He looked down at her frowningly for several long seconds before his gaze shifted to her hand tightly grasping his arm. ‘Okay,’ he agreed briskly, seeming to have come to some sort of decision. ‘But whatever I say, back me up, hmm?’
Now it was May’s turn to frown; she didn’t like the sound of this one little bit.
But what choice did she have but to trust him? None, came the resounding answer.
‘Fine,’ she acknowledged hastily before turning smilingly to greet her sisters, Max and Will. ‘What are you all doing here?’ she prompted lightly, receiving a slightly apologetic grimace from Max, who had obviously been badgered into telling her sisters where she had gone.
‘Looking for you,’ the outspoken March answered bluntly. ‘What are you doing here?’ Her eyes were narrowed with suspicion.
May drew in a deep breath, wondering when Jude was going to start saying something. ‘I—’
‘She was getting herself engaged to me,’ Jude announced lightly.
May’s head snapped up as she stared at him in total astonishment. He called that saying something. Well, it was certainly that, but how on earth was she supposed to back him up in a claim like that…?
It didn’t help that he now looked slightly dazed at his own comment, as if unaware himself of what he had been going to say until after he had said it…
‘Congratulations!’ Will was the first of the four newcomers to find his voice, moving forward to kiss May lightly on the cheek before shaking Jude warmly by the hand. ‘Looks like the Calendar charm worked its magic again,’ he added with a grin.
May was still staring at Jude, totally transfixed. Why on earth had he said something so stupid? Worse, how did he think they were ever going to be able to extricate themselves from such an announcement?
More to the point, what good had announcing their engagement done towards encouraging her sisters and their fiancés to leave the hotel?
‘Welcome to the family, Jude.’ January moved on tiptoe to kiss him lightly on the cheek before turning to hug May.
‘Welcome, Jude.’ March nodded, a little more reserved in her congratulations towards him, although she gave May a rib-crushing hug seconds later.
Only Max, it seemed, with his added astuteness from his conversation with May earlier this morning, sensed that something wasn’t quite right about this situation, his brows raised questioningly at May over March’s shoulder.
She gave a barely perceptible shake of her head; she had no idea what was going on, so how could she possibly even begin to explain it to Max?
Jude, the instigator of this situation, still seemed totally nonplussed by his own behaviour, although the dazed look was starting to leave his face now as his expression became more unreadable by the second.
‘It’s a little early, but I think champagne is in order, don’t you?’ Will announced happily.
May glared at Jude, still willing him to say something, do something, to get them all to leave. Although, going on his last effort, perhaps he had better not bother.
She turned back to the others. ‘We’re hardly dressed for it, are we?’ she dismissed lightly with a pointed grimace at their disreputable clothing; Jude was the only smartly dressed one amongst them. ‘I thought we would all go back to the farm—’
‘And break up the party?’ Jude smiled, finally seemed to have found his voice, moving closer to May now as his arm moved lightly about her waist. ‘Champagne sounds like a wonderful idea.’
‘I’ll go and ask the receptionist to bring us some.’ Max spoke quietly. ‘Would you like to come with me, May?’ he prompted softly.
May gave him a grateful smile; even a few moments’ respite from what was turning into a complete farce would be welcome.
‘It doesn’t take two of you to order champagne, Max,’ Jude was the one to answer him before May even had a chance to do so, his arm tightening about her waist. ‘Besides, the road to love has been rather a rocky one, and I’m loath to have May away from me for even a few seconds,’ he added huskily. ‘She may just change her mind between here and the reception desk,’ he added with a challenging look in her direction.
Change her mind! Making her mind up in the first place would have been rather nice.
Not that she thought for a moment that this engagement was meant to be a real one. She wouldn’t be feeling so desperately unhappy if it were.
She had known after last night how deeply in love she was with Jude. Completely. Utterly. There was no way she would have responded to him in the way she had if she weren’t. Which was why his announcement just now, made for appearances’ sake only, gave her such an aching pain in the region of her heart…
‘May and I will go and order the champagne,’ Jude assured the other man. ‘You all make yourselves comfortable. We won’t be long.’
Long enough, May hoped, for her to tell him exactly what she thought of his effort to help the situation—it was now ten times worse.
‘Wait,’ Jude instructed as May turned to him as soon as they had left the lounge.
‘You—’
‘I said wait, May,’ he repeated tautly, having been expecting this verbal reprimand as soon as they were alone, but nevertheless choosing to delay it for a few more minutes. ‘In fact, wait here while I order the champagne.’ He grasped her shoulders to halt her several feet short of the reception desk, walking on alone.
Not that he didn’t think May had a perfect right to be furious with him for having announced their engagement in that unexpected way; he had been more than a little stunned by it himself.
But having once made the announcement, he had begun to realise that he actually liked the sound of it, that the thought of being engaged to May wasn’t an unpleasant prospect at all. In fact, the more the idea sank in, he realised it was exactly what he wanted.
