Read Online The Firebrand Who Unlocked His Heart by Anne Fraser - Free Book Online Page B

date?’
    ‘No, not yet. But with the salary I’ll be earning, I’m hoping for an autumn wedding.’
    ‘You don’t sound very excited.’
    Didn’t she?
    ‘But I am excited!’ Colleen protested, the words not sounding convincing even to her own ears. ‘We’ve been waiting for this day to come around for so long. We’ve even started building a house.’
    ‘What does he do? Your fiancé.’
    Colleen slid a look in his direction. ‘I thought you knew everything about me. You had me
investigated
, after all.’
    His green eyes glittered back at her and she felt that strange sensation in her stomach again. Maybe she should stop looking into his eyes?
    ‘My research didn’t include your fiancé.’
    ‘Ciaran works on the family farm with my brothers.’ Colleen decided it was time to change the subject. The discussion was bringing back that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. And she wasn’t here to talk about herself. She was here to do a job and that meant finding out everything she could about Harry and his life before the accident.
    ‘Were Harry and his mother close?’ she asked.
    ‘Of course. Aren’t all mothers and sons?’
    Colleen bit back the retort that rose to her lips. Not all mothers and sons. Certainly not all fathers and sons. Wasn’t this man sitting next to her living proof of that? He seemed completely oblivious to the irony in his last statement.
    ‘I mean, Harry was at boarding school before his accident, right? How did he like it?’
    Daniel looked puzzled. ‘I’m pretty sure he liked it well enough. I wanted him to have the best education money could buy. It’s the same school I went to and my father before me. It never did me any harm. In fact, it toughened me up. Made me self-reliant and confident.’
    Colleen choked back the words that came to mind. In her opinion it explained a lot.
    ‘And Eleanor was happy about this?’
    ‘It was her idea. She’d been to boarding school herself and the best local schools were over-subscribed. Of course she missed him, but we both agreed it was for the best.’
    Best for whom? Colleen wondered. She couldn’t see how it was best for a young child to be sent to live with a bunch of strangers. It wasn’t as if Harry even had a brother there to help him through the inevitable homesickness. She remembered the time her youngest brother had gone away with the scouts on a two-day camp. He’d phoned home on the first night and insisted their parents come and fetch him home.
    ‘Eleanor thought he’d have company there,’ Daniel continued. ‘Harry was shy, or so she said. She thought it would give him confidence to be with others his own age.’
    Even worse. Sending a shy, lonely boy away from home—how could anyone think that was the right thing to do? However, she wasn’t going to voice her opinion. Not now at any rate. Daniel was hurting enough as it was.
    ‘He came home every weekend. Mostly to his mother and the cottage in Devon. A couple of times to Carrington Hall.’ He pulled his hand through his hair in that characteristic way Colleen was beginning to learn meant he was baffled. ‘After the second time, he refusedto come again. Probably because there was no one of his own age to play with, I guess.’
    Colleen’s heart went out to Harry. She could see the little boy wandering around that big house looking for company and not finding it. No wonder he stopped wanting to come. Hadn’t the same thought crossed his father’s mind?
    ‘He was only at boarding school for the last two years. He was at day school until he came back to the UK,’ Daniel said.
    ‘Came back to the UK?’
    Daniel’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. ‘Harry was born in Buenos Aires. He lived there with his mother and stepfather. They only returned to the UK when Harry was ten.’
    Colleen waited for him to continue, but it was a few minutes before he did.
    ‘Harry’s mother and I divorced before Harry was born. She took him to Buenos Aires