He took her arm and drew her to the side of the house then turned her round to face him, his hands holding her arms. She could feel their warmth through her sweater, their strength as he gripped her. He looked down at her with an extraordinary expression of disbelief and sadness.
‘Jandy…’ he began haltingly. ‘I don’t know how to tell you this…how to start, and it sounds utterly incredible, but I’ve made the most terrible mistake I think I’ve ever made in my life. I don’t know if you can ever forgive me.’
Jandy looked at him scornfully. ‘What do you mean—the mistake of being rude to me with no justification whatsoever? Why should I forgive you?’
He put his finger on her mouth. ‘Give me a minute, sweetheart.’
Sweetheart? Who did he think he was kidding? After what he’d said to her, that was the last thing she was—
‘Of course I should never have said those things, but I made a terrible error when I was in Scotland. I jumped to the wrong conclusion. I thought I heard you say something to the effect that you were glad I had plenty of money and that it would be great to be called Lady Sinclair…’
Jandy gazed at him, open-mouthed. ‘That is so ridiculous,’ she said slowly. ‘How on earth could you think I would even think that, let alone say it?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said miserably. ‘I should have come into the room and questioned what I thought you said, but I was horrified and taken aback.’
A gleam of understanding began to appear in Jandy’s eyes. ‘You thought you heard me say those things—but it wasn’t me, was it?’
He shook his head. ‘It was your sister. I only saw her from the back and she was talking to your mother. Of course I hadn’t realised she’d come up—I didn’t even know you were twins. Now I know she was just joking, but when I heard her make those comments it took me back to shortly after Rachel died.’
‘Why was that?’ asked Jandy, frowning.
‘I was distraught after her death, of course, feeling terrible guilt that I had caused it.’ He looked at Jandy wryly. ‘To lose the one you love after a silly quarrel means you never forgive yourself. On the rebound I became engaged to a girl at work. I hardly knew what I was doing, but I was lonely and she was very, very persistent. I found myself getting more and more involved with her. I suppose I thought I loved her.’
Jandy watched him intently, hardly able to believe her ears. ‘So what happened?’ she said, her eyes large with sympathy.
‘I found she had been using my name to do all kinds of things—buying stuff on credit, getting the best seats in theatres on the strength of me being the Honourable Patrick Sinclair—but worst of all I’d heard her needlessly shouting at Livy, telling her off for nothing at all.’
‘And you realised that you could be landing little Livy with another stepmother from hell, like you had?’
He nodded. ‘When I found out I was enraged. She actually admitted it was my connections that attracted her—she didn’t love me and she wasn’t all that keen on children.’ He laughed grimly. ‘Needless to say, as soon as we split up she found some other poor man to fasten onto—someone much older who had real wealth.’
‘A lucky escape,’ murmured Jandy.
‘I’d been a fool. She was the sort of girl I would never normally have taken out, but after the trauma of Rachel’s death I don’t think I knew what I was doing. In fact, I soon realised it was a relief to be rid of her. But it made me terrified of making the same mistake again.’
Jandy looked at him stonily, pushing any sympathetic thoughts to the back of her head. ‘You thought I was another girl out for the main chance, then?’
He took her shoulders and pulled her towards him, and she found herself allowing him to do that, to press his chest to hers. She felt the thud of his heart as they stood hip to hip, and he looked down at her with burning blue eyes.
‘Of course you’re not,’ he said fiercely. ‘You’re nothing at all like her. Meeting you seemed almost too good to be true. I think I loved you almost the first time I saw you. I knew within five minutes of talking to you that I wanted to kiss you…but you had an unhappy past too and I was wary of commitment.’ He sighed and shook his head. ‘How can one guy be so stupid? And how could I have been so cruel to you over these past few weeks?’
Jandy’s eyes searched his face, and she whispered, ‘And if you hadn’t found out it was my sister who’d made those flippant remarks I wouldn’t have ever got an apology, then?’
‘I haven’t stopped thinking about you since I left Scotland—not for a single minute. That was why I came round last night. I was desperate to set things straight between us. Then I found Bob already ensconced there, and said things I didn’t mean—just to hurt you, I suppose.’
He paused for a moment and bent his head to hers, whispering in a broken voice, ‘But I didn’t mean it, my darling, I didn’t mean it. I felt awful as I was saying those horrible things…’
Jandy pulled away from him and stepped back, folding her arms and looking at him wryly.
‘So where does that leave us, Patrick? Back where we were, in no-man’s land, loving each other but not being too committed—a kind of halfway house?’
He shook his head vehemently and drew her towards him again, saying with a catch in his voice, ‘Sweetheart, no half-measures this time. I’m not going to risk letting you get away. I love you so much, darling—can you believe that? Can you ever forgive me for what I said?’
A little bubble of happiness seemed to explode somewhere in the region of Jandy’s stomach. Was she dreaming? Had Patrick really said he loved her?
‘Say you love me again then,’ she demanded.
‘I love you, adore you, worship you…’
Jandy burst out laughing. ‘OK, OK—that’s enough! I forgive you.’
He looked at her solemnly for a moment. ‘Perhaps this will convince you that I mean what I say, Jandy…show you that the past really is behind us both. No more guilt, no more distrust.’ He looked down at his left hand and spread out his fingers then pulled off his wedding ring and slipped it into his pocket. ‘I shall never forget Rachel or the love I had for her—but now there’s room on that hand for another ring. I want you to marry me, for us to spend the rest of our lives together. What do you say to that?’
For answer she wound her arms round his neck and pulled his face down to hers, then pressed her soft mouth to his, crushing herself to his hard body.
‘Do I take that as a “yes” then?’ he said with a grin after a few minutes. Then he tucked her hand under his arm. ‘And now let’s go and tell our adorable daughters that from now on they’re going to have a mummy and a daddy to look after them.’
* * *
The front lawn was bathed in warm sunlight and the summer smell of new-mown grass was sweet in the balmy air. There was a low murmur of voices from the little congregation sitting on the chairs before a small altar, with two pedestals of huge vases of tumbling pink roses and meadowsweet on either side. A slight warm breeze rustled the leaves of the beautiful oaks that formed a background circle round the lawn.
In the front row sat Patrick’s father in his wheelchair and Jandy’s mother and Bertie, smiling and chatting to each other. There was an excited air of expectancy and in a corner was the soft sound of a small keyboard organ being played by Sheena, the housekeeper.
Standing in front of them all were the tall figures of Patrick and his brother, and as the music changed to the joyous Bridal March they turned round to watch Jandy coming down the steps of the beautiful old house, her slim figure in a cream sheath dress and accompanied by her sister in pale green silk. Behind them, with little giggles of nervousness, came Abigail and Livy, the two little girls proudly holding Jandy’s train, wearing full-length cream dresses with pink sashes.
As they all came towards Patrick he smiled very tenderly at them and held his hands out to his bride to lead her to his side.
‘Hello, all my beautiful girls,’ he murmured. ‘What a lovely way to star
t our wedding day!’
And Jandy was smiling too, a radiant, dazzling smile, and there were tears running down her face—but this time they were tears of happiness. Married life with her darling Patrick was about to begin.
ISBN-13: 9781460377031
FROM SINGLE MUM TO LADY
© 2013 Judy Campbell
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From Single Mum to Lady Page 16
