Once Upon a Christmas Night...

by Annie Claydon

  He’d so hoped…

  Greg put up a struggle before he reluctantly let go of the fantasy and it disappeared back into his subconscious. This wasn’t the time for hopes. Dreams either, although if this wasn’t one then Greg wasn’t sure what he should call it. Did he really think that he was going to be able to watch Shaw Industries go down, just because he had somewhere else to be? Would Jess ever respect him for abandoning the people who had worked for his father and now worked for him? People who had families to support, workers who were close to retirement and would struggle to find another job.

  He had to face facts. His father, the ultimate autocrat, had structured the company to fail without him, or his son, to provide strong leadership. Like it or not, he was the only one left now. He was going to have to find a way to balance it all, something for the company, something for Jess, and whatever was left over for himself. He couldn’t think about the chances against that working. All he could do was make a lunge for the slim thread of hope that it might.

  CHAPTER SIX

  JESS WOKE UP alone. The clock registered ten minutes past midnight, and she stretched her limbs and turned over to go back to sleep.

  When had that happened? This inability to sleep without Greg beside her? She turned over again, burrowing deep into the duvet, and then gave up.

  He wasn’t downstairs in the living room, and Jess skittered over to the fireside, still warm from the glowing embers in the grate. Pulling on her dressing gown and socks, which still lay discarded on the floor, she made for the kitchen.

  Not there either. It was as if Greg had vanished completely, sucked back into the vortex of the real world. She wasn’t quite ready for that. Just a little more time in this no-man’s land, where the unthinkable might just come true.

  She padded back upstairs, wondering whether she should put her head around all the bedroom doors. Then a line of light under the door at the end of the corridor, which led to the tower room, changed her mind.

  The grandfather clock in the hallway started to go through the truncated chimes that heralded the quarterhour. Jess twisted the handle of the door, opening it quietly. Greg hadn’t bothered to strip the dust sheet off the chair, and sat on it with his back to her, seemingly staring out of the window at the moon as it hung silently in the sky.

  ‘Greg?’ Her breath streamed white in the cold air. ‘It’s freezing in here.’

  If she’d crashed two trays together next to his head, he probably wouldn’t have jumped any further. He twisted round, a look of blank shock on his face.

  ‘What’s the matter? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.’ Jess regretted the words immediately. You generally said that kind of thing to people who clearly hadn’t seen a ghost. For one moment she wasn’t quite sure whether she hadn’t hit the nail squarely on the head.

  He recovered himself, reaching for her, and she let him pull her down onto his lap. ‘You feel solid enough.’

  ‘You’re checking?’

  ‘Best to be sure.’ He kissed her, taking his time, and something stirred inside her. Something that had already had its fill and ought to be fast asleep now.

  ‘What are you doing in here?’

  He shrugged. ‘I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d get up for half an hour, rather than disturb you. I must have dozed off.’

  ‘I woke up and you weren’t there.’

  His lip curled slightly, in obvious gratification. ‘Couldn’t sleep without me?’

  ‘You think it’s a good thing that you have a soporific effect on me?’

  His eyes taunted her. ‘You think there was any danger of you going to sleep one minute before I let you?’

  She planted a kiss on the end of her finger and transferred it to his forehead. ‘In other words, I’m like putty in your hands?’

  He slipped his hand inside her gown, trailing his cool fingers across the warm skin of her leg, and she shivered with delight. ‘Looks as if you are.’

  ‘Come back to bed.’

  He grinned. ‘Yes, ma’am. Whatever you say.’

  As soon as he had her back in his bedroom he stripped her naked, his own clothes slung on top of hers on the armchair in the corner of the room. The bed was still warm, and Jess curled up beside him.

  ‘Mmm. That’s better.’

  ‘Much.’ his hand wandered across her ribcage. ‘Jess, what are you doing for Christmas?’

  She smiled into his shoulder. Christmas with Greg would be wonderful. ‘I’m staying in London. There’s a lot to do at the hospital.’

  ‘Won’t that all be organised by then? You deserve some time off.’

