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'Oh, how lovely.' Contrary to Josie's expectations, they had walked right through the dining room and out onto a massive veranda that ran the length of it, where a small wooden table and chairs were set amidst huge terracotta pots filled with scented shrubs and flowers and trailing ivy. The dining room was situated at the back of the house, and overlooked a large rose garden in which several tiny fountains splashed and shimmered among the velvet blooms of pink and red and white; the air was redolent with their heady perfume and filled with the tinkling sound of water.
'I thought you would prefer a less formal meal,' Luke said softly as he pulled out a chair for her to be seated. 'My mother always takes her meals here when she visits, unless it is an occasion of some sort. My father had the rose garden planted for her some years after they were married. Her parents' home in Italy was built round a large central courtyard which was full of roses, and he felt it would give her pleasure to have a taste of her native land.'
'Was she homesick?' Josie asked tentatively. It hardly seemed fair to question him about his own family and life when she was so reticent in return, but he merely nodded at her, although a shadow passed over his face that she didn't understand.
'Painfully so in the early days, I understand,' he said quietly. 'She came from a large family and they were all very close. She was the first child to leave and found it very hard to adapt. She invited her relations here constantly and gave them far more attention than she gave my father, although she loved him more than life itself. It took her some time to come to terms with what she really wanted, but then something happened and it proved to her that he was more important than anything else in the final analysis. I think their marriage really started from that point,' he added thoughtfully, his eyes looking inwards at something she didn't like to enquire about. 'That's the trouble with love, isn't it?' He suddenly looked straight at her, his eyes intent.
'I don't understand.' She stared at him warily, unsure of how to respond.
'It costs. One way or another it always costs, and there is always one person who sacrifices more than the other.' His eyes were narrowed slits of light and she was unable to lead anything in their silver depths. 'Isn't that what you've discovered? This man who's hurt you so badly couldn't have done so if you hadn't let yourself become vulnerable, and that is the most costly thing of all.'
You're on the wrong track, completely the wrong track, she told him silently as she stared back into the harsh, rugged face that was so fiercely attractive. If only that was all it was. But he was right about one thing. Peter had hurt her, devastatingly, savagely so, but not because she had loved him or he her. Nothing as noble as that. And the hurt had been physical and permanent.
She shrugged carefully. 'You've got it all worked out?' she asked flatly. 'Is that what you think? That there has to be some mystery, some heartless lover in my past?'
'No, I haven't got it all worked out, Josie,' he said softly. 'Not yet. But I will.'
'I'm just an ordinary working girl, Luke.' The hard, almost chilling way in which he had spoken frightened her but she was determined not to let it show. That would only add more fuel to the fire. 'I'm sorry to disappoint you, but what you see is what you get. The mystery is all in your own mind.'
'Perhaps.' The silver gaze didn't waver, but as he reached across the table and took one of her small hands in his he turned her fingers over in his hold, exposing her tiny palm and running one finger lightly across it.
'Don't!' She tried to snatch her hand away, but he had anticipated her reaction and the hand holding hers merely tightened its grip.
'I wish I believed it was possible to read what's written here,' he said quietly, his voice deep and husky as his finger continued to wander up and down the softness of her palm until she knew he could feel trembling he was inducing.
'But perhaps that would be too easy. What do you think?'
'I think Madame Marat is bringing out lunch.' She could have kissed the formidable housekeeper for returning at that precise moment, but Luke shook his head slowly, his eyes tight on her.
'And they say men are unromantic,' he said softly as Madame Marat bustled to their side.
Lunch was light but delicious. The first course, bouillabaisse, a saffron-flavoured fish stew, was presented in small bowls with freshly baked rolls which were still warm from the oven, and the wafer-thin smoked ham and sauté potatoes that Madame Marat served afterwards perfectly complemented the aioli, a garlicky mayonnaise, and crunchy raw vegetables and salad. The dessert was nothing more elaborate than fresh fruit, but the ripe peaches were huge and juicy and the bowl of succulent dark red cherries temptingly moreish.
'That was lovely.' Josie leant back in her seat as she sipped the last of her sparkling mineral water. 'Does your cook always feed you like that?' she asked lightly, knowing she was deliberately delaying the moment when she informed him that she was going to start work at once.
'Always.' He eyed her smilingly. 'She knows I'm a growing boy.'
'Has she been with you long?' Josie asked curiously.
'For ever.' He shrugged casually. 'She's never married, but Josephine is her niece and the gardener is her brother so it's a small family inside a family. Even Madame Marat was recommended by her ten years ago, when our other housekeeper retired. They used to go to school together, I understand.'
'You place a high value on family, don't you?' she staled flatly.
'I told you, I'm half-Italian.' His face had straightened at her tone. 'It bothers you?' he asked softly, after a few seconds when she didn't speak. 'This family side of things?'
'Good gracious, no.' She forced a light laugh as she stood up, dropping her bleached linen napkin onto the table beside the crystal wineglass. 'It's your business whom you employ; I wouldn't dream—'
'That is not what I meant and you know it.' He too had risen, but his eyes were tolerant as he looked down at her standing so small and slender in front of him.
As she looked up into the darkly attractive face she had a nasty feeling that his indulgence would soon evaporate once he understood she had no intention of falling in with his plans for the afternoon.
'You do not think it is natural for a man to want to settle down with the woman he loves and have children with her?'
The most natural thing in the world, she thought silently as she made her face blank. 'Natural?' She dropped her eyes from the intent silver gaze. Lying was going to be difficult enough, but it would be virtually impossible with those laser-beams dissecting her mind. 'Do you mean to say that if a woman doesn't want children she isn't natural?'
'No, I do not mean to say that,' he said softly as his eyes narrowed faintly. 'And there is no need to protect your career, your…solitary lifestyle so aggressively. I am merely saying that when two people love each other they normally reach a stage in their lives where children become necessary to both of than.'
'In your opinion,' she said flatly.
