A Daughter For Christmas

by Cathy Williams

  ‘Her name is Leigh, Mother.’

  ‘I must tell you that I am quite overwhelmed by all this.’

  ‘Fiona,’ Nicholas explained in a hard voice, ‘apparently telephoned my parents as soon as she left the house.’

  ‘So you know,’ Leigh said, addressing his mother, attempting not to look cowed by the situation, ‘that Amy is your grandchild.’

  ‘It’s all quite unorthodox, my dear,’ Mrs Kendall said. ‘This really was not what we had in mind for our son at all.’

  ‘But naturally we’re delighted,’ Nicholas’s father intervened in a warning voice. ‘We had both rather given up on this wayward son of ours producing an heir.’

  ‘But not like this.’ Mrs Kendall persisted.

  ‘Well, Mother, you have two choices. You either accept it with dignity or you don’t. It’s up to you.’

  ‘I’m afraid, Hilary, he’s absolutely right.’

  ‘The child does bear a striking resemblance to you when you were a boy,’ Mrs Kendall conceded. ‘But I don’t give a fig what you boys say, this has been a terrible shock. I know you explained, Nicholas. I know you said that you were going to tell us everything but I feel very hurt—’

  ‘For which I am truly sorry, Mother, but there’s no point dwelling on all of that It’s done.’

  ‘And you, my dear,’ Mrs Kendall said, shifting so that she could now incorporate Leigh within her line of vision. ‘I gather you’ve been employed by my son to look after his daughter.’

  ‘I do happen to be related to the child in question,’ Leigh answered coolly.

  ‘Fiona has told us quite a bit about you—’

  ‘If you have any sense at all, Mother, you’ll disregard every word. I’ve been through with you just now why Fiona did what she did.’

  ‘But I would still like to know,’ Mrs Kendall said, ‘and so would your father, what exactly this woman is to you. You’ll forgive me, my dear,’ she carried on, inclining her body towards Leigh, ‘but as Fiona was at great pains to point out, we don’t know a thing about you.’

  ‘I quite understand,’ Leigh said in a composed voice. ‘Well, to fill you in, my parents are both dead, I have no family to speak of, no money, aside from a derisory amount of savings, and no lineage. I have never skied in winter or done St Tropez in summer. This is the first grand house I have ever set foot inside. I have never lived in a house with more than three bedrooms.

  ‘I was an impoverished art student before I got Amy and found myself a pitiful office job, and as from January I will return to being an art student. In other words, I’m terribly proud of my background and I have no complaints about my life.’ She realised that she was. leaning forward, perched on the edge of the chair, gripping both sides of it with her fingers.

  Mrs Kendall smiled, and Leigh glimpsed some of the charm that her son had inherited. ‘But, my dear, all that aside, how do you feel about gardens?’

  ‘Oh, gardens?’ Leigh smiled back. ‘Yes, I love them.’

  ‘Is that résumé quite enough for you, Mother?’ Nicholas asked, ‘because I hope to persuade this girl to be my wife.’

  CHAPTER TEN

  AFTER his parents had left the room Nicholas came and sat next to Leigh on the sofa.

  Had he told his parents that he was going to marry her? Had he? Had she misheard or had the statement been some sort of upper-class joke?

  He had told his parents, gently but firmly, that perhaps they ought to get some sleep, and that he needed to talk to Leigh. That had been only five minutes ago, if that, but it felt as though several hours had passed since his extraordinary announcement.

  There was a gap of about two feet between them on the sofa. She felt like the prim star of a black and white movie, preserving an air of decorum in the midst of emotional tumult.

  ‘Well?’ he asked her, sprawling back against the chair and stretching out his arm along the back. ‘Have you nothing at all to say?’

  ‘I’m lost for words,’ Leigh replied.

  ‘I take it that’s a no in response to my proposal?’ He didn’t look at her when he said this. He stared into the distance and idly drummed his fingers against the back of the sofa.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Why?’ He finally looked at her. ‘Why? You make it sound as though the thought of someone proposing to you is as unlikely as a trip to the moon.’

  ‘That’s not what I mean and you know it, Nicholas!’ Leigh told him impatiently. ‘If I recall a certain conversation you had with Fiona not so long ago, you said that you weren’t looking for commitment. So I don’t understand—’

  ‘It makes sense, don’t you think?’

  ‘What makes sense?’

  ‘Us.’ He shrugged and looked away again briefly. ‘I personally believe that a child needs a family unit, and you and I can provide Amy with a family. I’m her natural father and you’re her aunt—what could be better?’

  What, indeed.

  ‘I’ve watched the two of you together. You have a...bond, a natural bond. It would be hard to find anyone who could provide that.’

  ‘So, let me get this straight. Your proposal is more along the lines of a business proposition, is that it?’ She could feel her temper rising. ‘You’ve carefully weighed up the pros and cons and decided that I would be a suitable candidate for marriage, with Amy in mind.’ She rose abruptly and began to pace the room, clenching and unclenching her fists as she walked.

