by Sara Craven
She awoke slowly and luxuriously, stretching her body experimentally. Yes, she ached a little, but it was more than worth it, she thought, remembering in vivid and glorious detail the intensity and passion with which Nick had pleasured her.
The bed beside her was empty, however, and when she looked at the clock she realised why.
Good God. She threw the covers aside. The board meeting. Why on earth didn’t Nick wake me?
Obviously he’d thought she’d be too embarrassed to hand in her resignation in person and was trying to spare her, she realised with a pang. But she needed to be there to warn Toby that Nick had discovered his expenses scam and tell him that she was covering up for him.
She grabbed underwear and flew into the bathroom, rapidly reviewing which was the next fast train to London. With luck, she could still make it.
But only by the skin of her teeth, she admitted as she sank, panting, into a seat. And she wasn’t her usual well-groomed self, either. There’d been no time to wash her hair, and she’d grabbed the first jacket and skirt she’d come to in the wardrobe.
As it was she was going to miss the start of the proceedings. She delved in her bag for her mobile phone and called Toby, but his phone was switched off—probably in deference to their father, who hated the things and complained bitterly if they went off in meetings, or anywhere else for that matter.
She looked restlessly at her watch. They would just about be assembling now, but there’d be coffee and biscuits first, so she might still have time to prime Toby before any potentially damaging revelations were made.
She took a cab from the station, thrusting money into the surprised driver’s hand as she leapt out of the taxi and rushed into the company building. In the lift she tried to steady her flurried breathing as she combed her hair with her fingers.
Outside the boardroom, a secretary jumped to her feet. ‘Miss Harrington—I mean, Mrs Destry—we weren’t expecting you…’
‘I can’t think why not,’ Paige said blandly, steaming past her and through the door.
Inside the room there was an atmosphere you could have cut with a knife. Her father was seated at the head of the table, with Nick facing him at its foot. The slim bearded man beside him must be Jake Allenby, she thought as she slid into an empty seat, and he must be taking the minutes—because no clerical staff were present. Not even Toby’s secretary.
‘I’m sorry I’m late,’ she apologised charmingly, smiling round. ‘My alarm didn’t go off for some reason.’
She darted a lightning glance at Nick, expecting to see a glint of shared amusement in his eyes, but his face looked as if it had been hacked out of granite.
The lover who a few hours before had coaxed her body to extremes of delight might never have existed.
She looked down at the polished table, a faint curl of uneasiness in the pit of her stomach.
‘We understood from Nicholas that you wouldn’t be attending the meeting, my dear.’ Her father sounded uncomfortable.
‘I changed my mind,’ she returned. ‘May I have an agenda, please?’
Toby, who was sitting opposite her looking edgy, pushed a sheaf of papers towards her.
‘We’re on item three,’ her father said. ‘The interim financial report prepared by Mr—er—Allenby.’
Paige picked up her copy and opened it with hands that shook slightly.
‘As I was saying before the interruption.’ Nick’s voice was as cold as stone too. ‘The proper course of action is to launch a full internal investigation into all these gross irregularities, but news of it would almost certainly leak out, and the last thing we need is any more adverse publicity for Harringtons. As it is,’ he added levelly, ‘the company’s reputation has suffered a blow from which it may never recover, and which Maitland Destry must share.’
‘Isn’t that rather an exaggeration?’ Toby demanded aggressively. ‘After all, we couldn’t know the soil tests for Seagrove would be fudged. You take expert opinions on trust.’
‘Indeed—when they are expert,’ Nick drawled contemptuously. ‘But the Seagrove development is only part of the problem, as the report makes clear. And the blame for that rests in this room.’
‘Right.’ Toby’s laugh was shrill. ‘So it’s my head on the chopping block, is it? When I’ve been working night and day to save this company money.’
‘How?’ Nick asked. ‘By putting third-rate kitchens and bathrooms into expensive houses? Rather a false economy, I’d have thought. Particularly when you’ve been charging the clients top dollar for them. Or did you think they wouldn’t notice?’
