Lacybourne Manor (47 page)

“Thank you.” This time, he said
it seriously.

“You’re welcome.” Her voice was
solemn and intense and she was watching him with an entirely new
look on her face, a look full of exquisite hope and he felt, for
the very first time in his entire life, humbled. So humbled, if he
had been standing, he would have fallen to his knees.

“Jesus, Sibyl,” he muttered as
he recognised what was so profound about this moment and it being
the fact that she’d let him into her heart.

And knowing that, he did the
only thing he knew how to do. He made love to her, slowly. It was
not about sex, about passion or about climax, it was about
something else. It was sweet and wild and beautiful and very
nearly, but not quite, everything a coupling should be and after it
was done, Colin found it had moved him to his deeply, right into
his soul.

And falling asleep, his
front pressed full-length against the back of her body while his
arm was wrapped around her waist, his hand cupping her breast, he
did not notice the dim, golden, ethereal shimmer that slid out of
the bedroom, waving, undulating and growing as it spread through
the house, around the house and over the house. It continued,
covering the grounds of Lacybourne Manor and up into the very
atmosphere, going so far as to brighten the moon in the cloudless
sky.

* * * * *

The next two days in London, he
was luckily so busy he only spent half of his time thinking about
Sibyl.

Between meetings, he’d called
her on Monday, listening to her shouting into her mobile over the
wind, “We’re at Tintagel, over the other side of the ruins. Oh
Colin! I haven’t been here in so long; I forgot how beautiful it
is. I wish you were here.”

Colin Morgan was not one to go
tramping through ruins. Ever. But regardless of that, he found
himself wishing it too.

Again, he called her on Tuesday
to hear what could only be described as pandemonium behind her.
“Colin, I’m sorry, babe, but I can’t talk now. I’m at the Day
Centre and Mags suggested a game of strip bingo to the oldies and
they’ve taken her up on it. I’m in Damage Control Mode,” she spoke
urgently as Colin heard the words “unlucky for some’ called in the
background. “Dear goddess, they’ve started!” she groaned into the
phone. “I’ll call you later.”

He didn’t care that she
couldn’t talk. Not only had she called him “babe’ in her engaging
American accent, he needed her to control the proposed game of
Pensioner Strip Bingo. He didn’t even want to think about it much
less learn it actually occurred.

On Wednesday, after a meeting
finished in his conference room, he headed to his office to return
some calls when his London secretary stopped him and announced,
“Miss Godwin is waiting in your office.”

He nodded curtly and lengthened
his stride at news of this surprise. The Godwins had come on a
shopping and museum expedition to London and they were supposed to
meet Colin and his entire family at Claire’s house in Kew at six
o’clock.

He opened the door to see
her standing across the expanse of his office, staring out the
window at his unobstructed view of the Thames, Big Ben and the
London Eye. She looked contemplative, standing behind his vast desk
lost in thoughts he couldn’t fathom.

At her posture, he felt an
unusual sense of dread creep through his bones.

He halted and shut the door
and, when she heard it, her head turned to him with a jerk.

He rested his back against the
door, crossed his arms on his chest and waited for her to speak.
She didn’t move a muscle as she regarded him.

Finally, she broke the silence.
“I left my family at the Tate,” she said in a voice so low he could
barely hear her. “I came around, thinking you might have time to
join us for lunch.”

Even though he was
delighted at this news, he didn’t answer. Something in the way she
was speaking and holding herself stopped him.

She broke his glance and looked
back at the view.

After a moment, she spoke
again.

“How much money do you have?”
she asked the window despondently.

Without hesitation, he
answered, “A lot.”

He saw her shudder and felt his
heart squeeze painfully in response.

“I don’t know what to do with
that information,” she admitted, her voice loaded with a wealth of
meaning, none of it good for Colin.

“Does it matter?” He couldn’t
believe he was in the position of having to defend his wealth.
Women were normally seduced by it, coveted it, went out of their
way to the point of demeaning themselves to get it.

