Part-time Marriage

‘I’ve had a hard week!’ he rapped again, clearly taking in his stride that she, somewhere before, and at some time, had heard his voice. ‘What are you after?’

‘Nothing—other than…’

‘A husband, in return for a son—and a meal ticket for the rest of your life, no doubt,’ he snarled.

He thought she was after his wealth! Shocked, Elexa was speechless for endless seconds. Then, furious with him, with herself, ‘When I’m that hard-up I’ll let you know!’ she hissed, and fairly threw the phone back on its rest. That anyone could accuse her of such a thing as marrying for money was something she had simply not considered.

To think she had seriously, for even half a moment, thought of tying herself up with that suspicious swine! She had money of her own without wanting any of his, thank you very much. Her parents were quite well off, as too had been her grandparents. They had left her a substantial sum of money, sufficient anyway for her to be able to live comfortably without the need to touch her not inconsiderable salary. Had he been mixing with the wrong sort of woman? Suspicious devil!

Elexa was still fuming a minute later when her phone rang for attention. She gave a hefty sigh of despair. She would be seeing her mother quite soon now; she did not really need another call from her with yet more instructions on how she should behave with Tommy Fielding.

But, unable to give in to her mother and ‘marry and settle down’, Elexa tried in other ways to be dutiful and respectful, and went to answer the phone, hoping that her parent would make it brief.

‘Hello,’ she said, and was shaken rigid to hear the voice of the man upon whom she had just slammed the receiver down.

‘So what’s with the proposition?’ he said toughly.

Proposition! He thought, Mr Clever, dial one-four-seven-one to get his last caller’s number—so much for wanting to remain anonymous—that she was propositioning him! ‘Forget it!’ she snapped furiously. ‘I’d sooner marry a man-eating shark!’ With that she slammed the phone down on him for a second time. If it rang again, mother or no mother, she just wasn’t answering it.

The christening went off beautifully, with baby Betsy being little short of angelic. Aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces were all assembled, all female members queuing up to cuddle the tiny bundle.

She really was a sweetheart, Elexa mused, feeling all sort of squashy inside when her turn came to hold and croon to the gorgeous cherub. Glancing up, though, she saw her mother watching her, and hated that she was made to feel guilty for denying her grandparental status.

Joanna came up to her. ‘She’ll want changing, I expect. Shall I have her?’ the proud mum asked, and as she came closer to take the baby from Elexa she said, ‘Sorry about Tommy. I couldn’t say no without offending your mother,’ she apologised for inviting the man who, while for a brief moment absent, had otherwise been sticking like glue to Elexa’s side ever since he’d arrived.

‘Don’t worry about it. He’s—er—nice.’

‘Nice,’ Joanna mouthed silently, and they exchanged cousinly grins. But as Elexa gave the baby up to her, Joanna warned, ‘I saw Aunt Kaye nailing Rory a little while ago—I shouldn’t be at all surprised to see Tommy Fielding at cousin Rory’s wedding in a couple of months’ time.’

‘Oh, grief,’ Elexa groaned.

‘Shall I get you some christening cake?’ Tommy hovered the moment Joanna had gone.

‘I’ve had some, Tommy, thanks,’ Elexa answered, fast running out of innocent topics of conversation—she had a feeling Tommy would be asking her for a date before the afternoon was over—it would be less embarrassing for them both if she could head him off.

She thought she had been successful when, as the party started to break up, and at her mother’s instigation, she went down the front garden path with Tommy to his car. But only to find that she hadn’t been as successful as she’d believed.

‘Come out with me tonight?’ Tommy blurted out the moment they were alone, every bit as though he had bottled it up all afternoon and somebody had just let the cork out.

‘I—er…’ Elexa tried hard for some gentle way to say no, and then to her own incredulity—and his, ‘I can’t, Tommy. I’m dating someone,’ she heard herself say. And, fearing Tommy would press her further, she found she was adding, ‘Long term.’ And to her further amazement, and quite without her bidding, a picture came into her head of tall, dark-haired Noah Peverelle, standing the way he had been at the Montgomery that day.

‘But—your mother…’ Tommy was arguing, astounded.

Elexa gave herself a mental shake and banished that sharp, snarling brute—he had actually accused her of propositioning him!—out of her head.

