Luke sighed. ‘Come on. I’ll take you back to mine.’
While Luke didn’t shout any more, Hattie was aware that he was angry, although she wasn’t 100 per cent sure who with. The dogs sensed it too as they went to their beds straight away, without being asked.
Although to be fair, thought Hattie, as she perched on the edge of Luke’s sofa, not daring to let herself sink back into its feather-filled embrace, he was being the perfect host.
‘I think we need hot chocolate,’ he announced. ‘With a shot of brandy in it.’ He looked at Hattie. ‘Unless you’d prefer tea?’
‘Hot chocolate sounds lovely.’
‘I’ll just get the fire going first,’ he said, setting light to the paper and kindling that was already in the wood burner.
By the time he came back into the room with mugs and a bottle, the dogs had migrated from their beds to the sofa next to Hattie. Luke rolled his eyes but didn’t comment.
He handed Hattie a mug. ‘So, tell me what’s going on?’
Hattie told him as briefly as she could.
‘Why didn’t you come here instead of camping out like a squatter?’ he asked when she had finished. ‘You’ve got a key.’
‘I couldn’t find it.’ This was true, but she had other reasons for not calling on Luke for help.
‘You could have rung me.’
‘Luke! I’m a grown woman – perfectly capable of sorting out her own problems.’
Luke snorted in disbelief. ‘Yeah, right.’
Hattie knew she was on shaky ground. She had patently not sorted anything out. ‘You weren’t here. You were… snagging or something! Or back in Cornwall. I didn’t know! I couldn’t expect you to come back and sort out my mess for me. The idea is ridiculous!’
‘I’d have come up. Like I just have. You should have known I’d do that.’
‘I couldn’t assume that.’
‘You could assume that.’
‘But why?’
‘Because you know I’d do anything for you.’ He looked at her in a way that made her stomach flip.
‘Now, finish your hot chocolate,’ he went on briskly. ‘I’ve got an early start in the morning. But I want you to stay here until things are properly sorted out.’
Hattie nodded meekly, aware she was in the wrong, but not absolutely sure why.
‘The bed is made up,’ said Luke, taking her to the spare room. The room, which previously had been full of Luke’s tools and other things, was now a comfortable space with nothing extraneous in it.
‘This looks very inviting – when did you have the time to do this?’ said Hattie.
But Luke didn’t answer her question. ‘Please stay as long as you need to, Hattie. I want you to.’
Hattie felt the tension leave her. She didn’t need him to fix her problems, but he had scooped her up and looked after her and she had perhaps needed a little of that. Climbing between the soft sheets, she felt safe for the first time for a little while.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Hattie slept deeply, appreciating the good mattress and the lovely bed linen. Did Luke always have bed linen like this? she wondered. Or was it a new thing? Then she remembered he’d bought it recently.
Although she would never have admitted it, even to herself, Hattie was disappointed to have missed Luke that morning. There was a note and a key on the kitchen table. ‘Sorry I had to go before you were up. Please help yourself to anything you can find and stay here as long as you like. Luke’.
There was no kiss, but she shouldn’t have been surprised. Luke wasn’t the sort of person to put kisses on notes. Hattie had been known to add an X to notes to delivery men telling them where to leave a parcel.
