Paradise Found

by Dorothy Vernon

  Nerissa was already up when Zoe arrived, and she answered the door herself. Usually it was the maid who did that chore.

  ‘Zoe!’ Nerissa’s pale hazel eyes signaled her alarm. ‘What is it?’

  ‘It’s nothing, honestly. At least, nothing to worry about,’ Zoe said as Nerissa widened the door to let her enter. ‘I just have to see Tony.’

  Nerissa Talbot was a tall woman, claiming three inches more than Zoe’s five feet five. Even at that early hour she was immaculately turned out in a trim dress of multicolored checks and presented a fresh morning image. Her fine hair was beautifully coiffed for the wedding, but then, it always had that ‘just set’ look. Her skin was fairer than either Matt’s or Tony’s, but she bore them a strong family resemblance, though her features were slightly softened by her femininity. She was considerably older than Matt; Zoe judged her to be in her late forties, possibly even fifty. Not in the whole of their acquaintance had Zoe thought of her as being a hard woman, until that moment.

  A hint of color touched Nerissa’s cheekbones as she said, ‘That’s not possible, Zoe.’

  ‘I know you think it’s unlucky for us to see one another before we get to church, and I wouldn’t offend your principles if it wasn’t important. Please, it will only take a moment or two, and then—’

  ‘It isn’t that. The fact is’—Nerissa bit her lip and looked troubled, then sighed, realizing the futility of withholding information, although her admission came with extreme reluctance—‘you can’t see Tony because he isn’t here.’

  ‘Not here? Where is he then?’

  ‘I don’t know. I wanted to prepare his breakfast myself, it being his last day. I’ve just taken his tray in. His bed hasn’t been slept in.’

  ‘Have you any idea where he can be?’

  ‘Not now that you’re here,’ came the stilted reply.

  ‘You thought Tony had spent the night with me?’ Zoe asked, more amused than offended.

  ‘Yes, I’m broad-minded enough to think that,’ Nerissa retorted in the kind of stiff tone that said she really wasn’t.

  For the first time Zoe saw a flicker of something in her future mother-in-law’s eyes that made her realize she might not be quite as much in favor of this marriage as she had led Zoe to believe.

  ‘I suppose Matt and Tony got disgustingly drunk and the pair of them spent the night with another member of the stag party. Men!’ Nerissa finished with a shudder.

  ‘Couldn’t Matt have taken Tony home with him?’ Zoe suggested.

  ‘My brother arranged to stay here overnight. More convenient for getting to the church.’

  ‘Shouldn’t you check to see whether he’s in his room?’

  ‘I will, but he won’t be there. Matt wouldn’t have come home without Tony,’ Nerissa said with conviction.

  On this point Zoe knew differently. Nerissa had her back to the stairs, and as Zoe was facing Nerissa, the man coming down the stairs was visible to her.

  ‘Someone speaking my name in vain? Good morning, Zoe,’ Matt said, a vagrant smile touching his mouth, though it didn’t wander into his eyes as he studied her appearance.

  ‘Good morning, Matt,’ Zoe responded as her heart accelerated, but whether from his prolonged regard of her or hers of him she had no way of knowing.

  It seemed possible that he had been in bed when she came in. Perhaps hearing her voice had hurried him down. His hair was still tousled, and a dark shadow covered his unshaven chin. He wore blue denims that were a match for the ones she favored. Their faded color and the way they molded themselves to him indicated long usage and showed off his magnificent physique in a more earthy way than his well-cut suit had. He was still in the process of fastening his shirt. Before he dealt with the buttons and tucked the flapping edge in at the waistband, smoothing it down over his lean hips, the glimpse of a long V-shaped patch of tightly curling black hair made her fingers tingle.

  By this time Nerissa had swung round to face her brother. ‘Matt! What are you doing here?’ As Zoe was now viewing the back of Nerissa’s head, the woman’s expression was concealed from her, but Nerissa’s voice was highly agitated.

  ‘Sister, dear, you kindly asked me to stay. To save me the hassle of crossing town in the mid-morning traffic,’ Matt drawled with exasperating slowness, the alertness of his eyes showing that he was summing up the situation.

