The Diamond Bride

by Carole Mortimer

  She looked startled. ‘He has…?’

  ‘He has,’ Anthony echoed uncompromisingly. ‘So what’s going on?’

  She would like to know that herself—because it was the first she had heard of a trip to London! Not that there was anything unusual about a nanny being expected to travel with the family; it was just that, in Rufus Diamond’s case, and in view of what had happened between them last night, it was—strange. Well…the timing of it was strange.

  Goodness, she was becoming flustered just at the thought of it!

  ‘Annie!’ Anthony demanded an answer from her.

  And she didn’t have one. She didn’t know why they were going to London, or for how long; she simply knew nothing about it. ‘Are you sure he said I was to go as well?’

  ‘Positive,’ Anthony confirmed grimly.

  And knowing Rufus—even as little as she did—he had enjoyed telling Anthony too!

  ‘Just what am I supposed to do while you’re off in London with my brother?’ Anthony snapped.

  Annie’s eyes widened incredulously as she looked up at him. Considering he had spent yesterday evening with his fiancée, her parents and his mother, discussing their Christmas wedding plans, he had a damned cheek even asking her that question!

  ‘I would say,’ she said carefully, ‘that you’ll be doing exactly what you’ve been doing the last five days: enjoying your holiday, at your family home, with your fiancée!’ Indignation hardened her voice as she delivered that last comment.

  ‘Oh, I see.’ Anthony took a step back from her, a knowing smile on his lips. ‘We’re playing those sort of games, are we?’ he derided.

  She didn’t know what he was doing—she had virtually given up trying to work that one out!—but she certainly wasn’t into playing games of any sort. ‘I’ve just told you that Rufus hasn’t even spoken to me about this yet, so how can I possibly be playing games—of any kind?’ she said exasperatedly.

  Anthony studied her assessingly. ‘You’re angry with me because of the wedding.’

  Angry? She didn’t think she was at all angry about it. She had been confused, but she didn’t think she was any longer, not where this man was concerned. Now, Rufus was a different matter completely…!

  ‘Not at all,’ she answered Anthony smoothly. ‘I’m sure bringing the wedding forward to Christmas will all work out perfectly. Now, if you’ll excuse me…?’ She moved to go past him to pick up the tray, only to find he was gripping her arms. ‘Anthony, you’re hurting me.’ And he was, too, his fingers painful on her upper arms.

  ‘You—’

  ‘Annie, my dear.’ Celia seemed to have appeared from nowhere, moving gracefully towards them. ‘I wanted to have a few words with you about this trip you’re taking with Rufus to London.’

  Annie had desperately been trying to release herself from Anthony’s grasp, but at his mother’s mention of Rufus she suddenly found herself completely free as Anthony thrust her away from him. She turned to face Celia, her gaze stubbornly averted from Anthony’s accusing one. ‘I really don’t know anything about it yet, Celia,’ she replied. ‘Perhaps Rufus only means to take Jessica with him.’

  ‘But of course he doesn’t.’ The other woman easily cast that idea aside. ‘I was speaking to him only a few minutes ago, and he definitely said you were to go as well as Jessica.’

  Well, she wished he would stop speaking to everyone else about it and actually tell her what was happening! It seemed that everyone else in this household knew what she was doing for the next few days, but she didn’t have a clue!

  Why were they going to London? Where were they staying? How long was a few days…? Because she shouldn’t spend a few days—and a few nights!—anywhere with him. Even if Jessica was there too.

  ‘You’ll have a wonderful time, my dear,’ Celia encouraged as she saw the reluctance in Annie’s expression. ‘You may even find the time to visit some of your friends while you’re there.’ She smiled brightly.

  Annie felt, rather than saw, the glowering look Anthony cast in her direction. Obviously the thought of her meeting up with friends—in Anthony’s mind, probably male friends—did not please him. Well, she did have a lot of friends in London, and some of them were male, but they weren’t those sorts of male friends. And even if they were it was none of Anthony’s business; he was engaged to someone else, had no right to approve or disapprove of her seeing any of her friends, male or female.