‘A misunderstanding with the suppliers,’ Toby said airily. ‘We’ve had problems with them in the past.’
‘And yet you’ve continued to use them,’ Nick said bitingly. ‘A curious choice. But you’ll continue as managing director for the time being. You have this disaster on the Seagrove site to sort out.’
‘There will be additional funding from Maitland Destry?’ Toby’s voice was eager.
‘This time, yes. On the understanding that this project, and all those in the pipeline, will be monitored by the bank’s own people.’
‘I really can’t agree to that—’ Toby began, but his father interrupted wearily.
‘You don’t have to,’ he said. ‘I’ve already done so.’ He slapped the report with his hand. ‘This—this is a nightmare.’
Toby sighed. ‘Look, I cut a few corners. I admit it. But what the hell? Everyone makes mistakes.’
‘Yes,’ Nick said quietly. ‘We’re all fools at times.’
‘So,’ Toby said, ‘things just carry on as normal.’ He wasn’t exactly smirking and rubbing his hands with glee, but he might as well have been, Paige thought despairingly. Couldn’t he see how close he’d come to disaster?
‘That’s how it would appear,’ Francis Harrington agreed. ‘If there’s no other business, I suggest we close the meeting.’
‘There is one more thing.’ Paige got to her feet. ‘I’m resigning as head of public relations, as of today.’
‘You can’t do that,’ Toby protested. ‘Who’s going to deal with the Seagrove people?’
‘Nick’s bringing in an outside company.’ She glanced at him for confirmation, but he said nothing.
‘Well, I think you should stay on,’ Toby said pettishly. ‘I’ve got used to dealing with you. It’s—convenient.’
‘But not for me,’ Paige told him levelly. ‘And, anyway, my mind’s made up. I’m off the payroll. In fact, I’m going to clear out my desk and go home.’
‘To do what, precisely?’ His tone was sceptical.
This time she didn’t look at Nick. She said, coolly and clearly, ‘To have a baby.’ And walked out, leaving a profound silence behind her.
There wasn’t really a great deal to clear. She’d never tried to personalise the office in any way because she’d never felt it really belonged to her, so a jiffy bag took care of the contents of her desk drawers.
She worked slowly, waiting for Nick to come and find her after the bombshell she’d exploded.
He can hardly complain, she reassured herself. Not after last night. He wants a real marriage, and babies come with the territory.
She was trying to decide who the lucky recipient of her solitary spider plant should be when Toby walked in.
‘Oh,’ Paige said flatly. ‘It’s you.’
‘Well, naturally. I had to come and congratulate you.’
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘But the announcement was a little premature.’ Or perhaps not, she thought, her face warming slightly.
He waved a hand dismissively. ‘I didn’t mean that. You’ve been a very clever girl, Sis, and don’t think it’s not appreciated.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘My God, you certainly didn’t waste any time.’
‘I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,’ she said. ‘But as you’re here, I’d better warn you that Nick knows all about the scam you’ve been running with my expenses.’
He went
pale. ‘And just what is that supposed to mean?’
‘Oh, don’t lie,’ she said scornfully. ‘Luckily for you, he doesn’t know you could always forge my signature. He thinks I’ve been helping myself to the money.’
He sat down heavily on the chair facing her desk. ‘Thank God for that.’
‘Forgive me if I don’t say amen,’ Paige told him bitterly. ‘Whatever possessed you to do such a thing?’
He stared down at the carpet. ‘It’s Denise,’ he muttered. ‘She doesn’t understand that we’re going through a tough patch financially. The credit card bills alone are a nightmare.’
‘Cut them up,’ she said. ‘Send them back and arrange to pay what you can each month.’
‘I can’t do that.’ He sounded almost aggrieved. ‘She’d leave me.’
‘But she’ll stick around if you go to jail?’ Paige shook her head. ‘You must be crazy.’ She paused. ‘You do have another option, of course. You could go to Nick—tell him everything, wipe the slate clean.’
‘You have to be joking.’ His expression was ugly. ‘That would just make his triumph complete.’
