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‘Anyway, I don’t want to breach her confidence,’ Ned said, moving away from the counter. ‘I’ve probably said too much already. Thanks for the advice about the cave. I’ll bear it in mind.’

‘You’re welcome,’ Arlo managed and got up to see Ned out.

Ned nodded and sauntered off down the path towards his car. Closing the door on him, Arlo couldn’t think of any guest who had been less welcome.

Ned left and Arlo returned to the table, reopening the laptop and entering some search terms into Google. Scrolling past Katie’s website, Amazon page and social media, he found what he’d been looking for: a news report on the inside pages of one of the tabloids dated 27 December the previous year.

RACY ROMANCE WRITER SAVES CHILD IN HORROR TRAIN CRASH

A bestselling romance author has been named ‘the heroine of Tring Junction’ by risking her life in the tragic train crash.

Katie Quillam, famous for the steamy sex scenes in her books, went back into a burning train carriage to rescue a mum and her six-year-old daughter.

Arlo swore, making Pongo look at him in disgust.

The racy romance author, 33, could have escaped from the carriage but went back to the area and found the little girl and her injured mother trapped under a collapsed luggage shelf. Ms Quillam helped to free the child and then helped her and her mother to safety when a fire started in a galley after the derailment.

Ms Quillam was thrown across the carriage by the blast and sustained several fractures. With the fire blazing, she managed to crawl towards the train door where fire crew carried her to safety.

The mother of the child, who doesn’t want to be named, said:

‘That lady is a true hero. Without her help, me and my daughter might have been trapped for hours, or worse, could have died in a fire. I heard she’d been badly injured and I can never thank her enough for risking her own life to help us.’

Ms Quillam remains in Tring General and her agency and publisher declined to comment. Her next book, Hold Me Closer, is due to be published in June next year. Her boyfriend, The Last Vampire star and screenwriter, Ned Zanetti, has also declined to comment.

He sat back in his chair, stunned. He’d heard of the crash at the time but he hadn’t registered that Katie had acted so heroically. Other Google searches revealed no comments from her, although there were several photos, all taken from her book jackets. She looked different now, Arlo thought. Just as beautiful but inevitably a little older and, beneath the smiling face, there was something melancholy.

Or was he imagining it?

Arlo’s heart went out to her. He wanted to hold her in his arms and comfort her, soothe her, keep her safe – a feeling that kept happening more and more.

No wonder she didn’t want to give interviews to the press if they focused on the steamy side of her books, if it was even true. Arlo hadn’t read one so he didn’t know. He didn’t want to know. It felt wrong when he’d got so close to a steamy encounter with her in real life.

He swallowed. Ned had clearly decided that Arlo was a threat to him. Having almost slept with Katie, Arlo thought Ned could be right, except for the fact that neither Arlo nor Katie had any intention of repeating the mistake.

No matter how much Arlo wanted to.

‘Shit.’ With a groan, Arlo closed the laptop and got up, pacing the kitchen.

How had he let himself become entangled in such a complicated situation? Despite what Katie had told him, he had a sneaking feeling that there was more unfinished business between them than she had let on.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

With a combination of cajoling and bullying, Katie managed to hustle everyone out of the house and to the jetty by ten to ten. Just as she was about to shut the front door, a call came through from her sister.

‘Oh, sorry, I have to take this! It’s Lou and she might not get another chance to call me. Promise I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

Katie chatted to Lou for a while and enjoyed the glorious sight and sound of her twin nieces crying lustily. Her parents could be heard in the background, along with her brother-in-law.

The call was short as Lou had to break off. ‘Hold on.’ Katie heard the anxious sound of her dad’s voice from a distance and then Lou said, ‘They need feeding again. Or changing. Or both. I’ll call again when I can. Love you!’

‘Love you back!’ Katie said, blowing kisses as the screen went blank.

The call gave her a warm glow that kept her going all the way to the jetty, despite the raw, damp edge to the air. She wanted to skip she was so thrilled about being an aunt but managed to restrain herself. Finding out that Lou was pregnant had helped to keep her going at low points during her recovery. Lying in that wreckage, she’d briefly wondered if she’d ever see her sister again.

Everyone had eventually settled on Love Actually and with the help of Athene’s Poinsettia cocktails, they had had a relaxing evening. They’d also made a shopping list of food from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, and Katie had another few bits she needed to get.

It occurred to her that the previous year, Ned had bought her a painting of a Cornish fishing village where they’d once spent a very steamy break and she’d managed to book a box at a production of an Ibsen play from her sick bed.