  ‘I know that,’ Nerissa said touchily. ‘I meant what are you doing here without Tony?’

  ‘Isn’t Tony here?’

  ‘Obviously not! What’s the matter with you, Matt? Where did you go last night?’

  ‘Several places. We ended up at the Ace of Clubs. At around twelve-thirty I’d had enough and came home.’

  ‘Leaving Tony there?’ Nerissa gasped incredulously.

  ‘Come on, Nerissa. Tony’s a grown man. It’s not up to me to tell him when it’s time to pack it in.’

  A nebulous thought stirred in Zoe’s mind. Matt was neither as innocent nor as ignorant as he was making out. ‘Was Tony drunk?’ she asked.

  The black eyes shifted to sweep lazily over her, and his mouth lifted at one corner. ‘He looked as if it would take him about a week to sober up. Can’t see him being in a fit state to stand up in church this morning.’

  She was right in what she thought. Matt had set Tony up, and he was gloating about his triumph. But her hair wasn’t the color it was for nothing. ‘You did it on purpose!’ she screamed, rounding on him in a blaze of anger. ‘You deliberately got Tony drunk so that the wedding couldn’t take place. How could you do such a vile thing? You won’t get away with this, Matt Hunter,’ she threatened, almost choking on her own fury.

  ‘Just a minute, Zoe,’ Nerissa interceded. ‘I don’t like having to rebuke you, but I can’t stand by and let you talk to my brother in this way. Consider his position. If the wedding takes place,’ she said with undue emphasis, ‘Matt will be your uncle by marriage. In this family we have respect for our elders.’

  That was ludicrous. Rather than putting Zoe in her place, it had put Matt in his! How Zoe managed not to laugh out loud on witnessing the look on Matt’s face she didn’t know. In springing to her brother’s defense, Nerissa had hit him below the belt.

  ‘Shut up, Nerissa,’ he growled. ‘I haven’t needed you to champion me since I was three years old.’

  ‘Not even then,’ Nerissa said soberly. ‘You could always look out for yourself.’

  ‘Precisely. It’s a lesson men learn at an early age, or they stay boys all their lives and never get to be men.’

  ‘Tony is a man,’ Zoe gritted doggedly, remembering back to the day before and the sensual inference he’d injected into telling her that she needed a man.

  ‘In that case, he’s well able to take care of himself, and he wouldn’t thank me for telling him that he’s had enough to drink and it’s time for him to come home.’

  ‘Your round,’ Zoe said, the glint in her eyes saying that the battle was by no means over.

  ‘No one seems to be showing the slightest concern for my poor son,’ Nerissa declared querulously, her former agitation creeping back into her voice. ‘What if something has happened to him?’

  ‘I’m sure he’ll be all right, Mrs. Talbot,’ Zoe comforted. ‘He’ll be sobering up somewhere. Any moment he’ll be phoning to say how sorry he is for causing any distress. Meanwhile, what do I do? Do I stay here and wait or go home and get ready for my wedding, in case Tony does make it in time?’ Switching her gaze to glare at Matt, she said, ‘Can’t you do anything?’

  ‘Presumably you don’t mean anything so drastic as substituting for the bridegroom,’ he said sardonically.

  ‘Matt, this is no time to joke,’ Nerissa chided gently, her worried eyes full of appeal.

  Matt shrugged and looked at Zoe in a way that asked, ‘Who’s joking?’ which was just the sort of macabre torment she would have expected from him. ‘I suppose I could do some phoning round,’ he said. ‘Find out if anyone knows where he bedded down for the ni
ght.’ Several phone calls later he said, ‘No joy. No one can recall who Tony left with when the party broke up.’

  ‘Isn’t that rather odd?’ Zoe asked suspiciously.

  Matt snorted. ‘You wouldn’t think so if you’d seen the condition they were in.’

  ‘Don’t you know anyone else to phone?’ Nerissa entreated as he walked toward the window.

  ‘Perhaps there is someone,’ he admitted, a curious gleam in his eye.

  At that moment the phone started to ring.

