Anything, Any Time, Any Place

by Gordon, Lucy

  “Not usually. But preparing a wedding and a reception for three hundred people is quite a task.”

  “Three hundred people.” Kaye gulped. “I thought it was going to be a quiet affair.”

  “That is quiet, for Jack. Bye.”

  Kaye had no time to recover from this speech before Bertie and Sam descended on them, sweeping them off to supper and demanding to know all about their purchases. The two old men were as instantly at home with each other as they’d been six years ago. They back chatted constantly, finishing each other’s sentences and happily swapping rude names.

  Kaye let it all flow over her, feeling sleepily content. But she wished Jack would come home, so that she could believe this was real.

  When supper was over she slipped outside, needing to be alone. Jack’s garden was huge and gave her plenty of space to lose herself in the gathering dusk. She wandered along the paths between the well-tended lawns and trees, feeling the cool evening air on her cheeks, wondering if she would awaken in a moment to find it had all been a beautiful dream, and she must marry Lewis Vane after all.

  “Kaye! Are you there? Kaye?”

  She turned, eager at the sound of Jack’s voice. He was no dream, but a solidly real man, who was already taking hold of her heart as firmly as he’d done long ago. “I’m here,” she called.

  Darkness was falling fast and it was a moment before he could discern her, sitting on a bench that ran right around a huge oak tree. “Did you come out here to escape the riot?” he asked, grinning.

  “Well, it really is nice and quiet.”

  “Sorry to leave you to Georgy’s tender mercies, but I had to fix some details about the boat trial. You’ve no idea what you’ve let yourself in for.”

  “It can’t be worse than what I’ve escaped,” she said lightly.

  “That’s true,” he said with a grin. “Whenever I become unbearable, just remind yourself of Lewis Vane.”

  “Jack,” she said suddenly, “are you really sure about this?”

  “Too late now. I’ve booked the church and twisted arms to get the license. You can’t cancel two weddings to two different men in one week. People will think you’re strange or something.”

  It was no good going on. She was helpless against his determination to pass it off as a joke. It was a reminder of something he’d hinted about on Singleton. Jack’s easy good nature was delightful, but he could use it as a defense mechanism.

  “I’ve seen the piles of boxes from this afternoon,” he said, skillfully putting her question behind them, still unanswered.

  “They’re not all mine,” Kaye said anxiously. “Georgy did some shopping, too.”

  “If I know Georgy, she did most of the shopping.”

  “She was telling me about Henri, her boyfriend.”

  “Not while I have breath in my body,” Jack said grimly. “He’s the younger brother of François, Elsie’s latest toyboy. Elsie has a villa in Monte Carlo, and when François moved in with her, so did Henri, looking for pickings.”

  “What about Valerie, the nanny?”

  “She left last year. Elsie didn’t replace her. But Val would have known how to deal with Henri. He’s good-looking in a greasy way, and he was making eyes at Georgy when I turned up. Elsie wasn’t even there. She and François had gone off to the casino, leaving Georgy alone in the house with Henri. I told her to pack her bags.”

  “And she came with you willingly?”

  “More or less. She’d just had a dustup with Elsie, and I suppose she thought she’d play us off against each other. She wasn’t so pleased when she found living with me meant attending school and going to bed early.”

  “What happened when Elsie came back and found her gone?”

  “I left her a letter, saying Georgy was safe. Elsie got on the phone to me and screamed blue murder.”

  “But didn’t she follow you here?”

  “No,” Jack said, his eyes kindling with anger. “Because of François. He’s a lot younger than her, and very much in demand. Elsie keeps hold of him with gifts and money, but she daren’t take her eyes off him. So far she hasn’t shown up, but her lawyer is bombarding me with demands for Georgy’s return.”

  “But how could any court order you to give her up?” Kaye wondered. “Once you tell them how things were—”

  “It’s not easy to convince a court that a girl doesn’t belong with her mother, especially when she’s always lived with her. And they’ve got a firm of private investigators trying to dig up some dirt on me.”

