CHAPTER ONE
'It's all very mysterious, isn't it?' exclaimed Linda. 'Rather exciting in a way.'
Hazel slammed her suitcase shut with a bang, disrupting all the clothes she had placed in there only minutes earlier after folding them neatly. 'There's nothing mysterious or exciting about it!' she declared crossly. I’ve been ordered home, that's all.'
'Yes, but what a home! I remember the photographs you showed us when you first came over here—it's a fantastic place. How you could ever move over here and live in this tiny apartment,' Linda indicated the two rooms that had been Hazel's home for the past three years, 'after living in that beautiful mansion, I just can't imagine. I know I wouldn't do it.'
'You might if Rafe happened to own the mansion,' Hazel said with a grimace, checking that she had all her luggage ready to leave for the airport.
Linda's eyes became even dreamier. 'Rafe Savage!' she sighed. 'There's romance just in the name. How lucky you are to have such a romantic figure for a guardian!'
'He isn't my guardian! I'm nearly twenty-one, Linda, not two years old. Rafe just happens to have looked after me since I was ten. But he's nothing but a bully,' Hazel said fiercely. 'He has no right to order me home as if I'm a schoolgirl!'
'You don't have to go, honey,' Linda pointed out.
Hazel looked sceptical. Linda obviously didn't know her cousin Rafe or she wouldn't have made such a statement. When Rafe issued an order everyone jumped to obey, including Hazel—up to a point. 'I have to go. He only allowed me to come to the States at all on condition that I returned after three years, just until my twenty-first birthday.'
Linda looked amazed. 'Don't you want to return home? It must be great living in a house like that. I bet this cousin of yours is something like the local lord of the manor, isn't he?'
Hazel thought of Rafe's arrogant bearing and the respect and loyalty with which the local people in his Cornwall home treated him. 'Yes,' she agreed slowly, 'I suppose you could say that.'
'You've never talked much about your family, Hazel, but we always knew you were a set apart from us. Besides your obviously being English that is.' She leant back in the chair. 'What made you come to the States?'
Hazel shrugged. 'I wanted to leave Savage House and anywhere in England didn't seem far enough away from the Savage influence. I've had a lovely time over here, Jonathan's been perfect to work for. And everyone has been so friendly. I've really loved it here, and I don't want to go home,' she finished miserably.
Linda laughed. 'I don't think Jonathan being perfect to work for and everyone being friendly are the reasons you don't want to leave. I think Jonathan's son Josh may have something to do with that.'
'Well...' Hazel blushed prettily. 'We were just starting to get to know each other. It isn't long since Jonathan introduced us.'
Linda frowned. 'Maybe it's as well you're leaving. He doesn't improve on better acquaintance. I've never liked him. I'm sorry, Hazel, I know how charming he can be, but I've never gotten over the callous way he let Sandra down. They were engaged, you know.'
'Yes, he told me.'
'I bet he did—his side of it' Linda looked at her wrist-watch. 'We'd better get you to the airport, it's getting late.'
'You really don't like Josh, do you?' Hazel frowned.
Linda shrugged. 'As Jonathan's nurse I've had longer than you to observe Josh. I've seen him in action plenty of times. Believe me, if he hadn't been in Europe the last couple of years you'd have got to know a lot more about him too. That pleasant companion at your farewell dinner party isn't his normal image. Oh, I don't want to talk about him any more. You take away your pleasant memories of him and forget what I just said.'
Their goodbyes at the airport were hurried; Hazel's thoughts were now firmly turned towards home. Three years was such a long time to be away from home; people changed—she herself had changed tremendously. At least, she hoped she had, or this time away had been a complete waste of time.
Her arrival in the States had been nothing like her departure of just now. Then Rafe had accompanied her, seen her safely settled before returning to his estate in Cornwall, the acres of land he owned and lorded it over. The head of the family, Rafe managed and dominated every member of his household with a firmness that only Hazel had ever seemed to resent to the point of argument. That had been a lot of the trouble between them, the way she had always fired his temper.
She doubted it would be any different now. Their arguments had been almost unbearable before she had left, in fact that had been part of the reason she had wanted to go to America. And surprisingly Rafe had offered no resistance. In fact, it had been he who made all the enquiries for her job, and on finally being accepted he had accompanied her on the flight and stayed a few days to make sure she was going to be happy there.
