Kitabı oku: «Part-time Marriage», sayfa 2

CHAPTER TWO

ELEXA was still gasping, still striving to hold down panic, when the man she had two minutes before decided she did not want to see after all rang the doorbell to her flat, announcing that he was right outside.

She gulped for air, her usual smart intelligence deserting her as she sought for some ‘I’m sorry I bothered you, I shouldn’t have, goodbye’ kind of comment. She was certain he would ring her doorbell again if she did not soon dash to open the door. But he did not. He was controlled, this man, this stranger—heaven help us, had she really, truly, suggested to him that they made a baby together?

Elexa felt scarlet all over when, knowing that she couldn’t stand there dithering all night, she went to the door, her sophisticated image fast starting to slip. Dressed in a smart two-piece—calf-length skirt and boxy top of sage-green—and with her long blonde gold-lit hair brushing her shoulders, she pulled back the door. But any phrase she might have been able to utter was lost when, before he stepped over her threshold, ‘Alexandra Aston?’ he enquired.

‘My friends call me Elexa,’ she answered, and felt stupid because she had. This man, this stern looking man, this steely, grey-eyed man was not her friend and was never likely to be. ‘Er—you’d better come in,’ she invited.

She led the way into her sitting-room. She didn’t remember him being so stern looking. True, he hadn’t actually been smiling when she’d seen his reflection in that mirror, but neither had he been scowling.

‘Can I get you something?’ Politeness of years pushed her on. ‘A drink, a…?’ Abruptly, she halted. ‘How did you find me?’ she changed tack to ask sharply.

‘It wasn’t difficult.’

He was tall. She was five feet nine herself and didn’t like having to look up to him. ‘Would you like to take a seat?’

He moved over to her sofa but did not sit down until she had taken the chair opposite. She saw his glance flick round her elegantly furnished room, and cancelled any top marks she might have given him for manners because of it. No doubt he was totting up her furnishings—along with the rental of her flat in the not unsmart apartment block—and assessing how much she would need for the upkeep of both.

‘Without my job—which pays very well—I have private means,’ she told him irately.

‘Falling before you’re pushed?’ he queried—and she hated him, hated that she felt her lips twitch. She had rather jumped in there with both feet, hadn’t she? She didn’t smile, of course. Why should she? He was looking as grim-faced as ever. ‘I’m aware of your financial circumstances,’ he informed her coolly.

‘You’ve had me investigated?’ Elexa went shooting away from holding down a laugh to being outraged. ‘How dare—?’

‘You proposed yourself to be the mother of my child—did you think I wouldn’t have you investigated?’ He was actually considering the proposition? Her brown eyes widened as she stared thunderstruck at him. ‘Are you always this cantankerous?’ he enquired mildly, his all-seeing grey eyes steady on her.

Elexa took a deep breath. She was feeling less panicky than she had, but was still feeling very shaken. ‘I’m nervous.’ She opted for honesty. ‘Your call, you coming here tonight, was, well, unexpected to say the least.’

‘You mean you wouldn’t have slammed the phone down on me a third time had I telephoned first?’

‘You had no intention of phoning first—you wanted to catch me unaware, with my defences down,’ she accused.

He neither agreed nor denied it, but instead, his serious grey eyes fixed on her eyes, he questioned toughly, ‘Why is it so important for you to be married?’

She wanted to deny it was important at all, then roused herself—she wasn’t having him coming here to her home and acting like some man in charge. ‘Why is it so important to you to have a son?’ she tossed back shortly.

‘Did you miss that part?’

She coloured—he knew it all, didn’t he? ‘So I was eavesdropping. Not that I intended to—’ She broke off. ‘How did you find out—that I’d been listening to your conversation—that day? That it was me?’

He shrugged. ‘Marcus Dean was the only person who knew of my thoughts on having a son.’

‘Mmm,’ Elexa murmured. ‘You remembered where you were when you were discussing it with him?’

‘Marcus wouldn’t discuss it with anyone else,’ Noah Peverelle asserted, with the same confidence that Elexa had that anything she discussed with her friend Lois would go no further. ‘Since the voice that called me yesterday wasn’t the voice of Lois Crosby…’

‘You remembered Lois’s voice?’