  “Can they?”

  Jack’s vivid grin had a touch of wryness. “I’ve enjoyed my life to the full. There are a few things that might make me seem a dubious moral authority for a young girl. I need to show that all that stuff is behind me.”

  “And our marriage will do that,” she agreed. There was a deep pleasure in the thought that she was giving him back something in return for all he’d given her. And her heart yearned toward him. He might not love her, but he needed her, and by living close to him she would have the chance to win his love.

  He leaned back against the tree, yawning, and she recalled what he’d said earlier. “Did you really spend last night on a plane?” she asked.

  “It was the only way to get here in time. As it was, there was a delay, and I only made it by the skin of my teeth.”

  “I couldn’t believe it was really you standing there, after all these years, coming to my rescue like a knight in shining armor.”

  “I’m no knight in armor,” Jack said with a plain man’s discomfort at “fancy talk.”

  “All right, the cavalry galloping to the rescue, then.”

  “That’s better. Besides, it’s you that’s galloped to my rescue. You’ll find Georgy a handful.”

  “But she’s charming. We got on wonderfully well this afternoon.”

  “She was getting you onto her side,” Jack said darkly. “With Georgy, charm and manipulation go hand in hand. She gets it from her mother.”

  “From her mother?” Kaye echoed. “Oh, really?”

  She let the implication hang in the air, and after a moment Jack laughed ruefully. “Well, maybe not only from Elsie. Poor Georgy! What a legacy for a kid! Elsie on the one hand and me on the other. But with your help, it’s not too late to save her.” He laid his hand on hers. “What shall I get you for a wedding present?”

  “You’ve already given me the thing I wanted most.”

  Paul’s safety, he thought, and knew an unexpected pang. He was used to women who were chiefly attracted by his money, but never before one who saw him as a good-luck charm for her brother. It was a novel experience, and he would try to deal with it without rancor.

  “You don’t mind too much marrying me, do you?” he asked.

  He thought he saw a strange look flicker across her face, but the light was too dim to be sure. It was a moment before she spoke, and then only to say, “I owe you.”

  “Kaye,” he protested, “I wouldn’t claim a promise like that if it was against your will. What do you think I am? Another Lewis Vane?”

  “It’s not against my will,” she promised.

  “Paul’s safe now. You don’t have to go through with it if you’d rather not.”

  “Hey, what is this?” she asked. “Are you trying to get out of marrying me?”

  “Giving you the chance to get out—if that’s what you want.”

  Again he had the sensation that she was thinking something she couldn’t tell him. But then he met her eyes and found something in them that made him forget speech. He slipped his arms about her, murmuring, “Don’t we have some unfinished business from this afternoon?”

  “I believe you’re right,” she said.

  He kissed her tentatively, asking questions but not waiting for the answers. Beneath his unruffled air he was as shaken as Kaye by the speed of events. This morning she’d been almost a stranger, the excuse for one of those adventures that were the breath of life to him. Tonight she was his promised wif
e. His head was spinning. Or perhaps that was her effect.

  “Do you know,” he murmured, “I’m breaking every promise I made to your family.”

  “No, you’re not,” she whispered back. “You said you wouldn’t come knocking on my bedroom door. You didn’t say anything about the garden.”

  He laughed against her mouth. “My thoughts are a violation of every promise I made.”

  “So who’s checking?”

  The boldness of her teasing reply caught him off guard. Decidedly she was full of surprises. It was hard to believe that this was the same Kaye he’d seen only that morning, nervous and intimidated by her family. That young woman had aroused Jack’s protectiveness. The one in his arms aroused very different feelings. She was bewitching in her innocent sensuality, and he was swept by a fierce urge to carry her to bed there and then.

  It was a novel experience for him to have to restrain his impulses. But he contented himself with moving his hands over her slim contours, noting curves and hollows and promising himself a more thorough investigation some time in the not too distant future.