  ‘There you are,’ Zoe gasped. ‘That will be Tony now to set our minds at rest.’

  No one could have got to the telephone before Nerissa. When she observed the woman’s fear-blanched features and quivering fingers, despite her own nervousness, Zoe felt sorry for her. Nerissa’s love for her son was as apparent as her anxiety.

  Zoe waited with bated breath, willing the tension to lift from Nerissa’s face, but instead a stricken moan escaped her lips. ‘Oh, God, no!’

  Zoe’s face mirrored her impatience to know, but even as her mouth opened to form an inquiry, Matt’s compelling fingers tightened round her arm. ‘If you interrupt it will delay anyone knowing. Nerissa will tell us soon enough.’ And so her imagination ran riot as she heard Nerissa say, ‘But how is he? . . . You’re not? Surely you must know something in spite of that . . . What did you say?’ And then eventually, ‘That’s a mercy, anyway. Yes, I’ve got the name of the hospital. I’ll get there as soon as I can.’

  ‘Don’t let whoever it is ring off,’ Matt commanded.

  ‘Just a minute, don’t—’ But it was too late. The phone that Nerissa was holding uselessly in her hand was giving off a dial tone, showing that the connection had been cut. ‘She’s rung off.’

  ‘She?’ Matt asked.

  ‘A girl with a foreign accent. She didn’t give her name. She said she wasn’t a nurse. Tony fell down a flight of steps. He’s broken his leg and cracked two ribs.’

  ‘What kind of accent would you say the girl had?’

  ‘I don’t know. It didn’t have a guttural sound. She could possibly be French. Perhaps she works at the Ace of Clubs and saw the accident. I think I can say almost definitely that she is French. The line wasn’t as clear as it might have been, but her voice had a very attractive sound to it, not unlike Camille’s.’ For Zoe’s benefit Nerissa explained, ‘Camille is a French girl who’s working over here. Her grandfather has a house not far from mother’s at Les Pins.’

  Matt’s brow was heavy in conjecture. ‘You’ve never been to the Ace of Clubs.’ It was a statement, not a question. ‘Have you, Zoe?’

  ‘No. I’ve heard of it, of course, but I’ve never been there myself.’

  He nodded, then turned back to Nerissa. ‘I’ll phone the hospital, if you’ll tell me which one, and check to see what she says is true.’

  ‘I thought’—Nerissa bit her lip—‘Why waste time? Couldn’t we just go?’

  ‘No. First we must make certain that it isn’t a hoax call, and then there are things to be done.’

  ‘What things?’ Nerissa asked.

  It was Zoe who supplied the answer. ‘A wedding to be canceled. The minister to be told, the caterers, florist, and, of course, the guests. Not to mention the honeymoon booking.’

  Zoe thought that Nerissa was going to faint. ‘What can we tell everyone? What will they think? The scandal!’ she shrieked.

  ‘Who cares?’ Matt asked, picking up the telephone directory, ready to thumb through it for the hospital number.

  Zoe heard enough of his ensuing conversation to know that it was all true. As he replaced the receiver Matt said, ‘A broken leg and two cracked ribs. His condition isn’t causing anyone concern but Tony, who won’t be feeling too comfortable. He’ll only be kept in for a matter of days.’

  He might have sounded callous, but Zoe knew that his calm acceptance was to cool Nerissa’s hysteria. She seemed to regard having to cancel the wedding as a personal shame. As Matt got on with phoning all the people who had to be informed, Zoe divided her time as best she could between finding the relevant numbers for Matt and trying to soothe a distraught Nerissa, who moaned continuously about all her beautiful arrangements coming to nothing and the degradation of it all.

  When they did finally arrive at the hospital it was to find a very sorry for himself Tony, his left leg encased in a cumbersome plaster cast, suffering from an outsize headache, and in pain from his ribs. That he was suffering was obvious from his strained face, which had gone a peculiar shade of gray.

  He complained about his rotten luck, and Zoe hadn’t the heart to remind him that he himself was responsible for his predicament—with some help from Matt!

  It was evening when Matt drove them back to the house.

