Ultimate Heroes Collection

by Various Authors

  ‘Hang on, I don’t even know if she’s at home,’ Charlie protested.

  The waiter came up and hovered discreetly by Seb. ‘Are you ready to order, sir?’

  ‘Can you give us another ten minutes, please?’ Seb asked.

  ‘Of course, sir.’ The waiter nodded and went away again.

  ‘Charlie, just go and see her. And if she’s not there, you sit on her doorstep and wait until she gets home,’ Vicky instructed.

  ‘Who says I want to talk to her anyway?’ Charlie asked, lifting his chin.

  ‘You’re in love with her. And don’t pretend you’re not—Seb and I have known you for our entire lives, and we know you better than anybody else,’ Vicky said. ‘And we think she’s in love with you.’

  Maybe she had been. But he’d blown that. ‘She won’t talk to me. Not now.’

  ‘Charlie. Have faith in yourself,’ Vicky said softly. ‘Unless you try, you’ll never know. You’ll be miserable for the rest of your days and wonder what would’ve happened if you’d been brave enough to let her into your life.’

  ‘I’m not a coward,’ Charlie said through gritted teeth.

  ‘So prove it.’

  ‘And if she knocks me back?’

  ‘Then at least you know where you stand. And you can move on—eventually.’ She smiled at him. ‘Go and see Sophie, while Seb and I create a diversion.’

  ‘Oh, no. You’re not going to take your dress off and dance on a table while you swig champagne out of the bottle, are you?’ Seb asked, looking faintly worried.

  Vicky folded her arms and gave him a pointed look. ‘No, because I’m not the wild child of the family.’

  ‘Don’t look at me. I don’t dance on tables, topless or otherwise,’ Seb said.

  ‘No, you’re going one better than that.’

  The worry on Seb’s face deepened. ‘Meaning?’

  Vicky grinned. ‘You, Sebastian, dearest, are going to be sold.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘For charity. Promise auction—and you’re the star prize.’

  Seb held both hands up. ‘Wait a minute. What promise auction?’

  ‘The one,’ Vicky said sweetly, ‘that you’re going to arrange. A hospital fundraiser. A big one.’

  Seb’s jaw dropped. ‘I can’t arrange something like that!’

  ‘Yes, you can. I might even help you, if you ask me nicely. And we’re going to start the PR for it tonight—by giving Celebrity Life a scoop. All it takes is one phone call and they’ll be here, dying to photograph you and find out as many details as possible. Meanwhile, Charlie slips out the back way, unnoticed, and can go to see Sophie without having the press in tow.’ She winked at Charlie. ‘Go get your girl, big brother.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Seb said, curling his lip. ‘And if I’m going to put myself through a media circus for you, you’d better do it right. I’m accepting nothing less than the best man’s job. And if you’re lucky I won’t leave you naked and tied to a lamppost on your stag do.’

  ‘Hang on, who said anything about marriage?’ Charlie asked.

  ‘Rupert Charles Radley, this is the love of your life we’re talking about. Of course you’re going to get married,’ Vicky said with asperity.

  ‘Oh, and before you go.’ Seb took his wallet from his pocket, rummaged inside and discreetly palmed something over to Charlie.

  ‘Sebastian Henry Radley, if that’s what I think it is … Do you have to reduce everything to sex?’ Vicky asked.

  He spread his hands. ‘Just being practical. If we’re talking kiss and make up, he needs to be prepared. Don’t you start living up to your namesake, queenie.’ He wrinkled his nose at her. ‘Anyway, you’re the one who’s selling me for a night, so I don’t think you have room to talk about reducing everything to sex.’

  ‘You,’ Vicky said, ‘are impossible.’

  ‘Agreed. But thanks. Both of you,’ Charlie said, hugging his siblings.

  ‘Go get your girl,’ Seb told him. ‘We have work to do.’

  Vicky took her mobile phone from her handbag. ‘OK. Round One of Celebrity Life versus the Radleys.’ She grinned. ‘Though it’s going to be a knockout. They don’t stand a chance against us!’

  ‘Sophie? Is that you?’ Mrs Baker poked her head round her door. ‘Ah, at last.’

  Sophie looked at her landlady in surprise. ‘Is something wrong, Mrs Baker?’

  ‘No, no. I’ve been entertaining your visitor.’

