Mrs B, whether she understood or not, pointed to the horse cart outside. Millie nearly doubled over. This wasn’t Evans and the nice carriage. This was the delivery cart. It had no seats and was already loaded with huge plastic bin-bags full of grass cuttings and rubbish.
“Excuse me, you don’t understand, I am a lawyer,” Henry said to DuMontfort.
“Oui, oui. Va, va.” Du Montfort dismissed him with a flick of his hand while Joanie turned his wheelchair around and pushed him out of the hall. Henry’s face wasbeet red.
“Come along, young man,” Mrs B said. “When the master doesn’t want someone on his land, it’s best to make a quick exit.” She took his arm and walked him out. “You go with the cart. He’ll drop you off at the ferry terminal. You don’t want to walk in the fields in the sun and get your nice suit all dusty.”
Liam joined her, and between them they pushed Henry up onto the cart between two large recycling bags. The cart rumbled away, taking Henry with it.
Millie went back downstairs to find everyone waiting for her. Ann came over and threw her arms around Millie. “Are you all right,my love?”
Within seconds, Liam, Mrs B and Joanie had all joined in for agroup hug.
“I’m fine. I might die from being squeezed, but otherwise Iam fine.”
They released her but still clustered around her. She was moved beyond words. Even Joanie and her archenemy had dropped their feud and rallied to her defence. She looked up to see Du Montfort in his chair watching her.
“So, this is your ex?” he asked. “No wonder you looked like a grey dishcloth when you came to us.”
Millie walked over to him, bent down and gave him an impulsive hug and a kiss on his cheek. “I love you all so much.So much.”
OceanofPDF.com
FOURTEEN
The next day La Canette Town Hall, Afternoon
She’s off limits.Off limits.It had become a mantra; whenever his mind strayed in forbidden directions, George mouthed the words again.
Staying away from the house helped, because when Millie was in his line of sight, his resolve turned to water. Even locked in this office all the way in the town hall, pen in hand, reading taxation disputes, his eyes kept flicking tothe phone.
He’d never struggled so hard to stop himself from calling a woman. He longed to hear her voice, to ask her out on a date. A proper date. One that would end with—no.No.
He shuthis eyes.
She’s off limits.
Opened them.
She’s off limits.
There had to be a way, a safe way to be with her. Wasn’t there?
Someone knocked on the door. Morris followed by Sweeny. Trouble. Sweeny always used his junior, Morris, as a shield to hide behind when he was up tosomething.
“Can I bother you for a couple of signatures?” Morris sidled up to the desk and placed a stack of files in frontof George.
“These are a bit urgent.” Sweeny added while George scanned the files. “Normally we’d send them to Lord Du Montford for his signature but they can take time…” he left the sentence hanging.
George ignored the implied criticism of his father’s governance of the island. If the slimy accountant was looking for gossip, George wouldn’t encourage him.
“Will you be staying long this time?” Sweeny pushed.
Would he? He’d already stayed longer than usual. There was work stacking up in London waiting for him; surely if he’d wanted to avoid Millie, he should have left severaldays ago!
He reached for his pen and scanned the first file. Land maintenance increase—signed.
What was keeping him here? The sound of her voice, gentle and mellifluous, coming from behind the door of his father’s study?
