The Independent Bride. Sophie Weston

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СКАЧАТЬ she always said. Pepper was realistic about her lack of attractions.

      Which was another reason why she didn’t think passion had driven Ed to enforced seduction. He did not look at her. He did not touch her. In fact, he was behaving more like a transcontinental courier with an awkward package than a man in love.

      Anyway, surely even Ed wouldn’t think that kidnapping a woman was a good way to persuade her to marry him?

      And then the helicopter came down in the middle of a clearing and Ed started talking again.

      ‘This is my father’s fishing cabin,’ he said and helped her out.

      Keep it light, she told herself. Keep it light. ‘Since when do I fish?’

      He did not look mad. He gave her a slightly harassed smile. ‘We’re just up here for a meeting. I told you.’

      That was when Pepper started to get a really bad feeling about the trip.

      She hid it. ‘Do I need my visual aids?’ she said dryly. She had brought all the stuff with her for a really great presentation of Out of the Attic.

      He shook his head.

      ‘Somehow, you don’t surprise me,’ she said with irony. ‘Okay. Lead on.’

      It was really quite a simple cabin—single storey, in need of repair. The way down to it was full of puddles, too. Her shiny black city pumps, discreetly plain and shockingly expensive, were never going to be the same again. Still, at least she didn’t take a tumble—unlike Ed.

      Rain dripped through the trees. It soaked Pepper’s hair until the elegant auburn pleat turned black and flattened on the top of her head. It darkened the shoulders of her designer label navy jacket. She felt an uncomfortable trickle down the neck of her pearl silk blouse. But it wasn’t the spring rain that sent chills up and down her spine.

      ‘If the CIA are trying to recruit me, you can tell them now—no dice.’

      But it was not the CIA, any more than it was the nonexistent investors. Or Ed in romantic excess.

      It was someone who was coming out onto the rough stoop at the sound of their approach.

      It was her grandmother.

      All desire to find humour in the situation left Pepper abruptly. She stopped dead. The look she turned on Ed was hot enough to melt asbestos.

      Bad conscience made Ed peevish. ‘No need to be so dramatic. It’s just business.’

      Pepper was very pale. ‘No, Ed. It’s my life.’

      He looked down his nose. ‘Now you’re talking like a teen queen.’

      She looked back at the cabin. Mary Ellen Calhoun was watching them attentively. Even in the wet spring woods she was wearing Paris design and diamonds. Pepper saw the gleam of Venetian earnings under her grandmother’s cap of skilfully tinted dark hair. Mary Ellen Calhoun was seventy-three but she would go to her grave a brunette.

      Pepper said, ‘What did my grandmother promise you to get me here?’

      He looked genuinely shocked. ‘Nothing. She just wanted me to stop you making a big mistake.’

      ‘It’s a mistake to back my own idea? I thought that was why we went to business school.’

      ‘Look, Pepper,’ he said patiently, ‘Out of the Attic is a retail start-up. That’s five years of your life, minimum. Mary Ellen doesn’t want to wait five years to get you back on board at Calhoun Carter.’

      ‘Since when do you call her Mary Ellen? You been talking to her a lot recently, Ed?’

      He winced. ‘Not really. We—er—bumped into each other at a charity reception a couple of weeks ago…’

      ‘My grandmother doesn’t go to charity receptions for fun,’ said Pepper dispassionately. ‘And she never bumps into anyone.’

      He looked at her, half-defiant, half-ashamed. Pepper squared her shoulders.

      ‘Oh, well, it had to happen some time, I guess. Wait here,’ she told Ed quietly. ‘This is not going to be pretty.’

      The moment she came face to face with her grandmother Pepper knew what was going to happen. One look and she just knew.

      It was there, in Mary Ellen’s black currant eyes. Mary Ellen wanted the last of the Calhouns back on the board. Like now.

      Not that you could tell that from her behaviour. Mary Ellen came forward, hands out, smiling, just as she always did. Glutinously innocent. Pepper had learned to distrust that innocence the way she would distrust a basking snake.

      Of course, Mary Ellen was not your average grandmother. She had been President of Calhoun Carter since her husband had died thirty-three years ago. That sort of thing gave you an edge. Pepper might distrust her, but she respected her, too. And she was realising that she was fighting for her life.

      She did not take the hands held out to her. She said quietly, ‘Hello, Grandmother.’

      Mary Ellen looked startled. It was a voice she did not recognise.

      Not surprising, thought Pepper. She didn’t recognise it herself.

      ‘It’s good to see you, honey,’ Mary Ellen said in her soft, deceptive, ladylike tones.

      ‘No, it isn’t. It’s business,’ said Pepper grimly. ‘Spare me the fancy stuff. Get on with it.’

      The two women’s eyes locked.

      Then Mary Ellen gave the tinkling laugh she had perfected in the days when she was a popular debutante; before she’d married her way out of impoverished gentility; before she’d hijacked her husband’s company and became a ruthless tycoon.

      ‘Then you’d better come in out of the rain,’ she said with a charming pout.

      ‘And Ed?’ Pepper was mocking. ‘Do you want him in out of the rain as well?’

      Mary Ellen frowned. ‘He’s a man. A little rain won’t kill him.’

      ‘Thought you wouldn’t want any witnesses.’ Pepper nodded.

      Mary Ellen did not deign to answer that. She stalked inside like an empress. And the moment the door closed behind her granddaughter she abandoned innocence, ladylike charm and the pout all in one go. Suddenly she looked what she was, thought Pepper. Seventy-three years old and mean as a snake.

      Pepper drew a deep breath. ‘Okay. Fire away. I can see that you’ve heard about Out of the Attic. What do you think can do to stop me?’

      Mary Ellen smiled. ‘I’ve already done it.’

      ‘Excuse me?’

      ‘Really, you are such a child. I told the finance department to put it around that anyone who lent money to you could kiss goodbye to Carter Calhoun business. For ever.’

      Pepper СКАЧАТЬ