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'Quite sure.' Any more fussing and she'd hit someone! 'I'm going to have a bath followed by beans on toast and then get on with some work.' She would never have thought that anything could sound so dull, she thought bleakly. 'Tell Mum I'll phone her later.'
And much later, as she lay in the comfortable darkness of her little bedsit with sleep a million miles away, she found herself thinking the same thought again as she reviewed her life to date.
It was all work and no play, she thought flatly, and had been for some years, but that had never worried her before, so why now? She was more than content with her career, she loved her little home, she had plenty of good friends… So what was wrong suddenly? She twisted irritably in the warmth of the bed and pulled the pillow over her head in an effort to stop her racing thoughts.
That nasty little incident with Gregory's hired thugs had unnerved her, that's all, she thought firmly. Brought the darker side of life into sharp focus for a while. By tomorrow she would be her happy-go-lucky self again, ready for anything. She would. She gritted her teeth and applied her considerable will-power to emptying her mind ready for sleep. Reece Vance meant nothing to her. Absolutely nothing, she repeated to herself firmly, before falling promptly to sleep.
It was pouring with rain when she drew up outside Reece's house at exactly eleven o'clock, on Saturday morning, the icy droplets mixed with small, chilled flakes of snow. The sky was heavy and laden, the very air grey with a gloomy dark rawness that seeped into every nook and crevice, but as Miriam ran quickly up the steps to the house, red hair glowing and face alive with vitality, she seemed the very essence of spring to the tall dark man watching her from one of the windows.
She had dressed carefully that morning in a dark red jumper that exactly matched the unusual shade of her hair, teaming it with a full, long charcoal-grey skirt in thick wool with matching boots. Swinging gold loops in her tiny ears and a determined smile on her face completed the picture, and now, as she shrugged her heavy coat off and followed the small maid into the drawing room, she turned the smile up to full wattage when she saw Reece and a tall dark woman sitting having coffee. Reece Vance intimidate her? Never.
'I see you managed to get here in that rust-bucket.' Reece glanced across at her without a glimmer of a smile on his harsh face. 'Are you sure it's safe to drive, incidentally?'
'Reece!' His sister's shocked exclamation of protest was lost as Miriam slanted her eyes and prepared to do battle, her apprehension at facing him again after that disastrous afternoon vanishing in a puff of sheer anger.
'Of course,' she answered icily, her face straightening as she came to a halt in the middle of the room, hands on hips. 'It may look antiquated but it more than serves its purpose. We can't all drive darn great Bentleys,' she added tightly before she could stop herself.
'Pity,' he drawled slowly. 'For other road-users when you're about, that is… Now, Barbara, this is Miriam; Miriam meet my sister.'
'Hi.' The other woman had risen and now extended a slim hand to Miriam, her smile warm and friendly. 'Don't take any notice of Reece, will you? His bark has always been worse than his bite.'
'Really?' Miriam smiled back before glancing at Reece, her face adequately expressing all she didn't say. 'I can't say either action particularly appeals.'
Barbara was very like her handsome twin, with the same thick dark hair and startling silver-grey eyes, but the feminine genes had softened and mellowed Reece's hard male features into something quite beautiful in his sister, Miriam reflected silently as the two women shook hands.
'He was a difficult child and a difficult teenager and is now a supremely difficult man,' Barbara continued cheerfully with a sidelong glance at her brother, who was viewing the two women silently with cool, narrowed eyes, his face sardonic. 'Impossible to deal with.'
'When you've quite finished…' Reece indicated for Miriam to be seated as he fixed his sister with a steely glance that seemed to have no effect at all. 'We're here to finalise the details of your wedding, not to discuss my attributes—or lack of them,' he added drily. 'Now, Miriam, coffee?'
'Thank you.' Now that the rage was ebbing she was horrified at the effect he was having on her equilibrium but, dressed as he was in black denims and a black silk shirt, she was having a job to concentrate on anything other than her hormones. She forced herself to turn to Barbara with a shaky smile. 'Not long to wait until the big day.'
