glancing at Sophie. ‘He still has that charisma that had all the girls hankering after him.’ There was a hint of envy in his voice.
‘Mm hmm.’ She was hardly immune to it herself—no matter how much she’d told herself in the intervening years that Nate didn’t have any power over her feelings, it had taken only a few seconds in his company for him to prove her profoundly wrong. ‘I suppose so.’
They chatted for a while, about Jake’s work and her job as a children’s doctor, until, reluctantly, he glanced once more at his watch. ‘I should go,’ he said. ‘Do you want me to see you back to your car?’
She shook her head. ‘No, that’s all right. I still have to finish off this coffee. You go ahead. I’ll leave in a minute or so.’
‘Okay.’ He stood up, leaning over to give her a quick, affectionate kiss on the cheek. ‘I’ll see to the bill on my way out.’
‘Thanks.’ Sophie watched him leave and then slowly sipped her coffee. It was hot, a new brew fresh from the pot, so she had to take her time. Lord Branscombe, she noticed, glancing idly towards his table, was picking at a plate of food with hardly any appetite, while his Estate Manager was tucking in to a steak and all the trimmings. Nate wasn’t eating. The three men seemed to be having an avid discussion about something—the way forward, she supposed.
A short time later she pushed her cup away and picked up her handbag, getting ready to leave.
‘You’re going already?’ Nate must have been watching her because he suddenly appeared at her side, his hand coming to support her elbow as she stood up. ‘I didn’t want you to leave without my having the chance to talk to you again. Perhaps I could walk with you?’
‘I... Yes... I mean...’ She was flustered, startled by the way he’d homed in on her, and she stayed silent as he accompanied her down the stairs. By the time they reached the lounge area of the restaurant, though, she had managed to recover her equilibrium enough to say, ‘Won’t your father be expecting you to keep him company?’
‘I’m sure he’ll be fine without me for a while. Besides, I’ve said all I need to say to him for now. He knows my opinion. I’ve no doubt he and Maurice will be battling things out for another hour or so yet.’
They walked out of the white-painted building and stood by the railings on the cliff path, looking out over the rugged crags to the beach below. ‘I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to see you with Jake,’ Nate said. ‘You were always good friends...but I saw that he kissed you. Are you and he a couple now?’ He was studying her intently. ‘Are things serious between you?’
She blinked at the suddenness of the question. She’d forgotten how direct he could be. ‘Oh, we met up again fairly recently,’ she answered cautiously. ‘I think he’s fond of me but, really, we’re just friends.’ She suspected Jake would like to take things further, but after a couple of ill-fated relationships over the last few years, she wasn’t about to step into another one in a hurry. Perhaps she was the problem. She’d seen what had happened with her parents’ marriage and she wasn’t ready to put her trust in anyone any time soon.
‘I see.’ He studied her closely as though gauging her response. He didn’t seem to believe the ‘just friends’ scenario. ‘I’ve always cared for you, Sophie. You know that, don’t you? It was hard for me to see you hurting so much after what happened to your father. I felt perhaps you blamed me in some way—perhaps you thought I should have tried to stop my father from flying—’
‘You must have known he had angina.’ She stared at him, and the pain must have been clear in her eyes. ‘Surely there was something you could have done?’
His gaze travelled over her, searing her with its intensity. ‘You know what he’s like. He never admits to weakness. And I was working at a hospital in Cornwall at the time.’ His mouth flattened. ‘Sophie, I never wanted there to be this rift between us. You didn’t seem to want me around but I always hoped—’
She stopped him before he could say any more. ‘No—let’s not go there,’ she said quickly, anxious to ward off complications. He’d gone away to work abroad, leaving her to pick up the pieces. Perhaps, like he’d said, it was hard for him to see her pain, to witness the heartache his father had caused. ‘A lot’s happened in the last few years. I’m sure we’re very different people now—leastways, I know I am. These past two years have changed me.’ She braced her shoulders. ‘So what’s happening with you? Is there someone in your life these days?’
He pulled a face and shrugged. ‘You know me,’ he said. ‘Can’t settle—too much going on all the while.’
‘Hmm. And it’s going to take time, isn’t it, to find the right woman...the one with the class and breeding to take her place at Branscombe Manor?’ She said it with a smile, with the wry knowledge that he would most likely exhaust all possibilities before making his pick.
‘Oh, you know me so well, don’t you?’ he said with a short laugh, reading her mind. ‘Or at least you always thought you did.’ He sobered, studying her thoughtfully.
‘Oh, cryptic now, are we?’ She let that one pass and asked seriously, ‘So...have you come back to sort out the estate?’
He raised a dark brow. ‘Can you imagine my father letting me do that? He’s never listened to any ideas that don’t go along with his way of thinking, from me or anyone. That’s why we argued and it’s another reason why I left. He’s always been a stubborn man, determined to do things his own way.’
‘Yes, but you can be a bit like that sometimes,’ she said, challenging him. ‘Isn’t there a bit of like father, like son? After all, you decided on medicine as a career and went your own way, even though you knew your father was set against it.’
‘True,’ he conceded, ‘but I felt very strongly about becoming a doctor. I’m lucky, far more fortunate than a lot of people—I was able to dip into my trust-fund money to get me through university because he wouldn’t support me in my choice. He wanted me to go in a completely different direction and learn everything there was about Estate Management so that I could take over one day, but I couldn’t do what he asked. We settled the argument eventually, but it was always a sore point with him.’
‘Some people around here think you don’t care about the estate, or the village.’
‘Is that what you believe?’ He shot her a lancing green stare.
‘I think I know you better than that...but I’d like to hear your side of things.’
He made a grimace. ‘It’s not true that I don’t care. Of course I care. It’s my heritage. The Manor has been in our family for generations and I want to keep it that way. I would have been fine with taking on the estate when the time came. I would have done whatever was needed, with the help of managers and estate workers, but my father wouldn’t tolerate any of my ideas. Whenever I suggested changes that I felt would be for the better, he said things were all right as they were. He made things impossible for me. I wasn’t prepared to be just a figurehead, keeping things ticking along in the same old way.’
She nodded, acknowledging the truth of that. Her father had often hinted at how difficult it was to work with Lord Branscombe. ‘How are you getting along with him now that you’re back?’
He shrugged. ‘We still don’t see eye to eye, but we get on fine. When I heard that his angina was worsening I had to come back, to make sure he’s all right. I didn’t see that I had any choice. My father can be difficult, but he’s all I have and I’m his only son, so, despite our differences, we have a strong bond. We’ve come through a lot together over the years and we’ve learned to understand one another.’
‘And how is he, really? He hasn’t been looking too good lately.’
‘Do you care?’ His gaze narrowed on her, a muscle in his jaw flexing. ‘After what happened to your father, do you actually care what happens to him?’
She