Читать книгу In Separate Bedrooms - Кэрол Мортимер, Carole Mortimer - Страница 4

‘THE man is nothing but a womaniser!’ Mattie told her mother, every inch of her slender five-feet-two-inch-frame bristling with emotion, blue eyes sparkling brightly in the delicate beauty of her heart-shaped face. Even her wild mane of tawny-coloured, below shoulder-length hair seemed to spark with the intensity of her indignation.

‘Mattie, it sounds to me as if you’ve made another one of your snap judgements,’ her mother admonished lightly as she sat behind her desk. ‘And we both know how often they’ve been wrong in the past,’ she added. ‘Besides, Mattie,’ she continued gently, ‘are you sure you aren’t just overreacting because after dating Richard for three months last year you found out he was actually engaged to marry someone else?’

In truth, Mattie preferred not to think of the humiliation she had felt when Richard had informed her they couldn’t see each other any more because he was getting married the following week!

‘Although, from what you’ve told me about him, this man does sound a little—free with his company,’ her mother conceded as Mattie went on looking fretful.

‘A little?’ Mattie repeated disgustedly. ‘I told you, the man has four women on the go, Mum. Four!’ she echoed incredulously. ‘And three of them appear to be married.’

‘Then they ought to know better,’ her mother dismissed, an older, slightly plumper version of her pretty daughter. ‘I’m afraid it’s a fact of life that some men seem to think there’s safety in numbers!’

Mattie frowned. ‘Safety from what?’

‘Marriage-minded women, usually.’ Her mother smiled wryly.

‘What woman in her right mind could possibly want to marry a man like that?’ Mattie scorned. ‘He’s nothing but a greedy pig!’

‘Personally, I think he ought to be taken out into the streets and publicly whipped,’ drawled a huskily amused—distinctly male!—voice.

Mattie froze where she stood in front of the desk behind which her mother sat working, very reluctant to turn round, her face bright red with embarrassment. She had been totally unaware that their conversation was being listened to—and by a man, of all people!

Her mother felt no such awkwardness, smiling across the room at the man as she stood up to move around her desk. ‘Can I help you?’

‘Jack Beauchamp,’ the man introduced. ‘I telephoned you yesterday about the possibility of booking my dog in here next weekend. You suggested I come and have a look round first,’ he reminded her.

Mattie’s face went pale. This man was a potential customer—at least, his dog was!—at her mother’s boarding-kennels …?

‘I hope I’m not interrupting anything …?’ he added with light query. ‘You did say I could call in some time on Sunday afternoon.’

Mattie swallowed hard, desperately willing the colour back into her cheeks, knowing she had never felt so mortified—and uncomfortable—in her life.

‘Of course, Mr Beauchamp,’ her mother replied smoothly. ‘I’ll be quite happy to show you round. You have a Bearded Collie, I believe?’

Good old Mum. Mattie smiled affectionately; she never forgot a dog or its breed—although very often the owners were another matter entirely.

‘Harry,’ Jack Beauchamp confirmed. ‘But if you’re busy, I’m quite happy for your assistant to show me round …?’

Assistant? Yes, that was probably exactly what she seemed to this man, Mattie conceded. After all, she was dressed in jeans and skimpy blue tee shirt, ideal wear for working in the kennels. In fact, she usually gave her mother a hand on Sundays. It just wasn’t what she did the rest of the week …

She drew in a deep breath before turning, her breath catching in her throat as she found herself looking at the most attractive man she had ever set her deep blue eyes on!

Probably aged in his early thirties, tall, and leanly built, his dark hair kept fashionably short, he had the deepest brown eyes Mattie had ever seen. Like liquid chocolate, she decided. Warm.

Caressing. Fathomless. And the rest of his face wasn’t bad, either, she conceded grudgingly; lean and tanned, his nose looking as if it might have been broken some years back, his mouth full and smiling, only the stubborn set of the chin belying his relaxed pose in a black tee shirt and dark blue denims.

‘I would be happy to show you around, Mr Beauchamp.’ She nodded coolly. ‘As you say, my mother is rather busy at the moment,’ she finished pointedly.

‘Ah.’ He nodded, those deep brown eyes openly laughing at her now, at her subtle correction of who she was.

No ‘I’m sorry for the mistake.’ No polite ‘I should have realized, the two of you are very alike.’ Just that slightly mocking ‘ah’!

‘Oh, but—’

‘Do please carry on with what you were doing, Mum,’ Mattie interrupted firmly, her hackles very definitely up. ‘I’m sure Mr Beauchamp and I can manage very well together.’

