Convenient Engagements: Fiance Wanted Fast! / The Blind-Date Proposal / A Whirlwind Engagement

Gib looked across the table at her. She wasn’t pretty, it was true. Her face was too full of character and her features too strong to be anything as insipid as pretty. Instead she was vivid and dramatic, with those fierce eyes and that mouth that hinted at a passionate nature well hidden behind her prickles.

‘I don’t agree,’ he said.

Phoebe saw Bella’s hand still and the sharp look of interest she gave Gib. ‘All right, you can drop the act for now,’ she said hastily. ‘Save it for later, and don’t overdo it,’ she warned. ‘Everyone there has known me for ever, and they know I hate all that gushy lovey-dovey stuff.’

‘You might not if you were in love,’ said Gib.

‘Ben never went in for that kind of thing,’ she told him, and he folded his paper and got deliberately to his feet.

‘Well, I’m not Ben,’ he reminded her, and when Phoebe met his eyes she saw with something of a shock that the familiar laughter was quite gone. ‘You’re in love with me now, remember?’

Phoebe moistened her lips, wondering why the kitchen was suddenly so airless. ‘Just for today,’ she managed.

There was an unpleasant silence for a moment, then Gib smiled. It wasn’t his usual smile, though. There was something almost grim about it. ‘Of course, just for today,’ he echoed in a voice empty of expression. He turned for the door. ‘Excuse me, I’ll go and get ready.’

Phoebe didn’t realise that she had been holding her breath until he left and she was able to let it out at last, very carefully. When she glanced back at Bella, she saw that her friend was watching her with a speculative expression.

‘I wouldn’t push Gib, if I were you,’ was all she said, slipping the dress onto its hanger and handing it to Phoebe. ‘Here you are. Go and have a shower, and I’ll do your makeup for you afterwards.’

‘You look fantastic!’ she said later when Phoebe was glossed and mascaraed and dusted with Kate’s special shimmering powder that promised a radiant golden glow. She made her turn and look at herself in the mirror. In heels and a flame-red suit with a dramatic necklace, Phoebe looked taller and more vivid than ever.

‘All you need now is your hat,’ said Bella. ‘And a smile.’

Phoebe couldn’t manage the smile, and wrung her hands together instead. ‘Oh, God, Bella, do you think I’m doing the right thing?’

‘Yes,’ said Bella, who had no time for doubts. ‘You’re going to be able to go into that wedding with your head held high. Gib will be beside you, and he won’t let you down.’

‘He’d better not,’ said Phoebe tensely.

Bella smoothed the short-sleeved jacket over Phoebe’s shoulder. ‘He was pretty convincing when he said he thought you were beautiful,’ she said, carefully expressionless. ‘I wondered how much he was pretending.’

‘Of course he was pretending.’ Phoebe didn’t quite meet her eyes. The last thing she needed was Bella knowing that she had wondered the same for an embarrassing moment or two. ‘That’s what I’m paying him to do.’

Bella picked up Phoebe’s hat. ‘You seem to have been getting on better recently,’ she commented in the same studiedly casual tone.

‘I suppose so,’ was all Phoebe would admit.

‘I think he really likes you, Phoebe. So does Kate. We think he’s just what you need,’ she went on when Phoebe could only gape at her.

‘No.’ Phoebe found her voice at last. ‘No, he’s not what I need at all.’ She shook her head firmly to emphasise the point, although it wasn’t clear whether she was trying to convince herself or Bella. ‘He’s nothing like Ben.’

‘Exactly,’ said Bella. ‘I know you loved Ben, Phoebe, but it’s time you moved on. You need someone you can have some fun with, and I can’t imagine anyone better than Gib for that.’

‘I’m not sure I’m ready to have fun,’ Phoebe confessed in a low voice. ‘I’m scared of being hurt again, Bella. I don’t want to get involved with anyone, let alone Gib. Anyway,’ she went on, lifting her chin, ‘I think you’re wrong about him. Pretending to be in love with me is just a job to him. He was quite happy for me to pay him. He wouldn’t be interested in money if he really liked me, would he?’

