All in all it seemed to be working.
Sera had always considered Pine Cove to be too big and too grand, with its twenty-odd rooms and its marble-floored hall but, after spending months cooped up in the Fifth Avenue apartment, the house proved to be a nice change.
Kathleen, surprisingly, loved the place on sight.
Martin, having lived in virtual isolation for so long, was finding the company of other people pleasantly stimulating and, consequently, was looking younger and happier than he had done since the accident.
It was a lovely evening and, though the buffet had been set in the dining-room, the French windows leading to the terrace had been opened wide as they had in the adjoining living-room.
As well as the house guests, thirty or so friends and neighbours had been invited and were arriving in small groups.
Looking relaxed and remarkably handsome in evening dress, Martin, with Sera by his side, received them, and soon the party was in full swing.
Kathleen, officially given the night off, had discarded her uniform for a purply-blue dress that almost exactly matched her eyes.
With a touch of make-up and sparkling amethyst drops in her neat lobes, she looked absolutely lovely, Sera thought, and found herself wondering why such an attractive young woman should give up virtually all her social life to be a nurse.
It must be a heart-warming vocation; something that was eminently satisfying in itself.
Having very little choice, Sera was wearing the ankle-length sheath in muted shades of green and dull silver that she’d bought for the Anglo American party.
Her silky black hair was taken up into a smooth, shining knot and, realizing how wan she looked, she’d applied her make-up with care.
Her only jewellery was the fine silver chain she habitually wore under her clothes, next to her skin. One loop lay snugly beneath the hollow at the base of her throat, the other longer loop disappeared into the bodice of her dress.
Earlier, as they were gathering on the terrace for pre-party drinks, sounding irritable, Martin had complained, ‘I don’t know why you didn’t buy a new dress. It would be nice to see you wearing something decent for a change.’
Flushing a little, she’d bitten her tongue and said nothing. If she’d had even a small salary she might have bought a new dress rather than wear this one which provoked such painful memories. But as things were she couldn’t bring herself to spend Martin’s money.
To Kathleen, he’d remarked, ‘You look absolutely stunning! I hadn’t realized until now how beautiful your eyes are…’
Blushing rosily, for once in her life Kathleen had found nothing to say.
‘Why don’t you go and mingle a little?’ he’d added. ‘Enjoy the party. Sera will stay with me, so you can forget I exist.’
But now, watching Kathleen talking and laughing with the other guests, and obviously a big hit with the males present, Martin looked anything but pleased that she’d taken him at his word.
Concerned that it was going to spoil his evening, Sera never left his side for a moment and, dancing attendance on him, did her best to fill Kathleen’s place as well as her own.
‘Hi!’ Cheryl, striking in gold lamé, her husband by her side, had appeared out of the throng.
Stooping to kiss her brother’s cheek, she said, ‘Sorry we’re a bit late. I guess it’s because we live too close. Isn’t it always the way? So how are things going?’
‘Very well,’ Martin said without a great deal of conviction.
‘Sera… How are you?’ Roberto, short and stocky, fetchingly masculine, lifted her hand to his lips in a gesture that was as charming as it was unselfconscious.
With eyes so dark they looked almost black, a smile that lit up his whole face, and a fascinating accent, Cheryl’s husband was one of the most attractive men she’d ever met, Sera thought. He was also one of the nicest.
While the two men shook hands, Cheryl gave her sister-in-law-to-be a quick hug, followed by a close scrutiny. ‘You still seem a bit thin and pale.’
‘I’m fine, really,’ Sera said, adding, with perfect truth, ‘You’re looking fantastic.’
Cheryl, a shade plumper than she used to be, the hardness gone from her face, was fairly glowing with health and happiness. Marriage evidently suited her.
‘That’s what being in love does for you,’ she said with a grin.
The men were talking and, drawing Sera a little to one side, she went on in an undertone, ‘We’re not planning to announce it yet, but I’ve got to tell someone or I’ll burst with excitement… I’m going to have a baby!’
