Free Copper Kingdom by Iris Gower Page A

buzzing with gossip by now.
    The afternoon seemed to draw on so slowly that Bea felt like screaming. Darkness came down early and the gas lights hissed and popped in the many silences that fell between the two men. At last, Bea rose to her feet.
    â€˜If you will both excuse me.’ She forced herself to speak lightly. ‘I will leave you to your business talk.’
    Sterling rose to his feet and opened the door for her, smiling down in a way that made her heart turn over.
    â€˜Don’t forget your offer to help me with my house,’ he said, his eyes warm. ‘And if you need me for anything, I have taken a suite of rooms in the Mackworth Arms, just as a temporary measure.’
    She smiled up at him as though he’d offered her the most wonderful gift.
    â€˜I shall need to see you,’ she said definitely. ‘I must consult you about colour schemes and that sort of thing.’
    He inclined his head as though bowing to her superior knowledge of such matters and then the door was closed and Bea was in the hallway alone.
    She stood for a moment, staring down at the polished wood of the floor without really seeing it. She felt weary, drained of all her spirit and tears were ready to slip down her cheeks.
    In her room, she drew her chair closer to the fire, she was shivering and the flames did nothing to warm her. She closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around her body, trying to imagine herself in Sterling’s arms. She longed to be held close in the embrace of a lover but perhaps even more than she needed passion, she wanted tenderness and love.
    Dean Sutton was a big man and what some might call ruggedly handsome. His features were large but regular and when he smiled, his teeth were white and even. He stood in the doorway of his home and stared around him; the rain had ceased and a pale sun illuminated the few acres of land that were his. It was a far different cry from his home in South Georgia where the ground rolling away as far as the eye could see belonged to the Suttons.
    He had left America under a cloud, the black sheep of the family. He gambled and drank far too much for his father’s liking but then Grenville Sutton had been a religious man, carrying his faith to extremes and his eldest son had always been an anathema to him.
    At last, inevitably, Dean had gone too far, he had seduced Mary Anne Bloomfield, his brother’s bride to be.
    Dirk was younger than Dean by almost ten years, the spoilt baby of the family. Such an act of betrayal by one brother to the other was more than Grenville Sutton would tolerate. Dean was banished, ejected bag and baggage from the Sutton home with only the small inheritance left him by his mother to pay his way.
    It had been his own decision to travel to Britain and for a time, he had roamed the small country from coast to coast. At last he had settled in Sweyn’s Eye, attracted as much by the rugged coast and sloping hills as by the business of the copper-smelting industry.
    It had not taken Dean very long to build a house of his own, a splendid place with marble pillars and many windows. It had taken a little longer to become accepted by the local people and Dean knew full well that it was the large amount of capital he had offered Arthur Richardson, that had opened the doors for him to be drawn into the social life of the town.
    He was not as interested in the copper as perhaps he might have been and just lately, the copper shares had yielded very little profit. He had begun to wonder if this was an expedient time to pull out of the company. It was just as well that after living in the town for almost ten years, he had managed to consolidate his small fortune by investing in a diversity of business ventures.
    The groom brought round his horse from the stable and Dean mounted the animal with the ease born of long practice. Not for him these newfangled automobiles, nothing could ever replace the exhilaration of being seated high in the saddle