  ‘Visitor?’ Sophie echoed. She wasn’t expecting any visitors. Unless Sandy had come home unexpectedly from her round-the-world trip. No. Sandy would have sent her a text or phoned her from the airport.

  ‘There you go, young man.’

  Young man?

  Mrs Baker ushered Sophie’s visitor out of her own door and into their shared lobby, and Sophie’s heart missed a beat. Charlie. What was he doing here?

  ‘Thank you for looking after me, Mrs Baker,’ Charlie said. To Sophie’s disgust, he actually gave a half-bow, raised Mrs Baker’s hand to his lips and kissed it.

  Her landlady turned bright pink and giggled. ‘Oh, Charlie, you are a one!’ She gave them both a coy little wave and closed her door.

  ‘What do you want?’ Sophie asked, knowing she sounded ungracious but not able to prevent it.

  ‘To talk to you.’

  She curled her lip. ‘I thought we had nothing to say to each other? That we’re “merely colleagues”.’

  ‘I was wrong,’ Charlie said quietly. ‘I think we have a lot to talk about. And I’d rather we said it somewhere a little more private.’

  He had a point. Mrs Baker, bless her, probably had her ear jammed to the door—ready to come out to the rescue, brandishing her umbrella, if Charlie appeared to be upsetting Sophie. Worse, she’d be reporting back to Sophie’s mother. Sophie gave in and opened her front door, letting him walk up the stairs first.

  ‘I brought you these. Sort of a holding place, you might say,’ Charlie said as she closed the door behind them, handing her a dozen multicoloured roses wrapped in supermarket Cellophane. ‘There aren’t any proper florists open at this time of night. I intend to give you a decent peace offering later.’

  ‘I don’t want flowers.’ She’d just wanted him. And what a mistake that had been.

  He sighed. ‘I think we’ve made a mess of things between us. I’m sorry. I didn’t give you a chance when you wanted to talk to me. I can’t really expect you to listen to me now. But I’m asking you anyway. Can we talk it over?’

  Sophie rubbed a hand across her eyes. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  Just then Charlie’s stomach rumbled. Loudly.

  He winced. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘How long were you waiting for me?’

  ‘Since half past seven,’ he admitted.

  ‘So you haven’t eaten tonight?’

  He shrugged. ‘Doesn’t matter.’

  She switched the kettle on and gestured to him to take a seat at her kitchen table. ‘I’m not offering you a meal.’ Even though she’d been brought up to be hospitable. When she and Charlie ate together, it … well, it led to things.

  ‘I don’t expect you to feed me.’

  She sneaked a glance at him. He looked absolutely sincere. So maybe he really did just want to talk. And no doubt Mrs Baker had been grilling him for the past couple of hours while Sophie had been doing her handover and finishing some paperwork. She wouldn’t have let him anywhere near Sophie if she didn’t trust his motives.

  And if he’d missed his evening meal to wait for her, she couldn’t starve the poor guy.

  ‘There’s one of my mum’s cakes in that tin,’ she offered gruffly.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said quietly.

  She handed him a knife and a plate, put the roses in water, pulled the blind at the kitchen window then turned to face him. ‘So. What was it you wanted to say?’

  This was it. His one chance. And he’d better not blow it. ‘It’s a long story. But, firstly, I want to apologise. I haven’t treat
ed you very well.’

  ‘I haven’t treated you very well either,’ Sophie admitted.

  ‘None of this was supposed to happen.’ He sighed. ‘I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with anybody. Ever again.’

  ‘Again?’

  ‘I was engaged five years ago. Her name was Julia. She worked for an art gallery—her mother knew mine socially. Anyway, we went out together a few times. I thought I was in love with her.’ And that she’d be the one to keep his mother off his back, an acceptable bride for the lord of the Weston estate. ‘I asked her to marry me. She said yes.’

  ‘So what went wrong?’

  ‘She forgot to tell me,’ Charlie said dryly, ‘that she was in love with someone else. I thought she didn’t mind me working doctor’s hours because she knew how much my job meant to me. But, of course, it gave her a lot of free evenings.’

  Sophie’s eyes widened. ‘She was seeing someone else behind your back?’

