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Автор Jessica Steele
“I want you to come and live with me. ”
Alethea stared at him. “You’re not serious?” she managed.
“Don’t you know that you’re a very desirable woman?” he asked.
She swallowed. “You mean—er—live with you, with—er—bed, and everything?”
Trent eyed her steadily. “Everything,” he confirmed.
“But I don’t want to go to bed with you!” she cried in panic.
“You don’t have to. ” Her heart leapt in relief, until he added two ghastly words: “Straight away. ”
Jessica Steele lives in a friendly English village with her husband, Peter, and a boisterous, manic but adorable bull terrier dog called Florence. It was Peter who first prompted Jessica to try writing and, after the first rejection, encouraged her to keep on trying. Luckity—with the exception of Uruguay—she has so far managed to research inside all the countries in which she has set her books. Her thanks go to Peter for his help and encouragement.
The Trouble With Trent!
Jessica Steele
CHAPTER ONE
ALETHEA was in her bedroom, unsure that she wanted to go to the party. She was not a party animal. A shrill, high-pitched scream rent the air—she changed her mind. Perhaps a party would be preferable to staying home and listening to her niece’s temper tantrums. It had all been so peaceful—once!
Up until a month ago life had meandered along at a fairly routine pace. Then, without so much as a warning phone call, her sister Maxine had left her husband.
Alethea had been twelve years old when her sister, her senior by six years, had married Keith Lawrence. ‘It won’t last!’ her mother had proclaimed, not at all in favour of the match. But it had—for ten years.
Then Maxine was back home, and her mother was triumphant. After the children had been tucked up into hurriedly made beds, Maxine had revealed how her husband had confessed that he had been stealing from the firm he worked for.
‘I’m not a bit surprised!’ her mother had stated bluntly. ‘I always knew he was shiftless! That he’s a crook as well is all part and parcel of the man!’
At which Maxine had started crying, and then her two-year-old, Polly, who should have been fast asleep, started screaming. Before they knew it, seven-year-old Sadie and five-year-old Georgia were out of bed and coming downstairs, in tears, crying that they wanted to go home.
‘Your home is here with Nanna now, darlings. ’ Their grandmother poured oil on troubled waters, and it took all of an hour to get the children settled again.
‘I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ Maxine fretted when the three of them were in the drawing room again. ‘Keith’s hoping to pay the money back before the theft is discovered. He’s putting the house up for sale and... ’
‘He’s selling the house!’ Eleanor Pemberton exclaimed. ‘He’s stolen as much as that?’
‘We don’t own the house yet. There’s a heavy mortgage on it. But there should still be enough in the difference to repay what he took. ’
