He's Talking Secrets Read online

He was busy counting the number of windows along the ground story, but was interrupted suddenly when one of the back doors opened and out came four varying sized hounds, followed closely by the cutest little girl he had even seen. She ran past him laughing and giggling. For some reason this surprised Brandon. Thinking about it he should have assumed that the perfect family scenario would fit into Lady Sophia’s life. The little girl was the splitting image of her mother, blonde hair flowing out behind her as she chased after the dogs. As if thinking about her mother, Sophia materialized. Lady Birmingham emerged from the same back door as the dogs and little girl, along with several men. She was not dressed as he expected. Oh sure, he thought she might be in work clothes but Khaki work shorts that showed off rather tanned and muscular legs which were much more shapely than he expected. Then he looked at her feet and saw the heavy duty work boots. He couldn’t help but laugh out loud. To top it off she had on a pair of thick work socks spilling out the top of the boots, these only accentuated the shape of her legs. Brandon never considered himself to be a leg man but suddenly a very wayward thought forced its way inside his head. What would they feel like wrapped around him, he thought.

  Brandon had become so use to a certain type of women that he had completely forgotten that practical women still existed. His women, if you could call them that were basically all the same. They may have had different hair color or complexions but Brandon’s mind snapped with the idea that ’his woman’ were all basically the same. Tall, beautifully put together, very willing to please him and all of them with the intellect of well-rotted compost. When had that happened? He wondered. As a young ambitious man he always thought he would end up with a beautiful, intelligent, business minded women who would share in his success and be his equal, not at all what he had spent his life dating.

  Brandon then surveyed the men and wondered which one, if any, was Lord Birmingham. Lady Birmingham spotted Brandon standing there, having just laughed at her in her boots.

  ***

  For some strange reason Sophia was hoping that Brandon wouldn’t turn up this morning. She couldn’t quite put her finger the reasoning, perhaps he was just too good looking and therefore a potential distraction she could ill afford. But seeing him standing there made her smile, nonetheless. He certainly was good looking and those eyes hadn’t become any less dazzling overnight. He seemed just that little bit sexier dressed in work clothes, big thick work socks and boots. As she appraised him she noticed that he had extraordinarily lovely athletic legs. Stop this, Sophia she warned herself.

  “Good morning Brandon. Good to see you turned up” Sophia said trying to keep it light.

  Brandon felt that she must have had the feeling he wouldn’t be here this morning. This puzzled him a little, perhaps he looked to soft and maybe Sophia felt that a hard day work would have scared him off. That put a small dent in his male ego, just a little one.

  “Morning My Lady” Brandon replied with a small bow of his head. Sophia’s eyes narrowed whilst looking at him make the formal gesture. Was he mocking her? No, perhaps not on second thoughts, being American he may not be sure how to address her and acknowledge her title. It seemed like a genuine gesture although there was a slight glint in his eyes as he raised his head and a very slight tightening of his lips as though he was trying not to laugh. The other three men who emerged from the building where looking at them both rather puzzled and a little bit of amusement crossed all their faces at Brandon’s address of her. “Good Lord, My Lady I do hope you don’t expect us to start bowing at you?” said one of the men. The other two both took their hats off and bowed at her with very solemn looks on their faces. Sophia turned to the first and proceeded to hit him across the shoulders with her hat. It was a gentle and playful act. She then told the other two that if they bowed at her again she would lock them in the dungeon and perhaps bring them out for target practice at some later stage. Had he done something wrong? Brandon was feeling as though he was on very unfamiliar ground, which was well, unfamiliar. Did she really have a dungeon? How good a shot was she?

  She turned to Brandon and said “Alright, I’ll show you what we are doing for the rest of the week. Then if you like, I can show you what we have done so far and what I have in mind for the rest of the gardens?” Sophia stated. She had every intention to test him to see if he really did have any knowledge about historic plants and garden layout. If he didn’t he would be handy on the end of a shovel. Brandon knew this was going to be a test and he was looking forward to having to prove himself.

