Rescued by the Brooding Tycoon / Fixed Up with Mr. Right?: Rescued by the Brooding Tycoon / Fixed Up with Mr. Right?. Marie Ferrarella
lawyer says everything’s in order, I’m the legal owner. But I had no chance to study the place, negotiate, refuse the deal, anything. Whatever I learn about the island comes as a surprise. My “investigation” consisted of looking Herringdean up online. What I found wasn’t informative—fishing, beautiful countryside, but no mention of a wind farm.’
‘Probably because it had only just got under way and they hadn’t updated the site,’ she mused.
‘Exactly. So you see I’ve approached everything like a dimwit. All right, all right,’ he added as she choked with laughter. ‘Have your fun.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she gasped. ‘I didn’t mean to but—he fooled you—’
‘Yes, he fooled me,’ Darius said, managing to be faintly amused through his chagrin. ‘And I’ll tell you something else. Before he left, he got a lot of the bigger tenants to pay him several months’ rent in advance, then he pocketed the money and ran. So it’ll be a while before they pay me anything.’
He knew he was crazy to have told her such damaging things. If she betrayed his trust she could make him look like an idiot all over the island.
But she wouldn’t betray him. Instinctively, he knew that he was safe with her.
Harriet was making confused gestures, trying to get her head around what she’d just heard.
‘But the papers always say—you know, the mighty entrepreneur, all that stuff—’
‘Been checking up on me, huh?’ he said wryly.
‘Of course. Be fair. Since you control our lives, I had to find out what I could.’
‘Control your lives? Oh, sure, it looks like it. I arrive knowing nothing, nearly die finding out, get snatched from the jaws of death by you and the others. Some control! So I suppose you know all there is to know about me?’
Harriet shook her head. ‘Only basics. Your father is Amos Falcon—the Amos Falcon. Empire builder, financial mogul—all right, all right.’ She backed off hastily, seeing his expression. ‘And you have lots of brothers. It must be nice coming from a large family. I’m an only child and it can be lonely.’
‘So can being in a large family,’ Darius said.
‘Really? I can’t imagine that. Tell me more.’
But suddenly his mouth closed in a firm line. It was as though something had brought him to the edge of a cliff, Harriet thought, and he’d backed away in alarm. She could almost see him retreating further and further.
‘What is it?’ she asked.
He rose and walked away to the window. She had a strange feeling that he was trying to put a distance between them, as though she was some kind of threat. After a moment’s hesitation she followed him and laid a tentative hand on his arm.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Of course it’s none of my business. I’m always sticking my nose into other people’s affairs. Just ignore me.’
With anyone else he would have seized this offer with relief, but with her things were mysteriously different. In his mind he saw again the defining moment of their relationship, the moment when she had reached out to him, offering rescue, offering life. The moment had passed, yet it lived in him still and, he guessed, would always do so.
The need to accept her friendship, trust it, rely on it, was so strong that it sent warning signals. Nothing would ever be the same again. But there was no turning back now.
‘I don’t think I’ll ignore you,’ he said softly, taking her hand. ‘You’re not a woman that’s easy to ignore.’
‘I’ll just vanish if you like.’
‘No,’ he said, his hand tightening on hers so suddenly that she gasped. ‘Stay. I want you to stay.’
‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll stay.’
He led her back to the table and poured her a glass of wine.
‘People always think big families are charming,’ he said after a while. ‘But it can be an illusion. Most of us didn’t grow up together. My father’s family was very poor and he had a hard life, which he was determined to escape at all costs. Some of the things he did don’t look very sympathetic, but maybe if you have to live as he did—’ He made an expressive gesture with his hands.
‘Was he very—?’ She paused delicately.
‘Yes, very. Still is, for that matter. His family were miners, and he was expected to go down the pit. But his father had died down there and hell would freeze over before he went the same way. He did well at school, got top marks in practical subjects like maths. Not literature, or “the soft stuff” as he calls it. He reckons that’s for fools. But with figures there’s nothing he can’t do.
‘So he ran away and managed to start up his own business, just a little market stall, but it grew into a big one, and then bigger, until he got a shop.’
‘He made enough profit to rent a shop? Wow!’
‘Not rent. Buy. By that time he’d married my mother. She came from a rich family and they met when he made deliveries to their house. Her relatives did everything they could to stop the wedding. They believed all he really wanted was her money.’
‘But they gave in at last?’
‘No way. He simply ran off with her. “If you want something, go after it by the shortest route.” That’s his motto. She gave him every penny she had. I know that because I’ve heard her father complaining about it.’
‘But he probably loved her, and you. Surely everything in his life wasn’t about money? It couldn’t be, could it? There’s always something else.’
‘Is there?’ he murmured. ‘Is there?’
His face had changed. Now it wore a look of pain that made her take his hand in hers in a gesture of comfort.
‘Don’t say any more,’ she said. ‘Not if it hurts too much.’
He didn’t answer. His gaze was fixed on the hand holding his, as it had once before. Then it had offered survival, now it offered another kind of life, one he couldn’t describe. He had no talent for words, only figures. She’d spoken of it hurting him too much to talk, but now he knew that the real pain lay in not talking about things that had been shrouded in silence for too long. Somehow the words must come. But only with her.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘I’LL tell you something,’ Darius said at last. ‘Falcon isn’t my father’s real name. He chose it for effect.’
‘He wanted to be named after a bird?’
‘No, he discovered that it has connections with a Roman consul and two princes.’
‘You’re kidding me.’
‘Do you mean you’ve never heard of Pompeyo Falco?’ Darius demanded with mock surprise. ‘He was a very powerful Roman. The princes were Spanish, and there’s even supposed to be a saint in the background. Not that he’s ever made too much of that one. Nobody could keep a straight face.’
‘I guess your father isn’t much like a saint.’
‘That’s putting it mildly. He called me Darius because it means “wealthy”. It was his way of signalling what he expected of me.’
Harriet dropped her face into her hands. ‘I can hardly believe it,’ she said at last. ‘It’s like something out of a mad fantasy.’
‘That’s just what it is. I grew up knowing what I had to do to please my father—or else! Luckily, I’d inherited his head for figures, so I was able to live up to at least some of his expectations.’
‘Only some?’