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He rose slowly and stretched. As he walked towards her he said, ‘The story must be an absorbing one. Has boy met girl and they’re about to live happily ever after?’

Rex knew she had been commissioned to write teenage love stories, but trust him to make it sound all a bit frivolous and beneath contempt I As he towered over her, Davina had a sudden urge to cover her fairy story from his sight, but he had already bent, placed a hand on the table either side, and was reading page 1.

Davina made herself as small as she could, for she was within the circle of his arms with Rex’s profile only inches away. Although he shaved every morning, by now his chin was beginning to darken and she experienced an urge to run a finger along the line of his jaw which she was forced to crush down.

As he read on silently to the bottom of the first page she wondered if he had been Adele’s secret guest the evening before. But she had no means of knowing how long he had been back at the farm before she and Jim returned. It could have been two hours before or only five minutes.

Suddenly he turned his head and met her eyes. ‘I don’t know much about children's stories, but you write well. Why didn’t you think of making a career with this sort of thing instead of writing for a magazine?' Before she could answer he looked back at the sheet of paper. ‘You draw well too. You’ve caught the boy's expression exactly.’ He stood up. ‘Will you let me have this?’ and he nodded down at the pages on the table.

Once again he had taken her by surprise. Davina shuffled the sheets together and handed them over. ‘What do you want with a fairy story?’ She made no attempt to hide her astonishment.

‘I’ve a friend who runs a publishing house in Sydney. He might be interested, though I can’t guarantee anything. Now come along. It’s a beautiful evening. We’ll walk up the rise before bed.’

As if he took her consent for granted, Rex pulled Davina to her feet. ‘Better wear this,’ he draped an anorak over her shoulders, and going to the door pulled it open.

Full moonlight greeted them as they stepped into the yard, silvering the outbuildings, and Davina paused to look up into a cloudless sky aglitter with stars. Rex stopped in his tracks, came back and took her hand, saying gently, ‘Come along, just up the hill. The stars will look even better from there.’

She tried to pull her fingers free as they walked up the stony track, but Rex held fast, murmuring something about her catching her foot in a rabbit hole if he let her go. When at last they stood hand in hand at the top of the hill beyond the first pasture, the grey farmhouse looked mysterious, even mellow in the gentle light, while grazing sheep looked like so many bundles of cotton wool.

Davina gave an unconscious sigh and sensed rather than saw Rex turn his head. She turned to smile at him. ‘Wonderful, isn’t it? Seen like this?’ He did not answer, so she went on thoughtfully, ‘Grey slate roofs aren’t homey like thatched ones, but parts of Wales are bleak-looking too. It can be pretty intimidating—all that wildly beautiful country, I mean. My father used to say it made for humility.’

Rex squeezed the slim fingers lying in his hand. ‘Not a common reaction where you’re concerned,’ he remarked cruelly, and as Davina stared at him with bewilderment in her eyes at this unexpected attack he went on, ‘I’d judge in the main you’re rarely humble enough to forget all your good points.’

Davina stood, her small hand still lost in his larger one, and stared, feeling sick at heart. The soft, deadly voice went on, ‘Be honest for once. You have beautiful hair, a complexion many a film star would give her right arm to possess, a figure that goes in and out in all the best places and the intelligence to make full use of them. You can’t tell me you look in a mirror every day without being conscious of how Providence has smiled on you.’

Determined to control her voice, Davina managed to say evenly, ‘You make me sound a complete ...’ The derogatory slang died on her lips. Her mouth felt dry as she tried again. ‘You sound as if you hate me.’

‘Hate you? When I’ve got the perfect housekeeper and a pretty one at that?’ Rex’s back was to the light, but imagining the expression in those hooded eyes Davina tried once again to free herself.

It was a mistake. With a jerk on her hand, Rex pulled her against him until her nose was almost touching his pullover, then with her firm little chin in his free hand he tipped her face up.

‘As I’ve said before—too thin-skinned by half.’ He bent and pressed a hard kiss on her lips. ‘Come along. Moonlight becomes you, but we’ve both got a busy day ahead.’

It took a good deal of self-control to walk back to the farmhouse at Rex’s side apparently quite at her case, but Davina congratulated herself that he did not guess how much his changeable moods and cruelly placed barbs could hurt. Standing in her bedroom some half hour later, she looked out on the moonlit scene and tried to unravel the enigma of her unpredictable employer. Was he taking out on her his innermost frustration, perhaps over Adele? Or was he becoming angry at finding himself falling in love? And if so, with whom?