  ‘Why not? It’s hardly as though we don’t get along.’

  ‘What you mean is it’s hardly as though we haven’t already slept together!’

  She paused by the mantelpiece, stared at him and then resumed her restless pacing.

  ‘Think about it logically! If we don’t get married, you’ll eventually leave to get on with your own life and you’ll also eventually lose touch with Amy. Perhaps not immediately, but in time. The visits will become fewer and further between, you’ll meet someone, settle down, have a family of your own and the bond you have now with Amy will be broken for ever. As for me, I’ll get married. I might even leave the country to settle somewhere else.’

  ‘You’re going to live abroad? Since when have you been formulating this plan?’

  ‘I haven’t been formulating any plan! I’m merely putting forward possible scenarios.’

  ‘So.’ She walked across to where he was sitting and stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. ‘We get married. Amy’s as happy as a little bean in a bean bag, and what about us? Or, rather, what about me? I take it this little plan involves us sleeping together, and then, presumably, when you get bored with me you can feel free to look outside for other...distractions!’

  ‘Would that bother you?’

  Would that bother her? The thought of it was enough to make her feel ill. Here he sat, coolly planning a life of convenient cohabitation. Convenient, at any rate, for him. A nightmare from her point of view. She couldn’t imagine anything worse than having to spend the rest of her days living with Nicholas and watching from the sidelines as he got on with his life. Preserving the veneer of the perfect marriage for the sake of his daughter.

  ‘I’m going to have to refuse your offer,’ she said tightly, ‘logical though it sounds. There’s more to marriage than logic.’

  ‘You’re a twentieth-century woman, Leigh. You told me so yourself! You’re not looking for commitment. Why should you be so bothered by a marriage of convenience when the benefits are so apparent? Aside from anything else, you’ll be able to enjoy all the privileges that money can buy—’

  ‘I don’t give a hang about your money! You know that!’ The suggestion that she might somehow be talked into his scheme by the promise of being able to enjoy his wealth was an insult. ‘You don’t understand, do you?’ she demanded, shaking. ‘You’ve spent your life cooped up in your ivory tower, untroubled by ever having to invest your emotions in anything! You think that you can run every aspect of your life according to rules and reason and logic and practicality!’

&n
bsp; ‘Why are you acting as though my proposal of marriage is a slap in your face?’

  ‘Because it is! When I think about a marriage proposal I think—’

  ‘About declarations of love? Adoration? Worship?’

  ‘Yes, as a matter of fact, I do!’ she snapped. ‘Do you have a problem with that?’

  ‘So if I had asked you to marry me because I loved you then you would have accepted.’

  ‘That’s beside the point.’ She began to walk away, not caring for this turn in the conversation, but he reached out and snapped his fingers around her wrist so that she was forced to remain where she was.

  ‘OK. I love you. Will you marry me?’

  ‘There’s no need to tell lies, Nicholas.’

  He remained quiet for so long that in the end she looked down at him but she couldn’t see the expression on his face, which was turned away.

  It was funny how still it was in the room. She had only really just noticed it. They had drawn the curtains earlier on, and she imagined what it was like outside—cold and windy, with that lovely smell of Christmas. Amy was upstairs in bed, sound asleep, dreaming the sweet dreams of the innocent.

  ‘No lies,’ he muttered brusquely, and she bent a little to try and catch what he was saying.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I said, it seems that...’ He stared up at her, then gently lowered her onto the sofa next to him. ‘It seems that...’ he began once more. ‘I don’t know how this happened... I never banked on anything like this...but it would appear that...’

  ‘What are you trying to say?’ She could hear the fierce beating of her heart, like a steady drum roll inside her.

  ‘I’m trying to say...that, yes...I do...’

  ‘Do...love me...?’

  ‘Before you start refusing me, I realise that you’re still young, I realise that there are things that you might want to do with your life—your art, a career perhaps. I know that. I am not one of these men who would stand in your way. And before you tell me that you don’t want commitment, that you don’t love me, just hear me out. You could learn to love me. I feel it.’ He had said all this in a tremendous rush, barely meeting her eyes but still with his fingers fastened tightly around her wrist.

  ‘Learn? Learn to love you?’

  ‘Is that beyond the bounds of possibility?’ He shot her a dark, challenging look and she lowered her eyes.

  ‘How can you learn to love someone?’ she asked. She felt giddy, blissfully giddy. Was she dreaming? If she was then she hoped that she never woke up. She touched the side of his face gently with one finger.

  ‘Falling in love is like suddenly being run over by a steamroller. No time to get used to the idea. It just sort of sweeps around you in a rush so that all of a sudden nothing matters any more. I should know. It’s how I’ve felt about you for a long time. For ever.’

  He smiled that smile of his. That slow, wonderful smile of his. The one that could make her heart do somersaults.

  ‘Why didn’t you say?’ he murmured, caressing her nape with his fingers. ‘Why didn’t you tell me? I thought I told you that you were supposed to tell me everything?’ He leaned forward and kissed her, a soft, melting kiss that was in no hurry to end. With a sigh, Leigh wrapped her arms around his neck.

