The Marriage Solution

‘Well, I wouldn’t.’ She glared at him fiercely. ‘You can ring the hospital if you like and speak to Dr Lambeth, my father’s friend. I presume you would trust a doctor at least?’ she finished scathingly.

‘I trust very few people, Miss White.’ He shifted slightly in the big leather chair, leaning back and surveying her through narrowed grey eyes.

‘Like my father.’ The words were condemning and he recognised them as such.

‘You don’t approve?’ he said mildly. ‘You’re an optimist, Miss White—a very dangerous thing to be in the business world.’

‘Well, as I’m not in the business world I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it,’ she replied carefully. ‘And I wouldn’t describe myself as an optimist anyway; I just think most people verge on kindness given a chance.’

He shut his eyes for a split-second as he shook his dark head slowly, the gesture more eloquent than any words, and then opened them to stare directly into the greeny-brown of hers. ‘What world are you in?’ he asked quietly, his eyes wandering over the pale creamy skin of her face and stopping for an infinitesimal moment on her wide, generous mouth. ‘You do work for a living?’

‘Yes.’ She straightened a little in the chair as she rebelled against the questioning. ‘But I don’t see how that affects why I’m here today, Mr Reef. You said on the phone that my father had lost you some money...?’

‘Lost me some money?’ he repeated sarcastically. ‘Well, that’s one way of putting it, I guess. A little oversimplified but nevertheless... Have you read the morning papers?’ he asked abruptly.

‘The morning—?’ She hesitated at the change of direction. ‘No—no, I haven’t. My father was reading them when he—’ She stopped again. ‘When he collapsed,’ she finished flatly.

‘They nearly had the same effect on me,’ he said drily, and then shook his head at her outraged expression. ‘And I wasn’t belittling your father’s condition, Miss White. Here—’ He thrust a newspaper at her abruptly. ‘Read that.’

She glanced at where he was pointing but the black letters were dancing all over the page as she tried to read them and she looked up after a moment, her eyes enormous in her white face. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t take anything in.’

‘It’s the total collapse of a certain economy that your father assured me was one hundred per cent solid,’ he said coolly. ‘I have invested a vast amount of money at his persuasion and within the last few months, too. I’ve been made to look ridiculous, Miss White, and I can’t say it appeals.’

‘But—’ she stared at him desperately ‘—he wouldn’t have done it on purpose, would he? No one’s perfect.’

‘“No one’s”—?’ He held her eyes for several seconds before shaking his head again. ‘This whole morning is fast beginning to resemble Alice Through the Looking Glass.’

A movement in the outer office caught his eye and he pressed the buzzer on his desk as he glanced towards the door. A second or two later, one beautifully coiffured head appeared round the door. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Reef, I had to...’ The well-bred voice died as the woman glanced in Katie’s direction.

‘Two coffees, please, Jacqueline, and hold all calls,’ Carlton Reef said quietly.

‘Oh, but I can’t—’ Katie glanced at him as he raised enquiring eyebrows. ‘I’ve got a taxi waiting for me in the street. I can‘t—’

‘Pay it off, Jacqueline.’ He settled further into his seat as he raised one hand thoughtfully under his chin. ‘And phone... What hospital is your father in?’ he asked Katie abruptly. She told him quietly as her cheeks burnt scarlet. He thought she was lying; how could he think that? ‘Tell them I want to speak to a Dr Lambeth,’ he instructed his secretary quietly, ‘and do it discreetly, there’s a good girl.’

It was the first time that Katie had been able to examine him without having his piercing grey eyes trained on her and as she looked at him, really looked at him for the first time, she had to admit in a tiny, detached part of her brain that he really was devastatingly good-looking in a hard, macho sort of way.

His skin was dark, with the sort of even tan that suggested a recent holiday somewhere very hot and very expensive, and the dark grey eyes were fringed with short jetblack lashes under heavy dark brows. Big, broad shoulders suggested an impressive body under the beautifully cut suit and she had already seen that he was tall—well over six feet. And he was as hard as iron. She stiffened as the razor-sharp eyes switched back to her. He was the sort of man her father would respect and admire and whom she loathed.

‘Now—’ he didn’t smile as the secretary shut the door without a sound and they were left alone ‘—why exactly did you feel it necessary to come here?’

‘You phoned.’ She stared at him with a mixture of bewilderment and anger. ‘You made it clear that my father would be in some sort of trouble if he didn’t—’

‘He’s in deep trouble already, Miss White, and I’m afraid there is nothing you can do about it.’ There wasn’t a trace of compassion in the deep voice and she knew, as she stared into the implacable, cold features, actual hate for another human being for the first time in her life. ‘I am not sure of my facts yet, so I do not intend to say much more, but from the little I do know about this unfortunate episode it would seem to suggest that your father did not do the homework he was paid to do. Supposition is not an option in the market-place and for this to happen without any prior warning...’ He shrugged eloquently. ‘Something smells.’

‘Are you saying that my father was dishonest?’ she asked hotly. ‘Because if you are—’

The buzzer on his desk interrupted further conversation and, as he took the call his secretary had put through, his face was blank and composed. It was obviously from Dr Lambeth and by the time he replaced the receiver, some minutes later, the dark face was thoughtful, although she had been unable to comprehend anything from his side of the conversation. As he finished the call his secretary knocked quietly and entered with the coffee, her face smooth and expressionless.

