Bridal Bargains

by Michelle Reid

  ‘You think I’m a real blonde bimbo, don’t you?’ She grinned. ‘I’m not, you know. I am an interior designer. I work on all the Doumas projects.’

  She changed gear with a flourish and changed lanes with the deftness of someone who was used to taking on London rush-hour traffic.

  ‘It’s called keeping it in the family,’ she explained. ‘Leon is the construction expert, Alex the one who makes every new project pay. We are in a rush to get this one in London completed so we can start on the island project once you’ve had this baby. Only the island will be a private renovation,’ she explained, oblivious or just completely indifferent to the way Mia had stiffened up at the fact Carol knew exactly why Alex had married her.

  ‘The house has been left to decay while your father has been in possession. The land around it has turned back to scrubland that only goats find idyllic. Once it was a beautiful place …’ she sighed wistfully ‘… and we intend to return it to its former glory. Now you know that I know exactly what goes on between you and Alex, will you tell me what you said to upset him?’

  ‘None of your damned business,’ Mia said abruptly, feeling angry, bitter and utterly, cruelly betrayed. And, worse than all that, feeling as if every rotten word she had thrown at Alex earlier had just been well and truly justified!

  ‘Since you seem to know all my business,’ she added angrily, ‘do you think I could have a bedroom of my own, please? Knowing it all must surely mean that you also know that Alex never sleeps in my bed! So let’s make life easier for him and give him his very own bed in his very own room so he doesn’t have to spend the night stretched out in the chair in my room!’

  ‘Oh my …’ Carol drawled after a long taut silence. ‘I think I’ve put my big mouth in it again! Did he really sleep in the chair?’ She had the cheek to giggle. ‘That’ll teach him not to play mind games with his next of kin!’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Mia said crossly.

  ‘I know,’ Carol laughed. ‘That’s what makes it all so amusing!’ The car pulled to a stop outside the white townhouse. ‘Are you sure you want a separate bedroom?’ she goaded teasingly. ‘He’s supposed to be a dynamic lover—so rumour has it. Won’t you miss him slipping between your sheets to have his evil way with you?’

  Too angry to care any more, Mia retaliated spontaneously. ‘You have it all wrong,’ she snapped, grappling for the car door lock. ‘He will still slip between my sheets when the mood takes him. He just does not approve of spending the whole damned night with a whore, that’s all!’

  As an exit line it was perfect, except she had nowhere to exit to. She hurled herself out of the car, certainly, but she had to stand by the closed front door and wait until Carol opened it with her key before she could make her real exit.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Carol murmured as she stepped up beside her, and for once the other girl sound genuinely subdued. ‘Believe it or not, I wasn’t trying to offend you,’

  No? Mia thought. Well, you could have fooled me!

  ‘I was, in actual fact, teasing you at Alex’s expense,’ she admitted ruefully. ‘He was the one who insisted that you share a bedroom, you see …’

  Which meant—what? Mia wondered. That he was attempting to save face in front of his family? Well, if that was the case, he should have kept his mouth shut about the rest of their arrangements, shouldn’t he?

  ‘Do you have a key for this door or do we stand here until someone arrives who does?’

  ‘I have a key.’ Carol sighed, and fitted it into the lock, then pushed open the door. ‘Mia—’

  But Mia was already stalking towards the stairs and so furious she was barely managing to contain it.

  ‘He’s going to kill me if I have to confess what I’ve said to you!’ Carol cried pleadingly after her.

  ‘Good,’ Mia said between gritted teeth. ‘Do me a favour and kill each other—it will solve all my problems for me if you do!’

  ‘This isn’t a joke!’ the other girl shouted.

  Then Mia did explode, turning round at the base of the stairs to glare back down the hallway. ‘You’re right it’s no joke!’ she cried. ‘I am seriously having his baby! And he seriously impregnated me to get it! So don’t you dare make a mockery out of—Oh,’ she groaned as the hall began to swim around dizzily.

  The next thing she knew she was huddled on the floor, with Carol leaning over her, her lovely face chalk-white with shock. ‘My God,’ Carol gasped. ‘What happened?’

