A Paper Marriage

by Jessica Steele

  CHAPTER NINE

  LYDIE had still not answered him when Jonah, his expression telling her he was insistent on having that answer, sifted through what she had said and, to her great alarm, bluntly asked, `Why marry me at all, Lydie, when you knew that you did not have to?"

  'It was too l-late,' she stammered, and, clutching at straws, `My mother would have murdered me had I called everything off at the last moment.'

  `You've stood up to your mother before when you felt strongly enough about something,' he reminded her, and dissected in an instant what she had said. His face darkening, he came back to challenge, `You're saying you cheated me, but didn't feel strongly enough, guilty enough about it, to risk your mother's displeasure and not marry me?T

  'It wasn't... I... Oh...' She was floundering and knew it. `I d-didn't get, read, the letter from Aunt Alice's lawyers until a short while before I was due to leave the house for the church.'

  `Your great-aunt left you some money?'

  `She left me her house. I didn't even know Aunt Alice owned it, but she must have. Her lawyers...'

  `So you married me, despite knowing that once that house is sold-I take it you aren't intending to live in it?' he inserted, sounding hostile, `you'll have sufficient funds to be out of my debt?'

  Lydie nodded. `From what my father said-'

  `You've discussed this with your father?' he cut in sceptically.

  'No! Only to say I thought Aunt Alice rented her house. He doesn't know about the letter. He said that Aunt Alice had the chance to purchase her house very cheaply some years ago and that, had she done so, it would be worth about a hundred and fifty thousand pounds today.' Lydie swallowed on a dry throat, and went tremulously on. `Once I've repaid my debt to you, there should be sufficient over to pay the caterers and any outstanding items from t-today.'

  Jonah heard what she had to say and, his eyes on her, he seemed to silently deliberate. He took a pace away and half turned from her, his mind occupied. But then, as if he had reached a decision, he turned back to her, and, his eyes steady on hers, he quietly let fall, `I think you'll find, Lydie, that all accounts-apart from yours and mine-have been settled.'

  Wordlessly Lydie stared at him, questions rushing to her lips. All accounts-apart from theirs? What did that mean? She shelved that question, pride giving her a nasty time as she asked, appalled, `You didn't pay for my wedding? You didn't ask for all bills to be sent to you?' And, feeling mortified with embarrassment, `My father didn't allow you to finance today's-'

  `Would he?' Jonah interrupted. And, not waiting to hear her reply, stated firmly, `He would not.' Jonah paused, and after a moment quietly informed her, `Trust me, your father can well afford to settle for today's function without it hurting too much.'

  Lydie didn't believe it. `The last I heard was that he was broke. My mother called me a pain because I've worried so much about today's expense.' And, feeling hostile herself, even though she knew that she was the one in the wrong here, `Now you're telling me I need not have worried at all? I don't believe it!' she snapped.

  `Why should you believe it?' Jonah agreed. But, his hostility fading suddenly, `Come and sit down,' he suggested, indicating one of the sofas, `and I'll explain...'

  `There's nothing for youu to explain.' Lydie cut him off agitatedly. She had an idea that he might decide to share that sofa with her-and she had been closer to him than was good for her not so long ago. `I cheated you. You'll want an annulment, and that's all there is to it.'

  Jonah looked at her for long, long moments, then, with his glance fixed on hers, his tone perfectly audible, `Correction, Lydie,' he clearly said, `I cheated you. I married you because I wanted to. And there is no way this marriage is going to be annulled.'

  Her insides started to churn more fiercely. She knew he had wanted to marry, that he had decided it was time he married. But her? `You could have married just about anybody, it didn't necessarily have to be me.' She spoke her thoughts out loud. And what had he just said about him cheating her? It was she who had cheated him! `I must be more tired than I thought. None of this is making sense.'

  `Would you like to go to bed? We can have this discussion when we get to the island tomorrow.

  `You still want to go on our honeymoon?' she asked, her eyes widening in surprise.

  `Have you forgotten so soon? I told you when I asked for your promise to marry me that divorce is not an option. The same goes for an annulment.'

  Suddenly her legs felt as if they were about to give way. To sit down seemed a good idea. By the sound of it, even though she had confessed to having cheated him, Jonah still wanted to stay married to her.

  `I think I' ll ...' she mumbled, and went over to the sofa. Jonah surprised her by taking a chair close by-opposite her. Realising that she had no chance of hiding her expression from him, Lydie lowered her gaze as she apologised. 'I'm sorry I married you when as soon as Aunt Alice's house is sold I shall be able to repay that loan.'

  `And I'm sorry you feel you have to repay it,' Jonah answered. `But, if it will make you feel better, I have to tell you that the fifty-five thousand was repaid, with the accumulated interest your father insisted upon, a couple of weeks ago.'

  Her head shot up. `Repaid!' Her brain wasn't taking this in. `Who repaid it?' she asked. And, as her intelligence started to go into action, `Are you saying that-I needn't have married you?' She wasn't sure she did not go pale; she felt pale. `You said...' She struggled to recall what exactly he had said. `You said y-you had cheated me. Is that what you meant? That you had cheated me into marrying you?' That couldn't be. She had cheated him! `Would you explain? I didn't think I'd drunk too much champagne, but I'm not coping with this at all well. Who repaid you that money? My father doesn't have any, and...' She stopped, feeling totally perplexed.

