Diamonds Are Forever: The Royal Marriage ArrangementThe Diamond BrideThe Diamond Dad

by Rebecca Winters

  ‘You’re up, Annie.’ Rufus seemed surprised to see her in the kitchen.

  Her mouth twisted wryly. ‘It is after ten o’clock. I’m sorry I overslept.’ Even as she made the apology she was helping Jessica off with her coat. ‘I don’t usually. I can’t remember the last time I—’

  ‘I wasn’t criticising,’ Rufus cut in gently. ‘Merely making an observation. We had a great time at the park, didn’t we, Tuppence?’ He ruffled Jessica’s already windblown hair.

  Without Annie. She was starting to feel superfluous. And not a little sorry for herself too, she acknowledged painfully. She loved this man, and his daughter, so much, and one day she would have to leave both of them. Sooner rather than later, if Rufus’s determination where Margaret was concerned was anything to go by!

  ‘We had fun.’ Jessica grinned in agreement, her cheeks flushed with the exercise.

  ‘You’re probably both cold.’ Annie was aware that she sounded a little stilted, but she couldn’t help that, either; she suddenly felt very uncomfortable in Rufus’s company. ‘Would you like a hot drink? I promise to only put three teabags in the pot,’ she added as an attempt at a joke.

  Rufus sat on the stool next to Jessica at the breakfast-bar. ‘What about the “one for the pot”?’ he teased, seeming to be looking at her rather intently.

  Which was probably just her imagination; it only felt as if she had the words ‘I love Rufus Diamond’ emblazoned across her forehead, it wasn’t actually a fact! Rufus couldn’t possibly know how she felt about him. And it was up to her to make sure he never did.

  ‘I’m not having a cup of tea,’ she answered him dismissively. ‘I thought I would just tidy the bedrooms while the two of you drank yours,’ she explained. She had left her bedroom so hurriedly this morning she hadn’t even taken the time to make her bed! Now seemed as good a time as any to go and do that.

  Rufus was still watching her, his eyes narrowed darkly. ‘The bedrooms can wait,’ he said slowly. ‘Anyway, Jess and I have already done ours. Sit down and have a cup of tea with us.’ He leant over and dropped another teabag into the pot she was in the process of filling with boiling water.

  She didn’t want to sit down and drink a cup of tea with him! Actually, being in his presence at the moment just made her more jittery than she had been earlier when she’d realised how she felt about him. She needed time alone to pull herself together …

  She shook her head. ‘I really would like to go and tidy my bedroom.’ She couldn’t quite meet Rufus’s gaze; it might be the undoing of her fragile control if she did! ‘The tea is in the pot ready to be poured, and—’

  ‘We don’t want twins, do we?’ Rufus told her.

  She frowned across at him. ‘Twins?’ she echoed in a puzzled voice.

  He nodded. ‘I was always told that the person who made the tea should also be the one to pour it, otherwise one of the two people will have twins!’ He met her eyes innocently. ‘It’s an old wives’ tale.’

  ‘I think it’s just an excuse for Daddy not to have to pour the tea!’ Jessica exclaimed knowingly.

  ‘So do I,’ Annie agreed. ‘And I don’t know any old wives, so I’ve never heard that particular tale, either,’ she told Rufus sceptically.

  His mouth twisted ruefully. ‘Does that mean I get to pour the tea?’

  ‘I think so,’ Annie nodded. ‘And I wouldn’t leave it too much longer before you do it, either, otherwise it will be stewed.’ She walked to the door. ‘Oh, by the way …’ She turned casually back to Rufus—as casually as she was able to on legs that suddenly seemed to be shaking. ‘There’s a telephone message for you on the table.’ She deliberately made her voice light.

  ‘There is?’ He frowned, hurriedly moving to pick up the piece of paper, quickly scanning the message Annie had written there—so quickly that Annie hadn’t even had time to make good her escape when he looked up again! ‘When did she call?’ he demanded.

  Annie swallowed hard. ‘About half an hour ago.’

  ‘Damn!’ He crumpled the piece of paper savagely in his hand. ‘I have to go out soon, so could you two girls amuse yourselves for a while?’ It was a statement rather than a question, his thoughts already elsewhere.

