Boss Meets Baby(112)

He’d arrived at Glenteign only last night for the weekend and she had been thrilled to see a familiar, smiling— face.

‘This place has done wonders for you…I can see that.’ Looking thoughtful, Noah reached out and fingered a curling tendril of her chestnut hair. ‘You’re a different girl…and you’ve lost that grey London pallor!’

‘Who wouldn’t love it here?’

Turning slightly away from him, Georgia leant forward to smell the scent of a drowsy yellow rose, drooping— heavily on its stem beside the footpath. The path was resplendent on all sides with foliage, plants— and flowers—some past their best, since September was swiftly approaching, but still lovely all the same.

Roses had always been her favourite. She supposed it was because her mother had loved them so, and had always brought one or two into the house from the garden to light up a room when she was feeling a little melancholy. Even though she and Noah had been on their own for years now, Georgia still found it hard sometimes to realise that their mother was no longer there…her father too. They had been such wonderful, loving parents.

For some reason just at that moment the memory crept into her mind of what Keir had said at the concert. Something about not living in an ideal world, and how some people should never have children because they not only screwed up their own lives but their kids’ as well. Was that what had happened to Keir and his brother Robbie?

Her brow creased with renewed concern. She’d already concluded that the Laird of Glenteign was not exactly the happiest of men. Sometimes she glimpsed such singular sadness in his riveting blue eyes that she longed to be able to banish it for good… But she knew it was a very dangerous impulse, and one that should definitely be curbed if she didn’t want to find herself not just hurt but out of a job too…

‘And what about the Highlands? What about where you’re working now?’ she asked Noah, determined— to focus on her brother’s visit above all else while he was there. ‘Do you like it as much as Glenteign?’

‘Oh, it’s beautiful enough, all right—and the couple I’m working for are very down-to-earth…despite— being landed gentry! But I enjoyed perhaps some of the best months of my life working here.’ Noah lapsed into a reflective stroll again and Georgia joined him. ‘Keir was great to work for. Easy to discuss my ideas with, and very fair. I enjoyed his company. How are you finding him, Georgie?’

‘Oh…’ She shrugged to deflect attention from the hectic colour that she knew had rushed into her cheeks at the mention of her boss. ‘There were a few awkward moments at first, but now we’re getting along just fine. He’s off to New York on business again on Monday, so we’ve been very busy the past few days trying to do as much as possible before he goes.’

It was odd, but when Keir had announced the day after the benefit concert that he was going away, Georgia’s stomach had turned strangely hollow. No one she’d ever worked for had had such a peculiar effect on her before.

‘Oh, well…You’ll enjoy being your own boss for a while, won’t you?’

‘Yes, I’m sure I will.’

Georgia wondered what Noah would think if he knew that the big masculine study where they worked together already seemed strangely desolate even with the idea of Keir not being there with her. The man was such a presence that the big house would not seem the same without him.

‘Anyway…’ Linking her arm in his, Georgia grinned. ‘Guess what’s for dessert at dinner tonight, in— your honour?’

‘Not apple crumble?’

‘I asked Moira if she could arrange it as a special treat.’

‘Be still my beating heart!’

Keir heard the laughter from the open study window and, drawn there away from the sheaf of legal documents— he’d been busy perusing at his desk—he glanced out over the ledge towards the ground below. His heart gave a jolt at the sight of Georgia in a white summer dress, her shining chestnut hair arranged in a loose, girlish ponytail. She looked very young and carefree. Beside her was her brother, and together they made an eye-catching pair, the striking blond Noah and his darker, bewitching— sister.

A slash of envy curled almost painfully in the pit of Keir’s stomach. They might have lost their parents, but he could see that the bond between them was an extremely close and affectionate one. Again he thought of Robbie, and how the distance between him and his brother had grown ever wider over the years. Back at Glenteign—the root of all his early misery and pain—Keir had never felt more emotionally isolated than he did right at that moment. The sight of Georgia and Noah’s delight in seeing each other merely reconfirmed that he’d made the right decision in electing to go to New York on business.

The matter that called him there was hardly urgent—he had good people working for him, who were quite capable of dealing with it—but Keir found he was glad of the excuse to go away again for a while. Being around Georgia Cameron was just un-settling— him far too much, and perhaps with some real distance between them he might get things back into perspective. She was only at Glenteign tempo-rarily,— until the dependable Valerie recovered from her injury and came back. It wasn’t wise to get too used to having her here, and in New York there was a girl Keir had met on his last trip. He’d vaguely promised to get in touch with her on his return…