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‘A ring?’ she echoed helplessly. ‘Surely we don’t need to go to those lengths?’
‘And have everyone think I’m a cheapskate? Shame on you.’
She said, ‘It doesn’t occur to you that I might not want to wear someone else’s ring so soon?’
‘It occurs. Perhaps you could consider, at the same time, my feelings about bestowing a ring on a woman who has no intention of becoming my wife.’
Again, Amanda detected that trace of steel beneath the equable tones. She said in a muffled voice, ‘It’s just—an impossible situation.’
‘Only if you allow the surface details to weigh on you.’ Malory drank some of his coffee. ‘If you were playing a role on stage, you’d use the appropriate costume and props, wouldn’t you? Well, look on your engagement ring in the same light.’
She bit her lip. ‘One thing I can guarantee from all this. I’ll never lose my temper again.’ She poured herself some coffee, and took a piece of the shortbread which had accompanied it, as Malory had predicted.
As she nibbled on it, she found herself glancing around the room, assimilating her surroundings. It was a lovely room, she thought, and light years removed from the preternaturally tidy and soulless environment she’d pictured Malory purchasing for himself. It was light and airy, with its french windows opening on to lawns, now waterlogged. But in the summer it would be lovely to sit out on the grass under that tree, then wander in as the sun went down behind the distant copse…
She caught at herself. Long before the summer, she hoped she would have extricated herself from this hideous situation, although she had no idea what she would do next. Perhaps she would work abroad. The company which employed her had offices in Brussels and Geneva, and other girls had transferred successfully, sometimes for several years. She gave a faint sigh, and Malory looked at her interrogatively.
‘What is it?’
‘I’m just considering some of the options—when all this is over.‘
‘We have the next few weeks to negotiate first,’ he said with a touch of grimness. ‘Please don’t say or do anything to make anyone think our engagement is less than the genuine article’
She sighed again. 'I'll try.‘ She replaced her coffee-cup on the tray, and looked at the fire. ’There’s one problem you don’t seem to have considered,‘ she said stiltedly.
‘What’s that?’
‘Well, Nigel has given everyone the impression that we’re having some kind of raging affair.’ She tried to speak lightly, and failed.
‘It’s not much of a problem,’ he said slowly, ‘unless you’re afraid I intend to take advantage of the fact. I didn’t realise I’d given that impression.’
‘You haven’t,’ she said miserably. ‘I don’t even know why I mentioned it. My whole life seems to be upside-down these days.’
He smiled at her. ‘Well, let’s just say you have nothing to worry about.’ He paused. ‘I imagine an occasional peck on the cheek when other people are present is allowed?’
‘I suppose it’s unavoidable,’ she admitted.
Malory laughed out loud. ‘I’m glad I’ve never harboured any illusions about my sex appeal,’ he remarked. ‘Ten minutes with you, Amanda, would shatter them completely.’
‘I didn’t mean that the way it sounded, either,’ she said flushing. She got to her feet. ‘I really will go now, before I put my foot in it again.’
Malory rose, too. He said casually, ‘You’d better write down your London address for me—and your telephone number at work.’
‘Is that essential?’
‘It’s a fairly conventional request,’ he returned with a touch of impatience. ‘Your flatmates—the people you work with—will expect some kind of contact between us, however minimal’
‘Yes, of course,’ she said reluctantly. She wrote down the necessary information on a page torn from her diary, and gave it to him. ‘How long do you think we’ll have to maintain this charade?’
He shrugged. ‘Until our supposed romance is such stale news that we can part without causing a flicker of interest in the gutter press.’
She looked at him uncertainly. ‘And if Nigel won’t let it die?’
‘Nigel won’t have the choice,’ he said. ‘Anyway, he has a rally in Sweden coming up quite soon. That should absorb his attention.’
‘I suppose so.’ She was silent for a moment, then said stumblingly, ‘At the risk of repeating myself, I really am very sorry about involving you in all this.’ She gave a wavering smile. ‘You must wish you’d let me jump.’