  “Kaye? Hallo? Is anybody there?”

  Bertie’s voice broke rudely in on them, forcing Jack to release her. “Bertie’s taking his chaperon duties a sight too seriously for my liking.” He sighed. “Never mind. Our moment will come.”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Oh, Jack—yes....”

  She rose quickly and ran to meet Bertie. Together they walked back to the house, leaving Jack sitting under the tree, very thoughtful.

  Sam found him still there an hour later. “Not like you to spend a lot of time brooding, son,” he remarked, sitting beside him.

  “I’ve got a lot to brood about, haven’t I?”

  “I’ll say! When we set this up, you never said you were planning to marry her.”

  “I wasn’t planning it. It happened on the spur of the moment. Suddenly it just—felt right.”

  “That was this morning,” Sam observed shrewdly. “Does it still feel right?”

  “It feels more right with every moment that passes, and I don’t know why. I could give you reasons. She’s delightful and charming, but so are others that I never thought of marrying.”

  “Been carrying a torch for six years?”

  “Me? You know me better than that. I’m not the sentimental kind. I can’t explain the way I feel, but it’s right, I do know that.”

  “Coming inside?”

  “No, I think I’ll stay out here for a while. I’ve still got some thinking to do.”

  Sam paused as he walked away, and looked back, hesitating. “Maybe it’s going to be all right for you, after all,” he said.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “You know what I mean, son, as well as I do.”

  Jack stayed alone in the dark. Sam’s lighthearted remark had confronted him with something he’d only half realized before. For six years he’d remembered Kaye when he’d forgotten others, because there was something special about her, something—He hated analyzing things, and finally gave it up. Just “something special.” She was lovely in an understated way, but it wasn’t physical. It was to do with the light that radiated from her.

  He remembered the first night on Singleton, how she’d insisted on telling him that they weren’t as rich as they seemed. We’re frauds, she’d said, as though that was the worst thing in the world. That had been his first brush with the honesty that ruled her character.

  He lived in a world of fraud, most of which wore a pleasant face. He was used to women who wanted something from him and were prepared to use their bodies to get it. His relationships with them were a series of bargains, good-natured and openhanded on his part, but never going deeper than a certain level. He’d never thought of marrying any of them.

  But Kaye was special. He’d recognized as much even then. She was as enduring as the earth, as fresh and true as sparkling water. She was real. And he’d known it when he’d backed her into a corner and virtually forced her to marry him.

  But she, too, had made a bargain. She was marrying him in part to redeem her promise, but also to help her weakling brother, and perhaps to hide from her dreadful mother. Fair enough, in return for what she was giving him.

  As for love, he remembered the soft bloom of her skin, the feel of her slim body against his, her arms about his neck, giving passion with a full heart, as she did everything. He imagined the night, soon to come, when she would be completely his.

  When he thought of that, and felt his own body’s ungovernable response, he felt that love might safely be left to take care of itself.

  He was humming as he returned to the house.

  Chapter Four

  Kaye’s second wedding in three days was a world away from her first. Her dress was long, and made of snow white silk, but cut on restrained lines and unadorned. The veil, too, was simple, held in place by a delicate pearl tiara, a gift from Jack.

  Sam was the best man, and Georgy insisted on being bridesmaid because, as she said with charming frankness, it meant a lovely new dress. She found a soft peach silk that suited her perfectly. As before, Bertie escorted the bride to church to give her away.

  This time she was happy to go to her wedding. The sight of her groom turning to watch her coming down the aisle filled her with delight, and she walked the last few yards with a smile on her face. Jack’s own smile answered her, and his clasp on her hand was warm and reassuring.

  He even had a joke to share with her. When the vicar reached the words about “just cause and impediment,” Jack gave a quick glance over his shoulder, as if to remind her what had happened last time. The inquiring lift of his eyebrows was wicked, and they met each other’s eyes for a long moment, until the vicar coughed.

