"Dammit, Sophie, surely it must be painfully obvious that I want to be your lover, not your friend!" His voice grated as he drew her back against him and began kissing her once more, and for a few wild moments her arms went round his neck, clutching him closer, then with superhuman effort Sophie tore herself away, gasping for breath.
"I must go in, Alexander. I can't stand much more of this. I'm just not used to it."
He caught her hand.
"I'm sorry, Sophie. I didn't mean to break your rules. I promise I'll do my darnedest to toe the line when you start at the new office."
Sophie squeezed his fingers.
"I was the one to blame. I shouldn't have kissed you. I promise I won't do it again."
"Don't say that, Sophie----' He lifted her hand and kissed the palm, turning her fingers over to cover the place he'd kissed.
"Shall I see you this weekend?"
"Let's not make any prearranged plans, Alexander."
"Why not?"
Sophie found it hard to explain why not. It sounded so pontifical to say she needed to leave home and start her new life, distancing herself from everything for a while before she could contemplate Alexander in the light of a lover. Because that was what he'd be if they saw much more of each other alone, she recognised with honesty.
And it would be a very tricky relationship to maintain in secret, that was patently obvious, when their lives were so closely inter linked
"Not yet," she said with difficulty.
"It's too soon."
"Too soon! We've known each other for twenty 5 odd years. How well do you have to know someone before you let them wine and dine you, for God's sake?"
"Don't be angry, Alexander. If you must know, I think it's too soon after
Delphine."
He let out a deep breath.
"Ah, I see. You still think I'm on my ego-boosting trip."
Sophie thought it over.
"I did think so at first, I'll admit. Now I'm not so sure. Anyway, I still need some breathing space."
"Fair enough," said Alexander, suddenly brisk.
"I'll give you until our respective parents' wedding. After that..." He paused significantly.
"After that I expect a change of attitude, Sophie."
"You mean you expect me to hop into bed with you the moment my father's back is turned?" she enquired acidly.
"No, I do not!" Alexander turned in his seat and took her by the shoulders, shaking her slightly.
"All I have in mind is an occasional dinner together or an evening at the theatre. More or less what you've been doing for years with Julian Brett He stopped short, staring down at her intently in the darkness. “Or is he the stumbling block? You prefer his company to mine, possibly? "
The anger in his voice did wonders for Sophie's ego.
"Nothing to do with Julian," she assured him. "He's not prepared to travel as far as Arlesford to continue with our usual arrangement, you see."
Alexander's shoulders shook.
"Good God! Not that I'm surprised in a way. Brett's never been known to take an interest in any woman other than you, as far as I know. He doesn't come across as an importunate lover."
Sophie gave in to temptation.
"On the contrary," she said casually.
"Last night he asked me to marry him instead of moving away."
Alexander grew very still.
"Really?" he said, in a dangerously silky tone.
"And what was your answer?"
"The picture he painted of our future life together was madly attractive," said Sophie with regret. "Nevertheless I found the strength to refuse. As you already know, marriage has no place in my particular scheme of things."
It was very gratifying to hear Alexander's explosive exhalation of relief.
"Thank God for that. Brett's not the husband for you, Sophie."
Sophie was in full agreement, but saw no reason to let Alexander know it.
"I'm not in the market for any husband," she said with emphasis, and opened the car door.
"Goodnight, Alexander."
He jumped out to walk with her through the garden to her front door.
"It's going to be very strange without you at the office on Monday, Sophie."
"In a day or two you won't notice I've gone” she assured him.
"Besides, I start work at the new office the following week. Will it be ready by then?"
"Part of it, at least. We may have to dodge ladders and cans of paint for a while, but we should be able to manage." Alexander watched while Sophie unlocked the door, then bent swiftly and kissed her hard on the mouth before striding back to the car. Sophie listened for a moment until she heard the car start up, then shut the door slowly before turning to _find her father leaning in the kitchen doorway in his dressing-gown, watching her.
"Nice evening, pet?" he asked.
"Very nice indeed." She smiled at him happily. "Everyone was so kind; they bought me a lovely jardiniere for the cottage. Oh, bother I left it in
Alexander's car."
"He'll keep it safe." David Gordon kissed her cheek affectionately.
"I thought perhaps you might be feeling blue after saying your farewells, but
I knew Alexander would take care of you."
