Page 4 of Her Dragon Defender

Eden helped Lily pack all of Diana's things into boxes, before heading down to the cafeteria for breakfast.

It appeared to be too early for Candace to have made an appearance yet, but Eden recognised some of the other girls who'd gone to the ball last night.

But every girl she asked had no idea that Diana had gotten married last night, or who Diana's new husband was.

Diana wasn't even answering her phone – all of Eden's calls went straight through to the message service, and no one left voice messages any more. Text messages went ignored or unanswered...Diana had just disappeared.

And no one but Eden, Diana's best friend, seemed to care.

FIVE

The void in Blaze's work schedule wasn't something he was used to. Financially, he knew he would be fine, as he'd already budgeted for the time off to work on Hea Sanctuary, but an increasing part of his regular income now came from his video channel, and his millions of fans expected at least two new videos a week. He'd planned to focus on the transformation of the village from construction site to sustainable paradise over the next month, but without any new projects, he'd have to fall back on filming the gardens on his family's estate.

He'd bet Diana would have some great ideas for new content. He sent her a quick message:

Any good gardens I should see near your college? I could drive down for a visit.

Then he flipped his phone over to video mode and got to work.

Several hours later, when he was certain he'd described every single plant on his family's estate in such minute detail, he was heartily sick of the place, Blaze's phone vibrated with an incoming message...no, an incoming call, and it wasn't from Diana.

"Hello?" Blaze ventured.

"Is this Blaze Argyros? It's Roger. I'd like to invite you to my house for a few days to do a small feature..."

Roger was the owner of a stately home whose gardens he'd restored a couple of years back from a weed-choked wilderness to their full Regency glory.

The lord of the manor – Blaze thought the man might actually be a duke or an earl or something, not merely a lord, but as he insisted Blaze call him Roger, that was the name he remembered – wanted to open his home to tours, weddings and other events, so he was hoping for a follow-up feature on Blaze's gardening programme.

"Of course, Roger, I'd love to," Blaze said easily. "I can come up tomorrow, if you like, and we can spend a whole day showcasing how your garden's growing now."

Roger, bless the old boy, had taken all of Blaze's recommendations to heart, hiring a whole team of gardeners to make sure the garden bloomed at its best. So one day stretched into three and a half marathon days of carefully filming what even Blaze had to admit was some of his best restoration work. If only the rest of his clients were as conscientious as Roger.

As they headed into the house for lunch on that fourth day, Roger said, "I'll just call my wife from the greenhouse so she can join us."

"Lady Rose is helping your gardeners?"

Blaze had only met Roger's wife at meals in the house, when he'd first worked on the restoration. He remembered her as a stiff, formal sort of lady, who insisted that the garden was her husband's mid-life crisis project, wanting to bring back the gardens he remembered from his childhood. She'd laughed and said he'd picked something better than buying fast cars or a football team.

Roger looked smug. "When her friends saw our garden on your program, they all wanted cuttings from her Regency roses. Once she understood how easy it was to propagate roses, and how much everyone wanted them...well, we've turned one of the glasshouses into a gift shop, where she sells the roses in pretty little pots. We had a whole room full of the things, from when she was going through her pottery phase, and we couldn't give them away. Now, she's selling them!" He led the way into the nursery. "Rose, you remember Blaze Argyros, don't you? He's the genius who bought our gardens back to life."

Blaze wouldn't have recognised Lady Rose if Roger hadn't confirmed she was the right woman. Between the sensible gumboots and the scarf tied around her hair, she looked every inch like the Queen about to drag a stubborn horse out of a ditch. She flashed a toothy grin that might have made most men take a step back, but not Blaze. Instead, he rushed forward to take her grubby gloved hand in his. Yes, he remembered that firm handshake.

"It's lovely to see you again, Lady Rose," Blaze said. Roger might not care about his title, but his wife had very different ideas.

"Roger tells me you've come to film my little plant nursery for your show." She looked expectant.

What else could Blaze do but whip out his camera and oblige the lady?

Lady Rose took him on a tour of the glasshouse, her commentary so thorough that Blaze suspected he'd leave most of it in, without needing to do a voiceover.

Blaze's boot caught on something under one of the benches, and he reached down to disentangle himself...only to get whacked by a striped paw.

"Oh, don't mind Mackerel. She follows me in here sometimes so she can sleep where it's warm, and then forgets to leave. We had to put in a cat door for her. She's become quite the queen of the castle, chasing away any creature that would dare eat my plants."

The feline queen yawned, then rolled over and presented her belly for rubbing.

Blaze dropped to his knees, camera in one hand, as he patted the cat. Luckily, she seemed to like the attention, purring loud enough for the sound to be picked up on the video, or at least he hoped so. Cute pets were catnip to his viewers, every time.

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