Penny Jordan Collection: Just One Night (30 page)

* * *

Really, some people had no idea when they were well off, Georgia told herself sternly. She had just returned home from a most enjoyable and informative month spent witnessing the strength and bravery of the people who had been learning how to get the best out of their new canine helpers, and into the bargain she had been invited out by one of the course instructors who, flatteringly, had made it plain that he was attracted to her.

On her return Philip had summoned her into his office and told her how pleased he was with her work and how much he hoped she would stay on with them after her trial period was up, and, despite her gentle refusal of his invitation, the course instructor had telephoned her once she got home, trying to coax her to change her mind.

Yes, she had every reason to feel good about herself and her life. Every reason bar one, that was!

She had arrived back in town early the previous day and had called in to the practice in the afternoon to check in there. Today was her day off and she had done some essential food shopping and all the washing she had brought back from the course with her; she was planning to spend the afternoon indulging in a leisurely walk along the river bank, enjoying the warmth of the summer sun.

And when she did so she was
not
going to think about Piers once. Just as she hadn’t thought about him once when she had been away? she taunted herself grimly. Not once, no...just every single day, every single minute!

A couple of hours later, as she was walking along the river path, Georgia heard her name being called by Emily Latham. As she looked towards the older woman she was relieved to see that Piers wasn’t with her. The colonel was, though, his manner towards his companion both proprietorial and protective, Georgia noticed when they came over to talk to her.

‘Where’s Ben?’ she asked the older woman conversationally.

‘Oh, didn’t you know? He doesn’t live with me any more,’ Emily Latham told her.

‘You’ve re-homed him?’ Georgia couldn’t keep the distress out of her voice. ‘Oh, poor Ben.’

‘Oh, no, he’s very happy,’ Emily told her immediately, ‘and Piers was so adamant that it was the right thing to do.’

Piers!

She might have
known
, Georgia realised. Everything he had said to her about him feeling guilty about the way he had been with Ben had simply been a lie. He had quite plainly been planning to get rid of Ben all along, just as he had warned her. And now, it seemed, he had succeeded. Why had she been naive enough to assume that he had changed his mind?

‘Yes, we’ve just been to visit him,’ the colonel boomed. ‘Can’t really understand why a single chap should move into a place as large as his...’

‘Piers has bought Riversreach Farm,’ Emily informed Georgia happily. ‘He moved in just a short time ago.’

Riversreach Farm. Georgia knew it. It was a lovely Georgian farmhouse just outside the town. She had visited the previous owners to look at a cat they had which had gone down with feline flu.

‘I do miss Ben,’ Emily was saying, ‘but Arthur has suggested that I should think about getting a smaller, quieter dog.’

‘Where
is
Ben?’ Georgia wanted to ask her, but her throat felt too choked with her anger for her to formulate the words. She was surprised that Emily could discuss Ben’s banishment with such equanimity. She had seemed so devoted to him. But no doubt Piers had spun her some tale about it being in Ben’s interest for him to be re-homed and Emily was naive enough to believe him...just as
she
had done!

Her pleasure in walking totally spoiled, Georgia returned home, but once there she couldn’t get poor Ben or his fate out of her mind, and the more she thought about what Piers had done, the angrier she got. It was high time that someone confronted Piers and made him see just how callous and cruel his behaviour was. And who better than she! Who better indeed?

In a trice Georgia was in her car and driving out of the town in the direction of Riversreach Farm.

A ‘For Sale’ sign still marked the entrance to the farm lane, but the forlorn appearance Georgia remembered the farm as having was well on the way to being banished, she recognised as she reached the end of the lane and saw the house’s sparkling windows, their stone surrounds picked out in a buttery cream paint whilst the façade of the house itself had been painted a paler-toned warm cream. The garden at the front of the house had been tidied up as well, the borders weeded and the gravel recently raked. Quite plainly Piers intended to spare no expense in setting the farmhouse to rights, Georgia decided sourly. Pity that he hadn’t had the compassion to spend some of his money on doing something for Ben.

Stopping her car, she took a deep breath and pushed open the driver’s door.

She wasn’t going to let herself dwell on how much of her anger was fuelled by disappointment at what Piers had done, because he had fallen so far short of the ideals of the man she had allowed herself to believe he could be—a man big enough, wise enough, man enough to admit that he had made an error of judgement and that he had been wrong. A man compassionate enough to understand the effect Ben’s being found another home, being rejected a second time, might have on the animal; a man caring enough to realise what it must be like for the woman who was foolish enough to love him when he wasn’t able to love her back.

But Piers was none of those things. Piers was...

Raising her hand, she was just about to ring the doorbell, but Piers had obviously seen her arrive, because before she could do so he had opened the door and he was standing there.

‘Georgia!’

Georgia blinked a little as she heard the warmth in his voice, and then told herself that she must have been imagining it as she ignored his greeting and told him bitterly, ‘I know. I’ve just seen your godmother. I know what’s happened to Ben... How could you...? And to think I really believed all those things you said. To think I believed that you’d actually changed your mind about him.

