Bride For A Year

She took a long, deep breath. She loved this place, with all its familiar sights and scents. She loved everything about it. But she knew that she had lost it...knew that her dream of holding onto it, of working on her own to save it, had been illogical in the extreme.

Brad put her box down on the porch that encircled the house. ‘Whatever you might think, I am concerned about you.’

‘You’re concerned because you’ve had to wait longer than you had envisioned to get your hands on this estate. All you can think about is extending your vineyard and your profits.’

He caught hold of her arm as she made to swing away from him. ‘I did not cause your father’s financial problems.’

‘Maybe not,’ she muttered tightly. ‘But you sure as hell speeded up his downfall.’

‘By lending him money when he most needed it?’ Brad’s voice was droll.

‘By demanding it back in an impossibly short time. You may not have started my father’s problems, but you certainly finished him.’ Paige’s eyes blazed into his. ‘You come here telling me that you are not the enemy, but in my eyes you are...and you always will be. You could have afforded to give my father longer to pay you back but you didn’t. You contributed to his death and I hate you for it.’

‘That’s vastly unreasonable, Paige.’ His voice was low with fury, but none-the-less very cutting. ‘Yes, all right, I could have afforded to let the loan ride longer, but I didn’t see the point. Your father was a fool who...’ He hesitated and she finished the words for him.

‘Who wasn’t as ruthless in business as he should have been?’ Her eyes shone with vivid, intense light at that. ‘At least he was honourable.’

‘And you think I’m not?’

‘I know what you are. I’ve seen the real you in action these last few months.’ She looked down at the hand he had on her arm her manner very cold. ‘Now let go of me.’

‘Paige, we need to talk and sort this out,’ he said harshly.

‘There’s nothing to discuss.’

‘Like hell there is.’ He pulled her closer to his body and the contact made her temperature rise dramatically. ‘We’ve been friends and neighbours for years. I won’t have you turning our familys’ friendship into some kind of dramatic vendetta... which is all in your mind. You were away at college when your father’s...financial problems got out of hand and he came to me for an extension of the time limit on his loan. You don’t know the real facts.’

‘I know what my father told me,’ she blazed furiously. ‘I know when I came home and went across to your house and asked you again, for my father, would you extend the time limit you more or less laughed in my face. Or are you going to try and tell me I imagined that as well?’

‘I gave you my reasons for not extending the time limit on the loan,’ he said calmly.

‘Yes, you did... Now, what did you say?’ She rolled her eyes disdainfully. ‘Oh, yes, it was for his own good.’ Her voice grated sarcastically. ‘Very helpful of you, I must say.’

‘Matt was in way over his head, Paige. You don’t fully understand the problem.’

‘Don’t patronise me, Brad.’ Her tone was brittle.

‘That wasn’t my intention. What I meant was that you were away at college, you didn’t see what was happening here—’

‘Now you are trying to tell me it was all my fault, because I haven’t been living at home for a few years.’ She shook her head. ‘You must be really desperate for this place. What’s the matter, Brad? Is your sojourn into the world of politics costing you more money than you’d thought? Are you seeking to extend your profit margins by stealing my land?’

‘The fact that I’m running for mayor has nothing to do with this. Except for the fact that I’d rather not have the hassle of you going around bad mouthing me.’

‘Frightened people might not vote for you if they knew how you’d treated my father?’ Her voice grated. ‘I’m not surprised you’re worried. The truth isn’t exactly good for the image you like to project, is it? That caring “I’m only doing this for the community” spiel rings very hollow next to the way you’ve treated your neighbour.’

He shook his head. ‘I can’t believe how you are twisting the facts.’

‘It’s the truth, Brad, and you know it.’

‘The truth as you see it. Blinkered and inaccurate.’

She shook her head. ‘I know the only reason you lent my father that money in the first place was the hope that he wouldn’t be able to pay you back, that it enabled you to get your hooks into this property. I’m sure when I put the place on the market you will be the one picking it up for next to nothing.’

‘Are you considering selling?’

‘Careful, Brad, your thirst for blood is showing.’ Her lips twisted, the fire inside her starting to die. ‘And, yes, of course I’m going to sell. I do know when I’m beaten. I shall put the estate on the open market next week. I’ve been advised that an auction is my best bet; then I can disappear into the wide blue yonder and start a new life.’

He frowned.

‘Oh, don’t worry. I’ll settle my debts with you out of the proceeds of the sale before I leave California,’ she assured him.

‘Where will you go?’ She felt his surprise, almost palpable in the air between them.

‘Depends how much money you deign to leave me with. I know that whoever buys it will get it at a knockdown price. It’s not in the best of conditions any longer.’

‘My fault again, I presume?’ he muttered dryly.

‘Your words, not mine.’ Her glance slanted away from him to where his horse was standing, idly munching at the greenery over the white picket fence that separated the garden from the vineyard. ‘And your horse certainly isn’t helping matters.’

‘It’s a conspiracy, no doubt,’ Brad said as he moved to catch hold of the animal’s bridle. ‘I’m out to ruin your life and I’ve told Buck to work his way through your garden.’ There was a gleam of humour in Brad’s dark eyes as he looked at her.

For just a second she wanted to smile with him. The memory of how relaxed she used to feel around him, of how he had always been able to make her laugh, was there very strongly in her heart.

‘We used to be friends, Paige,’ he said quietly as she continued just to stare at him.

Her heart thumped very unevenly. ‘Did we?’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t remember that.’

Then she turned away from him and hurried up the steps towards the front door, allowing the fly screen and the door to bang noisily behind her as she closed it.

She didn’t turn on the lights in the hallway immediately. Instead, she stood in the darkness, her back against the door, her breathing uneven.

‘We used to be friends...’ Brad’s words drummed through her and with them memories flicked like photographs through her mind.

From being a young girl she had looked up to Brad, respected him... loved him. At least he had never guessed at her true feelings for him; that would be too humiliating. To Brad she was just the girl next door, that was where his thoughts of friendship started and finished.

She remembered how, as a teenager, he had teased her mercilessly and yet always made her laugh...always melted her with one look from those incredible eyes of his.

She had yearned to be old enough to go out with him. had felt quite jealous of the succession of glamorous women in his life.

His mother had guessed the truth, though. Thinking about Elizabeth brought a lump to her throat.

Paige couldn’t remember her own mother, but Elizabeth was everything she would have wished her to be. Kind, amusing, open. Paige had felt able to talk to her...had enjoyed her company.

It had been Brad’s mother who had taught her to ride; she had talked to her about the land, about the grapevines; it had been she rather than her own father who had instilled a love of the land into her.

It was eighteen months since Elizabeth had died and Paige still missed her. Her hands curled into tight fists at her sides. Lord alone knew what she would make of this situation now.

Briskly she started to walk across the dark hallway. She didn’t want to think about the past; she was too tired, too tearful. She would go upstairs, have her bath and forget everything. Her thoughts broke off as she hit her foot quite violently against a solid, sharp object. She cried out instinctively as pain shot through her, then sank down on the floor to rub her injury, tears of anger and frustration in her eyes.