chapter Two
“Let’s go.” Allison’s teeth chattered as she huddled against the car, hugging her body while Myra searched her pocket for the key. The black designer suit was poor protection from the cold mist. “Hurry, Mom, hurry. We have to catch that flight back home.”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” Her mother paused with her hand on the door and looked out at her daughter from beneath the brim of her hat. “You’ll be staying at Chance Lodge. I have to go back immediately—the fundraising drive for the new children’s wing at the hospital is at a crucial point—but a family member has to be here for the reading of the will.”
“Me? Stay, at the Lodge—with him?” Allison was sputtering. “No way! I have to get back. My job…”
“Darling, the Shawville Corporation won’t go belly-up simply because you’re absent another day or two. Get your suitcase out of the trunk and go with Heath.” She glanced over her daughter’s shoulder and smiled at the man waiting beside the mud-spattered Jeep.
“If you’ll give me your key, I’ll get your daughter’s luggage, Mrs. Armstrong.” He strode forward.
“All right, all right.” Allison threw up her hands. Taking charge, bullying his way into their lives. Damn the man! “But as soon as the lawyer reads that will, I’ll be on the next plane to T-O. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” Myra handed the key to Heath. As he went to the rear of the car, she embraced her disgruntled daughter. “Thanks, sweetie.”
“I’m not sure how Paul will feel about this arrangement, but safe journey, Mom.” Allison softened at her mother’s imminent departure.
“There you go. You’re doing better already. Take care of my girl, Heath,” Myra continued to the man who had returned, Allison’s oversized suitcase in his hand. “And be forewarned. She recently passed self-defense training with flying colors.”
“Noted.” He handed her the car key. “Safe journey, Mrs. Armstrong.”
“Thank you.” She slid into her car, waved, and drove off, windshield wipers battling the thickening mist.
“Who’s Paul?” he asked as they watched her out of sight.
“Paul Bradley, my sort-of significant other.”
“Sort of? Sounds serious.”
She turned on him and recognized disdain in his expression.
“Don’t!” she snapped.
“Don’t what?”
“Mock me. And don’t think you can take advantage of me now that my mother is gone.”
“Right.” Sarcasm colored the word. “Let’s go.” He headed for his Jeep.
“What about the tractor?” she asked as she stumbled along behind him in his too-large boots.
“The farmer I borrowed it from will pick it up later today. It’s safe. Who’d want to steal the thing?”
For the first time she caught a glimmer of humor in his golden-brown eyes. A smile struggled against her taut lips as they looked at the mud-spattered vehicle and homemade trailer, both scrap-yard ready.
“It did the job.” She followed him to the Jeep and flinched as he flung her suitcase into the back. Apparently Italian craftsmanship meant nothing to him.
“Sure did. Jack would have gotten a whale of a belly laugh out of it.”
He strode to the driver’s side and swung into the seat. Allison slogged around to the passenger side, started to get in, and found herself hobbled by her fitted skirt. No way was it going to allow her to climb into the Jeep without hiking it up higher than she had any intention of doing in his presence.
“What?” he asked, looking over at her as he leaned forward to put the key in the ignition.
“This thing wasn’t built with my skirt in mind.”
“Argh!” He swung out and strode around to her side of the vehicle. Before she could protest, he’d swept her up into his arms.
A shock shot through her as her knees fell over his arm and she felt her back cradled against his shoulder. A murmur of some brand of masculine soap whispered over her senses. The strength beneath her was astounding. His powerful, easy confidence not only astonished her, it made her heart flip.
He paused to look down at her, and the expression in his tawny eyes melted her like snow in a heat wave. Butterflies sprang to life in her solar plexus, and a shock of something hot and magic shot through her body. Handsome, strong, utterly self-assured in a dangerous, untamed way, the man captivated her physically even as her mind fought to reject him. She now understood Candace Breckenridge’s “delicious” and “wild-woods-hero” adjectives. As she looked up into the ruggedly handsome face, her lips parted.
“No.” His response crashed over her like a bucket of ice water as he swung her into the Jeep and plunked her down in the passenger seat. Damn and double damn. He guessed what I was feeling, what he did to me. And worst of all, I’m blushing.
