by Penny Jordan
'If you'll just tell me which is my room.' She daren't provoke him any further by retaliating. He was in a dangerously volatile mood, and even in the knowledge of her love, she shuddered at the thought of how he might use her in his present savage mood.
'Take your pick. You can even share mine, but you won't want to do that, will you, Genista? Who knows, you might actually turn to me one fine night and behave like a woman, and that would never do, would it? No one must be allowed to touch what's being sacrificed on the altar to your love for Bob. You stupid little fool!' His voice roughened suddenly, his hands grasping her shoulders and wrenching her out of the chair. 'Are you going to spend the whole of your life in love with a man who doesn't want you?'
Genista looked him straight in the eyes.
'Yes.'
After all, it was the truth, but the man she loved wasn't Bob. It was Luke. He let her go Without a word. Her case was too heavy to carry upstairs, so she unzipped it and removed the silk cheongsam; too exhausted to search through it for anything else. The dress would do as a robe. All she wanted to do was to sleep—and to forget.
The first door she opened revealed a bedroom decorated in strongly male colours, and even without the silk dressing gown on the bed she would have guessed it was Luke's. She closed the door, her heart hammering with pain and went to the room farthest away from his and switched on the light.
It was obviously a guestroom, decorated prettily in soft pinks, with its own private bathroom. Genista undressed quickly, showering briefly before sliding beneath the cool cotton sheets.
A telephone ringing somewhere woke her. Someone must have answered it, because the shrill sound was cut off in mid-peal. She opened her eyes and looked round. The sun was streaming in through her window. She climbed out of bed and crossed over to it, pulling aside the curtains to stare out at the lovingly restored Elizabethan gardens below.
'Genista!' There was a brief tap on the door and she barely had time to pull on her silk robe before Luke walked in.
He was already dressed in jeans and a thin cotton shirt, all signs of the previous evening's drinking gone.
'That was my sister on the phone,' he announced without preamble. 'She's heard about our wedding from Amy, and she's on her way over to see us.
She should be here later this afternoon. Apparently a crisis has blown up.'
His eyes were on the silk robe, and Genista had the feeling that for a moment something had made him forget completely what he had been about to say. Seconds later she knew the reason why.
'It's Lucy's half term, and Marina wants us to look after her. When you get to know my sister better you'll come to realise that she has a blithe disregard of other people's plans, but when it comes to roping them into hers . . . but on this occasion I feel I owe it to her to help. Philip's been in touch with her. He wants her back.' He turned away abruptly, and Genista had no difficulty in guessing where his thoughts lay. Barely forty-eight hours after he had tied himself to her he had learned that the woman he really loved was free. Perhaps she had found after all that mere wealth did not make up for love; or perhaps Verity had come to realise that with Luke she could have both! The bitchiness of the thought dismayed her.
'Marina isn't sure how Lucy will take it. It's her own damned silly fault, I warned her about not pumping Lucy's head full of silly tales about her father, but Marina wouldn't listen. Now she's afraid Lucy will reject Philip. The situation between them is still at a very difficult stage, and she feels that she and Philip need time alone together.'
'I expect she's right,' Genista agreed, her heart sinking. She felt completely unequal to coping with a precocious fourteen-year-old with emotional problems.
'Marina will bring Lucy up here from her school. She's a nice kid, despite her upbringing. Sensible too, but she's at that age where they feel things intensely. I don't want her to grow up with the idea that there's no such thing as a happy marriage.'
'What are you trying to say?'
'That for the duration of Lucy's stay, you'll share my room. I've put your case in there. You can unpack while I make breakfast. I'm well aware that her visit gives you the perfect opportunity to get back at me, but I'm not asking for your co-operation for my sake—it's for hers. She worshipped her father, and she took it hard when he left.'
Genista touched her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. A wild idea had suddenly occurred to her.
'All right,' she agreed huskily. 'But there's one condition.'
Luke's eyes held hers.