He had been fighting his feelings for her for days now, choosing to put many different labels on his behaviour rather than face up to the real reason he felt so protective towards her. He had even thought, by leaving this morning, that once May was out of sight she would also be out of mind. What an idiot!
He was in love with May Calendar…
The thought of not seeing her, not being with her, even not arguing with her, was a completely unpalatable one.
If she hadn’t arrived at the hotel in the way that she had, how far would he have got? To the motorway? All the way to London? Or would he have got as far as the borders of Yorkshire and realised that in leaving May he had left the most important part of himself behind?
The latter, he now believed…
But he hadn’t known, really hadn’t realised—or just refused to accept…?—the way he felt about her, until he’d heard himself announce their engagement. And then it had all become amazingly clear, so utterly right that he knew he was fighting a losing battle in trying to leave her. Separation wouldn’t change the way he felt about her, it would only make that separation harder to bear.
How to convince May of that—that was the question.
How ironic. The self-assured, self-contained Jude Marshall, brought to his emotional knees for love of a woman who claimed to feel nothing but physical attraction towards him. It would be funny if it weren’t so heart-wrenchingly painful.
‘Champagne’s on its way,’ he told her lightly as he returned to her side. ‘Cheer up, May,’ he added mockingly, not at all reassured by the paleness of her face. ‘It’s only an engagement, not an actual wedding.’ Persuading May into marrying him was going to be much more difficult.
She shook her head. ‘It isn’t that,’ she breathed huskily, looking past him now, her eyes having taken on a haunted look. ‘April Robine just came down in the lift…!’ she added weakly.
Jude turned sharply, just in time to see April stepping out of the lift, turning to laugh huskily at the person who accompanied her.
Jude’s eyes widened as he saw David Melton follow April into the reception area, knowing by the way that May stiffened at his side that she had
also seen the other man, added two and two together, with the earliness of the hour, and probably come up with the same conclusion that Jude had—David Melton had spent the night at the hotel.
Great. In all the time Jude had been friends with April, which was getting on for six months now, he had never known her to be involved with anyone, romantically or otherwise. And now, when May already had such prejudice against her, April was obviously involved with the film director.
A man Jude still wasn’t a hundred per cent certain that May didn’t have feelings for herself…
Jude turned back to her decisively. ‘It may not be what it looks, May,’ he attempted to reassure her, at once struck by the irony of his protective feelings towards May actually stretching to the point where he didn’t want anyone to hurt her, including another man.
A month ago, a week ago, he wouldn’t have cared one way or the other about anyone else’s actions, would have considered it their own business and no one else’s, but with his newly realised feelings for May he knew that anyone, anyone at all, attempting to hurt her would bring his wrath down upon their head.
Her mouth twisted derisively, a pained look in her eyes. ‘Of course it’s what it appears,’ she snapped dismissively. ‘So tell me, Jude—’ she looked up at him challengingly ‘—what do we do now?’
Good question.
But as he had no idea in which direction he was coming from—to keep April away from the two daughters who had lived in ignorance of her existence for over twenty years, or to punch David Melton on the nose for trifling with May’s affections while so obviously involved with April, a move definitely guaranteed to draw attention to the other couple—Jude really had no idea.
Which was probably another first for him, he acknowledged.
No wonder he had chosen never to fall in love before; at the moment he didn’t know whether he was on his head or his heels, and as for any feelings of positive action…
Chosen to fall in love.
Who was he kidding? There had been no choice involved in loving May; he simply did.
He gave a rueful grimace. ‘We could always invite the two of them to join us for a glass of champagne?’
May glared up at him. ‘Very funny. Now come up with an answer I would find acceptable.’
He didn’t have one. He really didn’t. But very soon the situation was going to be taken out of his hands anyway, April and David moving away from the lift now, which meant that at any moment they were going to see May and Jude standing a short distance away.
And then all hell was going to break loose.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MAY didn’t have time to wonder what April was doing in the company of David Melton this early in the morning; the fact that April was standing only feet away was what held her immobile.
January and March were sitting in the lounge just across the reception area, and at any moment April might turn that beautiful head and see them there. There was absolutely no chance, once she had seen them, that the actress wouldn’t recognise January and March for exactly who they were; the likeness between the three sisters was as unmistakable as their likeness to April herself.
She looked at April and David, turning slightly to look at her two sisters chatting away happily in the lounge, before turning back to April and David.
May couldn’t breathe. Her head felt light! She was going to—
‘You can’t faint here,’ Jude told her firmly as he took a grip of her arm.
Why couldn’t she? If she were to faint, then—
‘It’s too late for that, anyway,’ Jude murmured at her side.
It was too late, but it was David Melton who had spotted them rather than April, the film director leaning towards the beautiful actress to murmur something in her ear, April turning slowly towards them, her eyes deeply green in a face gone suddenly white.
And she hadn’t even seen January and March yet. May groaned inwardly, knowing the reason for the older woman’s obvious distress was the memory of the last meeting between the two of them.
