"Aunt Kate," said Sophie a little later, while the men were engaged in a discussion, 'are you inviting Grail? "
"Of course, love." Kate looked surprised.
"Why? Do you think she won't want to come?"
"No, no. I'm sure she'll be delighted. I thought maybe you wouldn't care for the idea."
Kate patted her hand.
"I wouldn't exclude her for the world. You can tell her this weekend that an official invite will arrive as soon as I get them printed."
"What are you two whispering about?" Alexander joined them, making Kate move up so he could wedge himself between her and-Sophie.
"Girlish confidences?"
"No. We were talking about Grail." Sophie retreated as far as she could, but
Alexander promptly moved with her, so that she was trapped.
"Ah, the divine Cecily," he said, putting an arm along the back of the sofa.
"Hers was just one of several calls I had this evening after you went,
Sophie."
Sophie frowned at him in surprise.
"Grail phoned you? Business or pleasure?"
"A little of each. She asked me if I'd do a house inspection on the cottage in Arlesford before you _move in, and of course I agreed. I wouldn't dare do otherwise!" He laughed into Sophie's surprised eyes, and moved his arm to hold her shoulders lightly.
"She said you were going to see the place on Saturday and suggested I go with you to look over it for dry rot or rising damp. So the survey is business, your company the pleasure."
Sophie shifted restlessly, aware that the twins were taking great interest in the location of Alexander's arm.
"Are you sure Saturday's convenient? It seems a bit unfair to encroach on your weekend."
"Not at all. There's nothing I'd rather do."
"I'm relieved, Alexander," said Dr Gordon.
"Since Sophie's set her her heart on living in that poky little cottage, I'd be glad to know the place is fit for human habitation."
The telephone rang and Mark rushed off to answer it, returning to say Julian was on the line for Sophie. She scrambled thankfully from her corner, glad to escape. After listening patiently to a few minutes of Julian's apologies and suggestions for another evening out, she got back to find the twins had gone off to the local to meet friends, and in their absence Alexander had offered the bridal pair the Chantry, which was the house left to him by his father, and which he currently shared with Kate.
Sophie looked at him in surprise, well aware that he had intended living there with Delphine. Kate's original plan had been to move in with a widowed sister when Alexander married, but under the circumstances she had stayed on at the Chantry.
Alexander smiled.
"It's rather a spur-of-the- moment decision, but I've been given the option on a _house I've had my eye on for some time, so I thought David could take over the Chantry with Kate."
Kate took Sophie's hand in hers.
"David and I have been mulling over where to live ever since we decided to join forces. Even though none of you will be living with us permanently, I'd still like a house where there was a room you could each call your own. Tim included, when he gets tired of his Aussie sheep. Alexander's solution seems perfect."
Dr Gordon nodded with enthusiasm.
"I'll put this one on the market immediately, then between us Kate and I should see Alexander's not out of pocket on the deal."
Sophie looked at Alexander curiously.
"Where is the house you have in mind?"
"Oh, didn't I tell you?" he said casually.
"Your future boss has been very busy on my behalf. He's secured a house in
Brading for me, and at the same time found the exact office premises I've been after for the firm."
Sophie felt distinctly nettled. It was the first she'd heard of it.
"How fortunate. Are the premises large?"
"Slightly smaller than the Deansbury offices, but more than adequate."
"Whereabouts in Brading?" asked Dr Gordon with interest.
"The house is at the end of Cheynies Lane. I did the original plans for it years ago when my father was alive. River frontage, very private, just what
I want." Alexander paused, smiling, while Kate looked down with sudden interest at a loose thread on her sleeve.
"But the office premises aren't in Brading after all, Sophie. Sam Jefford snapped some up in Sheep _Street in Arlesford."
"Arlesford!" Sophie looked from Alexander's bland smile to Kate's uneasy face.
"Did you know about this. Aunt Kate?"
Not until tonight. "
Sam Jefford, Alexander informed them, had rung just before he left the office. Some office premises had just come into his hands, and since they were right in the commercial centre of Arlesford he advised snapping them up immediately.
"And the house in Brading?" asked Sophie coolly. "Did that come on the market today, too?"
"Err no, not exactly. I went to see Jefford some time ago, actually.
I'd been given the nod that Willow Reach might soon be up for sale. "
Alexander smiled warily.
"I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone, vet your future employer at the same time make sure he was a suitable type for you to work for."
Sophie was so incensed at this, she never even noticed when her father led
Kate from the room. She sprang up, eyes flashing, infuriated by the thought that her new life in Arlesford looked like being less free of the old one than she'd imagined.
