Business Arrangement Bride. Jessica Hart

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      ‘I’ll take my chance,’ said Mary with a withering look. ‘You’re not the only employer in York, and if I’m going to be in business I’d rather deal with people who don’t resort to blackmail as a negotiating technique!’

      She turned to leave, wishing the floor didn’t prevent her stalking off in her heels. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me,’ she said, ‘I’ve wasted enough time tonight. My feet are killing me and I’m going home.’

      ‘How’s she been?’ Mary tiptoed over to the cot and rested a protective hand on her baby daughter’s small body, reassuring herself that she was still warm and breathing. She knew it was foolish, but she had to do it every time she went out, had to see Bea and touch her to reassure herself that she was all right.

      She had asked her mother if she would ever get over the terror at the awesome responsibility of having this tiny, perfect, miraculous baby to look after, and her mother had laughed. ‘Of course you will,’ she had said. ‘When you die.’

      ‘She’s been fine,’ Virginia Travers said quietly from the doorway. ‘Not a peep out of her.’

      Reluctantly, Mary left her sleeping daughter and hobbled downstairs, collapsing on to the sofa at last with a gusty sigh. ‘Thanks for looking after her, Mum,’ she said as she rubbed her poor feet.

      ‘It was no trouble,’ Virginia said, as she always did, which always made Mary feel even guiltier. ‘How did the reception go?’

      Mary made a face. ‘Not good,’ she admitted. Disastrous might have been a more accurate reply, but she wanted to sound positive for her mother, who had enough to worry about at the moment.

      Absently, she rubbed her arm where Tyler had grabbed her to stop her falling. It felt as if his fingers were imprinted on her flesh and it was almost a surprise to see that there were no marks there at all.

      ‘It was a waste of time, really,’ she told her mother.

      ‘Oh, dear.’ Virginia’s face fell. ‘It sounded such a good opportunity to make contacts too. There’s no chance of a contract with Watts Holdings?’

      Mary thought about Tyler’s expression as she’d walked off. ‘Er, no,’ she said. ‘I don’t think that’s at all likely.’

      ‘Mary, what are you going to do?’

      Her mother sounded really worried and Mary felt guilty about having blown her one chance to make an impression on Tyler Watts. At least, she had probably made an impression, but it wasn’t the right one.

      ‘Don’t worry, Mum, something will come up,’ she said, forcing herself to sound positive. ‘There are still one or two companies I haven’t approached yet, and I’ve placed a few temporary staff.’

      All of whose contracts were up at the end of the next week.

      Deciding to keep that little fact to herself, Mary found a smile of reassurance that she hoped would fool her mother, but when she looked closer she saw that Virginia was plucking nervously at the arm of the chair and avoiding her eye.

      Mary straightened, suddenly alert. ‘Mum?’

      ‘Bill rang this evening,’ Virginia told her a little tremulously. ‘He wants to come home.’

      ‘Oh, Mum…’ Mary went over to sit on the arm of the chair and put her arm around her mother’s shoulders.

      Virginia had been distraught when Bill had suddenly announced that he was leaving earlier that year. His decision had coincided with Mary’s unexpected pregnancy, and coming back to York to have the baby had seemed the obvious solution.

      Mary had needed somewhere to live and Virginia had needed the company, and in many ways it had worked as planned. Thirty-five was really too old to be living with your mother, and the house was too small for the three of them, but they had been rubbing along all right. Mary had even begun to think that her mother might be ready to move on. She had served Bill with divorce papers only the week before.

      ‘What did you say?’ she asked Virginia gently.

      ‘I said I’d meet him tomorrow and we’d talk about it.’

      Mary heard the wobble in her mother’s voice and hugged her tight. ‘You want him back, don’t you?’ she said, and Virginia’s eyes filled with tears as she nodded.

      ‘I know I ought to hate him after he hurt me like that, but I just miss him so much,’ she confessed.

      ‘Well, you need to talk about what happened, but you’re still married,’ Mary pointed out. ‘If you decide you want him back and he wants to come back, there’s no reason you shouldn’t just get on with being married again.’

      ‘He can’t come back yet,’ said Virginia, still a bit tearfully. ‘There isn’t any room for him now.’

      ‘Bea and I will move out. It’s time we were doing that anyway, and you certainly can’t sort things out with us around.’

      ‘But you can’t afford your own place,’ her mother objected.

      ‘I’ll work something out,’ said Mary confidently, giving her mother’s shoulders a final squeeze and getting to her feet. ‘Don’t worry about us, Mum. You concentrate on sorting out things with Bill and I’ll find somewhere to live.’

      But where? Mary asked herself wearily as she started the long climb up the stairs to her office the next morning.

      She liked her attic office in the city centre. Dating from the seventeenth century, the building had higgledy-piggledy rooms, sloping floors and dangerously low beams. It was charming but there were times, like now, when she had Bea on her hip and two bags to carry, that she wished for a few more modern amenities. Like a lift, for instance.

      Plodding upwards, Mary made it to the first landing and hoisted Bea higher on to her hip as she pondered her accommodation problem. Her mother was happy for the first time in months, and if she and Bill had some space and some time on their own, Mary was sure that they could work things out.

      If only Alan would release her money from the house, there wouldn’t be a problem. As it was, Mary was beginning to wonder if she would ever get her money back. She had put the savings that she had into renting this office and getting the agency off the ground, but the only way that she had been able to afford that was living with her mother. She couldn’t borrow while Alan was being so obstructive, and her income from the agency was sketchy, to say the least.

      She had thought it was such a good idea to set up her own business when she moved back to York. It had seemed her best hope of generating an income while still giving her the flexibility to look after Bea herself, but perhaps she would have to think about applying for a job after all.

      That wouldn’t solve her immediate problems, though. It would take too long for her mother and Bill and, anyway, she would have to find a job that earned enough to cover childcare costs. What she needed right now was some money to put down as a deposit on a flat and cover the first few months rent until she had some proper income from the agency but, short of robbing a bank, Mary couldn’t think where she was going to get it.

      Her thoughts were still circling worriedly as she puffed up the last flight of steps and rounded the СКАЧАТЬ