But what else could she have done but tell April to stay away from them, and in such a way that the other woman would have no doubts about how strongly May felt?
‘I told you I would be here for you, May,’ Jude reminded huskily, his grip tightening on her arm as the other couple began to walk in their direction.
Yes, he had told her that. But not that it would be as her so-called fiancé.
Could this situation get any worse than it was? May wondered dazedly.
‘How fortuitous that we should see the two of you this morning,’ David was the one to greet brightly. ‘Just in time to celebrate the engagement.’
May turned to glare accusingly at Jude; she had thought his announcement just now had been completely spontaneous—the surprised look on his own face had seemed to imply that it was—but if the other couple were aware of it, too…
‘David…’ April murmured protestingly, the colour coming back into her cheeks as she gave May an embarrassed glance. ‘I thought we were going to keep that to ourselves for a while?’ she added awkwardly.
May looked from April to David, frowning as it dawned on her that David hadn’t been referring to her own supposed engagement to Jude at all, but to his own. To April…
‘We were,’ David acknowledged apologetically, reaching out to squeeze April’s hand reassuringly. ‘But I thought, as May and Jude are actually here now…’ He turned to raise questioning brows at May.
He knew. The knowledge was there, in his eyes, a mixture of compassion for her, and pleading on behalf of the woman he had just asked to marry him.
May’s gaze shifted abruptly to April, easily able to read the uncertainty in her expression as she returned May’s gaze, that same pleading in those deep green eyes.
What did they want from her? Pleasure? Forgiveness? Heartfelt congratulations? What?
Jude gave her arm a brief squeeze before stepping forward to kiss April lightly on one cheek. ‘I’m very happy for you,’ he told her huskily. ‘David.’ He held his hand out to the other man.
‘Thanks.’ David gave a boyish grin as he took the proffered hand.
Which left them all waiting for May’s response…
She blinked, looking across at the woman who had been her mother, for the first time wondering—
Max had told her that not everything was as black and white as when seen through a child’s eyes, that he had made mistakes about his own mother’s actions; could there possibly, just possibly, be a way for her to be wrong about April, too? After all, as Jude had already pointed out to her, despite the fact that April was a beautiful and desirable woman, she hadn’t remarried while their father was still alive…
May didn’t know any more, had no idea how any of them were going to wipe out the past, all she did know was that she could no longer even try to control what was going to happen in the next few minutes.
‘Congratulations, David,’ she said warmly before turning to April. ‘I’m very pleased for you, April,’ she told the older woman huskily, moving forward to kiss her lightly on the cheek.
There were tears in April’s eyes as she looked at her. ‘Thank you,’ she returned gratefully.
May looked at her wordlessly for several moments, her own vision blurring slightly as she felt close to tears herself.
This wouldn’t do, she told herself firmly; the two of them couldn’t just stand here blubbing.
She breathed deeply, knowing the moment of truth had arrived—whether she was ready for it or not. ‘April, there are some people over here I would like you to meet,’ she said evenly, moving to link her arm with April’s as she turned her in the direction of the hotel lounge.
She heard April draw in a sharp breath beside her, turning to see April staring across to where March and January were sitting with Max and Will, also knowing that there could be no mistaking exactly who the two young women were.
‘May…?’ April choked at her side.
M
ay gave an encouraging squeeze of her arm. ‘It will be all right,’ she told the other woman with more confidence than she actually felt; she really had no idea what was going to happen when April was introduced to March and January.
Did either of her sisters still remember their mother? Would they recognise the beautiful April Robine as being that woman?
None of them had ever discussed their mother as they were growing up, May because of the necessity of not distressing their father, her sisters just hadn’t mentioned her after the first few months of asking where she had gone.
In truth, May really had no idea whether either of them would make the connection between the internationally acclaimed actress, April Robine, and the woman who had been their mother.
April swallowed hard, still staring across into the lounge, her voice huskily emotional when she spoke. ‘They’re both so beautiful. You all are,’ she added shakily.
May gave a rueful smile. ‘We all look like you.’
‘They’re all as kind and charming as you, too,’ Jude cut in softly.
May turned to give him teasing smile. ‘I’m not sure you’ve always thought that in my case.’
He gave an unapologetic shrug. ‘I don’t mind admitting when I’m wrong.’
Meaning that perhaps she shouldn’t, either?
If she was wrong…
‘Ah, the champagne has arrived,’ Jude said with satisfaction as he saw the waitress crossing Reception with the laden tray, glad of something mundane to relieve the tension that was slowly building, his pride in May at that moment making him feel choked with emotion himself. ‘I’m afraid we’ll need two more glasses, and probably another bottle of champagne,’ he told the middle-aged woman smilingly.
‘Champagne?’ David Melton raised puzzled blond brows as they began to follow the waitress into the lounge.
‘We’ll explain later,’ Jude told the other man dismissively. ‘Let’s go and drink a toast to your and April’s future happiness,’ he encouraged briskly, his narrowed gaze fixed on May as she walked ahead of him beside April.
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