The Marriage Gamble

by Meredith Webber

  Guessing from the startled look Jacinta was giving him that she had no idea what he was talking about, he started the car, pulled out from the kerb and explained.

  ‘I’ll admit I was going to close the clinic when the building was sold, but once you’d convinced me it was needed, I started to think about relocating it. I heard there was a building not far from the Abbott Road clinic that might be available for rent, but the solicitors who manage the place were worse than useless so my solicitor did a title search and came up with the owner’s name—Elizabeth Nevin. Unfortunately, on the title her address was care of the same solicitors, so yesterday I spent a futile morning on the phone, chasing down every Nevin in the phone book in the hope I might find Elizabeth and talk to her direct.’

  ‘You mean my Mrs Nevin owns the building?’

  ‘Well, she lives there. Do you know her first name?’

  ‘Norrie calls her Bessie—that’s Elizabeth, I guess. But if she owns the place, she must have money—why live there?’

  Mike smiled.

  ‘Who knows? No doubt she has a reason. Hopefully, it’s not so strong she’ll refuse to consider leasing it to us. With the rent we’d pay, she could afford to move into serviced accommodation and have her friends move in with her as well.’

  ‘And with three floors, we might be able to do other things—sick child care, for one. And meeting places for groups like “Optional Extras”.’

  Jacinta could feel excitement bubbling inside her as she considered all that could be done.

  When…

  If…

  She glanced at Mike as he turned into the hospital car park and pulled into a vacant space. He was smiling as if she’d said something funny.

  ‘Perhaps we should get the operation conversation over with first,’ Jacinta suggested, trying very hard to be sensible and practical, though, since the ‘marrying Jacinta’ announcement Mike had made earlier, sensible and practical had fled and she’d been left with fancies and fantasies.

  ‘Whatever you think,’ Mike whispered, leaning over to kiss her on the lips in a not very sensible or practical kind of way.

  But with such sweet intensity Jacinta felt her bones melt.

  Eventually they reached the ward where Mrs Nevin was awaiting her operation, to find Norrie visiting, with Neville and a younger man Jacinta thought might be a doctor.

  ‘I’m Peter Nevin, Bessie’s grandson.’ He came forward, introduced himself, then guided Jacinta and Mike away from the bed so he could explain. ‘Her solicitor had been trying to contact her for days, and when he couldn’t he got on to me and I flew in this morning. I knew she’d been living in the old building in the city and went there first, to find it boarded up and a police card tacked to it. I gather you’re the doctor who got her out.’

  He thanked Jacinta for her help and explained that once the operation was over he’d be taking Bessie home with him.’

  ‘But she’s worried about her homeless friends, so if I can lease the building for her, maybe I can provide for them with the income from that.’

  ‘Which is where I come in,’ Mike said. ‘I imagine I’m the reason the solicitors were looking for her.’

  Jacinta left them talking and went back to Mrs Nevin.

  ‘Peter says I have to have the operation,’ she said, and Jacinta smiled, glad someone could talk sense to the older woman. ‘He’ll see Norrie’s taken care of, too, and the other girls, but you’re still my doctor so you’ll come and visit me, won’t you?’

  Jacinta assured her she would, though doubt assailed her momentarily. Would Mike understand she had an ongoing commitment to her various projects?

  ‘Yes,’ he said, when she asked him the question later. ‘Which doesn’t mean I won’t get angry or frustrated at times when you break a date to rush after one of your lame ducks, or when you spend time away from me on one of your pet projects, but that’s who you are and part of why I love you. And it’s also reminded me of why I became a doctor in the first place, something I’d lost sight of while the business grew and demanded more and more of my attention. You’ve achieved so much, but just think of what we can do together.’

  Jacinta smiled at him, and repeated words he’d said to her only a fortnight earlier.

  ‘We can’t solve the problems of the whole world, you know. Well, not immediately!’

  EPILOGUE

  ‘I MUST say it’s the strangest assortment of wedding guests I’ve ever seen,’ Ted Trent remarked to Roslyn Ford as the two of them stood on the terrace and watched the visitors straggling up the drive to Mike’s house.

  Bessie Nevin, walking with the aid of a stick, had Norrie as her partner, and in honour of the occasion both were wearing all the clothes from their plastic bags, plus large multiflowered hats. Will, Dean and Fizzy, on the other hand, were clad in their best black jeans—only small rips in the knees—and black T-shirts proclaiming their allegiance to some grizzly-looking band.

  Libby and her closest friends from school, defying the coolness of winter, were in miniskirts and skimpy sequinned tops, while the various Trent Clinic personnel invited had apparently considered the wedding to be the top social event of the year and had dressed accordingly.