Sibyl, however, was not like
normal women.

And this made her all the more
precious, and, he feared in that moment, perhaps the only thing in
his life that had ever been out of his reach.

She turned to face him. “There
are a lot of people who don’t have anything and you have so
much.”

“I work hard for it,” he
informed her honestly.

“I know,” she whispered,
watching him with an expression he could not read as he was too far
away to see the colour of her eyes.

“Why are you standing over
there?” she asked absently, as if noticing for the first time he
had not approached her.

“I think, right now, you need
to come to me.”

Her body froze as she realised
what he was asking and the importance of it. And he waited with a
great deal of trepidation as she made up her mind.

“
Half
way?” she suggested.

“No,” Colin stated implacably.
He was who he was, he wasn’t going to change. She was who she was,
he had no desire to change her. Perhaps protect her from her own
good intentions, but not change her.

She nodded, turned back to the
window and sighed. It was in that moment, he thought he’d lost and
the very idea of it nearly drove him across the room.

But he stood his ground.

He needed her to accept him as
he was.

“Do you have time for lunch?”
she asked the window, still not moving toward him, her shoulders
held straight and tense.

“No,” he answered honestly
again.

“I didn’t think so,” she
whispered.

It was then she turned and,
without hesitation, she walked straight to him. She put her hands
on either side of his waist when she arrived and tilted her head to
his.

His relief was so great, his
arms closed around her with stunning force and he pulled her to his
body. Then he buried his face in her neck and smelled the same
scent of lilies he’d smelled when he first admitted he wanted her
that morning in Lacybourne.

“
I suppose I should let
you get back to work,” she murmured.

He lifted his head and she
smiled, it was not a full-fledged Sibyl smile but it told him
everything he needed to know.

It was then, after all their
misunderstandings and distrust and across the great expanse of
difference in their personalities and upbringing, that he found,
finally, she was truly and completely his.

And Colin felt such an immense
satisfaction that it overwhelmed him.

Hiding it from her in order not
to frighten her, he brushed her mouth with a light kiss and she
laid her hand on his cheek.

“At least I don’t feel so
guilty about the fifty thousand anymore. Obviously, you can afford
it.” Her voice was hesitantly teasing.

He was so relieved laughter
erupted from him with the force of thunder.

Outside his office, his
London secretary lifted and turned her head at the amazing,
heretofore unknown, sound coming from her boss’s office. She had
been told that should a Miss Godwin phone, she was to be put
through immediately, no matter what. Apparently, after the many
before her, this woman had found her way into Colin Morgan’s cold,
unyielding heart.

His secretary wasn’t at all
surprised, she was a beauty (of course) but she also had the
sweetest smile.

* * * * *

The evening was spent in
easy, but loud, camaraderie with the Godwins, Phoebe and Mike,
Claire, her husband Jack and their two young children, Colin’s
brother Tony and his wife, Ellen. Tony and Ellen found Sibyl and
the Godwins just as enchanting as the rest of the family seemed to
do.

After, Colin took Sibyl and her
family back to Paddington Station to catch the last train to
Yatton. Before allowing her through the ticket machines, he engaged
her in a full-fledged, back-bending, passionate kiss that granted
him a gleaming smile of unadulterated approval from her mother.

* * * * *

That had been Colin’s last two
weeks with Sibyl.

Now, he pulled up outside her
cottage and alighted from his car, seeing around him the flowers of
full spring blooming everywhere. He opened the door and entered,
responding to easy calls of greeting from Bertie and Scarlett who
were both sitting in the living room. Scarlett had given him her
full blessing somewhere along the way and her behaviour was no
longer sardonic but almost cheery (or as cheery as Scarlett could
get). Mallory charged him but skidded to a halt at the last moment,
planted his bottom on the floor and licked Colin’s hand in
welcome.