‘Does it really matter?’ Her voice was weary. ‘When he knows so much already? Your hands are hardly clean, Toby.’
He was watching her, eyes narrowed. ‘There is another alternative, of course. You could always get me a rise in salary,’ he said slowly. ‘Call on those powers of persuasion you used so successfully last night.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It’s too late to play the innocent, my pet.’ Toby was enjoying himself. ‘I know Nick stayed at the cottage with you last night because his sidekick had it as a contact number. And he arrived here this morning looking like the cat who’d had the cream. It was clear to every guy in the building that someone had made him very, very happy in bed.’
‘I didn’t notice any obvious signs of joy in the meeting,’ Paige said quietly, hot colour flooding her face.
He shrugged. ‘Well, you have Snooper Allenby to thank for that. He dragged him into Dad’s room for a few words in private, and that wiped the smile off your husband’s face. But, even so, he didn’t go back on his word. I’m still the managing director, and I have you to thank for it, my cherub. You’re amazing, you know. All I had to do was point you in the right direction, and now he’s twisted round your little finger.’
He laughed, as Paige stood frozen. Gazing past him.
‘I hope the demon lover didn’t make too many untoward demands,’ he went on. ‘What did you do—lie back and think of England?’
‘No,’ Nick said from the doorway behind him. ‘Harringtons.’
Under any other circumstances, Paige thought detachedly, the expression on Toby’s face would have been almost funny. As it was, she only wanted to die.
Her brother decided on belligerence. ‘If you don’t mind, I was having a private joke with my sister.’
‘In between planning how to go on ripping off the company with her connivance?’ Nick spoke quietly, but there was a note in his voice which made Paige shiver.
‘Now just a minute…’ Toby got to his feet.
‘Get out of here,’ Nick said. ‘Before I do something I regret. And shut the door behind you.’ he threw after his brother-in-law’s ignominiously fleeing figure.
The door closed and husband and wife were alone, looking at each other.
Paige forced herself to move. To take a step forward towards him.
‘Nick, you must listen to me…’
‘You mean like you listened to me last night—pouring my heart out?’ His glance flicked contempt at her. ‘Telling you every maudlin, lovesick dream I ever had? I don’t think so.’
She tried again, desperately. ‘But you don’t understand…’
‘On the contrary, it’s all perfectly clear. I had it straight from the horse’s mouth—or do I mean another part of its anatomy?’ His icy drawl seemed to flay the skin from her bones. ‘You’re a Harrington to your delectable fingertips, aren’t you, darling? You’d do anything to protect your family. You might not lay down your life, but your body’s a different proposition. And you had me fooled all along the line,’ he went on bitterly. ‘Tell me, do they teach you to fake your orgasms at the best schools?’
‘Nick, you’re angry, and I don’t blame you. What you heard was terrible—shameful—but it wasn’t true.’
His mouth twisted cynically. ‘You mean your brother didn’t suggest to you that I might let him off the hook in return for your sexual favours?’
‘No,’ she said huskily. ‘I—can’t pretend that.’
‘I commend your honesty,’ he said bitingly. ‘Because he was stupid enough to telephone someone earlier—no doubt one of his partners in crime—and brag about it being all his idea. Jake was working in the adjoining office, checking his report.’
‘But I refused.’ She lifted her chin. ‘I told him I’d have nothing to do with it and sent him away. You have to believe me.’
He said slowly, ‘If you’d told me last night that you hadn’t been swindling money out of the company I’d have believed you. But you lied, Paige. And I knew it because I saw it in your eyes. But what I couldn’t figure then was why you were taking the blame for something you hadn’t done.’
He shook his head. ‘I so desperately wanted you to be honest with me. I gave you every opportunity to explain. Then Jake told me this morning he’d been comparing your actual signature to those on the expense claims and that there was something wrong—and I realised that you had to be shielding that worthless idiot.’
