Bestseller Collection 2010

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘I’ll take a raincheck, if you don’t mind.’ The grimace could be heard in his voice. ‘Sorry to have bothered you, Gemini. And thanks for your help,’ he added abruptly before ringing off.

  Gemini slowly put down her own receiver. She hadn’t been of any help to Danny, and they both knew it. Nor did she have any idea why Danny was trying to contact Jemima. But she knew that the two of them had worked together a couple of times during their three-month relationship, so maybe it had something to do with that…?

  Whatever, she had more important things to think about than either Danny or her sister.

  Nick, for one.

  For two…

  And for three!

  What was she going to tell him about this telephone call? Because she would have to tell him something. But he probably wouldn’t believe a word she said anyway!

  Nick looked up from playing with the baby as Gemini came back into the dining-room. His gaze narrowed on her questioningly but he didn’t say a word, not as she poured herself a fresh cup of coffee or when she sat down opposite him at the table again.

  Gemini gave him a bright, meaningless smile. ‘Danny said to say hello,’ she informed him lightly.

  Nick raised dark brows. ‘Am I supposed to be impressed?’ he drawled scathingly.

  She shrugged. ‘I did tell him I thought he should speak to you himself, but he didn’t seem too sure of his reception.’

  Nick’s mouth twisted. ‘I wonder why!’

  ‘I—’

  ‘What else did he want, Gemini?’ Nick rasped impatiently, obviously tired of waiting for her to give him an explanation of his brother’s telephone call.

  Afraid of Nick’s reaction, she cowardly began with the rest of Danny’s conversation, rather than his main point. ‘He just seemed to want a general chat,’ she dismissed, meeting Nick’s accusing gaze with a challenge of her own. ‘He asked me how everyone was. Including Jemima,’ she added pointedly.

  ‘He could have spoken to me for that,’ Nick scorned disbelievingly.

  ‘I just told you,’ Gemini reminded him. ‘He wasn’t sure of your reaction.’

  ‘My “reaction” would have been a damn sight less annoyed if he had spoken to me instead of asking to speak to my wife!’ Nick grated, standing up abruptly, obviously preparing to leave the dining-room. ‘What do you intend doing with the rest of today?’ he prompted suspiciously.

  He obviously believed she intended meeting Danny some time today! And she couldn’t let him go on believing that!

  She sighed. ‘Nick, if you really want to know the reason Danny called—’

  ‘I thought you had just told me the reason,’ he cut in accusingly.

  Prevaricating about the truth in this case was just complicating matters further.

  ‘He’s trying to find Jemima, Nick, that’s the real reason he telephoned here!’ she burst out reluctantly, shaking her head self-derisively. ‘I was the last resort, apparently,’ she added disgustedly.

  ‘He’s trying to what?’ Nick exploded disbelievingly.

  Gemini recoiled at the force of his attack. ‘Find Jemima—’

  ‘I don’t believe you,’ Nick scorned, shaking his head. ‘Jemima would have no more interest in talking to Danny than I have!’

  Gemini frowned. ‘I didn’t say Jemima wanted to talk to Danny, only that he wanted to find her,’ she correctly softly; and since when had Nick become such an expert on what Jemima might want…? ‘And I don’t tell lies,’ she added quietly, meeting his stormy gaze unflinchingly.

  Nick looked down at her wordlessly for several long minutes, his narrowed gaze cynically thoughtful. Finally he shook his head, his expression scornful. ‘I think I found your first explanation more believable, Gemini—’

  ‘But this happens to be the truth!’ she gasped protestingly, amazed at how he had managed to turn this around onto her!

  ‘I’m sure you know the story of the little boy and the wolf…?’ he prompted dryly. ‘Well, you just cried wolf once too often!’ he muttered grimly at her confirming nod.

  ‘But—’

  ‘And now it looks as if you have Jessica to take care of.’ He looked down to where the baby was starting to fidget for her next feed. ‘I have some papers to deal with in my study today,’ he said dismissively. ‘But I’ll join you for dinner this evening,’ he added pointedly.

