The Right Bride?

by Sara Craven

  ‘No,’ she repeated. ‘I can’t. I’m sorry. I know how very important this is to you, but—’

  ‘You’re right there,’ he cut in abruptly, causing her to stare at him. But, relenting suddenly, ‘I’ve had since Tuesday to adjust to the notion. Four days in which to weigh everything up, to mull it over and over, to get used to the idea before reaching the decision I have. On reflection, perhaps I’m not being fair, dropping it on you like this and expecting you to come back with the answer I want.’

  She was about to reiterate that her answer was no. And that had she had those same four days it would not have made any difference—her answer would still be no—that she just did not need to think about it, or need to get used to the idea either. But Silas was no longer beside her. He was out of the car and had come round to the passenger door.

  She stepped out and he stood with her for a moment on the gravel by the front door. He glanced down to where, in the light of the security lamps, her dark hair glowed with red lights. ‘Think about it,’ he said. ‘Think about it and I’ll call you. I’ll phone you Tuesday evening.’

  Colly looked up. His expression was telling her nothing. She opened her mouth to again tell him no, that she had no need to think about it, then realised that he was not in any kind of mood to take ‘no’ from her.

  ‘Goodnight,’ she said, and went indoors.

  Saturday and Sunday passed with Colly still trying to believe that the conversation that had taken place on Friday night had actually taken place and was not some figment of her imagination. Had Silas Livingstone really suggested they marry? Had he really told her to think about it and that he would call her for her answer?

  Whatever—his astonishing proposal did achieve one thing: her head was so full of it there was small room for her to take much heed of Nanette’s spiteful barbs whenever they were within speaking distance of each other.

  Though on Monday morning Nanette was at her most vicious. ‘You still here?’ she snapped when she eventually came down the stairs.

  ‘I’m making plans,’ Colly returned, without a plan in her head.

  ‘You’d better make them pretty quick, then,’ Nanette retorted, going on to inform her nastily, ‘If you’re not out of this house by the end of the week I’m having all the locks changed!’

  ‘You can’t do that!’ Colly gasped.

  ‘Who’s going to stop me? Joseph Gillingham left this house to me.’ And, with a triumphant smirk, ‘It’s mine!’

  Not for the first time Colly wished that her father’s lawyer friend Henry Warren were there to advise her. Surely she could not be barred from her home of twenty-three years? Be put out in the street—just like that! But Uncle Henry was still holidaying abroad, and to seek help from some other legal representative would take money. And money was in rather short supply just then.

  How short was again brought home to her when, a little while later, she went looking for a flat to rent. Prices were sky-high! She couldn’t so much as pay the first month’s rent in advance for even the lowliest bedsit!

  Silas Livingstone’s proposal that she stand with him in front of some registrar suddenly started to have a weakening effect on her. She stiffened her backbone. She couldn’t do it. Marry him? Take money from him? No, it was out of the question.

  She returned to her car, but had no wish to return home. It was not home any more. She began to feel all stewed up—what other options were open to her? There were none. She replayed again that morning’s spat with Nanette and could not get it out of her head. That was when Colly realised that if she dwelt on it many more times she might yet weaken completely. And she could not weaken. She could not marry Silas Livingstone.

  On impulse she took out her phone. She would tell him now. She would not wait until tomorrow for him to call her. She would tell him now—while she still had the strength of mind.

  She supposed she should have realised it would not be as simple as that to get in touch with him. He was a busy man. He had not even had any free time in which to take her to lunch last week, had he?

  Though she did get through to his PA, and it was almost as if Ellen Rothwell had been instructed to put her through to him were she to ring, because the PA was most affable and informative when she apologised and said, ‘I’m sorry, Silas isn’t in right now. All being well, he should be in the office at some time between three and four if that’s any help?’

  ‘Thank you very much. I—er—may call back,’ Colly replied, and, unable to sit still, she left her car wishing that it was all over and done with.

