One Hour to Midnight

by Shirley Wine

Veronica held the phone away from her ear grinning at the predictable reaction. Tania had never changed in all the years they'd known each other.

  "Tell me, Tania?" she asked, tongue in cheek. "Is the sex okay with Milas?"

  She heard Tania splutter and Milas give a bark of laughter. "What sort of question is that?"

  "Just to let you know, my drought had ended, so yes, I'm going to marry Leon and have his baby. And rest assured, creating a baby will be no hardship."

  Tania was still spluttering as Veronica put down the phone and cut the connection. She leaned back in the chair and grinned.

  Putting the dilemma facing her into words had made the decision easier.

  She wasn't going into this arrangement wearing rose coloured glasses. As Leon said, they were adults. They could make this work. And the sex was great.

  On impulse, she rang for McKenna. If Leon was at a meeting, she would go and spend some time with Jordan.

  ~***~

  Once she was protectively garbed, Veronica tiptoed to the bedside. Jordan was sleeping, dark lashes resting on gaunt cheeks that were far too pale.

  He stirred as she sat in the chair beside his bed.

  "Hi, how you doing?" she asked softly.

  "Mummy?" Jordan was sleepy and obviously disorientated.

  "No, it's Vic." The diminutive slipped out. "Your Dad has a meeting, and I thought you'd like me to keep you company."

  The sea-blue so like hers, widened. He gave her a look she couldn't fathom and then turned his head away. "I don't."

  Veronica's heart stopped and then raced. "You don't what?"

  "Want you here."

  The words hurt, but Veronica refused to be deterred. If she and Leon were to marry, Jordan needed to become accustomed to her.

  "Why's that?" She took care to keep her voice soft and unthreatening.

  "I want my Mum." Tears rolled down Jordan's cheeks. "She was here. I know she was here and she told me she wouldn't go away again."

  Veronica managed a shaken breath. Did Jordan remember her helping sponge him down the other night, when he was running that dangerous fever? How could she ease his heartache?

  She picked up his hand, the skin papery and hot to the touch, and silently prayed for the right words. "Your Mum got sick, Jordan, and she can't come back."

  "She was here. I know she was here."

  "Jordan, look at me," Veronica said quietly and firmly. It took a while but she waited him out. He turned his head and looked at her. "When you were so sick the other night, I was here with your Dad, helping him care for you."

  He glared at her, his eyes swimming with tears. "You said you were my mum?"

  The accusation in those words hit her hard. She wanted to protest that she was his mother, but instinctively knew that would be a mistake. Had she made an error of judgement visiting alone? The last thing she wanted was to upset Jordan. If she did so Leon would be furious.

  "I was trying to help you," she said, quietly.

  "You lied to me." The accusation and his glare were uncannily similar to Leon's. "You don't like me."

  "I do like you, Jordan," she said vehemently. "It's because I care about you that I've come from New Zealand to give you some of my healthy bone marrow, remember."

  Jordan lay there looking at her with eyes too large in his wasted face, and so very old. She could almost see him thinking. "You were going to the seaside."

  About to admit she was staying at Claremont, she sensed that would also be a mistake.

  "I have, and the weather's been lovely." The ease with which the lie slipped out left her faintly shocked.

  "Andreas said you stole his father from them. Did you?"

  The faint sneer in the words made Veronica queasy. Sonia gave Jordan a garbled version of his parentage, so I told him the truth.

  She closed her eyes briefly, fighting down an old pain.

  "No Jordan, Andreas has it wrong. I never stole their father," she said very quietly. "Yannis, their father and your biological father, had a lot of problems. His biggest problem was he couldn't tell the truth. He lied to me and he lied to your Aunt Sonia."

  Veronica found it an eerie sensation to be judged by a ten-year-old boy.

  "Why would he lie? Dad says it's wrong to lie."

  Veronica covered Jordan's hand with her own. "You dad is right. Yannis's lies hurt a lot of people."

  And it was you and I who suffered most of all.

