Safely tucked up in an almost-warm bed later, I messaged Jack and told him about the Talbots I’d met. Having had a chance to think about the visit to Chris and June, I’d decided not to mention the strange relationship between them and Archer. I didn’t have anything concrete to tell him, and it felt like gossiping about Archer behind his back.
With that decision made, I didn’t have much to pass on except a string of names, but I wanted to talk to Jack. At the end of my first full day here, I wasn’t sure how the next three months were going to go.
Archer’s anger earlier when he’d heard about Nick had been scary. It had also turned me on like nothing I’d known. It made no sense for me to have reacted like that because I didn’t like getting in trouble. Getting in trouble with Archer Talbot was, apparently, a different matter.
I was still grappling with understanding him. He’d shown a slightly softer side a couple of times, but tonight, he’d been uncompromising in correcting Mia. I knew how it felt to befound wanting, although in my case it was usually my parents who told me off. I always fell short of whatever undefined goal I was supposed to be reaching.
Time to distract myself.
I swear, I feel like Jane Eyre, I sent to Jack.Remember, we had to read it for A level? Well, I’m the poor governess who’s come to a huge old house full of secrets—I haven’t found the attic yet but they have a priest hole and a dungeon—and it’s all ruled over by stern, dark, brooding Mr Rochester. Who Jane Eyre ended up marrying, if I remembered rightly. And for the first time, I felt a bit sorry for her. Rochester had been hot as hell, but overbearing, autocratic, and anything but easy company. Or was that Archer I was thinking about?
Don’t go starting any fires and blinding your host,Jack said. And please, Ollie, don’t bang him, even if he is tall, dark and brooding.
I know why I’m here. I’ll behave.
And I really, really intended to.
Chapter Fourteen
OLLIE
“Are you screwing my brother?” Tim’s eyes were hot as he glared at me.
I bit back the ferventI wishthat came to my lips. “No,” I said cautiously, taking an unobtrusive step backwards. I’d come out to the kitchen garden, looking forward to helping Tim again, but he was once more the hostile dragon I’d met on my first night here.
“So why’s he buying you whatever you want?”
“He’s not?” As Tim’s brows drew down, I remembered Archer’s offer. “This whole thing is supposed to be about getting on better with other families so he was making me welcome by offering. He knows I haven’t got much with me after the way my visit happened, but I have no intention of accepting his offer.”
Tim’s frown disappeared at that. Perhaps it wasn’t onlythe offer that had upset him but also the idea of family money being spent on me.
“These”—I indicated my new jeans that made my arse lookfabulous—“were paid for by my own head of family.” Might as well hammer home the point. “Though I hope he doesn’t want them back when I go home because they’d never fit him.”
The last bit of anger faded from Tim’s face, and the friendly dragon of yesterday was back. “I’ll show you how I train the fruit trees if you want,” he offered.
I wasn’t much of a gardener, but I knew an olive branch when I saw one.
We worked together again, and as the morning crept towards lunchtime, I decided it was safe to do a bit of digging.After all, I wasn’t the one who’d opened the subject of Archer’s love life. Sex life. Whatever.
“Why did you think I might be banging Archer?”
Tim stilled where he was squatting down, tying a young plant to a cane. “You’ve probably realised we don’t have any money, despite the house,” he said at last. “If I ask him for anything, he always says we can’t afford it. Yet he was offering to get you whatever you wanted, like he’d do anything to keep you happy. And he treats you differently.”
He did? My heart leapt. “What do you mean, differently?”
“Nothing,” Tim said, and stood, groaning as he straightened. “I’ve had enough of this. Let’s go and find lunch.”
That was evidently all I was going to get out of him. But a tiny, flickering flame of hope had been lit inside me. Tim’s question meant that Archer obviously wasn’t completely straight. He’d said he was going to take me flying tomorrow night. I hoped it would be just the two of us again, and maybe—maybe something would happen.
I was still lost in improbable dreams of Archer pushing me against the nearest surface to do whatever he wanted to me when we reached the kitchen. Mia looked up from the pasta she was draining. “Brilliant timing. Can you set the table while I take Archer his lunch?”
“I could take it,” I offered before I knew I was going to say it. Aware of the two Talbots looking at me, Tim assessingly and Mia with a laugh in her eyes, I shrugged. “I mean, if it would help.”
“Do you even know where he is?” Mia plated the pasta and poured sauce over the top.
“If you show me, I’ll know for the future.” Because, much as I liked Mia and Tim, it was Archer I wanted to spend time with.
After messaging Jack last night, I’d thought about Archer some more. I’d enjoyed watching him yesterday afternoon as hepersuaded, informed and, in his own intimidating way, charmed his family. I’d seen the strain in him at June and Chris’s house. Belatedly, I’d realised how badly Mia’s jokes would have landed with someone like Mr Shaw. He’d have been furious with Mia and would have judged Archer for not keeping her respectful, so I understood why Archer had ticked her off. I’d never thought what it must be like to be head of a family with responsibility foreverything, but I was beginning to realise it seemed like a demanding, thankless task.
