Shadow on the Fells (16 page)

“Firm but always calm, remember,” said Will, attempting to keep up with her. “And never lose your temper.”

Chrissie shot him an angry glare, their moment of closeness relegated to the back of her mind. “I am not losing my temper... I'm just displaying my authority.”

“Ah,” Will teased. “So that's what they call it now.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

D
ESPITE
,
OR
PERHAPS
because of Max's disobedience, Chrissie was determined to go ahead with her sheep respect and awareness program. It had taken a full half hour to catch up with him, and he had shown no regret at all for his actions.

Biting her lip to control her temper, Chrissie had reprimanded Max in a firm tone that bordered delicately on anger. Will had struggled not to smile as he watched her wrestle with her self-control, but she'd managed it. In fact, he thought Max seemed contrite by the time she'd finished scolding him. Then she'd spent another twenty minutes doing her disciplining exercises: sit down, stay and come here. She'd kept a firm hold of the leash, jerking on it if Max did not do as he was told immediately, and giving him a treat when he did.

“You see,” she said to Will eventually, her face bright with triumph. “Calm but firm.”

“Only just,” he said, smiling. “You were on the edge there for a minute, but I have to hand it to you—you didn't lose your temper. So is that it for today?”

“No,” she said, loose strands of hair blowing around her face. “We're still doing the sheep awareness and respect exercise. He deserves it after his disobedience.”

“Lead on, then,” urged Will. “I'm intrigued to see what you plan to do.”

They headed in silence to the Runner duck paddock. Chrissie insisted that Max walk quietly beside her and refused to allow him to either pull or stop and sniff.

“Right,” she said to Will when they reached the paddock gate. “Just hold him here for a minute while I lock the ducks in.”

“Won't we need them?”

“For teaching a dog to respect sheep?” she asked.

When he finally led Max in through the gate, Will was surprised to see a sheep and single lamb over in the corner. The ewe looked nervous, and when she saw the dog she started stamping her forefeet on the ground and nuzzling her offspring.

Shutting the gate and double-checking that it was properly fastened, Chrissie took hold of Max's collar and unclipped his leash.

“Sit down,” she told him, and he obeyed...until he saw the sheep and its lamb. He began to whine loudly, shiver in excitement and wag his tail madly. “Stay,” said Chrissie, but his discipline completely unraveled and he took off toward the sheep.

“Are you crazy?” cried Will. “Why have you let him go?”

Chrissie placed a restraining hand on his arm. “Just watch,” she insisted.

As the dog approached, the ewe turned to face him, standing next to her lamb against the wall. Max barked, expecting her to run, and when she stood her ground, stamping her feet, he paused, unsure. The ewe seized the moment. Lowering her black-and-white head and curling horns with all the fury of a bull in a fight, she charged.

Max hesitated for a moment too long and her head made contact with his rib cage, pushing him into the drystone wall. He let out a yowl of pain followed by puppy-like yelps of fear. Will stood there, aghast. What was she thinking? Was she trying to get his poor dog killed?

“Call him,” urged Chrissie. “Be his savior.”

Not knowing what else to do, Will leaned forward, patting his knees in encouragement. “Here, boy,” he yelled. The not-so-brave-now, almost comical labradoodle heard his master and raced toward him in terror. “Good boy!” Will exclaimed, grabbing his collar and making a fuss of him. “Did the naughty sheep chase you?”

Max hid behind him and Chrissie followed, running her hands expertly over the dog's rib cage.

“No harm done,” she announced, and Will let out the breath he was holding. Her methods were extreme, to say the least. “Just a bit of bruising and a big knock to his ego.”

Will patted Max exuberantly and clipped the leash onto the dog's collar, looking across to where the ewe was now suckling her lamb with one eye firmly fixed on the big cream-colored dog.

“Motherly love, eh?” Will said. “I would never have believed it could be so strong.”

Chrissie nodded. “These fell sheep may seem nervous, but they're very tough and brave when they need to be. She would die to save her lamb. Now walk him round the paddock and see how he reacts.”

