A Most Suitable Wife. Jessica Steele

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СКАЧАТЬ voice. ‘Any chance of you coming to see me some time soon? I—er—need to see you about—something.’

      She felt pleased that her father wanted to see her, but was intrigued about the ‘something’ he needed to see her about. ‘As it happens, I’m on Paddington Station as we speak,’ she answered with a smile.

      ‘Great!’ he said enthusiastically. ‘I’ll pick you up in Leamington. Eleven o’clock?’

      Her father was on the platform waiting for her when her train pulled in. And Taye, having searched and wondered and speculated all through the train journey to Royal Leamington Spa, was utterly flabbergasted when, not waiting until they arrived at his cottage, he revealed what that ‘something’ was.

      Though she supposed she rather invited it when, as they got into his ramshackle car, she more or less straight away asked, ‘You needed to see me about something?’

      ‘If you hadn’t managed to come here, I was going to try to come to you.’ And, straight on the heels of that, after only the smallest hesitation, ‘I’ve met someone,’ he announced as in his ancient car they trundled out of town and towards a rural area.

      ‘You’ve met someone?’ Taye asked, not with him for the moment. Then, as it began to sink in, ‘A girl? I mean, a woman?’

      ‘Hilary’s forty-seven,’ Alden Trafford replied. ‘Do you mind, Taye?’

      Taye was more winded than minding. ‘But…No,’ she said then. ‘Just give me a minute to…’ Her voice tailed away. She turned to give him a sideways look. He was fifty-one and, given that he was virtually penniless—her mother would see to that—quite an attractive man. ‘Er—is it serious?’ Taye asked, getting her head back together.

      ‘I’m going to ask your mother for a divorce,’ he replied, and Taye reckoned he could not get much more serious than that. Her mother would create blue murder!

      ‘Oh, dear,’ Taye murmured faintly.

      ‘I’m sorry, Taye. Unfortunately you’ll not be able to get through this without some of your mother’s bitterness spilling over onto you in some way. But you’re living away from home now, and it won’t be all that long before Hadleigh goes off to university. And, while I want to be fair to you both, I want to be fair to Hilary too.’

      ‘Of course. Don’t worry about us. Um—have you known—Hilary—long?’

      ‘Three years. But it’s only since New Year—we were both at a friend’s house—that things have—er—hmm—blossomed between us,’ he answered, with an embarrassed kind of cough. ‘Anyhow, I want to marry her, and your mother and I have been separated long enough now to make a divorce between us a quite simple procedure.’

      Taye smiled; what else could she do? The divorce might be a simple formality, but the fall-out it engendered would not be.

      ‘Will I meet Hilary this weekend?’ she asked.

      ‘I rang her after your call. I asked her to pop round this afternoon and have a cup of tea with us.’

      Taye took to Hilary within a very short time of meeting her. Hilary was a widow, worked as a schoolteacher, was short and a little on the plump side—and it was obvious from the way Alden Trafford’s face lit up when he saw her that this woman meant everything to him.

      And, as Taye adjusted to this new state of affairs, she could only be glad for him. He had had it tough for long enough. Prior to him leaving their home he had worked in high finance. But, feeling stale in the work he had been doing, he had changed employers—but had not cared for some of their accounting procedures. When he had started asking pertinent questions he had found himself out of a job. He had been unable to find other work and, after a year during which his savings had dwindled, his wife had seemed to much prefer her room to his company—and then his father had died—and he had moved out.

      When Taye returned to London early on Sunday evening it was not without a few worries gnawing away at her. That she had taken to Hilary Wyatt caused Taye to feel a little disloyal to her mother. But there was no denying that she and Hilary had liked each other. And, seeing how much Hilary meant to her father and soon realising that he wanted to spend as much time as he could with the woman he hoped to make his wife, Taye had invited her to stay on to dinner.

      They were suited, her father and Hilary, but all hell was going to break loose when her mother heard about it. After thinking about it, Taye’s father had decided he would do his present wife the courtesy of telling her in person. In his view, though he considered he owed her very little, it did not seem right to let her find out via the auspices of his lawyer.

      Taye let herself into the apartment she now shared with Magnus Ashthorpe, and saw he was speaking with someone on his mobile phone. ‘I’ll come over next week,’ he was saying warmly. ‘No, no.’ He was obviously answering something said on the other end.

      Taye decided to take her overnight bag into her bedroom and so leave Magnus to finish his call in private—although for that matter he was quite capable of walking to his own bedroom and taking his phone with him.

      Taye had reached her bedroom door when, ‘Leave it with me, Elspeth,’ she heard him say. ‘I’ll deal with it.’

      So, Pen-Penny was out? Goodbye, Penelope—hello, Elspeth!

      When she thought she had given him enough time to finish his call, though to be on the safe side Taye opened her bedroom door a crack and listened, she left her room. Soon, she suspicioned, when her mother knew about the divorce, there would be enough unpleasantness around without inviting more from anywhere else.

      That being so, she decided to ignore the spat she’d had with Magnus yesterday morning. Pinning a pleasant look on her face, she popped her head around the sitting room door. ‘I’m making a pot of tea if you’re interested?’

      ‘Thanks,’ he accepted, and buried his head in his newspaper.

      Waitress service! Now, now, don’t get cranky. She made the tea and took it through to the other room. He lowered his paper as she poured some tea and placed his down on the small table next to him.

      ‘Good weekend?’ she enquired, attempting to build bridges.

      ‘Average,’ he replied. ‘You?’

      She thought about it. Yes, given that she had been a touch shaken by her father’s news, it had been a good weekend, a happy weekend. ‘Lovely,’ she replied, a smile in her eyes as she thought about it.

      ‘Hmph!’ Magnus grunted sourly, causing her to want to give up. The man was insufferable! ‘And does dear Julian know about dear Alden?’ he had the nerve to ask.

      Does dear Penelope know about dear Elspeth? From somewhere Taye found a smile. ‘Well, they’ve never actually met,’ she replied, keeping her tone as pleasant as she could in the circumstances. ‘But Julian did very kindly offer to save me a train journey and drive me to meet him.’

      ‘My stars, there’s no end to your brass-necked—’

      Taye, having roused him to anger—without any idea why—found tremendous delight in cutting in on what he was saying for a change. ‘Naturally I refused—’

      Her delight was short lived. ‘Even you baulked СКАЧАТЬ