Cass nodded. Shewastired, but it wasn’t this that made her want to stay. Her conversation with Susie the previous evening was still with her. You had to take a few risks – emotional risks, not just those involving hurricanes or sordid hotels and cameras. This was her chance to make love with the man she had been in love with for so long. He didn’t love her in the same way, she was fairly sure of that. But he liked her and cared her about her being safe. He had got into a fight with Austin for her, after all. And he did want her, she could tell. She had made her decision.
The cab took them to a block of serviced apartments. ‘It’s like a hotel,’ Ranulph explained in the lift. ‘But there’s a kitchen and a sitting room. Also a balcony. I always stay here when I’m in London. It’s a different apartment every time I come but this time we have an incredible view over the river.’ He swiped his key card and opened the door.
The room was warm and Cass took off her cardigan as she went to the double glass doors, drawn by the view beyond. There was a balcony with a table and two chairs. They were right over the river.
‘This is possibly the best view in London,’ said Ranulph. ‘Or at least, the view with the most famous landmarks.’
‘Can I go out on to the balcony?’
‘Of course.’ He opened the doors.
‘Wow! You’re right about the landmarks. Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, the London Eye – they’re all here.’
‘And a few others as well. You can see the Shard on a good day. Would you like a drink?’
Cass nodded, feeling she was saying yes to more than a glass of wine.
‘Sit down,’ he said, putting a glass on the little table.
‘This apartment must be terribly expensive!’
She was relieved to hear Ranulph laugh. It was a very naïve statement, something she could think but should not have said. She had never associated Ranulph with money. Besides, she wanted him to think of her as a contemporary, not a teenager who made childish comments.
But Ranulph didn’t seem to mind her frankness. ‘It is, but I don’t come down often and it’s convenient and comfortable.’ He paused. ‘Where I’m going after this isn’t going to be comfortable. And I’m going to be there for a while. I thought I’d enjoy the amenities of a power shower and good sheets while I could.’
‘What’s the assignment? Are you allowed to say?’
‘I don’t know very much about it but it’ll involve a series of articles that one day I may turn into a book.’
‘Great.’ She smiled. ‘And of course there’s the biography of my father.’
He smiled. ‘Yes, that’s the one I really want to do but Howard hasn’t absolutely agreed to let me do it. These articles will pay me now, so that’s what I need to do first.’
To save herself from having to look at him, Cass concentrated on the view. In spite of her firm decision to let the evening go where it led, in the hope that it would lead her into bed, she felt quite shy about it. ‘It really is stunning here, isn’t it?’ She paused. ‘London is so beautiful. It’s absolutely my favourite city. But although I said it was fun earlier, I couldn’t live here.’
He added wine to her glass from the bottle on the table. ‘No?’
‘Not for more than about a week,’ she said. ‘I need countryside. Even where I live now, in the Cotswolds, isn’t really wild enough for me.’ She paused. ‘I think Dominica has spoilt me a bit. It’s so rugged and challenging – although that was probably the hurricane – but I loved the drama of it. This is dramatic’ – she made an expansive gesture – ‘but in a different way.’
‘I do agree with you. I’m always excited to be coming to London but I love going home the best. I need the hills and mountains – the heather even – to keep me grounded. I think it’s because I have all that at home that I can cope with my tougher assignments.’
‘Do you know how long this next assignment will take?’ Cass hoped this just sounded like a general enquiry and not as if she was burning to know when he might be back in the UK again for personal reasons.
‘Months, probably, although you can never tell until you’re there.’
‘It sounds exciting and pretty terrifying.’
He brushed this off. ‘Exciting yes, but you take all the precautions, make sure you know what you have to do, have a good support team on the ground and it’s not terrifying.’ He laughed properly. ‘Although I was terrified the first time I went to this part of Africa. But it’s like it was in Dominica – it was all unknown and a bit nerve-racking to begin with, but we soon found our way around.’
‘True.’ Thinking back, Cass realised it hadn’t been long before she had started to settle into Dominica.
‘Come inside and sit on something more comfortable,’ he said. ‘Unless you’d like to stay on the balcony and go on enjoying the view?’
‘You’re right. These chairs are very attractive to look but, but actually, they’re quite hard.’
She followed Ranulph back inside and sank on to the sofa, kicked off her shoes and found a cushion for the small of her back. ‘This is much better.’
Ranulph sat down next to her.
