A Safe Pair of Hands by Ann Corbett Page A

to ask you for the truth of it.”
    “ So why did you not just send me on my way, you had real doubts
about me as a person, so why on earth would you employ someone like
that?”
    He was silent for a moment, and as the time and miles slid by,
Sadie began to wonder if he would even answer her.
    “ I gave you that job, Sadie,” he finally began slowly, “because
your qualifications were out of this world, your job experience
previously was high class, and when I rang some of your former
employers they all said the same thing, that they had been sorry to
lose such a valued member of their staff.”
    “ But I am certain that there were other equally qualified
applicants?” she persisted.
    He shrugged. “There were a couple, yes, but neither of them
were quite as good as you... and to tell the truth... I had lost
you once, and I was damned if I was going to risk you losing you
again.”
    There he had said it!
    He heard her suck in a breath of surprise, but it seemed that
she had nothing further to say, other than a slightly breathless.
“Oh!”
    He gave rather rueful chuckle as he shifted gear, and
increased his speed to seventy.
    He glanced at his petrol gage.
    “ I think that I will need to stop off for petrol before long...
shall I try and find somewhere that has services as well, and then
we could stop for an early lunch?”
    She hesitated for a moment, but when she spoke; her voice was
liquid warm with pleasure. “Yes, I would really like
that.”
    Nick gave a silent little sigh of relief that their almost
argument had not materialised. He really wanted their relationship
to stay a happy one; he wanted her to go home from this trip with
only happy thoughts and memories.
    *
    They travelled on for about another hour, before they came to
signs indicating fuel and services just up ahead.
    “ That looks like a pub just on the corner,” Nick said as he
signalled to leave the motorway. “If they serve all day food, then
I think that that would be nicer than some of the fast food
alternatives.”
    “ I agree,” Sadie nodded.
    He stopped off at the petrol station first, and Sadie sat
watching him as he walked around the car to the pump.
    He was just so good looking, that she could not seem to keep
her eyes off him, and her imagination would go into overdrive as
she remembered that last three days – and nights.
    She had once said to Nick that she had never been able to look
at a person and tell what they were really like, but with Nick she
realised that she already knew what he was like, that what you saw
with him, was exactly what you got.
    He would never have a hidden agenda, he would always be
upfront and honest with her; and she knew that he would never to
anything to hurt her... at least not consciously.
    *
    Nick helped her out of the car and then taking her hand in
his, they walked into the pub, which seemed to embrace them with a
blanket of warmth, after the chill outside.
    “ Good morning, folks – what can I do for you,” the young man
behind the bar greeted them cheerfully.
    “ Good morning, we were hoping to get an early lunch?” Nick
returned the greeting, with a friendly smile.
    “ If you would like to pick a table – I'll sort you out some
menus.”
    They ordered a couple of soft drinks, and as Sadie studied the
menu she found that she was quite hungry. Maybe it was the cold
weather, and her body was doing its best to keep itself
warm?
    She ordered a jacket potato with a side salad, and brown bread
and butter, and sipped at her drink while Nick ordered his
food.
    The place was quiet with only a couple of other patrons and as
Sadie felt herself relaxing she gazed idly out of the
window.
    The snow blanketed the ground, giving everywhere a clean
fairytale look, she could see one or two people moving around and
as she watched one man walking towards this place, her attention
became rigid on him.
    His walk, and the way that he held himself, she knew him, she
recognised him.
    But her mind was shying away