"What would we do without him?" said Sophie mockingly, then returned her father's kiss and went up to bed, thinking she, for one, might be less preoccupied by constant thoughts of Alexander's lovemaking if he were to absent himself from their lives. Then she spent some looking at her bright-eyed reflection in the mirror, coming to terms with the fact that if
Alexander were to go out of her life he'd leave a great big gap no one else would ever be likely to fill.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Sophie found her free week less free than she'd hoped. Most of it was spent in showing prospective purchasers round the house, a task she found she disliked. Her urge to live alone was as strong as ever; none the less she felt a pang every time she thought of strangers living in the house where she had grown up. It was a great relief when an offer for it came almost at once from the people she liked best.
"And," she told Kate Paget afterwards, 'perhaps I can have a break from all this frantic housework now the place doesn't have to be inspection-perfect all day and every day! "
The quick sale meant Sophie could begin her new job in Ariesford with a free heart. She was to remain at home until the wedding, after which she planned to stay with her grandmother until Ilex Cottage was ready, and agreed meekly when her father told her she would be foolish to refuse Alexander's offer of driving her to and from Ariesford each day.
Secretly Sophie enjoyed the daily drive with Alexander, who was keeping nobly to his promise to maintain his distance until the wedding was over. She also found it both satisfying and challenging to work with him to set up the new branch, and quickly made her own impression on the office set aside for her own use. The building which housed the offices was | _old, with lofty rooms and corniced ceilings and more than enough space for the great leather-topped desk Alexander had run to earth in an antique shop. He brought his famous drawing-board from Deansbury, and a squab bed leather chair from his own study at home, and for the time being the elegant proportions of his sanctum were displayed to full effect, uncluttered at this stage by the samples of bricks and tiles and carpets that crowded every corner of the Deansbury offices.
Sophie made the most of the peace and space while she could, knowing very well it was only a matter of time before the place was crammed with the overflow from Deansbury.
It was oddly intimate to work with only Alexander for company, with no Perry or George Huntley, or any of the others constantly in and out of her office with their demands. Sophie enjoyed it to the full, not letting herself think about the day when Alexander felt he could relinquish the Arlesford office into Perry's keeping and retreat to his proper place at the helm in Deansbury.
"You can't refuse to lunch with me here," said Alexander the first day.
"I
see no point in your marching off to the local coffee-shop while I eat a lonely lunch in the bar of the Unicorn."
Neither did Sophie, who was happier to agree than she had any intention of letting him know. Now they were virtually alone together in the offices, give or take a decorator or two, their relationship had quite definitely embarked on a new phase. Sophie could no longer ignore the fact that she was growing steadily more addicted to Alexander's company. It amazed her to think she had once taken him completely for _granted as a family friend, or even just as her boss, that she had never once been troubled by the disturbing feelings she now found intensifying towards him daily. All her life Alexander had merely been there, as much a constant in her life as her father or her brothers. Unless one took into account the very brief attack of hero-worship of Alexander at fourteen or so, which had been largely due to the violent envy of her friends the day Alexander collected her from school in the rather flash car he sported in his college days.
The first really deep emotion she had ever experienced towards Alexander,
Sophie realised, had been her compassion for him the day he was jilted so publicly by Delphine Wyndham. From that day on it had somehow never been quite possible to resume the old taken-for-granted relationship with
Alexander, mainly because he had emerged from the trauma of his bride's defection a subtly changed man. One who seemed to have woken up overnight to the fact that his efficient, familiar secretary was not only a girl he'd known all her life, but a woman with an attraction he was suddenly aware he reacted too strongly.
"I'm behaving excessively well, don't you agree?" he asked smugly over lunch towards the end of the first week in Arlesford.
Sophie laughed.
"An absolute pillar of rectitude!"
"Then let me take you out somewhere on Saturday as my reward."
"No dice, Alexander. You said after the wedding. Besides, I'm spending the day with Aunt Kate, shopping for last-minute frivolities."
_Alexander, who was looking his spectacular best in chalk-striped grey flannel, sighed as he gazed at her across one of the small tables in the
Unicorn's crowded bar.
"You're really going to keep me to my promise, then?"
Sophie nodded.
"You bet your boots I am!"
He eyed her morosely.
"And no doubt the most I can expect after the wedding is an occasional meal together. And if I'm very lucky, perhaps a chaste goodnight kiss." His eyes kindled.
"How I wish we were strangers, Sophie, with no hordes of relatives to inhibit us."
"By which I assume you feel hampered by the thought of Dad and Aunt Kate."
"Not to mention the terrible twins!"
Sophie laughed.
"Imagine how disillusioned they'd be if they thought their hero had dishonourable intentions towards a lady!"
"The point being that the lady in this case is their sister."
Alexander grinned.
