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A muscle flexed high in his cheek but no emotion crossed his face. “You must believe what you will.”
Bile burned bitterly in the back of her throat as her stomach clenched in fear. She’d been lied to before. In the past few months, her mother and brother had both lied to her, but Callum never had. She’d even believed the lie her mother had been spinning for years about the life insurance policy paying out. Callum had debunked that myth. And he’d been telling the truth.
“You’re lying,” she said without hope.
He looked pained—as if he was hurting. Miranda leaned her head back against the head rest and closed her eyes, shutting him out. A few seconds later the car started, and soon they were back on the main road.
She pretended to sleep, but her mind ticked over.
Callum was nothing if not honest. Even when he’d asked her to marry him, he’d never iced what was essentially a practical request—albeit garnished with lashings of sex—into a romantically pretty proposal.
What if he was telling the truth this time, too?
The hurt that seized her was unbearable. Her father wouldn’t have lied to her. It was important to believe that, to keep faith lest her whole world come tumbling down around her like a pack of fraudster’s cards.
Yet even while she clutched onto that belief, deep within her most secret heart, something withered.
Near the town of Windermere, they turned off onto a road with breathtaking views of the lake dotted with sailing craft tied up for winter. Another turn took them into a narrow lane flanked with low stone walls while snow-covered fields lay beyond.
Their speed had slowed, and Miranda knew they must be approaching their final destination.
Now that they were nearly there, Miranda wished she hadn’t let Adrian’s latest bombshell depress her, since it was that mood that had gotten her into the bridge-burning fight with Callum. There were a thousand questions she wanted to ask as he nosed the Daimler through a set of imposing wrought-iron gates and onto a drive that wound through a park.
She sat up, squinting against the bright light. The snow, the absence of livestock, the leafless trees with their bare crisscrossing branches all gave the landscape a bleak, monochromatic beauty.
Loneliness swept her.
Huddling down, she pulled the scarf Flo had given her for Christmas tighter around her neck.
She already missed the cramped terrace house and the merry music Flo played in the evenings. She longed for the funny, bent Christmas tree Adrian had salvaged after a Boxing Day party a couple of years ago.
Why the hell had she agreed to come? Because of an inexplicable yearning to see the place Callum called home. And, to a lesser extent, for the cash incentive he’d offered.
Because they needed the money.
Miranda gave a silent sigh. It always came back to money. A predicament he had put her family into. If she didn’t maintain that belief, she might go mad. And while she wouldn’t accept his charity, she was going to use every commission, every lead he offered, to get herself out of this financial quagmire.
At least she hadn’t given in to her urge to unload the burden of Adrian being blackmailed. Judging by Callum’s black-and-white statement about accountability, he would expect Adrian to face charges.
Callum was a rigid autocrat who gave no quarter. There was no doubt that he would have her brother convicted of using the car without permission.
Adrian’s concern about spending Christmas in jail was too real to dismiss.
Nine
They rounded a bend and unexpectedly Fairwinds rose up against the sky ahead of them. Fingers of winter sunlight pressed through the cloud to caress the rugged blocks of hewn stone, and the mullioned windows winked in the brightening light.
“It’s exquisite,” Miranda breathed softly. The house was more beautiful than the spread in Country Life had promised.
“Every time I come home, it takes my breath away.” Callum’s voice was full of pride.
The Daimler rolled to a stop in the cobbled forecourt. Instantly the heavy wooden front door swung open, and a crowd poured down the stone stairs behind two black, barking Labradors.
Before Callum could come round to her door, Miranda was already out of the car.
Callum reached the dogs first. “Mojo, Moxie, be quiet!”