He strode back to the driver’s side and swung into place.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?” Allison avoided looking at him as she snapped the dirty belt into place across her damp suit jacket. “Surely you can’t be vain enough to think…”
“Look, Ms. Armstrong, I’ve been propositioned by enough rich city women over the years to recognize a ‘take me’ invitation when I see one.” He leaned forward to turn the key in the ignition, annoyance in his words and tense body movements.
As the engine roared into action, he gathered up his own seatbelt and snapped it into place. He glanced over at her, contempt flashing from eyes fierce with anger as he shifted into drive.
Allison glared a death threat in his direction as the old vehicle lurched to life. She’d never been so insulted in her life. He may have discovered soap and deodorant, but his manners were still those of a hoodlum fresh out of a concrete jungle. How could he possibly imagine that she, Allison Armstrong, daughter of one of Canada’s leading neurosurgeons and CFO of a major Canadian corporation, would be interested in him? She worked out at her Toronto gym three mornings a week. His wasn’t the first hard body she’d seen.
But it was the earthiest, the most naturally virile, an annoying thought nagged.
She glanced over at him. He did personify a romantic savage, with just the right amount of polish to be a female fantasy come to life, a genuine thrill for the neglected wives of wealthy men.
A vision of Heath with Candace Breckenridge flashed across her mind. Damn. She flicked it away like an unacceptable TV channel. Fixing her gaze on the road ahead, she remained silent.
A half hour later when they turned into the lane that led to the Lodge, a gasp escaped her lips. Although it had been years since Allison had visited her grandfather’s wilderness retreat, the joy and sense of expectation she’d always experienced on returning resurfaced in a flash.
Over two miles long, the private road was a tunnel hewn out of the branches of an ancient forest of birch, pine, spruce, cedar, and maple. Jack Adams had believed in destroying as little of the natural environment as possible. When he’d established the Lodge, over forty years earlier, he’d uprooted as few trees as possible in making a road to the river. The rest he’d left to grow into a living canopy.
In the mist, diamond-like droplets decorated the needles and awakening leaves that formed this living tunnel. Every tree and shrub glistened in soft green expectation of a new beginning. The air held the fresh rain scent only a place far from pollution can offer.
It’s like entering an enchanted forest. I remember thinking you could find every living shade of green here.
When a doe and her spotted fawn appeared in front of them, their beauty made her breath catch in her throat. The doe’s alert body was a reddish amber, she and her spotted, wide-eyed baby the epitome of pristine innocence.
Heath eased to a stop and turned off the motor.
“They’re gorgeous!” Allison breathed.
“Just a bit of what your grandfather was trying to protect.”
She glanced over at him and saw the taut planes of his face relax and soften as he leaned forward to watch the pair, his arms crossed on top of the steering wheel.
“I read a book entitled Green Mansions when I was a child,” she breathed. “Although it was set in Venezuela, it told the story of an unspoiled wilderness a lot like this.”
“And of a wild bird girl named Rima, who lived there in harmony with nature.”
“You’ve read it?” Her eyes widened.
“I’m not illiterate.” He leaned back in the seat to turn the key in the ignition, the hardness returning to his face.
The doe and her fawn, startled by the sound, snapped alert and bounded into the greenery.
“I never said—” she tried to protest, but he cut her short as he shifted into drive.
“Look, I’m not any happier about this arrangement than you are.” He pressed the accelerator hard and swung the Jeep around a mud-slick curve with a ferocity that made Allison clutch her seat. “Once the will is read, I will gladly see you onto the next flight to Toronto. But for now, let’s declare a truce. I don’t have the time or energy to keep sparring with you.” He slowed the Jeep and shot her a sideways glance, one eyebrow raised.
He was right. Keeping up a verbal battle neither of them appeared destined to win was pointless. Allison eased her fingernails out of the cracked upholstery, met his look, and nodded. “Truce.”
When the Jeep jolted into the Lodge grounds, her breath caught in her throat. Again, she’d forgotten how wonderful it was.
Surrounded by manicured lawns luminously green in the fog, the rambling single-story log structure with its full-length front veranda faced the North Passage River. Behind it were two other log structures—the caretaker’s small cottage, where she suspected Heath now lived, and a large barnlike building that served as a storage shed and housed the generator that provided power for the Lodge.
The estate’s only other structure, the boathouse where her grandfather had died, was farther down river, hidden in the trees. The remembrance of the place sent a shiver coursing up her spine. Get over it. Just get over it. To quell her memories, she returned her attention to the Lodge.