"It's not their illusions that worry me, believe me, it's their fists. Both of them would be down on me like a ton of bricks, howling vengeance."
"Good lord, do you think so?" Sophie was much struck by the idea.
"In that case, perhaps you ought to know they've joined a martial arts club."
Alexander groaned and put a hand over his eyes. "Heaven preserve me.
Your virtue is safe from me, I promise. "
"How disappointing," said Sophie lightly.
"Come on. Time to get back to work."
The day of the wedding was cold and showery, not _that the elements were the only factors to make the occasion very different from Alexander's ordeal.
This time the ceremony took place in the beautiful Norman church in
Deansbury, with flowers and candles and a bride who arrived to a triumphant paean of Bach on the first stroke of noon. The immediate family and a few close friends were the only guests present, and Kate looked so radiant that
Sophie had to blink away a tear as she watched her father kiss his bride with moving tenderness.
Afterwards Alexander had organised a superb, catered lunch at the Chantry, and after it had been enjoyed, and the toasts drunk and speeches made, the happy couple set off for a honeymoon in the Bahamas. Sophie felt a decidedly sharp pang as the taxi rolled down the drive with her father and Kate waving through the window until they were out of sight. Cecily Wainwright, magnificent in mink coat and hat, intercepted the look in her granddaughter's eyes and led her back into the house.
"One always feels flat after a wedding. Drink some champagne," she commanded, in her usual bracing way.
Sophie did as she was told, her eyes drawn to Alexander, who was laughing as
Matthew and Mark regaled him with a catalogue of their exploits in Edinburgh.
"I feel as though a chapter in my life has ended," she said forlornly.
"Does that sound fanciful, Grail?"
"Not in the least. Perfectly natural since not only are you moving out of your childhood home, but your father's acquired a new woman in his life.
Not," added Mrs. Wainwright on reflection, 'that one could _describe Kate as a new woman, exactly. "
"True." Sophie downed a cheering draught of champagne, then steered her grandmother in the direction of the Vicar before going off to cope with a flurry of leave taking as the guests began to depart.
Even the twins, formal suits exchanged for their usual uniform of denim and leather, were bent on setting off for Edinburgh at once.
"The girls in the flat next door are throwing a party tonight," said Matthew with anticipation as he kissed Sophie.
"We'll give you a ring at Grail's tomorrow."
Once guests and caterers had gone, Alexander insisted on making tea himself while the two ladies relaxed in his drawing-room.
Mrs. Wainwright looked about her curiously. "Strange how things turn out.
Kate will go on as mistress here after all instead of Delphine."
"Let's forget about Delphine," said Sophie flatly.
Mrs. Wainwright-' chuckled.
"You consider Alexander's better off without her, I gather."
"Someone mention my name?" asked Alexander, returning with the tray.
"Will you pour, Mrs. Wainwright?"
The elegant old lady was only too happy to oblige, then shocked Sophie rigid by telling Alexander how fortunate he was to be rid of Delphine Wyndham.
"Stupid girl," she added forcefully.
"Bad-mannered, too. Not done to make a laughing-stock of a fine man like you."
Sophie glared at her grandparent, appalled.
"For heaven's sake.
Grail! "
Alexander looked unruffled.
"I agree, totally. Now Sophie, here, would never dream of behaving like
_that, would you, Sophie?"
"Few people would!"
"Are you coming back with me in the Bentley, Sophie?" asked Mrs. Wainwright, gathering up her gloves.
"She has a long-standing appointment with me tonight," said Alexander, before
Sophie could say a word.
"You haven't forgotten, Sophie, surely?" His eyes gleamed through his thick lashes.
"We arranged it some time ago."
After the wedding, thought Sophie, taken aback to find Alexander meant it quite so literally.
"Splendid," said Mrs. Wainwright, rummaging in her alligator handbag.
"Here's a key, Sophie. If you're late, let yourself in. I'll probably be in bed. Weddings are so tiring at my age."
Sophie went with Alexander to install Mrs. Wainwright behind the wheel of the ancient Bentley she insisted driving in preference to the modern replacements
David Gordon had tried to persuade her to buy over the years. In Cecily
Wainwright's opinion the Bentley had more style, and the dignified vehicle continued to delight the inhabitants of Arlesford whenever Mrs. Wainwright took to the road.
"Please drive carefully. Grail," said Sophie anxiously
.
"I always do." Mrs. Wainwright gave Alexander a smile.
"Bring her home safely, Alexander."
Sophie had had quite enough of watching cars roll away from her by this time, and went back into the house with Alexander, feeling even more depressed.
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