  That feeling wasn't helped much when all at once Jonah left his seat and came over and took a seat on the sofa next to her. `Poor love,' he murmured, and, catching a hold of her hands in his, `This moment has come far sooner than I'd anticipated,' he continued. `But perhaps it's as well that we start our marriage with certain matters out of the way.'

  `You're still insisting that we stay married?' she asked, a touch shakily.

  `It's the only way,' he replied, which told her precisely nothing.

  `I can pay you-or willl be able to pay...'

  `Your father has already done so.'

  `My father doesn't have any money!'

  `He does now.'

  `How?' Lydie questioned. `Only a couple of months ago he was in deep despair that he'd sold everything he could possibly sell. Where did he get the money?'

  Jonah was half turned to her. Lydie, pulling her hands from his hold, half turned to look at him, her eyes pleading for answers. `Your father,' Jonah began, `has sold a half of Beamhurst Court.'

  Shocked to hear such a thing, Lydie stared at him in utter astonishment. `He wouldn't!' she exclaimed. `My mother wouldn't allow him!'

  `She did,' Jonah stated calmly.

  And Lydie just sat stunned. Jonah sounded as though he knew it for the truth. Half a dozen questions jostled for precedence in her head. Her father had sold half of Beamhurst Court? Unbelievable! Her mother had sanctioned it? Impossible! And how was Jonah so much in the know, Lydie wondered, when she, the daughter of the house, had been totally in the dark about it? And... Abruptly then, though, a whole new question burst in on her intelligence.

  `You said that fifty-five thousand pounds was repaid to you a couple of weeks ago?"

  'That's right,' Jonah agreed-but seemed to be already anticipating her next question.

  He showed no surprise anyhow when, quite a bit startled, she had to admit, Lydie slowly questioned, `Then, if that money was repaid, my father no longer in your debt-why did I marry you? You let me marry you,' she went on, feeling winded, `when there was absolutely no need whatsoever for me to marry you.'

  'I'm afraid there was. Apart from other considerations,' Jonah commented, `you had told your father that I'd some pr
oposition to put to him.'

  `You told him you were going to ask me to marry you.' She reminded him of what he had said.

  `That was part of it.'

  `Part? But not all?'

  Jonah shook his head. `It had to be part, for the rest of it to follow,' he explained, but when Lydie looked totally mystified he revealed a little more detail. `At the same time of telling me how you'd told your father I'd a proposition to put to him, you also told me how he had been prepared to sell Beamhurst Court. You mentioned too that your brother wasn't remotely interested in the property.'

  By then her brain was working overtime. `You found a buyer for my father? Someone interested in purchasing only a half of the property?' How on earth would that work? She couldn't see her mother sharing her home with anyone!

  Lydie's puzzled eyes were fixed on nowhere but Jonah's wonderful blue eyes, when, quietly, he revealed, `I am the buyer, Lydie.'

  Her eyes went saucer-wide. `You're the buyer?' she echoed faintly.

  `While you and I will live here at Yourk House, as we planned, Beamhurst Court is now in the joint names of you and your father,' Jonah replied. And while she stared at him, thunderstruck by that astounding statement, `I know how you love the place,' he added. `I bought a half of it for you, Lydie.'

  She stared at Jonah witlessly. 'You-bought it for me?' Her voice was barely above a whisper. 'You...' It must have cost him a small fortune! `You...' she tried again. `My father...' It was no good. As what he had said started to sink in, she was so totally stunned she did not seem able to frame another sentence.

  Looking at her, seeing how dumbstruck she was, Jonah took pity on her and began to elucidate. 'You'll remember, the day of your greataunt's funeral, your father and I went to his study?"

  'You said you'd gone to tell him that you wanted to marry me. You said that our being married would make you a family member, an insider, so my father wouldn't feel too badly about...' The small quirk on Jonah's superb mouth made her hesitate.

  He smiled encouragingly, but corrected, `Insider, nothing! Son-in-law or no, your father would never rest until he paid that money back. I knew that. He knew that. You, Lydie, thinking with your love for him and not your mind, were emotionally blinded by a sign that he might be returning to his old self, and missed knowing that.'

  `But...' She broke off, a dawning realisation hitting her that it was just as Jonah had said-her father had started to brighten up and she hadn't looked further than to see him take a new lease on life, than to go along with whatever Jonah told her. `Have I been incredibly naive?' she asked, still feeling more than a mite shaken.

  `No father could have a better daughter,' Jonah answered softly, and disclosed, `Once I was in the study with him that day, I told him that I would very much like to marry his daughter. He at once gave me his blessing, and I then put the proposition you had suggested to him that I intended to.'

  ,But you didn't have a proposition.'

  `Your father is well aware of your attachment to Beamhurst. I put it to him that I would very much like to have your name on the deeds as my wedding gift to you.'

