Jaye snorted with laughter. ‘Of course it was.’
‘Just asking. I’ve never seen a diamond that big before. At least I can say for definite that I have now.’
She was teasing him, and Jaye didn’t care. Suddenly, he could see Sonia from a different perspective. ‘She was very pleased with it.’
‘Tell me about it. It was all any of us heard about for months.’
‘Well, she sold it after we split up. I heard from the jeweller who’d made it.’
The laughter drained from her eyes, leaving only tenderness. ‘You let her keep the ring because you thought she might need the money. To bring up her baby.’
‘Yeah. I had no use for it, and she... I loved her once.’ It was as if the words no longer had the power to hurt him.
‘That’s a generous thing to do, Jaye. Really generous. Really crazy, too.’
‘Yeah. I know.’ Jaye leaned back in his seat staring out across the wooded hillside. ‘I loved her, and she was in love with a piece of metal and rock and the idea of becoming a duchess. Story of my life.’
‘It doesn’t need to be. Can I ask...?’
‘Ask me anything.’ Suddenly none of this mattered. It was as if Megan had some wonder potion that she could sprinkle over him and take away all the hurt.
‘Why did she call off the wedding? If she wanted to be a duchess so very much?’
‘I’d been away in Sri Lanka for six weeks, a couple of months before the wedding, and when I found out that Sonia was pregnant... Well, the dates didn’t make much sense. I asked her about it, and she admitted she’d had an affair while I was away.’
Megan was shaking her head. ‘And to think that I believed you were to blame for it all. I’m so sorry, Jaye.’
‘I didn’t do anything to stop the rumours. I’d told Sonia that we could work things out, and that I’d adopt her child if that was what she wanted. She said she wanted to try, and we were going to counselling to get help. Then I found out that she was still sleeping with the father of her child. When I confronted her with it, she left me.’
‘That’s a vile thing to do. I’m so sorry it happened to you, Jaye.’ Megan’s eyes glistened suddenly with tears. The thought that she might shed just one tear for him and that he might be allowed to wipe it away left him breathless.
‘She told me she’d never loved me. And I believe her, I don’t think she ever did. She was always so in love with the idea of marrying a duke and being mistress of a big house. The thing that really cut me up was that she would have gone ahead and married me if I hadn’t found out about the affair. It all meant that much to her.’
Megan shook her head. ‘I always thought that Sonia was a bit silly, but... I didn’t know she was that cold.’
‘It’s the way things are, Megan. It’s who I am.’
‘No, it isn’t. It’s the way Sonia was. It’s nothing to do with you.’ Megan leapt to his defence so vehemently that Jaye could almost believe it.
A sudden clap of thunder made them both jump and rain began to fall, dribbling off the roof of the veranda. Megan shivered involuntarily, crossing her bare arms over her body.
‘We should go inside. I need to find Mrs Jayasuna, there are a couple of things I need to ask her.’ He could hardly tear himself away. Megan had just turned his world upside down. He’d told her his darkest secret, and suddenly it seemed just a thing that had happened. Too many years ago to be relevant now.
‘I’ll stay here if that’s okay. I like watching the rain.’
He picked up a throw from the back of one of the wicker chairs further along the veranda and wrapped it around her shoulders. When Jaye’s fingers grazed her cheek, she didn’t flinch.
It could happen. The last time he’d touched her they’d both drawn back, but they trusted each other now. Jaye knew she wouldn’t hurt him and hoped that Megan knew he would die before he hurt her.
‘Thank you.’ She turned her gaze up towards him, and he knew. He’d brought her here as a friend, hoping to give her a nice day out and some much-needed time off. But that friendship had finally broken the other barriers that lay between them. They would lead to a future which might hold anything.
* * *
They’d driven through the pouring rain and arrived back at the clinic just as it turned into a drizzle. Today had changed everything.
Megan could see it in his eyes. Dark and tender, like a lover’s eyes. And after all this time, all the effort spent in trying to stay away from him, she finally believed that she might look into those eyes and surrender to them.
‘Who’s this...?’ Jaye murmured the words as he turned into the compound, and Megan saw a large, black and chrome SUV, with tinted windows, parked outside. Dinesh was eyeing it from the shelter of the veranda, and one of the nurses was speaking to a man in a black T-shirt, which fitted tight across the muscles of his upper arms. Something about the way he carried himself said bodyguard.
Jaye stopped the car and swung down from the driver’s seat. Megan followed him.
‘Can we help you?’ Jaye spoke to the man, and the nurse hurried away, obviously relieved that she didn’t have to deal with him.
‘This is the Western Province Free Clinic?’ He had a trace of a cockney accent.
‘Yes, it is.’
‘I’m looking for Megan Wheeler.’
‘That’s me.’ Megan stepped forward and Jaye laid his hand on her arm. There was something possessive about the gesture, which thrilled through her.
The man smiled at her. ‘You have a visitor.’
Megan looked around him, trying to see who was sitting behind the car’s tinted windows. It couldn’t be...
‘Who?’
The man was clearly not authorised to answer that question. He turned and jogged back to the car, reaching inside for an umbrella before his passenger stepped out into its shelter. Megan’s heart thumped, almost painfully, in her chest.
