Free Forever Scarred by Jackie Williams

for a few seconds and then reached into his pocket for his business credit card. He threw it on the desk and unfolded himself from the chair.
    “I’ll leave that for you to sort out. Is there anyone around who can show me and my staff to our rooms?” His tone was icily calm but Patrick recognized defeat when he saw it. He smiled inwardly before remarking in a friendly tone as the two of them moved towards the door.
    “Geraldine will be down in one moment. She’s just making sure all the arrangeme nts for your rooms are adequate. It’s actually made it slightly easier with Miss Collins already being here. She’s been a vast help.” Patrick held the door open and waited until Freeman walked through.
    Freeman grunted.
    “Yes, well if she has been that helpful maybe I should be charging a daily rate for her services. We could come to some arrangement with the bill at the end of our visit.”
    Patrick gave a grim laugh as he closed the office door behind him.
    “You can forget that Freeman. She’s taken the bridal suite so I’m afraid any of her back pay will be taken up in offsetting the room costs. Ah! Here’s Geraldine.” He smiled up at the dark haired beauty who stood by the rest of the guests. “Everything in order?” He asked and his sister in law answered in richly accented English.
    “Yes, of course, I’ll take our guest s up in just a moment. Ellen was asking for you Patrick. She is in the salon. I made ‘er some tea but she is not very comfortable.”
    Patrick frowned immediately and turned to Freeman.
    “I beg your pardon, you will have to excuse me. I must go and check on my wife.” He walked away from the group without further ado or even a backwards glance.
    Freeman turned to Geraldine, a sickly smile pasted onto his face as he looked the beautiful woman up and down.
    “Yes, well I would much rather you show us to out rooms than Mr. Reeves. He seems more than a little tetchy about our early arrival.”
    Geraldine narrowed her eyes but then gave the man in front of her an expressive Gaelic shrug.
    “If you would like to follow me. I ‘ave given out keycards for each room so I will just see you all settled before I ‘ave to attend to other duties. Dinner with be in the dining room at seven thirty. You are welcome to wander the grounds and use the facilities in the chateau as you please. There is a swimming pool in the cellar along with a sauna and other treatment rooms. You might as well acquaint yourselves with them now as you will probably need them later in the week.” She turned towards the wide stairs but Freeman caught her arm and pulled her towards him as he spoke quietly.
    “I understand that my secretary has taken the bridal suite. I wondered if we could put my things in there too. We have a sort of an arrangement.” He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head as if that explained exactly what he meant.
    Geraldine stared down at his hand where it grasped her forearm. She waited until he unwound his long fingers and then she shrugged again.
    “Miss Collins ‘as not mentioned anything to me about this. I will check the arrangement with ‘er first.”
    Freeman cleared his throat and walked beside Geraldine as the mounted the stairs.
    “It’s more of a surprise than an arrangement. She will be thrilled to see me.” He coughed into his hand.
    Geraldine rolled her eyes as she turned away from Lucy’s boss. There was no way she was going to let this arrogant fool anywhere near his secretary, especially after the way she had seen how Lucy and Joe reacted to one another but she decided not to say anything more to this horrible man. She had noticed the revolted sneer on his face as he spoke to Patrick and she hadn’t needed to see anything else to know her opinion of him.
    “I’m sure she will be delighted, but as you ‘ ave just arrived and Miss Collins is already very busy with helping our grounds man, I think I will show you to our own room. She can decide later on if she wants