Passion from the Past

by Carole Mortimer

  His arm went about her shoulders. ‘Am I being unfair to you by denying you all the excitement of a big wedding?’ he frowned down at her, smoothing her brow with long, caressing fingers. ‘I want you for my wife so badly that I’ve selfishly pushed this rushed wedding on you.’

  ‘And I was just thinking how long a week can be,’ she told him truthfully.

  ‘You were?’ he chuckled.

  ‘I was,’ she nodded.

  She received a long lingering kiss; Gideon only broke off the caress when passion threatened to consume them. ‘You go straight to my head,’ he muttered.

  ‘Your head?’ she teased.

  His mouth quirked. ‘You’re a shameless young lady. I’ve invited Nigel to the wedding, by the way,’ he added seriously.

  Her eyes widened. ‘Is he coming?’

  Gideon nodded. ‘He’s bringing Janice.’

  ‘He is?’ she gasped her surprise.

  ‘Jealous?’ He quirked a questioning eyebrow.

  ‘You know I’m not!’ she snapped her indignation. ‘They’ll probably be ideal for each other. How can you even suggest such a thing when you know how much I love—Gideon!’ she cried her reproach as she saw he was laughing at her. ‘It isn’t funny,’ she glared at him.

  ‘I was only checking, darling,’ he chuckled throatily. ‘Nigel had given me a few nasty moments in the past. I thought you were going to marry him.’

  ‘How could I even think about it when you’re the only man I can see?’

  ‘Show me, Laura,’ he invited gruffly. ‘Show me how much you love me.’

  Her convincing took several minutes, and by that time they had completely forgotten anything but each other.

  * * *

  Laura cried at her mother’s marriage to James, not out of any feelings of sadness, but because of the look of pride in James’s face as he looked at his new wife. Her mother was as shy as any other blushing bride, looking beautiful in a cream silk suit, the frothy lace hat a perfect match in colour.

  Laura sent the telegram to Martin after the ceremony had taken place, but as the days passed and no reply was forthcoming she decided he was letting the past die a quiet death.

  It came as a great surprise to her, and Gideon too, she had no doubt, when they were presented with a carriage clock by the staff of the firm on the eve of their wedding. She was too overwhelmed to make any response, but Gideon rose to the occasion, and made a warm and witty speech accepting the lovely gift.

  ‘I couldn’t let you get away with it that easily,’ Nigel teased her as she cleared her desk of all personal belongings.

  ‘You told them?’ she gasped.

  ‘Guilty.’ His eyes twinkled mischievously.

  ‘And I thought you were a friend!’ she pretended indignation, secretly thrilled with the first wedding gift she and Gideon had received.

  Nigel sat down on the edge of her desk. ‘I am. Why else would I agree to come to the wedding?’

  She kissed him warmly on the cheek. ‘I’m so glad you decided to come after all.’

  He smiled cheerfully. ‘I wouldn’t miss it for anything. You certainly kept everyone guessing.’

  ‘I kept me guessing too!’

  ‘I know,’ he grinned. ‘By the way, did you know that Janice is just longing to get married and have kids?’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes, really,’ he chuckled.

  ‘What a coincidence,’ Laura said tongue-in-cheek. ‘Don’t forget to invite Gideon and me to the wedding.’

  ‘You wouldn’t have been doing some matchmaking, would you?’ he quirked an eyebrow questioningly.

  ‘Not me,’ she shook her head.

  ‘The maybe it was your fiancé.’

  ‘Now would I do a thing like that to a fellow bachelor?’ Gideon strode into the office.

  ‘To get Laura back, yes,’ Nigel said dryly.

  Gideon just smiled, not denying or admitting the deed. ‘Ready to leave, darling? I’ve had the car brought round.’

  Nigel stood up. ‘What time shall Janice and I be at the register office tomorrow?’

  ‘Any time before two-thirty. Otherwise you’ll be too late,’ Gideon smiled down possessively at Laura. ‘I’m not delaying my marriage to Laura for any reason.’

  Nigel put out his hand. ‘The best man won—the best man for Laura, anyway,’ he added mockingly.

  Gideon shook his head warmly. ‘But maybe not for Janice, hmm?’