‘I knew yesterday’s voice wasn’t hers. Which meant it had to be her brown-eyed companion.’

‘You remembered my eyes?’ she asked incredulously. ‘But it was ages ago—we didn’t even speak!’

‘You obviously didn’t forget me,’ he lobbed back at her. ‘Or, more precisely, my side of the conversation. So tell me why, since it doesn’t appear you’re in any urgent need of money, are you so keen to have a husband?’

‘I’m not!’ Elexa answered bluntly, but not yet ready to go into more detail. ‘So you knew who it was who phoned you, but—’ She broke off again. ‘How did you find out—who I am, was, I mean? Your friend Marcus wouldn’t know me. Ah! You rang Marcus and he rang Lois…’ Her voice trailed off. ‘That can’t be right. Lois would have rung me to say…’

‘I didn’t have to call Marcus. My company does a lot of business with the Montgomery…’

He had no need to continue. ‘You contacted the restaurant and asked who had reserved the booth next to yours that lunchtime.’ Clever swine.

‘None of this is at all important. You’ve just said you’re no longer in urgent need of a husband.’ He looked to be about to leave.

Elexa suddenly realised she had very mixed feelings about that. It seemed a very good idea that he should go and that she should forget that she had started this whole sorry business, but… ‘I never wanted a husband at all,’ she informed him. ‘But I’m being pushed—’ The phone starting to ring cut through what she was saying. She knew it would be her mother—and started to panic again. ‘Can you hang on while I take this call?’ she asked quickly, and didn’t wait to see whether he would or not. Presenting him with her back, she went over to the telephone and picked it up.

‘I was hoping you’d be home from work by now,’ her mother’s voice came briskly down the wires. ‘Now, what’s so dreadful about your man-friend that you couldn’t tell me about him before?’

‘There’s nothing dreadful about him,’ Elexa found herself answering, barely able to believe she was still carrying out this myth that there was someone she was going ‘steady’ with.

‘Then why didn’t you bring him to the christening yesterday?’

‘He’s—uh—busy,’ Elexa replied. What am I doing? ‘He’s a very busy man.’

‘He’s not married! Tell me he’s not married! You wouldn’t go out with a married man. Don’t tell me I’ve reared a daughter who would—’

‘Mother!’ Elexa cut off her tirade. ‘I didn’t bring him because he—um—puts a lot of hours in with his work.’

‘What’s his name? He does have a name?’

Oh, grief. Elexa hadn’t heard any doors closing. If Noah Peverelle was still in earshot—and she couldn’t blame him if he was; she had after all listened in to his conversation—then he would just love it if she gave her mother his name. ‘Can I give you a ring later?’ she asked, and, rushing on before her mother should ask why, ‘He’s—er—here now—um…’

‘He’s there with you now? Why didn’t you say?’

‘I—er…’

‘Ring me before you go to bed tonight,’ her mother instructed firmly. ‘And you’d better bring him to dinner on Saturday.’

Elexa came away from the phone with her head spinning. She turned and saw that Noah Peverelle was still there. ‘Oh, grief,’ she sighed, and collapsed into the nearest chair.

But she was not to be allowed time to get herself back together, it seemed, for straight away Noah Peverelle was bombarding her. ‘Why would you tell your mother anything about me? And don’t deny it was me you were talking about.’

Elexa had just about had enough of him. ‘It didn’t have to be you; any man would have done,’ she snapped, but wearily felt obliged to explain. ‘Yesterday, in order to put somebody off, I invented having a steady boyfriend. He told my mother—she now wants me to bring said steady boyfriend to dinner on Saturday.’

‘You look as fed up as you sound,’ Noah Peverelle observed, and added speculatively, but nonetheless accurately, ‘It’s your mother who wants you to be married, not you, isn’t it?’

Elexa didn’t want to be disloyal to her mother, but somehow, having been driven to this situation by her, she was feeling just a little too worn down just then to mind so much.

