Highly Unsuitable: Mr and Mischief / The Darkest of Secrets / The Undoing of de Luca. Kate Hewitt

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Helen said quickly, and Emily only just kept herself from rolling her eyes.

      ‘How very nice of him,’ she said. ‘Still, it’s not your fault if you don’t … suit. And since Philip is here and Richard isn’t …’

      ‘He leaves for Africa tomorrow,’ Helen said in a low voice. ‘I should tell him, I know, but …’ She nibbled her lip again and Emily smiled kindly.

      ‘But?’

      ‘We’ve been friends for so long,’ Helen said. She sounded miserable. ‘And Richard really is a nice man—’

      ‘Of course he is. But you don’t date—or marry—someone just because he’s nice. I think you need a bit more than that, Helen. You deserve it.’

      ‘Do I?’

      ‘Yes,’ she told her firmly, ‘you do.’ Every woman did. Helen was just one of the lucky ones who might actually get it.

      Helen nodded, accepting, and Emily waved her off to her dentist’s appointment, expansively offering to let her take the rest of the afternoon off. ‘I know what that novocaine can do to you. You’d be lisping into the phone!’

      ‘I should be back by four,’ Helen said. ‘I don’t want to leave Jane in the lurch. And actually I kind of enjoy the work now.’ Smiling with a new self-confidence, Helen headed down the street. Emily watched her, feeling proud of Helen and all she’d accomplished, and yet … she could not keep a strange, empty feeling from rattling around inside her. She felt a little forlorn, a little lonely, as she headed up to her office. She knew she should be happy for Helen, and she was, of course she was. Yet as she sank into her chair she also realised she felt a bit adrift herself. She had since Jason had kissed her and scattered all her certainties. I’m happy as I am.

      Was she? Was she really?

      Staring blankly at her computer screen, Emily wasn’t sure she was any more. The thought was frightening. Depressing too. Because if she wasn’t happy, what on earth could she do about it?

      Forcing the question—and its impossible answer—aside, she kept her head down and focused on work until a hesitant knock on her door at half past three. She looked up and stared straight at Richard Marsden.

      ‘Hello,’ he began, awkward and uncertain, and Emily simply stared, shock rendering her temporarily speechless. A creeping sense of discomfort immediately followed, for while she’d been telling Helen it was perfectly fine to forget Richard just hours ago, she hadn’t had to deal with the man face to face.

      Now he stood here in an ill-fitting suit, round-shouldered and a little dull, yet, Emily acknowledged fairly, with a rather nice smile.

      ‘Sorry to bother you, but I’m looking for Helen Smith. Jane down at reception said you might know where she is.’

      ‘She’s at the dentist’s,’ Emily said, her voice faintly cool despite her intention to sound both friendly and professional.

      ‘Oh.’ Richard’s face fell, the corners of his mouth turning down almost comically. ‘I was hoping to catch her before I leave for Africa. I’d stop by her flat but my flight leaves at eight—’ He paused hopefully and Emily did not attempt to fill the silence. ‘Do you know if she’ll be back today?’

      Emily hesitated. Clearly Helen had not told Jane that she intended to return by four. Of course, Helen’s appointment could run long—dentist appointments often did—and there was no saying for certain that she would be back in the office today. There was no saying for certain at all.

      Emily looked at Richard Marsden’s slightly droopy eyes, his kind smile, and then quite suddenly pictured Jason saying coolly, You most certainly are not in the running. She remembered how easily he’d walked away from that kiss, and how shattered she’d felt in its aftermath.

      Her own mouth hardened and she heard herself saying, ‘I’m afraid I don’t know, Richard. She told me she planned to take the entire afternoon off.’

      Richard nodded slowly in acceptance, clearly defeated before he’d even begun. Emily felt a flicker of regret but also a stab of self-righteous scorn. If Richard wasn’t going to try harder than that—

      ‘Well, if you see her, will you tell her I stopped by? And that … that I’m thinking of her?’

      Emily knew she would have no difficulty in delivering Richard’s paltry message. ‘Of course I will.’

      ‘Thank you,’ he said, and Emily, her throat suddenly tight, just nodded.

      As he rounded the corner, she managed to call out, ‘Have a safe trip, Richard.’

      Then, as he finally disappeared down the hallway, she let out a long, slow breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding.

      It didn’t matter, she told herself. Helen would have said something to Richard anyway. She was planning on it—mostly. And, in any case, Richard was only going to be gone for a week or so … although, Emily thought, by the time he returned Philip and Helen could very well be an established couple. Philip was, among other things, a fast worker.

      She turned back to her computer screen and the email she’d been in the middle of composing, but the words danced before her eyes. All she could really see was Richard’s defeated look, his disappointed smile, and she wondered if for once she’d interfered just a little too much.

       CHAPTER SIX

      EMILY pulled at the tight satin bodice of her bridesmaid’s dress and grimaced in the mirror. The hot pink colour made her look like a piece of bubblegum, and the skirt belled out around her knees so she was halfway to wearing a tutu. Stephanie, however, had been enamoured with what she thought was a fairy tale dress, and insisted Emily looked gorgeous in it. Emily silently disagreed with Stephanie’s assessment, but offered no resistance. This was Stephanie’s day, not hers.

      The wedding was to be a small, intimate affair, the ceremony taking place in the church of the Hampshire village where Stephanie had grown up, and the reception a dinner at a local hotel afterwards. Emily had arrived last night just in time to make the rehearsal, and then fallen into bed, exhausted and a bit overwhelmed by the general pandemonium and near hysteria an imminent wedding caused. Seating plans. Bouquets. A last minute alteration to Stephanie’s dress. Emily’s head swam.

      Since last night she’d only seen Stephanie and Tim and their families and attendants, and she hadn’t had time to ask Stephanie if Jason would be coming to the wedding.

      No, that wasn’t really true, Emily acknowledged to herself as she fixed her hair into what she hoped was a neat chignon. She’d had plenty of time to talk to Stephanie over the last two weeks. She hadn’t wanted to ask about Jason because she didn’t even want to think about him, or that kiss, and she certainly wasn’t going to give her friend any reason to think there was something between her and Jason. Because there wasn’t. How could there be? The thought was beyond ludicrous.

      All they’d shared was a single kiss—a kiss that had been part punishment and part proof, as Jason had said himself. As if that kiss proved anything about Richard Marsden. Or even Jason. All right, it proved Jason was a decent kisser, but that СКАЧАТЬ