‘If you’ll only say yes, you’ll make me the happiest man in the world,’ he urged, ‘and I’ll spend the rest of my life making you happy.’
‘Yes, I’ll marry you.’ As though he’d willed her, the words were out. Her promise given.
His expression taut, as if he was struggling to hold back an excitement almost too great to be borne, he felt in his pocket and, producing a small leather box, flicked open the lid.
A moment later he slipped a dazzling half hoop of diamonds onto her finger and said, ‘Feel free to change it if you’d prefer something different.’
Looking down at it, she thought of the cheap silver ring Keir had bought her, and wanted to cry.
Instead she smiled brilliantly and said, ‘It’s beautiful.’
Perhaps even then, in her heart of hearts, she knew she should never have accepted it…
A sudden whiz, as a figure brushed past too close for comfort, jolted Sera out of her abstraction. Coming back from the past abruptly into the early morning quiet of Central Park, she turned to see a youth on skates, a pile of newspapers folded under one arm, disappearing into the distance.
By her side, Keir said shortly, ‘Careless young fool. Did he bump you?’
‘No, he just startled me.’
Blinking and slightly dazed, like someone roused too suddenly from sleep, Sera realized they had reached the point where she usually left the Park.
Turning to her companion, she said with quiet finality, ‘I have to go now.’
Taking off his sweat-band, Keir thrust it into his pocket and, running a hand through his black curly hair, cut shorter than she remembered, suggested evenly, ‘Let me buy you a coffee. There’s a breakfast bar just round the corner that opens at six.’
Part of her, that old treacherous part that still loved him, urged her to accept. But she knew that, for a number of reasons, it was far too dangerous.
For one thing, if Martin had had a bad night he might wake early and ask for her and, if she wasn’t there, it would cause the kind of problems she didn’t want to have to face.
And that was putting it mildly.
She shook her head. ‘I ought to be getting back.’
A glint in his eye, Keir dispensed with the velvet glove. ‘Perhaps I’d better lay it on the line. I’ve no intention of letting you go until we’ve had more chance to talk.’
The last thing she wanted to do was talk, but she knew of old that, in this mood, Keir was implacable.
Still suffering from shock and feeling unable to fight that steely determination, she gave in. ‘Very well, but I won’t have to be too long.’
CHAPTER FOUR
AS THOUGH uncertain whether to trust her sudden capitulation, Keir took her hand and, twining his fingers in hers, began to lead her in the opposite direction to the one she needed to go.
The Red Rooster coffee bar was already busy, the high stools around the counter half full of mainly track-suited customers.
Keir chose a small table by the window and ordered two cappuccinos, which arrived promptly, accompanied by a plate of sugary doughnuts.
Leaving the doughnuts untouched they drank in silence until, eyeing her over his cup, he asked levelly, ‘Why look so worried?’
‘They’ll be expecting me back.’
‘Who’s they?’
‘W-well, Martin,’ she stammered.
The firm mouth tightened. ‘So you live with him?’
‘I live in the same apartment.’
‘Does that mean you’re holding out for a wedding ring before you sleep with him?’
‘It means I live in the same apartment.’
‘I can’t see Cheryl playing chaperon.’
Sera swallowed. ‘She moved out when she got married.’
‘And she married Roberto Canelli.’
It was a statement rather than a question and, wondering how he knew, she said, ‘Yes.’
‘So how long have you been living there?’
After the accident she had remained in a coma for almost five weeks before regaining consciousness. Then, having to spend a long time convalescing in a private nursing home, she had been forced to give up her room.
When she was fit enough to leave the nursing home, Martin, who had insisted on being cared for at home, had urged her to move in with him.
‘You can use Cheryl’s suite; she doesn’t need it any longer.’
Having nowhere else to go, she had reluctantly agreed…
‘Or is it a state secret?’ Keir pressed when she didn’t immediately respond.
‘About seven months,’ she admitted, and thought that it seemed a great deal longer. A prison, however luxurious, is still a prison.
His heavy-lidded eyes, with their thick sooty lashes, narrowed and thoughtful, he remarked, ‘You’re out exercising very early. Are you by any chance still going into the office?’
As soon as she had recovered her strength, hating the feeling of being dependent on Martin, she had stated her intention of going back to work and finding an apartment to rent.
With severe spinal injuries, he’d still been very poorly and in a lot of pain. When he’d begged her not to leave him, at least for the time being, she had felt forced to stay.
Some time later, when she could see he was making good progress, she’d broached the subject again.
He’d vetoed the idea, saying that as neither he nor Cheryl were at the office, there was no job open for her and, as soon as he was fit enough, he’d be working from home and he’d need her there with him.
When, in desperation, she’d attempted to argue, he’d flown into a rage and accused her of wanting to abandon him now that he was crippled.
Unable to bear that kind of moral pressure, she’d given in…
She became aware that, watching her face, Keir was still waiting quietly for an answer.
When she said nothing, he raised a dark brow. ‘Well, Sera?’
She shook her head and felt the hot colour flood into her face as she realized what conclusions he would draw from that.
‘A free woman with no need to work and unlimited money to spend! You must be in seventh heaven.’
