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mine?’ Davina enquired tardy.
    ‘Both!’ Rex’s retort was brief and to the point. ‘I could see everyone’s ears flapping as soon as I put my foot inside the shop, and I’ll wager anything you like by this time our supposed relationship is all round Camshaw.’
    Remembering the gossip in her home village, Davina did not doubt his words for an instant. Just the same, the thought of sailing under false colours gave her an unpleasant feeling. She had always been a bad liar and she saw trouble ahead as a result of Rex’s efforts to scotch a scandal. Despite her cousin’s words of warning, the possible construction that people might put upon her keeping house for a man as attractive as Rex Fitzpaine had simply gone over her head. How short-sighted could a girl be, Davina thought, how dim-witted?
    Either the lie he had been called upon to tell or her own reactions had sent Rex into another of his impenetrable moods. He drove in silence and at top speed back to the farm and as they got out, he handed Davina the parcel of paint and said stiffly, ‘I’ll be in for a meal in half an hour,’ before striding off in the direction of the barn.
    Davina burned with resentment, but she was wise enough to keep silent. Not that he had given her much chance to reply, she thought as swiftly she opened a tin of ham and prepared a salad. She had barely finished laying the table and making the inevitable tea when he came in, and taking her seat, she sat waiting for him to wash and join her at the table.
    Picking up the carving knife and fork, he began to carve, asking in a perfectly affable voice, ‘Hungry?’
    No sense in letting him know how much his changeable moods chilled her, Davina thought, and looking up she smiled sweetly. ‘Absolutely famished !’
    Five minutes later, staring in something like dismay at her heaped plate, she wished she had been a little wiser, for Rex had served her as much as he had served himself. Wondering how she would get through it all, she noticed with resentment that Rex was tucking into his lunch with every evidence of enjoyment. Sleeves rolled above his elbows, he ate as if he hadn’t a care in the world until, looking up, he caught her staring.
    ‘Now what’s biting you? You’re looking at me as if it were feeding time in the zoo. Do none of your boy-friends have normal healthy appetites?’
    Davina’s long eyelashes flickered and she looked away, but Rex had no intention of letting her off without an answer. ‘Cat got your tongue?'
    Davina looked up, met the smile at the back of the hard eyes, and reluctantly smiled back. ‘Sorry if I seemed rude. I was simply admiring your magnificent appetite.’
    It was the best she could think of on the spur of the moment. Why did he always put her in the wrong so that she was forced to apologise?
    ‘I’ve a big frame to fill, remember, and it needs stoking regularly from time to time. Tell me,’ his voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper as he leaned towards her, ‘what’s for supper?’
    It was such a ludicrous remark from a man with a loaded plate in front of him that Davina let out an involuntary chuckle. She met the look in the hooded eyes and was unable to drag her own away. Something in his gaze made her stunningly aware of how breathtakingly attractive he was, from the top of his healthily shining hair down the strong brown throat to the powerful, muscular body.
    She managed somehow to look away, for he had an uncanny habit of reading her thoughts. She could not have been quick enough, however, for as if conscious of the fact that she was with difficulty controlling an irresistible urge to touch him, Rex stretched out his long legs under the table until his feet encountered her own.
    Quickly, Davina drew her feet back until they were under her chair, in no way reassured by Rex’s soft laugh as he went on eating. She was gripped by a strange, hitherto unknown sensation of swimming in uncharted waters and for the remainder of the meal