City Cinderella

by Catherine George

  Emily surveyed him, head on one side. ‘Should the need arise I’d take more subtle revenge in your case.’

  ‘You already have.’ He laid a hand on his chest with a theatrical sigh. ‘You’ve stolen my heart.’

  ‘Very funny!’ she jeered. ‘Now go and lie on a sofa while I clear away. Then I’m going to attack your bedroom.’

  Emily was putting the finishing touches to it when the doorbell rang. ‘I’ll get it,’ she called, and went to open the door.

  ‘Emily?’ said Liz Donaldson in surprise. ‘I didn’t think you came here on Wednesdays.’

  ‘She doesn’t normally,’ called Lucas from the living room door. ‘Sorry to be inhospitable, Liz, but stay where you are. I might still be infectious.’

  ‘So I gather. I got Emily’s note, so I came to drop the paper in and see if you needed anything,’ said Liz, who was tall and fair, with a bright-eyed, intelligent face. ‘But if Lucas is infectious, why are you braving his germs, Emily?’

  ‘I had flu not so long ago, with all the same side effects, so hopefully it’s the same virus and I’m immune,’ said Emily, desperately trying to hide her embarrassment. ‘Did you have a good holiday? If Lucas will go back to his sofa you could come into the kitchen. I’ll make coffee.’

  ‘Can’t stop, thanks,’ said Liz with regret. ‘So who’s been looking after you, Lucas? Alice?’

  ‘No. She’s on holiday in Italy—and under orders to keep my state of health from my mother.’ Lucas smiled blandly at Liz. ‘My bug brought me home early last Friday, which was a stroke of luck because I met Emily in person for the first time. She’s been an absolute saint: so worried because I had no one to soothe my fevered brow that she’s dropped in from time to time to check on me.’

  Liz wagged a finger at him. ‘I hope you’ve doubled her wages!’

  ‘Good God, no. Emily goes berserk at the mere mention of money.’ He began to cough and Liz ordered him back to his sofa, promising to check on him later.

  ‘It was very sweet of you to take care of Lucas, Emily,’ she whispered, as she made for the door.

  ‘Not at all.’ Emily went outside with her on to the landing. ‘Look, I’m sure the subject won’t arise,’ she said in an undertone, ‘but if you happen to talk to Nat don’t let on that I’ve been looking after Lucas, please.’

  ‘I’m not going in today, but when I do, not a word, I promise.’ Liz gave her a sparkling look. ‘Would Nat be jealous, then?’

  ‘Heavens no. But he might well rat on me to my brother!’

  When Emily went back to Lucas he cast a dark look at her outdoor clothes.

  ‘You really are going, then.’

  ‘Yes, Lucas.’

  ‘It’s raining cats and dogs. Call a cab.’

  ‘Certainly not. I enjoy the walk.’

  He thrust a hand through his hair in frustration. ‘You’ll ruin that coat. If you must walk borrow something of mine. You’ll be swamped, but at least you’ll be dry.’ He went into the bedroom and returned with a black ski-jacket and held it out.

  ‘Oh, very well.’ Secretly not at all keen to ruin the vintage velvet, Emily shrugged it off and slid her arms into the parka, tugging at the elasticated wristbands to free her hands. ‘It comes down to my knees,’ she said, pulling a face.

  ‘Since you’re so pig-headed about walking that’s all to the good,’ he said, his eyes softening at her ludicrous appearance.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said politely. ‘Now. Remember to take your pills at regular intervals, Lucas, and wash them down with lots of water. There’s a flask of lemon and honey on the counter, and cheese, eggs, bacon and cartons of soup in the fridge—’

  ‘Strangely enough,’ he said caustically, ‘I managed my life quite well before you came into it.’

  Emily blinked as though he’d slapped her face. And Lucas leapt to take her in his arms.

  ‘I’m sorry. Don’t cry. Please.’

  ‘I’m not crying—just tired,’ she said huskily, holding him off. ‘Bye for now. I’ll see you on Friday.’

  ‘Friday?’ He glared at her, incensed. ‘Why not tomorrow?’

  ‘I’m busy tomorrow.’

  ‘Slaving away for your landlord, no doubt?’

  ‘And for Mark.’

  Lucas gazed down at her, his eyes locked on hers in such intense persuasion she turned her head away in self-defence. ‘You could come here afterwards,’ he coaxed. ‘And stay the night.’