  As she walked aimlessly about so she started to blame him. It was all his fault that she was in this stew. If he had taken her at her word on Friday she would not now be wandering around fretting the pros and cons of his whole astonishing suggestion anyway.

  Not that she had thought too deeply about his side of things. Though it was plain that Silas must be more than a little desperate to have put the preposterous proposal to her in the first place. He, with his forward planning, could see everything he and his father before him—and his grandfather too, come to that—had worked for going down the drain if his cousin got his hands on those controlling shares.

  He knew his cousin better than she, who had never met him. But surely this Kit person was not so bad as all that? If he were, then would Grandfather Livingstone really change his will in the married Kit’s favour? She could not see it.

  But suddenly then Colly was shocked into reconsidering. It had never dawned on her that she would be made homeless when her father died—but he had changed his will, hadn’t he? And, when she might have been forgiven for not expecting to be left destitute, he had left her not a penny.

  Feeling a little stunned, Colly began to wish she had not started to think about this marriage proposal from Silas’s angle. Because now that she had she began to think of all those employees who would lose their livelihood, the shareholders who might have invested perhaps more than they could afford in the prosperous company—all of whom stood to suffer financially should Silas’s worst fears come to fruition. It was as weakening as knowing that she was about to be made homeless, and that come the weekend she could throw away her house keys for all the use they would be to her.

  By half past two, while appearing outwardly calm, Colly had become so het-up from going over and over everything in her head that she just could not take any more. Neither could she marry him, and that was that, and the sooner she told him the better. She would phone again—oh, grief, with his tight schedule he would be too busy to take phone calls.

  That was when she noticed that she was not all that far away from the Livingstone building. At five to three she was pushing through the plate glass doors.

  While she knew where Silas Livingstone’s office was, there was a way of doing these things. And, anyhow, he might have someone in his office with him, which meant that she could not just bowl in there unannounced.

  She went over to the desk. ‘I’m Columbine Gillingham,’ she told the receptionist. ‘Is it convenient to see…’ she got cold feet ‘…Ellen Rothwell?’

  Her insides started to act up, and that was before the receptionist came off the phone to pleasantly say that Mrs Rothwell was expecting her. ‘You know the way?’

  Colly hoped that by the time she reached Ellen Rothwell’s door she might have calmed down somewhat. But not a bit of it; she felt even more hot and bothered and was fast wishing that she had not come. She was recalling those steady dark blue eyes that had looked into hers—almost as if he could see into her soul.

  I’m being fanciful, she scoffed. But her insides were still rampaging when she found Ellen Rothwell’s door and went in.

  ‘Silas isn’t back yet, but if you’d like to take a seat he won’t be long,’ Ellen informed her pleasantly.

  Colly thanked her, but felt more like standing up and pacing up and down than sitting. But she went and took a seat, realising as she did so that, while it was highly unlikely Silas would have confided in his PA a
ny of this very private business, it looked very much as if—appointments with him being like gold dust—he must have mentioned that he was prepared to take calls from Columbine Gillingham, and that if she appeared personally he would fit her in with his busy schedule somehow.

  Then the outer door opened, and while her heart leapt into her mouth it quieted down again when she saw it was not the man she had come to see. This man was about the same age as Silas, and about the same tall height. But that was where any likeness ended. He was sandy-haired, and where Silas had a strong, rather nice-shaped mouth, this man’s mouth was weak—and that was before he opened it.

  ‘Ellen, lovely girl—is my cousin in?’ he wanted to know, his eyes skirting from her to make a meal of Colly.

  ‘Not yet,’ Ellen replied, but his attention was elsewhere as he turned his smile full beam on Colly.

  ‘Are you here to see Silas?’ he queried—and, before she could answer, ‘Kit Summers,’ he introduced himself, and held out his right hand.

  It would have been churlish to ignore it. Colly shook hands with him—and wanted to pull her hand back when he held it over-long.

  ‘What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?’ Kit Summers asked flirtatiously.

