Free Storms Over Blackpeak by Holly Ford

Luke. ‘Tell me you didn’t.’
    He met her gaze.
    ‘It would have made us a lot of money.’
    Lizzie almost laughed. How could anyone who had ever met Charlotte Black think she would want to turn Blackpeak Station into a resort? ‘I take it Charlie wasn’t impressed?’ She shook her head. ‘Did you really think she would be?’
    ‘I thought …’ Luke rubbed his hands over his face again. ‘I thought if I could just make her see how it could be. If I could show her the whole package—’ He broke off, frowning down at the carpet.
    Lizzie, watching his face, had the sense that he was reliving a nasty scene.
    ‘There was no point even talking to her until I was sure I could do the deal,’ he went on, more than half to himself. ‘I was almost there.’ Glancing up at Lizzie, he rolled his eyes. ‘Ready to present. You know.’
    ‘But,’ she suggested, gently.
    ‘But Charlotte got wind of the project from someone else, and — well, she got totally the wrong end of the stick and thought that I was trying to steal the station off her, and that that was why’ — Luke grimaced — ‘that was why I wanted to marry her. To get my hands on half her share.’
    Lizzie frowned. ‘She’d have to have had a pretty badlawyer for you to get that.’
    He nodded. ‘I wouldn’t have had a snowflake’s chance in hell. But you know what Charlotte’s like when she gets an idea in her head. She wouldn’t listen. She wouldn’t talk. That was it, we were over.’
    Lizzie didn’t know what to say. ‘Well,’ she tried, hoping to lighten the tone, ‘I suppose that is the worst that could happen.’
    Luke smiled. ‘You did ask.’
    ‘I’m sorry.’
    ‘For asking?’ A little mischief found its way back into his eyes. ‘I don’t blame you.’
    ‘For you. It must have been tough.’
    He shrugged. ‘I probably wouldn’t come out of it quite so well if Charlotte was telling the story.’
    Lizzie nodded. There were always two sides. She could see how bad the whole business with Tsang must have looked from Charlotte’s.
    ‘There may have been other … factors … as well,’ Luke confessed into the silence that followed. ‘We were apart a lot.’
    Factors with names, Lizzie thought, knowing Luke. He wasn’t the sort of guy a girl ought to leave to his own devices. On the subject of which …
    ‘I’m not sure I should hear any more,’ she smiled. ‘Let’s go down to the kitchen. I’ll make you that coffee.’
    ‘Is Carr up yet?’
    ‘He’s over at the yards.’
    Amused at how relieved Luke looked, she herded him downstairs.
    They found Cally unloading the dishwasher. Noting her colour rise as Luke walked into the room, Lizzie reflected how very hard it must be to be good when the opportunities to be bad were never-ending.
    ‘Here.’ Reaching over Cally’s shoulder, Luke took a wineglass and set it on the dresser shelf she was struggling to reach. ‘Let me help you with that.’
    ‘I’m surprised you’re not out with Windy,’ Lizzie said. ‘I heard the two of you were best mates.’
    Cally looked awkward.
    ‘Did Ella,’ it occurred to Lizzie, ‘take Pooch?’
    Cally shrugged. ‘It’s okay.’
    Lizzie sighed to herself. Jolly good. So Ella had managed to upset everybody’s day. Including, she suspected from the way she had seen him watching Cally over dinner last night, Ash’s.
    Depositing her empty mug in the sink, she glanced around for the coffee pot.
    ‘Would you like another cup?’ Cally produced the spotlessly clean pot from a cupboard. Lizzie wasn’t sure she’d ever seen it leave the stove before.
    ‘You sit down,’ Cally said, ‘I’ll make it.’ She paused. ‘Luke?’
    ‘Thanks.’ He shot her a smile. ‘I’d love one.’
    Lizzie, doing as she was told, settled into the armchair beside the range. Luke pulled a chair out from the table.
    ‘Doug, get down,’ Cally scolded, as Carr’s new cat slunk onto Luke’s lap from the neighbouring chair.
    ‘It’s okay.’ Luke