Obediently Georgia did so, having realised that Emily Latham’s visitor could not, as she had dreaded, be Piers, but must instead be the colonel who had called round whilst Emily was away to complain at Ben’s desecration of his garden.
‘Good afternoon to you, my dear.’ The colonel beamed as he followed Emily into her drawing room. ‘Delightful to meet you again, and under such auspicious circumstances. Ah...stay, sir...’ he commanded Ben, who was about to get up, fixing him with a very stern ‘services’ stare.
It didn’t take long for Georgia to realise that it was more than any mere desire to make sure Ben was behaving himself that had brought the colonel round to see Emily, and Georgia suspected the older woman was by no means indifferent to her ex-military admirer.
Leaving them to enjoy their afternoon tea à deux, Georgia drove home.
The four-week training course she was observing began on Monday, and she was going to spend the weekend with her parents before driving straight to the course from her parents’ home.
Naturally she was relieved that her visit with Emily Latham had passed without any mention of Piers, and even more relieved that she hadn’t had to endure actually seeing him.
But where was he? Emily had said that Ben was missing him. Did that mean he had decided against taking up permanent residence in the town? Had he perhaps decided to move somewhere else? Somewhere as far away from her and her unwanted love as he could possibly get? Well, if so, he needn’t have troubled himself. There was no way she was going to make a fool of herself over a man who didn’t want her. What did he think she was going to do? Fling herself at his feet and beg him...?
Angry colour scalded her skin. Did he really think that just because she had not been able to control her longing for him, her love for him, once, that meant...?
Once? a sharply clear inner voice demanded delicately. Her face burning even more hotly, Georgia compressed her mouth and started to make mental lists of everything she had to do before she started her journey to her parents’ home.
It was the town’s evening rush hour, and a Friday as well, and the traffic was at a standstill, gridlocked, but Georgia valiantly refused to give in to the temptation to allow her thoughts to double-back to Piers.
She would need to pack clothes for the weekend, and for the course she was attending. She had warned her neighbours and her landlord that she would be away. She had put batteries in her small tape recorder so that she could make notes of what she saw. She had checked up on the progress of her patients. She had operated on two dogs and a cat earlier in the day, all three minor procedures, which had come through without any complications, the animals having been reunited with their grateful owners before she had left work.
She had bought her father a copy of a new political biography which she knew he would enjoy for his upcoming birthday, and she had treated her mother and herself to a video of one of their favourite Jane Austen books. She still had to fill her car with petrol and— Abruptly Georgia tensed as she saw Piers’s familiar figure emerging from the local estate agent’s office.
Had he been in there to tell them that he wasn’t now interested in any local property?
Greedily Georgia absorbed every detail of him: the thickness of his hair and the way it grew down into the nape of his neck, the tanned column of his throat, exposed by the casual shirt he was wearing, its short sleeves revealing the strong muscles of his arms, the late afternoon sunshine glinting on the fine, silky hairs that covered them.
He was close enough for her to be able to see the way he was frowning, as though deep in thought. A pretty girl emerged from a shop next door to the estate agent’s, almost bumping into him, and his frown changed to a warm smile as she apologised to him.
The warmth of that smile pierced Georgia’s heart. Jealousy was a red-hot burning coal inside her body, a fierce anguish that shocked and hurt her. Determinedly she averted her face, unable to endure looking at them. What if Piers was suggesting that as recompense for bumping into him the girl allowed him to take her for a drink? What if she accepted, smiling another flirtatious smile at him? Georgia could all too easily imagine how tempted she would be, how tantalised at the thought of attracting the interest of a man as good-looking as Piers.
The car in front of her moved off, but Georgia didn’t notice. She was too entrapped in the horrible mental images tormenting her. Piers and the pretty girl...a bride and groom looking adoringly into one another’s eyes...looking lovingly...
Georgia jumped as the driver behind her sounded his horn, and Piers, alone now, now that the girl who had walked into him had gone on her way, looked over to see what all the commotion was about, his body tensing as he saw Georgia.