‘I don’t need marriage. I’ve got a super job, excellent prospects of promotion—I’m more than happy with my career.’

‘But your mother isn’t?’

Elexa sighed. ‘I’ve tried to explain how it is.’

‘You can’t have tried very hard.’

She felt like hitting him. ‘Much you know! I tried so hard my mother is now convinced that some man has caused me so much pain that I’m off men for good—and that I’m never likely to marry. Now various old friends, and new acquaintances, are invited to my parents’ home when I’m due to make a visit, and to family get-togethers—and I’m instructed to be nice to them.’

‘Yesterday’s offering being the one whom you told you were going steady?’

Elexa looked across at the unsmiling—rather good looking, she realised—dark-haired man occupying her sofa, recognising just how astute he was. It hadn’t taken him any time at all to sort through the situation.

‘It seemed the better way of saving his face when he asked me to go out with him.’ Noah Peverelle gave her a look as if to say the sophisticated image she was trying for had slipped a mile and he had just glimpsed her softer centre. ‘For my sins,’ she went on, not liking that he had observed her softer side, ‘he told my mother I was going steady.’

‘She must have been pleased.’

Sarcastic devil! Again, though, Elexa felt an urge to laugh. Most odd. All this stress must be making her light-headed. ‘My mother phoned me at six this morning wanting to know more about it.’

‘It’s getting you down?’

‘You could say that.’

‘Why not marry one of these men and be done with it?’ Peverelle demanded.

Nothing like being told he’d rather drink burning oil than marry her himself, Elexa thought sniffily. And went on to think, Well, who asked you? But she more or less had. ‘Because they would want to be emotionally involved.’

‘And you don’t?’

‘All I want is time free of my mother being on the phone every five minutes. All I want is to be left alone to get on with the career I love. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, love my mother dearly, and I’d do anything for her but…’

‘But marry some man on a permanent basis?’

‘That’s about it,’ she had to agree, and looked steadily at the grey-eyed man across from her.

As she stared at Noah Peverelle, so he scrutinised her. She would have dearly liked to have known what was going through his mind, but guessed he would only let her know what he wanted her to know.

But, when she was thinking that he was probably considering he had wasted enough time and was about to leave, he surprised her by asking, ‘How do you feel about children?’

Oh, help, was he really, seriously considering…? Had she seriously proposed what she had to this cold, unsmiling man? She wanted to swallow, but wouldn’t, but, since he seemed such a forthright person, she gave his question serious thought, and answered honestly, ‘Up until the day I heard you talking about having a son, I hadn’t given children a thought—having them, that is. The furtherance of my career is important to me, as I mentioned. But, on thinking about children, I’ve realised that, while marriage has never featured in my plans, ultimately I shouldn’t like to miss out and never have a child.’

She didn’t know what she expected him to say to that. But discovered that he was clearly a most decisive man when, getting to his feet he informed her, ‘I’m away from home for the rest of this week. Presumably your mother isn’t too far away. What time shall I pick you up on Saturday?’

Elexa wasn’t sure her jaw didn’t drop. ‘You’re—you’re coming to dinner with me at my parents’ on Saturday?’ she questioned, only just holding down a gasp of shock. Decisive, had she said?

‘I’m not yet ready to be engaged to you—we need to discuss this more thoroughly first, and I’m already running late for another appointment. But I don’t mind being your “steady” in the meantime.’

‘Don’t do me any favours!’ she snapped huffily.

Noah Peverelle looked arrogantly down at her. ‘We’re in the territory of mutual favours here!’ he rapped.

‘So call for me at six-thirty!’ she flared, and felt as if she’d just been poleaxed when, with nothing more than a curt nod, Noah Peverelle strode from her apartment.

How long she sat there, stunned that Noah Peverelle had actually been inside her flat, had asked her a few short and to the point questions, and had then gone on to keep an appointment, Elexa had no idea.

But slowly, as she got herself into more of one piece, it began to dawn on her that with Peverelle’s talk of mutual favours it rather looked—future discussions going well—as if they could be on the way to him marrying her, and to her giving him the son he wanted.