  ‘I could,’ she agreed, ‘but I’m not going to. Goodbye, Lucas.’

  His hot protest changed to a sudden paroxysm of coughing. ‘You see?’ he gasped, when he could speak. ‘The mere thought of your absence, even for a day, and I’m heading for a relapse!’

  Emily refused to be moved. ‘You’ll be fine.’

  But the effort to tear herself away from Lucas left her in a mood which matched the miserable, sheeting rain as she hurried back to Spitalfields. The hooded jacket shielded her from the weather, but its warmth held a scent so exclusively Lucas that at one point Emily almost turned round and went back. Instead she kept going, determined on time to herself to think rationally about the future. Something she found impossible to do in Lucas Tennent’s company.

  When Emily let herself into Nat’s house she hung the expensive padded jacket in the bathroom to dry, then unlocked her door and put away the food she’d bought on the way back. And at last checked her phone. But there was no message from Lucas, nor, to her relief, from Miles.

  For once in her life Emily felt in need of a rest on her bed before opening her laptop to get down to work. She smiled a little. At least now she’d have a sizzler of a love scene to describe. Life with Miles had been so disappointing in that area she’d assumed the fault was hers. But Lucas had turned her preconceived idea about love-making on its head. Her eyes narrowed. Had that been love-making? Or just red-hot sex? Either way, it had been a revelation.

  After spending almost an hour on her bed, something new to Emily in the daytime, she made herself some tea with the kettle that hid with a microwave and a tiny refrigerator on shelves behind a wicker screen. She kept basic supplies like tea and coffee in the cupboard underneath, but shopped as needed for anything more ambitious, and cooked it in Nat’s kitchen during the day while he was out. But not today.

  She took her tea over to the table used as a desk, plugged in the laptop, booted it up, and began to read over what she’d written so far. The tea cooled, forgotten beside her as she worked, but eventually she took a break and checked her watch, wondering if Lucas had remembered to take his medication. For heaven’s sake, of course he has, she told herself crossly. But it was no use. With a sigh, she picked up the receiver and keyed in the number.

  When an attractive—and unfamiliar—feminine voice answered, Emily disconnected hastily. Someone had obviously turned up at last to minister to the patient. Which, she informed herself savagely, was inevitable now he was better—and germ-free.

  Furious at minding so much, Emily forced herself to forget Lucas and companion and settle down to work. And by the time she heard the evening noises of Nat and Mark getting home she’d made considerable progress. Pleased with herself, and suddenly hungry, she was filling rolls with cheese and salad greens when the phone rang. She waited, resigned, expecting Miles again, then tensed, her heart missing a beat when the message was from Lucas.

  ‘Emily, I just rang to confirm that I’ve taken the pills, drunk pints of water and fruit juice and kept my coffee intake to a minimum. Ring back soon in awed approval—’

  ‘I’m here,’ she interrupted breathlessly. ‘How do you feel?’

  ‘Lonely.’

  Emily scowled in silence.

  ‘I know you rang earlier on,’ he went on. ‘You forgot to cover your electronic tracks. That was Caroline who answered, by the way.’

  Caroline. His assistant! Emily revived. ‘Did she remind you to take your pill?’

  ‘You could have asked her yourself if you hadn’t rung off. But Caroline came t
o deliver messages and talk work, not pills. And, wary of my germs, she cleared off as soon as she could. What are you doing right now?’ he added abruptly.

  ‘Nothing. I’ve just closed the laptop after a session on the Great Work, and now I’m going to eat something. I trust you are, too?’

  ‘Yes, Nurse. Rather to my surprise, I’m quite hungry. Liz called back this afternoon with some kind of casserole I can heat in the microwave.’

  ‘So I don’t have to worry any more.’

  ‘Were you worried?’

  ‘The night you had a cough like a chainsaw, yes, I was. Bloodshot eyes apart, you looked a bit lacking in the red corpuscle department, too.’

  He laughed. ‘Half-dead I may have been, but I soon came back to life under your care, Emily.’

  Her cheeks flamed at the memory. ‘Then please don’t waste my efforts. Keep taking the tablets.’

  ‘It’s going to be a long day tomorrow without you, Emily,’ he said, in a tone which badly undermined her famous resolutions.

