In Separate Bedrooms

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘Do you have a valid passport?’

  ‘Do I have a what?’ she gasped incredulously.

  ‘A valid passport,’ Jack repeated calmly.

  ‘Well, yes, I—What do you want to know that for?’ she demanded suspiciously; she had acquired a passport for the first time the previous year, when she and her mother had managed to get away, for the first time in years, to Greece for a week’s holiday. But what business was it of Jack Beauchamp’s whether or not she had a valid passport?

  ‘I’ve explained to you that I’m going to Paris this weekend,’ he reminded her.

  ‘For your sister’s engagement dinner…’ she recalled slowly.

  ‘Well, I wasn’t going alone,’ he told her with an air of regret.

  ‘You mentioned your parents and siblings are all going to be there too—’

  ‘No, Mattie,’ Jack Beauchamp drawled mockingly. ‘I meant I wasn’t going alone. And if you have a valid passport, I’m still not.’

  ‘I don’t—Ah.’ She winced as his meaning suddenly became clear. Obviously one of those four women he had sent flowers to over the weekend had been going to Paris with him.

  Had been… Because after what Mattie had done with the cards she doubted any of those women were still speaking to him, let alone going to Paris for any weekend with him! Which meant it had to have been the unmarried one. Now which one had she been, Sally or Sandy or—

  Did it really matter? Mattie instantly chided herself; Jack Beauchamp seemed to be telling her, with his question concerning her own passport, that, now she had put paid to his original companion for his weekend, she would have to accompany him instead!

  ‘I don’t think so, Mr Beauchamp,’ she told him loftily. Exactly what did he think she was? She sold and delivered flowers; she did not hire herself out for weekends in Paris!

  ‘You don’t?’

  ‘No, I don’t!’ Her voice rose indignantly, eyes flashing deeply blue.

  ‘Paris in the spring,’ he teased. ‘What could be more romantic?’

  Mattie frowned at him reprovingly for his levity. ‘Okay, so I accept I’ve rather messed things up for you this weekend, but I’m sure that with your looks and apparent charm—’ after all, he had to have something to have acquired four girlfriends in the first place! ‘—you can easily find another woman to take to Paris!’ Most women she knew would jump at the chance—and not just because there was a trip to the French capital on offer.

  Much as she hated to admit it, Jack Beauchamp was extremely attractive to look at, and he did possess a lazy charm that made her feel totally feminine. Not that she was in the least charmed, she told herself firmly; the man was just an accomplished flirt.

  ‘A bit short notice, don’t you think?’ he parried.

  Mattie shrugged. ‘I’m sure you’ll manage to think of something.’

  ‘So you think I have looks and charm?’ he enquired.

  ‘As far as some women are concerned!’ she retorted. Heaven forbid he should gain the impression she found him the least bit attractive.

  Even if she did…

  It would be very hard for any woman not to acknowledge that he was extremely good-looking. It was just his having four girlfriends at the same time that was so unattractive. Just! As far as Mattie was concerned, especially after the Richard incident, it was totally unacceptable.

  ‘But you’ve very effectively put an end to all that, Mattie,’ he reminded her.

  So her plan had worked, after all!

  She shook her head. ‘That doesn’t mean I have to take their place as an act of appeasement!’

  He chuckled softly. ‘I wasn’t suggesting you should sleep with me while we’re in Paris, Mattie—’

  ‘I told you, I am not going to Paris with you!’ she told him with firm finality.

  While, at the same time, her imagination ran amuck with visions of Jack Beauchamp and herself, locked languidly together, their naked bodies passionately entwined as they kissed and caressed each other…

  ‘I doubt we would do much sleeping if we were to share a bedroom anywhere, Mattie,’ Jack’s murmured comment interrupted her intimate imaginings.

  Mattie looked at him sharply, her blush deepening to embarrassment as she wondered if some of her inner thoughts had been visible on her face. She sincerely hoped not!

  She swallowed hard, avoiding that warm dark gaze now. ‘I don’t see what the problem is with your going to Paris on your own,’ she dismissed scathingly. ‘Surely you can do without some adoring female in tow for one weekend?’ she derided. ‘Besides, you said it’s all going to be your family there, anyway—’

  ‘And Thom’s. My sister’s fiancé,’ he explained at Mattie’s puzzled glance. ‘Thom’s parents will be there. Also his sister.’