  ‘If I’m sleeping,’ she said softly, ‘then please don’t pinch me. Please let me sleep on.’

  ‘I love you, Leigh. I don’t know when it happened, but you stopped being a complete stranger who had somehow managed to turn my world upside down and became someone who was indispensable. At first I told myself that I found you indispensable because you were Amy’s aunt, because you were a bridge to my daughter. But the fact was that you got under my skin.

  ‘I started thinking about you night and day. I couldn’t wait to rush back from work so that I could see your face and hear your voice. I suddenly discovered that short hair and a stubborn face and jeans and baggy jumpers were the most beautiful things in the world.’

  He kissed her neck and she felt a pulsing throb of desire course through her. She would never doubt the existence of miracles again.

  ‘Are you sure?’ she asked anxiously. ‘What about Fiona, the things she said? We are from different worlds, you know.’

  ‘Thank goodness for that. I would hate to marry a clone of myself. And, besides, I’ve long given up the party life. I don’t mix with the champagne-drinking crowd, despite the standard of my lifestyle. These things can be deceptive, you know. The fact is I’ve buried myself in my work.

  ‘When you showed up at my club with the prospect of a daughter I never knew I’d fathered I was horrified, but I was curious as well. It was only when you and Amy became such a big part of my life that I finally realised what I had been missing.’

  ‘Your parents... What will they think?’

  ‘They’ll think that it’s high time some unfortunate woman came along to get their son off their hands. Normally the marriage comes before the child, but they’ll accept it all better than you think. Besides, my mother likes you and that’s half the battle won.’

  Leigh laughed throatily. ‘She certainly has a unique way of disguising the fact.’

  ‘You warranted a smile from her. Quite something, I assure you. I gather she used to be quite the feisty sort when she married my father. She appreciates the quality.’ His hands travelled under her jumper to cup her breasts and she shuddered with pleasure. ‘Of course, not half as much as I do.’

  ‘I’m not as good-looking as Fiona,’ Leigh told him. ‘I’m not as elegant or sophisticated.’

  ‘You underestimate yourself, my darling.’

  It was the first term of endearment she had ever heard him utter, and it felt so natural to hear it that she gave a shiver of pleasure.

  His fingers played with her nipples and she felt them stiffen at his touch. He raised her jumper, and she leaned back so that his mouth could gently caress her breasts. A slow, delicate teasing.

  ‘Not here,’ she murmured, tugging his head up and kissing his lips. ‘Not with your parents in the house!’

  He pulled away from her and laughed. ‘Why? Do you think they’re outside the door, listening for any sounds of foul play?’

  ‘They might well be!’ She giggled at the thought of it.

  ‘I guess I can hold out,’ he said, ‘at least for the moment. Just.’

  ‘And we really ought to get to bed. Give that chubby chap with the white beard an opportunity to do his stuff.’

  ‘Or else he might just forget. He might just get a little too carried away with the mistress of the house.’

  It was idyllic. The lights on the Christmas tree were winking in the semi-darkened room, and the presents were brought out and laid beneath it

  There was no need for Amy to wake her up the following morning. Leigh was up and about before six with curtains pulled back, watching the hesitant flurries of snow outside.

  ‘It’s snowing!’

  Leigh looked around and smiled at her niece. ‘Just another little something Santa thought he’d bring for you.’

  ‘I wonder what else he’s brought us,’ Amy said, tugging her hand.

  ‘Possibly more than you think.’

  There was a knock on the door, and they both watched as Nicholas entered the room.

  ‘Merry Christmas, little one,’ he said, lifting Amy into the air and depositing a kiss on her cheek. He set her back on her feet and turned to Leigh. ‘Merry Christmas, big one,’ he said, smiling. He touched her face and then kissed her lightly on the mouth. Then he looked at her and she nodded, reading his intentions and knowing the moment had come.

  So they sat Amy down and told her. Very gently, very carefully.

  ‘You’re my dad?’ she said at the end of it all, and Nicholas nodded. ‘Do I call you Dad?’

  ‘Nicholas is fine by me. What feels right to you is right for me.’

  Leigh smiled as she watched various expressions flit over her niece’s face—astonishment, frowning consideration, a daw
ning delight.

  ‘I had a daddy when I was younger,’ she said eventually. ‘Now I think I’ll have a dad.’

  ‘And a Leigh,’ Leigh said, hugging her.

  ‘And a mum,’ Amy said, smiling. ‘It makes it easier.’

  ‘And grandparents who are dying to see you to get to know you,’ Leigh said, looking at Nicholas over the top of Amy’s head.

  Amy smiled, as the concept of all this family settled in. ‘Now,’ she said pragmatically, ‘can we go down? I want to see what Santa brought me!’

  IMPRINT: e-book Sexy

  ISBN: 9781460865156

  TITLE: A DAUGHTER FOR CHRISTMAS

  First Australian Publication 2012

  Copyright © 2012 CATHY WILLIAMS

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