Davina’s lips twisted in a humourless smile as this thought came and went. Oh, he’d kissed her right enough, but might it not have simply been a ploy to divert her mind from his compliments which had been no compliment? He’d listed her physical attributes as if he resented the fact that nature had been kind.

She frowned at a niggling unease which would not be pushed to the back of her mind. Try as she would it was impossible to dismiss the conviction that Rex actually enjoyed undermining her self-confidence. Maybe he had an understanding with some girl back home in Australia and disliked finding his heart pulled in two different direction. If he had a heart, that was, Davina thought as she slowly undressed. Well, whatever the cause of Rex’s strange behaviour, it was up to her to keep their association strictly platonic for the future.

But that was going to be a difficult task, she discovered, for when Rex came in from his pre-breakfast chores, he seemed to bring a little of the autumnal sunshine with him. He was agreeably good-humoured and when he set out to be charming, Davina guessed he must have few equals. Within minutes last night’s resolution was forgotten as she found herself responding to what, in another man, she would have interpreted as an attempt to flirt. But Rex quizzed rather than flirted and when the meal was over he leaned down, kissed her unresisting lips as if he had every right, and said before she could utter a word, ‘I’ll be in the first pasture when Jim Thomas arrives,’ leaving Davina feeling dizzy with an unexpected joy.

Several times during the morning she stopped work to put up a hand to her mouth. Light as Rex’s casual goodbye kiss had been she found herself reliving the moment. Why couldn’t he always be in such a charitable frame of mind? she thought as she automatically got on with her work. Whatever his intentions, she knew she was falling more and more under Rex’s spell.

It was nearly lunch time when Jim Thomas drove into the farmyard looking even more disreputable than ever in a faded tartan shirt, muddy Wellington boots and stained jeans. His eyes twinkled as Davina’s expressive face revealed her thoughts and as he got out his equipment he asked, ‘Thinking of entering me for the Best Dressed Man of the Year contest?’

Davina giggled. ‘I must say your sartorial elegance always knocks me for six. Rex is up in the first pasture, by the way.’

‘Right!’ Jim paused as he glanced at his watch. He said diffidently, ‘I suppose I couldn’t stay for a sandwich when I’ve had a look at this ewe? It’s Mrs Hepburn’s day off.'

‘What about your sister? Not that you wouldn’t be welcome,’ Davina added swiftly as Jim’s usually pleasant face stiffened.

‘Adele’s gone in to Carlisle,’ he replied abruptly. ‘Thanks. I’ll see you later,’ and he was off.

Davina watched his retreating figure thoughtfully. What was Adele Wickham up to now? Whatever it was, it found no favour with the brother on whom she’d planted herself while her divorce went through, she decided as she went indoors.

If Rex was put out to find Jim Thomas was staying to share the cold meat and salad, the huge apple pie and cream, followed by Rex’s inevitable pot of strong tea, he gave no sign. The meal passed off well, for Jim had them infectiously laughing at his encounter that morning with an uncooperative pig. ‘I got the better of it in the end, but not before it did its best to land both the farmer and myself on our backsides,' he ended, which made even Mr Farr’s eyes twinkle with amusement. Then turning to Davina, Jim added, ‘Which makes me feel I’m entitled to a bit of light relief tonight. How about coming out and having a drink?’

There was a moment’s hesitation before Rex, a steely light in his eyes, answered for her. ‘Sorry, old chap, but we’re going to try and get a coat of paint on the study this evening. Your date will have to wait,’ and he turned his head to look at Davina, as if challenging her to deny his story.

She wet her lips. ‘Ask me another evening,* she said, to try and soften Rex’s uncompromising refusal, but Jim Thomas, glancing from her face to Rex’s, answered, ‘Yes, I’ll certainly do that,’ and got up to leave, his blue eyes unusually serious as he thanked them for their hospitality.

The post arrived shortly after he left and a letter bearing Catrin’s handwriting made Davina hurry over the washing up so she could sit down and read it at her leisure. There were several sheets covered in her sister’s scrawl, but it was the last paragraph which had Davina sitting upright, something approaching horror on her face.