‘Have you no feelings, no compassion? No, of course you haven’t.’ She answered her own question. ‘You just couldn’t wait to get rid of him, could you? You just couldn’t wait to persuade your godmother to find him another home.’ Tears filled her eyes. ‘And to think I thought you’d changed—’

‘Now just a minute,’ Piers interrupted her grimly. ‘You don’t—’

‘I don’t what? Understand?’ Georgia demanded furiously. ‘No, I don’t. I
don’t
understand how anyone...
any
man...could behave towards a dumb animal the way you have to Ben. And to think that I actually believed I loved you...that I’ve just spent night after night longing for you...wishing you were with me...wishing that you loved me—’ Abruptly Georgia realised what she was saying and where the hot dam-burst of her anger had taken her.

Her face burned, but she lifted her head proudly and locked her eyes on Piers’s as she told him quietly, ‘You aren’t worthy of my love, and I’m glad that I discovered the truth about you before I wasted any more tears on you. Where
is
Ben? I want to know because...’

Her voice trailed away as Piers stepped back into the hall and called, ‘Ben, come here. You’ve got a visitor...’

As the setter came bounding into the hall Georgia couldn’t help noticing how happy and healthy he looked. His coat gleamed, his eyes shone and he had that air about him that said that he was getting far more exercise than he had ever done with Emily Latham.

‘B-Ben’s
here
...?’ To her chagrin Georgia knew she was beginning to stammer. ‘B-but...’

As the setter rushed up to greet her Georgia kneeled down to pat him, burying her hot face in his coat.

‘When the time came for me to move out of my godmother’s house and into this one I decided that I really missed Ben, so I asked her if she would consider allowing him to live with me full-time. She was reluctant at first, but the colonel persuaded her; since I suspect any day now that the colonel will propose to her—it’s obvious just how the pair of them feel about one another. In the end she agreed that Ben could come to me, with the proviso that, should Ben be in the least bit distressed or unhappy, she would have him back.’

‘In the event he’s settled down here better than I could have hoped for—haven’t you, boy?’ Piers asked Ben, reaching out to stroke his ears.

Georgia could see immediately from the way Ben reacted to Piers just how happy the dog was with his new home
and
his new master.

‘I...I’m sorry...’ Georgia apologised stiltedly as she stood up. ‘I didn’t realise. I shouldn’t have said what I did. I...I must go.’ She was practically gabbling as she turned away, ready to make an undignified, hasty dash to her car.

What on earth had prompted her to say the things she had? Bad enough for her to have criticised Piers and accused him so unjustifiably, but to have told him about her own feelings...to have betrayed her unwanted love to him...

‘Oh, no, you don’t,’ Piers told her softly. ‘Not yet. You and I have—’

‘No, I’m not staying; you can’t make me,’ Georgia protested apprehensively, quickly moving out of his reach.

But to her consternation, as she started to turn away, Piers said firmly, ‘Ben, guard...’

Ben immediately came and stood in front of her. When she tried to get past him the dog caught hold of her wrist in his mouth—very gently, but very determinedly.

Wildly Georgia stared at Piers.

‘You
did
say that he was very intelligent,’ Piers reminded her dryly, ‘and I have to confess that you were right!’

‘You can’t do this. Make him let me go,’ Georgia demanded.

‘Not until you agree to come inside and talk to me,’ Piers told her.

‘We don’t have anything to talk about,’ Georgia told him shakily.

‘Oh, yes, we do,’ Piers corrected her.

‘Like what?’ she demanded.

‘Like the fact that you have just made some very interesting comments about...about a certain matter... Have you
any
idea how jealous I was when I thought that Ben meant more to you than I did...when I thought you were defending
him
, protecting
him
from me?’

‘You were jealous of
Ben
? But that’s—’ Georgia began weakly, but Piers interrupted her before she could finish speaking.

He said softly, ‘That’s very predictable behaviour for a man so desperately in love.’

‘You...desperately in love...with me?’ Georgia whispered. ‘No, that’s not possible.’

‘You don’t think so?’ Piers asked her whimsically. ‘Well, there are certain time-honoured ways of proving that it’s true, but none of them I think are best witnessed by a third party—even a canine third party. Release, Ben,’ he told the dog, who immediately released Georgia’s arm and stepped back from her with a wag of his tail.

‘I can’t believe you’ve taught him so quickly,’ Georgia said as Piers guided her along the hallway.

‘Well,
I
can’t take all the credit,’ Piers told her. ‘You had done all the groundwork, and I
have
been spending a lot of time with him since he’s been here. After all, he’s the closest thing I’ve got to you.

‘How could you believe I’d go behind your back like that and get rid of him?’ he asked her as he opened one of the doors off the hallway and stood back for her to precede him into the sitting room that lay beyond it.

‘I don’t know,’ Georgia admitted honestly. ‘I think I was just hurting so much from loving you... Piers,’ she protested as he suddenly pushed the door shut with an audible bang and pulled her into his arms.