It was so far from the truth that it was almost laughable, she thought bitterly. And she wondered what he’d say if he knew the true situation.
‘You seem to think I’m obsessed with money,’ she objected.
‘What else can I think? Though, after the kind of childhood you had, I suppose I shouldn’t blame you if you were looking for a rich husband who could give you all the things you’d ever wanted.’
‘But I wasn’t looking for a rich husband.’
Obviously unconvinced, he said, ‘I was fool enough to imagine you loved me until Rothwell came along and rattled the moneybags.’
‘How rich Martin was had absolutely nothing to do with it.’
‘Then, what was the criteria? He was better-looking? More intelligent? Kinder to children and animals?’
With careful understatement, she said, ‘He found time for me, gave me some attention.’
‘You mean he bought you clothes… Took you places… Spent money on you when I had none to spend.’
Shaking her head, she insisted, ‘It was nothing to do with money. Nothing!’
Then, realizing she would never convince him, she said curtly, ‘Oh, what’s the use? There’s no point in talking about it. It’s all over and done with. Nothing can be changed.’
‘I’m not so sure about that,’ Keir said icily. ‘Rothwell deliberately set out to take you away from me…’
That, at least, was true. With a ruthless determination she’d only afterwards appreciated, Martin had played on her loneliness, her growing belief that Keir didn’t care. He’d used every trick in the book to take her away from his rival.
Sera fought back. ‘But he would never have succeeded if you hadn’t been involved with Cheryl.’
Keir seemed to freeze and, as a background to his silence, she heard the hum of talk, the hiss of the coffee
machine, the rattle of cups and saucers…
Then, carefully, he said, ‘I was never involved with Cheryl.’
Why was he still bothering to lie? she wondered, and said flatly, ‘I saw you having lunch together.’
‘Having lunch together isn’t a hanging offence.’ His dark blue eyes narrowed. ‘And it only happened once. It was a business lunch at Rands, and Cheryl paid.’
‘You were holding her hand.’
‘We shook hands, which is somewhat different…’ His smile sardonic, he added, ‘I suppose you were there with Rothwell?’
‘And a Mr and Mrs Kessler. It was a business lunch. Martin asked me to take Cheryl’s place as she wasn’t available.
‘When he picked me up he thought I needed a smarter outfit. That’s why Anglo American provided something more suitable.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, really,’ she said angrily.
‘Wasn’t it so you’d have something more suitable to wear for your weekend in Long Island?’
‘At that time I didn’t know I was going to be invited to go to Long Island.’
‘I bet Rothwell did.’
‘If you hadn’t been taking Cheryl to the Catskills I wouldn’t have gone.’
‘I wasn’t taking Cheryl to the Catskills.’
‘Martin mentioned that she was going there to have a romantic away-from-it-all break with her latest man. And you admitted you’d been to the Catskills.’
Keir’s lips tightened. ‘So that’s why you asked me if I’d slept with Cheryl…’
Then, with a sigh, he said, ‘The fact that I’d been to the Catskills the same weekend, doesn’t mean I was Cheryl’s latest man. My trip was purely business. I told you so at the time.
‘Roberto Canelli, who, incidentally was Cheryl’s latest man, had a parcel of real estate up there he wanted me to handle.’
‘Roberto?’ Sera whispered.
‘If you remember, Cheryl introduced me to him the night of the party. After we’d looked at the proposed relocation site for his business, we went back to his apartment to thrash out some details.
‘About two-thirty in the morning I took a taxi home. Cheryl stayed there.’
‘You came back that night?’
‘Yes. There was still a chink of light under your door, but I decided not to disturb you.’
‘I left the light on on purpose hoping you’d knock.’
‘It was so late, I felt sure you’d be asleep…’
With a sigh, he admitted, ‘And that wasn’t the only reason… The way I was feeling then, if I’d come in I would have stayed, and I didn’t want to do that.’
Her voice barely above a whisper, she asked, ‘Why not?’
‘Because I couldn’t treat you as though you were some casual affair. At that stage of the game I had nothing to offer you. No time. No money. No security. My whole future hung in the balance, and if things had gone wrong…’ One long, well-shaped hand made a movement of finality.
Sera swallowed hard. ‘I went to your door the next morning. You weren’t at home.’
‘I left for the office at six-thirty. There was a very full day ahead. Several hours of work to catch up on, then a business lunch with Cheryl and Canelli, followed by a trip to the Catskills.
‘At the last minute Canelli phoned to say he couldn’t make lunch, but the Catskill trip was still on and he’d pick us up on the corner of Madison and East 88th Street.
‘Everything seemed to be going well until I got back on Sunday afternoon and found there was no sign of you. By the time you turned up I was almost out of my mind with worry.
‘When I saw you get out of Rothwell’s car…saw him kiss you…saw you wearing clothes I knew damn well you could never have afforded to buy yourself, I was furious… Then I found you’d taken off your ring…
‘The following morning I came to your door to apologize for the way I’d treated you, but you weren’t there. I couldn’t hang about, Cheryl was picking me up for a breakfast meeting with Canelli…’
‘I saw her,’ Sera said through stiff lips, and wondered how life could be so cruel? When she’d knocked at Keir’s door, he must have been in the shower, and when he’d knocked at hers, she’d been in the park looking for him.
