Marriage Bargain With His Innocent (HQR Presents)

by Cathy Williams

  Was it?

  She rested a cup of tea in front of Rose and drew up a chair next to her. ‘So, word for word, what did he say?’

  ‘I need an operation,’ Rose said flatly. ‘And sooner rather than later.’

  ‘You’re scared,’ Georgina said quietly, ‘and I get that. You’d got your hopes up that you’d be given the all-clear. But there’s nothing to be afraid of.’ She could feel Matias’s eyes on her. She took Rose’s hand and held it between her own. ‘If there was anything truly concerning they would be sending an ambulance over for you right now. Are they?’

  Rose shook her head and relaxed a little.

  ‘When are you due to go in?’

  ‘He wanted to see me the day after tomorrow, but I managed to persuade him to see me this afternoon.’

  ‘See?’ Georgina said reassuringly. ‘The day after tomorrow? I’ll bet this operation will be as straightforward as pulling out a tooth.’

  She heard herself saying all the right things, and in between Matias chipped in, but on this rare occasion, words didn’t come easily for him.

  ‘I just worry,’ Rose concluded, sighing. ‘However straightforward an operation it may or may not be, who knows what will happen? General anaesthetic carries risks—especially for someone like me whose health has been compromised. And there’s another thing...’

  ‘What’s that?’ Matias questioned in a roughened undertone.

  ‘It’s been so wonderful seeing the two of you together,’ Rose began. Her eyes welled up and she looked away quickly. ‘When Georgina told me that you were going out...well, I could hardly believe it.’

  Georgina fidgeted, but remained smiling. ‘Perhaps you should try and get a little rest?’ she murmured. ‘You’ve had a bit of a shock. I can bring your tea up to your bedroom...’

  ‘I thought that it couldn’t possibly be true. But I’ve watched you together and I’ve hardly been able to credit it. Matias, you’re my son, and I love you very much, but I know what you’re like with the ladies.’

  Matias flushed.

  Georgina watched with some amusement as he tried and failed to find a suitable response, resorting to raking his fingers through his hair and squirming ever so slightly in his chair. For the first time in his life he was being openly called out on his behaviour and he didn’t know how to deal with it. That was obvious.

  ‘You like variety. Your father and I... Well, we knew we were meant for one another from a very young age, and we never wavered in our conviction or in our love.’

  ‘I... I... We’re not all the same...’

  Georgina thought that if ever a person had looked as though they were being slowly spit-roasted over an open fire, then that person was Matias. The look he shot her was positively despairing, and it sent his appeal for her shooting into the stratosphere. If her heart hadn’t already been handed over to him, then it surely would have been handed over right at that very moment.

  ‘If you intend to toss Georgie aside, Matias, then you must do it before I go under the knife. I don’t think I would be able to make it through if I thought that you were going to break her heart. I’ve been praying and keeping my fingers crossed that this lovely relationship you have goes the distance, but I’d rather face the worst-case scenario before I have the operation than go under general thinking that I might wake up to find that you’ve decided to break up—’

  ‘Rose!’ Georgina interrupted brightly. ‘I’m right here! You’re talking as though I’ve left the room! I’m more than capable of taking care of myself should we...should we both decide that things aren’t working out between us!’ She did her best to look as cheerful as possible. ‘You really shouldn’t be worrying about any of this. You’ve got enough on your plate.’

  ‘She’s right,’ Matias said seriously. ‘This is the last thing you should be thinking about. Especially when...’ His dark eyes roved over Georgina’s face. ‘Especially when,’ he continued gravely, ‘we’ve both been waiting for the right moment to announce our engagement.’

  For a few seconds Georgina didn’t register what Matias had said. She continued smiling her glassy, soothing smile, but then the smile fell away and hot red colour flooded her cheeks.

  It seemed that Rose was congratulating them both...saying something about a ring... And it also seemed that Matias was answering. But their voices were coming from a long way away, and only penetrating her brain the way a very fuzzy light might penetrate dense fog. Her brain certainly felt very foggy.

  She was barely aware of Matias escorting his mother upstairs, because somewhere along the line she appeared to have lost the power of speech and of coherent thought in general.

  He reappeared after fifteen minutes and stood in the doorway for a few seconds before strolling into the kitchen.

  ‘Not exactly the reaction I was expecting,’ he drawled, circling her before dropping into the chair facing hers and promptly leaning forward, arms on his thighs, legs spread apart. ‘Where’s all the girlish excitable chatter?’

  ‘Matias...’ Georgina blinked and then focused on him, still blinking like an owl. ‘Engaged? How could you tell your mother that we’re engaged?’

  Suddenly galvanised into action, she leapt to her feet, sprinted over to make sure that the kitchen door was firmly shut, and then positioned herself in front of Matias, hands on her hips, her green eyes glinting dangerously.

  ‘What choice was there?’ Matias countered without batting an eye. ‘You heard her. She’s terrified of the operation ahead of her—which, as it turns out, is to have a pacemaker fitted. A routine procedure. She’s genuinely concerned that things between us are going to go belly-up—that I’m going to revert to my bad old ways, but only after I’ve well and truly broken your heart. I think she believes that if she’s braced for the worst, then she can steel herself to face it.’