  Jordan was quiet for a long time watching her without blinking. "Would you like to read to me? Dad usually reads to me at night."

  Her relief at this simple request was disproportionate.

  "Of course I'll read to you." She picked up the book on the bedside locker. "This one?"

  "Yeah." He yawned and scrubbed at his eyes.

  As she settled in to read about the adventures of the boy wizard, Veronica sensed she'd passed some stringent test. She read for close on an hour before Jordan's nurse came in and changed his drip bottle and gave him a sedative.

  Veronica placed a bookmark in the book and stood up.

  "I'll say goodnight. Sleep well, Jordan," she said smoothing a wayward lock of hair off his forehead.

  "Night, Vic." He gave her a sleepy smile and his eyelids fluttered down onto his hollow cheeks.

  On impulse she leaned down and feathered a kiss on his brow. For long moments she watched him before slipping from the room.

  Back at Claremont, the house was as quiet as a tomb and eerily empty.

  Cassie had retired to her cottage. All other domestic staff were off duty and off the premises. Years ago, Julia had informed her Leon refused to have live-in staff. He valued his privacy. Now, Veronica was here alone, rattling around this huge, empty mansion.

  It was an uncanny sensation.

  Restless, she prowled through the house. In the spacious formal reception room, she flicked on the lights. A faint trace of lemon scented polish was the only sign of life.

  A huge portrait of Julia in her wedding gown, hanging above the white stone fireplace, surveyed the almost regal splendour of the white on white decor.

  White walls, pale off white carpet, distressed white French style furniture. The only colour was the delicate turquoise pattern on the white drapes. In one corner, a love seat and two tub chairs were upholstered in a turquoise accented tapestry, and on a white sofa one turquoise cushion nestled among its white cousins.

  Veronica tried to imagine a robust ten-year-old boy rushing into this room after spending a day in the bush, hooning around on his dirt-bike—and came up hopelessly short. Or Leon unknotting his tie and relaxing with a whiskey in one of those delicate chairs?

  She shook her head.

  Heck, it took all her self-restraint not to check her clothes and shoes were clean enough to enter the room.

  Her gaze gravitated towards the huge portrait of Julia. Dressed in white, she suited the chilly, sterile room. Veronica loved clean, airy surroundings but this décor gave her the shivers. It was irrational, but she was sure those blue eyes followed her every move, and did not approve.

  Veronica's gaze landed on the grand piano and its array of portraits. And with another convulsive shiver, she switched off the lights and left the room to Julia.

  The other reception rooms were just as oppressive.

  She went next to the library. Its floor to ceiling bookshelves, comfortable leather armchairs and the large oak desk had a more lived-in air. She could imagine Leon relaxing in here with a whiskey after a hard day in the office.

  Veronica searched the bookshelves looking for something to read, and then decided she wasn't in the mood and prowled back through the empty rooms.

  The one room she hadn't found was Leon's. Where did he sleep?

  Curiosity put a spring in her step.

  She wasn't snooping, Leon had invited her to explore.

  Her footsteps led her back to Jordan's room. She picked up the teddy she'd earlier placed on his pillow and held it against her cheek. It was a comfort to know
Jordan had treasured her gift. The bear's threadbare appearance was that of a much loved confidant. Holding it comforted her now, and she carried it with her as she walked into the corridor and opened the door opposite.

  This was Leon's room.

  A jacket lay on the back of a chair. The shirt he'd worn earlier was lying across the end of the bed. On a polished table beside a comfortable recliner, a silver tray held a crystal decanter of whiskey and glasses. Books and magazines filled a lower shelf.

  Here was where Leon relaxed.

  With the whole of this mansion at his disposal, Leon had chosen these rooms in the old part of the house for his lair.

  Veronica walked into the room, picked up his shirt and buried her face in the fabric. The scent she associated with Leon filled her senses, woodsy pine cologne and the smoky, male musk of honest sweat.

  On a startled indrawn breath, she realised this room must adjoin her own. She walked to the connecting door and turned the key.

  The air left her lungs in a resounding whoosh.

