Fiance For Christmas. CATHERINE GEORGE

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      ‘No, don’t wake her up, Janet,’ he was saying. ‘I’m just glad Alice is safe with you. No, I’m afraid there’s no news of her father yet. In the morning tell her I’ll come round here to Chiswick about eleven, if that’s convenient. Thank you very much indeed. Goodnight.’

      Nick sat down very suddenly in the captain’s chair behind his brother’s desk. ‘Thank God. Janet’s bringing her back here in the morning.’ He looked at Cassie levelly. ‘So you’ve found Julia’s address in there.’

      Cassie nodded. ‘The odd thing is, Nick, it’s the Acton address, and she moved there only recently. He’s obviously keeping tabs on her.’

      Nick got up, frowning. ‘On the baby, too?’

      ‘I don’t know.’ Cassie gave him a wobbly smile. ‘But don’t let Emily hear you say “baby”. She’s a big girl.’ Suddenly the events of the night all closed in on Cassie at once, and to her utter horror tears began rolling down her cheeks.

      ‘Hey!’ said Nick in alarm. ‘Don’t cry, Cassie. Please!’ He seized her in his arms, but the tears only flowed faster, soaking his thin suit jacket. ‘Look, if you don’t stop I’ll catch pneumonia. I’m not dressed for this weather—I’m freezing. If I get wet on top of it I’ll be in trouble.’

      Cassie pulled herself together and pushed him away, sniffing hard as she rummaged in her pocket for a tissue ‘Sorry about that. Reaction. I kept imagining such terrible things—’

      ‘Don’t!’ said Nick harshly. ‘Alice is safe; that’s all that counts.’

      ‘Can I borrow your phone to ring Julia, please?’ Cassie’s reddened eyes flashed angrily. ‘I won’t use anything belonging to Max.’

      Nick listened unashamedly as Cassie spoke reassuringly to her sister.

      ‘Thanks,’ she said briefly, handing the phone back.

      ‘You could have talked longer than that, Cassie.’

      ‘I couldn’t. Julia was crying too much. With relief, like me.’ Cassie sniffed inelegantly and rubbed at her eyes. ‘At least she can get to sleep now. And, if Emily permits, maybe have a bit of a lie-in tomorrow as it’s Saturday.’

      ‘What happens in the week?’

      ‘Julia works for a software manufacturer. The company provides a crèche where she can leave Emily.’

      Nick scowled. ‘She’s got a job? No wonder she looks so exhausted.’

      ‘How else would she manage? Babies are expensive.’

      He looked uncomfortable. ‘Forgive me for prying, but your parents live in the country. Wouldn’t they prefer it if she returned home to live?’

      ‘You bet they would! She did go home to have the baby, but when Emily was six months old Julia insisted on going back to work. Mother and Dad help as much as she allows, but Julia’s very independent. She feels she’s to blame for this mess—’

      ‘It’s my fault, not Julia’s!’

      ‘I blame Max,’ said Cassie with venom. ‘In fact, I could murder him with my bare hands at this precise moment.’

      ‘That makes two of us,’ he agreed. ‘Let’s get out of here. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.’ He smiled suddenly, the first real smile he’d managed all night. ‘Sorry I ruined your evening, Cassie. I’ll buy you dinner to make amends.’

      Cassie caught sight of herself in the mirror on Max’s wall, and laughed. ‘With red eyes and mascara smudges? No way. Thanks just the same.’

      ‘You’re not quite the vision who let me in earlier on,’ agreed Nick, amused, as he locked up. ‘But I think I prefer the way you look right now—more like the young Cassie I used to know.’

      ‘You didn’t know me at all, Dominic Seymour!’ Which was all to the good, she thought with a shiver. If he had he might have noticed the crush she’d had on him once.

      ‘Cold?’ he said with sympathy, and turned the heater on full-blast.

      Cassie settled low in her seat for the journey back to Shepherd’s Bush, feeling hungry, emotionally drained and in no mood for conversation. A mood which Nick obviously shared. When they reached the house he manoeuvred the Subaru into a space better suited to a Mini, then killed the engine and turned to her.

      ‘Cassie, I want to come in for a minute. I won’t keep you long. I need some advice.’

      Cassie had rather hoped to see him off right away. Now the crisis was over she felt tired and hungry and in need of her bed. And oddly flat. ‘I suppose so,’ she said, resigned.

      Once inside the house she hung up her coat on a peg with Nick’s raincoat, and because he was still shivering she turned the heating back on and took him into the kitchen, where it was warmest.

      ‘Before dishing out this advice you’re after,’ she said, yawning, ‘I’d better call Rupert and let him know Alice is safe.’

      ‘Does he know Alice?’

      ‘No. But he was very good about being pushed off without the meal I’d promised. And he did ask me to let him know what happened.’ Cassie marched past Nick and shut the kitchen door behind her so she could talk to Rupert in private. But he wasn’t home. Disappointed, she left a message, then went back to the kitchen to find Nick munching on a hunk of bread he’d cut from the loaf on the table.

      ‘Hope you don’t mind,’ he said indistinctly.

      ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ she said impatiently. ‘If you’re that hungry I’ll give you a proper meal. But don’t kid yourself I feel any friendlier towards you, Nick. It’s only because I’m famished myself.’

      Nick’s eyes glittered coldly, but instead of refusing, as Cassie expected, he forced a smile. ‘If you’re sure it’s no trouble.’

      ‘I wouldn’t offer if it was,’ she assured him. ‘It won’t take long.’

      ‘Thanks, Cassie. Mind if I have some more bread?’

      ‘Help yourself,’ she said, resigned, and lit the gas under the soup and the vegetables. She handed him a bottle of wine and a corkscrew. ‘Open that, please,’ she ordered, then went out to fetch the silverware and plates from the other room. The splendour of the red cloth and the candles had been for Rupert. Nick Seymour could make do with the kitchen.

      He smiled sardonically as she set the table. ‘Ah! The honour of candles and tablecloth is not to be mine.’

      ‘No,’ she said shortly.

      ‘This is cosier,’ he assured her. ‘After all, we’re sort of family, you and I, Cassie.’

      Her eyes flashed. ‘You mean you’re in love with your brother’s wife, who just happens to be my sister.’

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