  Mattie hesitated. The way he made that last statement, the deliberateness of his tone, seemed to imply—

  ‘Not another one!’ she sighed disgustedly; really, did the man have no scruples whatsoever? On the evidence she had seen so far, obviously not!

  ‘Not as far as I’m concerned, no,’ he told her dryly.

  Mattie’s gaze narrowed at his claim. ‘But Thom’s sister has other ideas…?’

  Jack nodded. ‘It’s completely unreciprocated, Mattie, I can assure you,’ he told her wryly. ‘But as Sharon is Thom’s sister, it’s rather an awkward situation. Short of actually telling her I’m just not interested, which would make things very difficult for everyone—I thought that if I turned up in Paris with a female in tow—’

  ‘Thanks very much!’ Mattie protested.

  ‘You weren’t my original choice,’ he reminded her.

  No, either Sally, Cally, Sandy, or Tina had been that. But as Mattie, with one of her impulsive actions, had put paid to any of them going to Paris with him—!

  ‘What’s wrong with this Sharon?’ she prompted interestedly.

  ‘I’m too much of a gentleman to say,’ Jack returned smoothly.

  Just as well she wasn’t taking another sip of her wine when he said that! Gentleman, indeed!

  Mattie shook her head. ‘I have a business to run, I can’t just disappear off to Paris for three days—’

  ‘Four,’ Jack corrected evenly. ‘And Friday and Monday are bank holidays,’ he reasoned. ‘So it will only be for the Saturday. I’m sure you must take time off; who looks after the shop then?’

  She didn’t very often take holidays, but when she did she always called on her best friend Sam from their university days. Sam was married with a young baby now, but she loved to keep her hand in and work in the shop if she had the chance. Except Mattie really didn’t want to take this particular holiday!

  ‘It doesn’t matter how many days it is—I’m not going!’ Mattie repeated firmly.

  ‘No?’ He raised dark brows.

  Mattie took a desperate swallow of her wine, managing to avoid choking herself this time, although the warmth of the alcohol did nothing to fill the cold hollow she could feel in the pit of her stomach.

  Her deliberate act—an act Jack Beauchamp knew to be deliberate!—in changing those cards on the flowers he’d sent to the four women in his life had been a really stupid, unprofessional thing to do. Something else Jack Beauchamp was well aware of. As he was also aware he could make serious professional trouble for her if he chose to do so…

  Blackmail. The man was using blackmail on her. A crime as serious—if not more so—than the one she had committed.

  But that was the important thing here—the one she had committed…

  Deliberately. Not cold-bloodedly. She had been too indignant, on behalf of those four unsuspecting women—as well as for herself, she admitted now—for it ever to be called that! But she had definitely acted with malice aforethought.

  But that surely wasn’t punishable, courtesy of a weekend in Paris with this man—

  What was she saying? A weekend in Paris with Jack Beauchamp wasn’t a punishment. At least, not one that any sane woman would see as punishment… The man was go
rgeous, charming, so sexy he made her toes curl to look at him. Punishment! Most women would leap at the chance to go to Paris with him for the weekend.

  Even her, if she were honest with herself…

  She avoided his teasing gaze, moistening dry lips. ‘What would I tell my mother?’ Oh, Mattie, she inwardly chided; she knew she wasn’t in the least sophisticated, but she could at least try to act as if she were. What would her mother say, indeed!

  Jack seemed to give the question serious thought, surprisingly no mockery in his expression as he did so. ‘I suppose it’s too much to hope that your mother doesn’t know I’m the greedy pig you were talking about yesterday?’ he finally responded.

  Once again Mattie couldn’t meet his eyes. ‘Er—’

  ‘She knows,’ he accepted economically. ‘Well, how about telling her the truth about this trip to Paris, then?’

  ‘The truth?’ Mattie gasped unbelievingly. ‘You want me to tell my mother that you’re blackmailing me into accompanying you to Paris because I did a totally unprofessional thing and you could ruin me because of it?’