  He nodded. ‘I found out the hard way. I had a key to her place. The week before the wedding I thought she seemed rather stressed. So I planned a surprise for her. I was going to make her a special meal, give her a massage—you know the sort of thing. I took a half-day and went to her place early to set it all up.’ He looked away, unable to bear seeing pity in Sophie’s face when he told her. ‘But she was already home.’ He still remembered walking in. Hearing her laugh. Hearing the laugh turn to a cry—a cry he recognised. The cry of Julia climaxing. He still remembered being frozen at first, not wanting to believe it. She couldn’t be unfaithful to him. She’d said she loved him. And then he’d forced himself to walk towards the bedroom door. One foot in front of the other. Mechanically. Opened the door. And seen them together. ‘She was in bed. With him.’

  ‘You walked in on them?’

  ‘Yes. He was an artist. Not a very successful one. Still isn’t.’ He gave a mirthless laugh. ‘Not that that matters. She met him at the gallery. But he couldn’t give her the life she wanted, with invitations to all the smartest parties and people falling over themselves to know her. Whereas I could.’ He felt a muscle flicker in his jaw. ‘So she decided to have the best of both worlds. The position I could give her as Baroness Radley—and the lover she wanted on the side. And if I protested, she could always divorce me—a settlement would probably have been enough to set up both of them for life.’

  ‘That,’ Sophie said tightly, ‘is appalling. No wonder your sister checked up on me. I take it you cancelled the wedding?’

  ‘Yes. And I made it very clear to anybody I dated afterwards that I wasn’t looking for marriage or any kind of permanent relationship.’ He smiled wryly. ‘You probably won’t believe me, but most of the dates I had … I didn’t even kiss them. Once bitten, twice shy, and all that. Half the time I didn’t even want to go, but Seb was insistent that I shouldn’t stay in and brood over Julia. He said I wasted all my opportunities.’ He shrugged. ‘I was more interested in my work. And then I came to the Hampstead General and met you.’ He toyed with the cake. ‘I never believed in the so-called coup de foudre—love at first sight—so I really wasn’t prepared for feeling as if someone had dropped me out of a plane without a parachute. I couldn’t take my eyes off you. But the second you looked at me your eyes were filled with loathing. I had no idea what I’d done to upset you.’

  She shook her head. ‘It wasn’t you.’

  ‘Just what I stood for. And if I’d been you, I would have reacted the same way.’ He looked bleakly at her. ‘Every time I saw you I just wanted to pull you into my arms and kiss you. It drove me crazy—I just don’t do that sort of thing! And you’d put up this huge wall between us—it was if you could barely stand being in the same room as me.’

  ‘And then I saw you looking so unhappy. Your heartstrings case.’

  ‘Yes. That.’ He crumbled a bit more of his cake. ‘Let’s just say that I don’t get on that well with my stepfather.’

  ‘He hurts your mother?’ Sophie queried.

  ‘If he did, I’d take him apart. Slowly.’ And very, very painfully. Charlie flexed his hands, letting his fists unbunch. ‘No, he doesn’t hit her. He didn’t hit any of us when we were growing up.’ He smiled wryly. ‘Mainly because we’re all bigger than he is. He’s just … tiresome, I suppose. I don’t know if he thought he’d get a title if he married my mother. He certainly likes to pretend he’s the baron. Though he’s not fit to lick my father’s shoes.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Sophie said softly.

  ‘Not your problem. But the night I first kissed you. Ah, hell. There isn’t a good way to put this.’ If he said what was in his head—what was in his heart—she’d throw him out.

  ‘Try the straight way,’ Sophie suggested.

  His eyes met hers. ‘You’re not going to like this,’ he warned.

  ‘Tell me anyway. I think it’s time we were completely honest with each other.’

  More than time. ‘I knew I’d fallen in love with you. It was like nothing else I’d ever known. I thought I’d loved Julia, but that was a pale imitation of what I felt for you. I’d watched you on the ward: you were a bright light that brought everyone round you. The way you smiled, the way you had patience with junior doctors, the way you argued passionately for what you believed in and stood up against anything you saw that was wrong. You were just so warm and vital. So when I saw you so upset that night, I wanted to make you better. I wanted to bring the light back to your eyes. And I made a complete mess of it.’

  She shook her head. ‘No, you were brilliant.’

  ‘Then why did you walk out on me without a word?’

  She was silent.

