Rachel's Coming Home by Gillian Villiers Read Free Book Online Page B

seemed a very long one and Anthony was leaning against the pillars at the bottom of the broad steps of the hotel entrance before the appointed time. Eventually Gemma appeared, still in her waitress’s outfit of black and white, neat and pretty. It had been worth the wait.
    â€˜I don’t have long, I’ve got to get the three-thirty bus.’
    â€˜Let me buy you an ice cream and we can sit in the park for a bit.’ Anthony had planned this out and was pleased when she nodded. They chose flavours from the locally produced ice cream in the shop beside the hotel and wandered down to watch children on the boating lake.
    â€˜Are you enjoying your job?’ asked Anthony. It was so good to be with her again.
    â€˜It’s all right.’ She shot him a brief smile that made his heart beat faster. ‘Not exactly my life’s ambition, but Mrs Mackenzie who runs the hotel is really nice. All the staff seem happy.’
    â€˜I could do with a job in a place like that.’
    â€˜Mmm. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?’
    Anthony was happy to talk to her about absolutely anything. And unless he was reading things totally wrong, she didn’t seem to mind being with him. So he broached the subject of the advertising campaign, not mentioning the difficulties the kennels were having just now but explaining they wanted to bring in some new business.
    Gemma seemed interested. She nodded and licked the last of the strawberry ice cream from her fingers. ‘So are you thinking of posters to put up around town? Or an advert for the paper?’
    â€˜Both, I suppose. Although the advert would cost money. And I thought some of those little bits of paper you can hand out to people.’
    â€˜Flyers. Yes. We could do those as a smaller version of the posters.’
    â€˜So you’ll help?’
    â€˜Yes, why not?’ Gemma looked down as she spoke but Anthony thought she was pleased. ‘It sounds like fun. Come on now, we’d better run or we’ll miss the bus. Unless you’ve something you need to stay in town for?’
    â€˜No, I’m coming home too.’ Anthony wasn’t going to miss the chance to spend extra minutes with her.
    â€˜When do you want to start?’ she said, once they had found seats on the bus.
    â€˜As soon as possible.’
    â€˜Can I come to your house? I don’t think my dad will be … too keen on us working at mine.’
    â€˜Of course. We can work on the computer in my room.’ Anthony wanted to punch the air, this was going so well. ‘We could go back there now, make a start straight away.’
    â€˜No, Dad’ll be expecting me home. But I could come round tomorrow morning, say about ten?’
    â€˜Brilliant. Don’t say anything to Mum and Dad about what we’re doing. I want this to be a surprise.’

Chapter Five
    Rachel walked slowly up the winding track towards Courockglen House. It was cool under the shade of the broad-leafed trees and smelt of warm, damp undergrowth. Normally she would have enjoyed the way the sunlight filtered through the greenery, dappling the ground with golden patches, but just now she was too busy chewing her lip and wondering if this visit was a good idea.
    She was very sorry about Ben’s injury and had apologised to Philip Milligan more times than she could count. The sensible thing to do would have been to phone to check on his progress and then try to forget the whole incident. But when she mentioned a possible visit, her mother had been delighted with the idea. She seemed to think it was just the thing to mollify Philip Milligan. Rachel wasn’t so sure. The man would probably think her visit an imposition, quite unnecessary, but she had come so far now she had to go through with it.
    And part of her was interested to see the reputedly beautiful old house, tucked away so deep among the rolling hills and woods that you never caught a glimpse of it from the