AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Her health is quite delicate.’
‘What does that mean? Has she been seriously ill? Or through some kind of detox program?’
‘God forbid.’
Slipping out of his seat, he opened the rear door and retrieved the roses, and then he came around to open Sally’s door, but she beat him to it. ‘What’s going on, Logan? This isn’t making sense.’
He grinned. ‘Just be patient and all will be revealed.’
Stamping her foot angrily, Sally fumed. ‘I’m not setting foot inside this place until I know who I’m supposed to be meeting.’ She stamped her foot again. ‘And why she’s in anursing home.’ Another poke. ‘And why you’ve got such a silly grin on your face.’
‘Bravo!’ cried a voice from behind her.
Spinning around, Sally discovered a diminutive old lady in a motorised wheelchair. The woman’s face was a picture of delighted surprise and her lively brown eyes twinkled from beneath a tidy cap of snowy curls.
‘I like to see a young woman with fire,’ she said.
‘Darling,’ Logan intervened, stooping quickly to kiss the old lady’s papery cheek and settling the bouquet of roses gently in her lap. ‘What are you doing outside at this hour?’
‘It’s such a lovely evening, I thought I’d come out to meet you. And I’m very glad I did. Now, introduce me to this interesting young woman.’
There was a flash of emotion in Logan’s eyes that Sally couldn’t quite identify. It was followed by a charming smile of apology. ‘Grandmother, this is Sally Finch.’
Why hadn’t she guessed that the white roses were for someone like a grandmother? Why hadn’t Maeve or Kim guessed? The nerve of Logan to let his staff think they were for his lover.
‘Sally,’ Logan continued. ‘I’d like you to meet my wonderful and formidable grandmother, Hattie Lane.’
Swallowing her outrage, Sally dredged up a smile as she offered her hand to be clasped by thin and wrinkled fingers. ‘Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Lane.’
‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Sally and please, call me Hattie.’
‘Now,’ Logan said quickly, ignoring his grandmother’s sharp, birdlike glances of bristling curiosity, ‘let’s get you inside out of this damp night air.’
Taking hold of her wheelchair, he propelled it towards the front doorway.
Clifton House was certainly fancier than any nursing home Sally had visited, more like a grand hotel. Logan’s grandmother’s room was on the ground floor. Spacious and airy, it housed a large bed with a beautiful, quilted cream bedspread, built-in bookshelves and anen suitebathroom. There was also a small sitting area with armchairs and a coffee table beside tall French windows that opened out to the garden.
‘Take a seat, Sally.’ Hattie Lane, as regal in her wheelchair as on a throne, pointed to an armchair deeply upholstered in pale green velvet. ‘That chair next to the window is very comfortable.’
Sally sat where she was told and watched with mild surprise as Logan arranged the bouquet of white roses in a beautiful pink crystal vase. His long fingers worked deftly and the results were surprisingly pleasing to the eye.
‘Thank you, darling.’ His grandmother smiled at him fondly, then with an extra twinkle in her eyes she asked, ‘And now, how about pouring us a little sherry?’
Obediently, Logan went to a pretty cupboard in the corner and extracted three fragile, gold-rimmed sherry glasses and a matching carafe with a heavy glass stopper.
‘This must be a special occasion,’ he said.
‘Of course it’s a special occasion. It’s the first time you’ve ever brought one of your young lady friends to visit me.’
Sally wished she hadn’t been looking at Logan then, hadn’t seen his frown and the sudden tightening of his mouth. Clearly, he wasn’t pleased that his grandmother had jumped to incorrect conclusions about their relationship.
Serves him right for tricking me into coming here.
If she’d had time, Sally might have asked herself why Logan had brought her here, but right now she decided it was more important to set the record straight with Hattie andto make sure she understood that Sally wasn’t one of her grandson’s ‘young lady friends’.
Too nervous to take time to find a delicate way of putting this, Sally blurted out quickly, ‘I’m not actually Logan’s girlfriend. I work at Blackcorp, you see. I started there a couple of weeks ago as a receptionist, but then Mr. Black needed dancing lessons and I’ve been helping him.’
Sally felt better now that she’d got that out, but Hattie’s air of excitement hadn’t dimmed one jot.