  `Oh, Jonah!' she whispered, unable to hold it back. But she grew suddenly terrified that he would see how his incredibly generous gesture had hit at the heart of her. From somewhere, she knew not where, she somehow managed to find some stiffening to her wilting backbone, and questioned, `And my father, he agreed just like that?"

  'He said he would think about it, but I could see he was at once very taken with the idea. Anyhow, by the time you and I came back from our walk...'

  `When you asked for my promise to marry you,' Lydie put in, her head starting to spin.

  `Where you gave me your promise,' Jonah agreed. `By that time your father had it all worked out. He suggested he and I return to his study to discuss my proposition in more in-depth detail.' Lydie remembered clearly. She had seen them heading for the study when she'd been on her way upstairs to change. 'Wilmot had by then seen the advantages: he would have money to settle what he considered his debt to me and have money at his disposal. Before we could get the property professionally valued and everything legally drawn up, though, he wanted me to understand that, should he sell, your brother would ultimately inherit his half. Also, he felt your mother would insist on an assurance, that should Oliver at some future date change his mind about wanting Beamhurst Court, you would sell your half to him. I agreed on your behalf on the assurance that, at some very much future date, we-you and I-would have the first option to purchase, should Oliver wish to sell.'

  She was spellbound that all this had gone one. 'And-my father consented?'

  Jonah nodded. `The deal was completed a fortnight ago-naturally in the utmost secrecy. I told your father I wanted to surprise you on our honeymoon with a copy of the deeds showing Lydie Marriott as joint owner.' Lydie Marriott. How wonderful that sounded. 'Wilmot felt he had to tell your mother, but he was certain, once she knew all details, that she would raise no objection and would, as was essential, keep our secret. So all in all,' Jonah ended, `your father was again happy. Your mother, with money available to see you married in respectable fashion, was happy. And you, Lydie-' he smiled at her '-I'd like very much for you to be happy-but, I'm sorry, that does not include an annulment.'

  Lydie knew that she wanted to stay married to him, but, while she did love Beamhurst, she just could not get over the fact that he had bought a half of it-for her!

  `It's too much!' she exclaimed. `You've solved all of our problems but-what about you? What do you get?"

  'Oh, my dear,' Jonah answered softly. `While it pleases me tremendously to see that look of strain gone from the face of a man I admire so much, what I have, this day, is you.'

  Lydie stared at him. He was rather marvelous, this man she had married. And she knew that what he was actually saying was that, having decided to marry, he had this day got himself a wife. But-was that good enough?

  `Is it-all right to marry when-love isn't there?' she asked, and, not wanting him to see how much it mattered to her, she looked away from him, her eyes giving her wedding band serious study in the lengthening tense kind of silence that followed.

  Then she was at once wishing that she had never uttered a word about love. For as the tension, the silence stretched, she knew for certain that Jonah had never thought about love in any of this. She so desperately wished he would say something-the taut silence was getting to her.

  Though when, after long moments of considering what she had said, Jonah did break the silence, he caused her to be totally panic stricken when he stated, quite clearly, `But love is there.'

  As soon as his words hit her ears Lydie was on her feet. She leapt from the sofa, her emotions in complete chaos. And had taken several rushed steps across the room before she was aware of it.

  But, halting, turning to see that Jonah was on his feet too, she stared at him absolutely stupefied.

  `You know I love you?' she gasped, horrified, and saw him freeze in his tracks-shaken rigid.

  'What-did you say?' he clipped, his tone all kind of shocked, as if he could not believe his hearing.

  `Nothing!' she denied, faster than the speed of light. `I didn't say anything.'

  But he wasn't having that, though still seemed too stunned to move. `You said you love me,' he reminded her, when she needed not the smallest reminding. And, shaking his head as if dazed, `I refuse to start off this marriage with lies, Lydie Marriott. Tell me the truth. Do you have feelings for me?'

  She shook her head. Anybody would think it was important. `It doesn't matter,' she answered, making a poor showing of the off-hand tone she had been hoping for.

  `Of course it matters!' he retorted. A few yards separated them but neither of them was moving an inch, she as frozen now as him.

  `W-why?' Oh, why had she said what she had?

  It was blatantly obvious now that Jonah had had no idea of her love for him.

  `Why? Because...' He hesitated, paused, and, as if he had just come to a decis
ion, his head came up a proud fraction as he said, `I married you today, Lydie, purely because it was what I wanted to do.'

  `For my father's sake,' she butted in. `You married me because my father...'

  `My decision to marry you had nothing at all to do with your father or anyone else.' Jonah set her straight. `I married you for the reason I stated at our wedding reception, because-for weeks now-I've wanted nothing more than to be married to you.'

  `Because you felt it was time for you to be married. That's what you said.'

  `Oh, Lydie, Lydie, I have to tell you now that I discovered you are not the only one who can lie their head off,' he confessed, causing her to stare at him. But her eyes grew yet wider when he added, `I am not lying now-nor will I ever lie to you again-when I tell you that I married you for no other reason than that I want, and need, to be with you for the rest of my life.'