'For as long as Lucy stays here I'll act the part of the deliriously happy new bride, but once she's gone, I want you to start divorce proceedings. You blackmailed me into this marriage, and if I have to I'll blackmail you into letting me out of it.'
'I see.'
It was impossible to judge his reactions from the even words. 'So. Now we both know where we stand. I owe Marina this much, I suppose. After all, I was the one who introduced Philip to Verity.'
A Verity who was now free, Genista reminded herself sickly. No wonder Luke wasn't raising any objections to her desire to be free!
'Very well, but if you cheat on me, our agreement will be rescinded, Genista.'
'I'll go and unpack my things.'
He was standing by the door, and she had to breathe in to squeeze past him. She could smell the clean fragrance of his cologne and for one mad moment she wanted to reach up and touch him, to press her body against him and feel his vital, compelling response.
'Mrs Meadows will be here soon. You might warn her about Lucy's impending arrival.' He walked towards her bed, twitching back the covers she had just disturbed. 'I don't want any gossip in the village,' he told her harshly. 'It might get to Lucy's ears.'
'I'll make the bed when I'm dressed.' They were enemies. She could feel it in the silence which stretched between them, and she had to blink fiercely to prevent tears from forming.
It was shortly after four o'clock that the Citroen pulled up in front of the house in a spurt of gravel, disgorging an elegant dark-haired woman whom Genista would have recognised anywhere as Luke's sister, and a fair-haired teenager, still dressed in what was obviously her school uniform. She looked so vulnerable and young that Genista's heart went out to her. Had Marina told her daughter about her father's return?
'Luke, you wretch, how dare you get married without telling me? You do realise that you've robbed Lucy of her only chance of being a bridesmaid, don't you?' Marian called lightly as she walked into the house. Seen at closer quarters, she had a brittle quality, a nervous tension which communicated itself instantly to Genista. Despite her elegance, the older woman was nervous of Luke? She glanced covertly at her husband. He was frowning faintly, his attention focused not on Marina but on Lucy, who was hanging back slightly, her expression uncertain.
'Lucy would have hated being a bridesmaid,' he said decisively. 'How was school, little one?'
'Filthy!'
It was instantly obvious to Genista that uncle and niece shared a rapport which did not exist between mother and daughter. Physically they were not alike, until Lucy smiled, and then her wry expression bore a startling resemblance to her uncle's sardonic grimace.
'But she's looking forward to spending her half-term with you,' Marina interposed quickly, turning to Genista. 'Luke is a gem. Lucy often spends her half-terms with him. It's so convenient. Coming over to France means that she loses a day each way, and it just isn't worth it for the shorter breaks.'
Genista smiled politely, but secretly she felt a little surprised by Marina's attitude towards her child. It was scarcely maternal.
'I can't stay long, Luke,' she was saying quickly—too quickly, it seemed to Genista, as though she expected Luke to protest. 'Lucy, run upstairs and unpack. I want to speak to your uncle, and I have to leave right after dinner.'
'She's a teenager, not a child, Marina,' Luke said mildly when Lucy had gone. 'Have you told her about Philip?'
'I intended to, but as yet I haven't h
ad the chance,' Marina began evasively.
'And as you plan to leave us right after dinner you won't have the opportunity to—right?' Luke enquired sardonically.
'Oh, Luke, it will come so much better from you,' Marina pleaded. 'I just can't tell her. My nerves . ..'
'You shouldn't have pumped her full of all that rubbish about Philip in the first place,' Luke said dryly, 'You're a fool, Marina.'
'That's a fine way to talk to your sister!' Marina took umbrage instantly. 'It isn't often I ask you to help me, Luke. It's only a small thing, after all.'
'You think so?' If anything his voice was even drier. 'Leaving us with a sensitive teenager at the very start of our honeymoon, and expecting us to break the news to her that the father her mother has been reviling without cessation for the last four years is suddenly about to be welcomed back into the fold? I wonder if Philip really knows what he's letting himself in for?'