‘Piers what?’ he challenged her thickly, holding her so close to his body that she could feel the fierce, fast drumbeat of his heart. ‘These last few weeks without you have been...’ He stopped and shook his head, as though unable to find the words to describe his pain.

‘And for me too,’ Georgia agreed shyly. ‘But if you love me,’ she asked him, ‘then why didn’t you say so...when...?’ She paused, drawing a very careful little design on his shirt-front with her fingernail, unable to look into his eyes just in case she had got it wrong after all and this was simply a cruel joke he was playing on her, a punishment he was inflicting on her.

‘I tried to,’ Piers told her simply. ‘But every time I did you seemed to want to change the subject, and I thought it was because you didn’t share my feelings.’

‘No.
I
thought you were going to warn me off, to tell me that it was just sex, and say that I mustn’t fall in love with you.
That’s
why I stopped you. I knew it was already too late for me! I wouldn’t have done the things I did...been so...so intimate with you if I hadn’t loved you,’ she told him, pink-cheeked. ‘It’s not... I’m not...’

‘No, I did wonder about that,’ Piers agreed. ‘But to my mind there’s no shame for a woman in physically wanting a man without being able to love him.’

‘So you thought I felt lust and not love?’ she asked him ruefully. ‘What would we have done if I hadn’t come round here today?’ she added shakily. ‘We could have—’

‘No.’ He stopped her. ‘No. I hadn’t given up... I’ve taught Ben to limp. It would have taken a good many visits to the surgery before you cottoned on to the fact that there was nothing wrong with his paw—or so I hoped!’

‘Oh, Piers,’ Georgia laughed. ‘You
wouldn’t
have...’

‘Don’t bank on it. The way I feel about you is—’

‘Mmm...?’ Georgia interrupted him, an invitingly husky note in her voice as she looped her arms around his neck and lifted her face towards him. ‘The way you feel about me is...?’

* * *

Human beings did the oddest things, Ben reflected. His two were still upstairs in bed despite the fact that he should have had his dinner two hours ago, and not even a discreet bark outside the bedroom door had alerted them to their negligence... Never mind, there
were
home-made sausages in the fridge...!

EPILOGUE

‘O
H
,
JUST
look at the dog; isn’t he gorgeous...?’

Ben wriggled appreciatively as he heard the onlooker’s praise. Personally he thought it a little undignified, a little infra dig, so to speak, to be carrying a basket of flowers, but
they
had insisted. They had even made him carry one up and down the driveway for weeks on end, just to make sure he knew what he was doing.

A basket of flowers...and here they were now, coming out of the church with everyone throwing rose petals at them.

Obligingly Ben went over to have his photograph taken with the bride and groom and their families...still carefully carrying his basket.

* * *

‘Ben did marvellously well with the flowers, didn’t he?’ Georgia sighed happily to her new husband as the wedding car pulled away from the church.

‘He did indeed,’ Piers agreed.

‘You’re so clever to teach him to carry the basket,’ Georgia giggled.

‘Mmm... I think he got more oohs and aahs than we did,’ Piers said wryly, ‘which isn’t very fair when you think that this is
our
special big day. He had his last month, when he was presented with his Brave Dog of the Year award.’

Georgia laughed reminiscently.

‘He certainly enjoyed that, didn’t he? He posed for the photographs like a real pro. I’m glad your godmother offered to look after him for us whilst we’re on honeymoon; I wouldn’t have wanted to put him in kennels.’

‘Mmm... Let’s hope the colonel’s cat shares your feelings. Marmalade is rather elderly, and Ben, as you keep reminding me, is still a young dog. Now what does
that
look mean?’ Piers quizzed her as he saw the soft, dreamy look darkening his new wife’s eyes.

‘I was just thinking that in a year or so’s time Ben is going to be the perfect age to be around babies...’

‘Babies?’ Piers leaned closer to her. ‘I see! Are we talking, I wonder, about
his
babies...or our own...?’

Laughter dimpled the smile Georgia gave him as she told him teasingly, ‘Who knows? Maybe both.’

‘Hmm... I see. Well,
we’d
better not waste any time, then, had we?’ Piers murmured as he bent his head over and kissed her.

‘Oh, I don’t know...I don’t mind if we have to practise a few times first,’ Georgia told him blissfully as she snuggled into his arms.

As the wedding car pulled up at the hotel where they were to have their wedding reception, Piers told her softly, ‘Oh, I thought we’d spent the last few months doing just that—and, so far as I’m concerned, no amount of practice can make things between us any more perfect than they are right now. I love you, Mrs Hathersage.’

‘And I love you too,’ Georgia whispered back.

* * *

In the back of Mrs Latham’s Volvo Ben was happily demolishing the treat that the bridegroom had slipped him just before he’d got into the wedding car with his new bride.

Home-made sausages... Ben loved them—almost as much as handmade shoes... Mmm...!

* * * * *