  ‘It’s all right,’ Leaning against Carol’s shoulder, Mia closed her eyes and waited for the world to stop spinning. ‘It happens sometimes,’ she breathed. ‘Nothing to worry about. I’ll be fine in a moment or two.’

  ‘But you fainted!’ Carol gasped. ‘That can’t be normal, can it?’

  ‘It is for me,’ Mia said, a trifle ruefully. ‘If you could help me get to my feet, I think I would be better lying down in bed now.’

  ‘Of course.’ Eager to help, but feeling guilty for bringing on the faint, Carol helped Mia to her feet. Together they mounted the stairs.

  In the bedroom Mia dropped weakly onto the bed and lay there with her eyes closed while Carol hovered anxiously, uncertain what to do next.

  ‘Can I get you a drink or something?’ she offered in the end.

  ‘Mmm.’ Mia nodded carefully. ‘That would be nice. Just a glass of water, please.’

  Two minutes later Carol was back with the water and Mia was able to sit up and drink it, without feeling dizzy. ‘Mia …’ Carol began cautiously. ‘Please don’t let Alex know what I said before,’ she begged. ‘He’s always going on about my big mouth. If he finds out I’ve been baiting you with it my life isn’t going to be worth living around here …’

  Thinking about it now the anger had subsided, along with the dizziness, Mia supposed the other woman was right. What was the use in causing yet more friction in a situation that was already too full of it?

  ‘If you don’t tell him that I fainted just now,’ she bargained. ‘He knows it happens,’ she quickly assured Carol at her immediate protest. ‘But he’ll stop me from visiting Suzanna if he hears about it, and at the moment the little girl needs me.’

  ‘OK,’ Carol agreed, but she sounded reluctant, to say the least. ‘I’ll say nothing about you fainting if you’ll not chuck him out of this room so he knows my mouth’s been working overtime again. Deal?’

  ‘Deal,’ Mia agreed, then lay back again as the front door slammed and the sound of two male voices drifted up the stairs.

  ‘I’ll go and head him off,’ Carol said, shifting quickly to the door. ‘If he sees you looking this washed-out he’ll know something’s wrong with you.’

  Then she was gone. Mia could hear their voices through the half-open door. ‘Where’s Mia?’ Alex was demanding. ‘Why is your bag lying on the floor with its contents tipped all over the place?’

  ‘Mia is tired and has gone to bed,’ Mia heard Carol answer. ‘She said to tell you not to disturb her when you came up. And my bag is on the floor like that because I was so desperate for the loo when I got home that I just dropped it and ran. Any more questions?’

  It was a challenge, and one issued with her usual flippancy that belied any hint of deceit. The voice changed and became the brother’s, whose tones were warmer as he greeted his wife the way loving husbands did.

  After that, all went quiet as the three of them disappeared into the kitchen and Mia dragged herself up, got herself undressed and into her nightdress then fell between the sheets.

  She slept very heavily and woke the next morning feeling thick-headed and lethargic. By the imprint on the pillow beside her, Alex had shared her bed last night, though whether he’d stayed there all night or had spent half of it stretched out in the chair she didn’t know or care.

  She was still angry with him for discussing their private business with the rest of his family. It made her feel exposed, more the outsider than ever, even though, on the face of it, he had allowed her closer
to his family here in London than he had done while they were living in Greece.

  When she went downstairs she found Carol alone in the kitchen. The men had apparently already left for work, and it was Carol who drove her to the hospital. Mia spent the morning entertaining Suzanna, who was allowed out of bed today and was walking around although she found it sore to do so.

  They had just finished lunch, and Suzanna was resting on her bed while Mia read a story to her, when Alex walked in. He sent Mia a fleeting glance and then directed his attention at Suzanna.

  ‘You look much brighter today.’ He smiled.

  The child smiled, too, her face lighting up like a puppy starved of affection who saw the chance of some coming its way in the shape of this man.

