Forbidden Fruit

by Charlotte Lamb

  'Ah, but it is always wise to have these things in writing, in a form of legal, contractual agreement,' said Giles. 'You might change your mind later, or deny you had ever promised that.'

  'I wouldn't!'

  He shrugged. 'All the same, we would like it in black and white. And there's another thing— the child can inherit Malcolm's estate, but it will not carry his name, and that makes my mother unhappy. She wants the baby to be a Kent.'

  Leonie hesitated, sighing. 'Well, I did think of that—and I would like Malcolm's baby to have Malcolm's surname, but it could be embarrassing if we had different surnames.'

  'That's true,' said Giles, 'but there is a way round that.'

  She looked up at him blankly. 'Oh?'

  'Yes,' he said without expression. 'You could marry me before the baby is born, and then it will, legally, take the Kent name.'

  She stood there, frozen on the spot, staring at him and not really sure whether it had been a joke or not, or even whether she had heard him correctly.

  'That isn't funny!' she whispered at last.

  'It wasn't meant to be!'

  'You can't be serious.' She knew he couldn't mean it. He hadn't wanted her to marry his brother—he certainly wouldn't dream of marrying her himself.

  'Very serious,' Giles said in that cool, level voice which sounded so matter-of-fact that somehow it made her feel more and more as if she were trapped in a weird, surrealist dream— or a nightmare. 'You see, it wouldn't really be good enough to simply register the baby under the surname Kent,' Giles added. 'My mother is afraid about the future—if you married someone else, for instance!'

  'I wouldn't—' she began, and he spoke over her, his tone hard.

  'You may say that now, but you're very young, you'll get over Malcolm's death and you'll meet someone else. This doctor, for instance… Dr Colpitt… I've no doubt he must be interested in you, or he wouldn't have been so generous in offering to let you use his flat.'

  'He isn't interested in me at all!' Leonie denied immediately, but Giles again spoke over her, his voice harsh.

  'Perhaps you simply haven't realised how he feels yet! And, even if you aren't interested in Dr Colpitt, there will be someone one day. You're beautiful, and you're very feminine. You aren't cut out for the single life, even if you do have a child. You'll marry sooner or later, and your new husband might insist that the baby take his name, might refuse us access, might even try to get his hands on the baby's money. We have to protect our rights, and those of the child.'

  'You're crazy!' Leonie burst out, and Giles suddenly laughed, startling her even more.

  'On the contrary, I'm talking sound common sense,' he drawled. 'We are not going to allow you to marry someone else and give Malcolm's child into the control of a stranger. And, as there isn't much time left before the birth, I suggest we get married in a register office as soon as possible.'

  Leonie was gasping like a landed fish. Breathlessly, she managed to gulp out, 'I've never heard anything so—'

  'I'll make all the necessary arrangements,' Giles interrupted her splutterings.

  'You must be out of your mind!'

  'I suggest we only invite close family to attend. Your mother. Mine. My sister and her family. No friends, not even your pal Angela.'

  Leonie shouted at him, since he didn't appear to have heard her until now. 'Listen to me, will you? I am not going to marry you!'

  'Any preference as to the location?' he calmly enquired. 'London? That would probably be best; it would arouse less interest than it might if we got married in Essex, near my home. We don't want a lot of gossip and people turning up to stare.'

  'I don't believe this is happening,' Leonie said to the ceiling.

  'Oh, by the way, I shall require you to sign a pie-marital contract,' said Giles casually. 'Quite common, these days, I assure you, but under these very unusual circumstances I must protect myself, you understand—'

  'I won't marry you!' Leonie yelled.

  'And of course I shall have the legal documents Deferring to Malcolm's child drawn up at the same time, so that there is no legal confusion later as to whose child it is…'

  Leonie got up and said through almost closed lips, very quietly and firmly, 'I am moving out of this flat and going away, and whatever you say or do won't make any difference—I am not marrying you, I won't even see you again if I can help it, and you are going to have to take me to court to get access to my baby, because after this I am going to fight you, whatever it costs me.'