  ‘I’ll have time off. But I can’t ask people to give up their time over Christmas without being there myself.’ That didn’t seem to be what Greg wanted to hear. ‘Why?’

  ‘Nothing. I just wondered.’ He rolled her over onto her back, kissing her, lingering over her lips until he’d taken his fill. ‘Maybe I can persuade you differently.’

  ‘Not like that, you can’t.’

  ‘Oh, really? Is that a challenge?’

  ‘No. Would you want to be able to change my mind when you know I’m doing something worthwhile?’

  He didn’t answer. The Greg she knew wouldn’t have had to. As she gave herself up to his caress, the final, fleeting thought in Jess’s head was that she hoped this was the Greg that she was sleeping with.

  It was barely light when she opened her eyes. She was warm, almost blissfully relaxed, and alone again.

  Where was Greg now? She clambered out of bed and opened the door, craning her head around it, half expecting to see the door at the end of the hallway open.

  Greg’s voice sounded, quiet and muffled from downstairs. a pause, and then he spoke again. He was talking to someone.

  She felt like a spy. As if she was snooping around his house, trying to catch him doing something He clearly didn’t want her to know about. But he’d deflected the conversation too many times, left too much unanswered. He was hiding something. Jess moved noiselessly along the hallway, pausing at the top of the great stairway and leaning over the stone balustrade.

  ‘The new controls do involve extra work, though, Ed. Everyone deserves to be paid for the hours they put in.’

  Another pause.

  ‘Ed, that’s the end of it. I’ve reviewed all the options, and that’s the fairest for everyone… No, that’s final.’ Greg’s voice was firm, decisive. No surprise there. But the note of irritable bad temper didn’t sound like him. Jess tried to turn away but she couldn’t and instead she sank to the floor, as if the rough, stone buttresses could shield her from what she was hearing.

  ‘No, I realise that, Ed. I’ll prepare something for the board, so that they all know exactly where this directive is coming from. When’s the meeting? Ten on Tuesday. That’s nine o’ clock Monday night our time, isn’t it? Right. I’ll get back to you before then.’

  Eleven hours’ time difference. That was the other side of the world. America was eight hours at most, wasn’t it? And yet this sounded like business talk, certainly nothing to do with the hospital. Jess heard a clatter as a telephone handset was put back into its cradle and she sprang to her feet, racing up the hallway towards the guest room where her overnight bag still sat on the undisturbed bed. In less than a minute she was in the shower, the door firmly locked behind her.

  So what on earth was he supposed to do? Greg took his feelings out on the loaf of bread that he was cutting for toast, and had to throw the resulting slice into the bin. He had a chance to make a difference here. The hours weren’t exactly regular, but neither were they at the hospital. He had hoped that Jess might understand.

  He’d been aware that she was there, even before he’d put the phone down, and had heard her blundering along the hallway. Greg couldn’t deny that his exaggerated sense of his own innocence had something to do with the fact that he also felt guilty as hell.

  There was only so long that he could resent Jess, though. And with the scent of her still on his
skin, the feel of her echoing through his memory, only so long wasn’t very long at all. She walked into the kitchen, showered and dressed, and Greg was lost again.

  ‘Hey, there. You’re up early.’ He bent to kiss her but the immediate fit that had moulded them together last night was lost now, and his lips brushed her cheek instead of her mouth.

  ‘So are you. I woke up and you weren’t there.’

  ‘I had something to do.’

  Her look, half hurt and half suspicious, made his mind up for him. He could break his rule, just once. He’d let her ask him about the business and then she wouldn’t need to wonder again.

  He waited until she had coffee and toast in front of her, and sat down next to her at the breakfast bar. ‘There’s something I want to talk to you about.’

  She turned her gaze on him, thoughtful and shot through with golden tenderness. She’d done that last night, when the honesty had got too much to bear, soothing him, letting him know that it was all right.

  ‘I wanted to talk to you about what I’ve been doing for the last eight months.’

