‘I remember how cynical you were about rakes reforming,’ she concluded, ‘but the other night Alex said the idea of returning to the life he led before he met me gives him nightmares.’
‘I’m glad I was wrong,’ Marly ground out, marvelling that the anguish inside her wasn’t outwardly visible. But painstakingly applied cosmetics and an emerald silk wisp of a dress were sufficiently eye-catching to draw attention away from the haunted look in her eyes.
‘Now tell me what’s been happening to you,’ Andrea requested.
Seeing it as a way of stopping further tales of how wonderful Alex was, Marly launched into a fictitious account of the socially exciting life she was leading. She had exhausted the topic of Gordon and two invented boyfriends, when she heard the door of the vestibule slam shut. Alex had arrived! Her mouth went dry and she could not utter a word. Not that Andrea noticed, for she had jumped to her feet and was already half out of the room.
‘Darling!’ she cried. ‘I’ve missed you.’
Marly didn’t hear the reply, but a faint sound made it plain that a passionate embrace was ensuing. On trembling legs she rose and went to stand by the window; anything to help keep her distance from Alex. Blindly she stared through the glass, praying for the courage to carry off the meeting without dissolving into tears.
‘Alex, I want you to meet the girl who created what you said was a brilliant software package for your hotels—and who also happens to be my very best friend!’
The moment Marly had dreaded had arrived, and head high she turned to face him. The greeting she had rehearsed died on her lips. This man wasn’t Alex! It was a total stranger.
Unaware of her astonishment, he caught her hand in a warm clasp. ‘I’m delighted to meet you, though it beats me why Andrea kept it secret that she knew you. Incidentally, she wasn’t exaggerating over the software you created for us. It’s reaping praise from staff and guests alike in all our hotels.’
Still speechless, Marly went on staring at him. His colouring was the same as the Alex she knew, but his features were less definite and he was not as tall or as well built.
‘You must know my cousin,’ he went on.
‘Your c-cousin?’
‘Alex. He was at our Bangkok hotel when you were there. Not very clever, our mothers giving us the same name.’ He chuckled reminiscently. ‘Particularly as he was the serious type with little time for girls, and I was only interested in sport and had an eye for the ladies when I was in my pram! When we were at school together he was always getting it in the neck for my misdeeds. It created quite a problem.’
Little did he know it was still creating problems! Marly thought miserably. For it had caused her to reject the proposal of the man she loved.
‘Luckily in the business I’m called Alexander, and I’m doing my best to make Andrea call me that too.’
‘I’m trying,’ his wife protested, ‘but you first introduced yourself as Alex, and it’s stuck in my mind.’
‘Not to worry. By our silver wedding you should get used to it!’
Andrea laughed and turned to Marly, suddenly noticing how pale she was. ‘Are you feeling all right?’
‘I’m fine. But I’ve had a long day and it’s catching up with me.’
‘Me too,’ Alexander said. ‘Let’s go to dinner. A good meal will give us a lift.’
Marly would have liked nothing better than to say goodnight and go in search of Alex. Remembering the mocking things she had said when he had flown from Hawaii to see her in Bangkok—that she hadn’t loved him and it had all been a pretence—she had to know why he had come to see her again last night. She had assumed it was because he wanted an adulterous affair with her, but now that she knew he wasn’t married...
She knew more, of course: that he hadn’t two-timed Andrea, that he wasn’t a philanderer, and had meant all he had said to her in Phuket. Her heart pounded heavily and she drew a steadying breath. Had he come to see her last night because he still loved her despite believing she didn’t care for him? If so, no wonder he had walked away when she had let him think Tony was her lover! Worse, that he had been her lover all the while she had been play-acting in Thailand!
Hardly aware of what she was doing, Marly found herself seated at a window-table in the Summit Restaurant, and not until Andrea had twice asked her if she was happy to stick with champagne or preferred claret with her duck did she make an effort to return to the present, but oh, how hard it was when her every thought was with Alex, and how hurt he must have been when he had left her last night.