  ‘I’ve drawn you a picture,’ she told Alex shyly, and asked Mia to pass her a new sketch pad Carol had given her yesterday. ‘It’s to say thank you for my computer game …’

  Inside were three pictures, although there was another one, which Mia had already been given for herself, of a church with a bride and bridegroom standing outside it and a child standing beside them, her hand tucked in the groom’s. It said such a lot about the child’s secret wishes that Mia had had to fight the urge to weep when Suzanna had handed the picture to her. Now she had it safely tucked away in the carrier bag in which she had brought Suzanna’s gift—the set of story books they had just started reading. One of the set, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was Suzanna’s favourite story.

  Now the child was solemnly handing Alex his picture. It showed blue skies and a large sun, beaming down on a man, a woman, a little girl and a baby around a swimming pool with a pretty house in the background.

  More secret wishes unwittingly portrayed for the discerning to read. Mia had told Suzanna all about Alex’s villa on Skiathos, and she had drawn herself there with them because that was where she most wanted to be.

  No, thought Mia, Alex was not a fool. The way his eyes were hooded as he studied the picture meant he was reading all the right messages.

  ‘I have one for the other lady, too,’ Suzanna told Alex shyly.

  ‘Carol,’ Mia said.

  ‘Carol,’ Suzanna obediently repeated. ‘She brought me these felt tips and the sketch pad,’ she explained to Alex. ‘She wanted me to draw my operation so I have—do you think she’ll like it?’

  This picture was gory in the extreme. When Alex finally managed to drag his attention away from his own offering to look at Carol’s picture, he couldn’t help the rueful smile that touched his mouth. ‘I should think she will love it.’ he murmured very drily. ‘Thank you for my picture.’

  From being ready for a nap, Suzanna was suddenly so animated Mia felt something painful clutch at her heart as she watched the little girl hunt in the clutter on her bed to unearth her computer game, which she handed to Alex.

  ‘Would you like to have a go?’ she offered eagerly, switching it on for him. ‘You press this button here, then—’

  It was like watching a light go out. One moment all three of them seemed to be basking in the brilliance of Suzanna’s excitement and in the next, darkness fell in the form of a metaphorical big black shadow. The child had glanced up, that was all—just glanced up distractedly—and, wham, she was a different person.

  Mia was sitting on the side of the bed, with Alex seated in the chair on the other side. She looked up, too, and rose jerkily. Alex glanced up, saw who was standing in the doorway and frowned as his eyes flicked to the other two then back to the door again.

  Jack Frazier was standing there, transfixed. His eyes were locked on Mia’s body, greed glinting in their cold grey depths as he absorbed the obvious evidence of her pregnancy.

  ‘So it is done,’ he said with unmasked satisfaction. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ The accusing words were flashed at Mia. ‘When is it due?’ He laughed, and turned to Alex, who was rising slowly to his feet. ‘I can’t damn well believe it! Well done, man. Well done!’

  Not seeing or completely ignoring Alex’s grim expression, Jack Frazier walked forward to grab his hand and began to pump it up and down.

  ‘When do we close the deal, then?’ he asked eagerly.

  On the other side of the bed Mia was reaching for Suzanna’s hand as the child’s hand searched for hers. Neither smiled. Neither spoke. As far as Jack Frazier was concerned, they might as well not have been there for all they mattered. Mia only mattered as a vessel required to make him his so-called grandson and Suzanna didn’t matter at all.

  ‘We will let you know at the appropriate time,’ Alex said coldly. ‘As it is, Suzanna’s health is the main concern in this room.’

  As a pointed reminder of his duty, Jack took the hint and at last condescended to notice Suzanna. ‘Got your Mia back, then?’ he taunted drily. ‘The lengths children will go to get their own way.’

  ‘She didn’t stage-manage appendicitis,’ Mia said tightly, as the poor child lowered her head so she didn’t have to look into those coldly indifferent eyes.

  ‘No?’ He sounded dubious. ‘Well, never mind about that. I want to know about my grandson. Were you going to bother to tell me at all, or was I supposed to wait until the damned thing was over and done with before I found out anything?’

  She didn’t answer—she refused to. She had nothing whatsoever to say to him that he didn’t already know.

