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‘It looks as though they’re going to be lucky with the weather too,’ she added inanely. ‘The forecast is good for the whole weekend.’
‘This is our exit junction,’ Marcus told her.
He didn’t speak much until they had travelled for several miles down pretty country lanes and through several small villages, other than to say casually, ‘This is a very pretty part of the country—and convenient for London. It might be worthwhile considering it as a possibility for house-hunting. What do you think?’
‘I do love it down here,’ Lucy admitted. ‘I used to come and stay with Jules during our school holidays, and I’ve always thought it was somewhere I’d like to live.’
‘Here’s our hotel.’
Crunchy gravel and autumn leaves, smoke from chimneys drifting like pale grey silk across a sharp blue sky, the scent of woodsmoke and fresh air: what could be more evocative of an English country house? Lucy reflected, as she stood beside the car and watched the deer in the park beyond the house as they stared back with huge soft Bambi eyes.
In the reception hall the smell of beeswax mingled with lavender and rose pot pourri. The smiling receptionist, dressed in a tweed skirt, cashmere and pearls, might have been the house’s gracious owner and hostess as she explained that they had been given a suite in the barn conversion, separate from the main hotel.
‘I think you’ll like it. But do come over and have a look.’
As they crossed the courtyard Lucy could see where part of the original moat to the house had been turned into a pond, complete with two swans and a bevy of eager ducks.
‘They’ve adopted us,’ the receptionist explained with a smile. ‘We have peacocks too, by the way, do please don’t be alarmed when you hear them—some people don’t care for the noise, but personally I think their beauty more than compensates for it.’
The stable block was a long two-storey building, with its own sunny entrance hall and a set of wide stairs.
‘We have two suites downstairs and two upstairs. We’ve put you upstairs.’
Dutifully Lucy and Marcus followed her to the galleried landing and waited whilst she unlocked one of two doors with a heavy old-fashioned key.
Beyond the door lay a narrow short corridor, and beyond that an enormous bedroom with a huge bed and a proper fireplace.
‘The suite has two bathrooms—one either side of the bed,’ she explained, indicating the two doors. ‘The sofas here in the bedroom convert into extra beds for families, and through here…’ She led them to a door next to the fireplace and opened it, to show a pretty sitting-cum-breakfast room with a balcony and views over the countryside.
‘Well?’ Marcus asked Lucy.
‘It’s lovely,’ she told the receptionist warmly.
‘Good, I’m glad you like it. I’ll get someone to help you with your luggage.’
‘Marcus, this is gorgeous,’ Lucy told him as soon as they were alone. ‘Very romantic. Especially with the fire.’ She moved towards him. She had been so on edge and filled with guilt last night, following Dorland’s revelations, that she had not dared let him hold her in case she broke down and sobbed the whole thing out on his shoulder. But right now she was aching for him so much. Why didn’t she just put the whole sorry episode of Andrew Walker behind her and enjoy being with Marcus instead?
‘Mmm. Look, we’d better get a move on. It took us slightly longer to get here than I expected.’
Marcus was turning way from her, ignoring her subtle hint that she would like him to take her to bed. She recognised the signs easily. After all, she had experienced them often enough at Nick’s hands.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘LUCY!’
Lucy forced herself to smile as Julia hugged her tightly, and grinned.
‘You’re here! Oh, I am so excited. And Marcus too. Let me see the ring. Oh, Lucy! Of course Silas insists that he always felt there were some pretty strong undercurrents going on between you and Marcus—don’t you, darling?’ Julia appealed to her husband.
‘Well, let’s just say that your sex doesn’t always have an exclusive hold on intuition, does it, son?’ Silas addressed the blue-wrapped bundle he was holding mock-solemnly. ‘Actually it was Lucy who gave the game away, to be honest. It’s so rare to see you getting wound up about anything or anyone, Lucy, that I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something else going on when you kept on insisting that you hated Marcus. And, as we all know…’
‘Hatred is akin to love,’ Julia chimed in with Silas, and they exchanged amused looks.