"How very busy you've been, Alexander down- right interfering, in fact!" She battled to keep back tears of sheer temper.
"Why does everybody think I'm incapable of running my own life?" She dashed a hand across her eyes impatiently.
"Grail heard of the cottage which is wonderful, I know, but then even she couldn't leave me to find my own job. She even organises you to go over the cottage with me. While you, Alexander Paget, have the sheer cheek to take it
on yourself to check up on Sam Jefford's pedigree, not to mention the amazing coincidence of his finding premises for you in the very town where I intend to live. There were other premises, Alexander. I write your letters, remember. Perry's too. You could have had a place in Gloucester----' " Too much competition. "
"Or Bristol----' " Too expensive. "
Sophie's eyes flashed dangerously.
"I see. It just had to be Arlesford."
"It was, I swear, sheer coincidence, Sophie." Alexander moved nearer, but she backed away, her eyes dangerously bright.
"Even Dad seems to have some crazy idea of marrying me off to Julian Brett!"
She paused, sniffing angrily.
"Perhaps it's not such a crazy idea. Julian, at least, doesn't try to run your life for me."
Alexander's face darkened.
"None-of us is trying to run your life, Sophie. We just want to take care of you, that's all--keep a friendly eye on you."
"Oh, yes? And if all had gone to plan, and you' were now living happily ever after with Delphine, would you, personally, still be so damn eager to keep an eye on me? Doesn't all this sudden rush of feeling stem from the fact that you've been thrown over by one woman and I just happen to be on hand as convenient target practice for that wounded ego of yours?"
Alexander had been standing with his hands in his pockets, but at her last words he removed them quickly and grabbed her by the shoulders, pushing her over to the mirror to stand close behind her so _that she could see their reflections together; Alexander, his thick fair hair lying close to the classical shape of his head, his eyes glittering like a tiger's between his thick, dark lashes. And there's me, thought Sophie dismally. Hair like a bird's nest, eyes swollen, nose red, and tastefully attired in one of the twins' shrunken sweatshirts.
"If," said Alexander, in a chillingly soft voice, 'transient physical comfort was my sole aim, Sophie Gordon, don't you think I might have chosen a lady just a trifle more suitable from a purely male stand
point? "
The words acted on her like a cold wind, drying her tears like magic.
She shrugged free of his hands. "How stupid of me. You're right, of course.
I'm a complete idiot."
Alexander moved towards her, but Sophie flinched away.
"Don't she said sharply, and Alexander stepped back," his face set in grim lines.
"You mistook my meaning," he said urgently, then cursed under his breath as
Kate came in with Dr Gordon.
"Finished fighting, you two?" she said gaily.
"I've made some tea."
With enormous effort Sophie managed to smile, aware all at once that her head was pounding.
"I wonder if you'd all excuse me? I don't feel very marvellous must have been the garlic." She swallowed hard, gave a stifled moan and fled upstairs to part violently with her dinner, then stripped her clothes from her shivering body and crawled into bed, like a small animal burrowing into its nest for shelter.
CHAPTER FOUR
Sheer willpower forced Sophie out of bed next morning to face her father over the breakfast-table.
"You look like something the cat dragged in," said Dr Gordon, and took her pulse.
"Let me see your tongue."
Sophie stuck it out obediently and Dr Gordon took one look, told her to put it away and gave her back her hand.
"Let me ring Alexander and tell him you're not up to going in today."
Sophie yearned to succumb to such temptation, but somehow held firm.
"No, Dad.-" Too much on. Anyway, it was only the beef olives. “She shuddered. “Never again. " . Dr Gordon looked sceptical.
"The rest of us managed to survive them unscathed. Kate was very worried about you. She popped up to take a look at you before I drove her home, but she said you were asleep."
Sophie had been lying low, not asleep, but instead of saying so seized on an interesting point.
"Why did you drive her home?"
"Alexander left once you went off to bed. Said he had some work to do, so I asked Kate to stay on for a while." He smiled at his wan daughter.
"Must have been quite an argument you two had, since you _rushed off to throw up and Alexander rushed off to his drawing-board.
Just like the old times, in fact, when you two argued about everything. I thought you were both past that stage long since. "
"Alexander seems to imagine he has some right to interfere in my life."
Sophie drained her teacup thirstily.
"Sees his role as Big Brother, not stepbrother."
"When you were together on the sofa last night I received the distinct impression that Alexander didn't see himself in the light of your brother at all." Dr Gordon got up, patting her head before collecting his medical bag.
"And don't flash those eyes at me, pet.