Her mother shot her a worriedly questioning look. A look Mattie met with an innocent raise of her tawny brows. Her mother probably didn’t realize it, but Mattie was in just the mood to deal with the over-confident Mr Beauchamp! Or perhaps, after their recent conversation, about greedy pigs, her mother did realize it, and that was why she was looking so worried …

The boarding-kennels had been going through a hard time in the last year, too many people seeing the opportunity to run their own business from their own home, and jumping on the bandwagon, having no real idea of the hard work involved, the long hours of business, being on call twenty-four hours a day to their furry charges.

But The Woofdorf was, as its name implied, a superior boarding-kennels in Mattie’s—biased?—opinion and had been her mother’s pride and joy for the last twenty years. A fact Jack Beauchamp—although he didn’t realize it—was about to find out.

She gave him a withering look. ‘If you would like to follow me, Mr Beauchamp, I will show you our indoor accommodation for our guests.’

‘Blow in my ear, and I’ll follow you anywhere.’

Mattie turned sharply at these startling words, frowning darkly as she found Jack Beauchamp had taken her literally concerning the instruction ‘follow me’, and he was now standing so close to her she found herself with her nose almost pressed against the muscled hardness of his chest.

She took an involuntary step backwards before answering him. ‘I beg your pardon?’ Surely he couldn’t really have said what she had thought he had—murmured, really; her mother, smiling after them politely, certainly didn’t seem to have heard those provocative words.

Jack Beauchamp’s gaze met hers with unblinking innocence. ‘I said the weather is very pleasant for this time of year,’ he said pleasantly, dark gaze laughingly challenging. In fact, the man seemed to have been inwardly laughing at her since the moment he’d interrupted her conversation with her mother.

And Mattie didn’t believe for a moment that he had said what he claimed he had!

‘After you, Mr Beauchamp,’ she invited stiffly as she pointedly held the door open for him to precede her outside.

‘No, after you, Miss Crawford.’ He gave a mocking inclination of his dark head.

Mattie was sure it wasn’t an accident that, just as she was about to go through the doorway, he decided to go through it too, crushing her back up against the doorframe, the softness of her shapely curves pressed against his body from chest to thigh.

‘Sorry,’ she muttered as the two of them popped through the doorway together like a cork from a champagne bottle.

‘My pleasure,’ he drawled, his dark gaze definitely mocking now as the two of them stood outside in the spring sunshine.

She would just bet it was, her whole body tingling from the unexpected contact with his, even more convinced as he gave a disarming grin that he had done it on purpose.

‘Perhaps if you didn’t follow quite so closely, Mr Beauchamp …’ she said tersely.

His mouth was still curved into that increasingly infuriating smile. ‘I’ll try not to, Miss Crawford,’ he obeyed as he followed her down the flowered pathway to the indoor kennels. ‘You seem slightly familiar,’ he murmured quizzically after several seconds. ‘Could we possibly have met before?’

Mattie drew in a deep breath. Could he possibly have realized what she really did for a living, how the two of them had in fact met? If he had, then it wasn’t going to take too much guesswork on his part to add two and two together and come up with the required four. Nothing for it; for the sake of her mother’s business, she would just have to deny all knowledge!

She glanced back to answer him—only to find his gaze very firmly fixed on the graceful sway of her hips as she walked.

Well, really! Didn’t the man ever switch from flirtation mode down to coasting? Today, at least, she was the equivalent of a kennel-maid, for goodness’ sake!

‘Somehow I very much doubt that we move in the same social circles, Mr Beauchamp,’ she responded.

‘I don’t have a social circle, Miss Crawford,’ he drawled. ‘No, I’m sure I’ve never met you at a party or anything like that,’ he continued slowly, dark eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he now studied the delicate beauty of her face. ‘I just have a feeling of—familiarity.’ He gave a rueful shrug.

‘Well, I can assure you I don’t have the same feeling.’ Mattie gave a dismissive laugh, long sooty lashes coming down to cover the anger now blazing in her eyes. And he could take that remark however he chose—either they had never met before, or he was so unremarkable that she didn’t remember him!