  ‘Like that, is it?’ He grimaced. ‘Well, at least you carried through. I did wonder with this long silence whether you’d chickened out at the last hurdle. But …’ he glanced at Suzanna’s lowered head again ‘… we all have our price, don’t we, Mia? And your price almost became a non-runner. I wonder what you would have done then?’

  It was such a cruel thing to suggest that Mia actually swayed in horror. Luckily, the child didn’t understand what he was talking about—but Alex did. In one step he had hold of Jack Frazier’s arm.

  ‘Let’s go for a walk,’ he suggested grimly. ‘We have a few things to say to each other, I think …’

  He had them both out of the door before Mia could react. The dire threat in his words filled her with such a dark sense of impending horror that her legs went from beneath her. She slumped down beside Suzanna and pulled the little girl close to her breast.

  He couldn’t mean what she feared he’d meant, she told herself desperately. Alex wouldn’t break a confidence and tell her father that he knew about Suzanna, would he?

  Oh, please, she prayed as she held the little girl even closer. Please don’t let him say anything stupid!

  ‘Daddy hates me,’ Suzanna whispered painfully.

  ‘No, he doesn’t, darling,’ Mia said soothingly. ‘He just doesn’t know how to love anyone, that’s all.’

  It was the truth. Her father was incapable of loving anyone. The man was a single-minded egotist who measured his own strength in his ability to close his heart to others. He had done it with her mother, with his children and with all his competitors when he’d squeezed them dry without conscience. He saw himself as omnipotent, his only regret in life being the loss of his son to carry on his name even if he hadn’t been his blood heir. To Jack Frazier that hadn’t mattered so long as Tony bore his name.

  Now he had to accept second best in a child who would bear the name of its father and not its grandfather, but it was written into the contract he had drawn up with Alex that the child Mia carried would be given the second name of Frazier. For Jack Frazier, that was going to be good enough for him to bequeath his millions.

  He made her sick. The whole filthy situation made her sick! The sooner it was over the sooner she could begin to wash her life clean again.

  Alex didn’t come back. Mia spent the rest of the afternoon worrying about what he’d said to her father. By the time Carol arrived, with Leon in tow, she felt so tired and wretched she was more than ready to leave.

  But Suzanna was still feeling the effects of Jack Frazier’s visit, and at least Carol’s bright chatter helped to lift the child’s mood again. Leon was quiet but,
then, he always was. He glanced often at Mia who had removed herself to the window and stood there, gazing out with a bleakness that isolated her from the rest of those present.

  While Carol was sitting on the bed, drawing a bold picture in Suzanna’s sketch book, Leon came over to stand beside Mia.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked quietly.

  It surprised her enough to glance at him. ‘Tired, that’s all.’ She tried a smile and almost made it happen before she was turning to stare out of the window again.

  ‘Alex was coming back to get you himself, but something came up only he could deal with. He asked me to ask you if you would mind waiting until he gets in tonight before you retire because he has something important he wishes to discuss with you.’

  Something to do with her father? Mia wondered fretfully, and gave a nod of acquiescence.

  ‘Thank you.’ Politely Leon moved away from her again. He didn’t like her, Mia knew. He resented the pressure her father had used on his brother. He resented her presence in his brother’s life.

  Back at the house, Mia found enough energy from somewhere to help Carol prepare dinner, then sat and ate with them in the dining room, though she felt like an intruder. But it was either eat with them or go to her room and eat alone, which would have been rude in the extreme. By the time they had cleared away after the meal, and Alex still hadn’t put in an appearance, Mia couldn’t take the tension any longer and excused herself with an apology.

  ‘I just can’t keep awake any longer,’ she explained. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  She had just climbed wearily into bed when the bedroom door opened. Alex looks less than his usually immaculate self was the first anxious thought to hit her. He needed a shave and his clothes looked decidedly the worse for wear. His hair was rumpled, as if he had been raking impatient fingers through it.

  ‘I’m sorry I’m so late,’ he said, when he saw she was awake, ‘but this could not wait until the morning.’

  He closed the door and continued to stand there for a few moments, his tired face brooding as he studied the pensive way she was sitting in bed, banked by snowy white pillows, waiting for him to say what he had to say.