by Miranda Lee
Tiffany’s smile made her whole face light up. ‘He said he did. A hundred times. Oh, James, he is so wonderful. And so handsome. And so…so…’
‘Sexy?’ Marina inserted mischievously.
Tiffany’s high colour and slightly flustered state transformed her from her usual cool beauty to a creature of startling sensuality. Her Italian lover might not yet have taken her virginity, but he’d certainly given her innocence a nudge.
‘Yes, very sexy,’ she admitted, and blushed even more furiously.
‘But can he look after you?’ James demanded to know. ‘Has he a job? He doesn’t know you’re from a titled family, does he?’
Marina could only smile at this very male trait of looking first to financial matters. But she was glad James didn’t seem to notice the change in the girl. He must truly love her not to be affected by Tiffany’s blossoming sexuality.
‘James, don’t badger the girl!’ Marina protested. ‘When are you going to see your Italian again, Tiffany?’
‘He’ll be in London next week,’ she said excitedly. ‘His family are in fashion. The Ferruccis. You must have heard of them. They own an exclusive label, with boutiques all over the world, so I don’t think you have to worry about Marco being a gold-digger, James, dear.
‘Besides, we Ravensbrooks don’t have that much money left anyway. My father’s already frittered away most of the family’s fortunes. Why do you think I have a job as a tour guide over at Bellham Castle? Any man marrying me certainly won’t be marrying me for my money!’
James frowned. ‘He’s asked you to marry him already?’
‘No, of course not. But he will,’ she said, with all the confidence of the young and inexperienced.
Marina was not about to disillusion her by saying that men didn’t always ask the girls they said they loved to marry them. They made love to them. But that was a different matter entirely.
Marina’s thoughts suddenly struck closer to home. James claimed he loved her—and she really didn’t doubt that—but his claim hadn’t been accompanied by an offer of marriage. Of course he’d hardly had the opportunity, but maybe he never would. Maybe his loving her was not going to be enough to take them to the altar together. Not in his world.
A knot of immediate tension formed in Marina’s stomach. Was it all too good to be true?
Tiffany stayed a little while longer, chattering away about her gorgeous Italian, who had been a guest at one of the pre-wedding parties and then at the wedding itself, where he hadn’t minded her purple bridesmaid dress at all. Probably because his family’s bridal boutique in Rome had provided all the clothes for the wedding party.
He wasn’t a relative of the bride and groom. Or a personal friend. In fact the bride and groom hadn’t been aware of his true identity. To them he’d been merely the man from the bridal boutique who was contacted when one of the dresses hadn’t shown up.
The bride’s mother had been so impressed with his helpfulness and charm that she had impulsively invited him to both the pre-wedding party that night and the wedding itself. It was Tiffany who was to later find out he was one of the famed Ferruccis, although he had modestly declined her wish to tell all and sundry. He’d said he was enjoying being treated like a nobody.
‘I have heard the name Ferrucci,’ James said, still not sounding happy. ‘But I know nothing of the family. I’m also not sure your folks will be happy with your getting mixed up with some Italian, Tiffany.’
‘They’ll have to like it or lump it, I’m afraid. I’ll be twenty-one next month. I think that’s old enough to make my own decisions, don’t you?’
Personally, Marina thought twenty-one was still awfully young. She’d been a right ninny at twenty-one.
And you’re still a ninny, that perverse voice piped up. Thinking that the Earl of Winterborne was going to marry you!
‘I’d better be going,’ Tiffany said. ‘But before I do I want to tell you how happy I am for you both. I think you’re much better suited to James than me, Marina. You’ll be able to stand up to him. And you’re nice and tall as well. James always rather overawed me a bit.’
‘And your Italian doesn’t overawe you?’ James asked.
Tiffany’s laugh was a little self-conscious. ‘Oh, yes, he does. Terribly. But in a different and rather delicious way. It…it’s hard to explain,’
Marina knew exactly what Tiffany meant.
‘You be careful with this Italian fellow, Tiffany,’ James warned. ‘Don’t rush into things. Men of his ilk are used to girls coming across without their having to promise them anything.’