  'It will cost you your child!' Giles icily promised, and she stood there, appalled, staring back at him.

  'You couldn't—'

  'I would,' he said, and she believed him. A wave of chill shock flowed up over her whole body. She was trapped. He had spelt it out for her now—whatever she tried to do, wherever she turned, or tried to run, he would stop her, he would force her to do as he and his family wished. She was carrying his brother's child, and he meant to control it—and her. It was his nature to impose control, he understood only too well how to do it, and he terrified her.

  'You will marry me,' he said, and she felt so threatened that she turned to run away like a scared child, not even knowing where she was going or what she meant to do.

  Not that it mattered much what she intended, because Giles caught her before she had got very far. His hands fastened on her shoulders and dragged her round to face him.

  'Get your hands off me!' she shakily threw at him. 'I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man in the world! I hate you!'

  For a second he was very still, staring down at her, his face locked in a taut mask she couldn't read until she suddenly saw that his grey eyes glittered with anger, his mouth was hard with temper. A shudder of dismay and foreboding went through her.

  'That's too bad,' he said through his teeth. 'Because, hate me or not, you are going to marry me, Leonie, so you had better get used to the idea.'

  'No,' she whispered, her eyes held hypnotically by the power of his demanding stare. 'I couldn't marry you! I can't even bear it when you touch me!'

  As soon as the words left her lips she wished she could call them back; she knew it had been a stupid, reckless thing to say, and his expression underlined her own instincts.

  'Can't you? Well, let's see, shall we?' he bit out, and her nerves leapt at the furious flash of his icy grey eyes.

  His head began to lower towards her, and she cried out in shock and alarm, 'No! Don't…'

  His mouth took hers with driving force and her head went back under the insistence of that demand. She fought him, twisting and turning in his arms, but he pulled her closer, the warmth of his body touching her from breast to thigh, his hands moving on her, up and down her back, under her hair, caressing her nape, her throat, her breasts. She couldn't breathe, she was trembling violently, heat mounting inside her as his exploration of her body became more and more intimate, his kiss deeper and more urgent.

  She hadn't expected to feel this way; she was so appalled by her own physical reaction that she couldn't go on fighting him. Her body was swamped by an intense desire, her eyes closed, her hands went flat against him, touching his body and feeling the warmth of him through his clothes, beating up into her palms and through her own body until they were almost one being, the rhythm of their lives merging in a fierce, heavy beat. Her back arched as she yielded limply, swaying against him like a flower too heavy to stand upright. Her lips parted, trembling, under the hot pressure of his kiss.

  When Giles finally lifted his head she was almost fainting, but she felt him looking down at her, the power of his will forcing her lids to flutter upwards.

  He stated into her eyes and she stared back helplessly, for a second unable to think because passion had drowned out everything else in her head.

  She thought for that instant that Giles looked as shaken as she felt, and her trembling intensified, her bones seemed to have turned to jelly. Was he feeling like this? What was happening to them?

  Then his eyes
flicked down, noting the tremors in her body, he frowned, and his mouth twisted. He looked up again, into her eyes, and gave her a mocking little smile. 'What were you saying?'

  She felt her skin burning and looked away, hating him, but now hating herself, too. How could she have let him do that to her? He had deliberately set out to shame and humiliate her, show her that if he chose to exert the sex appeal Angela had kept talking about she wouldn't be able to resist him, and she had let him prove his point.

  She pulled herself together somehow and managed a husky defiance. 'Just because I couldn't fight you doesn't mean I enjoyed it! I didn't! I hated every minute of it and if you ever lay a hand on me again I'll kill you!'

  A dark flush invaded his face, too. His brows met, his grey eyes threatened.

  'You will marry me, though!' he told her curtly. 'Or take the consequences, and, I assure you, Leonie, I will win. I always do.'

  She believed him, and fell silent. What option did she have? She was going to be forced into this marriage, whether she liked it or not.