She needed to remember that, Phoebe told herself as she went downstairs carefully on her high heels.

They found Kate in kitchen, and by the time she had exclaimed over the outfit and heard Bella’s account of Gib’s unexpected acting ability, Phoebe’s nerves were back in full force and her stomach was churning furiously.

She looked at her watch. The ceremony was at two-thirty, and they would need to allow at least two hours to get to the castle. Getting out of London on a Saturday could be a nightmare.

‘OK, I’ve got my bag, got the present, got my hat … what else do I need?’

‘Car keys?’

‘God, yes, car keys! Where are they?’

Phoebe began scrabbling frantically through the piles of junk on the table. ‘I had them yesterday,’ she said fretfully. ‘I’m sure they’re here somewhere. Kate, can you see whether the cat is sitting on them? And where’s Gib? We’ve got to go.’

‘I’m here.’

All three girls looked up from where they were burrowing down the sides of the sofa or sifting through the clutter of papers on the worktop, and there was a moment of thunderstruck silence. Kate and Bella frankly stared, and Phoebe froze, breathless as if from a blow.

She couldn’t believe how different Gib looked. He had showered and shaved, and changed into a beautifully cut grey suit with a classic white shirt and a pale grey tie. He looked much older, much more respectable, even distinguished, but his sudden grin at their expressions was exactly the same as before.

‘Well!’ whistled Bella, the first to recover. ‘Who’d have thought you’d brush up so nicely!’

Kate walked round him critically. ‘Ten out of ten!’ she agreed. ‘There’s just something about a man in a suit, isn’t there? What do you reckon, Phoebe? Will he pass?’

Why couldn’t she be as easy with him as Kate and Bella were? Gripped by a ridiculous shyness, Phoebe couldn’t meet Gib’s eyes.

‘He looks fine,’ she said curtly.

‘Are we ready to go?’ His voice was warm with that unsettling undercurrent of laughter, so much so that Phoebe began to wonder if she had imagined the formidable look she had glimpsed earlier.

‘When I’ve found my car keys,’ she snapped.

‘Here.’

To Phoebe’s annoyance, Gib spotted them immediately on the sideboard and dangled them from his finger. Snatching them from him, she stalked out to the car, her exit only marred by the fact that she forgot to pick up her hat and her overnight bag.

‘Are you OK to drive?’ Gib asked when she had stowed them in the boot of her old Peugeot.

‘Of course I am.’ Phoebe bridled as she opened the driver’s door. ‘Why shouldn’t I be?’

‘You seem a bit … tense,’ he said carefully.

‘Of course I’m tense! I’m going to watch the man I love marrying someone else while lying to my family and friends about having a relationship with my unemployed lodger who’s pretending to be a hotshot businessman, and knowing that if anyone even suspects what I’m doing it’ll ruin the whole day for everyone!’

And that was quite apart from knowing that her friends thought she should get involved with a man who was only pretending to be nice because she was paying him.

Suddenly Phoebe felt close to tears.

‘That’s what I meant,’ said Gib. ‘I know it’s going to be difficult for you today. If you want to drive, that’s fine by me, but if you want one less thing to think about, I thought it would be something I could do for you.’

Phoebe hesitated, chewing her lip. She didn’t want to give in, but she knew that Gib was right. She wasn’t in a fit state to drive, and an accident was the last thing she needed right now. Usually, she loved being driven, but she wasn’t sure she trusted Gib. He looked like the kind of man who burned along the highways in an open-topped sports car, one hand on the steering wheel and the other on a blonde, not one who would drive her old banger safely and sedately down to Wiltshire.

Gib came round the front of the car to her door. ‘You’re not really intending to drive in those, are you?’ he said, nodding down at her strappy shoes with their delicate heels.