Oh, heck. Ice encased her southernmost extremities but, knowing that her mother was probably sitting by the phone, waiting for her to ring, this was no time to start getting cold feet. He, Peverelle, when all was said and done, had not been the one to approach her with the idea. Rather it had been she who had made the first approach.

Nevertheless, there were several occasions before Saturday arrived when Elexa came within an ace of contacting Noah Peverelle and telling him to forget the whole idea. Two things were against that, however. One was that he was away from home for the rest of the week—she didn’t think he’d appreciate her phoning his office and leaving any kind of ‘Would-you-tell-Mr-Peverelle-I’ve-decided-not-to-have-his-baby?’ type of message. The very big other was that her mother was so excited about actually meeting her steady boyfriend she was never off the phone.

Worse, having been more or less forced to give her his name, her father too had been on the phone. Was her steady boyfriend the Noah Peverelle? Apparently her businessman father, who daily kept up to date with business news, knew all about what went on in big business, seemed as eager as her mother to meet him.

As, too, did Aunt Celia and Uncle Kenneth want to meet him. Aunt Celia had rung saying how delighted she was to hear her news. ‘We’re not engaged, or anything like that!’ Elexa had told her hurriedly.

‘No, but I know you, you wouldn’t be taking him home to meet your parents unless you were serious about him.’

As far as Elexa could remember, she hadn’t had any choice. Her mother had decreed ‘dinner’ and, while Elexa might have wriggled out of it, the lofty Peverelle—no doubt wanting to see what sort of stock she came from—had agreed, without being asked, to go to her parents’ home with her.

At that point she came close to contacting his office and leaving a message to the effect that Saturday’s arrangements had been cancelled. She objected strongly to him giving her parents the once-over. Though since, on reflection that was what her parents were doing, giving him the once-over to see if he was suitable for their only child, Elexa realised she hadn’t got very much to complain about.

The only relief Elexa found from the tangle her private life seemed to be in was at her office. But even there she wasn’t left in peace to do the job she so loved.

‘I didn’t see you at all yesterday,’ Jamie Hodges interrupted her day to complain.

‘I had several meetings—was it something specific?’ she enquired, feeling pretty certain that she knew what was coming.

‘I’ve got two tickets for the theatre on Saturday. I wondered if you were free?’ he began eagerly.

‘I’m not,’ she replied, and knew she was as soft as Peverelle no doubt thought her because she couldn’t tell Jamie more bluntly that he was wasting his time. She did not have the same problem in telling Des Reynolds to leave her alone, however.

‘How’s the most gorgeous woman ever to grace the portals of Colman and Fisher?’ he leered, perching himself on a corner of her desk.

‘Save it for your wife, Des. I’m up to my ears in—’

‘Very beautiful ears, if I may…’

‘I swear somebody turns a key and winds you up every morning.’ She had to laugh. ‘Clear off, Des, there’s a good lad.’ He went, and she supposed he would probably not change very much even if she did tell him she had a steady boyfriend. Jamie Hodges, now he was a different matter.

Elexa was halfway through rehearsing how she would tell Jamie that she was going out with someone she was going to marry when she stopped dead, her stomach churning. Apart from the fact he was a long way from agreeing yet, how could she contemplate marrying Peverelle? She didn’t even like him! The thought of actually going to bed with the cold unfeeling brute was impossible.

Again Elexa was ready to pick up the phone and leave a message with his office. Her hand actually went to the phone—she pulled it back. Hang on just a minute! Wasn’t that exactly what she wanted—a no-commitment kind of commitment?

By the time she returned to her flat that evening Elexa had been through again and again everything she wanted, and what she was going to have to do to get it. She had heard today the manager’s job that had been rumoured, was definitely going to be announced shortly. It wasn’t a senior manager’s job—that would be some years away—but it was a job she wanted. Without false modesty, Elexa felt she was good enough to get it. She worked now in a high stress area—and loved it. But she knew there would be more pressure attached to the new job; she wouldn’t need any extra in the shape of her family trying to push her into marriage.

