Read Online Trouble on Her Doorstep by Nina Harrington - Free Book Online Page A

dad’s first hotel: loading dishwashers, peeling veg, helping to clean the rooms. My brother and sister did the same. We are a very hands-on family and there was no special treatment for any of us. We had to learn the hotel business from the bottom up. Those were the rules. And why do you want to know that?’
    ‘I was born in north-east India. At a tea plantation where my dad was the general manager. He worked for a big firm of Scottish tea importers who owned most of the tea gardens in that district of Assam. And don’t look at me like that. I am simply answering your question the long way round.’
    ‘Are you always so curious about other people’s lives?’ Sean asked.
    ‘Always, especially when I can see the worry on your face. No doubt you have some terribly important business meeting that you should be attending at this very minute instead of putting up with me. As a matter of interest, how long had you given me in your whizzy electronic diary this morning? Just for future reference?’
    Sean lifted both hands in the air and gave a low chuckle.‘A whole fifty minutes. So we are still on the clock. Please, carry on. Your delightful childhood in sunny India. That must have been very special.’
    She grinned, shook her head, then carried on walking. ‘You have no idea. Both of my parents were working estate managers so I was left with my nanny and the other kids to run feral across a huge farm most of the time outside school. It was paradise. I only went down with serious diseases twice and grew up speaking more of the many local languages than English. I loved it.’
    ‘When did you leave?’
    ‘We moved four times to different estates in fifteen years and that was tough. But they all had the same problems and my dad had a remarkable talent for turning the businesses around. He seemed to have a knack for dealing with people and helping them with what they needed. Mostly better education for their children and health care.’ Then her voice faded away and she looked out over the wide, grey river in a daze. ‘They respected him for that. I’m sure of it.’
    ‘Did you come back to England for your education?’ Sean asked and stepped closer to avoid a couple of joggers.
    Dee stopped and turned back to face him, and her eyebrows squeezed together as she focused on his question. ‘Partly. But mainly because the firm promoted my dad to be a tea broker. We came back to London when I was fifteen.’ Then she exhaled and blew out hard. ‘Total culture shock. I had been here for holidays many times, but living here? Different thing.’
    Then she paused and licked her lower lip. ‘That was when I realized how much I had taken the outdoor life for granted. Being cooped up in a classroom with only a couple of small windows to let in air and light started to be a real problem, and my schoolwork suffered. I found that the only lessons where I could relax were the cookery and art classes where we were taught in a lovely sunlit studio extension at the back of the school.’
    She looked up at him through her eyelashes, which he realized were not black but more of an intense dark brown.
    ‘I was okay there. Big open patio doors. Lots of space. And colour; lots of colour. The gardens were planted out in wonderful displays of flowering shrubs and plants. Tubs and hanging baskets. Planters everywhere.’
    Then she pressed her lips together tight. ‘In fact, that studio was just about as opposite as you could get to that windowless, airless cube of a white room we have just escaped from.’
    She titled her head to one side and blinked. ‘Human beings are not supposed to be in spaces like that meeting room of yours. Seriously. What was the designer thinking? Monochrome, hard surfaces. No colour or texture. No living plants. If I was a business person, it would be the last place on the planet where I would want to go to work.’
    Then she winced and flashed him a glance. ‘Sorry, but you did ask. And I am sure that the