âNatasha, let me tell you something.â
âWhatâs that?â she asked warily.
âTo want is not a sin. It is a natural, healthy reaction. And donât pretend you donât know what I mean, because you do. Very well. Last night proved that to me.â
âLast night wasâwas an aberration,â she muttered, trying to resist the delicious sensation of his finger caressing the inside of her bare forearm in what was turning into a dangerously erotic motion.
âLast night was the proof that you want to make love with me,â he murmured huskily. âIn fact, I have already made love to you. Only not fully. The rest is still to come.â
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IT WASNâT that she didnât want to go back to France, for in truth she did. But as the chauffeur-driven car drove sedately through the gates of the Manoir that she remembered only vaguely from early childhood, Natasha de Saugure experienced a rush of mixed emotions: she really should have responded to her grandmotherâs summons sooner.
Yet the past hung between them, and had impeded her from doing so. Now, Natasha hoped that it wouldnât be too late. Her grandmother had sounded so frail over the phone. But taking leave from her job with a humanitarian organisation in Africa wasnât easy. She had, in the short space of time sheâd been employed, acquired a post of much responsibility. She owed it to the starving mothers and children they were so desperately trying to save to be there.
Still, after the car had crunched across the gravel driveway and come to a stop, Natasha stepped out and breathed a unique fragrance that she recognized as fresh lavender and thyme; she knew sheâd been right to come.
âVoilà , mademoiselle.â The driver smiled at her over his shoulder before jumping out and solicitously opening the car door.
âMerci.â Natasha smiled back. In a quick movement she straightened her long ash-blonde hair and glanced up at the ancient stone façade of the Manoir: its rounded turrets at each corner, the lead-tiled roof, the ivy that weaved over its centuries-old stone walls. Making her way towards the stately front door past grand stone pots filled with well-trimmed shrubs, Natasha sighed. It was many years since sheâd last seen her grandmotherâafter the irreparable rift between the old lady and Natashaâs father when heâd married out of his set.
All at once the ancient front door creaked, opened, and an old, white-haired man in uniform appeared on the steps.
âBienvenue, mademoiselle,â he said, his face breaking into a wrinkled smile. âMadame will be so pleased.â
âBonjour, Henri,â she said; sheâd heard her mother talk about the old retainer. She stepped inside the flagstoned hall and gazed about her at the high ceilings and doorways leading this way and that into the warren of passages and rooms beyond. Little by little vague memories unfurled as long-forgotten images jumped forth to greet her.
But the question that still tugged at her as she entered the Manoir was why, after all these years of silence, had her grandmother insisted she come? There had been little in the letter sheâd received to indicate her reasons; little in her imperative tone on the phone to suggest sheâd unbent after all this time.
Yet insist she had.
And, despite her first inclination to refuse, Natasha had known she had to come. After all, notwithstanding the past, now that both her parents were dead Natasha was the old ladyâs only living relative.
After Henri had exclaimed, with a tear in his eye, at seeing her again, all grown up, thrilled that sheâd remembered his name, Natasha followed him up the stone staircase, amazed at how much she recognized. Over twenty years had elapsed since her last visit to Normandy, but so much felt familiar: the scents, the light pouring through the tall windows and bathing the muted walls, the echo of her heels resonating on the well-trodden steps. And something else that she couldnât quite identify.
âMadame is waiting for you upstairs in the small salon,â Henri pronounced in stentorian tones.
âThen I had better go to her at once.â Natasha smiled again, her green eyes sparkling with amusement. The situation was so dreadfully formal, as though sheâd walked into another time and place.