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‘Exactly.’ He kissed her again, before breaking away, a wide grin on his face. ‘And this one comes with breakfast in bed.’

46

While Duncan disappeared into the kitchen, Bex was joined by his giant Maine Coon, who immediately began nuzzling her head into her, demanding fuss.

‘I’m sorry I took him from you last night,’ Bex said as she stroked the cat. Several times over the course of the night Bex had heard things clattering in the living room. Duncan had told her before that Kenna’s response to being annoyed was to knock things off the shelves, and judging from the sounds, he hadn’t been joking. At least once, it sounded like something had broken, but she’d have had to get out of bed to go and check, and that wasn’t something she was planning on doing. ‘I know how much you love him, but you don’t mind sharing him for a little bit, do you?’

The cat’s purring intensified.

‘He’s really great, isn’t he? I mean, you already know that, but I’m going to tell you something now, and you have to keep it a secret, right?’

Kenna continued demanding more attention, clearly not that bothered by Bex’s secret as long as she was still getting her fuss, but Bex carried on talking.

‘I’m really scared I’m going to break his heart. I don’t want to. I really don’t want to, but his life is up here and mine is down in London, and I know the best thing to do would be to put this down to a mistake, but I’m not sure I can do that. Is that wrong of me? To want to be with him, even though I’m pretty sure I’m going to hurt him?’

‘Everything all right in here?’

Duncan’s head appeared in the doorway, causing Bex’s pulse to spike, although she was immediately distracted by the large mixing bowl in his hand.

‘You’re cooking?’ Bex asked, praying he hadn’t heard what she’d said to his cat, but by the way he was sporting that casual grin of his, she was pretty sure he hadn’t.

‘Just drop scones. Pancakes. I’ve put some bacon in. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until the castle to get your decent coffee, though. I’ve just got instant here.’

‘Well, that’s something we’re going to have to rectify if I’m going to stay here again.’

‘Oh, is it?’ he said, walking into the room and leaning down to kiss her.

‘It is. In fact, lack of decent coffee might be the reason I have to call this whole thing off.’

With a deep laugh, he stood back upright, shaking his head as he continued to whisk his mixture.

‘In that case, a coffee machine has just gone to the top of my shopping list.’

As he turned to leave, Bex was about to say that perhaps this time she should be the one to buy the coffee machine, given that he’d already bought one for her. But before she could get a word out, there was a knock at the door.

Her pulse shot up for a second time.

‘Who’s that?’ she asked. ‘Are you expecting anyone?’

A vision of Lorna outside and full of rage shot through Bex’s mind. Had she heard she was here? Or maybe it was Fergus, horrified by her inappropriate behaviour. Perhaps he had already rung Nigel at the office and told him that instead of staying up in the castle and working like she was meant to be, she was sleeping with the groundskeeper. That would be the end of her career, for sure. Yet despite her panic, Duncan looked completely calm.

‘It’ll just be Roddy or Horace,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get rid of them.’

With Bex’s pulse still struggling to recover, Duncan walked out of the bedroom. A moment later, she heard the front door open.

‘What the hell do you want?’

Duncan’s voice caused a corkscrew of confusion to rip through Bex. She had never heard Duncan speak like that to anyone and given the mood he had been in only seconds ago, she couldn’t imagine who the hell would warrant that kind of reaction. And then, all of a sudden, she could.

‘Please, I just want to talk.’ The response came from a woman’s voice. Katty.

‘This is not a good time.’

‘I need to talk to you,’ Katty pleaded, her voice desperate.

Bex was out of the bed now, creeping towards the door, desperate to hear every word that was being said.

‘I have nothing to say to you,’ Duncan replied. His voice was less sharp than it had been, but there was still an edge to it. ‘Whatever you want, I’m not the person to help you with it any more. I’m not yours any more, Katty. You need to leave.’