Suddenly she knew she could no longer sit here making meaningless conversation. She had to go to him at once.
‘Your cousin came to see me last night,’ she stated baldly. ‘But I don’t know where he’s staying and I need to talk to him.’
Andrea flung her a puzzled glance and Marly met it with a bland one. Time to tell her friend the whole story later, when all the misunderstandings had been cleared away.
‘You won’t get him tonight, I’m afraid,’ Alexander said, glancing at his watch. ‘He’s halfway to San Francisco by now.’
‘San Francisco?’
‘He’s on a month’s tour of our American hotels.’
Marly’s spirits plunged. Had Alex been staying in one place she would have asked for a week off and flown to see him, but as it was, it seemed advisable to wait till he returned to England.
A thought struck her and she voiced it. ‘Is he still based in Bangkok?’
‘No. My uncle unexpectedly decided to retire and Alex took over the reins, which means he’ll be here most of the time.’ Grey eyes, very like his cousin’s, probed her face. ‘If you need to talk to him urgently, I can give you a number where you can contact him tomorrow.’
Aware that what she had to say could not be broached on the telephone, Marly shook her head. ‘No, thanks, I’ll wait till I see him.’
‘He’ll be back the day of our wedding reception—four weeks from Friday,’ Andrea added. ‘So you’ll see him there.’
It was all Marly could think of as she drove home later, her thoughts with the man who was winging his way forty thousand feet above the Atlantic Ocean. Four weeks seemed light-years away. Perhaps she deserved the punishment of waiting. She had been so busy despising Alex for what she had imagined him to be that she had not seen him for the man he really was; a man who, once he gave his love to a woman, would love her enough to return to her even when she had thrown his love back in his face.
She tried to envisage their next meeting, wondering what she would do, what she would say. An image of his face as she had seen it last night, etched with lines, pain-shadowed, swamped her, and she knew that words alone could not atone for her actions. Yet words were all she had, and she prayed with every fibre of her being that the three words she would say to him would be sufficient to gain his forgiveness.
I love you.
I love you.
Please forgive me.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MARLY surveyed herself in the mirror. Her bed was strewn with dresses she had tried on and discarded, and finally she was satisfied. Not only was the cherry-red crêpe eye-catching enough to turn male heads, but the scooped neckline emphasised the full curves of her breasts—that owed nothing to a bra—and the clinging short skirt showed a disturbing expanse of shapely legs.
Her hair had presented a more intransigent problem. First she had allowed it to hang in a long, straight black silk curtain down her back. Secondly she had pulled it away from her face and twined it into a thick plait, but both styles had reminded her of an image Amalia Bradshaw was determined to put behind her.
Hot tongs had done the trick and now her hair was a riot of soft curls. Happily she ran her fingers through them. The bouncy feminine style emphasised her slenderness, and she applied her make-up to suit this picture, retaining her natural pallor but drawing attention to her full mouth and long, straight, doll-like eyelashes.
Promptly to time she entered the Park Suite on the
tenth floor of the hotel. Her heart was racing, her limbs trembling, and every nerve-end frantically vibrating to pick up Alex Hamilton’s presence. But in vain. There was neither sight nor sound of him.
Dismay robbed her of the joy that had filled her all day, though she masked it with her usual bright smile as she moved forward to congratulate the happy couple. Even in the midst of her turmoil she was quick to notice how happy Andrea and her husband were, and she hugged her friend close.
‘Alex isn’t here yet,’ Andrea murmured, her comment signifying that she knew Marly’s anxiety to see him had more to do with personal reasons than business ones. ‘But he flew in last night so he’ll definitely be coming. Still won’t tell me what gives between the two of you?’
Since Andrea had repeated this question whenever they had talked on the telephone, Marly smiled and shook her head. ‘For the tenth time, no. Now quit nagging and greet the rest of your guests.’
‘There are several eligible Hamilton cousins I want to introduce to you.’
