Summers away from boarding school were the worst. At least he had friends there. On the estate, he only had the household staff to keep him company, though his older half- brother, John, stayed at the residence whenever he was home on leave.
At his father’s insistence and to fill the void, Clay had started riding. It was considered the thing to do among his dad’s wealthy friends. By the time he was nine years old, he’d discovered he was good at it. By twelve, he was consistently winning.
It wasn’t until he reached his teens that Avery began to notice. Clay’s good looks coupled with his championship wins had women following him everywhere, women of every age, shape and size. Avery was quick to catch on. More and more, Clay’s father traveled with him, lavishing him with attention and praise.
For the first time in his life, Clay felt wanted and loved. It drove him to even higher levels of achievement.
Now he was thirty-one. Was Avery Whitfield’s love and approval still so important? Clay tried to ignore the tiny voice that answered,yes.
Forcing his hands to relax on the steering wheel of the rented Mercedes, Clay glanced across at Ellie. As he could have guessed, she was staring out the window, smiling, enthralled with whatever she saw. Dawn was just breaking, lighting the horizon with a soft golden glow.
“Pretty, isn’t it?”
She smiled. “Beautiful.” They passed vast stretches of yellow flowers, then red, then orange. Farmers worked in the patchwork of color, and water sparkled along the rows like strings of jewels.
“I wonder what happened to the windmills,” Ellie said. “I always thought there’d be windmills.”
“A few are left, not many. Civilization has a way of swallowing up the past.”
“That’s true, I guess. But it gives us things, too. Sometimes unbelievably precious gifts.”
“Like what?”
“Medical advances. Improvements in technology that can change people’s lives.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“And air travel,” she added. “Visiting places in the world we’d never be able to see. And there’s the quality of life and—“
“I get the picture. I guess I’ve just grown so cynical I take those things for granted.”
She smiled at him in that warm way that made something expand in his chest. “I believe you have,” she said, “and it’s time for that to change.”
Clay smiled back at her. “You’re a treasure, Ellie, an absolute jewel.”
They spent the early morning hours touring the flower market. Under a huge metal roof, millions of flowers from all over the world were auctioned off every day. On the wall above the bidding floor, giant gauges showed the price of each block of flowers in different types of currency and the amount of the highest bid. Another showed the quantity.
“It’s fascinating. The flowers are so beautiful. Each one almost perfect.”
“I thought you’d enjoy this. Besides, what else is there to do at five o’clock in the morning?”
She laughed. They left the market, breakfasted in an intimate Dutch café, then headed back to the hotel. Once they arrived, Clay opened her car door and helped her out of the vehicle.
Ellie looked up at him. “About last night. I want you to know, I really appreciate what you did. I’m ashamed of the way I handled myself with that man.”
“Ashamed? For the love of God, why would you be ashamed?”
“I should have fought harder. I should have hit him with something, done something. I don’t know...” She sighed. “Then afterward, I couldn’t seem to think straight. I had no idea what to do.”
“That’s nonsense. You fought as hard as you could. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have heard your struggles, and I wouldn’t have known you were in trouble. Afterward, of course you were upset. You went through a terrifying ordeal.”
She smiled at him softly. “Thank you for saying that.”
Clay reached up and gently touched the bruise on her cheek. “You’re welcome,” was all he said.
By the time they arrived upstairs at the hotel, the door to Ellie’s room had been repaired. A note from Jake said he wanted to see her as soon as she got back.
“Flex must have told him,” Ellie said glumly.