  After that the marriage service proceeded without incident. Kaye happily made the vows she’d dreaded making only a few days ago. Jack spoke his promises in a steady, confident voice, and slipped the ring onto her finger. At last it was over, and the organ pealed out as they turned to go back down the aisle.

  At once Kaye felt Jack stiffen.

  At the entrance to the church stood a woman, arms akimbo, watching them with a cynical look on her face.

  “Oh, no!” Jack muttered under his breath. “Elsie!”

  Everything seemed to stop while Jack regarded the distant figure of his ex-wife with horror. “Elsie,” he said again. “How did she manage to get here?”

  Kaye squeezed his hand. “It doesn’t matter. You’ve got me now.”

  He squeezed back. “Thank goodness for that! Right, here we go!”

  As they moved slowly toward the woman, Kaye got a better look at her. She knew from Sam that Elsie was forty-five, but she was well preserved, with a lean body and a face that had received much care and attention. She might have been attractive but for the jeering expression she wore as she watched the bride and groom. Kaye flinched under that look, then put her head up, refusing to be cowed. This woman was the enemy against whom Jack had begged her help. And she wouldn’t let him down.

  For a moment when it seemed as if Elsie might actually bar their way out of the church, but at the last moment she stood aside with a scornful curl of the lip. Then they were out in the bright sun, with a little breeze whirling Kaye’s veil up into the air.

  Sam had seen the danger, and acted fast, descending on Elsie with an air of joviality, but actually taking her firmly in charge.

  “Hallo, Sam.” She greeted him with a scornful smile.

  He wasted no time on politeness. “I don’t know what you hope to gain by this, but if you try to spoil their day I’ll wring your neck like the scrawny chicken you’re fast becoming.”

  The smirk vanished. “Why, you—”

  “Shut up and don’t move until the photos are finished.”

  The pictures took a while—the whole party, with Rhoda done up to the nines and Paul looking boyishly pretty, then various combinations, the bride and groom with Sam and Bertie, with Georgy in front, the bride
and groom with Georgy, and finally just the two of them. Jack drew her close, kissing her perfectly for the camera, and Kaye had a twinge of happy anticipation. Everything in her responded to his kiss, reminding her of the night to come, when she would find the fulfillment that had been deferred for six years. She loved him with all her heart, and she wanted him urgently.

  Sam and Bertie escorted Elsie to the reception, with her sitting between them in the car—like a prisoner as she afterward complained. Once there, Sam thrust a glass of champagne in her hand and threatened her with dire retribution if she opened her mouth too soon.

  “We’ll just have to try and keep her quiet until the guests have gone,” he muttered to Bertie.

  Jack was a well-known, colorful figure, marrying with exactly the kind of unpredictable drama that people would have expected of him, and nobody wanted to miss the show. So, despite the short notice, the guests numbered nearly three hundred. They spilled out onto the lawn where the tables were laid in the open. Overhead was a hastily erected lattice roof, hung with festoons of flowers. More flowers adorned the tables, and the long table at the top, to which Jack led his bride, was adorned with a profusion of white roses.

  The crowd was large enough to neutralize Elsie for a while. Recognizing a temporary setback, she drained her champagne before launching herself dramatically onto her daughter. “Georgy, darling, did you think Mommy wasn’t coming for you?”

  “Hi, Mom,” Georgy said cheerfully.

  “Let me look at you, baby. Let me see my little Georgy.” She held her by the shoulders, at arm’s length, and surveyed Georgy’s peach dress. “No, I don’t think that color’s quite you.”

  The girl’s smile faded. “I think it is.”

  “It’s just a teeny bit washed out for you.” Elsie’s superficial mind was momentarily absorbed in this detail.

  “Mom, this is Paul,” Georgy said brightly. “Paul, this is my mom.”

  Nobody would have called Paul a mighty intelligence, but he had a shrewd instinct for what his charm could and couldn’t achieve. Now that instinct told him to lay it on with a trowel. He clasped Elsie’s hand in a warm grip, and smiled into her eyes.