‘Later. I’m not running away. I’ll go say hello to your family and—good grief, is that Porky?’ Marly stared at a bone-thin girl with a mass of curly brown hair who had been at school with them.
‘She hasn’t put on an ounce, has she?’ Andrea chuckled. ‘And she’s the mother of triplets, can you believe?’
Marly hurried over to greet her and exchange news, then slowly did the same with Andrea’s immediate family, all the while keeping her eye on the entrance to the suite.
An hour later there was still no sign of Alex, and she was sitting in a corner with a glass of champagne in her hand and one of the eligible Hamilton cousins—who had homed in on her without having to be introduced—when she turned her head and saw the object of her desire enter the room with a stunning redhead clinging to his arm.
‘Will you?’ her companion queried.
‘Will I what? I’m sorry, my mind wandered.’
‘Very flattering.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she repeated, unable to tear her eyes away from the tall, tawny-haired man in a silver-grey suit and the redhead in a dramatic black dress that made her skin glow like alabaster. ‘What was the question again?’
‘One that requires a yes. Will you have dinner with me?’
‘I’ve another engagement.’
She didn’t add that it would probably be with a tear-soaked pillow, for the affectionate way Alex was holding the girl’s hand as they moved among the guests showed she was not a new acquaintance. Nor was she new to the elderly couple with whom they were now talking. Alex’s parents obviously, for he bore a remarkable resemblance to the older man. His mother was kissing the redhead, who was smiling at her and then reaching up to lay a manicured hand on Alex’s cheek.
In that instant Marly saw the marquise-shaped diamond on the girl’s engagement finger, and felt as though her ribcage was being squeezed by giant pincers. She should have known Alex wouldn’t bring a stranger to such a personal family gathering. But it wasn’t in character for him to meet and become engaged to someone so quickly. Was she an old flame, perhaps? A relationship he had renewed when in the States? And why not, Marly thought miserably, when she herself had made it clear she didn’t give a damn for him and had a lover anyway?
So much for her belief that his feelings for her were durable! Hadn’t he said, when he had asked her to marry him, that he had proposed because it was the only way he could get her into his bed? Why hadn’t she remembered that, for heaven’s sake, instead of the other things he had said about wanting her, needing her? Anyway, it was plain as a pikestaff that in his terms wanting and needing simply meant lusting.
‘You’ve spilled some of your drink,’ her companion said. ‘I’ll fetch you another.’
The instant he was out of sight Marly decided to leave the reception. It was impossible for her to face Alex. Glancing around, she saw another exit leading into the corridor, and fleetly edged towards it, heaving a sigh of relief as she stepped outside. It was a short-lived relief however, for as she turned, Andrea rushed down the corridor and grabbed her arm.
‘There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. We’ll soon be cutting the wedding cake and I’ll be throwing my bouquet and want you standing close by.’
‘Don’t be so disgustingly romantic. The last thing I want is marriage.’
‘Stop arguing.’ Andrea pulled her sharply back into the room, knocking into Alex in the process. ‘Nice to bump into you!’ she quipped as he steadied her with his hands. ‘No need to introduce you two. You know each other already.’
He nodded. ‘Good to see you, Marly.’ His voice was as cold as his expression.
‘Same here.’ Aware of Andrea watching them, Marly searched for something to say. ‘How are Fiona and Kevin? Nan wrote and said they’re engaged.’
‘Yes. She’s with Kevin in Australia, meeting his family.’ Grey eyes slid over the flirty red dress and came to rest at a point beyond Marly’s shoulder. ‘I gather from my cousin that you’re a friend of our lovely bride?’
‘We were at boarding-school together.’
‘I actually saw Marly in Bangkok when she was working for you,’ Andrea intervened. ‘Not that I knew you were there, of course. I’d only met one handsome Hamilton then, and was doing my best to forget him!’ She gave Marly a comical look. ‘Remember all the things I said about Alex when he ditched me? My Alex, I mean? I never thought I’d eventually marry him—!’ She broke off. ‘My beloved’s signalling me like mad! I’d better see what he wants.’