  In other words, he was going to be in the house all day, and would know if she made any attempt to go out! To meet Danny, no doubt!

  ‘Fine,’ she acknowledged tightly, picking Jessica up and deliberately preceding him out of the dining-room. ‘I think I’ll take Jessica out for a walk in her pushchair after her feed,’ she informed him definitely; she was not going to become a prisoner in her own home—no matter what Nick did or didn’t believe about Danny’s telephone call!

  ‘Good idea,’ Nick agreed smoothly. ‘Give me a shout when you’re ready to go and I’ll come with you. I could do with some fresh air myself,’ he added as Gemini turned sharply to look up at him.

  ‘Fresh air be damned,’ Gemini muttered to herself as she prepared the baby’s feed. Nick didn’t even trust her to take the baby for a walk on her own now!

  This was all so silly. They had been married for fourteen months now, and during that time they’d both been away on their own—on business, of course. And never once during that time had Nick given any indication that he didn’t trust her either to stay here on her own or to go away on her own. Now it seemed he didn’t even trust her to go out of the house for a short walk on her own!

  Besides which, they looked ridiculous walking in the park together, Gemini decided an hour or so later. She was in charge of the pushchair while Nick strolled along at her side. They looked for all the world like any other family: doting parents out walking with their young baby on a Sunday afternoon!

  Gemini almost choked when Nick suggested they stop by the pond and feed the ducks, especially when he even produced some stale bread from his jacket pocket for the purpose. He took Jessica from the pushchair to crouch down with her on his knee as he gave Gemini the bread to break up and throw for the waiting birds.

  Gemini couldn’t believe she was doing this! It was so totally out of context with the way their marriage had been up to this point! ‘Maybe the two of us should have had a baby,’ Nick murmured thoughtfully.

  Gemini stared down at him. What on earth—?

  Nick glanced up at her. ‘You like children, don’t you?’

  Until the last couple of days she hadn’t given the question any thought. But Jessica, with her gurgling chuckles and her complete vulnerability, had somehow wriggled her way into Gemini’s heart…

  And why shouldn’t she? Jessica was her niece, after all. But as for a baby of her own—it was something she had never even thought about!

  Nick’s baby…

  Just the thought of having his child made her tremble. And Nick would make a wonderful father, she thought, looking at how naturally he handled Jessica.

  What was she doing?

  The two of them couldn’t have a child for the simple reason they didn’t have that sort of marriage! Or was that what Nick was saying…? That after last night that was all going to change?

  ‘Other people’s,’ she confirmed abruptly. ‘But a child between the two of us would really complicate matters!’

  His mouth twisted wryly. ‘Wouldn’t it just?’ he murmured mockingly, straightening to tuck Jessica into a half sitting position in the curve of his arm. ‘I’ll just walk her round to the other side of the pond and show her the fish,’ he told Gemini dismissively.

  In other words, this was a Nick and Jessica thing—so much for Gemini taking the baby for a walk! Not that Gemini minded too much, and she moved to sit down on a bench that faced the pond, her legs feeling slightly weak after their recent conversation.

  A baby. Surely Nick wasn’t suggesting—? No, he had said they ‘should have had’ a baby; the past tense.

  Would things be any different
between them now if they had had a normal marriage from the outset, if they had shared a bed as well as a home? Probably, she acknowledged, sadly. For wasn’t all this a little late for them now…?

  ‘Boy or girl?’

  Gemini turned sharply at the sound of the voice, finding that while she had been lost in thought a young lady with a pushchair parked at her side had joined her on the bench.

  ‘Sorry?’ Gemini prompted apologetically.

  The young woman, who was three or four years younger than Gemini’s twenty-nine years, with flowing blonde hair and friendly blue eyes, nodded across the pond to where Nick was busy showing the baby the fish gliding in the water. ‘I asked if you have a little boy or a little girl?’

  Gemini’s brow cleared. ‘I—’ She came to an abrupt halt. What was the point of going into explanations concerning Jessica’s parentage—or lack of it? ‘A little girl,’ she supplied lightly. ‘She’s six weeks old.’ At least she had been on Friday; not knowing the actual date of Jessica’s birth, she really couldn’t be more accurate than that!

