Breaking the Rules (2009)

by Barbara Taylor Bradford

  Despite all the mistakes, the losses, the deaths and tragedies, there had also been marriages and births as well, and new beginnings…more children to carry the banner, in honour of the famous name of Harte…to run her grandmother’s empire. There had been so many blessings, as well as troubles.

  The happiness she had shared with Shane all these years, and still shared: that was truly something to treasure and to enjoy. How lucky she had been to be part of this man’s world. Life had often punched her in the face, but never mind that now. It did not matter. She had so much to be thankful for, had had more than most.

  Rising, Paula left the bedroom and went downstairs to wait for Jack, still thinking of all the happenings and events that had marked the years.

  Sometimes she had wondered if the Hartes were cursed, but she had inevitably dismissed this idea as being ridiculous. They were truly a large family, and life had spared none of them, and that was all there was to it. She didn’t believe in curses. Like her grandmother, she was far too much of a pragmatist for that nonsense.

  ‘You’ve come to tell me we have more trouble, haven’t you, Jack?’ Paula announced as she walked across the sitting room to welcome him.

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ he replied. Coming to a standstill next to each other, they embraced; Jack kissed her on the cheek, held her away, his eyes searching her face. ‘No matter what’s happening, you always look wonderful, and you’re positively blooming today.’

  ‘Thanks, darling. I’m feeling very well, although Linnet fusses over me far too much. Well, never mind, she means well, and I must say I’m proud of the way she runs the store, takes everything in her stride.’ Sitting down on the sofa, giving him a questioning glance, Paula said, ‘So give me the bad news.’

  Blowing out air, shaking his head, Jack took the chair opposite her. ‘Steel yourself for this…Jonathan Ainsley is not dead and buried as we believed. He’s alive.’

  Jack was watching her carefully, worried about her as usual, and he saw her flinch, but otherwise there was no other visible reaction. Then a deep sigh escaped her and she gave him her full attention.

  Leaning back against the cushions, Paula said, ‘I know you must be certain of the truth of this, but naturally I’m curious. How did you find out?’

  ‘Through your old friend and mine, Zhèng Wen Li. He contacted me, said he had something important to tell me, something vital, but that it must be face to face. That’s why I went to Hong Kong last week.’

  ‘I see. And how does Wen Li know about Ainsley coming back to life, so to speak?’

  Jack told her everything, missing out nothing, and finally explained Wen Li’s idea of putting his grandson inside Belvedere, Ainsley’s holding company in Hong Kong. ‘The bait is the vast amount of money he’s going to invest with Ainsley,’ Jack finished. ‘A hundred million.’

  ‘I understand everything, Jack, and if Wen Li’s plan works we’ll have somebody on the inside, a spy in the house of Ainsley. Then at least we’ll have an idea of what’s going on.’

  ‘Correct, Paula, although Ainsley might not necessarily be in Hong Kong at the moment. Nevertheless, Richie Zhèng will have access to a great deal, and I just pray that Ainsley does take the bait.’

  ‘So do I. It’s good of Wen Li to do this for us.’

  ‘And also for himself, Paula. You know he hates Ainsley as much as we do, and he does stand to make a lot of money on his hundred million. But yes, he has proved to be very loyal, a good friend.’

  ‘When is all of this going to happen? When will Wen Li hear from Ainsley? Does he know?’

  ‘Imminently, I think. In the meantime, there’s not much we can do. Obviously, I’ve got to put a lot of security around you and Shane, M and Larry and Linnet, and Tessa and her brood in France. He’s a dangerous man. Also elusive.’ Jack frowned. ‘I’ve absolutely no idea where his base is.’

  ‘So it’s not Hong Kong?’ Paula raised a brow.

  ‘No. However, he still has an apartment there, and a business office, but that’s the same as before. It’s just a new name, that’s all.’

  ‘He could be living in Switzerland, you know, especially since you said he was treated at a clinic in Zurich.’

  ‘That’s true, he was, but somehow I doubt that he lives in Zurich. Geneva maybe.’

  ‘You mentioned security guards for my girls, Jack, but what about my sons? Shouldn’t Lorne and Desmond be protected?’