'Don't remind me.' The other woman groaned softly. 'I couldn't believe it when Reece phoned and told me the other catering firm were in police custody! I almost considered taking their case so I could get them out on bail in time for my wedding.' She grinned ruefully. 'And then poor Mrs Goode breaking her ankle.'
'Miriam?' As Reece handed her the coffee she nodded her thanks, glancing at him for the merest moment, but it was enough to set her heart pounding. He was too attractive for comfort and, this close, all she could think about was how it had felt when he'd kissed her. And the feel of that big, hard body pressed into hers. And the smell of him. And—
'I'll leave you two to it.' He picked up his own cup and walked lazily across the room, his body moving with relaxed, easy power. 'I'll be in my study, if you want me.'
'We won't.' Barbara softened her words with a warm smile as he turned and raised sardonic eyebrows before leaving the room. 'Now, Miriam, do you mind if I see what you've got planned?' she asked eagerly as she settled down in her chair, her eyes bright with interest.
The next half-hour sped by in a whirl of lists and notes, but at the end of it the two women were chatting like old friends. 'You've done absolute wonders at such short notice,' Barbara sighed gratefully as Miriam packed away the last of the papers and clicked her briefcase shut. 'I wouldn't have a clue where to start with anything remotely domestic, I'm afraid.'
She wrinkled her small, pert nose at Miriam, her face candid. 'I don't know where all my nest-making and womanly instincts went in that area, but I rather think another little girl baby ended up with a double dose when I was born! I can just about manage to boil an egg, but I've ruined three or four saucepans doing that simple task because I always forget and let the water boil dry— normally because I've got my nose stuck in a law book or something,' she added ruefully. 'I'm hopeless.'
'So you and your future husband will eat out of tins or at the local restaurant?' Miriam said laughingly. The other woman's candour was infectious.
'Oh, there's no problem in that direction,' Barbara answered happily. 'Craig's the most marvellous cook. Wait till you see him, Miriam! He's six foot four and the most gorgeous thing on two legs and definitely all male.' Her voice lowered suggestively as she winked saucily. 'But he can whip up a meal for four out of nothing and restore order to the disgusting clutter I call a home within minutes. We've already decided I'll be the one who earns the money and he'll stay home with the kids—when they arrive, of course,' she added longingly. 'I've never really wanted a family before, but the minute I met Craig I wanted his baby so bad I almost propositioned him then and there!'
She gazed dreamily at Miriam, looking most unlawyerlike. 'I've been
searching for this man all my life without knowing it and it just amazes me he feels the same. We're like two halves that fit into a perfect whole.' The slight throb in the other woman's voice told Miriam that she was absolutely genuine. 'I'd made up my mind when I was still at school that I was going to be a career woman and that marriage was definitely out of the question, and then Craig came into my life and that was that.' She sighed happily. 'He's just gorgeous.'
'Lucky old you.' Miriam wondered how to word what she wanted to say and spoke carefully. 'And Reece knows how you feel about each other?'
'Reece?' Barbara sat straight and wrinkled her nose irritably. 'Oh, my brother is a typical orthodox mate. I can't talk to him, Miriam, I really can't. I know he disapproves of Craig—not so much by what he has said but more by what he hasn't! He hasn't even met him properly yet, just once at a crowded party, where everyone had had too much to drink and everything went wrong.'
'Craig had come across from Australia that day after visiting his parents, and had rushed to the party from the airport because I wanted him to. He had the most awful jet lag, poor lamb, and went to sleep in a corner of the sofa in spite of the noise and chaos. Some tarty blonde draped herself all over him—she was out for the count on cider—and Reece arrived at that moment and got totally the wrong impression.'
'I see.' Miriam looked the other woman straight in the eyes. 'Don't you think it'd put Reece's mind at rest if you explained all that?'