‘Thank you, Jacqueline.’ He glanced up once, busying himself with the tray. ‘Can you arrange for the car to be brought to the main entrance in ten minutes, please?’

‘Yes, Mr Reef.’

Something had been said during that phone call, something disturbing and relevant to her, Katie thought suddenly as she stared into the cool poker face opposite. ‘Is my father all right?’ she asked quietly. ‘He isn’t worse?’

‘No.’ He handed her a cup of coffee and gestured towards the milk and sugar. ‘Help yourself.’

‘What did Dr Lambeth say?’ she persisted, the trickle of unease gathering steam by the second. ‘There’s something you’re not telling me, I know it.’

He stared at her for a good fifteen seconds before replying and she knew she was right. There was something—she could read it in the opaque blankness of his eyes. ‘This is really nothing to do with me,’ he said quietly. ‘I feel it would be better if your father’s friend explained in the circumstances, Miss White.’

‘What circumstances?’ She could feel her voice rising but there was nothing she could do about it as sheer undiluted panic gripped her insides. ‘He’s worse? He’s not...’ She stared at him with huge eyes.

‘No, nothing like that.’ He waved his hand at her almost irritably. ‘I’m satisfied that whatever your father did he did out of ignorance, incidentally. Not that that makes the results any different but—’ He stopped abruptly. ‘Why the hell did you have to come here today anyway?’ he growled savagely.

‘Why?’ She glared at him, more angry than she could remember being in her whole life. ‘Because you threatened me, that’s why. You said—’

‘I know what I said.’ He stood up in one sharp movement and walked over to the huge plate-glass window where he stood with his back to her, looking down on the ant-like creatures below in the busy London street. ‘I just didn’t expect you to come here hotfoot like some guardian angel, that’s all.’

‘Well, all that could have been averted if you’d taken my call,’ she said stiffly as her face burned still more. He was a monster, she thought, an absolute monster.

‘Possibly.’ He still didn’t turn round. ‘Well, perhaps the news would be better coming from a stranger, after all. I don’t know. At least you would have some time to prepare yourself.’

‘Mr Reef, you’re frightening me,’ she said in a very small voice and, at that, he did turn, swinging round to see her sitting on the edge of her chair, hands clasped together and face as white as a sheet. ‘Whatever it is—could you just tell me?’ she asked slowly.

‘Your father is bankrupt.’ He had taken a deep breath before he spoke but the smoky grey eyes didn’t leave her face. ‘He’s lost the business, the house, the cars, every penny he owns in this deal. He’s just unburdened himself to Dr Lambeth and asked him to let all interested parties know.’

All interested parties? Somehow that hurt more than anything else could have done. She lived at home, spoke to him every day, shared little moments of his life and he hadn’t even hinted that things were bad. What had she ever done that her own father disliked her so much, trusted her so little? What sort of person did he think she was?

‘Miss White, did you hear me?’ He moved round the desk to stand in front of her, before kneeling and bringing his face into line with hers. ‘He had suspected the worst for days but seeing it in black and white in the newspaper brought the heart attack on, so I understand. The house is mortgaged up to the hilt, there are debts mounting skyhigh—’

‘I understand.’ She stopped him with a tiny wave of her hand as she spoke through stiff lips. ‘And he bore all this alone; he didn’t say a word to anyone.’

‘He’s a businessman, Katie.’ She wasn’t aware that he had spoken her name as her mind struggled to comprehend what he had told her. Their beautiful home that had been in her father’s family for generations... The loss of that alone would kill him, she knew it. ‘He has to make decisions that are sometimes difficult—’

‘He’s my father.’ She raised her head to stare at him, her eyes drowning in the whiteness of her face. ‘He should have been able to talk about it with me. What else are families for if not to share the hard times? If he could have told me, trusted me, he might not be in hospital now connected to a mass of wires and tubes—’

She wasn’t aware that her voice had risen into a shrill shriek, but when the outer door burst open and the secretary rushed in she was conscious of a stinging slap across her face as Carlton Reef pulled her back from hysteria before lifting her body into his arms and signalling for the woman to leave with a sharp movement of his head.

‘It’s all right; shush now, shush...’ He was sitting in the chair she had been occupying with her cradled on his lap as she moaned her anguish out loud, the hopelessness of endless years of trying to win her father’s love and approval culminating in the devastating knowledge that he could have died and she wouldn’t have known why. He hadn’t wanted her, hadn’t reached out, hadn’t needed even a word of comfort from the daughter he seemed to despise so much.

‘Why didn’t he tell me?’ she asked again, her head buried in the folds of his jacket. ‘He should have told me.’

‘He didn’t want to worry you,’ Carlton said comfortingly, somewhere over her head. ‘That’s natural in a father.’

‘No.’ She struggled away from him as she desperately tried to compose herself, suddenly horrified at the position she had put herself in. There was nothing natural about her father but she couldn’t tell this man that—he wouldn’t understand. She had never known her father share the smallest thing with her, never felt a fatherly hug, never had anyone to dry her tears as all her friends had. ‘You wouldn’t understand,’ she said weakly. ‘I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have come. I didn’t know—’

‘Look, sit down and have your coffee.’ He had risen as she had moved away and now took her arm gently, pushing her back down in the seat as he passed a cup to her. ‘Drink that and then I’ll run you home. It’s been a tremendous shock for you.’