  ‘What are you going to do, Zoe?’ Matt inquired.

  ‘You’re welcome to stay here,’ Nerissa offered.

  Strange as it might have seemed, until that moment Zoe hadn’t considered her own plight. She had given up her job and, as of the end of the month, her apartment. Most of her things had already been transferred to the new apartment where, on their return from their honeymoon, they had planned to start their married life.

  ‘Thank you. It’s kind of you, but I’ll be all right where I am . . . until the end of the month, at least. Perhaps by then? . . .’ She shrugged.

  Matt said, ‘I wasn’t looking that far ahead. I was thinking more about now. That’s not a bad idea of Nerissa’s. Why don’t you take her up on it, if only for tonight?’

  ‘I’ll be all right. Really.’

  ‘Anyway, surely you’ll stay for something to eat?’ he persisted.

  They had existed all day on snatched sandwiches and cups of coffee, but Zoe said, ‘I’m not hungry,’ even if that wasn’t quite true. ‘For goodness sake, stop fussing!’

  ‘Okay. Suit yourself.’

  She was doing just that. She’d had a surfeit of Nerissa. If Zoe heard any more of Nerissa’s weepings and wailings, she’d go berserk.

  They had gone to the hospital in Matt’s car. Hers was still outside, where she’d parked it that morning. She automatically assumed that she would drive herself home and toyed idly with the notion of stopping off somewhere for something to eat. She had a hollowness inside her that wasn’t altogether due to the traumatic happenings of the day. If she didn’t get sustenance soon she would keel over. Because she was fighting a feeling of nausea, she wasn’t too aware of what was going on.

  ‘Stay put,’ Matt instructed. ‘I won’t be a second.’

  His absence gave Nerissa another opportunity to moan. ‘What a dreadful day! My poor boy. What a thing to happen. There’s no justice in this life. Some people seem to lead a charmed existence, while others . . .’ Her eyes filled with tears.

  ‘Please don’t distress yourself, Mrs. Talbot,’ Zoe said wearily, feeling that if anyone should be screaming at injustices and kicking up a fuss, it ought to be her.

  Matt returned not a moment too soon. Zoe never thought to question the large carrier bag in his hand.

  ‘Ready, Zoe?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, rising from her chair, thinking that he meant to accompany her to the car. ‘Goodnight, Mrs. Talbot. Try not to worry too much and get a good night’s sleep. Things will look brighter in the morning.’ It was trite, but it was the best Zoe could do. She wondered if she ought to kiss Nerissa on the cheek. After all, if things had gone according to plan, the woman would now be her mother-in-law. It looked a very frosty cheek. She managed it, but she thought the kiss was received as unenthusiastically as it was given.

  When they reached her car Matt said, ‘Keys, please.’

  After handing them over, she was surprised when he ushered her round to the passenger seat.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she said.

  ‘It’s simple. You don’t look in a fit state to get home by yourself, so I’m driving you.’

  She was too exhausted to argue or to wonder how he would get back. She managed to say, ‘I did in
tend to stop on the way and get something to eat.’

  ‘That’s taken care of,’ he said, indicating the carrier bag.

  And that was how she felt: taken care of. Even though she was still fuming with Matt and held him at least partly responsible for what had happened, it was a nice feeling.

  Once inside her apartment, Matt headed straight for the kitchen, where he began to take things from the bag. He’d thought of everything: steak, all the makings of a salad, including dressing, crusty rolls, fruit and cheese, and a bottle of champagne.

  ‘Looks like a celebration,’ she said wryly.

  ‘Perhaps it is. Perhaps we’re celebrating your not getting married.’

  Her chin lifted. ‘It’s only a postponement. Nothing’s altered.’

  ‘If you say so.’ Although his lips lay close together in a straight line, there was a blandness about his expression that hinted at inner laughter.

  He was still wearing the jeans he’d put on that morning. The thrust of his hips, the arrogance of his stance, was powerfully potent. His shirt was fastened, but she remembered the masculine virility of that coarse curl of hair, and her fingers tingled again, wanting to—She slammed the door shut on that thought and hastily averted her eyes.