  ‘So just like that you decided that you’d expand our relationship into something a thousand times more serious...?’

  ‘I’ll admit,’ he said grudgingly, ‘that I’ve done what I accused you of doing, when you showed up at my house and informed me that we were a loved-up, starry-eyed couple. I’ve involved you in something you hadn’t anticipated. But this is just a temporary add-on that will take my mother past this hurdle...’

  Georgina’s mind was in freefall. Engaged to Matias Silva? Under normal circumstances it would have been a dream come true. Under these circumstances it was a complication he couldn’t begin to understand. It shouldn’t make a difference, but somehow it did. It was like being within touching distance of nectar, but knowing that you were never going to reach it.

  ‘What’s the problem?’ Matias asked. ‘You saw how she reacted.’ He paused. ‘My mother has never discussed my life choices. Naturally, I’ve always known she disapproves, but to hear that disapproval voiced for the first time...’

  He shook his head and turned the full wattage of his attention onto Georgina.

  For a few seconds she was lost. This was a Matias she’d never thought she’d see. He was actually confiding in her, telling her things about himself that she knew he would never have told anyone—would probably never have admitted to himself.

  A little voice whispered inside her: A pretend engagement...with a man you’re in love with...a man who, for the first time, is opening up about himself...

  It was hard not to feel quietly privileged.

  It was also dangerous. And she banked down the seductive little voice that was beginning to question whether Matias perhaps felt more for her than he himself knew.

  ‘It’s a sign of how much closer you two have become in a short space of time,’ she mused thoughtfully. ‘She trusts you enough to say what’s on her mind instead of holding it in.’

  ‘So, back to the matter at hand.’

  He slapped his thighs and stood up, all business now. That window of emotion had been shut. Georgina wishe
d with all her heart that she could push it open again. Instead, she followed suit and moved to finish tidying the dishes.

  ‘Back to the matter at hand?’ she asked.

  ‘Rings.’

  ‘What about them?’

  ‘We need to get one.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Come on, Georgie. An engaged woman always wears a rock on her finger.’

  He moved to stand next to her and lifted her hand, inspected her finger.

  She snatched her hand away. ‘Surely that’s taking the pretence too far? Has it occurred to you that when it comes to something as serious as an engagement I might actually want to wear a ring on my finger that means something? That’s a declaration of intent from a guy who wants to go the whole hog and walk up the aisle with me?’

  ‘No,’ Matias said, dropping her hand and heading for the door, then spinning round on his heels to look at her before opening it. ‘My mother’s recommended some jewellers. I, personally, would rather get something in London, but perhaps a ring from somewhere local might carry more significance.’

  ‘Did you hear a word I just said?’

  ‘I heard every word. Are you telling me that you’re not willing to go along with this?’

  ‘No... I can see the upsides... I just thought you should know that—’

  ‘Okay. Got it. Then let’s go. We can wrap this up in a couple of hours. My mother’s appointment with the consultant is later this afternoon. I’ll want to accompany her. If she sees a ring on your finger her spirits will be good enough to deal with the details of the operation.’

  He was back to being the Matias of old. Assured, in charge, emotions firmly under lock and key.

  * * *

  Despite spending most of his adult life anywhere other than Cornwall, he still knew the roads and streets like the back of his hand, and they were at the jeweller’s within forty-five minutes of leaving the house.

  ‘One of my mother’s daughters designs bespoke rings here.’ Matias killed the engine outside an exquisite chocolate box house on a side street, sandwiched between a bridal shop and a high-end shoe shop. He looked at her wryly. ‘In between her concerns over this upcoming operation, she managed to impart that gem of information.’

  Georgina was gazing at the shop front. ‘Emily Thornton?’ she said. ‘Have you any idea how expensive her stuff is?’

  ‘Have you any idea how little I care about that?’ He reached across her to push open the passenger door, then remained staring at her for a few seconds. ‘You look as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof. It’s just part of this charade we’ve signed up to.’

  ‘I realise that it doesn’t mean anything...’

  ‘So you shouldn’t feel anxious. Now, let’s go and see what the finest jeweller in the West Country has to offer, shall we?’

  Squashing the temptation to attach any significance to the choosing of an engagement ring, and making sure to keep at the forefront of her mind Matias’s flat reminder that this was all just a continuation of the game she had initiated, Georgina eyed the array of glittering jewels brought out for their inspection.

  There were no prices on any of them—which was alarming. The quality was stunning, and her mouth was dry when she casually pointed to the most gaudy of the rings on display.

  ‘Funny...’ Matias murmured under his breath. ‘That’s the last ring I would have pictured you choosing.’

  Georgina shrugged, but got the feeling that he knew exactly what was going through her mind—she intended to save choosing a ring she truly loved for a guy she really cared about. It was a twisted version of the truth, but she was determined to play this game as coolly as he was.

  When it was slipped onto her finger she stared at it, while the young sales assistant oohed and ahhed and told her that she couldn’t have chosen anything more beautiful.