‘And now you know why,’ she said tiredly. ‘Because while you might have forgiven me, you wouldn’t have done the same for Toby. You might even have called the police in. I felt I had to protect Harringtons—just as you did in the boardroom today. And it went just as much against the grain with me, because I’ve had to accept that my brother is a crook, and that’s not easy.’ She paused. ‘I was also concerned about the effect it might have on my father.’
‘Your father’s had his own suspicions for some time,’ Nick said shortly. ‘But he decided to share them with me. He’s stronger than you think.’
Paige’s laugh cracked in the middle. ‘What a disappointment his children must be to him. One a thief and the other a liar—even if not a very good one.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s ironic, isn’t it? I tried to save Toby and ruined my own happiness instead.’
‘Nothing can save Toby,’ he said. ‘There won’t be a prosecution, for the company’s sake, but his days here are numbered. Once the Seagrove disaster has been dealt with I’m recommending, with your father’s approval, that Harringtons should be sold—probably to Winstanley UK. They’re a good solid outfit, looking to expand.’
‘Leaving you free to walk away?’
He shrugged. ‘I should never have got involved with Harringtons in the first place. My judgement was—flawed. For obvious reasons.’ He paused. ‘But there’ll be no place for Toby either. The whispers are already spreading about him.’
His mouth curled. ‘I hope he’s salted away his ill-gotten gains, because he could need them. And along with everything else he could lose that expensive wife of his.’
She said slowly, ‘That’s always been his greatest fear. And I never understood it before—how it was possible to love someone so much—to need them so desperately that you’d do anything—take any risk—in order to keep them. They say to understand is to forgive. I don’t condone what my brother did, but for the first time I know why he did it.’ She tried to smile and failed. ‘Because that’s how I love you, Nick. And now it seems that both Toby and I are going to end up alone.’
His face was taut, every bone stark under the tanned skin.
‘Paige—you don’t have to say these things.’
‘Ah, but I do,’ she said passionately. ‘You’ve told me often that my eyes give me away if I’m lying. Well, look into them now, Nick, and see the whole truth. That you’re my love and my life, and if I’ve lost you,
then everything’s gone. From that first moment I felt so much for you that I panicked—went into denial. I wanted you so badly, and yet I was convinced I was just the trade-off for a seat on the board.’
She took a sharp breath. ‘We’re both flawed, darling, and I don’t care because I wouldn’t change a thing about you. Mistakes and all, you’re my man. Please—please let me be your woman.’ Her voice was suddenly pleading, ‘Oh, my love, don’t send me back into the dark alone.’
He said harshly, ‘Dear God, do you really think there’s any way I could let you go? If I’d been in Toby’s shoes I’d have done anything to keep you too. Because that’s how it is—and always will be.’
There was a bubble of joy inside her, forcing its way to the surface, irradiating her whole being, making her want to sing, laugh and weep. But she kept her face solemn.
‘Now that my desk is clear,’ she said meditatively, ‘I think I’ll go back to the cottage. I haven’t had much sleep in the last twenty-four hours,’ she added. ‘So I could do with an early night.’
Nick’s face was equally grave as he consulted his watch. ‘Don’t you mean an early afternoon?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘And evening. And the rest of our lives.’
He came to her then, and held her. His voice was suddenly rough. ‘Do you know what you’re taking on?’
Her eyes met his calmly, steadfastly. ‘Yes, darling. I know. And we’ve wasted so much time already, I really can’t wait any longer. I don’t want our baby to be just wishful thinking.’
‘I thought we might take a long weekend in Normandy,’ he said. ‘See if Grandmère will lend us that huge bed of hers for a second honeymoon.’
Paige’s lips twitched. ‘I’m sure she will,’ she said. ‘The French are so practical.’
‘Oh,’ he said, ‘they have their dreams, too. And sometimes they come true.’
He stroked her hair back from her face with infinite tenderness. He said slowly, ‘In fifty years’ time I shall still be looking across a room filled with people and seeing only you.’
‘And I,’ Paige said softly, ‘shall still be walking towards you.’ She lifted her face for his kiss. ‘Now take me home.’