  'You can't!' Angela said, her face shocked and incredulous. 'You've always said how much you hated the man! Now you're saying you're going to… Oh, I don't believe it. It's crazy! You can't marry him!'

  'You were the one who said I should go to him for help!' Leonie muttered m grim amusement, although why she should find it funny that Angela was so shaken she did not know. There was nothing amusing about any of this— Angela was right: it was crazy to even consider marrying Giles Kent.

  Crossly Angela snapped, 'You know what I meant! I still think the Kent family ought to help you. The baby is Malcolm's too, even if you weren't actually married yet. You were going to be, and I'm sure you could make some sort of legal claim on them—and heaven knows they have enough money! They wouldn't miss it if they made some sort of financial settlement on you. They could afford to be generous.'

  'The money is the whole point,' Leonie said bitterly. 'You're right, I would have a good legal claim on them. They have found out that the baby would be entitled to claim its father's share of the family money. That's what their lawyers have told them, and it's scared the life out of them.'

  Angela grew flushed with excitement, her lips parting in a gasp. 'But that's marvellous! You won't have any more worries if '

  'You don't understand!' Leonie interrupted brusquely. 'They have no intention of settling money on me—and, in fact, I told him I didn't even want their money, but he doesn't believe me, doesn't trust me. He says I may say that now, but how do they know I won't change my mind later? Anyway, they're going to set up a trust fund for the baby, and he is going to be the executor of it, because Malcolm's will made him his executor.'

  Angela's frown deepened. 'Well, that's good, isn't it? You know that that's what Malcolm would have wanted. You can't resent Malcolm's baby inheriting his father's money?'

  'No, of course I don't!'

  'Then…' Angela looked bewildered. 'You've lost me. You said Giles was blackmailing you into marrying him! Now you say he agrees that the baby should inherit Malcolm's share of the business.'

  'I've just explained—it will all go into a trust fund for the baby, and Giles intends to manage the fund. But he's afraid that I may marry someone who will come along, one day, and try to take over running the fund as the child's stepfather. He wants to make quite sure that can never happen, so he is marrying me himself to get control of my baby and keep the money in the Kent family.'

  Angela's eyes rounded, and she chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully, a calculating expression in her face. 'Well, it makes sense, I suppose.'

  'To a computer!' Leonie spat, infuriated. 'Or to a man with all the emotions of a computer!'

  Angela shrugged, eyeing her with curiosity. 'Don't do it if you really hate him that much! After all, he can't force you to marry him!'

  'He can,' said Leonie.

  Angela laughed scornfully. 'Not in this day and age. What is he going to do? Drag you to the altar?'

  'Start legal proceedings to take the baby away as soon as it is born,' said Leonie.

  Angela gasped. 'You're kidding!'

  'That's what he threatens. He would ask for custody on the grounds that the baby is the heir to a large trust fund, and I am not in a position to bring it up properly.'

  'He would never get a court to agree!'

  Leonie smiled wearily. 'Well, maybe not. But what if he did? These things do happen. Rich people can afford top barristers, they can manipulate the system. And, let's face it, the Kent family can offer the baby far more than I can, in a material sense. He pointed out that I'd have to go out to work, leaving the baby with someone else, and I wouldn't have much money, especially as I refuse to take any from him, and I can't afford a very nice flat, or even a full-time, properly qualified nanny. Oh, thousands of unmarried mothers do manage to look after a baby and have a job, but nobody says it's easy, and a court might feel that it would be in the baby's best interests for it to live with its grandmother.'

  Angela was sober now. She grimaced. 'Yes, I see what you mean!'

