Forbidden Surrender, page 5
‘I won’t tell her,’ Sara assured him.
It seemed there were a lot of things she was keeping to herself lately, and not normally being a secretive girl she was surprised at herself.
Lunch was delicious, a lovely prawn salad served to them out in the garden. Sara also enjoyed the lager and lime Eddie bought her. She enjoyed going around Windsor Castle too, and although Eddie moaned about it she thought he secretly enjoyed it too.
‘I bet it’s years since you went there,’ she teased on the drive home. The time was now well on the way towards dinner.
Eddie looked shamefaced. ‘Well, actually, I—I’ve never been before,’ he admitted.
Her eyes widened. ‘Never been to Windsor Castle?’
‘There’s no need to look so surprised.’ He looked sheepish. ‘It isn’t unusual not to visit a place that’s more or less on your doorstep. You’ve probably never been to Disney World!’ he scorned.
‘Wrong,’ Sara smiled. ‘I’ve been dozens of times—I love it. It’s absolutely fantastic. I feel like a little girl again when I go there.’
‘You probably look like one too. You’re very easy to be with, Sara,’ Eddie said suddenly. ‘And I mean that in the nicest way possible.’
‘I know,’ she accepted huskily. ‘I’ve enjoyed today.’
‘So have I.’ He seemed surprised by the fact.
‘It’s just like having a brother,’ she said sleepily, leaning tiredly back against the headrest.
‘It’s okay,’ Eddie laughed, ‘I wasn’t moving in for the kill.’
Sara smiled at her own conceit, then dozed off in the warmth of the car and the monotonous hum of the engine.
She woke with a jerk, a curious feeling of foreboding hanging over her.
* * *
The feeling persisted over the next few days, so much so that she found she wasn’t sleeping at night. The doctor had warned her of this delayed shock, the long air flight on top of her already weakened state sapping what little energy she had, and she spent the next three or four days resting, not going far from the house.
Consequently she was at home when Marie Lindlay telephoned her, and answered the call herself. The idea of meeting for lunch appealed to her, and the two girls arranged to meet at a restaurant in town.
There was no sign of Marie when she arrived at the arranged time, although the doorman insisted on calling her ‘Miss Lindlay’. Sara found the situation too complicated to explain, leaving him under the misapprehension that she really was Marie. The poor man would think himself intoxicated when Marie did arrive.
She came into the restaurant twenty minutes later, and the first five minutes of their conversation were taken up with her apologies.
‘It was Dominic,’ she sighed, ordering a Bacardi and Coke from the hovering waiter. ‘Whenever Daddy’s away he seems to think he has to keep checking up on me. It’s nonsense, of course, but he still does it. He kept me on the telephone ten minutes trying to find out where I was going.’
‘When are you getting married?’ Sara asked, wondering what she was doing here now that she was actually here.
‘Oh, not for ages yet,’ Marie dismissed, nodding at the waiter as he put her drink on the table. ‘Dominic’s in no hurry, and neither am I.’
‘But surely you’ve been engaged for almost a year,’ Sara frowned, not seeing Dominic Thorne as the patient type.
‘Just under six months,’ Marie corrected. ‘And to tell you the truth, I’m not sure I’d be very good as a wife for Dominic. He’s such a perfectionist.’
Sara smiled. ‘I’m sure he would make allowances for a new wife.’
‘Maybe,’ Marie dropped the subject. ‘I love your accent. Where in America do you come from?’
Sara told her, also explaining about the accident that had killed her parents and injured her. She found it so easy to talk to the other girl, and Marie seemed to feel the same.
‘How sad!’ Marie looked genuinely upset. ‘I hate death,’ she shuddered. ‘My mother’s dead too.’
‘I’m sorry.’
Marie seemed to shake off her dark mood, and gave a dazzling smile. ‘Let’s order lunch.’
Sara was amazed at the other girl’s capacity for passing from topic to topic, from mood to mood, and it seemed that during lunch they discussed every subject possible. By the end of the meal Sara felt that they were friends.
‘I still can’t get over our likeness,’ said Marie as they went from the restaurant into the lounge for coffee. ‘Dominic’s convinced it’s all a trick on your part,’ she giggled.
