‘Because the snow makes the landscape beautiful, my little city girl. Plenty of people ’round here like to walk and enjoy the hills at this time of year.’
Helen smiled ruefully and poured the soup into a large earthenware bowl. ‘I’m sorry. I must seem like an alien to you. I was born in London, I went to university in London and I’ve worked there ever since.’
Oliver gave a dramatic shudder. ‘It’s a wonder you’re even remotely sane,’ he teased, sniffing appreciatively as she placed the bowl on the scrubbed pine table in front of him. ‘At least they taught you to cook in London. Smells delicious.’
Helen cut two large slices of bread and Oliver looked at her in surprise. ‘That looks home-made.’
‘It is.’ Helen gave a shrug. ‘Not much else to do here in the country when it’s snowing outside. I had to find a way of amusing myself and Bryony’s cupboards are very well stocked.’
Oliver gave a slow, sensual smile that made her insides tumble. ‘We country folk have all sorts of exciting ways of passing the time when the weather is bad.’ He picked up the spoon, his eyes twinkling wickedly. ‘If you’re good, I’ll teach you a few.’
Her tummy did a somersault.
He was flirting with her again and she didn’t know how to handle it.
Unsettled by her reaction to his good-natured teasing and feeling totally flustered, Helen flicked on the kettle and generally busied herself around the kitchen.
‘So do lots of people go walking in the fells in the middle of January?’ She couldn’t imagine the appeal and she found it hard to understand that some people would choose to be out in that weather.
‘Plenty.’ Oliver tore the bread with his fingers. ‘And if they’re well equipped, that’s no problem. Unfortunately the group today didn’t have what they needed to survive in this weather. Snow changes things. You can’t see the paths. Landmarks look different. It’s easy to get lost.’
‘But you didn’t get lost.’ She couldn’t imagine Oliver Hunter lost in any situation. He was the sort who others would depend on. Someone who would always lead.
‘We have satellite navigation equipment, which helps us pinpoint our exact position.’ He looked at her hopefully. ‘Is there any more soup?’
Pleased that he was enjoying it so much, she poured the remainder into his bowl. ‘But presumably you didn’t always have that technology.’
‘Before satellite navigation we used compasses and good old-fashioned local knowledge.’ Oliver helped himself to more bread. ‘And, believe me, you can’t beat old-fashioned knowledge. Most of us were brought up in these hills. When Tom and I were kids we used to play a game. We’d identify a fixed point, usually miles away, and then we’d walk to it, memorising landmarks on the way. Then we’d return by the same route, using the landmarks to stop ourselves getting lost.’
Helen looked at him blankly. ‘What sort of landmarks?’
Oliver shrugged. ‘A rocky outcrop in a funny shape. A huge boulder with a stream running nearby. Sometimes it was just a patch of sheep dung.’
‘And did you ever get it wrong?’
Oliver grinned. ‘Never. We had far too much pride to get lost. And by the time we were teenagers we knew the local area so well that we could have walked it with our eyes shut. It was good training for mountain rescue. I’m intimate with an enormous number of boulders between here and Keswick.’
Helen shook her head. ‘It’s so different from my childhood.’
‘Tell me about your childhood.’
Helen settled herself in the chair opposite him. ‘It will sound very boring to you, I’m sure.’ She frowned slightly. ‘My dad was a lawyer in a London firm. I went to a girls’ day school. Mum stayed at home and managed Dad’s life.’
‘No brothers or sisters?’
‘No.’ Helen gave a lopsided smile. ‘I would have loved a sister, actually.’
Oliver nodded. ‘I always imagine that it must be pretty hard to be an only child. All that weight of parental expectation on your head.’
Helen nodded, thinking of her parents’ ambitions for her. ‘And the trouble is when you disappoint them there’s no one else to take the attention away from you.’
‘I can’t imagine you ever being a disappointment.’
Helen sighed. ‘My parents really wanted me to marry David,’ she said simply. ‘They were totally crushed when it all fell through. Embarrassed, humiliated, angry.’ She rubbed her forehead with shaking fingers, suddenly realising that the sanctuary she’d found was only temporary. At some point she was going to have to face people again. ‘Their reaction was one of the reasons I escaped up here. I could have stayed at home, but they were both so distraught by what had happened that it made the whole situation even more stressful.’
Oliver looked at her keenly. ‘You’re talking as if the whole thing was your fault.’
And that was part of the problem, of course. She’d gone over it a million times in her head.