  Heaven help us! This man might be left to run the company! Colly caught Ellen doing an eye-roll to the ceiling, and felt a hysterical kind of laugh wanting to break loose.

  Kit Summers was not at all put off that Colly did not answer, but, continuing to beam at her, suggested, ‘Look, Silas might not be back for ages—why don’t I take you for a cup of tea?’

  Colly stared at him. This chinless wonder was married, yet by the look of it did not miss an opportunity to flirt. She was about to give him a cool, No, thank you, when Ellen Rothwell interceded.

  ‘Have you the figures Silas wanted?’ she enquired evenly.

  That shook him sufficiently for him to take his eyes off Colly for a moment. ‘Hell, was it today he wanted them? Strewth, I’d better be going. Don’t tell him I was here,’ he said. ‘And deny any rumour you may have heard that I was on the golf course this morning!’ With that he was gone.

  Colly sat there feeling stunned and with her insides churning. Silas’s cousin was a lightweight, and it showed. And if first impressions were anything to go by he was not fit to run any development company, much less an international one.

  Then suddenly her mouth went dry. She heard sounds coming from the next-door office. If she wasn’t very much mistaken, Silas was back.

  She was not mistaken—the intercom buzzed into life. ‘Has Kit been in?’ Silas asked.

  ‘Been and gone, I’m afraid,’ his PA answered, and quickly, before he could enquire about any figures, ‘Miss Gillingham is here to see you.’

  The announcement was met with total silence. And, quite desperately wishing that she had written, or phoned, but certainly that she had not come in person, Colly went from hot to cold and to hot again. All at once there was movement on the other side of the door, and a moment later the door was opened and Silas Livingstone, tall, commanding, and the very opposite of his cousin, stood there.

  He did not smile, or remind her that he had been going to give her a call tomorrow evening, but, ‘Hello, Colly,’ he said mildly, with his eyes fixed on hers as if he would read there what she had come in person to tell him.

  Colly stood up. The time had arrived to give him the answer that would not wait until he telephoned tomorrow. He took a step back, so she should go first into his office, and following her in closed the door behind them, giving them all the privacy they needed.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘WHAT have you got to tell me?’ Silas asked.

  ‘I…’ She was nervous; her voice got lost somewhere in her throat.

  She moved more into the centre of the room, but, indicating one of the easy chairs, ‘Come and sit over here,’ Silas invited calmly. If he was aware of how mixed up inside she felt, he was not showing it.

  With him towering over her, to sit across the room from him seemed a good idea. Colly went and took a seat—then found that Silas had no intention of going over to sit behind his desk when he came and took the easy chair opposite hers.

  ‘I’m sorry to have intruded on your day.’ She found her voice. ‘I know how busy you are!’

  If she had expected him to say that it did not matter she would have been in for a disappointment. For he said nothing of the sort, but, getting straight to the point, ‘You couldn’t wait until tomorrow to give me your answer?’

  ‘My answer was no,’ she replied promptly.

  ‘On Friday.’ He immediately got down to business. ‘On Friday it was no. You’ve had time to think about it fully since then.’

  She had thought of little else. ‘My answer was still no this morning,’ Colly answered. ‘Only…’

  ‘Only?’ he took up when she hesitated.

  ‘Only—well, to tell you the truth, I found myself weakening when this morning Nanette—um—mentioned—well, to be honest—This is extremely embarrassing for me!’ she broke off to exclaim.

  ‘You’re doing well,’ Silas stated calmly. ‘Carry on.’

  ‘Well, it would seem I soon won’t have anywhere to live.’

  ‘That “lady” wants you out?’

  Colly coughed slightly. ‘By the weekend,’ she agreed, not missing that he did not seem to have much time for her ‘lady’ stepmother. ‘I said this was embarrassing,’ she mumbled. ‘Anyhow, my trawl of just a few rental agencies has shown that I’m going to be hard put to it to find the rent.’

  ‘So on that basis you decided, yes, you’d change your mind and agree to marry me?’