Sara stiffened. ‘I’m well aware of your fiancée’s opinion of me.’
‘And he’s aware of yours,’ Marie grinned. ‘Did you really hit him?’
Sara kept her eyes down on her coffee cup. ‘Did he say I had?’
‘He didn’t need to, it was pretty obvious. God, he was in a foul temper the rest of the evening! I’ve never seen him in such a black mood.’ Marie didn’t seem perturbed by the fact, grinning widely.
‘He deserved it,’ Sara said tightly.
‘I’m sure he did,’ Marie nodded. ‘The trouble with Dominic is that he’s perfect himself, and he expects others to be the same.’ She shrugged. ‘I’m afraid that even I don’t meet up to his high standards.’
That Dominic Thorne made her feel totally inadequate was obvious, and that Marie admired him tremendously was also obvious.
‘Dominic thinks you’re trying to get money out of me in some way,’ Marie added guilelessly. ‘Or Daddy.’
Sara frowned. ‘But I’ve never met your father, nor have I made any effort to contact him.’
‘No,’ Marie grinned. ‘But Dominic thinks my father may have met your mother, about nine months before you were born.’
An angry tide of red colour passed in front of Sara’s eyes. Dominic Thorne had a disgusting mind. How dared he imply that about her mother!
Marie laughed at her expression. ‘Don’t worry, I soon disabused him of that—my father was devoted to my mother. That’s the reason he’s never remarried.’
‘And my mother loved my father. Your fiancée really does have a twisted mind! Besides, I didn’t make any effort to see you again, and if I’d been up to something underhand surely I would have done?’
‘Dominic says that was just a clever move on your part,’ Marie shrugged.
Sara drew in an angry breath. ‘Your fiancée says altogether too much!’
‘Actually, he doesn’t,’ Marie said seriously. ‘He doesn’t talk much at all, but when he does you can bet it’s something important. Now I’m the opposite, I chatter on for hours and none of it makes much sense.’
Sara had already noticed that, and she liked it. She liked Marie too, found her bubbly, flamboyant nature the complete opposite of her own more reserved one.
She considered they had talked about Dominie Thorne quite enough for one day. ‘What do you do?’ she asked Marie.
‘For a living, you mean?’ Marie sounded scandalised.
Sara laughed at her expression. ‘By your reaction I take it you don’t do anything.’
‘Is that terribly naughty of me?’ Marie looked like a guilty little girl.
‘No,’ Sara smiled. ‘I wish I could do the same.’ Although she wasn’t sure she really meant that. Her months of enforced inactivity had made her long to go back to work, although she accepted that the injuries to her legs had made it impossible for her to do anything too strenuous. But nevertheless she didn’t think she would enjoy being idle. Her mother and father had been quite well off, and that money had now been left to her, but she had never been encouraged to sit at home and live off that wealth. Even her mother had been her stepfather’s chief assistant at the advertising agency.
‘I’m kept quite busy,’ Marie told her. ‘Daddy’s always entertaining, and I have to be his hostess. And then there’s the sports club, I go there a lot. And then—–’
‘Okay, okay,’ Sara laughingly silenced her, ‘I believe you!’
‘You’re a model, aren’t you?’ Marie said interestedly. ‘Pete told me,’ she explained.
‘Oh yes.’ Sara bit her lip, undecided about saying anything to Marie about her date with Pete. After all, it was none of her business who the other girl went out with. And yet … ‘Did you have a nice evening with him?’ she queried.
Marie shrugged. ‘He’s okay. I—Hey, I didn’t step on any toes, did I? He told me there was nothing between the two of you,’ she frowned.
‘There isn’t. I wasn’t thinking of me.’ Sara quirked one eyebrow.
‘Then who—–? Oh, you mean Dominic,’ the other girl dismissed. ‘Mm, I don’t suppose he would like it much.’
‘He would have a right not to. You are engaged to him,’ Sara gently reminded her.
‘He’s kept very busy, he works very hard. And then he’s often away on business. I get very lonely. Anyway, I won’t be seeing Pete again.’
That didn’t particularly bother her. Marie could have a hundred other men besides Dominic Thorne if she wanted to, but she had the feeling that he wouldn’t stand too much of that treatment, and unless Marie wanted to lose him she would have to curb her activities with other men.