  She couldn’t disguise her reaction and she didn’t try. ‘I have been wondering. I’m glad you want to talk about it.’

  ‘You might like to wait until you’ve heard what it is.’

  ‘Whatever it is, it can hardly be as fantastical as the hospital gossip.’

  ‘There was gossip?’ Of course there had been gossip. It was one of the oddities of life that in an institution devoted to the sick, you only had to sneeze and someone remarked on it.

  She smiled. ‘What do you think? Opinion was split between you having a secret twin that you’d gone to find and you having inherited countless millions. There was some talk of a treasure map, but that one didn’t run for too long. I think Gerry suggested it as a polite way of shutting everyone up and it backfired on him.’

  ‘No one said anything.’

  ‘Everyone’s forgotten about it now.’ She smiled at him. ‘I’m afraid you only get fifteen minutes of fame. Then no one remembers your name.’

  He laughed. She made everything so easy. That was part of what had made her such an invaluable part of his team. No expectations, no prejudices. Just find out what the situation is and deal with it.

  ‘So what was it really, then?’ She was gently prodding him in the right direction.

  ‘Well, there’s no lost twin. No treasure map.’ He almost regretted the absence of both. In fact, a treasure map might have been an adventure. ‘The countless millions are a bit closer to the mark, although I believe my accountant knows how many there are.’

  She was frowning. ‘But, it’s obvious that your father was wealthy—this is a big house. Is there a problem with that?’

  ‘No, Jess.’ She wasn’t understanding him. ‘My father was a very rich man.’ He put as much emphasis as he could on the ‘very’. ‘Houses on three continents. A multi-million-pound business that I’m only just coming to grips with how to run. A racehorse.’

  ‘A racehorse!’ This was all taking time to sink in, and the rest was beyond her grasp at the moment. ‘What’s its name?’

  ‘I have no idea. I don’t really want to know, I might start getting attached to it.’

  ‘Three continents?’ She was getting there.

  ‘Yeah. One in Australia, two in America, one in Rome and one here. The one in Rome’s really nice.’

  She was shrinking back from him, as if he’d just admitted to being an imposter from outer space who’d taken over his own body.

  ‘I could take you there for a holiday, over Christmas maybe. I think you’d love it.’

  She swallowed hard. ‘But it’s the business, isn’t it? That’s what the problem is.’

  She might be feeling acutely flabbergasted, but you could never accuse Jess of not being able to size up a situation.

  ‘Yes, exactly. My father and I weren’t particularly close and he wasn’t best pleased when I decided to go to medical school. It would have been nice to have a few personal things of his, but I’d always counted on him leaving his business interests to someone involved with the business.’

  ‘But you’re his son!’ It made Greg smile to hear her assert his filial rights. ‘You’re his only child?’

  He nodded. ‘Yeah, no long-lost siblings. Or if there are, they’re keeping quiet and I can’t say I blame them. It’s down to me to sort everything out.’

  Jess stared at him. Most people would have been overjoyed to hear of such an inheritance. Most women would already be planning the trip to Rome. Somehow she didn’t seem to be quite on board with that. ‘But isn’t that what you were doing when you were away?’

  ‘I’ve made a start.’ He took a sip of his espresso. ‘The board of directors is split over practically every issue you can name. My father chose people who were ambitious and who would think out of the box. He was the ultimate authority who kept it all under control, and that worked well when he was alive. Now it’s tearing itself apart at the seams.’

  ‘And… you mean you’re still running it?’

  ‘Not the day-to-day stuff. But, yes, I’m running it. I don’t have much choice; there are thousands of people depending on it for their livelihoods.’

  ‘Couldn’t you sell it?’

  ‘Yes. But it needs to be sold as a going concern.’ In truth, Greg hadn’t even considered selling up. ‘And it was so important to my father… ’

  ‘That’s the thing, isn’t it? It was the most important thing in his life and now he’s given it to you. And if you give it up, it’s like having to give him up all over again.’ She spoke quietly, no trace of accusation in her voice. All the same, the words were like shards of broken glass, slicing at his heart.