‘I’m so pleased,’ Sera said warmly. ‘When is it due?’
‘Not for seven months yet, but Roberto can’t wait.’ Her voice dropping even more, Cheryl confided, ‘His first wife didn’t want a family, that’s why they eventually split up. He’s so thrilled to be a prospective father that he’d shout it from the rooftops if I let him… But at the moment, all he’s got is permission to tell Martin…’
Sighing blissfully, she added, ‘I never thought it was possible to be this happy.’
Then, with a searching look, she said, ‘I’ve noticed that, despite the good news about Martin, you don’t look very happy.’
‘Oh, I am,’ Sera lied desperately. ‘It was such a relief to know that he’s going to be all right.’
‘It should make it possible for you to have more freedom,’ Cheryl said shrewdly. ‘I did think Martin might loosen up a little when that Irish nurse of his proved to be such a blessing, but it seems as though—’
‘I hope you two aren’t planning to stand gossiping all evening?’ Roberto asked.
‘I’ve just been telling Sera our secret,’ his wife informed him.
‘Isn’t it wonderful?’ he beamed.
‘Wonderful!’ Sera assured him.
‘Well, we’d better go and mingle,’ Cheryl said. ‘My dear brother isn’t looking too pleased…’
Martin, a frown on his face, was staring at the little group.
‘Talk to you later.’
‘I wondered how much longer you were going to be,’ Martin grumbled as she returned to his side.
‘Cheryl was just telling me about the baby. Isn’t it marvellous news?’
‘That depends on whether or not you like children,’ Martin observed drily. ‘Personally, I can’t raise much enthusiasm for cluttering up my life with squalling brats. To be honest I’d never imagined Cheryl wanting any either, though Roberto tells me they’re both—’ He stopped speaking abruptly.
Following his gaze, Sera caught her breath. Looking dangerously handsome in a well-cut evening jacket and black bow-tie, Keir was strolling towards them.
CHAPTER SIX
WHAT in heaven’s name was Keir doing here? she wondered frantically. There was a gleam in his eye, an arrogant tilt to his dark head, that indicated trouble.
Was he just trying to stir things up a bit? Or was he intending to provoke some kind of showdown in front of everyone?
Almost immediately she dismissed the latter possibility. In his own way, Keir was self-contained, a rather private man. Certainly not one to wash dirty linen in public.
With an air of studied politeness, he inclined his head. ‘Sera… Rothwell… I understand birthday wishes are in order?’
Sounding staggered, Martin said, ‘I thought you were in England.’
‘You also thought Sutherlands was finished. You were wrong on both counts.’
His fair face turning brick red, Martin demanded furiously, ‘What the hell have you come here for? Nobody invited you.’
‘Cheryl did as a matter of fact.’
‘I don’t believe it,’ Martin blustered. ‘She never said anything to me. And how did she know you were back?’
‘We met in the elevator a few days ago when she was leaving your apartment.’
Sera made an involuntary movement and, as though afraid she was going to leave him, Martin caught her wrist.
‘What were you doing in the
Warburton Building?’ he asked his tormentor sharply.
‘I live there,’ Keir answered calmly. ‘In the Penthouse.’ As he spoke he glanced at Sera with a little smile in his blue eyes.
Correctly interpreting that look, Martin’s nostrils flared and his fingers tightened on Sera’s wrist threatening to crush the delicate bones. ‘You knew he lived there.’
‘Yes,’ she admitted, ‘but not until—’
‘We happened to meet in the Park,’ Keir broke in smoothly, ‘and I took her up to look over the place.’
‘So that’s why you’ve been sneaking off every morning, pretending to be jogging. You’ve been meeting him!’
‘I’ve been doing no such thing,’ Sera denied. ‘I didn’t even know Keir was back in New York until Thursday morning when I—’
‘You lying little…!’ Pulling himself up, he bit off the rest. ‘I suppose you wanted him here?’