Marie didn’t seem to agree with her when she pointed that out to her. ‘He’ll forgive me,’ she dismissed lightly. ‘He always has.’
Then Dominic Thorne must be a more understanding man than she would have given him credit for. Maybe he loved Marie more deeply than he appeared to on the surface. He was definitely a deep character.
‘My marriage to Dominie will make things all neat and tidy,’ Marie told her, at her frowning look. ‘He and my father are partners, you see. When we marry Dominic is assured of eventually becoming sole owner. He’s been so good to me, it’s the least I can do for him. And he’s so gorgeous, isn’t he? So distinguished.’
‘Yes.’ Although marrying him because he had been good to her didn’t seem a very good reason to Sara. Perhaps they loved each other in their own way, but it wasn’t the way she wanted to love her life’s partner.
‘Mm, I love to be seen with him.’ Marie’s expression was dreamy. ‘And he’s so masterful. Daddy says he’s a brilliant businessman.’
Sara hastily revised her opinion of Marie not loving her fiancée. She obviously adored him, although she took pains to hide it. Their relationship was too complicated for her to understand, so she decided not to probe any further. The two of them obviously understood each other, and really that was all that mattered.
‘I—Oh, look, there’s Suzanne,’ Marie exclaimed. ‘Suz—Oh, damn, she’s gone into the restaurant.’ She turned to Sara. ‘Would you mind if I left you for a few minutes? I just have to see Suzanne.’
‘No,’ Sara smiled. ‘You go ahead.’
Marie stood up, hesitating. ‘You won’t leave?’
She shook her head. ‘No, I won’t leave. I’ll finish drinking my coffee and wait for you here.’
Marie was gone considerably longer than a few minutes, so much so that Sara started to get fidgety. When she saw Dominic Thorne enter the restaurant her heart sank. Verbal abuse from him was not something she welcomed right now, not after the things Marie had told her he had said about her, the insults he had made about both her and her mother.
He came straight over to her, his strides long and purposeful. ‘I thought I’d find you here.’ He stood looking down at her. ‘Why couldn’t you have told me earlier instead of all that evasion?’ He sat down in the chair Marie had recently vacated, his dark suit impeccable, as was the rest of his appearance.
He thought she was Marie! Her anger at his accusations concerning her mother and herself came to the fore. She tried to recall Marie’s husky tone of voice, hoping she could pull this off. This man was arrogant, condescending, and totally wrong about her, and it was time she got her own back on him.
‘Maybe I didn’t want you breathing down my neck.’ Was that really her talking? She had managed to get quite a good impression of Marie’s husky tones, good enough to fool Dominic Thorne, she could tell.
He sighed, his anger barely contained. ‘I merely like to know—–’
‘—What I’m doing every minute of the day and night,’ she finished in that highly educated English voice. Maybe she should take up acting? ‘I’m only out to lunch, Dominic.’
He put his hand over hers, and Sara only just stopped herself from pulling away. ‘I feel responsible for you while your father is away.’
Sara pouted as she had seen Marie do. ‘But, Dominic, surely I can’t come to any harm while I’m out to lunch?’
He gave an indulgent smile, looking the most pleasant she had ever seen him, his harshly attractive features softened. ‘You could come to harm just sitting at home,’ he teased. ‘Who are you lunching with?’
‘Well, actually—–’
Dominic’s face darkened, his eyes narrowed to icy blue slits. ‘You haven’t seen the Hamille girl again, have you?’
Sara bristled angrily on her own behalf. ‘And why shouldn’t I?’ Amazingly she still managed to maintain Marie’s accent.
‘I’ve already told you why,’ he said sternly. ‘The girl is out to cause trouble.’
As far as Sara was concerned this charade had gone on long enough! ‘And in what way am I doing that, Mr Thorne?’ She dropped the pose, talking to him in her own voice, her anger obvious.
He instantly dropped her hand, his face an angry mask. ‘Very amusing, Miss Hamille,’ he snapped. ‘Perhaps you should take up acting as a profession.’