  'I must get in touch with Andrew and explain, and apologise!' Leonie said on a long sigh. 'He has been so kind, and his mother was, too. I would have loved to live in that flat. Oh, why is life so…so unpredictable? Why do things keep happening to me like this? So suddenly, I mean, out of the blue. Just when I think I've finally worked something out, got my life into shape—wham! Fate hits me with something I couldn't possibly expect. Just when I was going to marry Malcolm…' Her voice broke. She bit down on her lower lip, gesturing, tears in her eyes. 'Oh, you know…it all blew up in my face!' She ran a hand over her eyes. 'And now this. One minute everything seemed to be falling into place so nicely… alt my worries dealt with… and I felt so marvellous for a while, thinking I was going to be moving down there, able to relax for a while before the baby came, have my baby peacefully and take my time looking for a job near by—and then fate sees to it that it all blows up in my face again.'

  'You mean Giles Kent sees to it!' Angela said drily.

  Leonie nodded grimly, getting up out of her chair with some difficulty, her hand on her aching back. She hadn't slept much the night before; partly because she had been lying awake anxiously thinking about what Giles had said to her, and partly because the baby had been very lively, kicking violently all night. Even before it was born, she had the feeling this baby was going to be a typical Kent: obstinate, overbearing, determined to get its own way.

  'I think he only decided to many me after I'd told him I was moving into Andrew's flat,' she muttered. 'He suspected I might be getting involved with Andrew, and he wouldn't believe me when I told him I wasn't romantically involved with anyone.' She smoothed a hand down over her heavy body, looking down at it with a rueful expression. 'As if it were likely! What man would look twice at me when I look like a barrage balloon?'

  Angela didn't answer the rhetorical question. Instead, she said with sudden interest, 'What are you going to wear?'

  Leonie laughed shortly, giving her a wry, impatient, but affectionate look, because it was so typical of Angela to be distracted by thoughts of clothes.

  'That's the last thing on my mind! Nobody will be dressing up, anyway. If anybody comes!'

  'I'll come!' Angela said indignantly. 'And I'll be dressing up, you can bet on it!'

  'I'm sorry, I can't invite you—Giles says no friends,' Leonie told her apologetically. 'Just family, and as few of them as possible. But you wouldn't want to go, anyway—you won't be missing much. This isn't a real wedding, Angela. It is just a sham; a legal arrangement. I get the feeling he wants to be able to get out of it as easily as possible later, so he's making sure not too many people know about it.'

  'Well, he isn't stopping me from turning up to see you get married,' Angela muttered, scowling. 'What's he going to do afterwards? Hide you somewhere until after the baby has been born?'

  Leonie went pale. She hadn't thought about 'afterwards' yet. Now she did, and she did not like what
she suspected the future might hold for her. Questions crowded into her head, and while she was thinking about the answers Angela began to ask the questions aloud, in her practical, direct way.

  'Where are you going to live, for instance? At Warlock House? With that old gorgon of a mother? And what do you mean… not a real wedding? Are you saying you won't be living as man and wife?'

  Leonie didn't know, she could only shake her head helplessly and shrug.

  Angela gazed at her disbelievingly. 'You're out of your skull if you go through with this!' she told her, and she was right, thought Leonie.

  She must be mad to be marrying a man who not only did not love her, but didn't even like her. In fact, she had often felt he hated her. There was a darkness behind Giles Kent's grey eyes; something fierce and angry and threatening. It had been there from the beginning. She had always been aware of it; a taut thread had stretched between them whenever they were together, a consciousness, one of the other, which frightened her. She had been able to cope so long as she did not see too much of him—but she went into panic every time she thought of becoming his wife, being alone with him, at his mercy.

  CHAPTER SIX

  They were married three weeks later, in a brief civil ceremony, which was over so fast that Leonie both at the time and afterwards felt as if it had been a dream.

  It was all so functional, so banal. She wore a cream wool two-piece suit. Giles wore grey. Neither of them smiled. Their voices murmured in the quiet room, and they went through the motions as commanded without even looking at each other.

  Behind them, in a row, sat a handful of people. His mother, his sister and her husband, Leonie's mother, Angela and Andrew. There were so few of them in the room that Leonie could actually hear them all breathing, even above the sound of rain.