And she hadn't see him for three years, three long peaceful years. Would he have changed? She remembered him as being tall, very tall, and dark, with the dark skin colouring and thick black hair of his ancestors. The Savajes had originated from Spain, moving to England hundreds of years ago, their name soon refined to the more acceptable Savage.
Rafe wasn't even really her cousin, her father having married Rafe's true cousin when Hazel was only two years old. Her first memory of this tall arrogant man had been at the age of five, when he was already a grown man of twenty-three, and she had fallen and cut herself, sobbing bitterly for her father. Rafe had laughed at her tears, saying she was a big girl now and big girls didn't cry over silly little things like cuts. From that moment on she had begun to hate him.
And now her time in America was over and she was returning to Savage House, a large house overlooking the sea that pounded on the rocky beach far below them. She felt nervous about meeting Rafe again, so nervous that by the time the plane landed she was pale and apprehensive. And her journey wasn't over yet.
She had cabled a couple of days ahead to say when she would be arriving, but having received no reply she had no idea if she was going to be met. She certainly hoped so; she didn't relish the idea of getting to Savage House on her own. The grounds surrounding the house were private, with a man on the gate to stop any intruders, and no one was allowed in without Rafe's explicit permission. How humiliating to arrive there and not be allowed in! It would be the sort of humiliation Rafe would enjoy witnessing.
She knew her fears to be groundless when she saw James waiting for her in the airport lounge. Dear kind James, the chauffeur who had been with the Savage family every since she could remember, his wife Sara being the cook and housekeeper.
Hazel hugged him, huge tears of emotion welling up and threatening to overspill. 'Oh, James, it's lovely to see you!'
He held her away from him. 'Why, Miss Hazel, I wouldn't have recognised you, you're so grown up.'
She laughed. 'I'll take that as a compliment, James, thank you.' She licked her lips nervously. 'Rafe hasn't come with you, then?'
The middle-aged man frowned. ‘He would have come himself normally, you know that. But since he was hurt he doesn't go out much.' His face brightened. 'But it should be different now you're home again. Mr Savage has certainly missed you.'
Hazel doubted that very much, but didn't argue with him. Something else he had said held her attention much more. 'You say Rafe has been hurt?' she asked sharply. 'What do you mean by hurt?'
James stashed her suitcase in the boot of the Mercedes, just one of the cars kept for the use of the members of the Savage family. She supposed she could be considered part of the family, although she had never considered herself as such. Rafe had a much more sturdy Range Rover for transporting himself about the estate.
James looked at her sharply now, his surprise unhidden. 'Why, he was hurt in the accident, Miss Hazel. Hurt quite badly too. Of course he won't admit to the pain he has, but you can see it in his eyes. You'll probably notice it more than we do, having been away so long.'
Hazel frowned her puzzlement. 'I don't understand all this, James. Are you telling me that Rafe has been involved in an accident?'
James halted in the process of opening the car door for her. 'You mean you don't know? Didn't Miss Celia write and tell you?'
She shook her head. 'What should she have told me, James? Tell me what's happened to Rafe!'
He shook his head. 'I would have thought someone would have told you,' he muttered to himself.
'Tell me, James!' she pleaded.
He sighed. 'Mr Savage was on the launch. No one realised, least of all him, that there was a leak in the petrol tank. One lit match and the whole thing went up. You know how Mr Savage likes to smoke those cheroots of his, it was inevitable it would happen as soon as he went on board. Luckily he was thrown clear, but the left side of his face was badly burnt and he had a crushed bone in his left hip that's left him with rather a nasty limp at times.'
Hazel paled at this information. Rafe maimed and scarred! Oh, it didn't bear thinking about. She and Rafe might have argued constantly, but she had never been able to deny that he was a fine specimen of manhood—at least, he had been! 'Oh God!' she groaned. She felt physically sick. 'When—when did it happen, James?'
'About a year ago now. Mr Savage------'
'A year ago?' she burst out. 'But I—I------No one told me!'
James closed her car door behind her and climbed into the driver's seat. 'That's very odd, Miss Hazel, because I'm sure that when he was so ill Mr Savage asked for you. Miss Celia promised him she'd write to you.' He began to look uncomfortable, as if realising he had said too much. ‘I suppose she must have decided it was better not to worry you.'