  ‘Too soon to tell,’ the other man shrugged. ‘I may as well come down in the lift with you if you’re leaving now.’

  The sight that met Laura’s eyes when they emerged from the building had her gasping with dismay. Gideon came to a stunned halt, and Nigel burst into amused laughter.

  Gideon’s car had been decorated with balloons and tissue paper, a huge sign attached to the back saying, ‘Just Married’.

  ‘You delayed us deliberately!’ she accused Nigel, unsure of Gideon’s reaction as he still stared at his car.

  ‘Well…’

  ‘I’d forgotten people still did things like this,’ Gideon murmured, turning to smile at Nigel. ‘I’m grateful to you. The gift, the car—it’s made everything perfect. Laura?’

  ‘I love it!’ she laughed her relief. ‘But do you think James will appreciate being met at the airport in it?’

  ‘He’ll love it too,’ Gideon chuckled. ‘It will make him feel like a teenager again.’

  They drove straight to the airport without changing a single thing about the car, and received indulgent looks as they drove through the busy streets.

  The older couple were glowing, deeply in love, their marriage obviously a happy one, so much so that apart from a dry comment of ‘Ridiculous!’ James didn’t mention the decorations on the car.

  Laura was living in James’s house, had been since the wedding the previous week. All of them had decided it would be easier if she were married from there, the apartment given up, and her belongings packed up ready to be moved into Gideon’s house.

  She spent the evening quietly with her mother and James, wondering if Gideon was feeling as nervous as she was.

  Her mother and James would be returning to Barbados on Sunday, and probably wouldn’t be back for a month or so. Her own honeymoon with Gideon was being spent in Greece, because of Gideon’s recent vacation it was necessarily a short one. Courtneys couldn’t be left indefinitely by both Gideon and James. Laura didn’t mind, she hadn’t been concerned about going away at all; just being with Gideon, as his wife, being enough.

  Her wedding day dawned bright and sunny, seeming to match her mood. A visit to the hairdressers took up most of her morning, her hair trimmed into a feathered style, looking perfect under the lace Juliet cap she was wearing with her white chiffon gown.

  Her mother and James were to be their witnesses, and James was as nervous as any other father about to see his daughter married.

  When the doorbell rang at one o’clock Laura went to answer it. The servants were busy in the kitchen preparing the food for the small reception to be held here, her mother and James were getting ready before her mother came to help her dress. Her bathrobe was perfectly adequate attire to answer the door, reaching almost down to the floor.

  ‘Martin!’ she gasped as she saw her brother standing outside. ‘And Gideon,’ she looked at his grim face. ‘Darling, what is it?’

  ‘I think we’d better come inside,’ he said quietly. ‘Your brother has something to tell you. To tell all of you.’

  ‘I—Of course,’ she frowned. ‘Come in.’

  ‘Could you get your mother and James?’ Gideon requested.

  Laura looked concernedly at her brother, at his pale, drawn face. ‘Are you ill?’ she asked anxiously.

  ‘No, not ill,’ he muttered. ‘Look, let’s just forget this, Maitland,’ he spoke to Gideon.

  ‘No.’ Gideon’s tone was firm.

  ‘Look, I’ll just get out. I’ll—’

  ‘No,’ Gideon repeated. ‘If the truth ha
s to come out, and I think it must, then it has to be now, before I make Laura my wife.’

  ‘What is it?’ Laura cried. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Just get your mother and James, darling,’ Gideon prompted gently. ‘And remember, I love you.’

  ‘I love you too,’ she said dazedly. ‘But I don’t understand—’

  ‘You will,’ he assured her grimly.

  Laura felt the foreboding returning from when Lisa Harlow had threatened her. She had pushed the threats to the corner of her mind, but suddenly she knew that whatever was about to happen here the other woman had had a hand in it.

  Her mother was ecstatic about Martin being here, and James shook hands with him goodnaturedly. Whatever was making Gideon look so grim, and Martin look ill, her mother and James knew nothing about it.

  ‘You shouldn’t be here, Gideon,’ her mother scolded. ‘It’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.’

  His smile was strained. ‘There may not be a wedding—’

  ‘Gideon—’

  ‘No wedding!’ her mother’s gasp interrupted her protest.