  ‘No,’ Colly denied. ‘I’m being as honest with you as I know how,’ she added quickly. ‘My answer first thing this morning was still no,’ she went on openly, explaining, ‘When you and I are virtually strangers to each other, it goes against everything in me to allow you to, in effect, keep me while I undertake whatever training I need to make a career for myself.’

  She paused for breath and looked at him. But he said nothing, just sat quietly listening—and assessing.

  ‘Anyhow,’ she continued, ‘in the light of this morning’s happenings—my imminent homelessness and inability to afford anywhere to live—I found I was weakening in my decision to—er—not take you up on your offer.’ She took a shaky breath. ‘So I thought I shouldn’t wait until tomorrow to tell you, but tell you today. But I couldn’t get you when I phoned earlier. Then I was close by, so I thought I’d better come and tell you in person.’

  ‘Before you weakened further?’ he suggested.

  ‘Yes,’ she replied. And hesitated again. Never had she felt so totally all over the place as she did then. ‘But…’

  ‘But?’ Silas prompted when she seemed momentarily stuck to know how to go on.

  ‘But—I’ve just met your cousin.’

  Silas moved his head fractionally to one side, alert, interested. ‘And?’ he enquired.

  ‘Oh, Silas,’ she said in a rush, ‘you can’t possibly allow him to take over the company!’

  Silas looked at her levelly for ageless seconds. Then, quietly, he let fall, ‘You, Colly, have the power to stop him.’

  She stared at him, her heart thundering. She felt she was teetering on the biggest decision of her life.

  ‘Forget your pride at taking assistance from me,’ he urged after some moments, ‘and think of what you will be doing for me, and this company. I, in turn, will benefit far more than you,’ he reminded her.

  That made her feel a whole deal better. But it still did not make it right. ‘Why me?’ she asked as the question suddenly came to her. And, looking at him, seeing everything about him shrieking sex appeal, ‘You must know any number of women who would agree to this?’

  He did not deny it but gave her question a few seconds’ thought before replying. ‘You because you, like me, have a need, and we would be helping each other. And you, if I’m to be as honest as you, mainly becaus
e you don’t want to marry me and would prefer any other way if you could find one.’

  ‘Ah!’ she exclaimed, as it suddenly dawned on her. ‘Me because you know I won’t get in your hair afterwards and try to make capital of it?’

  He stared at her. ‘Precisely,’ he acknowledged, and with entire spontaneity they both burst out laughing. It was good to laugh with him—it lightened the serious atmosphere.

  Then the intercom buzzed and Ellen Rothwell, apologising for the interruption, was informing him of telephone calls queuing up and reminding him of an appointment he had to keep.

  Colly stood up. It seemed to her that she had intruded on his day for long enough. ‘You still want to—um—do this?’ she asked as Silas, on his feet too, looked down at her.

  ‘Most definitely,’ he replied, his eyes on her fine green eyes.

  Colly took a long breath. She could hardly believe she was about to commit herself to marry this handsome virile man, but, ‘You’d better say when,’ she consented.

  Silas did not take a moment to comprehend that she had just agreed to be his wife. Nor did he waste words, but stated, ‘The sooner the better,’ and, at once decisive, went over to his desk, wrote something on a piece of paper and returned to hand it to her. ‘You’ll want to have a look at your new home,’ he said. ‘We’ll have matters to discuss too. I can be there around nine this evening. Is that all right with you?’

  Grief, when she was committed she was committed, she realised. Silas was not hanging about. ‘Fine,’ she said faintly, and made for the door.

  She left the Livingstone building in something of a daze. Had she just done what she thought she had? Had she just done what she had not intended to do? Was she, in effect, engaged to marry Silas Livingstone?

  Over the following few hours her all-over-the-place feelings settled down. One way and another there had been quite an upheaval in her life lately. First her father had died. Then, before she could come to terms with his passing, she had learned that there was no way her father’s wife was going to let her continue to live under the same roof. And now, Colly mused, she was going to have to come to terms with being—a wife!