  Jack winced. ‘When you put it like that…’

  ‘It was your suggestion I tell her the truth!’ Mattie challenged.

  He sighed. ‘So it was. I just didn’t expect the truth to sound—quite like that.’ He gave another wince. ‘Can’t you just tell your mother that you’re helping me out as a friend?’

  ‘By going to Paris with you!’ Mattie scorned.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘We aren’t friends,’ she stated.

  ‘I think we’re going to have to be if we intend spending the weekend together with my family,’ Jack reasoned lightly.

  Mattie stared at him frustratedly. This was farcical. Ludicrous. And yet…

  She couldn’t pretend that a part of her wasn’t curious as to how it would feel to go to Paris with a man like Jack Beauchamp. In fact, she couldn’t pretend that a part of her didn’t long to go to Paris, with or without Jack Beauchamp!

  There had been little time or opportunity for holidays in her one-parent family; during her childhood she and her mother had usually been looking after other people’s dogs for them while they’d gone on holiday. Besides, there had never been enough money for her mother to splash out on holidays. Except last year, when Mattie had insisted on taking Diana away for a much-needed break, having decided that her mother had done enough for her already. It had been time for Mattie to do something nice for her mum for a change!

  She doubted having an unemployed, disgraced daughter could be classed as nice…!

  She gave Jack Beauchamp an impatient glance. ‘Mr Beauchamp, I think you are utterly despicable—’

  ‘Jack,’ he put in easily.

  ‘Whatever your name, you’re still despicable!’ Mattie’s eyes flashed deeply blue.

  He grinned. ‘Does that mean you’re coming to Paris with me?’

  Now why on earth had her heart seemed to actually flip over in her chest as he said that? Really, Mattie, she inwardly chastised herself, get a grip!

  If she agreed to accompany Jack to Paris it would be because he wanted her there as a deterrent to a woman called Sharon, and for no other reason.

  Still…Paris was Paris. And it was supposed to be the romantic capital of the world… Besides, hadn’t she already half planned her wardrobe inside her head even as she continued to tell Jack Beauchamp she wasn’t going with him?

  She took a deep breath before nodding. ‘It means I’m coming to Paris with you,’ she conceded slowly. ‘But don’t get the impression I’m doing this for any other reason than I was blackmailed into it!’ her niggling feelings of guilt at her inner excitement made her add with unnecessary force.

  ‘Of course not,’ Jack assured her wryly.

  Mattie shot him a sharply searching look. He hadn’t exactly sounded convinced…

  ‘Just think, Mattie. Cruising on the Seine,’ he crooned. ‘Strolling along the Champs-Elysées. The Arc de Triomphe. Coffee at a sidewalk café. Dinner at the Eiffel Tower.’

  She couldn’t help it, the idea became more and more enticing the longer he spoke. It did sound rather wonderful.

  In fact, the only fly in the ointment was that she would have to share it all with Jack Beauchamp!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘YOU’RE going where? And with whom?’ Her mother looked across the kitchen at Mattie disbelievingly.

  Mattie had waited until breakfast the following morning before attempting to break the news to Diana about the forthcoming weekend. Her mother’s response was not encouraging. In fact, Mattie thought Diana looked as if she might drop the mug of coffee she had just stood up to pour for herself!

  Mattie gently took the mug out of her mother’s hand and put it on the table before disaster struck. ‘To Paris,’ she mumbled, avoiding her mother’s incredulous gaze as she did so. ‘With Jack Beauchamp.’

  Mattie was still dressed in her pyjamas and dressing-gown, although her mother had already been out this morning and fed her guests their breakfast.

  ‘But we’ll have separate bedrooms,’ she added quickly, hoping she spoke the truth; as she remembered it, they hadn’t quite finished that particular part of their conversation last night…!

  ‘Well, that’s a relief,’ her mother accepted weakly, sitting down at the kitchen table, giving the impression it was only a short moment before she actually fell down! ‘Mattie, is this your idea of sorting out the situation with Jack Beauchamp?’

  ‘Not exactly,’ Mattie admitted. ‘It’s his idea of sorting out the situation with me!’

  She took Jack’s advice then and told her mother the whole truth. Which took some time.