  She looked from the room she'd used both now and years ago, and then back at Leon's room. Furnished in a similar style both rooms and the sitting room, formed part of a private suite.

  And he'd instructed Cassie to prepare that adjoining room for her.

  Trying to assimilate this, Veronica carried the shirt through to the bathroom, put it in the linen hamper, before picking up his jacket, opening the cavernous wardrobe and hanging it on a hanger.

  Veronica liked order and she'd done the wifely tasks automatically. And now, that instinctive action gave her pause.

  Am I going to accept what Leon's offering?

  Despite talking with Tania, Veronica hadn't consciously decided. A sigh trembled from her. She walked across to Leon's chair, poured a half glass of whiskey and sat down.

  She sipped the whiskey; its smoky bite giving her much needed courage.

  I will lay down my own stipulations. Leon won't have it all his own way.

  Savouring the whiskey, Veronica studied the room intently, not at all sure what she sought. A key to the enigmatic man who'd treated her kindly when she was a pregnant teen? The passionate lover? Or perhaps the devoted father she knew he was?

  She picked up a magazine and grimaced. It was a financial publication. Did the man eat and breathe finance? Restless, she put the empty glass on the tray, stood up and prowled across the room.

  On the polished mahogany dresser was a photo of Leon and Julia on their wedding day. Veronica picked it up and studied it. If ever once, Leon looked at her in that way, she'd die a happy woman. Her hand shook as she replaced it.

  Am I a fool, prepared to take crumbs from a man who's had a surfeit at the banquet table? Don't I deserve more than what Leon's offering?

  Unsettled, she uncapped a bottle of cologne. The scent was so Leon she went weak at the knees.

  It's more than I've ever had before.

  And that was the crux of her dilemma.

  What Leon was offering her was far more than she'd ever had. A real home, a sense of belonging, the chance to bond with the son she'd never stopped grieving and more babies to cherish.

  Just imagining holding Leon's baby made her all warm and gooey inside.

  Should she take what was on offer and trust that they could develop a deep, meaningful relationship?

  She yawned. After a sleepless night, the worry about Jordan and the deepening of her relationship with Leon, she was tired. And it was late.

  Should she wait up for Leon? And talk it over with him?

  No, tomorrow was soon enough.

  As Veronica prepared for bed, she wavered, first this way and then that.

  Showered and changed, she walked to the connecting door to close it and then changed her mind. She scooped Jordan's teddy from her bed, walked through to Leon's bed, turned back the covers, slid into his bed and switched out the lights

  ~***~

  Leon found Veronica in his bed when he returned from the meeting that had gone on until well after midnight. On the way home, he'd checked on Jordan and found his boy sleeping.

  His nurse had mentioned that Veronica had spent more than an hour with Jordan reading to him. And now here she was curled up with Jordan's teddy in his bed. She was just full of surprises.

  He stood at the bedside, studying her.

  Sleep softened the lines of pain around her tender mouth. Gone was the haunting sadness that clung to her like a cloak, closed eyelids hid the reproach in the depths of those expressive blue-green eyes. With her blonde hair spread over his pillow, hugging Jordan's teddy, Veronica barely looked old enough to be a mother.

  Yet thanks to him and Julia, she was a mother, without a child.

  Guilt ate at him.

  Seeing her holding the teddy Veronica admitted she'd bought with what little money of her own she possessed, exacerbated his guilt.

  If I'd sent it to Claremont, Julia would have made certain Jordan never saw it.

  The teddy he'd brought home for Jordan.

  Was Veronica right?

  Of course she is. Isn't that why I never told Julia that Ricki had bought this teddy for her baby?

  Unease was added to his guilt.

  Veronica had borne the cost of his and Julia's dream. Now a marriage and a child with him would deny her of another dream. Marriage and children with a man she loved.

  Leon knew he would never be that man.

  He'd had his chance at love and the agony of that loss still haunted him. As he rubbed a tired hand over his eyes and wished there was another way.

  Veronica had suffered far too much at the hands of his family.

