AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dark eyes shaded by lush black lashes gleamed. ‘Either you’re my partner or you’re not. Distrust will render any agreement between us unworkable.’
Harriet stiffened as if he had cracked a warning whip round her flanks—and in a sense
he had, she reflected resentfully. If she did not meet his demands, he could quite easily make it impossible for her to get the yard up and running. ‘Trust is a tall order.’
‘One thing you should learn about me,’ Rafael imparted in a light, conversational tone. ‘I don’t lie and I don’t cheat. When I want something I’ll tell you. When I don’t like something you will find me equally to the point.’
It was an unnecessary admonition, for Harriet could not begin to imagine Rafael Cavaliere Flynn suffering annoyance in silence. His every move and his every word resonated with the unequivocal authority of someone accustomed to always getting their own way. Determined to seize back the initiative, Harriet said briskly, ‘Now, with regard to the sheds that you believe spoil your outlook—’
Rafael spread lean brown hands in an elegant gesture of finality. ‘They must be demolished. There is no other option.’
Exasperation gripped Harriet. ‘Tell me, have you any plans to let me have my say?’
‘But I don’t want to talk business with you, Harriet,’ Rafael confided huskily. ‘I did have a much more entertaining agenda in mind for us. Unfortunately another obligation has to take precedence.’
Harriet dragged her sparkling blue gaze from him like a woman on a diet being taunted with a box of chocolates. ‘That’s irrelevant,’ she said firmly. ‘This is a business meeting because we have a partnership in this yard.’
‘The concept of partnership is a learning experience for me.’ Rafael was sending up her stern attitude like mad with his wickedly amused dark eyes.
Frustration and unwilling appreciation of his charisma warring within her, Harriet breathed in very deep and stared fixedly at the sheds. ‘I’ll let you demolish them if you build me a new set of eight stables in the rear yard.’
‘Harriet…’ Rafael sighed. ‘That is out of the question—’
‘Then you’re stuck with the ugly view!’ Harriet told him curtly. ‘I can’t have a viable livery yard without adequate stabling. I have to make a living here!’
‘Naturally I will oppose any further development on this site—’
‘In other words, you have a conflict of interest.’
‘But you were well aware of that reality when you decided to go for the partnership rather than repayment,’ Rafael reminded her levelly.
Harriet felt quite dizzy with anger, and she studied the ground while she endeavoured to suppress it. Her temper was in volcanic mode, and she was not accustomed to that. As a rule she was the most equable and tolerant of personalities, who could handle difficult people and situations with patience and commonsense. Yet Rafael could rouse her to wrath with a gesture as minimal as raising an aristocratic ebony brow.
‘There is another possibility.’
‘I can’t imagine what that would be,’ Harriet responded, in a tone of waspish discouragement.
Rafael shifted a broad shoulder with graceful calm. ‘I would have discussed this option immediately, but you preferred to state your case first.’
Her cheeks rosily flushed, Harriet stared woodenly into space. She was vaguely surprised that she did not levitate with rage.
‘Come on. Get in the car and I’ll show you the alternative.’ Rafael made the suggestion with colossal cool.
Harriet breathed in slow and deep and climbed into the leather passenger seat of the Range Rover. She suspected that she was about to be ceremoniously upstaged, and that he would prove to have enormous aptitude for that tactic. At the same time, however, it gave her the opportunity to say, as casually as she could manage, ‘I saw you with Una in the village this morning.’
‘And this afternoon I am personally escorting her back to her boarding school. I had no idea she had been suspended,’ Rafael pronounced with grim clarity of diction, resting back in his seat to survey her. ‘Various people, who should have known better, conspired to keep that information from me. Had her headmistress not sent me a second letter I would still be in the dark.’
‘What’s her mother’s opinion of all this?’
‘Her mother is an alcoholic who has repeatedly failed to complete rehab. I’m Una’s legal guardian. I placed her in boarding school because her home environment was unacceptable. She spends the holidays with her sister.’
Harriet was shaken. ‘I had no idea…she comes to the yard. She’s mad about horses and really good with them. Why was she suspended?’
‘Temper tantrums, impertinence, refusal to turn in the required work. In the past three years she has attended four different schools.’
‘Perhaps she’s fallen behind and she’s finding the work too hard?’
‘I doubt that very much.’