‘No, I didn’t. I had no idea he was coming.’
‘Then, what made Cheryl invite him?’
‘I don’t know.’ At the end of her tether, Sera put her free hand to her throbbing head.
‘Are you all right?’ Keir asked sharply.
‘Just a headache,’ she said through stiff lips.
‘If it wasn’t Sera’s doing, why the devil did Cheryl invite you?’ Martin demanded of the other man.
‘Why shouldn’t she?’ Keir said coolly. ‘We’ve never had any quarrel.’
‘She must know you’re not welcome here.’
‘Why? Have you told her that at our last meeting I knocked you down…? No, I didn’t think you had. It’s not the kind of thing you’d want to brag about.’
‘Damn you, Sutherlands! I suppose you’d like to do it again?’
‘If you were on your feet I’d be pleased to. As it is, you have the advantage of me.’
‘Get out! Go on, get out, or I’ll have you thrown out.’
Keir raised a dark, mocking brow. ‘Dear me, what would everyone think if they knew you were threatening to throw out an officially invited guest without even offering him a drink?’
Throughout the exchange, Keir had kept his voice low but, getting steadily more irate, Martin was in danger of being overheard.
Sera, desperate to smooth things over, begged, ‘Please, Martin, the party’s going so well, don’t make a scene in front of everyone and spoil things…’
‘Well you get rid of him, then.’
Turning to Keir, she begged, ‘Please, go, for my sake.’
The words were more revealing than she realized and Keir frowned. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said quietly, ‘I wasn’t planning to be here long, but I’d like a word with you in private before I leave.’
‘Sera stays here with me.’
‘Surely that’s up to her.’
‘She stays with me.’
With an expression of cold contempt, Keir looked pointedly at the hand gripping Sera’s wrist. ‘She doesn’t seem to have much option.’
After a long pause, Martin released his hold, leaving a livid white mark where his fingers had bitten in. Indicating that she was free, he said, ‘Now ask her if she wants to go with you.’
His dark blue eyes fixed on Sera’s pale face, Keir queried, ‘Well, Sera?’
Standing quite still where she was, feeling like death, she shook her head mutely.
With undisguised triumph, Martin taunted, ‘See? Why don’t you get it into your thick head that you’re wasting your time? Sera’s mine…’
Keir’s face went white under his tan, the skin stretched taut over the strong bone-structure.
‘She’ll do whatever I want her to do.’ Martin rubbed it in.
‘Well, hello…’ Kathleen, suddenly appearing from nowhere, smiled at Keir. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’
If she had any idea how tense the situation was, she gave no sign.
Recovering streets ahead of the other two, Keir returned her smile and said, ‘Cheryl invited me.’
‘Oh…’ Kathleen looked a bit confused. ‘I didn’t realize you knew each other, with you being fresh to New York…’
‘Though I’ve only been back a matter of weeks, I’ve lived here before and done business with her husband, so you could say we’re old friends.’ Casually he added, ‘Do you happen to know where she is? I haven’t had a chance to say hello to her and Roberto yet.’
‘I was talking to them only a minute ago, so come with me and I’ll take you to them.’
With a smile at the other two, she turned and led Keir away.
Sera watched them go with a hollow feeling of reprieve, while Martin stared after them in helpless fury.
As far as she could judge by his expression, rather than anything else, it was the sight of Kathleen, her earrings sparkling, turning her head to smile up at his rival, that provoked such fierce anger.
‘Damn the pair of them!’ he exploded. Then, sharply, he asked, ‘How does Kathleen come to know him?’
‘I haven’t the faintest idea,’ Sera said shakily.
But whether they’d met by chance, or whether Keir had somehow arranged it, it was obvious now where he’d gleaned his information. On discovering that he knew the Rothwells, just for an instant, Kathleen had looked disconcerted, as though wondering if she might possibly have been indiscreet.
Sera sighed deeply. The evening, which had seemed to be going so well, had turned into something of a nightmare for them all.