Except that she did …

‘This way,’ she instructed sharply, unlocking the door that went through to the indoor kennels, a riotous barking beginning as the dogs sensed company. ‘All our rooms are carpeted, as well as centrally heated.’ She reached down and stroked each of the dogs through wire-netted doors as they passed the rooms. ‘There is also a chair for those that prefer it. The basket and bedding is replaced with each new guest, although we appreciate that very often you prefer to bring your pet’s own bedding.’ She launched automatically into professional dialogue, having helped her mother in the kennels on weekends for as long as she could remember. Besides, her mother’s rates weren’t cheap, but she wanted Jack Beauchamp to know that the guests did get value for money. ‘We also provide a television set for those guests who like to watch the soaps,’ she explained indulgently. ‘As you can see—’ she came to a halt as she realized she had lost Jack Beauchamp at the second kennel.

He was down on his haunches in front of the wire mesh door, being rapturously greeted by the Yellow Labrador staying there.

Mattie strolled back to join him, her own expression softening as she too bent to scratch Sophie behind the ear. ‘She’s rather lovely, isn’t she?’ she said quietly, the Labrador having long ago become a favourite of hers.

‘Absolutely gorgeous!’ Jack Beauchamp turned to grin at her, that flirtatious charm wiped away in his genuine pleasure in the dog’s ecstatic greeting. ‘And so friendly,’ he added warmly.

Mattie’s breath caught in her throat at his sudden boyishness. He was just too good-looking for his own good. Or hers!

‘Sophie is just pleased to see anyone,’ she bit out curtly, instantly realizing how rude she had sounded, but unable to take it back now she had said it. Besides, she did not want to find this man attractive! ‘Her elderly owner died three months ago,’ she told him grudgingly at his questioning look. ‘The family don’t want Sophie, and instructed my mother to have her put down. Which is why we still have her.’

There was no way her mother could have a healthy animal put to sleep—which was how they had ended up with four dogs of their own, already! No way could she send Sophie to a dogs’ home either, for the very same reason; Sophie might not find a new owner, and so might possibly meet the same fate.

Ordinarily Sophie would have been out of the kennel following her mother around as she worked, but as her mother had been expecting a visitor—this visitor, as it turned out!—she had put Sophie in one of the kennel rooms just for the afternoon.

‘That’s terrible.’ Jack Beauchamp straightened frowningly, still absently stroking Sophie behind one ear.

‘Yes,’ Mattie acknowledged heavily, in total agreement with him. Over that, at least! ‘If you would like to come this way …’ she returned to her brisk, businesslike tone ‘… I will show you one of the empty rooms so that you can see exactly where—Harry?—will be staying if you decide to book him in for next weekend.’ Something Mattie, in spite of her mother’s need for business, hoped he wouldn’t do. She had already agreed to help her mother over the Easter weekend, which meant she was more than likely to bump into Jack Beauchamp again then!

‘It’s certainly luxurious,’ Jack Beauchamp acknowledged a few minutes later, sitting down in the armchair that stood to one side of the guest room.

‘Dogs are such loving, giving creatures, we feel they deserve the best,’ Mattie rejoined.

Brown eyes surveyed her unemotionally for several long seconds. ‘I agree,’ he finally answered. ‘Harry is going to love it here.’ He stood up. ‘I know it must sound slightly strange to you, but Harry has been with me since he was a puppy; he’s six now, and he’s never been away to kennels before.’

Mattie softened slightly. Having grown up with animals, she had the same weakness for them as her mother did. And there was no doubting that Jack Beauchamp—whatever else he might be!—cared about his dog very much.

‘I’m sure he’ll be fine here with us,’ she assured him as he once again bent down to make a fuss of Sophie. ‘Let me take you outside and show you the spaciously individual runs we have for each guest.’ She carefully locked the doors behind them as they went back outside. ‘Although each dog is taken for a long walk every day too,’ she hastened to add.

Jack Beauchamp gave that disarming grin once again. ‘This is more comfortable than some human hotels!’

‘Yes,’ Mattie acknowledged ruefully. It had taken a lot of capital to build this luxurious boarding-kennels in the first place, took even more for its upkeep, but it certainly was a first-class hotel for canines.

He quirked dark brows. ‘Do you and your mother run it on your own, or do you have help?’ he asked conversationally as they strolled back to the front office.

‘We have help,’ Mattie answered evasively. ‘But I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s a beautiful setting?’ she deliberately changed the subject. After all, it was really none of this man’s business whether or not she helped her mother on a full-time basis.

It was a beautiful setting too. Only a few miles outside London, they were nevertheless surrounded by countryside, their own large garden a riot of spring flowers.

‘Beautiful,’ he murmured in agreement.