Sibyl walked in from the
kitchen, holding Bran upside down in her arms, the cat’s feet
dangling uselessly up in the air, his tail twitching angrily over
her arm. The cat turned a baleful glare at Colin, promising later
retribution at this grievous affront to his feline dignity.

Sibyl walked right up to Colin
and gave him a brief kiss.

“Hi,” she breathed, her eyes
warm with happiness and he completely lost himself in them.

“Hi,” he returned.

“You’re early and I’m running
late.” With her attention on him, Sibyl lost hold on her cat and
Bran took his opportunity at escape and jumped away. Then she
leaned further into him and Colin’s left hand glided around her
waist while his right hand cupped her jaw. “I’ve got to finish
getting ready.”

He ran his thumb along her
cheekbone, dipping it to slide along her lower lip, watching its
progress with fascination the entire time.

Then he lifted his eyes from
her mouth to her gaze and he whispered, “I’ll wait.”

Regardless of what she said,
she didn’t move and they stood there, pressed against each other
next to her father’s dining room table as Scarlett and Bertie
watched with contented glances and Mallory settled to the floor
with an exaggerated dog groan.

And in their sweet, close
huddle, staring into each other’s eyes, no one in the room could
know that the two lovers were about to enter a battle for their
lives.

The Talent Show

Marian Byrne paid her one pound
and entered the Community Centre for the Talent Show.

The huge Hall was packed, music
was playing and the hum of conversation was friendly and
welcoming.

The minute Marian entered the
Hall, she saw the dim, golden aura that glowed in the air and its
presence so startled her, her eyes flew searchingly about the
enormous room.

She found Colin easily; he was
head and shoulders above most people in the room. Definitely head
and shoulders above the elderly lady standing beside him, holding
his hand in a grip so strong, it looked like she was attempting to
leech the youth, power and vitality out of the handsome man.

And when Marian saw him, she
saw Colin’s golden aura was not as dim as the one that glittered in
the air for it shown around him with nearly blinding clarity.

Marian smiled contentedly
to herself and approached him as she thought with unsuppressed
glee,
Nearly
there.

She was waylaid by the Godwins
who were standing in line for tea.

“Mrs. Byrne! What a pleasure. I
didn’t know you were coming tonight,” Marguerite Godwin greeted and
kissed Marian’s cheek.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the
world,” Marian informed the delightful woman she found (not
surprisingly) she liked very much and accepted greetings from
Albert and Scarlett.

Then Marian noted, eyes sliding
to the tall man, “I see Colin has an admirer.”

“Ah yes, she latched onto him
the minute we arrived and hasn’t left his side,” Marguerite
explained while Albert placed their tea orders, thoughtfully adding
one for Marian.

“How are… things?” Marian asked
even though she didn’t need to after her glance at Colin. She
turned her attention to him again and saw him dip his head politely
to listen to whatever the older lady was telling him.

He was relaxed and at ease,
seeming in his element casually wearing his expensive suit and
standing in the decrepit, old Hall. Colin Morgan seemed to own
every space he occupied, she knew, but since Marian met him, he’d
always been coiled as tight as a spring. Now he seemed content.

“Things are brilliant,” Mags
enthused, putting Marian’s thoughts into words, adding. “Sibyl’s
around somewhere but she’s crazy busy.”

It was then, as if on cue,
Sibyl entered the Hall through sliding doors at the side. Wearing a
wraparound, red dress that hugged her generous curves, a pair of
open-toed, black high heels, her hair pulled back in a clip at the
nape of her neck, she approached Colin.

Her aura was different,
astoundingly so. It was golden but shot with white hot sparks some
of which glittered nearly blue.

Marian felt the world come
closer together.

Sibyl Godwin was in love.

Deeply, truly, completely in
love.

She reached Colin and the
intensity of her aura, although it seemed impossible, deepened.
Marian thought it could almost singe a person if they came too
close.

But it didn’t affect Colin. He
pulled her to him with a strong arm and smiled down at her upturned
face with a warmth so unguarded it nearly made him seem boyish.