Jenna’s first instinct was to refuse, and then she checked the impulse. Whether she liked it or not she and James were going to be married, and it would be in her own best interests to get along with him as best she could. It was really of little importance to her where they got married, and what was the point in childishly antagonising him now for no purpose?
‘If that’s what you want.’
As they stepped outside into the June sunshine, Jenna caught the glimmer of amusement in his eyes.
‘You’re unusually docile,’ he mocked, watching her reaction. ‘I wonder why?’
‘No reason. It’s a matter of indifference to me where we get married.’
James had a business appointment at two-thirty but he put Jenna in a taxi to take her back to her own office. She was glad of the mountain of work Richard’s abrupt and unexpected departure had brought to her desk. It stopped her from dwelling too much on what lay ahead. She had committed herself to marriage with James now and there was no escape—not without hurting Lucy, and possibly Sarah too. Jenna sensed that James’s step-sister needed someone to confide in and turn to, and she had genuinely felt compassion for the young girl. It was a devastating experience to lose the people you loved most in life—Jenna knew that from her own life. Sarah already had a maturity that Lucy lacked, and Jenna knew that maturity came solely from experiencing emotional pain.
How strange were the threads that linked and drew lives together. How could she have known that day standing outside the old Hall that soon she would be facing the reality of marriage to the man she had seen then and instantly disliked and despised? She had already learned how foolishly unperceptive she had been in despising him. Would her dislike prove to be as unfounded as her contempt? What a strange thought for her to have, thought Jenna, putting down her pen and walking agitatedly over to her office window. She always stood there when she was disturbed: it was as though looking out of it held a magical power to soothe her in some strange way. But why should the thought of losing her dislike of James upset her so much? Surely it could only be beneficial if they could co-exist in harmony? But it did upset her and, more than that, it alarmed her in some intangible intuitive way, as though by losing her dislike of him she might in some way be making herself vulnerable.
Shrugging the thought aside she returned to her desk. She had a lot to get through this week, especially if she was going to fit in a visit to Yorkshire. In her mind’s eye she saw the older part of the house and earmarked the room they could use. Sarah could have the downstairs study which had French windows out on to the gardens. There was an attractive sunken garden just outside them with a paved sitting area and an old-fashioned rose arbour. James could occupy the bedroom that had been Sir Alan’s. She shuddered in distaste at the thought of using it herself. As she remembered it there was a dressing-room off it and a private bathroom. She would have the bedroom next door, which, if she remembered correctly, also had access to the dressing-room and had possibly been Sir Alan’s wife’s bedroom. If either of the girls queried their having separate rooms she would make some excuse that she was a poor sleeper—it was, after all, quite true.
Suddenly and all too vividly she remembered her dream, hurriedly shutting away the mental images as quickly as they formed, trying to deny their force and power. That dream had been a complete mental aberration conjured up by she knew not what—a never-to-be-repeated folly, which she preferred not to think about.
That evening Lucy rang from school sounding chirpy and bright—and obviously very excited about the wedding. Without meaning to, Jenna found herself telling her about the weekend and before Lucy rang off she had extracted a promise from Jenna that they would most definitely take her out of school on the Saturday afternoon. When she replaced the receiver Jenna admitted rather sadly that Lucy’s present happiness was directly as a result of James’s presence in their lives, and while that thought was in her mind on impulse she dialled the private number James had given her. He answered on the third ring, his voice so calm and easily recognisable that Jenna could not understand why on earth her heart was beating so fast.
‘I rang to have a chat with Sarah,’ she told him a little breathlessly. ‘I thought she might be feeling a little bit lonely—even having second thoughts about getting a step-sister-in-law.’
‘That’s very thoughtful of you. She is a bit down tonight—nothing to do with you. She just has these bouts of depression from time to time. Hang on a sec…’
The line went dead, and then within seconds Jenna was talking to Sarah, noting the faint listlessness of the young girl’s voice, which gradually disappeared as they chatted.
‘I’d better go now,’ Jenna said after a while. ‘I need an early night after all the excitement of this weekend.’
‘I’ll put you back to James, then,’ Sarah told her, doing just that before Jenna could protest.
‘Sarah put me back on to you before I could tell her not to.’ Why did she sound so defensive? He already knew quite well that she had no desire to speak to him.
‘No doubt she thinks that neither of us will sleep without saying good night to one another,’ James said with irony. ‘Teenagers are like that, or don’t you remember?’
Her throat closed up and she could not respond. She could remember her own teenage dreams all too well, before reality had smashed and destroyed them beyond any kind of repair.
‘Jenna?’
‘Y
es…yes, I’m still here.’ She could hear the sharp edge of irritation under his voice. ‘I’m tired, James. I’ll say good night and let you get on with whatever you were doing before I interrupted you.’
‘Scrutinising contracts for various franchises connected with the Caribbean complex,’ he told her drily. ‘Very exciting stuff.’
* * *
Jenna did not speak to or see James until much later in the week. An item had appeared in the gossip press about them, announcing their engagement, the day after they had been spotted in the wine bar by the reporter, but since James had already sent a formal announcement to The Times it caused very little stir in Jenna’s life, apart from bringing Richard storming into her office one afternoon, to accuse her of outmanoeuvring him and deliberately encouraging Harry Waters to entice him away so that she would have the business to herself.
‘No doubt Allingham will put plenty of fat contracts your way,’ Richard sneered. Then added viciously, ‘What’s he got that the rest of us don’t possess, Jenna? It must be something pretty special to thaw out a cold bitch like you!’
There was more in the same vein, vituperative and distasteful, but, strangely enough, none of it really touched her, and Jenna’s only emotion when Richard finally ran out of steam and stormed out of her office was one of empty tiredness coupled with a faint relief that she was no longer connected, if only professionally, with such a petty and grubby-minded individual. His comments about her own lack of sexual appeal hadn’t touched her. How could they? She knew they were true, but they had little power to hurt. All that did amaze her was that Richard should actually think that she and James were lovers, when he so obviously held an extremely low opinion of her sexual attractiveness.
Only his last few words had struck home and even then not for the reasons he might have supposed.
‘Just you wait,’ he had jeered on finally leaving, ‘he’ll grow tired of you, once he realises what you’re really like. A cold bitch like you will never hold a man like him, and I’m really going to enjoy being around to see you fall to pieces when he walks out on you, Jenna…because a man like that doesn’t give anything for nothing, and when he realises how little you’ve got to offer him as a woman you can be sure he’ll make you pay for his favours in some other way. I shouldn’t be surprised if he takes this whole business that you’re so passionately attached to from you in lieu…’
She wasn’t worried that James would do as Richard was suggesting, but what did concern her was the truth in Richard’s unspoken suggestion that James was a man with a keenly honed sexual appetite. She didn’t expect him to remain celibate; after all, she hardly had the right, but there was bound to come a time when his relationships outside marriage would catch the public eye and how would that affect Lucy? Already her niece had put him on a pedestal, and not just because she thought of him as her father. She would have to worry about that bridge when the time came to cross it, Jenna decided wearily, managing a reassuring smile for Maggie who came into her office in the wake of Richard’s exit, wide-eyed with anxiety and concern.
‘He pushed past me before I could stop him and then the phone rang.’