Will set off with Max right behind him, clinging close. When they got near the sheep he stopped, backing up so far he almost pulled his collar off. Will reached down to reassure him, but Chrissie called to him to stop.

“Don't stroke him—he needs to keep his fear of sheep. It's not as if he's ever going to be a sheepdog. Hopefully he'll give them a wide berth now. Do you want to test it out?”

Will faltered. He had been quite freaked out by the ewe's aggression. That such a nervous creature could actually attack a dog had been shocking, and to realize that even in nature creatures could act out of character was kind of disturbing, especially when he had firmly believed animals to be beyond the often cruel and violent behavior of humans.

His discomfort must have shown, for Chrissie's expression was sympathetic. “The ewe was just defending her lamb,” she told him. “Watch.”

She walked briskly toward the wide-eyed sheep and its lamb, taking big, confident strides. As she drew closer, the ewe stamped her front feet just once before racing off with a series of stiff jumps, her tiny offspring at her heels.

“She knows she can't beat me, you see,” Chrissie explained. “But to her, the dog is like a wolf. Old instincts kick in when she's cornered, and as I said, she would happily die defending her lamb. I don't think you'll have any more trouble with Max chasing sheep now, and he should respect you more, too, because you were there to save him.”

“But I wasn't,” Will said.

Chrissie shrugged. “He doesn't know that. Most animals don't think things through, they just react. Unlike people, any aggression they show is usually to win a mate, get food or protect their babies. Survival is the name of the game. Anyway, if you don't believe me, let's test it out.”

“Are you sure about this?” Will grumbled, following Chrissie toward the home meadow.

“I just want to show you, and Max, while it's fresh in all our minds.” she said. “It won't take long, and then we'll go get that coffee I promised you.”

The flock of sheep moved as one rippling entity across the fresh green pasture. To Will's amazement, Max hung back, sticking close to his human companions and eyeing the sheep nervously. When a ewe with twin lambs stamped her feet at the sight of him, he whined in fear, pushing up against Will for protection.

“I guess that's enough,” said Chrissie. “Lesson learned. It seems that our desperate measures paid off.”

“It's a miracle,” Will agreed.

The afternoon was drawing to a close by the time they arrived back at the house. Will glanced at the sky, noting the gray clouds that hung menacingly on the horizon. It would be getting dark soon.

Chrissie seemed to have noticed the changing light, too. “Right. We have just enough time for that coffee before I go check the sheep and finish up in the yard.”

“It's endless, isn't it?” Will remarked. “Don't you ever get fed up?”

Chrissie shrugged. “It's life. Animals don't have days off, and I can't afford to pay staff. Anyway, what else would I do?”

There was an air of quiet in Chrissie's homey kitchen as she and Will sat in companionable silence, sipping contentedly on their coffees. It occurred to Will that he had never felt so at home with anyone before. Who did he know in the city that he could spend time with, without feeling the pressure to make meaningless conversation?

Chrissie's head was bowed and her blond hair, loose now, tumbled over her shoulders. When she looked up at him and smiled, his heart turned over.

He didn't want to kiss her. He wanted so much more. He wanted to see her face, her smile, every day. Sit beside her in the evenings as the sun went down and hold her forever, through good times and bad. The strength of his own feelings took him totally by surprise. This was crazy, like a spell. What was this woman doing to him?

“It shocked you, didn't it?” she said, startling him. Had she read his mind? “The ewe's aggression, I mean. I saw it in your face. Now you've seen, even experienced, how hostile and violent this place can be. It's not for the fainthearted, but it is true to itself.”

The glow inside him faded as he realized what she was getting at.

“You're talking about my plan to bring tourists here, aren't you,” he said with a rush of irritation. “Is this your way of trying to put me off the idea? A ruse to get me to retract my application?”

“I do want to educate you about life here,” she admitted. “And you know how I feel about your holiday cabins. Today, though, has been about training Max, not dwelling on your plans. You have paid me well to do a job, and I'll do the best I can with it. Your holiday rentals are something else entirely.”

