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‘I’m sure I can find a gold-digger of my own,’ Jude murmured flatly.
‘But you need someone discreet, someone willing to stick to your rules, not a spoiled and privileged woman from your world,’ the older man contended. ‘Someone who will do it for a price without hassle or consequences.’
It was a compelling truth even if Jude wasn’t in the mood to listen to it. ‘And where am I likely to find this wonder woman?’ he prompted drily.
A card was settled into his empty hand. ‘Ring me if you decide you’re interested.’
‘Who is she?’ Jude demanded impatiently.
‘My stepdaughter. I want her out of my home because my girlfriend won’t move in until she moves out,’ Calvin offered with a wry roll of his eyes. ‘But Tansy has no money, no job.’
‘Not my problem, not in my interests either,’ Jude sliced in with ruthless bite as he strode into the lift, thrusting the card into his pocket while reflecting that occasionally you met some real weirdos, although he had not expected to discover that even a junior member of his British legal team fell into that category. Where had that presumptuous idiot got the idea that he could freely suggest some random young woman as a bride for Jude? Jude, who had grown up knowing that because of his unlimited wealth he could marry virtually any woman he set his sights on. He wasn’t desperate enough to consider settling on a complete stranger…was he?
No, of course, he wasn’t. Yet the seductive suggestion of a woman who would play by his rules and provide him with no unwelcome surprises could only linger with him in the wake of that messy denouement with Althea. Someone he paid to marry him, someone who had no personal stake in the marriage other than enrichment, he mused. Yes, that option would suit him best, a woman without her own agenda, a woman without personal feelings involved in the exchange, a woman who would simply marry him because he paid her handsomely to do so.
Even better, such a woman could be dispensed with as soon as he was able…easily, casually and without consequences. Yes, although Jude might not have appreciated his timing, Hetherington, he thought, glancing down at the card to get the name, had actually made a valid point. Simple guidelines and goals often worked the best. After all, he had already screwed up badly when he’d chosen to rely on Althea and their supposed friendship. Althea had made it all personal and emotional while Jude had seen absolutely no reason why emotion should figure in any part of the arrangement. A woman who could see that truth as clearly as he did would be his perfect match.
Jude had already reached a decision when he strode back into his opulent penthouse apartment. He had to consider every option before he ran out of time and that meant checking out the gold-digger possibility. He rang Hetherington. ‘I’m willing to meet your stepdaughter,’ he said flatly. ‘Set up a meeting.’
Tansy scooped her dripping, wriggling baby sister out of the bath and wrapped her securely in a towel. Her stepfather was calling her from downstairs and, holding Posy deftly on her hip, she walked out to the landing. ‘I’ll be down as soon as I’ve got Posy settled,’ she called back.
Posy tried to roll away while her big sister was slotting her into a fresh onesie, but Tansy was practised at dealing with her playfulness. In spite of her difficult start in life, at ten months old and blessed with a mop of blond curls and big blue eyes, Posy was a very pretty baby with a happy disposition. Sadly, Tansy and Posy’s mother had died within minutes of bringing her second daughter into the world. At the hospital, reeling in shock from that tragedy, Tansy had taken one look into her sister’s eyes and had realised that, although she didn’t like her stepfather very much, she would never be able to walk away from her newborn sibling.
And yet her life, she conceded ruefully, would have been so much easier if she had had the strength to walk away.
Her aunt, Violet, had given her some surprisingly hard-hearted advice after her mother’s funeral. ‘Leave now and go back to that university course that your mother made you abandon. That baby is your sister, not your daughter. By all means, stay in touch with her and your stepfather, but let them get on with their lives while you return to yours. You don’t owe them or your mother’s memory anything more than that.’