  ‘My little boy is six months old.’ The young woman nodded to where the baby lay sleeping in the pushchair beside her. ‘He seems to have got his clocks a bit confused at the moment, because he’s awake all night and sleeps all day!’ She grinned ruefully.

  ‘Poor you,’ Gemini sympathised with feeling; and she had thought she had problems just getting up for Jessica twice in the night!

  The young woman shrugged. ‘Your husband obviously adores her,’ she murmured appreciatively, once again looking across the pond.

  Gemini followed her gaze, her breath catching in her throat as Nick laughed at that moment at Jessica’s tiny hands moving in an attempt to touch the water. Nick certainly did have a way with Jessica…

  ‘But then,’ the young woman added softly, ‘she looks so much like you.’

  Actually, Jessica looked very like her mother, with her dark, almost black hair and deep blue eyes, her features a tiny replica of Jemima’s. Although some of Jessica must be her father—whoever he might be! But as Gemini and Jemima were physically identical twins, it wasn’t surprising that this woman should think Jessica resembled Gemini…

  ‘Yes,’ she acknowledged non-committally.

  ‘You’re very lucky your husband takes such an interest in her,’ the young woman said wistfully. ‘Mine’s off watching a football match somewhere.’

  And Gemini’s ‘husband’ was only with her at the moment because he had no intention of allowing her to go anywhere on her own where she might possibly meet the man he believed to be her lover—his own brother!

  ‘I’m not expecting the novelty to last too long, either,’ Gemini assured the other woman dryly. ‘At the moment Jessica is small and unobtrusive—I’m just waiting until she can walk and talk, then we’ll see how often Nick walks in the park with us!’

  The young woman laughed appreciatively as she stood up. ‘I suppose I had better get back and cook the lunch. It was nice talking to you,’ she added warmly before turning to walk towards one of the park exits.

  Gemini continued to smile even after the woman had gone. It had been fun, just for a few brief minutes, to pretend she and Nick were Jessica’s parents, to laugh and joke with someone on the subject of children and husbands.

  ‘Who was that?’ Nick rasped suspiciously.

  She sighed, her smile fading as she looked up at him. ‘I have no idea,’ she told him truthfully.

  ‘But the two of you were talking together,’ he pointed out reasonably.

  She drew in a deeply controlling breath. ‘Apparently talking to each other is something that mothers do when they go to the park with their children,’ she returned sarcastically, standing up to take the baby from him and put her back in her pushchair, completely ignoring Nick as she did so.

  Only to find him still watching her with narrowed eyes when she straightened. For goodness’ sake, who did he think the young woman was? A friend of Danny’s sent to pass her a message? If he did, he was becoming jealously possessive, and somehow that role didn’t sit too well with the self-confident man she was married to.

  ‘It’s probably because being tied down at home with a baby all day they have so few people to talk to!’ Gemini added scathingly.

  ‘Is that what you think motherhood is, being “tied down”?’ Nick murmured quizzically.

  She’d said something wrong again! But then, when did she do anything else just recently?

  ‘Not exactly,’ she answered dismissively, resuming pushing the pushchair. ‘Although I’m sure that young lady does!’

  Nick fell into step beside her. ‘It doesn’t have to be that way. There are nannies—’

  ‘Nick, I think this nesting feeling you’re exhibiting is wonderful—but sure to be fleeting!’ she told him. ‘Babies don’t stay the size of Jessica for very long, Nick, they get bigger, and as they get bigger they get talkative, inquisitive, mobile—’

  ‘Okay, okay, I get the point, Gemini,’ Nick cut in impatiently. ‘What you’re really trying to say is that motherhood isn’t for you!

  No, she wasn’t saying that at all. It hadn’t been, certainly, but Jessica’s arrival in their lives was slowly changing that…

  No!

  The way things were between Nick and herself now, and with the deterioration in their relationship the last two days, there was no way she would even contemplate bringing a baby into their marriage.