A wide fieldstone chimney rose from the ground to beyond the peak of the roof on the end facing the driveway. A wave of nostalgia engulfed her. The last night she’d spent with her grandfather in the Lodge had been before a blazing fire on the hearth that chimney vented. They had listened to rain bucketing down on the roof, and he’d told her stories about the birds and plants and animals that were at home in his bit of wilderness. He’d explained he named the area the Chance because it offered people a chance to enjoy all that was good and beautiful in the wilderness, and, as her mother had said, the chance to find themselves, their purpose in life.
She’d only half listened, her thoughts on the events of the previous evening, down at the boathouse, and the creature who’d torn up all her romantic dreams and trampled them into the mud.
God, how I loathe Heath Oakes.
Allison brought her reminiscences up short. Reminiscences she couldn’t afford to harbor, not if she wanted to make a clean break from the place.
Heath braked the Jeep at the rear entrance and got out. While he was retrieving her suitcase, Allison scrambled to release her seatbelt, swing her legs out over the side, and slip to the ground, her skirt riding up her thighs. By the time he joined her, she’d managed to pull it back into place and stood waiting for him as intact as she could be, her once-fashionable suit soaking up mist like a sponge.
“Come on.” He hefted her luggage and headed up the steps. “Let’s get inside.”
Allison took a moment to look around the grounds and spotted a gleaming new Cherokee parked at the rear of the house.
“Visitors?” she asked.
“Belongs to the Lodge.” He paused to look back at her.
“Then you didn’t have to bring that thing,” she jerked a finger back at the old Jeep behind them.
“No. Just wanted to. Thought Jack would appreciate the gesture. Come on, let’s get inside.”
****
They stood in the kitchen she remembered so well. Nothing much had changed. The long room, with its lengths of spotless counters and cupboards, its built-in range tops and wall ovens, rows of gleaming pots and pans hanging above them, still had double refrigerator-freezers and a pair of dishwashers. Best of all, everything sparkled from cleaning and maintenance. Mrs. Oakes must be all her grandfather had bragged her up to be.
The kitchen, like the rest of the lodge, was paneled in knotty pine that complemented the long, wide planks of its birch flooring. A row of windows above the stoves and double sink offered an excellent view of the manicured lawns and carefully pruned forest at the back of the Lodge. Jack Adams had spared no expense to make the room convenient and pleasant. He’d always declared a contented cook was a good cook and his guests deserved no less.
While she’d been taking in her surroundings, Heath had put down her suitcase and removed his work boots. Now he straightened up.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll show you to your room. You should get out of those wet clothes and into a hot shower.”
The suggestion sounded like an offer of heaven. She stepped out of the boots that had shredded the feet and ankles of her pantyhose and followed him through the long dining room, trying not to hobble.
Blisters. Blisters so big I have blisters on them.
The room had remained furnished with a long, antique mahogany dining table, matching chairs, and a beautiful handcarved sideboard that served as a buffet table. A series of gleaming hot trays, now cold and empty, graced its top. China cabinets along the back wall stood filled with dishes adorned with wildlife motifs Jack and Maud had had especially made for the Lodge. Several garden doors forming most of the front wall offered an unobstructed view of the river. Everything reflected the same measure of care as the kitchen.
Heath led her down the familiar corridor at the back of the dining room. Six guest rooms with full baths opened from each side. At the end, behind a closed door, was her grandparents’ private suite.
Allison paused and stared at it until she realized Heath had opened the door of the first guest room and was waiting for her to precede him inside.
“I was thinking…”
“About Jack,” he said, putting her suitcase down at the foot of the bed.
“And Gram,” she replied gazing around the room. Little had changed. Like all the guest rooms she remembered, it exuded warmth and cozy comfort. The old-fashioned bedroom suite, with its wide dresser and mirror, quilt-covered sleigh bed, and maple rocking chair, made it homey and welcoming. She ran her hand over the rolled wood of the bed’s footboard, a faint smile on her lips. “Gram loved this house, every inch of it.”
“What about you?” Heath watched her from the doorway.
“I never stayed long enough to form an attachment.” She snapped back the lie. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get out of these wet clothes.”
“You’ll find a guest robe in the bath, miss.” He swept her a mocking bow and backed out, closing the door with catlike quiet behind him.