  ‘Don’t be silly, boy,’ James snapped. ‘Of course there’s going to be a wedding.’

  ‘Gideon?’ Laura choked.

  ‘Listen to what Martin has to say,’ he told her distantly, his emotions completely under control.

  ‘Well?’ she turned to her brother.

  Martin looked at Gideon. ‘I’m willing to forget I ever knew, Maitland. You’re good for her—’

  ‘I thought so,’ Gideon replied coldly. ‘But Lisa has seen fit to tell you the truth.’

  ‘Lisa!’ Laura gasped. ‘What does she have to do with this?’

  ‘Everything,’ her brother admitted heavily. ‘God, she’s a bitch! How you stopped yourself from hitting her, I’ll never know,’ he spoke to Gideon. ‘Throwing her out was too good for her.’

  ‘Tell them!’ Gideon prompted harshly. ‘Tell them what Lisa told you this morning. Tell them!’

  Martin licked his lips nervously, looking at them all with reluctance. ‘I—I’m Natalie’s father,’ his head rose in challenge. ‘I’m Natalie’s real father.’

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  MARTIN’s announcement heralded silence, a stunned, shocked silence. A strange hush filled the room, the outside world was forgotten.

  ‘It was you!’ James gasped at last, a terrible greyness to his skin.

  His wife was instantly at his side. ‘How could you?’ she turned on her son. ‘How can you tell such lies?’

  James closed his eyes, taking deep breaths of air into his starved lungs. ‘He isn’t lying, Joan,’ he said shakily.

  ‘Not lying?’, she frowned. ‘But I—How?’

  ‘Your son was in love with my wife.’ Gideon spoke for the first time since Martin had made his claim.

  ‘And I thought she loved me,’ Martin put in bitterly. ‘Some joke!’

  Laura licked her suddenly dry lips, wondering when this nightmare was going to end. ‘You know the truth now?’

  ‘Oh yes, Lisa told me everything. And she enjoyed every minute of it, the bitch.’

  ‘Laura,’ her mother’s voice was sharp, ‘did you know about—this?’

  ‘Not all of it,’ Gideon answered for her. ‘This last part is as much of a shock to Laura as it is to you.’

  But was it? Gideon had told her he had stopped sleeping with Felicity years ago, and he hadn’t refuted that statement. Natalie had to have been conceived somehow, which pointed to her being another man’s child. And Gideon had cared for her as if she were his own, had loved her in spite of himself. His reluctant love of the little girl was now explained.

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ she said firmly, moving to his side to slide her hand into his. ‘I admire you for what you’ve done,’ she told him huskily. ‘It can’t have been easy.’

  ‘You knew Natalie wasn’t yours—all the time?’ James gasped.

  ‘Of course,’ Gideon nodded. ‘But how did you?’ His eyes were narrowed in puzzlement.

  The older man sighed heavily. ‘Felicity told me.’

  Now it was Gideon’s turn to go pale. ‘You knew—about her—’

  ‘Other men?’ James sighed. ‘Not at first. It was because of her affair with a married man that I had my heart attack, but when she agreed to marry you I thought she was finally settling down. Oh, I realised the two of you weren’t as happy as you could have been, but you put on such a good act in front of me that I had no idea of the true state of your marriage. I was a little concerned with the fact that you didn’t have children, but then a lot of couples wait nowadays. Then Felicity came to me and told me she was pregnant.’ He seemed to be far away, in the past, vividly remembering. ‘She also told me that it wasn’t yours, but that you were never to know.’

  ‘Oh God!’ Gideon groaned. ‘I knew damn well it couldn’t be mine. I hadn’t touched her for years.’

  ‘I can explain why Felicity did it,’ Martin put in gruffly. ‘She knew that if her marriage to you broke up her father would probably disinherit her too.’

  James nodded. ‘I threatened as much.’

  ‘Felicity knew that if you were both trying to protect each other from being hurt the truth would never come out, that once the baby was born she could continue with her old life, leaving each of you thinking you were protecting the other.’

  ‘I hate to admit this,’ James said heavily, ‘but my daughter was an evil little bitch.’

  ‘Yes,’ Martin finally seemed to have realised that. ‘When Lisa told me about Natalie I—well, I admit I had some crazy idea of taking her back to the States with me.’

