Old Desires/A Stranger's Kiss (2-in-1 edition) by Liz Fielding Page B

of hitch?’ he asked suspiciously.
    ‘It’s nothing much,’ she said quickly, in case Joshua might take it in his head to explain. But Joshua made no such mistake. There was an awkward silence and, to fill it, she quickly introduced the two men.
    ‘Joshua, this is David Grantham. I share the house with him,’ she added, because she hated the word lodger, but clearly some explanation was necessary. ‘David, Joshua Kent, my cousin’s executor.’
    ‘Joshua Kent?’ David was suddenly all smiles and offered his hand. It was taken briefly. ‘I thought you looked familiar. I’ve heard a great deal about you. Can I offer you a drink?’
    ‘I’mjust about to make some lunch for Mr Kent, David,’ Holly said quickly, hoping to head him off.
    ‘Great. We can have a chat over one of Holly’s omelettes. She’s a great cook.’ Joshua ignored this and when he turned to Holly his face had returned to the aloof, unreadable expression of the man who had called two days earlier.
    ‘I can’t stay for lunch, Holly,’ he said. ‘I’ll get your bag from the car.’
    She followed him out. ‘I’m sorry, Joshua. David’s— ’
    ‘You don’t have to explain,’ he said curtly, opening the boot. ‘But we still have to examine the papers in the loft.’
    ‘Not now.’ She would have enough trouble damping David’s curiosity as it was. He was ambitious enough to realise the potential in this sort of human interest story. Friendship would count for nothing if there was a chance of a story that would make the nationals.
    ‘Tomorrow, then.’ And she knew there was no point in arguing.
    ‘If you must, but I have to work in the morning. Come after two o’clock. You can search the house if you want, so long as you promise that if you don’t find anything you’ll stop all this nonsense.’
    ‘And if we do find something?’ he persisted, placing her bag in the hall.
    ‘We won’t.’ She shook her head at the sharp question in his eyes. ‘I shan’t go up to the loft before you and destroy the evidence, Joshua. You’ll be the first person up there in several years. I offer the dust as my alibi.’ She managed a smile. After all, she had been right and could afford to be generous. ‘I have a particular aversion to spiders.’
    He reached out and touched the platinum curve of her hair. ‘Something else you have in common with Mary. Until tomorrow, then.’
    It was a while before she moved, then she slowly closed the door and turned back into the living room.
    She picked up the birth certificate and gently smoothed out the folds.
    ‘What’s that?’ David asked, coming from the kitchen with a beer.
    ‘My birth certificate,’ she said, and touched the date. December the twenty-fourth. Christmas Eve. Her mother had said she was the best Christmas present she’d ever had. Now, quite suddenly, the words seemed to take on a different meaning.
    * * *
    ‘The boyfriend not at home?’
    ‘Who? Oh, David. No, we won’t be disturbed today. He’s at the magistrates’ court all afternoon.’
    ‘Really? A parking ticket, or can I hope it’s something more serious?’
    ‘Neither,’ she said, surprised into giggling. ‘He works for the local paper.’
    ‘Far more serious, then,’ he said with a barb to his voice. ‘We’d better get on with the search party, before he comes back and scents a story.’
    Joshua had come prepared for a foray into the loft dressed in a pair of old jeans and a sweatshirt. He looked so much younger out of a suit that her suggestion that he was Mary’s lover seemed embarrassing in retrospect. He must have women falling over themselves. Young, beautiful women. She remembered the look that Lisa Stamford had given him and wondered if they were lovers. The sharp stab of jealousy was so unexpected that she almost gasped.
    ‘The ladder is in the shed,’ she said quickly.
    ‘Lead the way,’ he said and she did, thankful that he was totally unaware of the impossible thoughts racketing around her