Damn him. Trying to make me uncomfortable. Allison strode into the bathroom, unbuttoning her suit jacket with a violence that all but ripped the hand-covered buttons from its front. Sarcastic bastard! That truce is straining at the bit already.
Fifteen minutes later, she padded barefoot into the bedroom. Swathed in one of the Lodge’s white terry robes, her freshly shampooed hair blown dry, she felt much better, much more ready to cope with the barbarian whom her grandfather had made his foreman.
“Slippers, I need slippers.” She rummaged though the suitcase he’d thrown onto the bed. Only when she’d found a pair and was bending to put them on did she notice that the black suit she’d worn earlier, that she’d left draped over a chair, was gone.
Mrs. Oakes. That’s it. She came into my room and took my suit out to dry. I hope she’s not a meddler who sticks her nose into my business. I don’t need that kind of nuisance. Her son is bad enough. Wonder where she was when we arrived, why she didn’t come out to meet us? And why wasn’t she at the funeral? After all Gramps did for her and her despicable child, it was the least she could have done. Until that moment she’d been too involved with other thoughts to wonder about the housekeeper.
As she passed through the dining room and glanced outside toward the river, she noticed fog still lay wrapped over the landscape. Although the Lodge was warm and she could hear the crackle of a wood fire from the living room hearth, she shivered. Thank goodness Mrs. Oakes was on the premises. Being alone under such eerie conditions with the last man to see her grandfather alive would not be a heartening prospect. She pushed her way through the swinging door into the kitchen. Heath stood at the stove. He was stirring the contents of a pot.
“Where’s your mother?”
“Took you long enough to ask.” He kept his attention on his task.
“It’s been an unusual day. I had other things on my mind. I assumed she was here at the Lodge taking care of things while you helped bury Gramps. So where is she?”
“England.” Concentrating on what he was cooking, he didn’t turn to face her.
“England! Good lord, what is she doing in England?” Drop a bombshell or what!
“My grandmother was a war bride. My mother always wanted to trace her roots over there. The trip was a gift from Jack…just before he died.”
“You mean we’re alone here? No guests, no housekeeper?” Can this day get any more insane?
“That’s right.” He lifted a steaming spoonful from the pot and held it up to cool.
“This is incredible.” Allison threw up her arms dismay. “My mother will be furious when she finds out.”
“She knows.” He tasted from the spoon, dropped it into the sink, and faced her.
“What? No way! Why would she allow me to come here, knowing…?”
“I think she considers us both mature, responsible adults.” He shrugged and leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms on his chest. “And you do have that self-defense course.”
“Don’t tempt me.” She clutched the shawl collar of her robe to her throat. “I’m going to call her right now and let her know the situation, because I think you’re lying.”
“You’ll have to go to town to do that.” His lips quirked. “We didn’t have a telephone when you were here years ago, and we still don’t. Jack always figured having one would only be an unnecessary intrusion. And cells don’t work up here because of our location between the mountains.”
“You mean the only way to contact civilization is still that old CB he kept…keeps…in his office?”
“Once in a while, when it decides to work. By the way, you don’t have to clutch that robe. I’m not about to ravish you. At least not until I’ve had my supper.”
“Ohhh!” She dropped her hand to her side to glare at him. “Very funny.”
“Your knuckles were turning white. Couldn’t have been very comfortable.”
He turned back to his cooking.
Don’t let him get to you. Don’t!
She cocked her head to one side. “Is that a dryer I hear? You’re doing laundry?”
“Not mine,” he replied, bending to check something that was wafting a mouth-watering fragrance from the oven. “I threw your suit in to dry.”
“No!” Allison bolted past him and into the laundry room. Yanking open the dryer door, she stared in horror at the tangled black ball. She pulled it out and strode into the kitchen.
“Look, just look!” She shoved it in front of him. “This suit was especially designed and tailored for me. Now, not even a midget could get it on.”
“Not something you’d wear around here anyhow.” He shrugged and returned his attention to the stove. “So no big loss.”
“Ahhhhh!” Allison bundled the shrunken suit under her arm and headed back to her bedroom. Barbarian, barbarian, barbarian.
****
“Dinner.” He stood in the open doorway of her bedroom, a large slotted spoon in one hand, an oven mitt on the other.
Wonder what he’d look like in an apron? Only an apron. Damn! Where did that come from? Focus, Allison. Focus on the royal pain he really is.
