Lost In Love. Michelle Reid

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      ‘Guy has a 1955 Jaguar XK140 Drophead similar to the one I smashed up.’ Never one to give up easily, Jamie was reminding her of a fact she had already remembered. ‘He might, if you asked him, consider selling it to me on a long-term loan.’

      Guy had a whole fleet of fast cars. It was one of his grandes passions, possessing cars with an awesome power under their bonnets. As an ex-Formula One racing car driver and world champion himself, his love of speed had once excited Marnie beyond bearing. There had been something incredibly stimulating in dicing with death at one-hundred-plus miles per hour. Guy had taken her out several times to share that kind of exciting feeling with him, his dark face vibrant with life, eyes flashing, mouth stretched into a devilish smile as he glanced—too often for her peace of mind—at her wide-eyed and anxious expression as their speed increased on surge after surge of fierce growling power. The next best thing to sex, he called it. And it certainly left them both on a high which could only be assuaged in one all-consuming way.

      ‘Please, Marnie...’ Her brother’s voice shook with desperation. ‘You’ve got to help me out on this one!’

      ‘I can’t believe you drove a car of that value out on the roads without bothering to insure it!’ she snapped out angrily.

      Jamie lifted his hands in an empty gesture. ‘It wasn’t that I didn’t bother, I just—forgot,’ he admitted. ‘You know what I’m like, sis, when I get engrossed in something.’ His blue eyes pleaded for understanding. ‘I tend to forget everything else!’

      ‘Including your responsibility to the poor fool who trusted you with his precious car!’

      Jamie winced and she let out an impatient sigh. ‘The last time you got yourself in a mess, it was because you went over budget and omitted to warn your client that it was going to cost him several thousand more than you quoted!’

      ‘I don’t do half a job!’ he haughtily defended that particular criticism. ‘He wanted his car looking like new, so I rebuilt it to look like new.’

      ‘Then he refused to take delivery of it until you cut down the bill—which you refused to do. Which meant Guy had to step in and sort the mess out—yet again!’

      ‘You know as well as I do that Guy made on the deal in the end,’ Jamie derided that accusation. ‘The crafty devil bought the damned car from the man at less than it was worth, and put it into his own collection! It cost me fifteen thousand pounds to put that car back together, of which I saw only ten!’

      ‘And two thousand of that I lent to you and never saw again!’

      ‘OK—OK...’ Jamie sighed, making a weary retreat by getting up from the sofa to lope over to the window where a bright June sun was beginning to ruin what light she had left of the morning to paint by. ‘So, I’m a lousy businessman. You don’t have to rub it in.’

      Marnie looked at him in impatient sympathy. He was quite right. He was a lousy businessman. He was like the proverbial absent-minded professor when he got his head beneath the bonnet of a new challenge. But she’d thought he’d got himself together in the business department over the last year since Clare had taken over that side of things for him.

      She frowned at that last thought, wondering why Clare hadn’t made sure his insurance was up to date. It wasn’t like her sister-in-law to forget something as basic as that.

      ‘If you won’t help me, Marnie,’ Jamie murmured into the dull silence that was throbbing all around them, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do. The guy is threatening nasty reprisals if I don’t come up with his money.’

      ‘Oh, Jamie!’ she sighed, leaning forward to rub her forehead with a hand.

      ‘But that’s not all...’

      No? she wondered cynically. Could there be more?

      ‘It’s Clare,’ he said.

      ‘Clare?’ Her head shot away from her hand.

      ‘She’s—she’s pregnant again.’

      ‘What—already?’ Instant concern darkened his sister’s eyes, her face going pale as she stared at him. ‘Isn’t it a bit too soon?’ she whispered.

      ‘Yes,’ he sighed, turning to look at her, then, sighing again, he came back to throw himself down next to her. ‘Too damn soon for anyone’s peace of mind...’

      Marnie swallowed, her anger with her brother evaporating with this new and far more worrying concern. Clare had gone through what could only be described as a woman’s worst nightmare, having lost her first baby right on the three-month borderline the experts liked to call safe. Safe. She scorned it bitterly. There was no such thing as safe during a nine-month-long confinement. Fate and Mother Nature saw to that.

      The doctors had warned them not to rush straight into trying for another. ‘Give your body time to heal,’ they’d advised. ‘And your hearts time to grieve.’

      ‘How—how far is she?’ She could hardly speak for the hard lump which had formed in her throat.

      ‘Two months.’ Jamie glanced at her, his thin face strained. ‘Marnie... You have to understand now that this has all come at a bad time for me. I can’t afford to let Clare know about this.’ He dropped his head, giving his sandy hair a frustrated tug. ‘She’s worried half out of her mind as it is, wondering, frightened...’

      She swallowed, nodding, unable to say a single word.

      ‘If you could just find it in yourself to help me out of this one—I swear to you, Marnie,’ he promised huskily, ‘I swear on the—’

      ‘Don’t say it!’ she rasped, her hand shaking as it snapped out to grip tightly at his wrist. ‘Don’t even think it!’

      ‘God, no!’ he groaned, shuddering when he realised just what he had been going to say. ‘Hell—I don’t know what’s happening to me,’ he choked. ‘I can’t think straight for worrying about Clare, never mind this mess with the Jag. I—’

      ‘Is this why you weren’t insured?’ she asked with sudden insight. ‘Has Clare stopped doing all the clerical work since she suspected she was pregnant?’

      Jamie nodded. ‘God,’ he went on distractedly, ‘it was bad enough me having to walk into the flat with this arm in a sling, and my face in this kind of mess—she almost fainted in fright!’ A ragged sigh shot from him. ‘I didn’t dare tell her she’d forgotten to renew my insurance! She’d have...’ His voice trailed off, and they both sat, their hearts thumping heavily in their breasts.

      ‘All right,’ Marnie murmured huskily. ‘I’ll go and see Guy today.’

      Jamie’s relief was so palpable that it was almost worth it—almost. Jamie had no idea—couldn’t know what this was going to cost her.

      ‘Listen, tell Guy I’ve found a brilliant MG K3 Magnette!’ he said urgently, trying his best to make up for putting her in this position. ‘Tell—tell him he can have it for his collection when it’s finished,’ he offered. ‘It isn’t as good as the one he’s already got, and it won’t cover the debt I’ll owe him, but...’ he swallowed, emotion СКАЧАТЬ