  ‘Why don’t you try that one, my darling?’ Matias removed the ring and returned it to the girl, his dark, amused eyes firmly fixed on Georgina’s face. ‘Personally, I think an oversized diamond squatting on a band of gold isn’t right for your delicate finger.’

  Their eyes tangled—and then he reached out and picked the very ring she would have chosen for herself.

  ‘There, now...’ He held her hand up and inspected it from all angles. ‘Much better. We’ll take it.’

  He paid, and Georgina stared at the delicate strands of interwoven rose gold and the small perfect diamonds that followed the strands. When she twisted her hand ever so slightly the strands almost seemed to move, like a thread of liquid gold flowing over precious gems.

  She shoved her hand down to her side, because when she looked at the ring the whole scenario felt way too real.

  ‘Now,’ Matias said, as they were leaving the shop, ‘we’ll collect my mother and take her to see the consultant.’

  There was nothing romantic about this occasion. He had switched off the second they had left the jeweller’s, and once in the car had promptly engaged himself in a lengthy conference call conducted partly in English, partly in Italian.

  Georgina stared ahead, and started when he said, without looking at her, ‘That gaudy bauble wouldn’t have fooled someone as astute as my mother.’

  ‘I still think we could have held off actually buying a ring. You could have said we wanted to choose something later, in London.’

  ‘And deprive her of the pleasure of knowing that we’d found something locally? You know my mother when it comes to keeping it small and local. I have to admit she has a point when it comes to choosing a ring.’ Without taking his eyes off the road he reached for her hand, held it up and glanced at the perfect band of gold. ‘Like it?’

  ‘It’s fine.’

  ‘You can keep it when this is all over.’

  ‘Why would I want to do that?’

  ‘Call it payment for services rendered.’ He shrugged. ‘But if you find that offensive, then by all means you can give it back to me. At any rate, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.’

  Georgina thought that he couldn’t have succeeded better when it came to keeping things on a strictly business level.

  She sat on her hand for the remainder of the journey to the house, staring straight ahead. Then it was all go as they took Rose to the hospital, where her consultant was waiting for her.

  Her nerves were palpable, barely concealed under a flurry of questions about their choice of ring.

  ‘It’s going to be fine.’

  Georgina continued to reassure the older woman and was pleased to notice, when they eventually reached the hospital, that she automatically reached for Matias’s arm—a real indication of how much their relationship had progressed and confirmation that this make-believe engagement was the right thing to do.

  The last thing Rose needed right now was the additional stress of worrying about Matias walking away. Not just walking away from her, Georgina now realised, but, in Rose’s mind, walking away from the relationship which had slowly been building between herself and her son.

  Did she perhaps think that a Matias returning to his former ways—a Matias whose only goal was making money, whose take on relationships was casual and dismissive—would also be a Matias who would no longer want to forge those filial bonds which had been missing for so many years?

  Georgina sighed to herself, because it seemed as though by taking this step she and Matias might well have jumped from the frying pan straight into the fire. And, much as she wanted to adopt his approach to the situation, which was to take things one day at a time and only cross bridges when they got to them, she found herself chewing over all the worst-case scenarios that might arise.

  While she waited for Matias and Rose to return from the lengthy consultation, she thought about the dangers inherent in this pretend situation that she so badly wanted to be real. She wondered how long they would continue the pretence...how long they
would continue sleeping with one another. She felt helpless to end things. She wanted him so badly that she was willing to take whatever was on offer. And she hated herself for becoming so much like all those women who had preceded her.

  And then there was the practical question of how they would conduct a long-distance relationship...

  For the first time Georgina gave house room to thoughts of moving to London. Of course it was a nonsense, because she would never leave Cornwall to pursue the dream of being more to Matias than a casual affair. But if she were to be close at hand...

  She was staring down at the ring on her finger when she heard footsteps and looked up to see Matias and his mother walking towards her.

  ‘All booked for the day after tomorrow,’ Matias said, looking from the engagement ring on her finger to the delicate bloom of colour in her cheeks.

  ‘I thought I might as well get it over and done with.’ Rose’s voice was brighter than it had been. ‘I’ve never believed in private healthcare, but I have to admit that it’s a weight off my shoulders knowing that I don’t have to wait weeks to have this operation. And, as Matias says, the sooner it’s done, the sooner I can start enjoying wedding plans. That is, Georgie, if you won’t find a middle-aged woman too intrusive? Of course your parents will be want to fly over as soon as they can... Alison’s going to be beside herself with joy. You’ll have to tell me what she says! I expect you’ll want to phone her as soon as possible. It’s wonderful, isn’t it?’

  CHAPTER NINE

  ‘I’VE BEEN THINKING...’ Georgina didn’t look at Matias as she said that. She busied herself sweeping up the suit jacket he had discarded on the kitchen counter and the tie which he had dropped to the ground. The jacket would have cost what most people might earn in six months, and the tie was the softest of silk.

  She had discovered that Matias treated his clothes with the casual disregard of someone who knew that he could snap his fingers and replace the lot at a moment’s notice. However, it went against the grain for Georgina to accept this cavalier indifference to possessions that cost the earth.