  To see Margaret, Annie guessed heavily. Because she had no doubt that was where he was going. He wasn’t going to return the other woman’s telephone call at all, but was going to see her in person!

  ‘There’s plenty of food in the fridge for lunch,’ he assured them.

  ‘I’m sure we’ll manage,’ Annie told him distantly.

  Rufus looked up at her sharply, obviously sensing her coolness. ‘What, exactly, did she say?’ he asked shrewdly.

  Annie deliberately kept her face expressionless. ‘Once she realised that you weren’t at home, exactly what I’ve written down there.’ She didn’t mention, as he hadn’t, who ‘she’ was, sensing that he didn’t want to talk of Margaret in front of Jessica. She had no idea why not, unless he just didn’t want a lot of questions from his daughter concerning her previous nanny, but it suited Annie not to mention the other woman too. She was starting to hate Margaret even though she had never even met her!

  He nodded, his expression distracted once again. ‘Off you go to your room and do whatever it is you need to do while Jess and I drink our tea, and then I’ll go out.’

  He could hardly wait to be gone, Annie acknowledged miserably as she went slowly to her bedroom. Or, at least, he couldn’t wait to see Margaret again …

  Annie sat down on the bed once she had made it, battling with feelings of jealousy that she had never known before. She hadn’t even been jealous of Davina once she’d realised she was Anthony’s fiancée, just disappointed that Anthony seemed to be trapped in an engagement he hadn’t the courage to get out of. But she had learnt the real truth of that when Anthony had offered her the role of mistress in his life! Now she pitied Davina more than anything else.

  Margaret, however, was a different matter. She had actually sounded nice on the telephone, which made disliking her all the more difficult. And yet Annie was so jealous of Rufus’s obvious desire to see the other woman again that she was having trouble breathing.

  But she certainly couldn’t hide out here in her bedroom indefinitely, would have to go back to the kitchen and take care of Jessica while her father went out. To see Margaret …

  Oh, God! She buried her face in her hands as she cried; surely loving someone wasn’t supposed to be as painful as this? Laughter and pain … She had never thought of the two emotions in the same context before, but Rufus made her laugh, and at the same time the pain of loving him, when he didn’t return the emotion, was unbearable!

  What was she going to do?

  What could she do? She didn’t want to leave Jessica. And in all honesty, even though her love wasn’t returned, she didn’t want to leave Rufus either! But if Margaret came back into Rufus’s life, possibly took over the care of Jessica again as well, then Annie might not have any choice in the matter. But until that time—

  ‘Annie?’ Rufus knocked on the bedroom door as he called her name.

  She stood up, wiping all sign of tears from her cheeks as she moved to open the bedroom door. ‘Yes?’ she replied. ‘Do you want to go now?’

  ‘As soon as I’ve changed,’ he said, studying her closely. ‘Are you feeling any better than you did last night? Because, to be honest, you don’t look better,’ he told her before she could answer him.

  ‘Thanks!’ she returned tartly. ‘You really know how to make a woman feel good!’ She really had to start behaving more naturally around him, and the best way to do that, she decided, was to return his banter. Margaret wasn’t back in this life yet, and until she was … All was fair in love and war, wasn’t it …?

  ‘I certainly hope so!’ He grinned unabashedly and her cheeks reddened as he neatly turned the comment back to her.

  Annie’s mouth twisted wryly. ‘Don’t worry about Jessica and me,’ she told him lightly. ‘I’m sure we’ll b
e just fine while you’re out.’

  He sobered and nodded grimly. ‘I shouldn’t be long.’

  On the surface Annie found she was fine as she and Jessica decided to bake some cakes to pass the time. It was only inside where she let her thoughts wander to wonder how Rufus was doing with the other woman …

  There weren’t half the ingredients they needed to make the cakes, and the finished products looked far from appetising, but the two of them had had a lot of fun making them, which was really the whole point of the exercise.

  ‘The real test is in the tasting,’ Annie pressed the young girl.

  ‘Go on, then.’ Jessica giggled, looking at the flat, slightly burnt cakes. ‘I dare you!’

  ‘You’re the youngest,’ Annie reminded her, also pulling a face at the unappealing cakes.

  ‘All the more reason why I shouldn’t be the one to try them,’ Jessica asserted. ‘I still have all of my life in front of me!’