No. Not here. Please, not now.
He was wearing a pale linen suit, creased by hours in the car. Blond hair, peppered with streaks of grey now. A few broken veins in his cheeks and a few extra pounds around the waist. But he was still imposing, looking around the compound as if he owned the place.
She wondered whether it might be possible to go and lock herself in her bungalow. But running away and leaving Jaye to greet him wasn’t an option.
‘Who’s this?’ Jaye was looking down at her with an air of troubled concern.
There was no point in telling Jaye that this was her uncle or a family friend. He’d see straight through the lie. And suddenly she wanted him to know.
‘It’s...my father.’
Chapter Fourteen
‘MEGAN?’ HARRY’S TONE implied that he was expecting some kind of welcome. When she didn’t give it, he turned to Jaye.
‘I’m Megan’s uncle,’ Harry lied smoothly, holding his hand out towards Jaye. ‘I was just passing, and came to see what she’s up to.’
Jaye shook Harry’s hand, his face impassive. ‘Pleased to meet you. You’re very welcome here.’
‘And you are?’ Harry always liked to know whether the person he was talking to was worth his time.
‘I’m sorry... Jaye Perera. I’m the clinic’s director.’
Jaye never referred to himself as the director. He was happy with being the doctor, or peacemaker, or even temporary cook and bottle-washer if one was required. But he was on his guard, asserting his authority here.
‘Is Mum all right?’ A thought suddenly struck Megan and she blurted the words out.
‘Your mother? She’s fine. I called her last week and she told me you were here.’
When Megan thought about it, it wasn’t very likely that Harry would come all the way here just to tell her that something had happened to her mother. And it was just like her mother to discuss what Megan was doin
g with Harry, even though Megan had asked her not to.
‘She told you that I’d be back in London in a week?’ She tried to dislodge the lump in her throat. When it came to the crunch, her mother’s first loyalty was to Harry and Megan had to accept that. It was just one of the things that had driven her away from home as soon as she had been able to pack her things and go.
‘Yes, she did. That’s why I’m here now. There’s something I want to talk to you about. And since I was on my way over to Australia on business I decided to stop off on the way.’
It was something of a detour. Whatever it was must be important, though Megan thought that it would turn out to be important to Harry and not to her.
‘Aren’t you going to ask me inside?’ Harry smiled reproachfully, as if a welcome was something that might come naturally in this situation.
She supposed she should. Her bungalow was probably the best place to take Harry, so they could speak in private, but she hadn’t allowed him admittance to anywhere she lived for a while now.
‘Why don’t you take my office?’ Jaye spoke up suddenly, reaching into his pocket for the key. ‘I’ll rustle up some tea.’
‘Thank you.’ Harry beamed at Jaye again. ‘I’m sure I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble—’
Jaye cut Harry short. ‘It’s no trouble. Is that all right with you, Megan?’
She looked up into his gaze. Warm and protective. If she asked Jaye to turn Harry off the compound, he would have done it, but just knowing he was there meant she didn’t have to. Whatever had brought Harry here, she could face it.
‘Yes, thank you. Everything’s fine.’
‘Okay. I’ll see you later.’ Jaye flashed another look at Harry, which seemed to threaten bodily harm if he put one toe out of line, and walked back to his car to fetch their bags.
‘This way...’ She started to walk along the veranda to the door that led to the offices, and then stopped. ‘What about your driver?’
‘He’ll be all right in the car.’ Harry looked up at the sky. ‘Does it always rain like this here?’
‘No. Not always.’
* * *
She’d let Harry into the office and pulled up two guest chairs. Harry had ignored them and walked around the desk, sitting in Jaye’s high-backed chair.
‘How have you been, Megan? It’s been a while.’ He leaned his elbows on the desk and smiled, for all the world as if he were interviewing her.
‘Yes. It has.’ Megan wasn’t going to apologise for the length of time she’d managed to avoid seeing him. ‘I’m well, and enjoying it here.’
‘And working closely with Dr Perera, I see. Or does he prefer to use his title?’
Megan’s heart sank. Of course Harry knew exactly what the set-up was here. He had staff to do almost everything for him, including keeping track of her.
‘He prefers Dr Perera.’
‘He’s a good contact for you to make, Megan. That young man’s making quite a name for himself.’
Harry was fishing. There was no way he could know how close she and Jaye had become as she’d told no one, not even her mother. Particularly not her mother, because things always seemed to filter back to Harry.
‘He’s a very good doctor. And a good boss, too.’
‘I’m sure he is.’ Harry beamed across at her. ‘I always knew you’d come good in the end.’
Megan pressed her lips together, suppressing the urge to tell him that there were some people who didn’t think she’d totally wasted her life up till now, and that one of them happened to be Jaye. There wasn’t any point, and it would be better if they got whatever Harry had to say over quickly.
‘What are you here for, Harry?’
‘You could call me Father.’ Harry looked around the office. ‘We’re alone here.’
‘We’ve been through that. If you want to keep it a secret that you’re my father, that’s fine. But if I can’t acknowledge you in public, then I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to acknowledge you in private.’
