Baby Included. Mary Lyons
about farming, he had no idea. In fact...
A slight movement at the corner of his eye distracted his gloomy thoughts for a moment. Turning his dark head, he watched a distant figure walking slowly across the white sand, before disappearing behind some palms at the far end of the beach.
‘There she goes again—regular as clockwork,’ he murmured to himself. Hardly needing to glance down at his watch, he knew that the stranger would be returning to her beach-side cottage, some hundred yards away from his own, in approximately one hour.
Did she spend her time sunbathing? Or merely sitting on the glistening white sand and gazing out at the ocean? Of course, there was always the possibility that she might be interested in exploring the coral reef. In which case...
‘Oh, come on! Grow up!’ he snapped irritably, his lips tight with exasperation at the thought of himself behaving in such a juvenile manner.
Following his attendance at an international tax conference in Manila, and desperately needing some peace and quiet in which to sort out his personal problems, Ace had decided to take a week’s vacation. This remote island resort—only capable of being reached by private plane, and where guests were guaranteed total privacy—had sounded ideal. Which was why he was now so thoroughly annoyed with himself. It was clearly ridiculous—and a total waste of his valuable time—to be indulging in foolish, idle speculation about a fellow guest.
However, the facts were that he’d been at first intrigued and then increasingly curious as to why, in this scorching heat, anyone should feel it necessary to clothe themselves from head to toe in long flowing robes which completely concealed their figure. Nor could he understand why she wore such a very large, floppy hat, which effectively kept her face always hidden from view. Not exactly, in this day and age, the normal beach attire of a young woman.
Because, yes—mostly because of the wide-brimmed hat—he was now quite certain that the distant figure was that of a woman. And from her sometimes quick, lively stride along the edge of the ocean he’d guessed that she must also be fairly young and agile. But why shroud herself in such a heavy disguise?
Amongst the many scenarios which had occurred to him, Ace had finally settled for the supposition that she might be someone famous, or in the public eye. But, if so, she certainly didn’t seem to be typical of any prominent personalities he’d come across. Having been briefly married to a well-known model, it was his experience that such celebrities only thrived when fully exposed—and thus able to gain as much adulation and publicity as possible.
So, what mystery lay behind this woman’s definitely unusual and baffling behaviour... ?
‘Forget it! It’s none of your damn business,’ he told himself roughly, putting down his empty glass and striding over to the desk, set in a shady corner of the wide veranda. Firmly banishing all thought of the strange woman, he sat down and began sorting through the large pile of papers in front of him, resolutely determined to concentrate on trying to sort out his late brother’s tangled affairs.
Swimming slowly, just beneath the almost still surface of the ocean, Lois gazed down in wonder at the hidden world of the coral reef. Despite coming here as often as possible during her brief stay on this lovely island, she never ceased to marvel at the brilliant, iridescent colours of the tiny fish, darting and weaving their way through the long, pale knobbly fingers of the coral.
Although she’d spent the last few months travelling all over the globe, this enchanting subterranean world of pink and green sea anemones, and strangely coloured sea urchins, whose jelly-like fronds waved to and fro in the gentle ocean current, was certainly one of the highlights of her trip.
Having worked flat out for the last five years, Lois reckoned she’d been fully entitled to take a three-month vacation. It would, she reasoned, not only give her the opportunity of seeing some far-flung corners of the world, but would also be a good time to reassess her career. To think hard and long about what she wanted to do in the future.
From the moment when she’d gained a small role in Ring of Destiny right through to her last, Oscar-winning film, Fear No Evil, she’d hardly had time to draw breath—let alone take any time off to really consider where her career was heading.
Not that she was likely to face too many problems straight away. Winning an Oscar for Best Actress in her last film would certainly guarantee that she’d be offered just about any film she liked to star in when she returned to Hollywood. Playing ‘feisty’, modern heroines was all very well. But maybe it was about time that she extended her range by acting one of the more classical roles?
Oh, come on—who are you kidding? she asked herself roughly as she trod water for a moment, adjusting her snorkel. While the future direction of her career was very important, it was no good trying to pretend that it was the sole reason for taking such a long break from her work. Because, of course, the main impetus behind wanting to ‘get away from it all’ had been the urgent need to help cure her broken heart.
Unlike most of her fellow actresses, who seemed to have no problem flitting from one lover to another, Lois had finally forced herself to face the facts. She was, it seemed, one of those boring creatures: a nice, old-fashioned girl. Not that she was actively looking for a husband, she assured herself hurriedly. But one-night stands were definitely not her ‘thing’. Which meant she’d found no problem turning down some of the well-known male Hollywood stars for whom ‘commitment’ was clearly a dirty word.
And that only goes to prove that pride comes before a fall! she told herself with disgust. Because what had she done? She’d just gone and fallen head over heels in love with a married man—that was what she’d done!
As the star of her last film, she might have been expected to fulfil that old Hollywood cliché and fall in love with her leading man. But, not her—oh, no! She had to be different, right? She had fallen hook, line and sinker for Ross Whitney—author of the best-selling novel Fear No Evil on which the film was based, who’d also written the screenplay.
It wasn’t until they were halfway through shooting the film that she met Ross. He, as it turned out, actively hated the whole Hollywood scene, only agreeing to join the film crew on location to make necessary alterations to the script. So it was there, miles away from civilisation—and only too easy to forget the real world—that Lois had suddenly found herself fathoms deep in love with the tall, dark and diabolically handsome Englishman.
To be fair, Ross had behaved like a perfect gentleman. And that had been the trouble, of course. Maybe, given an ounce of encouragement, she might have cast her scruples to the wind and indulged in a really hot, scorching affair. Unfortunately, he’d kept her very firmly at arm’s length.
In her own defence, it was fair to say that Lois hadn’t known Ross Whitney was a married man. Well, not at first, anyway. And by the time she did find out it was far too late. In fact, when she’d gone completely over the top, and arrived uninvited at his privately owned Caribbean island, she had been in grave danger of making an absolute fool of herself.
Luckily, Ross and his estranged wife, Flora, had proved to be really nice people. And, of course, as soon as she’d sussed out the real situation, Lois had managed to find some hidden depths of pride and resolution. Just enough to enable her, however shakily, to retire from the field with her head held high.
In fact, she wasn’t at all sure that it hadn’t been her best performance: acting the part of a woman with clearly not a care in the world—and blithely wishing the two of them the very best of luck—before returning to the sanctuary of her own home and giving way to deep misery as she tried to mend her fragile, broken heart.
Still...no matter how hard she’d tried, and the many strict lectures she’d given herself, Lois had found it almost impossible to put Ross out of her mind—and her heart. Which was why this vacation had seemed such a very good idea. And. of course, that old proverb ‘time is the best healer’ had eventually proved to be true.
Somewhere...somehow, between viewing the Aztec ruins in Mexico and exploring the old city of Delhi, she’d managed to pull herself together. By the time