She wanted to weep, to rail against a fate that had offered her happiness only to snatch it away again.
But how much was due to fate and how much to human intervention? It had been Martin who had dealt the coup de grâce.
She could see his face now, the calculating glance as he’d said, ‘I understand Cheryl has gone off somewhere with Sutherlands? Do I take it she’s stolen him from you?’
Sera knew that it had been no mistake on his part, he’d done it quite deliberately, and her reaction, she realized bitterly, must have been exactly what he’d hoped for.
If she’d had the guts to tackle Keir, ask him outright how things stood, she would no doubt have discovered the truth.
But the indisputable fact that he’d had no time for her had convinced her that he couldn’t really care, and her pride had insisted that she walk away.
‘I tried again that evening,’ Keir went on after a minute, his voice level, ‘but you were out with Rothwell. I saw him bring you back very late.
‘That’s when I realized how hopeless it was… At the time there was no way I could compete, and I couldn’t really blame you for not being prepared to wait until I had money to—’
‘I didn’t want your money,’ she broke in fiercely. ‘The only thing I ever wanted from you was for you to sometimes be there for me. But you hardly ever were. Business always came first…’
It was that, more than anything, that was responsible for the break up. If he hadn’t abandoned her that night at the party…
‘It’s true I neglected you,’ he admitted heavily. ‘But, unfortunately, I had little option.
‘I was in my first year at Oxford when my mother died. It was sudden and totally unexpected, and my father, who had worshipped her, went completely to pieces and started to drink heavily.
‘At that time the business was worth hundreds of millions but, overnight, he seemed to lose all interest, along with the will to live.
‘He made so many mistakes and errors of judgement that, before I’d finished college and returned home, Sutherlands had started to go downhill.
‘But it wasn’t until he finally drank himself to death that I discovered just how bad things were. All that was left was a house mortgaged up to the hilt and a business on the verge of bankruptcy.
‘Because the house was just a liability, I got rid of it and took the cheapest apartment I could find Downtown. I needed to work all the hours God sent to have any chance of saving Sutherlands…’
Feeling as though a knife was turning in her heart, Sera wondered why he hadn’t told her all this at the time rather than telling her now, when it was much too late?
Bleakly, he added, ‘I didn’t mind until I met you…’
‘If you’d only told me why you were working such long hours, I would have understood. But you never breathed a word about any difficulties.’
‘I was trying to keep the whole thing under wraps. It’s true to say that most property market deals, as well as financial ones, are based on confidence. Any hint of trouble and you’re sunk.’
‘But you could have told me.’
‘In all fairness, I thought it best not to. After all, you worked for Anglo American and you might have found yourself with divided loyalties.’
As she began to shake her head, he went on, ‘You were aware that Rothwell had agreed to part-finance that big Broadway development…’
It was a statement rather than a question, but she answered, ‘Yes.’
‘I’d poured my few remaining resources into that project. It was a gamble, but I knew that if it came off it would be the first step towards putting Sutherlands back on top. I also knew that if Rothwell got wind of any difficulties he’d withdraw his offer, and that would be the end…’
Painfully, she said, ‘I wish you’d had more faith in me. I wish you’d told me.’
‘Would it have made any difference?’
‘Yes, it would.’
All the difference in the world.
Knowing how things were, she would have understood and given him her full support, rather than presuming he didn’t care about her. She would have been content to wait and, if things hadn’t turned out right, she would have stuck by him if he hadn’t had a penny.
But the knowledge had come too late. Now she was trapped and there was no way out.
A kind of shudder ran through her.
‘Cold?’ Keir queried.
‘A little.’ All the way through to her soul.
‘You look pale and thin, as though you’ve lost weight,’ he pursued. ‘Have you been ill?’
‘No.’ She hadn’t been ill in the way that he meant.
‘Then, what’s wrong?’
Suddenly they were on dangerous ground.
‘Nothing’s wrong,’ she denied quickly. Jumping to her feet, her voice strained, she added, ‘I must be getting back.’
His fingers closed lightly round her wrist, not hurting, just keeping her there. ‘Why the hurry? It’s still quite early.’
Martin, as part of his daily routine, had breakfast before he got up and he liked her to sit on the bed and share it.
Without stopping to think, she spoke the truth. ‘If Martin’s awake he’ll expect me to have breakfast with him.’
As though picking up her thought waves, Keir said, ‘Breakfast in bed, no doubt? How very cosy.’
Watching the colour mount in her cheeks, he added caustically, ‘In fact, it sounds for all the world like connubial bliss.”
Biting her lip, she begged, ‘Please, Keir…’
He rose to his feet, dwarfing her five feet seven. ‘Very well, I’ll walk home with you.’
‘I’d rather you didn’t,’ she protested hurriedly.
‘Why not? If he’s missed you, will he be waiting at the door rattling your chains?’
It was too close to the truth to be funny.
When she made no answer, he released her wrist, dropped some dollar bills on to the table and, his hand at her waist, accompanied her to the door.
The Determined Husband Page 6