  The bride, three months pregnant because she’d been too busy to do something about not getting pregnant, was, in defiance of tradition, in the groom’s bedroom, negotiating leniency for Rohan who, thanks to the new computerised prescription checks, had been found to be over-prescribing and also dabbling in naltrexone implants.

  ‘If you’re making this a condition of our marriage,’ Mike said, keeping his mind firmly on the matter under discussion no matter how delightful his mouse looked in the soft creamy dress she’d chosen, ‘then we’d better call it off right now, because he’s done the wrong thing and should be struck off the register.’

  Jacinta looked up at him, her soft brown eyes innocently meeting his.

  ‘As if I’d make it a condition of marriage,’ she said, and he allowed himself a small smile as he repeated the ‘as if’ softly to himself.

  ‘I’d just like to be sure that we find out why he did it. It seems to me it has to be for money, and in that case he could be on drugs himself and should be getting help. There’s really no effective drug rehab programme specifically designed for medical staff—’

  ‘No!’ Mike said. ‘It’s way beyond our understanding or resources. Besides, right now I’d rather you were thinking of me, not some other man. Today is the day I make you mine for ever. Today is for us, for you and me, with no worries, no concerns and definitely no lame ducks. OK?’

  Jacinta smiled at him while her heart, still badly affected by his presence, fluttered with excitement and tingles travelled to her toes. They’d already achieved so much together, she and Mike, with CPR teams now going into offices and other businesses for on-the-spot training for employees and the ‘Optional Extras’ programme sponsoring a second permanent accommodation house.

  But this was different. This was marriage. A joining of her life to Mike’s—for ever.

  ‘What about you? No second thoughts?’ she asked him, and though the love and commitment in his eyes were enough of an answer, she felt a surging rush of joy when he said the words.

  ‘Not a one!’

  ‘And we’re going to make it? No fear of failure?’

  ‘Not for an instant, my dearest darling.’

  He bent and brushed an almost imperceptible kiss across her trembling lips.

  She breathed in to regain the breath he’d stolen, and looked into his eyes.

  ‘OK,’ she whispered, knowing without the slightest doubt that Mike was the one and only love of her life. ‘If you’re sure, I guess there’s nothing else to say.’

  She grinned at him, then added, ‘Let’s do it!’

  But her voice trembled because the look in Mike’s eyes made her heart flutters even worse and the knowledge of his love for her threatened to overwhelm her.

  Libby met them halfway down the stairs, h
er eyes alight with excitement, and said, ‘Dad, you know the new Abbott Road building, Mrs Nevin’s place, could we use the top floor for a kids’ disco—for under eighteens? The “Kids Helping Kids” group could run it and—’

  Jacinta put up her hands and said to Mike, ‘Hey! This has absolutely nothing to do with me. In fact, I was thinking maybe one of the youth employment services could use it, but a youth disco?’

  She beamed at Libby. ‘That’s a great idea. Let’s just get this wedding out of the way then we’ll—’

  ‘Jacinta!’

  Mike’s growl of warning made her chuckle.

  ‘Just kidding,’ she told him. Then she turned to whisper to Libby, ‘We’ll talk about it tomorrow night when Mike and I get home.’

  And though Mike’s second growl told her he’d heard her words, she knew it wasn’t an angry growl. In the past six months, he’d not only become increasingly interested in her activities but had brought new innovations and ideas to them. Working together to help others, she’d come to realise that beneath the businessman’s exterior there beat a heart as soft as ice cream.

  ‘I love you,’ he whispered in Jacinta’s ear as, with Libby now stepping decorously behind them, they walked towards the wide terrace to greet their guests and take their vows.

  And though Jacinta echoed the words and smiled into his eyes, part of her mind had snagged on her earlier thought. Ice cream!

  Perhaps she should put some ice cream in the cool-box they were taking away with them for their ‘honeymoon’ up at Mount Merion, where the frame and roof of the new weekender would provide them with shelter overnight. If sharing chocolate-coated strawberries had led them to this wonderful day, who knew what a little ice cream might do?

  ‘I hope you’re thinking about me, not youth discos, with that wicked little smile on your face,’ Mike murmured as, their arms entwined, they stepped through the door.

  ‘You and ice cream,’ Jacinta murmured. ‘And our honeymoon.’

  He chuckled, and she snuggled closer, secure in his love, and in her own investment in the future.

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-5705-7

  THE MARRIAGE GAMBLE

  First North American Publication 2002

  Copyright © 2002 by Meredith Webber

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  Visit us at www.eHarlequin.com