  ‘Absolutely, and I will talk to them both. Lorne has fought it in the past, but this time he’ll have to listen. How’s Desmond going to take it?’

  ‘Not too well, I’m afraid, but I’m sure you can persuade him…’ She gave him a small smile. ‘You’re very persuasive, you know.’ Leaning forward, she now asked, ‘Once Richie Zhèng is inside Belvedere, and gets information about Ainsley for his grandfather and you, what then?’

  ‘I am hoping we will be able to pinpoint Ainsley’s permanent location and keep track of him at all times. However, even as we speak, I have many of my European operatives hunting for him, trying to track him down. I’m leaving nothing to chance. I want to find him quickly and deal with him.’

  ‘But how will you deal with him? You can’t just take a gun and go out and shoot him.’

  ‘If I could I would, and I would have done it years ago, you know that. What will I do?’ Leaning forward, drawing closer, taking her hand in his, he said, ‘Wen Li and I must render him harmless to us, Paula. And we will. I promise you that. But I can’t tell you what it is we’re going to do because we haven’t finalized everything. Anyway, the less you know the better.’

  ‘I trust you, Jack.’

  He half smiled, then went on, ‘I’m going to insist some other members of the family—some of your cousins—have security, and I think that should do it for the moment. You see, he’s mostly out to get you and your daughters—’

  ‘But why is he still persisting after all these years?’ she exclaimed, her voice rising an octave.

  ‘When a terrible illness is not treated it does not get better, nor does it simply go away. Actually, it gets much worse. Jonathan Ainsley is a very sick man…he’s mentally ill. And I believe he is a psychopath. Even his own father said that just before he died. Ainsley must be stopped.’

  ‘As soon as you can, Jack, please.’ Her voice sounded suddenly tense.

  ‘It will be done as fast as possible, I can guarantee that, and I will keep my promise to you,’ Jack responded in a reassuring tone.

  ‘Thank you. I don’t know what we’d do without you.’

  ‘About Tessa, Paula? Do you think her husband will object to having security guards?’ Jack now asked, his concern echoing.

  ‘I doubt it. Jean-Claude is rather brilliant, as you well know. Furthermore, he’s considered one of the foremost experts on terrorism. So he understands about bodyguards. Anyway, you can ask Tessa about it herself in a very short while. She’s here in London, just for the day, with Jean-Claude. She’s coming to have tea.’

  A huge smile crossed Jack’s face, and he exclaimed, ‘I can’t wait to see her, it’s been ages.’

  Paula cleared her throat, and threw Jack a knowing look. ‘You’re usually a few steps ahead of us all, so I’m assuming you’ve already thought about what I’m now going to say…that Ainsley might have had something to do with the bombing of Harte’s?’

  ‘I was just about to bring that up, Paula, and yes, I had thought of it, and I feel certain he arranged for it to be done. I also consider Larry’s poisoning on location very suspect, not really an accident. And then there’s the collapsing runway at the hotel in Paris. I can’t help thinking that this was another one of Ainsley’s attempts to kill or maim a Harte. This time, M.’

  At this moment the door opened and Vesta, the housekeeper, came in, wheeling the tea trolley. ‘Here I am, Mrs O’Neill, and Miss Tessa just arrived a few minutes ago. She went up to her old room to freshen up. And she said she’ll be down very shortly.’

  To Jack, Tessa Fairley Deléon
was beautiful in a classical sense. She was tall, slender, willowy, with long silver-gilt hair, silvery eyes, and a perfect skin without blemish. Her chiselled features in an oval-shaped face were perfect, and she had an aura about her, perhaps because of her extraordinary taste and elegance, the way she held herself, and moved with such grace.

  Now, as she walked in to the sitting room of her mother’s Belgravia house, he caught his breath in surprise. If anything, she was more beautiful than ever, ethereal, and it struck him suddenly that she didn’t walk, she floated. Or so it seemed to him.

  She was wearing an outfit made of a fabric in different shades of greys and pale blues, and it drifted around her gorgeous legs like some sort of hazy mist. She wasn’t movie-star beautiful; in fact that would be a ridiculous analogy because she was beyond that: Tessa was like a being from another world. Almost unreal. And to think he had once detested her.

