Lacybourne Manor (Ghosts and Reincarnation #3)(77)

Did Colin just make a scene in front of the Day Centre, battling her hated minibus driver nemesis and conquering him for a bunch of elderly people he didn’t even know?

She couldn’t quite believe it. She wanted to but she couldn’t.

And this was because this was the kind of stuff a dream man was made of.

And, because of what she’d done and who she was to him, Sibyl had lost all hopes of ever being his dream woman.

Dazed, she helped everyone settle back into the Centre, vaguely noticing they were all watching her closely.

She didn’t pay attention.

Instead, she was thinking there would be, soon, a life without Colin and not always, but increasingly often, he acted like her dream man.

Most especially that day.

But there was nothing she could do about that the day when her life would be without Colin.

In the meantime, however, it was a life with Colin and, in those moments she saw him tearing into her evil nemesis, she knew that she was going to make the most of every damned second of the time she had.

* * * * *

Fourteen (Colin had made a slight error in counting) oldies, Kyle, Tina, Jemma and four ten year old girls all crowded around the big windows that looked out on the patch of worn grass in front of the Day Centre.

They saw their adored, beautiful, American girl wander across the grass slowly toward the tall, dark, broad-shouldered, handsome man who was talking angrily on his mobile phone.

They watched as she approached him, stood in front of him toe-to-toe, then she leaned in and rested the top of her head against his chest, placing her hands lightly on either side of his waist.

They watched, too, as he slid one hand up her spine to curl it around the back of her neck, he pulled the phone from his ear and bent his dark head to kiss her honey one.

Then he put the phone back to his ear and kept talking.

Everyone in the room decided they made a striking couple and felt, considering what they knew about Sibyl and what they’d seen of her man, that they were the perfect match.

“I think we know who our anonymous donor is,” Tina whispered to her husband and Kyle nodded.

“I’m writing to her mother,” Mrs. Griffith declared.

“I’m going to adopt him too,” Annie shouted.

And then fifteen taxis started arriving at the Centre.

Chapter Fifteen

Tranquilliser Dart

Colin was in his office on his phone

He’d gone back to Bristol after visiting Sibyl at the Community Centre to return phone calls and make certain the incredible ass who drove the minibus was, indeed, sacked (which, as Colin threatened, a number of councillors assured him, he would be, first thing in the morning).

Once he’d heard the news from the bus driver’s line manager directly, Colin felt a strange, intensely pleasant sense of satisfaction.

He didn’t question it, he didn’t have time. He had other things to do.

That task completed, Colin also phoned a surveyor to have a look at the Community Centre as a whole. From what he could see, the place was a fire trap, a health hazard and needed significant renovations.

Not to mention better furniture.

And, likely, fumigation.

And finally, he called a contractor, told him to go to the Centre and give Colin a quote on how much it would cost to build an extension so Sibyl could have a decent office, one that didn’t look like a salvage yard.

All of this Colin was going to finance and he didn’t care how much it cost.

It was ridiculous that those people were forced to spend their time in that dilapidated wreck and he certainly wasn’t going to allow Sibyl to do so.

He’d had a few words with the Councillors about that as well.

He wished, two weeks ago, when she’d slapped the briefcase shut on the fifty thousand pounds, that she’d told him then what the money was for.

However, he had to admit, he probably wouldn’t have believed her. She was, on the whole, quite unbelievable.

He’d thought that before Robert Fitzwilliam had told him about her. This feeling solidified after witnessing her in her element at the Centre. He could still see the look of shining adoration in “her girls” eyes as they stared at her and he could hear the esteem in the pensioners’ voices when they spoke to her.

He finished his call, quickly scanned some correspondence that Mandy had left for him to sign, and tried not to think of how he felt when Sibyl had rested her head against his chest.

Except for the night she’d had her nightmare and the morning when she’d attacked him because he was caressing her “sensitive spot” she rarely touched him of her own volition.

And Colin liked it when she did. Very much.

Further, there was something nearly precious about the feeling that he’d done something she approved of.

With a good deal of effort, he’d finally convinced his mother and sister to leave Lacybourne and come back next week when he was ready to introduce them to Sibyl and her family.

They were both beside themselves with the idea of a walking, talking American Godwin wandering around Clevedon. Not to mention the fact that she was in Colin’s life. They didn’t even know yet what she looked like and he hadn’t told them or they would never have left Lacybourne. They would have hunted her down and forced a Morgan Family heirloom ring on her finger, he had no doubts about that.

Colin had a great deal of work ahead of him winning Sibyl’s trust. His meddling mother and equally troublesome sister would likely disrupt his many, varied, rather complicated and extraordinarily fragile plans.