  ‘I’m a career-woman, Nick,’ she told him coldly. ‘You knew that when you married me.’

  He quirked dark brows. ‘Did I?’

  ‘Yes!’ she insisted firmly. ‘Now it’s your turn to push this damned thing!’ She handed over the pushchair, once against shaken by the intensity of their conversation, inwardly apologising to Jessica for seeming resentful of her presence.

  The truth of the matter was she was growing to love Jessica very much, was even starting to distinguish which cries meant the baby was hungry and which meant she was either bored or needed her nappy changing.

  But she knew it wasn’t a good idea for her to love the baby too much. When it suited her, Jemima would return, and when she did she would just take Jessica away with her.

  When Jemima returned…

  Although when that was going to be was anyone’s guess…!

  Gemini was in no way reassured, when they returned to the house a short time later, to be informed by Mrs James that Jemima had telephoned while they were out, and that she was going to be delayed in America for several more days!

  And once again her irresponsible sister had refused to leave a contact telephone number!

  Jemima couldn’t possibly have known that both Gemini and Nick would be out of the house when she telephoned, especially on a Sunday morning, but nevertheless Gemini still felt furious at her sister’s selfishness.

  ‘Looks as if the “career-woman” will have to go on hold for a few days,’ Nick drawled mockingly once the housekeeper had returned to the kitchen.

  Gemini’s eyes flashed brightly blue as she turned to glare at him. ‘Not at all,’ she bit out challengingly. ‘Jessica will just have to come to the salon with me in the morning.’ Until this moment she’d been nonplussed herself as to what to do with Jessica while she worked, but Nick’s mockery had spurred her into defensive action.

  And why not take Jessica to work with her?

  What harm could it possibly do?

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘FOR goodness’ sake put the baby down for a few minutes, Hugh, and let’s get some work done!’ Gemini grumbled, frowning across at her assistant as he strolled about their workroom holding Jessica against one of his broad shoulders.

  What harm could there be, she had thought last night, in bringing the baby to work with her? There was no real ‘harm’ in it; it was just that Hugh treated Jessica much as he did the spoilt cat he had at home in his flat, constantly carrying the baby, talking to her incessantly in sugar-coated baby-talk!

  So much so that it wasn’t
even lunchtime yet, and Gemini felt nauseous!

  Hugh looked across at her reprovingly. ‘Shh,’ he hissed softly. ‘You’ll wake her!’

  ‘Babies are supposed to sleep through noise,’ Gemini told him wearily.

  Hugh obviously had no idea how ridiculous he looked in his new role of nursemaid—and he probably wouldn’t have cared even if he did!

  There was only one way to describe Hugh Pickering, with his mousse-spiked dyed blond hair, battle-scarred face and huge, powerful body; he looked like the bouncer from a particularly seedy nightclub!

  But that assumption was untrue from every angle where Hugh was concerned. He was one of the gentlest men Gemini had ever met, and literally couldn’t bear to harm even a fly. And the battle-scarred face had come from his teen years, when he had decided to be honest about his sexuality and had received several beatings for his candidness.

  But the world of fashion was less judgemental about such things, and Hugh was a wonderful fashion assistant; he could literally take one of Gemini’s designs and bring it to sensational life. The two of them had worked together for five years now, and Gemini, for one, hoped that would never change.

  ‘Put the baby down, Hugh,’ she told him patiently. ‘She’ll sleep far better, and probably longer too, if she’s in her carrycot.’

  The look on Hugh’s face had been priceless this morning, when she’d staggered into the salon with Jessica in the carrycot! If she had walked in stark naked he would probably have looked less stunned. And less interested too, she acknowledged ruefully.

  But it turned out that Hugh adored babies. And it was an adoration Jessica had seemed to return from the very first moment Hugh had picked her up. But after almost three hours of this mutual adoration Gemini had had enough!

  ‘Work, Hugh,’ she reminded him pointedly.

  He sighed, moving to put Jessica in her carrycot as requested. ‘You’re very grouchy this morning, Gem,’ he complained as he tucked the blankets about the baby—even the roughness of his voice sounded as if it came over sandpaper.