  Jack had not been the only one to dislike Tessa. Her entire family, even though they loved her, had found her to be impossible at times. Because she was a Fairley, through her father Jim Fairley, her mother’s first husband, she was a monumental snob. The Fairleys had been the great aristocratic Yorkshire family in their heyday at the turn of the nineteenth century, and Tessa couldn’t stop boasting about that, them, and her remarkable heritage.

  What annoyed everyone was the way she looked down on the Hartes, and was forever flinging the Fairley name in their faces. She constantly annoyed her mother and Linnet because she called herself the Dauphine, alluding to the fact that she was the eldest child, and therefore Paula’s heir to the Harte stores.

  Tessa was the first-born of Paula’s children, that was true, since she was delivered a few minutes before her twin brother, Lorne. Fortunately, they got on well together, and he never stood in her way, because he had no interest in the family business. His aim was to become a great actor, and he had done that.

  Jack suppressed a smile now as he thought of the way Linnet and M had mocked her behind her back by calling her by that awful nickname, the Dorf, short for Dauphine.

  But they had also become her defenders and allies, once they discovered that she was an abused wife. Tessa’s first husband, Mark Longden, had beaten her up on a regular basis, and treated her so badly she had finally left him. None of them had ever known the true situation, because Tessa had managed to put on such a good face for years.

  Jack realized what a bastard Mark was when Tessa’s daughter by Mark disappeared several years ago. Little Adele went missing from Pennistone Royal and was nowhere to be found, until Jack tracked down her father and discovered that Mark himself was the kidnapper of his own child.

  Throughout this horrendous abduction, a genuine ordeal for Tessa, he had come to know her well, and had become her friend and admirer. She had displayed true grit, been tremendously brave, and had confided at one moment that she was glad she was a Harte woman with her great-grandmother’s indomitable spirit.

  She had inevitably changed, and had eventually become the lovely woman she was today after meeting and falling in love with Jean-Claude Deléon. The renowned French writer and philosopher was twenty years older than she was, but they had quickly married and had had three children. Tessa lived in France. She had flourished, grown into her own skin.

  After greeting her mother, and then Jack, Tessa exclaimed, ‘Shall I play Mum and pour the tea?’ and Paula laughed and said, ‘Please do, darling.’

  Once Tessa had served her mother and Jack, and handed around the small tea sandwiches, she took a cup of tea for herself, and settled next to Jack on the sofa.

  ‘Why is it we never see you in Paris, old friend? I do wish you’d come and visit us.’

  ‘I will, I promise,’ Jack answered, and looked across at Paula, who nodded, smiled at him.

  Jack continued, ‘As a matter of fact, I was thinking of popping over to see you tomorrow, but now that you’re here, there’s no reason…at least not at the moment.’

  ‘Why were you coming to see me?’ Tessa asked, looking suddenly intrigued.

  ‘I wanted to talk to you about a rather important matter, Tessa; something very serious. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but at this moment, you, Jean-Claude and your children are at great risk.’

  Tessa drew back, staring at him uncomprehendingly for a moment, and then exclaimed, ‘What on earth do you mean?’

  Jack told her. He went on to give her all of the details he had just enumerated to Paula, and she listened attentively.

  Once he had finished, Tessa said, ‘Just tell me what you want us to do, and we’ll do it, Jack. I’ll do anything on this earth to protect my husband and my children.’

  At this moment, the door swung open, and, as Paula turned around, her face lit up. She rose, exclaiming, ‘M! How wonderful to see you.’ She hurried across the room, embraced her youngest daughter.

  ‘Oh Mummy, you look absolutely fabulous,’ M said, and then when she spotted Tessa near the fireplace, she cried, ‘Beautiful One, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Paris.’

  Laughing, tossing back her long, silver-gilt hair, Tessa hurried to M and the two of them hugged.

  ‘Have you grown taller, or am I shrinking?’ Tessa asked, frowning, and then grinned. ‘So you’re twenty inches taller because you’re wearing your Jimmy Choo shoes. That’s it!’

  ‘No it isn’t, because I’m not. See, I’m in flats.’ M showed her foot clad in a classic Chanel ballet-slipper-style shoe. ‘And, I’m only an inch taller than you.’