Harry chuckled. It was always the first thing he did when Megan said anything he didn’t much like. Pretend that it was just a laughable quirk on her part.
‘I suppose Dad’s out of the question as well, then.’
She didn’t have to take this any more. It was ten years since she’d called him Dad and then only under protest, because her mother had told her that they both depended on Harry, and that he could throw them out of the house they lived in on a whim.
‘Yes. It’s out of the question.’
The hurt look on Harry’s face was no surprise. If he couldn’t pretend that Megan was joking, he’d revert to the What did I do to deserve that look.
‘It’s a bitter pill for me to swallow, Megan. You’re all I have now, and I haven’t been well.’
The flash of concern she felt almost brought tears to Megan’s eyes. She couldn’t ignore this, however much she wanted Harry to just go away and leave her alone.
‘What’s the matter? Mum told me you’d had a pacemaker fitted six months ago but that you were doing really well.’
‘It was eight months. And it’s not right. I feel my heart thumping in my chest, and I’m sure there’s something wrong.’
‘Have you told your doctor?’ Atrial fibrillation wasn’t something that should be ignored.
‘He doesn’t take it seriously. He says my heart’s fine, but...’
Megan reached forward, laying her fingers over the pulse in Harry’s wrist. It was an automatic reaction, but the feeling that accompanied it was new to her. The feeling that Harry couldn’t die.
‘You care, Megan. No one else seems to.’
‘That’s not true, Harry, plenty of people care about you. So do I.’ However unexpected it was, it was the truth. And Megan had resolved to always tell Harry the truth, however uncomfortable it might be.
Harry’s heart followed the ticking of the second hand on her watch, a strong sixty per minute, regulated by the pacemaker. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t experiencing some irregularities, but it was something. Megan looked up at him.
‘What’s this all about, Harry?’
‘My wife left me. The boys have taken her side... Ungrateful kids...’
‘Like me? You always did say I was ungrateful.’
Harry puffed out a breath. ‘You were a lot like I was when I was young. I went my own way.’
Her mother had always told her that she was like her father, that she had his eyes and his determination. Megan let out an exasperated breath.
‘Harry... Look, I’m really sorry to hear that...there are obviously a lot of very stressful things happening at the moment.’ Megan had never spoken about Harry’s wife or sons, feeling that she had no right to even think about that part of his life. That she was the outsider, the child that should never have happened.
‘She went off with someone else. Can you understand how that makes me feel? She won’t get a penny, my solicitor will see to that.’
‘I can’t... I can’t talk about that with you. It’s not right.’
‘You were always the one, Megan. The boys are like their mother, but you’ve always been the one that was like me. Even when we argued, you were as stubborn as I am. I want you to come to Australia with me when I leave.’
A father. One that loved her. It was what Megan had always wanted, and Harry was dangling that prospect in front of her now. Of all the things he could have said, this was the cruellest. Megan blinked back tears, wondering what she could say to him. He was obviously upset and she couldn’t help but feel for him.
A knock at the door made them both jump, and Harry snatched his arm back across the table. Megan could see a shadow behind the glass, and she got jerkily to her feet to open the door. Jaye was standing outside, holding a tray with cups and a teapot.
‘You shouldn’t ha
ve brought the tea yourself...’ Harry’s voice behind her. That was one trait Megan didn’t share with him, she didn’t have the ability to conceal her feelings at the drop of a hat. That mercurial switch that allowed Harry to declare complete love at one moment and then pretend he hardly knew you the next.
‘The kitchen staff are busy.’ Jaye walked past Megan into the room, and set the tray down on his desk.
* * *
He had meant to deliver the tea and leave. But one look at Megan’s face changed Jaye’s mind. He’d seen her angry before, and he’d seen her wrestling with a problem. He’d seen her covered in mud, hot and dusty and wet through. But he’d never seen her like this. She was so pale that her cheeks looked almost hollow, and her eyes were dull, almost as if she were in shock.
Jaye poured a cup of tea for Harry and put it in front of him on the desk. ‘I’m sorry to intrude, but I wonder if I might borrow Megan for a couple of minutes.’
‘Of course.’ Harry seemed almost pleased with the idea. ‘It’s good to see that Megan’s indispensable. Good people are...’
Jaye nodded. Good people were indispensable, but not when they were obviously so upset that they could hardly frame a sentence. Megan had opened her mouth and then closed it again, as if she couldn’t find any words to say.
‘Thank you. Back in a minute.’ He bundled Megan out of the room, shutting the door behind them.
She looked around, as if she was unfamiliar with her surroundings. Jaye opened the door of Ranjini’s office and, finding it empty, beckoned her inside.
‘What’s the matter, Megan? Is everything all right at home?’
‘Fine.’ Megan was standing by the door, her gaze fixed on the floor. ‘Everything’s fine.’
‘But you’re not.’
She shook her head.
If they were going to carry on like this, it was going to take a good deal longer than the couple of minutes he’d promised she’d be away for. And this sudden reticence was so unlike Megan that he knew something bad had happened. Jaye took her by the shoulders and she looked up at him.
Forbidden Night with the Duke Page 13