I'm only a poor benighted father trying to bring up his daughter the best way he can. "
Sophie grinned at such blatant bathos.
"Oh, go and minister to someone else. I'm fine. Or I shall be after I've drunk a gallon of tea."
Rather to her own surprise, Sophie was right. By the time she'd drunk the teapot dry she felt sufficiently restored to do battle with her appearance, and achieved a creditable result with extra blusher and eyeshadow, plus the morale-lift of a new cream silk shirt striped in black, with a black satin bow tied under the cream collar. Worn with her usual trim, black skirt and slender-heeled shoes the effect was both efficient and pleasing. Nothing, however, helped with the sinking feeling in her stomach at the prospect of facing Alexander.
Sophie felt neither of them had emerged from the previous night's encounter with honours, and wished fervently she could leave her job at once, instead of keeping to her promise to train her own replacement.
_By the time she reached the premises of Paget & Son in the market square
Sophie had worked herself into an unprecedented state of nerves, only to find that Alexander was not, as was his custom, at his desk before she arrived.
Perry called from his own sanctum instead, which was unusual. Punctuality in the mornings was not one of Perry's strong points.
"Alexander told me to remind you he's in court all day today," he announced, his face concerned as he looked at her more closely.
"I say, Sophie, you feeling rough, love? "
"Stomach bug," said Sophie briefly, privately delirious with joy that
Alexander had elected to go straight to court instead of coming first to the office as he usually did. She felt better at once, and settled herself thankfully to work through the day's mail with Perry instead.
Lunch was a cup of tea taken alone in her office, while she just sat doing nothing at all until her lunch hour was over, much of the time spent in resisting the urge to type' her notice, leave it on Alexander's desk and never' darken his door again. Which was a pretty impractical move, Sophie reminded herself, since they would soon be linked, however loosely, by the marriage of their respective parents. She worked with a will during the afternoon, comforted by the prospect of a morning off next day to help get the twins away on their journey to Edinburgh. She was grateful for any breathing space she could get before confronting Alexander again, and went cold all over every time she thought of the way Alexander had made it so crystal-clear that any amatory intentions on his part had been the product of her own imagination.
_When she arrived home Sophie was relieved, and touched, to find that the twins had organised their own farewell dinner, in the shape of many and varied dishes from the local Indian take away neither of the boys backward in disposing of their queasy sister's share of the spoils. When they'd taken themselves off for a final carouse down at the local pub, Sophie took her father's advice and went early to bed after a supper of toast and tea, and woke next day in better shape to cope with the frantic last-minute chaos as her excited brothers packed their old transit van ready to set off for the delights of Freshers' Week at Edinburgh University. Sophie felt a sharp pang as the battered van finally rolled away down the drive, taking her young brothers on the first leg of adulthood. She was glad of her father's arm around her as they turned back into the house.
"We'll miss them," said Dr Gordon gruffly, and Sophie smiled, determinedly cheerful.
"But far fewer shirts and plates to wash!"
When Sophie arrived at the office after lunch Alexander was there right enough, but too preoccupied to pay attention to his secretary.
Builders were in and out of the office all afternoon as he worked through a list of them, systematically vet ting which of them were most suitable to tender for construction of a large super store on the outskirts of the town.
Since Alexander was fully occupied, Sophie took the opportunity of writing to the four most promising aspirants for her own job, requesting the chosen ladies to attend for interview the following week. She was obliged to interrupt Alexander once to _collect his diary to make sure which day was best, but he barely acknowledged her discreet murmur of apology, and Sophie withdrew quickly, more than content to keep as low a profile as possible.
When it was time for her to leave Alexander was still tied up with the last of the builders, and she waited a while, reluctant to interrupt him again.
Eventually, even though it was Friday evening, she decided to take the unusual course of going off without informing Alexander, said goodnight to
Perry and left for the weekend with a sigh of relief.
Sophie woke with a start the following morning to repeated rings of the doorbell. She peered at her clock, bleary-eyed, to find it was eight-thirty, which meant her father would already have left for his Saturday-morning surgery. Yawning, she dragged a dressing-gown over her pyjamas and went downstairs, expecting to confront the postman.
Her jaw dropped when she opened the door to find Alexander smiling at her as he jogged energetically on the spot. He looked depressingly fit and fresh in a black tracksuit and running shoes, his hair only a very little ruffled by his daily morning ru
n.
"Morning, Sophie. Thought I'd check what time you want to start for
Arlesford," he said cheerfully.
Sophie felt murderous. She dragged her dressing- gown closer round herself, horribly conscious of the spectacle she presented.
"I'm going on my own," she said acidly.
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