  Annie looked at Jessica, and then to the cakes, and then back to Jessica again. ‘I know!’ She put the tray of cakes on the side to cool. ‘We’ll offer one to your father when he gets home.’

  ‘That’s mean.’ Jessica giggled again, although she didn’t reject the idea.

  Perhaps it was. But, in all honesty, Annie couldn’t say she was feeling very charitable towards Rufus right at this moment. He—

  She turned with a puzzled frown as the apartment door slammed shut with a resounding bang. What on earth—? Who on earth …? It couldn’t be Rufus—could it?—he had barely left an hour ago.

  Rufus stormed into the kitchen, his expression thunderous as he glared across the room at them both. ‘Women!’ he pronounced disgustedly. ‘They’re all illogical, of course,’ he said to himself, throwing his jacket over one of the kitchen chairs. ‘The only time any of you make any sense is when you’re asleep!’ He glared at Annie and Jessica again. ‘And even then you’re all damned enigmas!’ He turned sharply on his heel. ‘I’ll be in my study making a telephone call,’ was his parting comment.

  And I don’t want to be disturbed, he could have added, but didn’t. Although his wish to be left alone was all too obvious, even to these two ‘damned enigmas’.

  ‘I wonder who’s upset him?’ Jessica murmured in an awestruck voice. ‘I’ve rarely seen Daddy that angry,’ she explained.

  Indeed, who had rattled his cage? as Rufus had once asked her!

  But Annie didn’t need to wonder who or what had annoyed him; he had gone out to see Margaret—it was obvious that meeting was what had upset him. It obviously hadn’t gone well.

  And, for all that it had made Rufus so angry, Annie couldn’t help her own elation that it hadn’t!

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘I SOMEHOW don’t think just now is the time to offer him one of our burnt cakes, do you?’ Jessica very wisely threw all of them away in the bin. ‘I don’t think he’s in the mood to see the joke.’

  Strangely enough, Rufus’s obvious bad humour had brought a return of Annie’s good one! Whatever had transpired between him and Margaret, it hadn’t gone well. Annie couldn’t have been more pleased.

  Perhaps that was slightly wicked of her, maybe even more than slightly, but she couldn’t help the way she felt. She didn’t want him reunited with Margaret. She loved Rufus herself; how could she possibly want that?

  ‘Let’s start preparing lunch,’ she suggested breezily. ‘It looks as if your father will be joining us, after all.’

  Although whether or not he would actually feel like eating was another matter!

  When Rufus didn’t appear back in the kitchen by the time twelve-thirty came round, and lunch was ready, Annie decided to go in search of him.

  He was still in his study, didn’t appear to have moved as he bade Annie to enter after her knock, sitting back in the chair behind the desk, his feet actually up on the desktop.

  Annie’s brows rose. ‘Comfortable?’

  ‘Moderately,’ he snapped, his expression as glowering as it had been when he’d arrived back earlier, his elbows resting on the arms of his brown leather chair, his hands linked together under his chin as he looked at Annie over the top of them.

  ‘Lunch is ready,’ she told him cordially.

  ‘I’m not particularly hungry,’ he returned, still making no effort to move.

  Annie didn’t move either, remaining exactly where she was. ‘Jessica says it’s your favourite.’

  His mouth contorted. ‘Does she? What, exactly, is it?’ he asked uninterestedly.

  ‘Bacon omelette with lots of toast.’ It didn’t exactly sound exciting to her own ears, but Jessica had insisted it definitely was her father’s favourite meal.

  It was really too bad if it wasn’t; there were provisions in the refrigerator, but they weren’t exactly extensive. Obviously Rufus lived very simply when he was here.

  ‘It is my favourite meal.’ Rufus swung his legs off the desktop, sitting forward in his chair, the dark gloom that had been emanating from him, and filling the room, dispelled as he grinned at her. ‘Jessica is going to make some lucky man a good wife some day,’ he told Annie as he stood up to follow her back to the kitchen.

  Annie turned as she heard him chuckling softly behind her. ‘Is something funny?’ she said slowly; she certainly couldn’t see any joke.

  ‘Your face just now when I made that remark about Jess.’ Laughter danced in the darkness of his eyes. ‘Go on, tell me what remark you instinctively wanted to make back.’

  She gave him a reproving look. ‘You said it just to annoy me!’