Lucy could feel her face starting to burn. Hastily she reached out her arms and begged, ‘Silas, please let me hold my new godson-to-be.’
‘He’s heavy, Lucy,’ Julia warned her, suddenly all proud mother, wanting them to recognise her still tiny son’s promise of adult male strength to come.
‘Carly rang just before you arrived, by the way. She and Ricardo should be here soon. You know that they’ve rented a house in the village for the weekend?’
‘Yes, she e-mailed to tell me.’
‘I’d have liked to offer you all room here, but we’ve already got my family, and Silas’s descending on Gramps tomorrow. Are you sure my son isn’t getting too heavy for you?’ she demanded. They were all standing in the large, slightly draughty drawing room Julia had taken them to, and, sensing that her friend was already eager for the return of her baby, Lucy smiled down at him, stroking his cheek gently with her finger as she walked over to Julia and handed him back.
Marcus was standing with Silas, supposedly listening to what Silas was saying about the current situation with the dollar, but he couldn’t stop himself from watching her. Julia might be baby Nat’s mother, but it was Lucy, with her doting, blissed-out expression, whose face was that of a traditional radiant Madonna—all soft, beatific love. There was a feeling in his heart as though it were being wrenched apart by two giant fists. Angrily he struggled to suppress it.
As she handed Nat back to Julia, Lucy couldn’t help reflecting desolately that if Marcus continued to behave as coldly towards her as he had done earlier, in their hotel suite, then if she wasn’t already pregnant she would probably never hold a child of her own. What was it about her that made her so undesirable and so undesired by the very men who were supposed to want her? First Nick and now Marcus. She looked over to where Marcus was standing with Silas, the two men deep in conversation.
‘Lucy, come and sit down,’ Julia invited, patting the empty space on the sofa next to her.
‘I’m so glad about you and Marcus.’ She beamed as Lucy obeyed her instruction. ‘I know how unhappy Nick made you, and I’ve felt so guilty about that because you met him through me. Marcus will—’ She broke off as a large Mercedes swept past the window, then exclaimed happily, ‘Oh, good, that will be Carly and Ricardo.’
Five minutes later the large room was full of the sound of warmly excited female voices as the three women exchanged news and gossip.
‘Just look at how much he’s grown,’ Lucy exclaimed in awe as she admired Carly and Ricardo’s son before adding, ‘And look at you, too, Carly—six months pregnant and yet you look as stunning and elegant as ever.’
With so much to say to one another, and two adorable babies to admire, Lucy started to relax, her earlier forced smile giving way to one that was far more natural. So much so, in fact, that when Marcus came over to where she was seated with Carly and Julia and the children, and placed a hand on her shoulder, she had to tense her whole body to stop herself from leaning into him and letting him see how much he meant to her.
‘I am so looking forward to the wedding, Lucy,’ Carly announced excitedly. ‘After all, you’re the only one of the three of us to have a proper regulation do.’
‘Oh, yes, I’m looking forward to it, too,’ Julia chimed in. ‘When did you first realise you loved Lucy, Marcus?’ she asked him.
Lucy immediately dipped her head, so her hair swung forward to conceal her expression.
‘Not soon eno
ugh,’ Marcus responded calmly. ‘If I had, she would never have been allowed to marry Blayne.’
Everyone laughed, and Lucy let her pent-up breath leak away in shaky relief. What had she been afraid he might say? That he didn’t love her at all? Marcus was far too cerebral to make a slip like that.
‘That was a very pleasant evening.’
‘I’m glad you enjoyed it,’ Lucy replied as the lights of Julia’s grandfather’s house were left behind them and Marcus’s Bentley purred softly onto the main road.
‘I’m even more convinced now, if we are going to think of buying a house outside London, that this would be a good area to consider. What do you think?’