Mattie turned to look at him, her breath catching in her throat as she saw Jack Beauchamp wasn’t looking at the garden at all, but at her!

Well, really!

She stiffened resentfully. ‘I’ll pass you over to my mother now, so that the two of you can sort out the details for your pet’s stay,’ she told him briskly as they re-entered the office. Her mother looked up with a smile, Mattie’s barely perceptible nod of confirmation erasing some of the anxiety from her eyes.

‘I hope you found everything to your liking, Mr Beauchamp?’ Her mother smiled at him warmly.

‘Everything,’ he confirmed softly.

Once again Mattie looked up to find him looking at her rather than her mother. He was doing it again!

‘And please call me Jack,’ he invited her mother.

‘Diana,’ her mother returned happily, obviously feeling none of the awkwardness around this attractive man that Mattie obviously did.

Of course her mother was about ten years older than Jack Beauchamp, whereas Mattie was around ten years younger. But even so, her mother was still an attractive woman, had also been a widow for a very long time. Admittedly her mother had always claimed to have loved Mattie’s father too much to ever become involved again, but surely a woman would have to be almost dead herself not to be aware of Jack Beauchamp’s good looks?

‘Exactly how did you come to hear of The Woofdorf, Jack?’ her mother continued conversationally, the complete professional when it came to her beloved boarding-kennels. ‘It’s always nice to know these things. Was it a personal recommendation, or did you perhaps see one of our ads—?’

‘Strangely enough I found some of your cards lying around in the office. I have no idea who could have put them there.’

Mattie suddenly became very interested in the dozens of photographs that adorned one of the walls of the office, hoping that neither her mother, nor Jack Beauchamp, had noticed how anxious she’d suddenly become.

‘Obviously a lucky find,’ he acknowledged warmly.

‘Obviously,’ her mother agreed; no doubt thinking, for us as well as Jack Beauchamp.

He nodded. ‘I was explaining to your daughter earlier that Harry has never been away to kennels before—even one as luxurious as this,’ he allowed. ‘It’s just that I really have to be in Paris next weekend, and as the whole family is going, there just isn’t anyone left here who I can leave him with, as I usually do when I have to go away. I have to admit—’ he grimaced ‘—that I’ve left it this late in booking because I’ve been putting off the evil day for as long as possible.’

Family? What family? Surely this man wasn’t married, too?

‘Every owner feels as you do the first time, Jack,’ her mother told him kindly. ‘But I do assure you, we will take very good care of Harry. If—’

‘I hope you’ll both excuse me,’ Mattie cut in abruptly, suddenly really anxious to get away from the company of this particular man. ‘I—I really must go and—and—er—I have some things to do,’ she finished lamely.

But Jack Beauchamp had paused in the doorway on his way in, and was still effectively blocking Mattie’s exit as she turned to leave. ‘I must thank you for showing me round,’ he told her quietly. ‘It was very nice meeting you, Miss Crawford.’

She looked up at him unblinkingly. ‘And you, Mr Beauchamp,’ she returned politely—if insincerely. Obviously she didn’t merit the privilege of being asked to call him by his first name! Which was okay with her—she would probably have choked on it, anyway.

He smiled, laughter still lurking in the depths of those dark brown eyes—as if he were well aware of her chagrin at the omission. ‘I do hope we’ll meet again,’ he finally said softly.

Contrarily, Mattie hoped for no such thing. Although, in the circumstances, she knew it was a pretty useless hope.

‘Probably next weekend—if you do decide to bring Harry to us,’ she dismissed briskly. ‘Now, if you will excuse me …?’ She looked at him pointedly as he still blocked her exit.

‘Certainly.’ He stepped neatly aside.

Mattie couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. Her chest felt as if it were going to explode from lack of air.

So that was Jack Beauchamp.

Well, he was good-looking enough, she would give him that. Charming too, if you ignored all that staring he did. Her mother appeared to like him too. But then, her mother liked and trusted nearly everyone, even the young kennel-maid who had stolen money from her the previous year, so that was no recommendation, either.

But how could Mattie possibly have even guessed that her leaving those cards for The Woofdorf all over the offices of JB Industries would result in the man himself turning up here to board his dog over the Easter weekend? She couldn’t, came the obvious answer.

But she was certainly going to have some explaining to do to her mother once Jack Beauchamp had left!

Because the man she had described to her mother earlier as a womaniser and a greedy pig—and even he had suggested, albeit mockingly—that such a man should be taken out into the streets and publicly whipped, was none other than Jack Beauchamp himself!