Page 220 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

Maude stared at him in surprise. ‘Solutions? What solutions?’

Again he smiled, as if he knew a delicious secret that she didn’t. ‘I’ve been thinking.’ He reached for a bottle of fresh orange juice and poured her some in a plastic glass, then handed it to her.

‘Oh, dear,’ she muttered, taking the glass. ‘You thinking is never good.’

He laughed, the sound rich and full of genuine amusement. ‘There aren’t many people in the world who get to say that kind of thing to me.’

‘Well, maybe there should be more,’ she said, unable to resist smiling back, feeling oddly pleased with herself that she’d made him laugh. ‘You could do with being taken down a peg or two.’

He laughed again and shook his head. ‘You’re not afraid of me at all, are you?’

She gave him a look over the top of her glass as she sipped her juice. ‘Should I be?’

‘Many people are. I’m very rich and quite powerful, you see.’ He poured some orange juice for himself. ‘I’m surprised you weren’t that night in the woods. I was a stranger to you, after all.’

‘You were, but...I wasn’t afraid. It was the forest. It has a...power. At least, to me it does.’ She bit her lip, wondering why she was telling him this. Her feelings about the forest always sounded stupid when she told people aloud, and they always looked at her strangely.

But Dominic was looking at her now with interest, not hiding his curiosity. ‘A power?’ he asked. ‘What kind of power?’

‘It sounds weird and you’ll probably laugh.’

‘I won’t laugh.’ His gaze didn’t flicker and he wasn’t smiling now. He meant it.

She let out a breath. ‘At the commune, Mum wasn’t around a lot, so I was left on my own. I used to hang out in the commune garden because I loved the flowers and the plants, and the woman who managed the garden would tell me what each plant was and what it was used for. But when she wasn’t there, I’d run into the forest on the border of the commune. I felt as if the trees were...watching over me. As if they were protecting me.’ She’d looked away as she’d said it, not wanting to meet his gaze, yet she couldn’t help glancing at him now. ‘It’s weird, yes.’

But he wasn’t laughing. He was looking at her in a very intent way, making all the breath go out of her. ‘It’s not weird,’ he said. ‘There were no other children there?’

‘A couple of babies, but no, no one my age.’

‘So, you were lonely.’

It wasn’t a question and a small jolt of shock hit her. Was she that easy to read? ‘What makes you say that?’ she asked, cagily. ‘I never said I was lonely.’

‘You didn’t have to.’ His tone was matter-of-fact. ‘An only child with no parent watching over them?’ He let the question hang for a moment then went on, ‘And I know this because my father used to do the same with me. He would leave me at the manor for weeks at a time, with no one here to watch over me.’

Maude was momentarily diverted. ‘You were? And you had no one?’

‘There was Craddock, the gamekeeper, who lived in the cottage you’re living in now. He used to take me hunting.’ There was an odd note in Dominic’s voice that she couldn’t quite interpret. ‘I’ll tell you a secret. I was always terrified of the forest.’

Maude blinked. ‘You? Terrified?’

‘Oh, yes.’ The corner of his mouth had curved, but it didn’t look like amusement. ‘My father used to—’ He broke off, and Maude was conscious of a sudden tension around him that hadn’t been there before.

This was painful for him. She could tell that right away.

‘Don’t feel you have to tell me if you don’t want to,’ she said quietly. ‘Just because I told you something about me.’

Dominic looked down at his plate and the sandwich sitting on it, remaining silent for a time. Then he said, ‘My father turned me out at night a couple of times. Made me sleep in the forest. I had to “face my fear”.’ He glanced at her suddenly, his eyes full of an intense expression she couldn’t quite read. ‘He said that if you didn’t control your fear, it would end up controlling you, and I suppose he was right.’ He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. ‘After the first couple of nights, I wasn’t afraid of the forest any more.’

But Maude could hear the lie in his voice. Was it really the forest he’d been afraid of? Or was it his father perhaps? He’d mentioned that his childhood hadn’t been a happy one...

‘You must have hated your grandparents then,’ Dominic went on before she could speak. ‘Taking you away from your mother and the commune.’

It was a clear change of subject, and Maude decided not to press him about it. Certainly not if it was painful for him.

‘They weren’t easy people,’ she admitted. ‘But I didn’t hate them. They only wanted what was best for me.’

‘Sounded like being left in the commune was what was best for you,’ he said evenly. ‘Did they even ask you if you wanted to go? And what did your mother have to say about any of it?’

---