She hurried away, leaving them alone, or as alone as two people could be among a crowd of three hundred! Marly didn’t want to look at Alex, but she hungered for him so much that she could not stop her eyes feasting on him. If anything he was more gaunt than when he had come to see her, though it did not detract from his sex appeal. With his bone-structure he would be handsome as a corpse! It was a morbid thought, but how could she be anything else when a glittering diamond ring had rung the death-knell on her hope of happiness?
‘May I fetch you a drink?’ Alex was asking politely, seeing her empty hands.
‘No, thanks. I’m leaving. I was on my way when Andrea collared me.’
‘She’ll be disappointed if you don’t try to catch her bouquet—even though it’s a disgustingly romantic tradition.’
So he had heard Andrea’s comment and her response to it. Marly’s cheeks burned, and she knew that if she didn’t put distance between herself and this man she would start howling like a baby.
‘I—I really have to leave.’
‘Where’s the boyfriend?’
‘I’m seeing him later.’ It was pointless telling him who Tony really was.
‘I’m surprised Andrea didn’t invite him.’
Ignoring this, Marly turned to go, but her exit was barred by Alex, his expression implacable.
‘The things Andrea said about my cousin ditching her wouldn’t have been the reason for that charade of yours, would it?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘I’d believe you more easily if you didn’t have red roses blooming in your cheeks!’ He came a step closer, forcing her back upon the wall, his body blocking her from the rest of the room. ‘Be honest with me, dammit. You mistook me for my cousin, didn’t you? It won’t be the first time I’ve been punished for his deeds, though it hasn’t happened since we left school and he started calling himself Alexander.’ Reading the answer on her face, Alex gave a gusty sigh and leaned against the wall as if he was too tired to stand upright. ‘So it was that simple,’ he muttered. ‘You thought I’d played fast and loose with Andrea and determined to give me a taste of my own medicine.’
He fell silent again, and Marly, watching him from beneath her lashes, saw he was gradually working out all the reasons for her behaviour. As long as he didn’t realise she had genuinely fallen in love with him, she could bear it, for that was something she never wanted him to know.
‘When I was in London at the sam
e time as my cousin, and he married Andrea, you thought it was me,’ Alex continued, ‘and likewise when we both went to Hawaii to deal with the mess there.’ The clipped voice faltered. ‘When I flew from Hawaii to see you, you saw me as the faithless bridegroom, didn’t you?’
‘Yes,’ Marly confessed, and before she could say another word was propelled swiftly from the room and down the corridor. ‘Where are you taking me?’ she cried as he ignored the lift and pulled her up a flight of stairs.
‘I’m staying in a suite on the next floor. We can talk better there.’
‘There’s no more for us to say.’ Marly was desperate not to be alone with him. ‘I’m truly sorry I mistook you for your cousin, but no real harm was done and—’
‘Shut up!’ he rasped, and unlocking a door, pushed her into a luxuriously furnished sitting-room.
Marly’s instinct was to make a run for it, but fearing this might be a give-away of her feelings she nonchalantly moved across to the window and stared at the London skyline.
‘You’ve already shown me what a great actress you are,’ Alex said behind her, ‘so I won’t attempt to guess how you feel towards me. But I won’t let you leave here until I’ve told you how I feel about you. You bowled me over the moment you walked on to the stage at that Christmas show, and with every subsequent meeting I fell more deeply in love with you.’
‘You’ve no right to say that,’ Marly cried.
‘Because of your lover? Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t play the chivalrous gentleman. I don’t believe you were putting on an act when you lay in my arms that night on the boat, and I—’
‘You really are an uncaring bastard, aren’t you?’
‘Because I love you too much to let you go without fighting for you?’
‘It’s more than that,’ she flung at him. ‘If you love me so much, how come you were so quick to get engaged?’
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