  ‘Catch up on all the reading you never have time for,’ she advised briskly. ‘Goodnight, sleep well.’ Emily put the phone down quickly, in case Lucas began persuading her to spend time with him the next day. And in case she said yes.

  Emily rang her mother later, to report that she’d survived Lucas Tennent’s flu unscathed—news received with much relief by her mother, who went on to fire off several barbed questions about vitamins and sensible eating before passing on Richard Warner’s love to his daughter and concluding with her own. To Emily’s relief, there wasn’t a word about Miles.

  But when she rang Ginny later, her friend was plainly worried to hear that Miles was still leaving messages. ‘What on earth does he want? You didn’t make off with his family silver, or something?’

  ‘And me a vicar’s daughter? Certainly not.’

  ‘So how did it go with the gorgeous patient?’

  ‘Impatient, you mean. As invalids go, he’s the end.’

  ‘Is he grateful to you?’

  ‘Yes. Now he’s better, anyway. He was very ill at one stage. I had to call a doctor.’

  ‘Wow. He must have been pretty bad to want that.’

  ‘Lucas didn’t want it at all. Made a huge fuss. Fortunately his sister rang, read him the riot act, and asked me to arrange it.’ Emily chuckled evilly. ‘You should have seen his face when a woman doctor arrived.’

  They went on chatting for a while, as they always did, before Ginny came to a halt because Charlie was due home. ‘Emily,’ she said, suddenly serious. ‘You’re all right, are you? Really, I mean?’

  ‘Absolutely fine. Not a cough or a sneeze to my name.’

  ‘I don’t mean that.’ Ginny hesitated. ‘What I’m trying to say, with my usual consummate tact, is that you’ve just got over the break-up with Miles. So don’t do anything reckless, Em. Please.’

  Too late for warnings of that kind, thought Emily afterwards. Reckless didn’t begin to describe her behaviour with Lucas Tennent. She should have resisted, protested, done something. But, from the moment he’d seized her in his arms, the warning signals from her brain had never had a chance. Besides, if she had put a stop to it all she might have gone through life with no experience of what sublime, earthy magic the act of love could actually be. She shivered at the memory. And didn’t blame Lucas in the slightest, whatever the outcome. He hadn’t asked her to come running to play nurse. A wry little smile played at the corners of her mouth and her eyes grew dreamy. There was no point in wasting time on regrets over an experience Lucas had described very aptly as miraculous.

  Emily came back to earth with a bump. In future, she would avoid all contact with miracles and confine her charitable impulses to putting coins in collection boxes.

  Time hung heavy for Emily for the rest of the evening. She felt too tired to open up her laptop, yet too restless to read. In the act of pouring boiling water on a teabag, she was seized by a sudden rush of panic and put the kettle down with an unsteady hand. It was imperative that she found some way to occupy her mind. Her cleaning jobs conveniently left her mind free to compose drafts for her novel, but they also left it free to worry about what fate had, or didn’t have, in store for her.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THE following morning the phone rang in Nat’s kitchen while Emily was finishing her usual cleaning routine. She went on mopping the floor, leaving the machine to pick up as usual, then looked up, her attention caught, when the message began.

  ‘Nat, this is Louise Powell. I don’t have your office number, or your mobile, and I don’t like to ask Thea, but I thought you ought to know that she’s ill—’

  ‘Louise,’ Emily broke in. ‘This is Emily Warner. What’s wrong? Can I help?’

  ‘Emily?’ said Louise, surprised, but too worried to ask questions. ‘Can you possibly contact Nat for me? Thea just passed out on the kitchen floor. I’ve got her to bed now, but she looks absolutely ghastly.’

  ‘Heavens, Louise, have you contacted her mother?’

  ‘Away on a cruise. Always the way, isn’t it? I’ve rung the doctor, and I can fetch Tom and Lucy from school this afternoon with my lot, and feed them, too, of course. Only too glad to help. But if you can get in touch with Nat I’d be terribly grateful.’

  ‘I’ll ring him straight away,’ Emily assured her. ‘Don’t worry, Louise. I’ll find him. Give me your number so I can let you know what’s happening.’

  To Emily’s frustration, Nat’s cellphone was switched off. She rang his firm’s number, learned he was in an important meeting, and asked to speak to Mrs Donaldson instead.

