Page 23 of His Wedding-Night Heir

'You're attracting a lot of attention yourself,' Nick added, breaking into her reverie. 'But that's hardly surprising. In that dress, you look like part of the sunlight.'

Cally flushed and looked away self-consciously from the sudden intensity of his gaze. 'Please—don't say things like that'

'I'm not even allowed to pay you a mild compliment?'

'Not,' she said, 'in our kind of bargain.'

'Yet it's no more than the truth,' Nick said. 'Just look around you if you don't believe me.'

She said tautly, 'If people are staring, it's only to wonder what the hell someone like me is doing with someone like you, and we both know it.'

'I know nothing of the kind.' There was a new harshness in his tone. 'Why do you constantly denigrate yourself, Cally?'

'I think they actually call it being aware of one's limitations,' she said. 'I learned it quite early in life.'

'From your grandfather, I suppose,' he said with faint grim-ness.

'You can hardly blame him.' She shrugged. 'After all, he didn't have the grandson he'd set his heart on, so the next best thing was a replica of the daughter he'd lost—someone beautiful, vibrant and glamorous, with real star appeal. I—fell a long way short of his expectations.'

He said, slowly, 'My God.'

'It's understandable.' She took a breath. 'My mother was— a very hard act to follow. She and my father worshipped each other. In a way, it was a blessing the accident took them both, because they'd never have survived alone.'

'They wouldn't have been alone.' His voice was very quiet. 'They had you.'

'As it was, I was left with Grandfather. In the aftermath of it all we were both grieving, but we couldn't seem to comfort each other. Still, I think—eventually—he came to love me— in his way.' She paused. 'And he wanted me to be looked after when he'd gone. To have the financial security that he hadn't been able to provide himself at the end.' Her voice faltered slightly.

'Which, of course, is where I came in.' Nick ironically supplied her unspoken words.

'Grandfather's final act.' She forced a smile. 'To arrange my future. Hand me one of the glittering prizes. He even managed to make me believe, for a while, that it was what I wanted too.'

'And then Cinderella tried on the slipper and found it was the wrong size,' he said softly. 'Poor Cally.'

'What does it matter?' she said. 'I won't be wearing it for long. So there's really no need to pity me. Whatever you force me to do, I'll survive.'

She turned deliberately in her chair and stared at the river. Its still waters were golden-green in the brightness, shading to oily darkness in the overhang of the willows that fringed it. A small group of ducks was quarrelling noisily over the bread some diners had thrown for them, and from the opposite bank a diminutive but stately moorhen emerged from the reeds, her brood of chicks strung out behind her, all paddling frantically to keep up.

In spite of herself, Cally found some of the tension seeping out of her, her lips curving with pleasure.

She said, half to herself, 'It's just so beautiful here.'

'Would you like to stay the night?' Nick asked quietly. 'They have rooms, and it's early in the season, so there are probably vacancies.' His smile touched her skin, warming it in spite of herself. 'We could have a mini-honey moon.'

Cally stiffened, her heart thudding. 'No,' she stated with cool clarity. 'I don't want to stay. Thank you.'

'As you wish,' he said equably. 'I just wanted to demonstrate that force isn't an essential element of our time together.'

There was an odd silence that Cally hastened to fill. 'Anyway, I thought you were desperate to get back to Wylstone.'

'Not that desperate,' he said softly. 'After all, my love, you seem to have an affinity with the banks of rivers that might be worth exploiting.'

Her flush deepened. 'An isolated incident,' she said grittily, 'that I'd prefer to forget.'

'And one of my most treasured memories,' he murmured. 'I've often thought since that I should have taken you then— when I had the chance.'

Cally sent him a fulminating glance, and was relieved to turn her attention to the arrival of their coffee.

As she filled their cups from the cafetiere, she said stiltedly, 'Is your mother well?'

'According to her last letter, she's bursting with health,' Nick returned drily. 'She's also planning to pay us a visit.'

Cally digested this piece of news uneasily as she passed Nick his coffee. She had never met Cecily Tempest, who was a distinguished archaeologist, whose working life was concentrated in the jungles of Central America. She'd thought that she never would.

She said, 'I thought she was in Guatemala.'

'It seems the present excavations need a new injection of funding. She's coming back to do a series of lectures, and raise some more cash.' He paused. 'And, at some point, meet her new daughter-in-law.'

Source: www.allfreenovel.com