‘Um—my mother doesn’t know.’ She smiled at Tommy.

Only the very next morning she learned that Tommy Fielding wasn’t as nice as everyone thought him. He’d sneaked on her. She found that out when at six o’clock her mother phoned her.

Thinking it must surely be an emergency for anyone to get her out of bed this early, Elexa dashed to the phone when it rang, only to hear her mother’s voice, full of sweetness and pleasantness exclaiming, ‘I know how you don’t like phone calls at work, so I thought I’d get you before you started your day.’

Her mother was quite plainly in fine form. ‘Is Dad all right?’ Elexa asked swiftly.

‘He’s still in bed—old lazy bones. Now, what’s this I hear about you going steady with someone? I rang Tommy Fielding late last night, and he—’

‘Mother!’ At six o’clock in the morning! Was there to be no rest from it?

‘I didn’t ring you last night because Tommy said you were seeing your steady boyfriend.’ Elexa was astonished her mother had waited this long! ‘Now, tell me, what’s his name and where you met him? And why on earth didn’t you tell me?’

There wasn’t a name, she hadn’t met him, and there was nothing to tell—and Elexa felt very much like murdering Tommy Fielding. ‘It’s—er—all rather new.’ She was lying, to her mother! Elexa could barely take in that she had been worn down to such an extent. ‘Mother,’ she began, ‘I didn’t tell you because…’ There’s nothing to tell, she would have said, given half a chance.

But her mother was butting in angrily before she could finish. ‘You’re not living with him, I hope?’ she questioned frostily.

‘Would I dare?’

‘Don’t take that tone with me, young lady!’ Kaye Aston, regardless of her daughter’s executive, self-supporting position, ordered sharply. ‘Your father and I have brought you up with strict moral values. I’m not having any daughter of mine…’

‘Don’t worry, I’m not living with him,’ Elexa mollified her outraged parent, and just couldn’t believe that as the phone call ended, with her mother saying that she wanted to meet ‘him’ sooner rather than later, she had let her go without confessing that she had lied to Tommy and that there was no long-term boyfriend.

Elexa was glad that her job called for a high degree of concentration. But thoughts of the yet more pressure she would have earned herself from her mother tried to constantly get through. She would have to confess her lie, reluctant though she was to do so—she had a fairly certain idea that her mother would be on the phone the instant she arrived back at her flat that night, wanting a long cosy chat about ‘him’.

A picture of Noah Peverelle shot into her head. Oh, clear off! She must have been mad to have telephoned him—but he hadn’t sounded so unpleasant when she had overheard him in the Montgomery. True, he had been with a trusted friend. Goodbye, bad idea.

Elexa got on with her day, getting the best out of her team and spending time communicating with clients, solving problems as and when they arose. She was late leaving her office, and drove home wondering how, when she was said to have excellent judgement in the market planning division and to be little short of fantastic when it came to planning, it seemed she didn’t appear to have one solitary skill when it came to solving her own problems.

She let herself into her apartment and went over to the phone and punched one-four-seven-one; her mother had phoned ten minutes ago.

Elexa made herself a cup of coffee, anticipating that at any moment now she would be summoned to the phone.

It was not the phone that rang for her attention, however, but, while she was mid-rehearsal with the best way to confess that there was no ‘steady’ man-friend, the outer door buzzer sounded.

She wasn’t expecting anyone to call, but went to the intercom in the hall. ‘Who is it?’ she asked lightly, and nearly dropped dead with shock.

‘Noah Peverelle,’ answered a cool, not-at-all-friendly-sounding voice.

No! Brain-stunned, Elexa couldn’t think for several seconds. Then, reeling from so unexpectedly hearing what she had just heard, and with thoughts of how in creation he had managed to find her—let alone why had he bothered to find her—Elexa made a tremendous effort to get herself together.

He was waiting for her to let him in. He had said his name, dropped his bombshell, and had nothing more he wanted to say apparently—until they were standing face to face.

She swallowed hard on a suddenly desert dry throat. ‘You’d—better come up,’ she invited—she had no option—and pressed the button to unlatch the downstairs front door, and wished more than she had wished anything in her life that she had never made that phone call to him yesterday.

But phoned him she had, and it was too late now for wishing—Noah Peverelle was on his way up to see her, and must have gone to quite some trouble to find her!

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?