  Sophia turned her attention to the little girl “Lilly, would you please leave the dogs alone and go back inside. Remember you have the morning off school but have to go at 11am.” Sophia turned to Brandon “Lilly is my little girl, who has too much energy and somehow thinks she should run the grounds with the dogs and not attend school.” There was very genuine affection on Sophia’s face. “Lilly met Mr. Brandon. “ She said to the little girl as she approached them and stopped directly in front of Brandon. He suspected that he must have appeared very tall to such a little girl, so he crouched down to her level for an introduction.

  Before Brandon could think of what you say to a little girl by way of introduction, Lilly threw her arms around him. Brandon was completely unprepared for such a sweet display of affection. But he did think that he covered his surprise well. He wasn’t sure if he should return the hug but it would probably hurt the little girl’s feelings if he didn’t offer some response. With an arm around her he said “Hello there.”

  Little Lilly drew back to look at him with a very serious expression on her face and said “I don’t think I should go to school today. Because on the days I am here my Mummy gives me the job of Chief Supervisor and that sounds important enough to stay home for. Don‘t you think?”

  Brandon looked at the little girls’ face and said in all seriousness “Now that is a very important position,” Lilly seemed very chuff with this information. “But school is important too. And much more fun, what with the book reading, the singing and I bet you get to do dancing as well and then there‘s lunchtime all those friends who will miss you in the playground, how will they enjoy their day without a Lilly there?” Lilly nodded her head in complete agreement throughout this. She hopped down and proceeded to run after the dogs again. She called back over her shoulder “OK Mummy, I’ll go to school…...”

  Sophia was just staring at him. Did he say something wrong? As he stood up she just said “Thank you, I usually have a battle on my hands to get her to go but today might be different.” She turned and started to walk down a path. “Why 11 am?” Brandon enquired. One of the men who were walking past spoke, “Mrs. Jackson has a doctor’s appointment this morning.” Brandon frowned. The workers were all older men, too old to have children in primary school. He looked up. He opened his mouth to ask how they would know when the last of the men walked past and could see the confused look on Brandon’s face and said “Mrs. Jackson is Lilly’s school teacher. There are no secrets in our part of the world son; everyone knows everyone else’s business around here. We think she might be expecting again”, he said and patted Brandon on the shoulder as he passed. This was so foreign from Brandon’s world which was full of predictable small talk and impersonal relationships and friendships which were aloof at best. How interesting to live here.

  Whilst walking down the path Brandon recalled that Sophia had called Lilly her little girl, not our little girl, which was strange, Brandon assessed the men walking down the path and eliminated them as her husband, which, he conceded, wasn’t too hard to do seeing as they had bowed at her earlier. None of them “fitted” and they seemed to defer to her. She really was rather nice to look at, even in her boots, but of course not his type.

  Chapter Three

  Sometime later, Sophia went back to the Manor house. She returned with the master plans for the gardens. Another fifteen minutes saw the two of them alone touring the grounds, or at least a small part of the grounds. Brandon acknowledged that thi
s place was huge. He turned to Sophia with a rather cheeky look on his face. He did an exaggerated look around them and turned to her “You know I don’t see anyone else here, are you going to take your top off again?” Then he burst into laughter. She tried not to laugh back but couldn’t help the giggle that rose from within. He put up both hands in a defensive manner as she took a swipe at him with the maps. He took a step back when she put both hands on the bottom of her shirt and said with a shrug, “I’m game if you are” Her bemused look changed instantly into one of terror when he shrugged his shoulders and lifted his shirt to show an amazing set of abs. Dear Heaven, He’s taking me seriously she thought. Only to have him falter, looking into her eyes and stating seriously “We can only do this if you’re wearing that incredibly sexy bra from yesterday, that was a highlight for me, you know. In fact I think that vision will flash before my eyes as I lay dying” He could no longer maintain a straight face and turned to continue walking down the pathway laughing heartily as he went. She had no choice but to follow him thinking that his demise might not be too far away if he wasn’t careful…..that made her laugh.