  Gideon tensed at Laura’s side. ‘Never! In every way that matters she’s my child.’

  James shook his head. ‘Gideon, you don’t have to do this. I realise now that over the years you must have done things—things that can only have brought you un-happiness, to give me peace of mind over Felicity. But this is going too far—’

  ‘Too far!’ Laura was suddenly defending Gideon like a cat protecting her kitten, spitting and clawing at anyone who threatened to hurt him any more. She could feel his pain even now, feel it ripping him apart. ‘Natalie is Gideon’s child, she has been since the day she was born. And if we have to fight you for her in court, Martin, we will!’

  ‘Darling—’

  ‘Martin?’ she prompted tautly, ignoring Gideon for the moment.

  Her brother was looking at her in open-mouthed amazement. Laura had never spoken to him like this before. ‘Before Maitland made his objections I was about to say I know it wouldn’t work out,’ he said slowly. ‘Natalie belongs to him, I know that.’

  ‘You should have taken the money when it was offered,’ James said dully.

  ‘Money?’ Gideon’s expression sharpened. ‘What do you know about the money?’

  ‘I was the one who offered it, boy. Not personally, of course. I had a lawyer deal with that.’

  ‘It was you?’ Laura gasped. James was the last person she would have thought of.

  ‘Yes. I didn’t realise it was to your brother, of course. I never knew the details, and especially not the identity of the baby’s father. I had Felicity arrange it all with my lawyer. She was terrified the father would find out and spoil things for her.’ He put his face in his hands. ‘It was my fault she was like she was. When her mother died giving birth to her I spoilt her, gave her everything she ever wanted. And she turned out to be totally selfish, unable to love anyone but herself.’

  Laura’s mother took charge. ‘Laura, could you please take everyone into the lounge. I want to be alone with James.’

  ‘Joan—’

  ‘I insist, James,’ she said with some of her old independence. ‘Laura, please.’

  Laura’s hand was still firmly in Gideon’s when they got to the other room. ‘Will you agree to a legal adoption?’ she immediately demanded of her brother.

  ‘Laura—’

  ‘Gideon, please,’ she looked at him lovingly. ‘Natali
e is ours, yours and mine, and Martin has no part of her. A brief affair doesn’t make him a father.’

  ‘You’re right,’ Martin agreed dully. ‘In my own way I’m as bad as Felicity was. I thought I wanted to marry her, that I loved her, but if she had come to me and told me she was pregnant I doubt if I would have married her. I’m a bit like Dad was, Laura. I need a girl in every port. And I certainly couldn’t bring a child up.’

  ‘So you’ll agree to the adoption?’ Gideon asked deeply.

  ‘Yes, I’ll agree to anything you want. There’s just one thing… I realise that both of you would rather not see me again, but I’d like to see Natalie occasionally. Just as an uncle,’ he added hastily. ‘If you would rather I didn’t—’

  ‘As long as it’s only as an uncle I have no objections,’ Gideon accepted.

  Laura squeezed his hand before turning to her brother. ‘Thank you,’ she said deeply.

  ‘Mum—’

  ‘Will come round. Just give her time.’

  Time—it was what they all needed.

  * * *

  A year can be a short time when you’re ecstatically happy, and despite the upset on the afternoon of their wedding, Laura had been happy with Gideon every day of their marriage.

  Natalie seemed to learn something new every day. Her newest trick was waking them up at six o’clock in the morning singing the latest nursery rhyme she had learnt.

  Today the three of them were out to dinner. Natalie had been allowed up especially for the occasion. Not that she could possibly know the significance of the day, but her relieved parents did. Today Natalie officially became their child. Her adoption was complete, and her uncle Martin was a particular favourite with her.

  Gideon raised his champagne glass. ‘To at last being a family.’

  ‘To us all,’ Laura echoed, sipping the bubbly wine. ‘It’s a pity Mum and James couldn’t be here to help us celebrate.’ She helped Natalie with her orange juice.

  ‘Now that we’ve finally got him to retire it’s only natural they should want to go to America to spend some time with Martin, especially today. Any regrets, darling?’ He looked at her anxiously, at her newfound maturity, the glow of love they both shared.