But, unfortunately, nothing was that simple or straightforward, particularly when feelings got involved, Tansy conceded ruefully. Posy might not be Tansy’s daughter, but Tansy had become as deeply attached to her baby sister as any new mother. Calvin had asked Tansy to stay on to look after Posy and enable him to return to work and she had agreed to that, but she had soon begun to feel taken for granted as an unpaid childminder, and then her stepfather had begun dating again. While acknowledging that Calvin was only in his early thirties, having been considerably younger than her mother, Tansy had still thought his interest in other women had returned tastelessly soon, but she had minded her own business when Calvin’s lady friends had begun to stay over for the night. Only when Calvin had begun to pressure his regular girlfriend, Susie, into taking over Posy’s care and replacing Tansy had Tansy interfered, because it had quickly become painfully obvious that Susie was too irresponsible to take charge of a baby.
One afternoon Susie had actually gone out and left Tansy’s little sister alone and unattended in the house when something more entertaining than childcare had been offered to her. There had been other incidents as well, incidents that bordered on child neglect, which had stoked Tansy’s growing concern for her sister’s welfare.
It was not as though she could trust Posy’s father to look out for his child’s welfare. In fact, Calvin Hetherington hadn’t the smallest interest in being a father to his motherless daughter, nor did he seem to have developed any natural affection for his child. He had married Tansy’s mother, Rosie, a successful businesswoman in her mid-forties, and the last thing he had expected out of that union was to become a parent. Rosie might have been overjoyed by her unforeseen pregnancy, but Calvin had been aghast and his wife’s death had not made him any keener to take on a paternal role. He might live in the same household but he behaved as though his daughter did not exist. That was why Tansy had stayed on to look after her sister even though her stepfather had recently made it rather obvious that he thought it was time she moved out.
In her will, her mother had left both her home and her beauty salon to her second husband. Had it not been for her infant sibling and her impoverished state Tansy would immediately have moved out because she felt very much surplus to requirements in Calvin’s home life now that he was entertaining other women.
‘Is the kid in bed?’ Calvin checked as Tansy walked into the spacious lounge. ‘Look, sit down. We have to talk.’
‘What about?’ Tansy enquired defensively, standing straight and stiff, instinctively distrustful of the vain, shallow and selfish man her mother had chosen to marry. She had to force herself to sit down and act relaxed and pleasant, which she had learned to do around her stepfather.
‘I’m going to be totally honest with you. I’m facing bankruptcy proceedings in the near future,’ the slim blond man informed her as he stood at the window.
Tansy froze and paled. ‘That’s not possible. For goodness’s sake, you only sold Mum’s business a couple of months ago,’ she reminded him.
Calvin Hetherington sighed. ‘The beauty parlour was up to its neck in debt—’
‘It was a thriving business!’ Tansy argued in startled disagreement.
‘Was being the operative word, Tansy. Your mother was off work for months during her pregnancy and the business went downhill, even though you tried to pick up the slack. Any money your mother made, she spent on extending the property, hiring more staff or buying new equipment,’ Calvin enumerated impatiently. ‘There were no savings, nothing put by for leaner times. I had to sell, and the price was swallowed by the debts the business had accrued. Then there’s the mortgage on this house.’
Tansy frowned in consternation. ‘There’s a mortgage on this house?’
‘The price of all the improvements your mother insisted on making. I could lecture you for an hour on the financial cost of your mother’s passing. I’m afraid we always lived above our means, juggling overdrafts and debts,’ Calvin admitted grudgingly. ‘I’m sure that you realised that your mother really only liked the finer things in life?’
Tansy pinned her parted lips mutinously closed. While it was true that she had often thought her mother had rather extravagant tastes she had also never heard Calvin complain about their comfortable lifestyle or seek to cut back on the expenses of their fancy cars and even flashier holidays. ‘Bankruptcy though?’ she breathed starkly, avoiding a pointless exchange of bestowing blame for the debts he had mentioned. ‘That’s a very serious step—’
‘Yes and, unfortunately, this house will have to be sold as well. I don’t want to see Posy deprived of her only home.’ Calvin sighed heavily. ‘But there is another option…a rather strange and unexpected option that has literally dropped right into our laps and which could be the answer to all our problems.’
Tansy sat forward, her green eyes locked to him with brimming curiosity. ‘What option would that be?’