  Sophia had to begrudgingly admit that he knew what he was talking about, thus far. They discussed differing periods of landscape design and the plant stock used during those times and throughout their discussions something rather unexpected happened which, if she was honest with herself it had rather rattled her. Whilst looking at the plans for the next garden their hands had bumped together in the briefest of touches. It was like an electric shock had hit her. She hoped that she didn’t show her surprise that the slightest touch of a man had her jumping. It really was ridiculous as she knew what he was up to with the Mr. Charming act. Eventually there would be cracks in his façade. So after the tour and a lengthy discussion on some of the difficulties Sophia was having. One of which was trying to get some of the older rose stock, the other was trying to find historically correct information about the original gardens. They went back to the top garden to shovel. Sophia made sure that she kept her distance and kept busy so as not the dwell on that touch. Morning Tea time meant that they went back to the house and sat out the back steps eating freshly baked biscuits.

  “Brandon this is Agnes Winters who is our amazingly talented cook and extraordinary Head housekeeper and who I consider to be part of the Birmingham family”. To this Agnes bowed her head slightly towards Sophia and accepted the compliments with a slight show of embarrassment. Brandon stood immediately and greeted Agnes warmly shaking her hand. Agnes just about fell over herself when Brandon complimented her on the biscuits. It was interesting to witness the reaction from Agnes’s husband who was one of the workers today. Brandon then turned the Bill and asked if he and Agnes were related. Sophia was a little surprised and taken back that he had put that together. When it was confirmed that they were indeed husband and wife Brandon proceeded to converse with them both and seemed completely unaware of three things that happened almost simultaneously. Agnes fell deeply in love with him, or at least that was how Sophia saw it. In 16 years Sophia had never seen the women bat her eyelids once. Yet here she looked like she had something in her eye, for her eyes were fluttering as if they were in overdrive. Bill had become “chatty” and as a man who rarely spoke it was on par with the unbelievable behavior of Agnes. The final most alarming event to occur in the past three minutes was Lilly, who seemed to be instantly besotted with Brandon. She was asking him if he liked the biscuits she apparently cooked single handedly, all while climbing onto his lap. He was at least nice enough to engage in small talk with the little girl and complimented her on her fantastic cooking. He didn’t seem to mind being used as a piece of playground equipment by a six year old girl. In fact he looked like it was the most natural thing in the world to him, like he had known Lilly forever.

  The day went on much the same way. A lot of the days planned work was completed and Sophia had to admit that Brandon worked hard. He seemed to be thinking some deep thoughts throughout the day. He was friendly and getting along with the other men, in fact the other men seemed to accept that there was an underlying power and a sense of authority oozing from Brandon. Sophia had not noticed this until he was working beside the other men. They seemed to pale against him. She watched him and acknowledged that he really did have power written all over him. At that exact moment he looked up and Sophia realized that she had been staring at him and worse than that, he knew she was looking at him. Fabulous……now he’ll think I’m checking him out. Well he wouldn’t be far off the mark, would he? Her little inner voice said.

  It was late afternoon when Brandon bid them goodbye and headed off down the driveway. Sophia felt as if the sunlight had somehow dimmed just a little without Brandon’s presence. She assured herself that it was a figment of her imagination. But then she remembered his touch on her hand and felt the reaction that her stomach was having to that small touch. Sophia walked into the house with goose bumps covering her whole body.

