Free Sins of Sarah by Anne Styles

then,' he snapped. 'Remember this. From now on you are under contract to me. You disobey me - just once - and I'll put you across my knee. And that's no idle threat, believe me! You behave like a child, I'll treat you like one. I've had enough practice with my own daughter.' The tears did slide down her cheeks then. She had been so emotional all day that they had always been close to the surface. 'Don't try conning me with tears, either!' His voice was hard, and cold.
    'I'm not.' Sarah wiped her hand over her eyes. 'I am sorry. Nick, really. It's just been a bad day all round, and I knew you'd be mad. It didn't help.'
    Nick managed to find a clean handkerchief and dried her tears, feeling genuine remorse then. 'For Christ's sake don't cry every time I yell at you,' he said, 'or you'll never stop! Now please stop, or Charlie will think I've been beating you already.'
    'If it's any consolation to you,' she said, calmly lifting her sweater to reveal the still yellowing bruises. 'The bruises I got still hurt.'
    'I'm delighted to hear it.' He was totally unsympathetic on that score.
    Charles breezed in at that moment, and if he sensed an atmosphere between them he gave no sign of it. 'The new foal is just fine,' he announced to Nick cheerfully, and kissed Sarah's cheek. 'We'll take a look at him after supper, if you'd like to?'
    'I'd love to.' Sarah fluttered her eyelashes cheekily at Nick. 'If Nick will allow it?' She felt safe now Charles was there, and Nick knew it.
    'I swear, I'll swing for you before this shoot is over,' he sighed with exasperation. 'Come on, let's eat.'
    Over supper Sarah entertained them with tales of the hilarious wind-up dinner and the gorilla-gram the boys had organized for her. 'They even gave me a chastity belt!' she giggled.
    'Far too late, if I know James Willoughby!' Nick commented with a wry smile, and began updating her on the shooting schedule.
    Afterwards, when they went back to the drawing room, he kept her hard at work, only softening when he realized that she was totally on top of the script and had a firm grasp of Abigail's character. 'Right,' he relented at last. 'I'll show you where everything is, and if you still need some exercise Charlie can walk you down to the stables.' They walked out to the old kitchen quarters, which had long ago been turned into storerooms. The unit had taken them over and turned them into make-up and wardrobe rooms, with the upstairs area taken up by the accounts and production staff. 'Six-thirty hair call,' Nick reminded her.
    'Plenty of time for a swim first,' she told him blithely.
    'Ronnie will really love it with your hair full of chlorine! I bet you don't get up in time.'
    'Oh, I will. I'm going to need the exercise. I usually work out every day, and I always eat too much on location.'
    'I'd better show you the pool, then,' he suggested.
    He walked her through the house, talking easily about the building he had been familiar with since he was a child and obviously loved. Sarah was still inclined to be wary of him, he noted with some amusement, but he could see her visibly relax when they met up with Charles at the stables, and she was amongst the horses.
    Recognizing a fellow enthusiast, Charles happily walked her around the whole yard, introducing her to his ponies, watching her obvious delight in them and smiling indulgently at her raptures over the tiny staggering foal.
    Nick wandered out to lean on the paddock gate. To him, horses were for riding, not fussing over. He listened to their laughter, and the snorts and whinnies of the horses as they vied for attention and the Polo mints the two were feeding them.
    Over the last few weeks he had been left in no doubt that Charles was dangerously besotted with Sarah Campbell - her name was rarely far from his lips these days. He certainly needed another wife, but whether Sarah was the one, Nick was not at all sure. Charles's circle of older, aristocratic friends would be hard on her, and he was certain their