A Stranger's Kiss

errant. But she was hanged if she was going to give in without a fight. She had mere seconds in which to act before the two men appeared on the steps and she was discovered. She didn’t waste it, flinging herself at the BMW, praying that it wasn’t locked. Her guardian angel must have been listening because the rear door opened to her touch and she dived in, pulling it shut behind her with heartfelt thanks for the superb German engineering that ensured it closed with scarcely a sound.
    She didn’t know where her knight errant was going, but at least he was going somewhere. Away from her father, away from Lower Honeybourne. She would throw herself on his mercy and borrow his mobile. It would only take a call to bring some gallant racing to her aid. Meanwhile, she tucked herself down behind the front seats and congratulated herself on her luck.
    It might not be the most comfortable way to travel but this way her escape was far more likely to succeed. An attempt to get away in her own car would have been spotted in an instant and by the time she reached the electronic security gates they would have been locked.
    She could and would have climbed over them, but then what? She had no phone, no money and would be faced with a very long walk along a deserted country road as night fell. With her father hot on her tail.
    Brodie, on the other hand, would drive through unchallenged and, having aided and abetted her escape, he could scarcely turn around and take her back when she popped up on his back seat. In fact, since he was heading for London, he could drop her at her front door.
    By morning she would be in France with Kit and then Hollingworth could do his worst.
    There was the added bonus that once they were clear of the park she would be able to thank him for helping her. The thought brought a smile to her lips. She was absolutely sure that she and Brodie were going to be friends.
    There was a crunch of shoes, the driver’s door was opened and through the gap between the front seats she saw him palm the keys from his pocket.
    ‘It seems they were on the seat all the time,’ Emmy heard him say as he turned back to her father, almost certainly without a trace of a blush. No one who acted with such swift decisiveness would be fazed by a tiny white lie. ‘I must have dropped them.’
    Her father snorted, impatient with such incompetence. ‘I thought you were supposed to be Hollingworth’s bright new man.’ His voice betrayed what he thought of bright new men in general and Brodie in particular. ‘I just hope you’re capable of dealing with this situation efficiently. I don’t want it bungled. I particularly don’t want it all over the newspapers,’ he added.
    ‘I’ll speak to Kit Fairfax,’ Brodie assured him. ‘If it’s money he’s after it’ll just be a question of haggling.’
    ‘Haggle all you want. Whatever it costs, it will be cheap if it keeps my daughter out of the hands of some idle layabout who’s only after her money.’
    ‘And if he’s actually in love with the girl?’
    Her father responded with the kind of explosive, disparaging noise she had always assumed to be the colourful invention of nineteenth century novelists. Apparently not.
    ‘Just use whatever means necessary to ensure they don’t get married, Brodie. I’m holding you personally responsible.’
    Emmy froze.
    Brodie was being sent to deal with Kit?
    Where was Hollingworth? She could deal with that pompous old fool with one hand tied behind her back, but suddenly Brodie’s treasured decisiveness was not so welcome and she gave a little shudder of apprehension.
    The beauty of her plan had been in its simplicity. She had been convinced that nothing could possibly go wrong. Which just went to show how dumb one person could be.
    Brodie tossed the folder he was carrying onto the passenger seat and climbed behind the wheel while Emmy made herself as small as she could. Popping up the moment they were clear of the estate and introducing herself no longer seemed such as good idea.
    Brodie might be terribly kind to girls who flashed their knickers when they climbed down drainpipes, but she was very much afraid that he wouldn’t be anything like as soft-hearted when it came to dealing with fortune hunters. Or as easy to mislead as the unimaginative Hollingworth.
    Which made it imperative she get to darling Kit before Brodie could talk to him, or she had a feeling the poor lamb wouldn’t know what had hit him.