Page 3 of Starry Nights over Dragonfly Lake

Lily smiled at her. ‘There’s always a place for you here, you know that.’

Beth followed Lily inside. The hotel was quiet for once, and in darkness as well. Only the torches on their mobiles lit up the double-height entrance hall.

‘If we’d known earlier, I’d have made sure that the room was clean. We’ve changed the sheets in any case since you were last here,’ whispered Lily, keeping her voice low in deference to the sleeping guests upstairs. ‘Do you want a drink to take up with you?’

Beth shook her head in the light of the torch. ‘I’ve got my water bottle with me.’

‘I’ve got to check that everything’s locked up and all the candles are extinguished before I head up,’ said Lily. ‘Will you be okay finding your own way? Or do you want to wait for me?’

‘I’ll be fine,’ Beth reassured her. ‘It’s my second home, remember?’

‘Don’t forget Tiny will be sleeping in the room next door with Hannah and Alex,’ said Lily.

Beth smiled. ‘I’ll be extra quiet,’ she told her friend.

Tiny was Alex’s enormous dog. He was a gentle giant as he was a Newfoundland, but if he barked, the whole hotel would be woken up.

They hugged and wished each other a good night. Beth used the torch on her phone to light her way up the grand oak staircasebefore turning right and heading down the East Wing towards the family quarter.

She pushed her way quietly through the heavy oak door at the end of the corridor and into the family quarter. All was quiet there too and she immediately turned into the first door on the right. She opened up the door as quietly as she could, so as not to rouse Tiny. She crept inside the bedroom and let the door close behind her with an almost silent click. She switched off the torch on her phone and, sighing with relief, let her bag drop on the floor, feeling extremely weary. She couldn’t even be bothered to unpack in the darkness.

So she shrugged off her Uggs and began to reach out towards the large and comfortable double bed that she knew must be nearby, desperate now to go to sleep, exhausted by the emotional break-up and long drive.

However, as she made her way in the darkness, she tripped over one of her Uggs and fell thankfully onto the bed.

Beth’s initial gratitude that the soft duvet had broken her fall immediately evaporated, however, as she was thrown onto her back and pinned down by a large weight. She was hit by the sudden and horrifying realisation that there was someone in the bed with her.

She was just about to scream when the lights flickered on and Beth was left blinking in the harsh glare of the bedside lamp, staring up at the handsome man who was lying on top of her.

2

Noah Jackson had always been a light sleeper.

A childhood filled with uncertainty had meant that he was always ready to defend himself at the first opportunity. So, even though he had been asleep, his first reaction on sensing somebody on the same bed as him forced Noah into immediate action.

He had sprung across the bed to pin the stranger down with the weight of his body. He was already reaching for his mobile to see the danger he was dealing with, when the lamp on the table next to the bed suddenly flickered back on. Presumably the earlier power cut had been fixed.

Expecting to see anything from a burglar to someone far worse, he had been shocked to discover that the person lying underneath him was an attractive woman of a similar age, staring up at him with wide brown eyes.

But that didn’t mean he would let his defences down.

‘Who are you?’ he hissed.

Her big eyes blinked a couple of times before she replied, ‘I asked you first.’

He was a little stunned but found himself unexpectedly bemused. ‘I don’t think you did actually,’ he replied.

‘Well, in any case, I know karate,’ she told him, sticking her chin out a little.

‘Do you?’ he asked, finally letting go of the woman and sitting up next to her on the bed.

All of his instincts let him know that this dark-haired stranger wasn’t a threat. It was only when she sat up as well that he realised that she was wearing a pair of baggy striped pyjamas.

‘Well, I don’t actually know karate but I can speak a smattering of Japanese.’ The woman frowned to herself. ‘You know, it’s infuriating. I learnt self-defence here last summer. I had all the techniques ready to go, just in case, but right at this moment I can’t think of a single one. Great class, by the way. Should you ever feel that you need it.’

Noah raised one eyebrow at her, surprised that she thought he of all people needed a self-defence class. His whole childhood had been a lesson in self-defence.

He watched as she glanced down to his bare chest and arms. He knew that he was physically strong, thanks to all the carpentry work. You didn’t carry large planks of wood every day without building up core strength. He also found himself somewhat grateful that he had chosen to at least wear boxer shorts to bed, given his unexpected visitor.