  Whew—that was a change in her attitude towards him from five days ago when he had first kissed her!

  But he was engaged. And with the bringing forward of the wedding, the talk last night with Davina’s parents—the other woman’s father actually being Anthony’s boss—it seemed a foregone conclusion that the wedding would go ahead at Christmas. What role was Anthony thinking of offering her in all that? It wasn’t too difficult to guess—and neither was the answer she would give him. She had been born because her mother had been involved with a man who refused to leave his wife for her, even when he knew she was expecting his child; Annie had no intention of history repeating itself!

  She had been living in cloud-cuckoo-land even thinking it would be any different for her with a man like Anthony Diamond. But thank goodness she had come to her senses now. And if Rufus Diamond believed it would be any different with him then he was in for a shock too! Young and impressionable she might be, stupid she was not!

  ‘Yes, it would be nice,’ she answered Celia lightly, ignoring Anthony’s scowling expression. ‘I’m sure Rufus will talk to me about it eventually.’ When he had stopped telling everyone else! ‘Now, if you’ll both excuse me, I really do have to get this tray back to the kitchen.’ She picked it up and turned to leave.

  ‘Annie—’

  ‘Anthony, I would like to talk to you about Davina’s birthday next week,’ his mother told him smoothly. ‘And I’m sure Annie has a lot of other things she should be doing,’ she added with hard dismissal.

  And obviously talking to her son wasn’t one of them!

  Annie had half suspected, over the last few days, from her comments and topics of conversation, that Celia had a pretty good idea of what had transpired between her son and Jessica’s nanny. She was even more convinced now that Celia knew. And Rufus was right: Celia meant to see Anthony safely married to Davina.

  It was just her luck that Davina herself was walking down the hallway as Annie made her way through the large house to the kitchen. Really, she wasn’t having much luck today at all!

  ‘Ah, Annie,’ Davina drawled in recognition. ‘I’ve been meaning to have a few words with you.’

  Another one!

  Annie gave a resigned sigh. ‘If it’s about going to London with Rufus then Celia and Anthony have already told me about it.’

  Davina looked mildly surprised, then shook her head. ‘I can assure you it has nothing to do with London or Rufus,’ she rejoined frigidly. ‘I have no interest in either subject.’

  Until this moment Annie had thought the girl beautiful but a bit insipid characterwise, but at this moment she sensed a steel in Davina she hadn’t known was there. And if she didn’t want to talk about this proposed trip to London with Rufus, what did she want to talk about? Annie found herself tensing guardedly.

  Davina continued to look at her with those freezing blue eyes. ‘It’s about Anthony—’

  ‘There you are, Annie,’ Rufus calmly interrupted as he strode towards them. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere.’

  Everyone else in the family seemed to have found her, so why couldn’t he?

  ‘Hello, Davina,’ he greeted the other woman warmly. ‘I didn’t see you standing there.’

  Considering that Davina was much taller than Annie, with golden hair that gleamed brightly in the autumn sunshine, how could he possibly have missed her?

  Annie had been dreading this first meeting with him after they had kissed each other last night, but, in view of the intervening conversations with Celia and Anthony, now she just felt angry
with him. It didn’t make her feel any less irritable towards him knowing he had probably just saved her from a very uncomfortable conversation with Davina. Because she was sure now that Davina had just been about to launch into a discussion about Anthony’s overfriendliness with her. Perhaps it was as well, after all, that she was going away with Rufus and Jessica…!

  ‘Well, you’ve found me,’ she told Rufus ungraciously, aware that she sounded as irritable as she felt, but she couldn’t help it; she was feeling emotionally battered by this family.

  Rufus quirked his left eyebrow in that enigmatic way that he had. ‘So I have,’ he murmured speculatively.

  Annie blushed at the intended rebuke. ‘I’m just on my way to the kitchen to deposit this tray,’ she informed him flatly. ‘But I’ll be more than happy to talk to you as soon as I’ve got rid of it.’ It was starting to annoy her too now that the used plates and cups reminded her of the pleasant lunch she had shared with Jessica such a short time ago; it seemed like hours ago!