And the following days, she guessed, would be even worse. His temper uncertain at the best of times, Martin would be impossible to live with. Half convinced, despite her protestations, that she’d been meeting Keir behind his back, he would seize every opportunity to make her life a misery.
In the past, with tact and unspoken sympathy, Kathleen had managed to ease some of the burden, but if she too had innocently incurred his wrath, it boded ill for them both.
‘I need to get out of here.’ Martin’s voice broke into Sera’s anxious thoughts.
Pulling herself together, she asked, ‘Would you like to go into the garden?’
‘No, I want to get away from people. Make it the study.’
Because there were no elevators at Pine Cove, he was using a suite of rooms on the ground floor that the previous owner, a semi-invalid, had had converted for his own use and that of his nurse.
There were two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, a sitting-room and a study. The study overlooked the small, sandy cove with a single pine tree that gave the house its name.
Turning away from the groups of laughing, talking guests, Sera wheeled the chair through the quiet part of the house to Martin’s suite.
In the study, the French doors that led onto the rear terrace were open wide. It was a lovely summer evening with a warm breeze carrying the scent of sea, sand and flowers.
‘Would you prefer to be outside or in?’ she asked.
‘I don’t care,’ he answered curtly, his mind clearly on other things.
Sera pushed the chair onto the terrace and, sitting down beside him in one of the garden chairs, waited for the inevitable questions and accusations.
They weren’t long in coming.
‘Why didn’t you tell me Sutherlands was back?’
‘I didn’t want to spoil the weekend.’ That had certainly been one of the reasons.
Martin began to gnaw at his thumbnail, a habit he had when he was angry or disturbed, before asking, ‘How did you know he was back?’
‘As he told you, I met him in the Park.’
‘How many times have you met him? And I want the truth.’
‘Only once. The day before yesterday. It was a chance meeting…’ That was only half true. It hadn’t been chance on Keir’s part.
‘If you hadn’t got careless and come back so late I would never have known. You would have been able to go on deceiving me.’
About to say she hadn’t been deceiving him, she bit her lip. By hiding those early morning outings, she’d been doing just that.
‘How many times have you been up to his apartment?’
‘Just the once. I didn’t mean to go up then, only…’
While she tried to explain the circumstances, he looked at her with eyes as cold and pale as a glacier until she faltered to a halt.
‘What were you doing up there to make you late back?’
‘Just talking.’
‘Did he tell you how he came to be living in the Penthouse?’
That obviously rankled, as she’d known it would.
‘Mr Cornell was retiring,’ she said carefully. ‘He was looking for a house by the sea—’
‘And I suppose Sutherlands found him one?’
‘Yes.’
‘What else did you talk about?’
‘He told me he’d never been involved with Cheryl.’
‘And you believed him?’
‘Yes.’ Her clear green eyes accusing, Sera went on, ‘I know now it was Roberto who took her to the Catskills, and it was Roberto she was with when you tried to make me believe she was with Keir.’
‘Sutherlands was at the Catskills.’
‘On business.’
‘My word, he has brainwashed you.’
‘I can always go and ask Cheryl.’ Sera made as if to rise.
‘Wait!’ Martin said sharply. ‘Suppose he was there on business? Don’t forget he had no time for you. Work was a lot more important.’
‘And I’m sure you know why.’
He shrugged his heavy shoulders. ‘So Sutherlands was in a mess.’
‘How did you find out?’
‘Cheryl, who at that stage fancied him, was curious as to why someone in his position should be living in some seedy downtown apartment block. I did some digging. I don’t know what it is about men like that… But when I told her the score she was fool enough to try and help him.’
‘Whereas you did the precise opposite.’
His expression wary, he looked at her from beneath almost colourless lashes. ‘What do you mean exactly?’
‘You withdrew from the Broadway project.’
‘How could I do any other? The risk was too great.’
‘Is that the only reason you did it?’
‘Of course.’
The assurance rang false.
The Determined Husband Page 9