“Fair enough,” Will said. “And thank you for today—it has certainly been a learning curve. How you made that exercise with Max and the sheep work, I don't know.”

“Well, I was a bit worried about that,” Chrissie admitted with a slow smile.

“You were worried!”

“It worked though, didn't it?”

Will nodded. “It was pretty impressive, actually...and it certainly taught me about animal behavior.”

“Will...” She reached across to take hold of his arm. “I'm determined to be professional about this. I don't want either of us to mention tourists or your planning permission again. We know where we both stand on that subject, but it has nothing to do with the agreement we have about training Max...and for what it's worth, well, I get why you're here now.”

He placed his hand over hers. It was warm and strong, he noted...a working hand. He liked that. When she tried to pull away, he tightened his grip. He held her gaze, daring her to look away, but she returned it steadily.

“Okay,” he agreed. “Totally professional it is. Now, do you want some help or should I head home?”

“I can manage... You just go and see your architect or something.”

He cupped the back of her head, drawing her face toward his. “Totally professional you said...so why the sarcasm?”

She had the grace to blush. “Sorry. I was out of order. It won't happen again.”

“What time do you want us tomorrow?” he asked, releasing her. “Or do you want us at all?”

“We have an agreement, and I already told you I wouldn't be breaking it, so of course I want you. Two o'clock any good?”

Will grinned. “Anytime is okay for me. See you at two, then.”

* * *

A
S
SOON
AS
Will and Max left, Chrissie hurried outside, determined to fill her head and hands with work.

Oh, how she wished that she'd never gone along with Will Devlin's proposition. There was something about him that really got to her, a kind of understanding between them that frightened her with its intensity, especially when they knew full well that inevitably they were going to clash over his plans. They were wrong for each other, their goals too far apart. When he realized that she intended to jeopardize his plans, he would hate her. She couldn't face that, not since she knew what he'd gone through and how vulnerable he could be. Those plans were his future, yet how could she accept them when they threatened everything she cared about? The best thing he could do was to go back to his lawyer job in the city and forget all about Little Dale. Tomorrow afternoon loomed high on her horizon; she had to do this, so she might as well make the best of it.

* * *

W
ILL
FOUND
HIMSELF
humming as he poured soup into a pan and brewed a pot of tea. How long had it been, he mused, since he'd eaten at one of the upmarket restaurants that had once been his norm? Nowadays soup or beans seemed to have become his staple diet.

While he waited for the soup to heat up, his mind went back to Chrissie and the afternoon they'd spent together. The way she had taken control of the whole situation with Max and the sheep had deeply impressed him. Her understanding of how each animal was going to react was, to him, almost an act of magic. She was magic, he decided, tall and strong and sure, needing no one to help her through the tough life she had chosen. What a lawyer she would have made.

His phone interrupted his reflection.

“Well, when are you coming back to us?” Roy Wallis's voice burst into his ear, deep, well-spoken and always expecting to get his own way. Even Roy's wife, Margaret, was unaware of just how ruthless he could be, Will suspected, though he recognized that he had been equally ruthless not so long ago.

Will sighed. He could do without this right now. “We've been through this, Roy. I am not coming back to work.”

“But what about my suggestion? You could build a new portfolio of clients, to make up for all the bad guys you helped get off.”

“I was doing my job the best way I could, but I lost the heart for it. All of it. So if you don't mind...”

“I saw Miranda yesterday.” Roy paused, presumably to give his news full impact. “She was asking after you, since you never answer your calls. So what do I tell her?”

“Why would you tell her anything? She was my girlfriend, fleetingly, but that was ages ago. I've moved on.”

“She wondered if you'd like to meet up with her when you came back to the city, for old time's sake...have dinner, maybe.”

Will contemplated hanging up on him. “Look, Roy, if you don't mind, I'm in the middle of something, so—”

“There's a case coming up that you may be interested in. Please, before you hang up, just hear me out. It's the kind of case that you would have once really sunk your teeth into—corruption, murder and everything that goes with it. The thing is, you defended Tom Crawford last year, if you remember.”