  Rufus nodded. ‘I’ll be in the library,’ he told her softly.

  The library! Annie felt her heart sink at his voice, her hands shaking slightly, rattling the used crockery on the tray. The library, the place where they had kissed each other so passionately, was the last place she wanted to go to speak to him!

  Which was probably the very reason why he had chosen it, Annie acknowledged heavily as she finally made her way to the kitchen and passed the tray over to the cook; Rufus was nothing if not damned annoying! He was also irritating, infuriating, a thorn in everyone’s side. But especially hers!

  And yet she had kissed him last night, kissed him as if she really meant it.

  Well, he had kissed her too—and his parting comment about getting on with the job of looking after Jessica showed he hadn’t meant it at all!

  And that was what was important about last night; Rufus had only kissed her to show her she wasn’t seriously emotionally involved with Anthony. That was what she had to remember about it—not that she had responded!

  Rufus was seated in one of the winged leather armchairs that sat at either side of the fireplace when Annie entered the room a few minutes later, a book open on his lap, glancing up at her casually as he sensed her presence in the room.

  ‘Dickens.’ He snapped the book shut, turning to put it back on the shelf. ‘Not one of my favourite authors.’

  Or hers, she inwardly acknowledged, not willing, at this moment in time, to outwardly agree with him on anything. But she found Dickens a little too depressing for her taste. Actually, he would probably suit her mood just now!

  ‘You wanted to talk to me?’ she prompted abruptly.

  Rufus tilted his head to one side, looking at her with amusement. ‘Who’s rattled your cage?’ he taunted.

  Her mouth tightened. ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Uh-oh.’ Rufus grimaced. ‘It’s me you’re angry with, is it?’

  She drew in a harsh breath. ‘Why on earth should I be angry with you?’

  To her chagrin, he grinned. ‘I should sit down if I were you, Annie.’ He indicated the chair opposite. ‘Before the carpet around you explodes into flames!’ he said ruefully. ‘And to think I initially doubted you were a real redhead! Okay,’ he encouraged once she was seated. ‘Tell me what I have to apologise for, and let’s just get that out of the way. Then we can move on.’

  So he was a let’s-sort-this-out-and-move-on sort of person. Strange, that wasn’t the impression Anthony had given with regard to Rufus’s wife… But perhaps that was different; there was certainly a lot of antagonism between the two men.

  ‘Is it last night?’ Rufus was watching her closely. ‘Do you want me to apologise for kissing you—is that it?’

  She had been hoping he wouldn’t even mention the subject. But she supposed that had been just too much to hope for!

  ‘Well, I suppose I could apologise,’ Rufus said slowly, taking her silence as confirmation. ‘But I really can’t see the point, when I can’t promise it won’t happen again.’ He grinned that wolfish grin as Annie gave an audible gasp. ‘That certainly woke you up!’ he said with satisfaction, relaxing back in the chair. ‘Is it last night, Annie—?’

  ‘No!’ she denied sharply. ‘I’m just—Everyone has—We’re going to London,’ she concluded as she realised she was rambling.

  ‘We are,’ he nodded, eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t you want to go?’ he prompted gently.

  ‘Yes. No.’ She gave a sigh, annoyed with herself for appearing so flustered. ‘Yes, of course I do,’ she said.

  ‘You just wish I had mentioned it to you before I told anyone else,’ he said knowingly. ‘From your mention of “everyone”, I presume the rest of the family have taken great pleasure in informing you of my plans before I had a chance to talk to you about them. I only mentioned it casually over lunch, Annie,’ he told her. ‘I have no idea why they all took it into their heads to tell you about it.’

  She did: Anthony because he was furious that she was going away with his brother, albeit as nanny to his daughter, Celia because Annie had a feeling the other woman wanted her as far removed from Anthony as possible in the immediate future, and Davina hadn’t wanted to talk to her about the trip to London at all but something much more personal! In retrospect, perhaps this interlude in London was the best thing for her too!

