

      ‘Hallo, Quinn.’ It was late, but better than nothing.

      ‘Hallo, Candy.’ It was very serious, but his eyes were smiling. And then, as a number of dogs in the big four-by-four began to bark and yap at the sound of his voice, he shouted, ‘Quiet, the lot of you,’ and it worked like magic.

      ‘This is yours?’ Candy asked in surprise.

      ‘My working vehicle,’ he said easily. ‘The farmers would think I’d lost it if I turned up in the Aston Martin.’

      ‘Yes, yes, I suppose they would.’ Keep talking, act naturally, forget the fact you aren’t wearing any make-up and your hair needs washing. ‘And the dogs…?’

      ‘All mine.’ There was a warmth in his voice as he glanced at the furry heads and bright eyes staring interestedly out of the back of the big vehicle. ‘I’ve had them about eight months now, five in all.’

      ‘Five?’ she queried brightly, ignoring her pounding heart.

      ‘Bit of story attached to them, I guess. There used to be an old lady in the town who had a little sanctuary for strays, and when she died unexpectedly these five were the ones who weren’t taken when we appealed for owners for the inmates. So…’

      ‘You took them when time ran out?’ Candy said quietly. She didn’t like the story, or, more to the point, she didn’t like what it did to her. She didn’t want to think of Quinn as the sort of man who would care for the vulnerable and helpless. She didn’t want to think of Quinn at all!

      He shrugged. ‘I was ready for some company, that’s all, and they’re a good bunch on the whole, although the little Jack Russell throws his weight about a bit.’

      She stared at him. He was playing it down but he loved those dogs; she could see it in his face and hear it in his voice. Candy’s own voice was remote and somewhat toneless when she said, ‘Well, I must be going. Nice to see you again.’

      ‘Likewise.’ His voice was cool now, and outdid hers in tonelessness.

      She nodded at him, furious with herself that he made her want to take to her heels and run like the wind on the one hand and on the other… She wanted to remain here, talking to him like this and finding out more and more about him for the rest of the day. Which was plain stupid. Worse, downright dangerous. He was too good-looking, too charismatic, too…everything to mess with. Just like Harper.

      She was conscious of his eyes on the back of her neck as she walked towards the first of the row of shops at the side of the marketplace, but she didn’t look back, and when she came out of the greengrocer’s some five minutes later the four-by-four was gone and in its place was an inoffensive little Mini.

      The sky suddenly seemed greyer, and she was conscious of the icy wind cutting through her ski-jacket as she stood staring over the marketplace. And then she turned, very sharply, as though she was throwing something off, and made for the next shop, her shoulders straight and her head high.

      It snowed again that night, and by morning the wind was working up to a blizzard, but inside the cottage all was warm and snug. Candy had learnt to bank down the fire each night to keep the downstairs of the cottage warm for morning, and when she first rose emptied the previous day’s ashes into the big tin bucket she had found hidden under the sink before she poked the fire into a blaze again and put fresh coal and logs on the burgeoning flames.

      By mid-afternoon the coal scuttle was empty and the last of the logs