  ‘As prison sentences go, I didn’t think a weekend in Paris was too bad,’ she concluded wryly.

  Her mother shook her head. ‘I don’t think—I didn’t think—Jack Beauchamp didn’t actually—Oh, Mattie, what am I going to do with you?’ There were tears in her eyes as she made her age-old cry whenever Mattie got into one of her scrapes. Which was often.

  Mattie reached over and clasped her mother’s hand. ‘It will be all right,’ she reassured her warmly. ‘After all, you will have the man’s dog here to hold for ransom!’

  Her mother gave a tearful laugh. ‘So I will,’ she conceded. ‘I just can’t believe you’re going to Paris with him.’ She shook her head dazedly.

  ‘I thought you liked him,’ Mattie reminded her.

  ‘I do. I did,’ her mother corrected herself. ‘In fact, I did wonder at one stage yesterday if there were any more at home like him, but maybe a little older.’

  ‘Did you really?’ Mattie smiled.

  ‘Really,’ her mother confirmed. ‘But that was before I realized the man was going to whisk my daughter off to Paris for the weekend!’

  Now it was Mattie’s turn to give a husky laugh. ‘Oh, Mum. You don’t think—’ She broke off as the door opened after the briefest of knocks, her eyes widening in astonishment as she saw Jack standing there in the doorway.

  He was dressed for the office, in dark suit, cream shirt and meticulously knotted brown tie, his hair still damp from an early-morning shower. And it must have been very early morning, because it was only eight o’clock now! Which also begged the question, what florist had he found open this time of the day from which to buy the bunch of spring daffodils he carried in his hand?

  Mattie stood up slowly. ‘What are you doing here?’ she snapped impatiently, giving a pointed look in her mother’s direction.

  ‘Good morning to you too, Mattie,’ Jack greeted cheerfully as he came fully into the kitchen and closed the door behind him. ‘And I’m not actually here to see you,’ he added, before turning to present her mother with the daffodils.

  Well, really! Not only did he turn up here bearing gifts before she was even dressed—but he then proceeded to give those gifts to her mother!

  ‘Why don’t you go and get yourself ready for work?’ Jack suggested. ‘While I have a few quiet words with your mother,
’ he explained with a smile in Diana’s direction.

  Why didn’t she—? Really, the man was insufferable. How dared he come here at this unsociable hour and start issuing orders? And, actually, unless she was mistaken, she was sure now those daffodils he had just given her mother had been picked from their own front garden!

  She felt an absolute mess. Her hair wasn’t even brushed, she had no make-up on, she was wearing her oldest—and most comfortable!—dressing-gown, over striped pyjamas. But, then, she hadn’t been expecting visitors this time of the morning, had she?

  ‘Please,’ Jack added politely, just as Mattie was about to fire off a blistering reply.

  ‘Better,’ she snapped, picking up her unfinished mug of coffee to walk over to the doorway that led out to the hallway. ‘Remember the ransom, Mum,’ she couldn’t resist adding.

  Much to Jack’s confusion, she was pleased to note as she left the room after giving him a triumphant grin.

  What on earth was he doing here at this time of the morning? They had parted yesterday evening with an agreement to meet again this evening to discuss in more detail the arrangements for the weekend; Jack certainly hadn’t mentioned anything then about coming here this morning. Mattie would have made at least a bit of an effort with her appearance if he had.

  Not that it particularly mattered what she looked like; Jack didn’t give the impression he found her in the least attractive, whatever she was wearing. She was just a means to an end for him. And she was the one who had better keep remembering that!

  She took her time getting ready for work, taking a shower before putting on her make-up, dressing in a black business suit and pale cream blouse, and brushing her hair.

  Quite a transformation, even if she did say so herself, Mattie decided admiringly as she studied her reflection in the full-length mirror on her wardrobe door. She looked what she was now, the proprietor of a successful greenery contract business and florist shop.

  Unfortunately Jack wasn’t there to appreciate her entrance as she swished back into the kitchen minutes later!

  In fact, the kitchen was empty, not even her mother waiting there to tell her why Jack had wanted to speak to her. But, Mattie noted, the vase of daffodils had pride of place at the centre of the kitchen table…