Her mouth twisted. ‘I had just thought the same thing. Let me assure you, Mr Thorne, I am not out to cause ‘‘trouble”. I met Marie today at her suggestion, and because I like her. But now that I know your opinion of my mother and myself—and incidentally, my mother didn’t meet Marie’s father at any time, let alone nine months before my birth. I’m sorry, Mr Thorne, did you say something?’ she asked coldly.
His expression was fierce. ‘I said damn Marie and her loose tongue,’ he rasped.
‘If the remarks hadn’t been made she wouldn’t have been able to repeat them. Twenty-one years ago my mother was married to my father, and that is the time I was born. The comments you made about her are slanderous,’ her eyes sparkled with fury, ‘and I’m not going to sit back and let you make them!’
‘It was merely conjecture,’ he said smoothly. ‘Your similarity to Marie is—amazing. I was merely trying to find a reason for it.’
‘Well, that isn’t it!’ Sara snapped.
‘No, I accept that. Your age would seem to veto that idea. Twenty-one, I think you said?’
‘Almost,’ she confirmed resentfully. ‘Next month.’
‘Mm, and at the time Marie’s father was also happily married to her mother.’
‘I require an apology for your remarks, Mr Thorne,’ Sara told him stubbornly.
Anger flared in those narrowed eyes. ‘Miss Hamille—–’
‘An apology!’ she repeated tightly. ‘My mother is dead and so unable to defend herself, but I demand an apology on her behalf.’ She looked at him challengingly, refusing to withdraw from their silent optical battle. Marie might enjoy his domineering attitude, but Sara just found it infuriating, and she refused to be cowed by it.
Dominic Thorne looked as if he were going through a battle of his own, with himself. That he was unaccustomed to admitting to being wrong about anything she had no doubt, but she remained firm. He would apologise.
‘All right,’ the words came out in a hiss, blue eyes glittering resentfully. ‘I apologise. It would appear I’m mistaken.’
Sara could thankfully see Marie coming back, the other girl bending to lightly kiss her fiancée on the lips before sitting down beside him.
‘Sorry I was so long,’ she spoke to Sara. ‘I’m afraid Suzanne is as much of a chatterbox as I am!’ She gave a glowing smile in Dominic Thorne’s direction. ‘What are you doing here, darling? Not that I’m not pleased to see you,’ she entwined her fingers with his, ‘but I thought you’d be hard at work this afternoon.’
‘I had some spare time.’ His voice showed none of his fury of seconds earlier, his manner at once indulgent. ‘I thought I might find you here.’
So that he could spy on her, Sara silently fumed. And it seemed that Dominic Thorne loved Marie in return, a possessive over-protective love that would suffocate Sara.
‘Sara and I are going shopping,’ Marie surprised her by announcing. ‘Do you want to come with us?’ she asked her fiancée.
‘No, thanks,’ he gave a teasing smile. ‘But you can show me later what you bought.’
Marie gave him a mischievous smile. ‘I thought I might buy some lingerie.’
Dominic laughed, at once sensually attractive. ‘In that case you can definitely show it to me later!’ He stood up. ‘I’ll leave you two girls to enjoy your shopping.’
‘Goodbye, Mr Thorne,’ Sara said pointedly, meeting his sharp look unflinchingly.
He nodded curtly. ‘Goodbye, Miss Hamille. Until later, Marie,’ and he bent to kiss her, a tall compelling man who drew much attention as he left the restaurant.
Marie gave a pleasurable shiver. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever get over how attractive he is,’ she smiled. ‘Or the fact that I’m engaged to him. Oh well, shall we go and do that shopping now?’
It was late when Sara got back to her aunt’s house, her leavetaking from Marie having been difficult. Marie had wanted them to meet again, but Sara had claimed that she would be too busy during her time left in England.
Marie called her again a couple of days later, and Sara did her best to get out of seeing her.
‘Please,’ Marie coaxed. ‘I like you, Sara, I feel I can talk to you. I know,’ her husky laugh sounded down the telephone, ‘I never do anything else! But I feel I can really talk to you. Maybe it’s because we’re so much alike, I don’t know, but I feel as if there’s a bond between us.’
Sara felt it too, so much so that it felt weird. She wasn’t even sure that she and Marie had anything in common, she just felt close to the other girl, wanted to help her if she was troubled about anything.