  ‘That’s as may be.’

  ‘Greg, tell me that you’re not thinking of leaving again.’

  ‘I don’t want to leave you, Jess, that’s not what all this is about.’

  ‘Not me. The hospital. Your job.’

  ‘I seem to have two jobs at the moment. I’m not sure how long I can sustain that.’

  She just stared at him. Nothing could have hurt Greg more than her complete, speechless incomprehension. ‘Jess, you have to understand.’

  ‘I don’t, Greg.’ She brushed tears from her eyes. ‘But that doesn’t mean I won’t support you.’

  That was something, at least. Perhaps when she’d thought about it a bit, or when she saw the house in Rome? The prospect was remote, but it was a possibility. ‘There is something I need some help with.’

  She nodded, looking at him solemnly.

  ‘My father left a notebook. I didn’t see it when I was here visiting him, but my mother said he showed it to her and told her that it was for me. I can’t find it.’

  ‘And you think that it’s here somewhere?’

  ‘That’s what I’m hoping.’

  She straightened, as if at last this was something that she could get to grips with. ‘I’ll help you look.’

  The idea was outrageous. Unthinkable. Greg was far too good a doctor to just give it all up. He loved it too much. He’d never needed to say it, it was clear by the light in his eyes when he brought someone back from the edge. The child had a right to his father’s time. The man had a right to pursue his own destiny. It seemed that Greg’s father was going to take both of those rights from him.

  She wanted to fight for him, but she didn’t know how, so she turned her energies to the journal. Leather bound, Greg said, about the size of a paperback book. When he took her into the large library, shelves reaching up to the grand, moulded plaster ceiling, that started to look like finding a needle in a haystack.

  ‘Okay. So why don’t you sort the papers that you need to take from here, and I’ll look through the books?’ She surveyed the task in front of her and swallowed hard.

  ‘You and whose superpowers, Jess?’

  ‘How hard can it be?’ She pulled the sleeves of her sweater up to her elbows and found herself suddenly crushed against his chest. ‘What’s
this for?’

  ‘For being too pig-headed to know when to give up.’

  ‘They’re only books.’ A lot of them. Many leatherbound. Jess wondered what it would be like to have had access to a library like this. No wonder Greg seemed to know so much about so many things.

  ‘And they don’t frighten you, eh?’ He was hugging her tight. Not the fevered embrace of a lover, just a man who seemed to need some warmth at the moment.

  Nothing frightened Jess quite as much as the idea that Greg was thinking about tearing his life to shreds. ‘We could narrow it down a bit. If your father was ill, he probably couldn’t make it up to the top shelves.’ She eyed the tall library steps.

  ‘He could have asked someone to climb up there for him. We had carers here pretty much all the time. And there are the staff in the house, although my mother’s given pretty much all of them the third degree and no one seems to have seen the book.’

  ‘Hmm. Suppose I stand on top of the steps and you wheel them along so I don’t have to keep running up and down to move them? Would that work?’

  ‘Yeah, it’ll work.’ He grinned at her. ‘You’ll have to hang on.’

  ‘Done this before, have you?’

  ‘All the time, when I was a kid.’

  ‘Well, then, you can show me how. Now, let go of me and let’s get started.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THEY WERE OFF the motorway and heading back into London. They’d searched for hours in every place they could think of and hadn’t found the notebook. So Greg had loaded two plastic crates of papers into the boot of his car, taken Jess for lunch at the local pub and, in what was fast becoming a private joke between them, given her the car keys.

  Jess’s phone rang and Greg picked it up from the dashboard. ‘It’s Gerry.’

  ‘Answer it.’ She flashed a grin at him. ‘If Gerry’s calling me on a Sunday afternoon, it’s probably not just for a chat.’

  ‘And I’m answering your phone why?’

  ‘It’s my phone. I can ask anyone I like to answer it.’ Jess wondered whether Greg would take up the challenge. He could quite easily pretend to press ‘reject’ instead of ‘answer’ by mistake, and let Jess pull over and call Gerry back.