  ‘And I succeeded.’ He still grinned, his bad humour of a few minutes ago apparently forgotten.

  ‘Okay.’ She nodded. ‘I thought your remark extremely chauvinistic. And I’m surprised you don’t want more for Jessica,’ she added challengingly; two could play at his game!

  ‘That’s an interesting comment,’ Rufus said. ‘You don’t think a successful marriage is enough for a woman?’

  ‘Is it enough for a man?’ she instantly responded.

  He paused at the kitchen door. ‘I suggest, as Jessica’s lunch will spoil, if we don’t soon eat, that we continue this conversation some other time. And no, I’m not avoiding an answer,’ he stated at her derisive expression. ‘It’s just too wide a subject to dispense with in two minutes.’

  Annie was already regretting the challenge she had thrown out. Oh, not because she didn’t mean what she said, because she did; it was just that she realised now that when Rufus had something on his mind he could be deliberately provocative. She didn’t for a moment believe he had meant what he’d just said; he was just spoiling for an argument! And if he couldn’t get anywhere where Margaret was concerned he was going to argue with someone else—namely Annie!

  After claiming he wasn’t particularly hungry, he certainly did full justice to the omelette and toast, even asking for more of the latter. His bad temper seemed to have disappeared too as he teased and joked with both of them throughout the meal. Not that Annie was fooled by this for a moment, knowing he would return to their earlier conversation once they were on their own again.

  ‘That was excellent.’ Rufus sat back, replete after his meal. ‘What more could a man ask for than two women pandering to his every whim?’ He looked at Annie as she made them all coffee.

  He was still baiting her. But she wasn’t about to bite, not this time. ‘Coffee.’ She smiled at him sweetly as she put the steaming mug down next to him.

  His mouth twitched as he easily guessed that she was inwardly seething at his taunting. ‘Thank you,’ he returned just as politely.

  ‘You know something, Rufus …?’ Annie continued to smile at him as she gave Jessica her drink before picking up her own mug of coffee and resuming her seat. ‘You have a lousy temper!’ she told him pleasantly before calmly sipping her coffee.

  He continued to look at her for several stunned seconds, and then he began to laugh, that loud shout of laughter that showed he was enjoying himself. And he wasn’t
laughing at her this time, but with her.

  ‘You’re right, Annie.’ He finally sobered enough to be able to speak. ‘I do have a lousy temper. But for some reason you seem to be able to get me out of it.’ He looked at her consideringly. ‘I wonder why that is?’

  Her bravado of a few minutes ago vanished as he continued to look at her, his gaze warm. After a few seconds of this Annie began to wish he had stayed angry—he was less dangerous that way! To her peace of mind …

  ‘What are we going to do this afternoon?’

  It took Annie a couple of seconds to realise Jessica had asked the question, and then, even when she did realise the little girl had addressed the question to her, she was so flustered by the directness of Rufus’s stare that she still couldn’t answer her!

  Rufus was finally the one to turn to his daughter. ‘What would you like to do?’

  ‘Well, judging by the little there is left in the fridge for us to eat, I think we should all go food shopping,’ Jessica told him ruefully.

  ‘I think the two of you should go.’ Rufus stood up abruptly, taking some money out of his pocket and putting it down on the breakfast-bar. ‘I have some work to do. Take a taxi there and back, and don’t overstock; we’re probably only going to be here another couple of days.’ He paused at the door. ‘And don’t worry about food for this evening; I’m sure Jessica would be very disappointed if we didn’t go to her favourite restaurant for pizza.’

  ‘Thank you, Daddy.’ Jessica grinned at him, that familiar grin turning to a giggle once her father had left the room. ‘Don’t worry Annie.’ She laughed at Annie’s perplexed expression. ‘I’m not sure what was going on between you and Daddy during lunch, but I think he wasn’t being very kind to you—and I knew if I said we wanted to go shopping he would run away! You’re right, Annie.’ She shook her head with affection. ‘He does have a bad temper!’

  For one so young in years, Jessica was very astute. Rufus hadn’t exactly been unkind to her earlier, but he had certainly been spoiling for a fight. And as the only other adult within touching distance she was the most likely candidate. Annie had to admit that without Jessica’s calming presence she would probably have been only too happy to be his opponent!