  The two of them laughed, and M went on, ‘I just want you to know that I’ve talked Lorne into coming to stay with you. He’s a bit down in the dumps.’

  ‘Why is that?’

  ‘I think he’s really lonely, if you really want to know. No woman around.’ She moved across to the sofa, and gave Jack a big hug, whispered against his ear, ‘How did Mum take it—the news I mean?’

  ‘With resignation,’ Jack answered. ‘In her usual elegant manner.’

  Paula joined them near the fireplace and asked M, ‘Do you want a cup of tea, darling? It’s still hot.’

  ‘I’d love it, and I’m so glad I came over…to see you, Mummy, but how nice that Tessa’s here and Jack. You’ve heard the bad news from Jack?’

  ‘Yes, indeed we have,’ Paula answered.

  ‘I’m all for having him demolished by a hit man,’ M announced. ‘And I’d be willing to foot the bill. Ainsley’s a menace.’

  Paula and Tessa both stared at her in astonishment, and then Paula suddenly laughed. ‘Really, darling, we can’t go around killing people, or having them killed.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Don’t be silly, M.’ Paula shook her head. ‘We’re not murderers, criminals—’

  ‘Ainsley is,’ M cut in, and said to Tessa, ‘You’d better agree to have bodyguards.’

  ‘I’ve agreed,’ Tessa answered. ‘I’ve always listened to Jack, you know.’

  ‘How long are you staying?’ M stared at her eldest sister.

  ‘I came in with Jean-Claude just for the day, darling. He was coming in on a private plane, so I just hitched a ride to see Mummy.’

  ‘I’m glad you thought about that, Tessa,’ Paula said and looked at M. ‘What were you saying about Lorne?’ She sounded anxious.

  FORTY-ONE

  Linnet left the store in Knightsbridge earlier than usual, feeling impatient, nervous and even agitated. As usual, she walked home to her small but charming house a few streets behind Harte’s, where she had lived since her husband’s death.

  Once she had let herself in and dumped her holdall in the entrance hall, she hurried into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, looked inside. She had been right: there was lots of food including smoked salmon, country pâté, and the makings for a tasty salad. She noticed a cottage pie that Carla, the housekeeper, had apparently made that morning. Enough for dinner…to satisfy a hungry man.

  Whirling around, Linnet crossed the hall, went into the living room to check th
at everything was in place, and then strode into the bedroom. She quickly changed out of her black, tailored suit, her uniform for work, put on a pair of beige trousers and a matching light cashmere sweater, and hung up her suit.

  Turning, her eyes caught the bedside table. The telephone sat there along with a message pad in a leather holder, and that was all. Until recently, a photograph of her late husband in a silver frame had stood there—a photograph she had owned for many years and kept next to her bed.

  Several months ago, her sister Tessa had removed it, saying to her, ‘I think this has to find another home, Linny darling. Such as the living room, or your den.’

  She had frowned at her sister, had started to protest, but Tessa had held up her hand, shaking her head vehemently. ‘Listen to me, darling, Julian has been dead for two years and you’ve got to move on. Put that photograph somewhere else; don’t have it in your bedroom, for heaven’s sake. One day, sooner rather than later, hopefully, there’ll be another man in this bed, and believe me, there’s nothing more off-putting than a photograph of a woman’s late husband staring at both of you when you’re making love.’

  Linnet remembered now how she had given Tessa a reproachful look, and muttered something about there being a shortage of eligible men, and Tessa had picked up the photograph, put it in her hands, and led her out of the room.

  ‘You’re wrong, there are plenty of men around, but how would you know? You’re always at work. So tell me how you’re going to meet any? I’ll have to start procuring for you. How about that?’

  Tessa had suddenly started to laugh, and so had she and, taking her sister’s advice, she had put Julian’s photograph in her den that day. And as she had done so, she had thought about Simon Baron and the crush she had on him, and had sighed to herself, believing him to be far beyond her reach.

  How wrong she had been. Suddenly she thought about the cab ride through the park at lunchtime today, and blessed that cabbie for taking such a big swerve and throwing her into Simon’s arms in the process. She also marvelled at herself for having had the nerve to kiss him. She smiled to herself. She had known he wanted to kiss her the moment she had stared up into his eyes, seen the desire in them, the yearning.