Page 140 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

Amy screamed and spun around, fists raised, to face the owner of the voice, who seemed to materialise out of the undergrowth, a dark, sinister shadow looming over her.

Then the darkness was broken by a powerful beam of light that made her blink, and the dark figure took form and shape.

Feeling stupid, she hit out with a querulous, ‘What are you doing? You gave me the fright of my life!’

‘What amIdoing?’ he barked.

‘Get that thing out of my eyes!’

Not just out of her eyes but out of the way full stop, and the darkness descended again. Other senses compensated when you couldn’t see. And her well-developed sense of smell was busy compensating. Amy tried and failed not to breathe in the clean male scent Leo exuded.

The dark was dangerous, but the danger that lurked in the shadows wasn’t ghouls or ghosts. People did things in the dark that they wouldn’t do in daylight; it freed up inhibitions, not that she’d ever had any of those where Leo was concerned.

‘Can we skip the part where you work yourself up into a foot-stamping temper tantrum, because it isn’t going to alter the fact you are in the wrong. I explained that this area was off-limits at night until the electricity supply is—’

She made a scornful noise in her throat. ‘There is no light issue; the place is lit up like a Christmas tree.’ She was making a pointy-fingered gesture to the brightly lit castle when the lights went out, along with the moon.

‘You were saying?’ drawled the dark shadow.

‘Someone switched off the lights.’

She could hear the hissing sound of exasperation escape his lips. ‘It is automated, our contribution to the elimination of light pollution.’

‘But you are almost self-sustaining; the hydro and—’

‘My, you have been busy educating yourself. Light pollution isn’t just about energy; it’s about the adverse effects on the natural environment—animals, birds, insects.’

‘Oh, well, I wasn’t in the dark. I have my phone.’

He gave a disgusted snort. ‘You call that a torch?’ He waved a high beam light in her face again, and it was an assault on her retinas.

‘Stop that!’ she squealed, covering her face and turning away. ‘Now look what you’ve made me do,’ she added as the contents of her bag spilled out. She dropped down to her knees.

Leo retrieved the paperback that had fallen under some foliage, glanced at the title by torchlight and dropped it into the open bag. ‘So you like happy ever afters,’ he observed, sounding amused. ‘And it’s a clever trick, reading in the dark.’

‘It wasn’t dark when I left the castle,’ she retorted. ‘I fell asleep in the daytime and when I woke up it was night.’ She shrugged and reached out for something to retain her balance as she rose to her feet and realised it was the stone seat of the gazebo erected in his mother’s memory. Her eyes flew to his face. ‘Oh, you were…’ She traced the engraved name with a finger and felt her throat thicken with emotion. ‘I disturbed you, I’m sorry,’ she said softly.

‘Disturbed me?’

His tone sounded strange, and his face, just a blur in the dark, gave no added information.

‘Come on, I’ll see you back up to your room.’

‘Oh, no, I’m fine. I’ll…’

‘For once in your life, don’t argue!’

‘All right, all right, there’s no need to bellow.’

Above her head he swore, and after a pause she followed the uneven path ahead, which was lit by his powerful torch.

‘We were not all Boy Scouts,’ she grumbled.

He laughed. ‘I wasn’t a Boy Scout either. I have never been a team player. Though the local gang took quite a lot of convincing of that fact.’

‘Gang?’

‘Young men are pack animals, and I wasn’t raised in a leafy suburb.’