‘Oh, Marco’s not like that,’ Tiffany denied. ‘He’s very passionate, but very sincere. He said he’s prepared to wait for me for for ever, if necessary. But I don’t think he’ll have to wait as long as that.’ And she winked at them both.
When James scowled, Tiffany laughed. ‘Do stop worrying, James. I promise I won’t do anything you wouldn’t do with Marina. Now I simply must go. Walk me to the car, will you?’
They did, and waved her off. But once the car was out of sight Marina turned to him and voiced the mounting worry in her mind.
‘Interesting observation about the male gender you made just then,’ she began, matter-of-factly, even though she felt nauseous inside. ‘So tell me—are you going to prove to be a man of that ilk you spoke of, who expects a girl to come across without him promising her anything? Is your so-called love for me just words, or are you going to put a decent proposal where your mouth is?’
‘Ahh,’ he said. ‘Trust you to cut straight to the crux of the matter.’
‘It’s the nature of the beast,’ she agreed, rather tartly. ‘Well, James? Are you going to ask me to marry you or not? Because if you’re not, then don’t expect a repeat performance of last night. For all his miserliness, Shane at least gave me an engagement ring in exchange for my favours in bed!’
James glared at her for a moment, then took her arm and started propelling her down the front steps.
‘What? Where are you taking me? Take your hands off me and just answer the question, damn you!’
‘I will, when I’m good and ready,’ he said curtly. ‘Now, do please shut that very loud mouth of yours for a few miserable seconds, will you? I do not want William, who is just over there washing the car, knowing my private business.’
‘No kidding?’ she mocked. ‘Since when do the aristocracy care about their staff knowing their private business? Talbot already knows exactly what went on in your room last night, and I’ll warrant William has a pretty good idea too!’
‘Be quiet, woman, or by God I’ll make more noise than you—and in a way that will have William and the rest of the household scandalised for a decade!’
‘Why, you’re nothing but a bully!’ she protested as he shepherded her across the lawn and down to the boatshed on the edge of the lake. Once there, he wrapped a solid arm around her waist, opened the door, hoisted her off her feet and carried her inside, then kicked the door shut behind him.
‘Tiffany was right to dump you,’ she huffed and puffed. ‘Keep this manhandling stuff up and I’ll dump you as well.’
‘The only one being dumped around here is you, Miss Loud Mouth.’ And he dropped her onto an old divan in the corner.
She stared up at him as he stripped his sweater over his head and tossed it aside, then began with breathless speed on his trousers. ‘You wouldn’t!’ she gasped, despite her eyes being glued to his body and her pulse-rate accelerating like mad.
‘I surely would. So get your gear off as well, my dear future wife.’
‘Your what?’
‘You heard what I said.’
‘Oh!’ she cried. ‘You mean it? You really mean it?’
‘Is this the body of a man who doesn’t mean what he says?’
‘I mean about us getting married, silly.’
‘Of course I mean it. Would a peer of the realm lie to you?’ He bent and began attacking the buttons of her shirt. Marina immediately foun
d it hard to concentrate on anything but James’s busy fingers, which were unhooking her bra in no time flat.
‘Are you saying lords don’t lie?’ she asked, rather breathlessly.
‘Not this lord.’ The bra gone, he tipped her backwards again and started on the jeans.
‘I…I didn’t think lords married girls like me.’
He laughed. ‘Wherever did you get such a crazy idea? Lords have been known to marry girls a lot more unsuitable than you, my darling Marina. At the turn of the century they went through a phase of marrying chorus girls and actresses—which, believe me, at that time were one rung above a woman of the streets. And then there was my own brother,’ James went on as Marina’s jeans joined the rest of her clothes. ‘He married one of the notorious Bingham girls.’
Marina’s head jerked up to stare at him. ‘B-Bingham girls?’ she croaked.
James took no notice of her horrified expression, his eyes focused on divesting her of her white lace panties while he raved on. ‘I suppose you haven’t heard of the Binghams all the way over in Australia?