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she returned easily. ‘I only—’

  ‘But of course it matters, Annie,’ Rufus interrupted. ‘Despite what I may have said to you last night, I don’t want to hurt or upset you; I think there are probably enough people in this household intent on doing that already, without my joining in!’ he went on darkly. ‘And for deliberately doing that last night I do apologise.’ He looked across at her, his eyes that dark, fathomless blue. ‘I shouldn’t have made that remark to you about looking after Jessica,’ he explained at her questioning look. ‘I only have to see the two of you together to know that you care for Jessica very much. And that the feeling is more than reciprocated.’

  Annie swallowed hard, her voice husky when she spoke. ‘Thank you.’

  He grinned. ‘Don’t mention it.’

  He was incorrigible; and how could she possibly stay angry with him when he behaved so disarmingly?

  ‘So…’ She spoke firmly, determined to get this conversation back on a businesslike level. Which wasn’t easy when he had told her he couldn’t promise he wouldn’t kiss her again!

  He mustn’t kiss her again. Because if he did she was very much afraid she would respond in exactly the same way she had last night. And becoming involved with this man, the father of her charge and a man who was out of the country more than he was in it, would be more ridiculous than her infatuation with Anthony had been!

  ‘When do we leave?’ she asked briskly. ‘I’ll need to get some things together for Jessica and myself.’

  ‘We’re leaving later this afternoon. And don’t worry about too much for Jess; she already has quite a lot of clothes at my apartment,’ Rufus replied.

  His apartment! She had assumed they would be staying at a hotel…

  Rather a stupid assumption for her to have made when Rufus was obviously based in London for his job. But his apartment…!

  ‘Don’t worry, Annie,’ he teased at her woebegone expression. ‘It has four bedrooms, so I won’t be expecting you to share mine!’

  God, was she so transparent? Not that she had expected to share his bedroom—he was just being deliberately mischievous now!—but she did find the thought of going to stay in his home, even with Jessica present, more than a little disturbing.

  ‘Jessica’s would have been the more obvious choice,’ she told him calmly.

  His mouth twisted. ‘But not half as much fun!’

  She gave him a look, not taking him seriously for a moment; he was obviously enjoying toying with her. And it was time it stopped. ‘I had better go and get my things together, then.’ She stood up to leave.

  ‘Just enough for a few days,’ Rufus warned.
‘We are coming back.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Rufus.’ She smiled at the almost panicked expression on his face. ‘I brought all my worldly possessions down here in one large suitcase; I really won’t pack that much for two or three days!’

  He looked relieved to hear it. ‘At last, a woman who knows not to pack the kitchen sink, along with everything else in the house!’

  She laughed, giving a wry shake of her head as she crossed the room to the door.

  ‘There is one thing, though, Annie.’ The tone of Rufus’s voice stopped her at the door. ‘Do pack the black dress,’ he told her gruffly as she slowly turned to face him.

  Her eyes widened. ‘Will we be going out in the evenings?’

  He met her gaze unblinkingly. ‘Probably not,’ he returned. ‘But pack the black dress anyway.’

  She gave him a reproving look as she left, no longer sure whether he was serious or still playing with her. He had seemed angry last night when he had kissed her, but a night’s sleep seemed to have changed all that—

  ‘Annie!’

  She frowned as she turned to see Anthony standing in the doorway of his mother’s private sitting-room, that frown deepening as he beckoned to her to join him. God, she hoped Celia and Davina weren’t in there too, so that all three of them could tell her how she was wasting her time over Anthony; that was all she needed on top of her puzzlement concerning Rufus. Besides, they could save their breath if that was their intention; she was cured of her infatuation with Anthony!

  ‘Come in here, Annie,’ he commanded. ‘I want to talk to you.’

  There was no one else in the room, she discovered when she reluctantly entered it. Although that didn’t mean Celia wouldn’t arrive at any moment—

  ‘My mother is upstairs resting.’ Anthony instantly dispelled that thought as he closed the door firmly behind them.

  In that case he had chosen the perfect place for them to talk in private; usually no one else but Celia entered this room, not unless she had invited them in. Celia seemed to be resting rather a lot recently… Unless it was just her way of keeping out of Rufus’s path!