So, the answer seemed obvious. Go through a marriage ceremony with Peverelle, get ‘the other business’ over and done with, and get back to what she was good at.

Her phone rang; she jumped. Her mother? Or—him? Why him? Probably because she had thought so frequently of making a phone call to Peverelle. Was he making that phone call to her? How dared he? Feeling slightly miffed—that phone call was her prerogative—she picked up the phone and said a firm, ‘Hello,’ and discovered it wasn’t him at all, but was her mother’s other sister.

‘I’ve only just heard about you and your man-friend,’ her aunt Helen trilled. ‘Now, you’ll be sure to bring him to Rory’s wedding, won’t you? If you’ll give me his address I’ll be sure he gets an invitation.’

‘I—er…’ Oh, Lord. ‘We’ll look forward to it—um—thank you very much, Aunty,’ Elexa replied—what else could she have said? ‘Er—don’t bother with a written invite.’ She hadn’t a clue about Peverelle’s address.

‘You’ll be sure to tell him how welcome he is—how we’re all dying to meet him?’

‘I’ll tell him,’ Elexa assured her, and came off the phone sighing. Heavens above, the way the family were carrying on you’d think that she had never had a boyfriend and that Peverelle was her last chance!

By Saturday morning Elexa had convinced herself that she was taking a right and proper course of action. It was an unusual arrangement, of course. She accepted that. But when all this initial trauma was done and dusted and—subject to her and Peverelle agreeing on everything—then he would have the promise of an heir, and she would have the promise of some space to concentrate on what she so enjoyed: a career without constant family pressure. A year, that was all she craved. To think, in a year’s time, she could have that all-important junior manager’s job! And from there—who knew? The possibilities were limitless.

By six o’clock that evening, however, Elexa was having to firmly remind herself of all the reasons for why she was taking this course of action. When the outer door buzzer sounded a half an hour later she was feeling so all over the place that she could barely remember one good reason.

She saw no point in going to the intercom to ask who was there. It would be Peverelle. She hesitated. What if he had come in person to say he had thought matters over and had decided he neither wanted to act as her ‘steady’ that evening, nor marry her either?

Well, he knew what he could do, she fumed furiously. But her fury was instantly doused when she thought of her mother, her father too, waiting to meet Noah Peverelle. Oh, heavens, she’d never hear the last of it if Peverelle had called in person to tell her ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’.

Suddenly realising that nerves about this whole business were getting to her, Elexa made herself think more positively. Why would he come to say that he thought it a rotten idea? If they went through with it he would be getting the son he wanted. He must know by now that if he wanted some woman who wasn’t out to take him to the cleaners financially, she—Alexandra Aston—was that woman.

Knowing from previous experience that he would not ring twice, Elexa picked up her bag and left her flat. Which must mean, she considered as she went down the stairs, that she herself was ready to carry this notion a little bit further. In any event, how could she now tell her mother—not to mention her aunts—that she had made up having a steady boyfriend? Oh, crumbs, another thought suddenly struck her: her mother would never forgive her if she had to pass on to her sisters, Celia and Helen, that she had a daughter who told whopping howlers!

‘You needn’t have rushed,’ Noah Peverelle greeted her sarcastically when she at last opened the door to him.

Elexa felt inwardly agitated enough without his help, and felt very much like telling him to go find his own dinner. But memory of her mother, Aunt Celia and Aunt Helen, was recent. ‘Okay, so I’ll make more of an effort,’ she conceded.

His grunt showed her how much he cared. ‘My car’s this way,’ he stated. He hadn’t thought better of it, then? He was still considering her ‘proposition’? He touched her elbow briefly in the direction he wanted her to go, though had manners enough, she noted, to walk with her rather than go striding ahead and leaving her to trail behind. ‘Where are we making for?’ he asked, once they were inside his Jaguar and he had the motor purring.

‘Got enough petrol for Berkshire?’

It was the last thing that was said in the car for quite some while. But the nearer they got to her parents’ home, the more Elexa started to become all stewed up inside.

Until at last she just had to explode, ‘This is all wrong!’