“I need to find something to wear.” In an effort to change her thought pattern, she began to dig in the suitcase on her bed.
“Don’t take too long.” He turned back toward the kitchen.
By the time she entered the dining room, wearing designer jeans and a green silk shirt, he’d placed two steaming plates on the table. Candles in its center cast bewitching shadows in the gathering gloom of the foggy spring twilight.
Is he trying to romance me? Well, good luck with that. He may be the best-looking wild-woods type I’ve ever seen, but I know what’s behind the fancy cover. Heath Oakes is one book I don’t want as bedtime reading.
“Smells like you may be able to cook.” She drew a deep inhale.
“You be the judge.” He took a decanter from the sideboard and poured white wine into each of their long-stemmed glasses. “The asparagus and rice are my doing. The Chicken Kiev is from the freezer. Before my mother left, she prepared it along with some other dishes to keep me from starvation.”
They ate in silence. Allison was content with the situation. Words between them had a way of degenerating into nasty remarks and personal insults.
****
“That was excellent.” Allison finished the meal and touched the napkin to her lips.
“Glad you enjoyed it.” He stood and gathered the plates and utensils. “Coffee in the living room. I’ve got a fire going in there.”
Touching remembered furniture and pictures along the way, Allison wandered to the adjoining room. At the archway that separated dining and living areas, she slid open the bifold doors that divided the two. And caught her breath.
The big room lined with varnished pine and floored with gleaming birch glowed golden in the soft light of the flames dancing in the wide fieldstone hearth that dominated the room. A long, chocolate-colored couch and an oak coffee table filled the area in front of the fireplace. On the opposite wall, a well-filled bookcase stretched from floor to ceiling. To its left, a closed door led to what Allison remembered was her grandfather’s office. Scattered around the spacious room in friendly conversational groupings were matching easy chairs, each with an end table holding its own oil lamp as the center piece. A pair of hurricane lamps decorated the mantel.
Allison remembered her grandfather had not permitted the installation of electric lights in this room. He’d wanted his guests to experience the romance of a pioneer ambience in a homely atmosphere.
Homely. Like home. The thought rose up to describe her overall impression. But that was ridiculous. Home for Allison Armstrong was an ultramodern glass-and-chrome condo situated on the seventeenth floor of a security building in the heart of Toronto. Home was an hour’s drive from her parents’ spacious multilevel in the suburbs and another half hour’s drive from the stable where she boarded her horse. Allison’s Pride was an elegant Kentucky-bred chestnut hunter with a family tree that would impress the most discriminating of equine enthusiasts.
It wasn’t this log hostelry in the backwoods.
Pulling herself out of her thoughts, she crossed the room and curled up on the couch to stare into the flames crackling on the hearth.
“Coffee.” Heath walked into the room with a wooden tray holding a pot and mugs with pheasant motifs. He placed it on the table in front of the fire and poured dark, steaming liquid into the cups.
“Cream, sugar?”
“Black.”
“I should have guessed.”
“And just what is that supposed to mean?” She tried to remain cool as she lifted her cup from the tray.
“Everything with you has to be black and white. Good or bad. Worthwhile or garbage. No gray areas for Ms. Armstrong, CFO.”
It’s on. Oh, it’s definitely on, Mister He-Man Woodsman.
“You think you know me so well, don’t you.” She plunked her cup down onto the coffee table and jumped to her feet. “You have no idea who I am, who I’ve become. But as soon as Gramps’ will is read, you’ll learn a whole lot more.”
“Good. I like a surprise.”
“When is the will to be read?” She swallowed her reflexive response and managed a semblance of civility. “Super soon, I hope.”
“Tomorrow around noon.” He sat down in front of the fire, weathered fingers clasping his cup. “You’ll be able to catch the four o’clock flight.”
“Good. Great, in fact. As soon as I get back to T-O I’ll contact National Realty and set up the sale of this place. You’d better start packing. I’ll want you out asap.”
She turned to sweep out of the room, remembered her coffee, and hesitated. It was good, one of the best brews she’d ever tasted. And she hadn’t had a cup since breakfast. She swung back, scooped up the mug, then made a second attempt at a haughty exit.
“Don’t let thoughts of what Jack might have left to me disturb your sleep. The only thing he promised me was his favorite old salmon rod.” His words, tinged with sarcastic humor followed her.