  ‘Right,’ said Liz crisply, when Emily explained. ‘I’ll haul Nat out at once. This is just the chance he needs. He can rush to Thea’s bedside like a knight in shining armour. Perfect. Don’t worry, Emily, I’ll barge in there and get him to ring you back right away.’

  ‘Bless you, Liz.’

  Emily raced up the two steep flights of stairs to her own room just in time to answer the phone to a frantic Nat Sedley.

  ‘Emily, for God’s sake tell me what’s wrong? Is Thea in hospital—?’

  ‘No, nothing like that.’ Breathless, Emily passed on the message and the phone number, assuring him that Louise Powell had promised to pick Tom and Lucy up after school.

  ‘Right,’ said Nat tersely. ‘I’ll ring Louise, then I’m off. I’ll drive straight from here. Thanks a lot, Emily. I’ll ring you tonight to keep you up to speed.’

  Emily glared at the red light which had been winking on her phone throughout her conversation with Nat. Life had been so much simpler before the answer-machine her parents had insisted on. Refusing to pander to it, she made herself a cup of coffee and drank half of it before pressing the button.

  ‘Emily, you haven’t rung to ask how I am,’ said a hoarse, aggrieved voice. ‘In case you’re interested, I passed a very restless night without you. I miss you.’

  Emily reached out a hand to ring Lucas back, then changed her mind. She would be seeing him tomorrow. He could wait until then. Or rather, she could. Somehow.

  After lunch, her cleaning sessions over, Emily opened her laptop and settled down to work. She took a deep breath and plunged into the love-scene, embarrassed to find her face hot and her pulse racing as she painted a verbal picture of the bliss experienced in Lucas Tennent’s arms. Her fingers flew over the keys as though possessed, then she stopped, groaning in frustration. She’d used his name. ‘James,’ she said through her teeth. ‘The man’s name is James, not Lucas.’ She went back over the scene, so involved in the changes that she answered the phone without thinking.

  ‘Success at last!’ said a triumphant voice, but Emily slammed the phone down, waited until it rang again, and listened, resigned, while Miles began leaving a furious message.

  ‘Answer me, God dammit. What the hell are you playing at, Emily? I just want my property back. So ring me. Now.’

  Emily stared at the phone, mystified. What property? In her frantic hurry to get ou
t of the flat she’d been forced to leave some of her own things behind, let alone make off with anything belonging to Miles.

  To get some peace, Emily took the receiver off and put it on the table beside her so she could work undisturbed. And only put it back later because Nat was due to ring some time.

  When it rang almost immediately, Emily seized it eagerly. ‘Nat?’

  ‘Sorry to disappoint you,’ snapped a hostile voice.

  ‘Oh.’ She bit her lip. ‘Hello, Lucas. How are you?’

  ‘If it’s of any interest, I feel better. Not wonderful. But better. I left a message earlier.’

  ‘I know. I didn’t ring back because—’

  ‘Because you were waiting to hear from your landlord.’

  ‘No.’ Emily was silent for a moment. ‘I had a quite different reason.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘I’d hate you to think I was taking advantage of—of our relationship because of what happened that night.’

  ‘Ah. So you do admit we have a relationship,’ he said triumphantly.

  ‘I should have said arrangement. You the employer, me the cleaner.’

  ‘Emily,’ he said, his voice dangerously quiet. ‘It’s a good thing you’re not here with me right now, or I’d wring your pretty little neck.’

  ‘In that case,’ she said lightly, ‘I’d better not come to your place tomorrow.’

  ‘If you don’t, I’ll leave my sickbed to fetch you.’

  ‘You don’t know my address.’

  ‘Liz gave it to me.’

  ‘You asked her for it?’

  ‘Damn right I did.’ Lucas’s laugh sent trickles down her spine. ‘She nobly refrained from asking why I needed it, tactful lady. But be warned, Emily, I know where you live.’

  ‘Is that a threat?’ she demanded.

  ‘Just making sure you turn up tomorrow. As promised,’ he said significantly. ‘Goodnight. Sleep well.’

  Emily was in bed when Nat rang with an apology for calling so late.

  Thea, he reported, had been trying to fight off flu with over-the-counter medication in an effort to keep going for the twins. The faint had been the inevitable result of lack of food coupled with sleepless nights.