Taming The Wild CEO novel Chapter 37

C H A P T E R 3 5 : W H E N H E O P E N S U P A N D S H E G I V E S I N

E L L A S T A N F O R D

Javier shrugged. “At least we are alive,” he said. “All I hope is that we can start the car again. We are about a mile from my brother’s cottage and there is no village for hour miles back. The nearest garage is about seven miles off.”

They got back into the car. “Okay, let’s try again.” he said, starting the ignition.

Astonishingly, it sprang to life at the second attempt, and he carefully reversed back from the tree. They started to drive around the corner and emerged on to a flat narrow road bordered on one side by trees through which she could just see a river bank. On the other ran orchards whose blossom-covered branches tossed wildly to and fro in the wind.

Javier sighed with relief, driving a little faster. The rain still ran in rivers across their windscreen. The sky was almost as dark as if it were night. But they were at least able to drive. He gave Ella a smile of pure relief. “Another five minutes and we should see Piers’s cottage. It is the only building for miles.”

“It must look beautiful when the sun shines,” she said, peering through the rain at the orchards. “What a pity the storm is blowing all the blossom off those trees.” Torn white petals were blowing like confetti past the car, many of them sticking to the windows in the rain. Suddenly the car began to make a strange choking sound, and Javier muttered under his breath. Staring through the windscreen, she said anxiously, “Sir, the hood!”

Thin coils of steam curled up at the sides of the hood and he groaned. “We are running out of water to cool the engine and the car is overheating.”

At that moment she caught a glimpse of a green roof through the curtain of rain. “Is that the house?”

The steam was growing quickly. He slowed the car to a crawl, grimly watching the hood of the car. “We may just get there before it does too much damage,” he said. “We will have to call the nearest garage and get them to fit a new radiator. I suspected it was badly dented. It must be full of holes. We have been losing water ever since we hit that tree.”

He pulled up a hundred miles from the house. A cloud of steam was rising from the hood by then. “I dare not lift it or the engine will be drowned in rain,” he said irritably. He opened the door and got out.

Ella followed and they began to run towards the house, drenched before they had gone more than a short way. Lightning split the dark sky. She gave an instinctive cry of fright, and he looked back at her. “It can not hurt you,” he said flatly. “If you can see it, it can be nowhere near you. You are quite safe.”

“I do not like it,” she confessed, putting down her head and running harder towards the house.

She barely got a glimpse of it before they were at the front door. He banged loudly on it, pushing her under the slight overhang of the lintel to escape the worst of the rain. There was no answer. He banged with his fist, shouting, “Piers, it is me. Javier!”

Silence answered them. She looked at him questioningly. “What are we going to do?”

He tried the door, but it was locked. “Stay here,” he said grimly, moving round the side of the house. She leaned against the door, her chest heaving after her running, brushing the wet hair out of her eyes. Thunder rolled again and again as if it reverberated around the hills. Through a line of willows she saw the muddy brown waters of the river whirling rapidly, realising that the cottage stood a mere hundred feet from the green banks.

She heard the front door open and turned, expecting to see a stranger, but it was not Javier’s brother Piers, but Javier himself. “I had to break the kitchen window,” he said tersely. “Get in here before you drown.”

She went into the house, finding herself in a narrow vestibule, from which led two doors at right angles. He shut the front door and pushed her through one of the others. In astonishment and bewilderment she surveyed a totally empty room. She turned towards him, her eyes wide. “Jiev.”

“I know. He is not here either,” replied Javier with a sigh.