  Was she going to tell him? Or was she going to ask him to leave?

  Eventually, she looked at him. ‘I panicked,’ she said softly. ‘The next morning, the more I thought about what had happened, the less I could bear to face you. I’d led you on and I’d made you stop at the last moment. I mean, you must have been … frustrated.’

  ‘I understood, Sophie. It wasn’t just about sex—otherwise I’d have put you in a taxi that night and not asked you to stay with me.’

  ‘Which only made it worse. You’d been so nice about everything. I’d cried all over you, I’d left you unsatisfied, I’d … Oh, I just wanted to crawl away into a corner and lick my wounds. I was ashamed, embarrassed. I didn’t know what to say to you.’

  So she’d said nothing. Left him in limbo. ‘You could have left me a note.’

  ‘I didn’t know what to say,’ she repeated.

  ‘I guessed you’d felt embarrassed and upset,’ he admitted.

  ‘So why didn’t you give me a break?’

  He sighed. ‘I tried not to pressure you. I waited for you to ring me. But the longer you left it, the more I started remembering what had happened with Julia.’ He looked away. ‘Let’s just say I have trust issues. I talked myself into thinking that I’d read you wrong, that I didn’t mean anything to you.’

  ‘It wasn’t like that. You were the first person I’d told about it, and I was still so churned up inside. I’m sorry I hurt you. I didn’t want that to happen.’ She swallowed. ‘I thought you’d changed your mind about me, too.’

  ‘Bluff,’ Charlie said.

  ‘Vicky said you were good with smoke screens.’ Her face became more serious. ‘I talked to Lois the next day. I persuaded her to talk to a counsellor. And.’ she closed her eyes for a moment ‘.I rang the number, too.’

  ‘You’ve talked to someone?’

  She nodded. ‘Her name’s Melanie. I’ve seen her a few times, actually. And it’s helped. A lot.’

  ‘Good.’ Lord, how he wanted to reach out and take her hand. Comfort her. But holding her hand was probably a move too far—he didn’t want her to throw him out. Not until they’d said all they needed to say.

  He resumed playing with the cake. He needed to keep his fingers busy before they turned traitor and followed his heart instead of his head. Before he touched her.

  ‘I told my parents,’ she s
aid quietly. ‘They were pretty upset. Dad felt he’d failed me because he hadn’t protected me, and Mum felt she’d failed me because I didn’t trust her enough to tell her. But if I’d told them, it wouldn’t have made any difference.’ She grimaced. ‘You can’t change the past. I just didn’t want them to be hurt.’

  ‘And then they saw those pictures in Celebrity Life. I imagine your father doesn’t feel very kindly towards me either,’ Charlie said.

  ‘Mum talked him round. I, um, told her most of what happened. She said I ought to talk to you.’ She waited a beat. ‘I tried.’

  He remembered. ‘And I wouldn’t let you.’

  ‘Because I’d hurt you.’

  ‘As I just told you, I …’He sighed. ‘I find it hard to trust since Julia. And with everyone else seeing Baron Radley instead of Charlie, wanting what they can get out of me … I talked myself into thinking that you’d just used me. That you were getting your revenge on an upper-class twit. That, like Julia, you hadn’t wanted me for myself. Just for what I represented.’

  ‘No. It wasn’t like that.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I was just being a wimp.’

  ‘Wimp,’ he said slowly, ‘is the last word I’d use to describe you. You’ve got guts, Sophie Harrison. And I respect you.’

  ‘I respect you, too. Professionally and personally.’ She paused. ‘What would you have done if I’d stayed that Sunday morning?’

  ‘Bearing in mind that I could sleep through an earthquake … when I’d finally surfaced, I would’ve made you breakfast in bed and tried to persuade you to talk to a counsellor.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘If you’d been awake, yes.’ The other thing he’d wanted to do must have been written all over his face. Well, now was the time for honesty. He may as well tell her. He had nothing left to lose. ‘If you’d been asleep, I might have woken you with a kiss. Seen where it took us.’

  ‘I thought you’d just wanted me to … well, scratch an itch.’

  ‘No. Though I admit I wanted to make love with you. I still do,’ he admitted. It was taking all his willpower to keep him on his chair. What he wanted to do right now was to scoop her up and sit her on his lap and kiss her. And more. Until they both felt a hell of a lot better.