Payment Due

With one last approving look at the window she turned on her heel and opened the shop door.

She was just about to close it behind her when she saw that a man was about to follow her inside.

For a moment, as she looked into his unsmiling face, a tiny frisson of fear ran through her.

He was totally unfamiliar to her, dressed casually in well-worn and very faded blue jeans, and a short-sleeved shirt that acknowledged the heat of the glorious summer they had been enjoying.

His dark hair was untidy and ruffled and he had a smear of oil on one cheekbone. Despite that, he had about him an aura of power and maleness that made her hesitate and then flounder a little before saying quickly, ‘I’m sorry, the shop isn’t open yet. We don’t actually open until Saturday.’

‘So I understand.’ His voice was cool, slightly abrasive, and very, very controlled, as though he was extremely angry.

She looked at him and discovered that he was. She could see it in the cold greyness of his eyes and the hard set of his mouth.

Her own eyes darkened from hazel to tawny gold in recognition of her apprehension.

‘Besides, I haven’t come to buy shoes from you, Ms Carter.’

He hadn’t? Then what did he want? Was he some kind of local official? Some kind of planning official or someone whom she had unwittingly annoyed?

As she frowned her confusion, she said uncertainly, ‘I see. Then … then, why … why have you come to see me?’

‘That,’ he told her curtly, ‘is something I think we can best discuss in privacy.’

Privacy. Her heart pounded. Once, long ago, another man had demanded privacy with her. Lucy had been the result of her acceding to that demand, and, while it was ridiculous to suppose that this man had anything like that in mind, she still could not help the tremor of fear that ran through her, making her tremble visibly.

‘I … I’m afraid that’s impossible,’ she told him huskily. ‘You see, I’m just about to collect my daughter … perhaps if I could make an appointment …’

He laughed harshly.

‘Oh, yes, that would suit you, wouldn’t it? I wonder what’s going through that devious head of yours, Ms Carter? Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t have any time to waste on conniving females. All I want from you is your assurance that from now on you will cease your relationship with my brother-in-law.’

Tania’s mouth dropped. The man had plainly made a mistake … was perhaps even mad. Anger overtook her fear.

‘I’m sorry, I can’t help you,’ she told him crisply. Really, what on earth was he talking about? He must have confused her with someone else. That could be the only explanation for his extraordinary behaviour.

She realised suddenly, her eyes rounding in shocked fascination, that he had produced a cheque-book from the back pocket of his jeans and that he was flicking it open, his mouth curling disdainfully as he derided, ‘I see. Well, maybe this will help to convince you. As you see, I’ve come prepared, Ms Carter. Naturally I didn’t expect you to cease your affair out of the goodness of a heart I’m quite sure you don’t possess. Shall we say ten thousand pounds?’

‘Ten thousand pounds …’ She felt sick with shock and pain.

‘Not enough? Well, I assure you it’s as much as you’re going to get.’

Bewilderment gave way to shock and shock to anger as she saw the look of glittering contempt in his eyes.

‘Get out of here,’ she demanded furiously. ‘Just get out before … before I call the police.’

She was speaking wildly, dangerously, her brain warned her. The man was plainly mad. Who knew what on earth he might take it into his head to do if she continued to threaten him?

She was shaking visibly as the adrenalin-fuelled fury pumped through her veins.

‘Very clever, but hardly convincing. What exactly will you tell them? That I offered you ten thousand pounds to stop you breaking up my sister’s marriage? They’d think I was treating you generously. This isn’t the city where no one gives a damn how his neighbour lives. I’ll give you twenty-four hours to think over my offer. After that … Well, let’s just say one way or another I’m going to make damn sure you stop trying to wreck my sister’s marriage.’

Speechless with shock and fury, Tania watched in silence as he opened the door and left the shop.

She was still standing where he had left her, bathed in an icy sweat of reaction and fear when Ann Fielding walked in with Lucy a few minutes later.

‘What on earth was James Warren doing here?’ she asked cheerfully as she came in. ‘I know he likes to take a sort of patriarchal interest in everything that goes on locally—that comes of being born into the town’s founding family, I suppose, but I shouldn’t have thought a children’s shoe shop would be of much interest to him. Unless …’

She shot Tania a shrewd thoughtful look, and then exclaimed in concern.

‘Tania … my dear. Lucy, run upstairs and get your mummy a glass of water, will you? I don’t think she’s feeling very well.’

Through stiff lips, Tania demanded thickly, ‘Just repeat that for me, will you, Ann?’

‘Repeat what?’ her friend asked in concerned bewilderment.

‘Tell me again who it was who just left this shop.’

Anne’s frown deepened. ‘Tell you … Well, it was James Warren, of course.’

‘James Warren.’ Tania’s soft mouth twisted bitterly. Well, no need to wonder now whose marriage her unwanted visitor had been so passionately defending. Although she still needed to know exactly why he should imagine that she had the slightest interest in either Nicholas Forbes or his marriage. Come to that, if he was so genuinely concerned about preserving his sister’s marriage, she was the one he ought to talk to, because it was her actions, her behaviour, her habit of publicly and pointedly underlining the differences between her stepbrother and her husband to the latter’s disadvantage which was undermining that marriage.

‘What’s wrong?’ Ann pressed her anxiously. ‘When I came in you looked so pale. I thought you were going to faint.’

Quickly seizing on the excuse Ann was offering her, Tania agreed tensely.

‘Yes. I think it’s the heat.’

‘Yes, and this is an anxious time for you. I remember what it’s like, and from when Tom and I first started up our business. But I’m sure you’ll do well, Tania. And if James Warren should take it into his head to make you into one of his pet causes—’

Tania laughed mirthlessly, her lips tight. ‘The last thing I want or need is any condescending patronage from someone who believes himself to be the local lord of all he surveys. Thanks for bringing Lucy back for me,’ she added curtly, her manner so plainly indicating that she wanted to be on her own that Ann tactfully said her goodbyes and withdrew.

Once she had gone, Tania stood staring into space.

James Warren. So that was Clarissa Forbes all-powerful stepbrother; a very formidable gentleman indeed, but he wasn’t going to intimidate her and the next time he came round, making false accusations against her, she was going to let him know in no uncertain terms just how wrong he was.

How dared he imagine … ? How dared he suggest …? She frowned quickly. But how had he got the idea that she was in any way other than in a business sense involved with Nicholas?

There was only one way she could find out, and the next time he came round here threatening her she intended to have her own ammunition fully prepared and primed. She would ring Nicholas Forbes and discover just how his brother-in-law had got the false impression that they were having an affair.

And what was more she would do it now, before the heat of her anger cooled and she allowed rationality and caution to take the place of righteous indignation and hot-blooded anger.

CHAPTER TWO (#uf001b3b6-0906-5f9c-8db6-bbef0d295d58)

HAVING settled Lucy in their small sitting-room and listened to her happy account of her day, Tania went through into the room she had designated as her ‘office’ and picked up the telephone.

Nicholas Forbes’s secretary sounded uncertain and hesitant when she asked to be put through to him and Tania frowned over this abrupt change in the girl’s manner. Normally she sounded breezy and cheerful, and she and Tania had even got to the stage of exchanging the odd few seconds of conversation.

Nicholas, on the other hand, was obviously pleased to hear from her. Prudence forbade her to discuss James Warren’s visit with him over the telephone and so she asked instead if he could manage to find the time to call round and see her.