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Chapter Three

Author: Lori
last update Last Updated: 2022-07-16 00:32:11

"The old man had this thing about stately homes, I guess I kinda feel the same.

He owned a fair handful of the things himself, so he kinda had a taste for them, if you know what I mean. There was the plantation down in Carolina and then a couple of châteaux in France and a palazzo in Venice, so it just kinda happened naturally that he should have this idea of using his millions to preserve and protect big houses, and now the Trust has a whole skew of them all over the world, and more wanting to have the Trust bankroll them every day.’

Elena, with her own admittedly second-hand experience of her stepbrother’s problems in running and financing his own large family estate in England, had quite naturally been very interested in what Lloyd had had to say, but it had still surprised her a few days later to receive not just a telephone call from him but the offer of a job as his personal assistant.

Elena wasn’t sixteen any longer, nor was she the naive and perhaps over￾protected girl she had once been. Michael might be in his early sixties and might, so far, not have done or said anything to suggest that he had any ulterior motive whatsoever in making contact with her, but nevertheless, having asked him for time to consider his unexpected offer, the first thing Elena had done was telephone her stepbrother in England and ask for his advice.

An unscheduled and unfortunately brief visit from Lucas and his wife Lia to vet Michael and talk over the situation with Elena had resulted in her deciding to take the job, a decision which, twelve months down the line, she regularly paused to congratulate herself on making, or at least she had done until now.

Her work was varied and fascinating, and barely left her with any time to her work was varied and fascinating, and barely left her with any time to draw breath, never mind for any personal relationships with members of the opposite sex, but that didn’t worry Elena. So far, what she had learned from her experiences with men was that she was a particularly poor judge of the breed.

First there had been her revoltingly humiliating teenage crush on Roth and his rejection of her, then there had been the appalling danger she had put herself and her family in with her foolish involvement with Dane.

She and Dane might never have been lovers but she had known, from the first, of his involvement in the drug scene and, as foolishly as she had tried to convince herself that Roth would fall in love with her, she had also tried to convince herself that Dane was simply a lost soul in need of protecting and saving.

She had been wrong on both counts. Love was the last emotion Roth had ever felt for her. And as for Dane... Well, thankfully he was now safely out of her life.

Her new job took every minute of her time and every ounce of her energy.

Each new property the Trust decided to ‘adopt’ had to be inspected, vetted and then painstakingly brought up to the same standard as all the other properties the Trust financed and opened to the general public.

Elena knew that her employer’s highly individualistic and personalised way of deciding which of the multitude of properties he was offered as potential new additions to the Trust’s portfolio were worth acquiring caused other organisations to eye him slightly askance. For Michael to accept a house it had to have what he described as the ‘right feel’, but his eccentricities tended to make Elena feel almost maternally protective of him.

Or at least they had until now.

To return from a six-week trip to Prague, where she had been supervising the takeover of a particularly beautiful if horrendously run-down eighteenth-century palace they had recently added to their acquisitions, to discover that in her absence Michael had made yet another acquisition in the form of Haverton Hall, a huge neoclassical building set in its own parkland in Derbyshire, had caused her heart to sink into her shoes.

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    What the hell do you think I’m going to do to her?’ Roth had exploded. ‘Takeher to bed and...?’‘Is it really so impossible that you might be tempted to?’ lucas had asked himquietly. ‘I’m not criticising or condemning, Roth; physically she’s mature and sheloves you—or believes she does—’‘She’s got a crush on me that she’ll soon grow out of,’ Roth had interruptedhim grimly. ‘That’s what you want me to say, isn’t it? And I should keep myhands off her until she does grow out of it...out of me... But what if I feeldifferently, Lucas? What if I want...?’ He had shaken his head, angry with himselfas well as with lucas. More angry with himself than he was with lucas who heknew was only doing what he saw as his duty by his stepsister.‘You’re right, she’s a child still, and the sooner she grows up and forgets allabout me the better,’ Roth had told him hardily. ‘And as for taking her to bed,’ hehad thrown at lucas as he turned to leave, ‘well, there’s always a cure for that.’A

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    It was later that morning that she actually bumped into Wayne, completely bychance. In the two hours since Roth had left she had had more than enough timeto dwell on what had happened and what she had said, and by the time she sawWayne she had convinced herself that it was totally impossible for her ever tosee Roth again...ever to see anyone again who was even remotely connected withhim.‘Hi there, doll,’ Wayne greeted her with a grin. ‘Looks like it’s time to saygoodbye. I’m meeting up with the eco-warriors this afternoon.’Swiftly Elena made up her mind, seizing on the opportunity to make herescape, not just from Roth but from everything that was associated with him—herlove, her shame, and her fear that he would somehow guess that she had lied tohim.‘I’m coming with you,’ she told Wayne determinedly, adding before he couldargue, ‘My stepbrother has sent me some money so I can afford to supportmyself.’‘How much has he sent you?’ Wayne questioned her interestedly.

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    What is it? What’s wrong?’ she demanded, not understanding. ‘Last night—’‘Last night was a mistake,’ Roth interrupted her curtly. ‘It should never have happened and I wish to God... Why didn’t you tell me you were still a virgin?’‘I... I...’ Elena could feel her eyes starting to fill with tears.This wasn’t how it should be—Roth aloof, cold and distant, almost accusing.‘Roth, I love you,’ she told him shakily. ‘I want us to be together...married...’‘Married? You’re a child still, Elena... Your mother...’‘I’m not a child, I’m nearly twenty,’ she protested frantically.‘You’re a child,’ Roth insisted, ‘and if I’d known... Why didn’t you tell me?Why did you let me think that you and Wayne were lovers?’‘I did tell you but you wouldn’t listen. I thought you’d be pleased...that you’dwant to be the first...the only one...’ she told him pathetically.‘Pleased? Oh, my God.’ Roth started to laugh, a harshly bitter laugh. ‘The onlything that could make this appalling situation

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    And then, without waiting for his response, she turned her back on him andwalked very slowly and very deliberately to her bedroom door.Once there she turned round and looked at him gravely.He was still standing where she had left him, his face unfamiliarly pale, hiseyes blazing with...Quickly she looked away and then, before her courage could desert her, shetugged open the buttons of her borrowed shirt and shrugged it off.Standing still and naked in full view of Roth whilst he watched her in silencewas probably the hardest thing she had ever had to do, she acknowledged, but,somehow, doing it made her feel strong and brave and very, very womanly.There was an odd glittering brilliance in Roth's eyes, and her stomach musclestensed as she saw the way his jaw tightened as he looked away from her.‘Roth....’ she commanded softly.‘Elena for God’s sake...’Ignoring the tough grimness in his voice, she turned her back and walked fullyinto her small bedroom. Seconds later h

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    monthly allowance. She had felt uncomfortable about doing so, but after a small pause,when she had stammeringly explained that she had loaned some money to afriend, he had said quietly that she could leave the matter with him.Naively she had assumed that that meant that he would send her a cheque, andsuddenly she’d had more important things to worry about than money. David,her friend, was dead. He had collapsed at a rave party and been rushed intohospital, but it had been too late to save him.His family had taken him home to bury him and they had also made it plainthat they did not want any of his university friends to attend his funeral.‘They blame us for what happened to him,’ one of his other friends told Elenaangrily. ‘They’re the ones who are at fault. He never wanted to come here...’Elena was too upset to make any comment when Wayne asked for anotherloan, and he was moody and sharp-tempered with her, mocking her upbringingand taunting her with her naiveté and i

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