‘Their father was Sir Richard Bingham, knighted for his dubious contributions to trade and industry. An ambitious rogue if ever there was one. Still, he was filthy rich and spoiled his daughters rotten. A wild lot, the four of them, with little reputation left by the time they reached puberty. But damned beautiful. I’ll give them that. All of them with names beginning with J.
‘Joy, my brother’s wife, was the youngest—though she was, in fact, a good few years older than Laurence. She had a twin sister who ran off with some stablehand barely a week before she was to marry some aging Italian count. Can’t think what her name was. Jasmine? No, that was the eldest. And Janet was the middle girl. Oh, yes. It was Jocelyn.’
Marina gasped.
James pulled her up to his chest, their bodies already fused. ‘Yes, I know,’ he rasped. ‘You take my breath away too. God, I’ve been thinking of nothing else but this since I woke this morning. Why do you think I was in such a black mood? And why do you think I avoided you like poison? One look at you and I was in agony. On top of that, I thought you were going to leave me and go back to Australia and marry that Shane person.’
‘Never,’ she choked out, her head whirling.
‘We’re going to have to get married soon, darling. I can’t keep dragging you into boatsheds at inappropriate times. No, don’t move. I can’t bear it when you move. Oh, God, Marina. Yes, all right, move. Oh, my darling…my darling…’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘YOU’RE very quiet,’ James said.
They were on their way back to London. William was busy negotiating the Sunday afternoon traffic, bumper to bumper in parts, and Rebecca was sound asleep again, with her head on a cushion in Marina’s lap.
‘Are you having second thoughts about my proposal?’ he asked quietly.
‘Are you?’ she countered.
‘Not at all. And if you’re worried about being accepted as my wife then don’t be. As I said before, that kind of snobbery is dead and gone. You saw the way Mildred reacted when I told her. She was very pleased. And Talbot, I assure you, was more than pleased when I told him. He said you were a lovely lady and wished us every happiness.’
‘That’s all very well, but what about Henry? I don’t think Henry’s going to be at all pleased.’
‘Henry will get used to the idea.’
‘Never in a million years. He had your life all mapped out, as the best Earl of Winterborne for a hundred years along with the perfect wife by your side. And it wasn’t me,’ she finished unhappily.
‘I don’t think you know Henry as well as you think you do. One of the reasons he was all for Tiffany was because Rebecca liked her so much. Once he realises Rebecca’s as crazy about you as I am, then you will have a new champion, I assure you.
‘Frankly, I suspect you’ve already won the old coot over. I recognised the signs all last week. It was just his loyalty and liking for Tiffany that was getting in the way. After I explain Tiffany’s change of heart, he’ll feel free to grovel at your feet as I’m sure he would like to.’
‘Henry, grovel?’ Marina exclaimed, though somewhat soothed and flattered by James’s assertions. ‘Henry would never grovel.’
‘Smiling is Henry’s way of grovelling. Once he starts smiling at you, you’re in.’
‘He did almost smile at me once,’ Marina remarked thoughtfully.
James bestowed a real smile on her. ‘See? What did I tell you? You have nothing to worry about.’
Except that I haven’t told you yet I’m one of those notorious Bingham girls, Marina thought ruefully.
Rebecca was teary at the hospital.
‘You will come back?’ she cried, clinging to Marina. ‘You really are going to marry Uncle James, aren’t you?’
Marina hugged the child to her. ‘Wild horses won’t keep me away from you, sweetie. Or your Uncle James.’ And she glanced up at him through swimming eyes, before hugging the weeping little girl some more. ‘I’ll be back before you know it. But I have to go home for a little while to sell my mother’s house and collect some more clothes. I hardly have a thing to wear, you know, and that’s a dreadful thing in a lady’s book. Much worse than having no hair.’
‘Nothing’s worse than having no hair!’ Rebecca cried plaintively.