'That's a foul thing to say!' Marina's voice broke on the last word, and to Genista's dismay she saw tears in the older woman's eyes. 'I'm going up to my room.'
'There's no need to look at me as though I've just taken a starving child's crust,' Luke said curtly when his sister had gone. 'Marina isn't averse to turning on the tears if she thinks it will get her her own way.'
'She is your sister,' Genista pointed out mildly. 'I know, and that's one of the reasons I could never find it in my heart to really hate Philip. Poor devil!'
'He must love Marina if he's going back to her. Will you tell Lucy?'
'I expect I'll have to. Marina is quite capable of leaving without doing and them calmly leaving Lucy to find out the truth for herself the next time she goes home. Marina was spoiled by our parents and as a result she seems to expect everyone to treat her indulgently. I hope Philip knows what he's doing.'
Suspecting that Marina was the type of woman who always changed for dinner, Genista went upstairs while Luke was busy in the library. They might have to share a room, but she was determined that they would spend as little time in it together as they could.
She was seated in front of the dressing table mirror applying her eye-shadow when she heard the faint tap on the door. She was wearing only a towelling wrap over her underclothes and she frowned, hesitating.
'It's Marina—may I come in?'
For a moment she felt deep disappointment. Had she been hoping it was Luke? He was hardly likely to knock on his own bedroom door. No doubt he was as anxious to avoid any intimacy with her as she was with him—although for completely different reasons. While she feared that his proximity might force her to betray her feelings for him, he felt only boredom for her sexual inexperience. He had expected to find in her a woman whose knowledge of lovemaking matched his own, and instead he had discovered that she knew next to nothing about the art of pleasing a man—apart from what he had taught her!
'Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise you weren't dressed,' Marina apologised. 'Where's Luke— downstairs?'
'He's in the library,' Genista told her. 'Did you want to talk to him?'
'Not unless he's in a far more accommodating mood than he was earlier,' Marina said frankly. 'I sometimes think he forgets that I'm five years older than he is. He's let his success as a businessman go to his head. All that nonsense about your being on your honeymoon!' She glanced covertly at Genista. 'We're both women of the world, my dear—I know my brother, and he's no monk. One only has to think of that bitch Verity to know that—he had a lucky escape there. She would have taken him for every penny he owned—and will still probably try, if I know her. Now that she no longer has Philip to batten on to, she's bound to try and get Luke under her thumb again. He doted on her, you know ...' She broke off as though realising that they were hardly sentiments likely to appeal to a newly married bride, adding hurriedly, 'But of course, Luke would never take her back. He's gone so hard—he would never forgive her. Now, as I was saying, all this foolishness about the pair of you being on your honeymoon. I'm sure you won't take it amiss when I say that where my brother is concerned, playing by the rules is not his forte, and nowadays ...'
'Everyone anticipates their marriage vows—is that what you were about to say?' Luke interposed smoothly, startling them both. 'Wrong, my dear sister. I didn't know Genista long enough beforehand to do so, even had she been willing. You're letting your cynicism cloud your judgement. As it happens, my wife was as pure and untouched as Lucy.'
From Marina's briefly assessing glance, Genista suspected that the other woman was surprised by Luke's revelations. She herself felt ready to die with embarrassment. How dared Luke discuss her like this!
'A virgin?' Marina's eyes rounded. 'I suppose I should have known. Nothing but the best for my brother—and certainly no second or third-hand goods! Verity wouldn't get a look in now, would she?'
'You're embarrassing Genista,' Luke said coolly, 'and insulting me. I married Genista for no other reason than that I love her.'
He was an excellent actor, Genista thought bitterly. Marina stared at him in silence.
'And now, if you'll leave, I shall get changed for dinner, after which we shall discuss what is and is not to be said to Lucy.'
On the pretext of wanting to check the table, Genista left the bedroom shortly after Marina had gone. Luke was paused in the middle of unbuttoning his shirt and glanced at her sardonically.
'Running away?' he jeered. 'From what, I wonder? Me, or yourself?'
