From Mistresses To Wives?: Mistress to a Bachelor / His Mistress by Marriage / Accidental Mistress

‘I’ve no hidden depths,’ she disclaimed. ‘What you see is what you get.’

The chuckle was unexpected. ‘I’ll form my own judgement. So, how did the two of you meet?’

Forward planning certainly paid off, came the fleeting thought. ‘At a party,’ she said.

‘You were drawn to one another across a crowded room, eh?’

She gave a laugh, drawing on her imagination. ‘Actually, we ran into one another—literally—dancing. I put a heel in Zac’s instep, so it was hardly what you’d call an auspicious beginning.’

‘It obviously made an impression on him.’

‘Like being poleaxed!’ Zac’s tone was light. ‘I’ve been out of circulation ever since.’

‘One good woman is worth a thousand of the other kind,’ his grandfather rejoined. ‘You’ve sown enough wild oats.’

‘A man must do what a man must do,’ Jessica observed blandly, opting for a bold approach. ‘I daresay you did some sowing of your own before you met your wife.’

‘I was married at twenty,’ he said.

She bit her lip. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘No need.’ He was obviously enjoying her discomfiture. ‘How about you? Ever been in love before?’

Jessica met the shrewd gaze head on. ‘I might have thought I was.’

‘But you know the difference now?’

In for a penny, in for a pound! she thought, unable to prevaricate her way around a straight question. She softened both voice and expression. ‘Oh, yes!’

Henry Prescott had subsided back into the cushions, though not, it was apparent, with the intention of drifting off to sleep again.

‘What about family?’ he asked.

‘My parents are divorced,’ she said, reconciling herself to the inevitable. ‘Both of them remarried.’

‘I see.’ He sounded disapproving. ‘Brothers and sisters?’

‘No, I was an only child. Fate,’ she added, sensing the question before it was asked, ‘not choice. They’d have liked a son.’ Preferred would have been a better word, though she doubted if even that would have saved a marriage destined from almost the start not to run its full course. ‘I live in London now.’

Would be doing, at any rate, once this was over, she thought.

‘And what do you do for a living?’

Her hesitation was brief. ‘Secretarial.’

‘You’ll be giving it up, of course, once you and Zac are married.’

It was a statement not a question. Easy to see where his grandson got it from, thought Jessica drily. ‘I hadn’t got round to thinking about it yet,’ she said.

The old eyes bored into her. ‘But you do want children?’

‘Well…yes.’ Don’t just stand there! she thought fumingly when there was no word from Zac. ‘Four at least,’ she tagged on, throwing caution to the winds. ‘Two boys, two girls, if we can manage it.’

There was a certain satisfaction in the look Henry Prescott turned his grandson’s way. ‘It took you long enough, but it seems you might have made it good in the end.’

‘Didn’t I just,’ Zac agreed.

Jessica concentrated on her glass, conscience overtaking her once more. She was never going to forgive herself for this! They’d been here less than half an hour. The thought of keeping the act going until at least lunchtime tomorrow was daunting.

Chapter Three

ZAC stayed for a few private words with his grandfather while his grandmother showed Jessica to the room she would be occupying. Furnished to suit the ambience of the place, it boasted a small but beautifully appointed en suite.

‘You have a lovely home, Mrs Prescott,’ Jessica exclaimed impulsively. ‘So unspoiled!’

‘It would have been a crime to make changes other than what was strictly necessary,’ the older woman agreed. ‘I see you’re not wearing a ring yet,’ she added disconcertingly.

‘We didn’t get round to choosing one yet,’ Jessica improvised. ‘It’s all happened so quickly. I’m still having difficulty taking it in!’

‘It came as a surprise to Henry and me too. We were beginning to believe Zac would never settle down. Henry regards marriage as the mainstay in a man’s life. To the right woman, of course. As you might have gathered, he doesn’t approve of working wives. Not outside the home, at any rate. He wouldn’t have been at all happy if you’d turned out to be career-minded.’

Jessica bit back the instinctive rejoinder. ‘You never had any ambition in that direction yourself?’ she asked instead.

‘I never had the opportunity to develop that kind of ambition. Not that I believe I missed out in any way.’

The rider had been added a little too quickly for complete conviction, Jessica thought. Here was a woman who had known at least some degree of frustration with her lot over the years.

‘I’m not sure I could settle for domesticity wholesale,’ she said lightly. ‘I doubt if Zac would expect it of me anyway.’

‘He’ll need to give the impression he not only expects it but insists on it if he wants to stay in his grandfather’s good books,’ came the candid reply. ‘Henry is capable of settling the majority of his company shares on our other grandson if Zac proves himself less than the man he hopes he is. Not something I personally…’

Esther Prescott broke off, shaking her head as if in the realisation of already having said a great deal more than she had intended. ‘Do make yourself at home,’ she substituted. ‘We live a very informal life here.’

Alone in the room, Jessica tried to bring her thoughts into some kind of order. If Zac knew his grandfather’s views, and he must surely do, he’d taken a grave risk in coming up with this pseudo fiancée to start with. Playing for time, he’d said last night, but time had run out on him faster than he’d anticipated.

With so much to possibly lose, there was small wonder for the desperation stakes, she reflected cynically. She could have gone along with the ‘pacifying a dying man’ theme—she had gone along with it—but this was something else again. Zac deserved to be exposed for what he was!

But was she prepared to do it? she asked herself. Could she bring herself to tell a dying man that his grandson had lied to him simply to stay in favour?

The answer had to be no. Which left her with little recourse but to carry on with the deception for the time being, like it or not.

Zac gave her a questioning look when he brought in her suitcase a few minutes later, obviously picking up on the vibes.

‘Something wrong?’

‘I let myself be talked into this to spare your grandfather the distress of knowing you’d lied to him,’ she jerked out. ‘But that wasn’t all you were worried about, was it? You were afraid of him changing his will if he found you out!’

The hard-boned face showed little expression. ‘It was a consideration, yes. He can be quite ruthless.’