Read Trust in Me for Free Online

what he’d intended to say, but she decided to let it go. She knew it must be confusing – sometimes the age difference between the siblings confused her. Harry was forty, she was thirty-one and Evie was still a schoolgirl. “Harry, Evie and I all have different mothers. Dad lived the genuine rock star lifestyle.”
    “Your father was Mick Farnham – front man with The Noise, wasn’t he?”
    Rosie nodded and settled back into her chair. “That was dad – the original noisy boy.”
    “He had quite a reputation in his day.”
    Theo had obviously done his homework, but she would have expected nothing less. He hadn’t achieved the status of a multi-millionaire by being unprepared.
    “I can’t deny it. And he lived his life fast and loose ‘til he died five years ago.” Rosie glanced down to where her hands rested on her lap. Normally she guarded against sharing any details about her father’s life, but it didn’t seem strange to talk to Theo. If he made a habit of being this amenable then his staying here might not be such a bad idea, she reflected – it would give her more time to persuade him round to her plans.
    He sat back against the cushions. “And now you live here on your own with your sister?”
    “Yep, just the two of us.”
    “Does Harry visit often?”
    Rosie’s laugh was humourless. “You must be joking. Harry’s interest in the estate is limited to how much money he can take out of it.”
    “Evie will understand it’s not your fault.”
    ***
    “Perhaps.” She sighed and got to her feet. “Come on, I’ll show you to the spare room. And then I need to talk to you.”
    He’d expected an argument – Rosie Farnham in full battle mode had been quite something. It was a surprise she’d surrendered with such ease. This wasn’t the Rosie who’d thrown him out yesterday. He suspected there might be a hidden agenda to her sudden change in demeanour – she had to be up to something. But at least she looked quite happy that he was staying and that had to be progress.
    Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Theo grabbed his suitcase and followed Rosie up the stairs, enjoying the view of her pert, denim clad bottom as it undulated practically at eye level in front of him.
    While Rosie proved to be a growing attraction, by contrast, the more he saw of the Manor the worse it got. He couldn’t credit he’d insisted on staying here when the luxury of the Chudley House beckoned from less than half an hour’s drive away. The squalor and decay of the old building should have made him run a mile, but Rosie Farnham wielded a mighty temptation.
    “The place is falling apart,” he muttered as he stepped over the fallen masonry littering the landing.
    “Sure is,” she replied cheerfully. “Are you still sure you want to stay?”
    He glanced at her quirkily arched eyebrow, the challenging glint in her sea-green eyes and the ruined state of the building faded from prominence in his mind. “More than ever,” he assured.
    The spare room, thankfully, offered more comfort than he could possibly have expected from what he’d already seen of the house – if he could ignore the décor.
    “Pink and girlish, I’m afraid.” Not a hint of an apology in her tone, he noted. “This is where Evie’s friends sleep when they stay over.”
    “I can live with it.” He dropped his suitcase onto the sickly pink carpet at the foot of the bed. He hadn’t realised pink came in so many varying shades. Not a problem. Theo was a master of focus and he assured himself he could effectively blank out his surroundings and concentrate on formulating a plan of action. He needed to decide what he was going to do with the place.
    His initial reaction, when he’d first realised how useless the estate would be as a hotel, had been to offer it for immediate sale in as tantalising a package as possible. He knew he’d probably make a loss, a combination of the current economic climate and Lysander foolishly agreeing a