‘You’ll never believe it,’ Catrin wrote, ‘but in his last letter David asked when my next leave was due. If it coincides with his, he wants me to visit his home and meet his parents. But this is the amazing coincidence. They live in Camshaw. Have you met them yet? I think I told you his father was in the Navy too before he retired, and David has one brother, Roy.’

Davina racked her brains, but she had no recollection of Catrin telling her any such thing. And she had never once mentioned David’s surname. What a disastrous coincidence that out of all the places in Britain, Catrin’s boy-friend had to come from Camshaw! And be the son of parents noted for their strict code of behaviour. Davina could imagine the kind of reception her sister would receive once she admitted to having a sister in the district, one living under the roof of a man as handsome and attractive as Rex.

Which brought to mind the lies Rex had told about their supposed relationship. What a fool she had been to go along with the story! Even if the Comstones were the sort to give her the benefit of the doubt once they heard she and Rex had pretended to be related, they would imagine the worst. And then a further complication occurred to Davina. If Rex was supposed to be
her
stepbrother then he must also be Catrin’s, and by this time David had no doubt written to his parents giving them a run-down on Catrin’s background. No way around the problem that way. It was a tangled web indeed.

Davina glanced at her watch, re-read the part in the letter where Catrin had described her off-duty times, then collecting a purse and a cardigan, she set off for the village. It was a long walk, but she had no time to waste if she was to tip Catrin off before she replied to David’s letter. Reaching the telephone kiosk, Davina made sure she had plenty of change, then dialled the number of Catrin’s hospital.

Several minutes later, her sister’s voice came clearly over the line. ‘Nothing wrong, is there, Dav?’

‘Yes and no. I’ve just got your letter—about David’s parents, I mean,’ Davina answered. ‘Have you written to him yet telling him I’m up here?’

‘No, I was hoping to get the time to write tonight. But what’s the problem? You sound in a regular tizzy.’

‘I am,’ Davina said in a tight voice. ‘Rex, to save our good names, thought fit to put it around that we were stepbrother and sister. And your David’s folk are apparently not the sort to swallow a talc like that once they know it’s a cock and bull story. I have it on very good authority that they’re old-fashioned to the point of absurdity. From the horse’s mouth —Roy Comstone.’

‘Oh, you’ve met Roy. What’s he like?’

‘Difficult to say. He was described to me as the black sheep of the family, and the first time I met him he had about half a bottle of gin inside him.’

Catrin giggled. David did tell me his brother doesn’t live at home any more. Do you suppose his father threw him out?’

‘No idea, but it’s possible, if Squire Comstone is as antiquated in his ideas as everyone says. Are you really serious about David, Cat? Because if you are I see trouble ahead.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Catrin’s voice was full of youthful confidence, ‘I bet I could twist the old man round my finger within ten minutes of meeting him. But that may not be for some time, so keep your hair on. I know I’m not getting Christmas off this year and David is due to do a spell of duty in the Far East some time soon, so the chances of my getting up to Cumbria before you leave are pretty remote. I shall tell David, of course, but not in a letter. He’ll fall about laughing when I tell him what’s happened.’

Davina smiled wryly. ‘Trust you to think it’s all a huge laugh,’ she protested. Then as Catrin asked, ‘How is my .. . my stepbrother, by the way?’ Davina replied, ‘That’s quite enough of that. I just wish I’d listened to James and stayed in London. Got to go,’ as the pips began, and the last thing she heard was a burst of laughter from Catrin before the line went dead.

She trudged back to the farm to find the horse tethered to the fence with Rex showing an eager boy how to brush it down. He turned as Davina reached them to say, ‘Where the devil did you get to this time?’ but his voice was soft and indulgent.

‘I had to telephone Catrin in a hurry,' Davina admitted, and then as Rex cocked an enquiring eyebrow she went on rather reluctantly, ‘It transpires her special boy-friend is the younger son of the Comstones, so you’ll appreciate my difficulty,’ and was astonished to hear Rex give a shout of laughter.

It was the first time she had heard him laugh so heartily and she looked at him with puzzlement in her clear eyes. As he met the reproachful glance Rex tried to control his mirth and put out a hand to take hers, kiss the pink palm and say contritely, ‘Sorry, but you must admit there’s a certain irony about the whole thing. I concoct a story to protect our reputations from the local gossips, only to find your kid sister has become almost engaged to the son of the most distinguished family for miles around. Who says it’s a very small world?’