Marina pulled back and wiped the child’s tears from her cheeks while she struggled to stop her own. ‘You’re so right,’ she agreed. ‘But in no time you’ll have more hair than you’ll know what to do with. And you’ll be so well! Your Uncle James and I are going to take you home as soon as I get back, and you’ll never have to come here again. Except perhaps for the odd check-up. But then I’ll be with you, and I won’t leave you alone for a second.’
Rebecca drew back to raise her big green eyes in the most heart-wrenching way. ‘Promise?’
‘Cross my heart.’ Which she did with her finger.
The child threw her arms around her again. ‘Oh, Marina, I love you!’
‘And I love you too, darling. Now, let’s get you undressed and into bed before I get into trouble from the sister. You wouldn’t want to get me into trouble, would you?’
‘You’re so good with her,’ James complimented her on the drive back to the apartment. They were sitting together on the back seat of the Bentley. James’s arm was around Marina’s shoulder and her cheek was resting on his chest.
Marina bit her bottom lip. She was feeling awfully fragile. What on earth would they do if Rebecca was not better when she came back? What if the transplant hadn’t worked? What if the cancer returned with a vengeance?
Suddenly it all became too much for her. ‘Oh, James!’ she cried, and buried her face in his chest, the tears which had threatened in the hospital room flowing down her cheeks.
‘Yes, I know,’ he said quietly, holding her close and letting her cry. ‘But someone quite wonderful recently told me that we must have faith. We must believe. And I do believe, Marina. I believe it was no rare coincidence that your name popped out of that register. Your being sent over here to save Rebecca’s life was a type of destiny. It had been written. I’m not sure how or why, but it was. Rebecca is going to get well. She is going to live as surely as we’re going to get married and live happily ever after. I know it.’
‘Oh!’ Marina gasped, and sat upright, wiping her tears away. ‘Oh, I just realised! I didn’t before. I was worried you might not be happy about it, but now I see how silly I’m being, because it’s me you love, not someone’s daughter. Yet being that person’s daughter is why this happened, why I was a near perfect match. Oh, James, darling, you’re so right. It was written. It was!’
He cupped her face and stared deep into her eyes. ‘Marina, I don’t have the foggiest clue what you’re talking about.’
‘No, of course you don’t. And I wouldn’t have—yesterday. But today, in the boatshed, you said something and I realised.’
‘Realised what?’
‘That my be
ing a near perfect match with Rebecca was not a coincidence. You see, I’m not a stranger who just happened to have the right blood and tissue type. I’m a relative!’
‘A relative?’
‘Yes, my mother’s maiden name, James, was Bingham! Rebecca’s maternal grandmother—Joy Bingham—was my mother’s twin sister. My mother was Jocelyn Bingham.’
‘Good God!’ he exclaimed. But then he laughed. ‘Marina, that’s just so incredible!’
‘Yes, I know,’ she said. ‘Just think! You ended up with one of the notorious Bingham girls.’
He grinned. ‘You mean one of those bad girls who married men for their money?’
‘My mother didn’t!’ Marina defended. ‘She married for love!’
‘So she did. Just like her darling daughter. You do love me, don’t you?’ he asked as he gathered her to him once more.
‘I love you so much,’ she murmured, ‘that it’s positively indecent.’
‘Mmm. Do you think you might sneak upstairs into my room tonight when Henry’s asleep? I mean, if you’re going to be away for three weeks, I’ll need a little something to remember you by.’
‘Are you sure I can trust you out of my sight for that long?’
‘Are you sure I can trust you back there in sunny Australia with that Shane fellow?’
‘Yes.’
‘Give me your word.’
‘You have it.’
‘And you have mine.’
She sighed her contentment and snuggled into him.
‘One thing you must learn about us Marsden men,’ James told her as he stroked her hair, ‘is that we have been notorious rakes down the years, but once we fall in love and marry it’s for good. Nothing—and I mean nothing—will ever stop me loving you, Marina. That’s the nature of this beast.’
‘I like the sound of that.’
‘We’re just turning down the mews.’
Marina sat upright with a swift resurgence of nerves. ‘Oh, dear God. Henry!’
James chuckled. ‘Don’t be afraid of Henry. He’s a lamb in wolf’s clothing.’