Genista found Lucy in the dining room. The girl had changed out of her uniform into a pretty cotton dress. She smiled rather hesitantly, reminding Genista once again of Luke.
'I'm sorry Mother has thrust me upon you like this,' she began apologetically. Her manner was adult, but the fingers twisting nervously together were not, and Genista smiled reassuringly.
'Nonsense! Luke loves having you here, I know that!'
Her lie was rewarded with a. relieved smile.
'Mother is the end sometimes. She just doesn't think.' Lucy walked towards the window, her back hunched faintly defensively. 'I know all about her and Father getting together again. He writes to me, you see, although I haven't told her. It wasn't really disloyal. It's just that she gets in such a state about him. I was going to tell Uncle Luke about it, only with Father and Verity . . .'
'I'm sure he would have understood,' Genista soothed, feeling a sudden spurt of anger at the carelessness of adults. How could Lucy's parents have thrust such heavy burdens on her young shoulders? 'It's only right that you should care for your father as well as your mother. You must be pleased about the way things have turned out.'
'I want to be,' Lucy admitted, 'but I'm frightened—in case they part again,' she explained quickly. 'You see, mother is so ... so volatile, and Father gets cross with her. I think that's why he left with Verity in the first place. I know it's wrong of me to say this, but it was she who enticed Father, and I'm not just saying that to defend him. She thought he had more money than Luke. You did know that she and Luke were engaged?' she asked hesitantly.
'Oh yes, I know all about that.' Whatever else happened Genista wouldn't add to Lucy's burdens. 'I suggest you wait for Luke to come downstairs, and then have a word with him. We can delay dinner for a few minutes. I think he'll be relieved to hear that you already know about your parents' reconciliation.'
'Mother was just going to leave me here for him to tell, was she? Poor Uncle Luke!'
Genista deliberately waylaid Marina when she came downstairs, and when Lucy disappeared in the direction of the library, returning ten minutes later with Luke, her face wreathed in smiles, Genista felt an involuntary pang of envy. How nice to be Lucy and know with complete confidence, that whatever her problems she could take them to Luke in the sure knowledge that they would be solved.
She noticed, however, that Luke said nothing to his sister about Lucy's confidences, and judged that this was his way of punishing her for what she suspected he considered to be depletion of her maternal duties. How would he punish her if he ever discov
ered she had been foolish enough to fall in love with him?
'Watch out for Verity, my dear,' Marina warned Genista in a low voice as they walked out to her car after dinner. 'I know Luke is in love with you, but Verity is a very determined woman—and an extremely beautiful one.'
In love with her! If only she knew, Genista thought miserably as the Citroen drove away. A chill little breeze played over her bare arms and she shivered slightly.
'You're cold. Better get back inside,' Luke said impersonally. 'I have some work to do, so I'll leave you and Lucy to get acquainted. I've promised her a shopping spree while she's here. It will give you both something to occupy yourselves with.'
'How very kind,' Genista said sarcastically. 'Is that the only way you know of satisfying a woman, Luke? Buying her things?'
He turned, and she shivered under the look in his eyes, but refused to let it daunt her. Lucy was waiting for them by the door, and she glanced quickly at them.
'Fancy a game of Scrabble?' Luke suggested.
She looked uncertainly from Luke to Genista and guessing what she was thinking Genista said gaily, 'I'd love it—how about you, Lucy?'
She told herself it wasn't because of what Luke had said about putting on a loving front; it was for Lucy, who had already been hurt enough by the adults in her life, and she made a vow that for the duration of Lucy's stay she would do everything in her power to preserve the facade of a happy marriage.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Genista opened her eyes slowly. She was lying on her side facing the window, sunshine pouring in through the curtains. She glanced at her watch. Half-past eight! She turned her head half fearfully, but she need not have worried—the other side of the bed, which had obviously been occupied by Luke, was now empty save for the impression of his head against the pillow and a faint rumpling of the sheet.