  And now, he was asking her to sacrifice even more? He deserved every ounce of her condemnation. Why had he not realised before, that in her desperation for a child, Julia had twisted his offers of help to Veronica?

  Her shock had been too genuine for doubt.

  It was not as if Cassie hadn't warned him. Guilt layered on guilt. It was eating him alive.

  Leon wished he could ignore the memory of his brother's frantic voice.

  Ignore the terrible secrets of Yannis's activities, secrets he'd never divulged. Now it was too late.

  And should Veronica ever learn Yannis's dastardly secrets it must surely cement her hatred of the Karvasis family in concrete.

  Would he never be done cleaning up his brother's messes?

  Chapter Eleven

  "We have to stop meeting like this." Leon's soft words, underscored with humour, brought Veronica wide awake.

  Startled, she turned her head and saw him leaning on his elbow, his head resting on his open palm. He was watching her, an amused smile softening his hard features.

  A surge of heat suffused her face and she closed her eyes wishing she possessed the power to become invisible. Why had she succumbed to the temptation to sleep in his bed?

  "It's not going to work, Veronica."

  She opened her eyes and met his steady gaze. The unmistakable gleam of desire in their depths disturbed her on some primeval level. Drat the man. Did he have to look so good with that sexy stubble on his chin?

  "I assume that as you decided to sleep in my bed, you've made up your mind?"

  "Maybe." That was as close as she could come to an admission.

  "What will it take to turn that maybe into a definite yes?" He laid his palm against her cheek and turned her face towards him, leaned forward and kissed her, his lips soft, so very tender and far too fleeting.

  "Why did you do that?"

  "Maybe because I wanted to," he said, smoothing a strand of hair back behind her ear. "Or maybe because you spent last evening reading to a lonely little boy."

  "How is he?" The constant worry was an ever present burden. "And reading to Jordan was better than rattling around this mansion on my own."

  "Scary isn't it? Jordan's in much better spirits this morning." Leon frowned. "He's having radiation later and I can't be with him during these sessions."

  Veronica sensed this
wasn't an idle comment.

  "Have you decided yet?"

  "I have." Sometime during the night she'd come to a decision. "I'll marry you, for Jordan's sake."

  "Thank you." He leaned forward and kissed her, hard. For long, breathless moments her lips clung to his.

  When he raised his head, she took a deep breath. "I have two provisos, Leon."

  His expression changed, became much more guarded. "Such as?"

  Veronica sat up and looped her arms around her knees, meeting his gaze steadily. "I insist on being married in church."

  "And this is set in stone?"

  Veronica's gaze strayed fleetingly to the wedding portrait on the bureau. "To me, Leon, it's very important."

  "Okay. But we won't have time for a big, lavish do."

  Because he's had one such wedding, and another would remind him of his previous marriage to the love of his life?

  "I don't want a big do," she said, lifting her chin, "but I do want a church ceremony. Is that unreasonable?"

  "It can be arranged although the timeframe is not ideal. What is your other proviso?"

  It was her turn to frown but she let it slide. This was more difficult. "I insist on legally adopting Jordan, and I want a watertight pre-nuptial agreement that in the event of a marriage break down, I'll have free access to Jordan and any other children we may have."

  Leon tensed and his demeanour changed but Veronica was determined. She'd lost one child and would never survive losing another. Nor did she want to lose contact with Jordan now they were reunited.

  "And if I don't agree?"

  "Then there will be no marriage, Leon." She folded her lips in a stubborn line. "I will never give up my rights to another child. It's that or nothing."

  He sat up and threw back the covers, sliding his feet over the edge of the bed.

  Veronica's heart thudded and her mouth went dry. He was naked evoking memories of their passionate lovemaking.

  She struggled to find words. "Do you agree, Leon?"

  He turned towards her, his flagrant nudity making her breath hitch sharply. Heat crawled up her cheeks.

  Get a grip girl. I've agreed to marry him. Get used to it!

  "Yes, I agree." He leaned his hands on the bed pushing his face close to hers. "And I have a couple of provisos of my own."