  Sophia had dinner with Lilly, gave her a bath and read her several books before putting her to bed. The staff had retired to their quarters and Sophia wondered around part of the house, as was her nightly ritual. Sophia was exhausted, both physically and mentally. She was tired of all this weight on her shoulders and was acutely aware that it was hers alone. When she was working in the gardens she didn’t have time to think about all her added responsibilities. One of the driving forces for improving the gardens was whilst Archibald had assets and money he had not been a businessman and had let the entire Estate run down to a point where it was within a knives edge of being doomed. He owned two villages. Who does that in this day and age? But he had not invested any money into the upkeep of all those properties. It was not until his death that this became clear to Sophia. He had expected “the commoners” to live beneath him and therefore didn‘t think it a priority to upkeep their dwellings. Sophia was horrified to realize that some tenants were living with young families in houses that had not had hot water for months, or toilets that had been leaking for years, just to name a few of the endless list of maintenance issues that needed to be resolved. Sophia had had six years and in that time she had managed to make some vast improvements to both of the villages. She had rectified all the outstanding problems of all the tenants. And the garden restoration was, to an extent, a reward to herself for improving everyone else’s lives. The gardens had been a goal that she would not have undertaken if there had been anything to do for the tenants. She knew that the maintenance issues would never stop but at least it was no longer an avalanche of complaints or compliance issues to deal with. Eventually she went to bed and woke up in the morning remembering that Brandon’s’ touch was the last thing on her mind and the first thing she thought of when her eyes opened.

  Chapter Four

  Tuesday

  Brandon was there at 8o’clock sharp. For some reason he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep which was odd as the physical work had worn him out. He had become very accustomed to working out in the gym of his various penthouses but “real” work was a very foreign activity these days. He really enjoyed the day yesterday and was looking forward to getting back into it again. The dogs gave him a good warning that all would be exiting from the back of the house. Lilly ran past him with a smile and a wave as she chased after the dogs. He turned to watch as Sophia came out. What color are her eyes? He had been able to see them as he lay wide awake last night, they were beautiful but for some reason the color eluded him. She was wearing a bright green shirt today and it left no doubt that her eyes were green, the shirt drew the color out and she looked gorgeous. His heart beat had increased considerably. So to cover his reaction he bowed and said “Good morning, My Lady”. Bill was the only worker from yesterday but someone must have pre-warned them of Brandon’s’ greeting because they all turned to Sophia and in unison took off their hats, bowed their heads and said “Good morning My Lady”. All done with very straight faces, they then took off down the broad stone stairs taking then two at a time as
fast as lightning. Evidently aware that if she could have caught them Sophia would have hit them with something, preferably something very hard. Or found the keys to this dungeon or shot them, all not good options. She turned to Brandon who was standing looking as though he had not somehow encouraged this. “Good Morning to you, Brandon” was all she said and walked past him. He did however gain a light smack on his buttocks with her hat as she passed. This caused him to laugh so hard he nearly gained himself a second one for good measure.

  It was midafternoon, when they were all thinking about taking a break for Afternoon tea. An older man dressed in a black suit came up to Sophia. Brandon looked at him as he walked up the stone pathway. The suited man gave a bow of his head as he passed. Brandon guessed he was in his late sixties. The man spoke to Sophia addressing her as Lady Sophia with a very formal bow and then spoke softly to her. Sophia’s face remained rather impassive then she stood up and indicated that he should lead the way. As they walked past Sophia stopped beside Brandon and called the man back “Harold, you have not had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Brandon De Lecour, have you?” Harold turned and bowed again. “A pleasure, to meet you, Sir” Brandon stood up and offered a greeting with a rather puzzled look on his face. Surely this was not her husband; they expressed a level of familiarity and fondness of each other, but surely not. Sophia was looking at him and saw the questioning frown on his face. He thinks Harold is my husband, she thought to herself with an inward smile. “Brandon, Harold is my Butler”. She almost laughed at the relief that flooded his face and the smile that followed. “I’m very sorry Sir, but My Lady is needed in attendance at a….. situation.” Harold said whilst backing away. “Is it something I can help with?” questioned Brandon, it would be nice to spend some more time with Sophia who had turned and was moving away. She turned and said, “Not unless you know something about giving birth.”