Sighing, she slipped out of her suit and went into the bathroom to wash away the grime of travel. By the time she returned, feeling much more comfortable, she found a tray of tea had been sent up. Finding her pain-killers, she swallowed one before fluffing up the pillow and stretching out on top of the bed, sipping at the reviving brew. As the ache slowly faded, her thoughts drifted to the last time she had sat in this room. She had been about to make the most momentous decision of her life, and one from which she was still feeling the repercussions.
Even after seven years she couldn’t think of Colin Ellis without having to repress a shudder. She had met him at a charity function hosted by the fashion industry. With her modelling career just reaching the dizzy heights, she had found it quite flattering to receive the attention of such a handsome man, and the younger son of an earl to boot. She had dated him for several weeks, gradually becoming aware that he was obsessed by her. She had found that frightening and unhealthy, added to which she hadn’t liked the people he called friends, and had begun to suspect he dabbled in drugs and other things she wouldn’t give the time of day to. She had broken off the relationship with relief.
Only it hadn’t ended there. He had refused to take no for an answer, badgering her day after day, until she’d seriously considered going to the police. But then he had stopped—just like that. She hadn’t heard from him again. Which was why she had had no idea of the shock in store for her when she went home to Dorset for her sister Fliss’s eighteenth birthday. Then the reason for his absence became obvious, because Colin had been at her home, and, furthermore, was engaged to her sister!
It had been the beginning of a nightmare. When she had tackled Colin, he had been only too happy to tell her he didn’t want Fliss but had used her to get to Maxi, the woman he really wanted to marry. Maxi, he had said, could stop the marriage any time, by agreeing to take her place. If not... He had gone on to detail exactly what he had in mind for Fliss, and a wedding ring hadn’t been part of it. Also, should she repeat the conversation, he would deny everything. The choice was hers.
Feeling trapped, she had first gone to her father, but her efforts to make him see the truth and refuse the marriage had failed because, since she was unable to support her claim, her statement that Colin wanted her not Fliss had merely sounded like the ranting of a jealous woman. With very little time, Maxi had hired a private detective to check Colin out. That report had revealed he had once or twice shown signs of a violent temper, was suspected of taking drugs, and was rumoured to carve a notch on his bedpost for every new conquest.
Her worst fears realised, Maxi had done her best to persuade Fliss to break off with him, but Fliss had absolutely refused to believe anything against him. Colin wasn’t like that. Maxi was only jealous because she, Fliss, had taken away one of her admirers. The argument that had followed was destructive, and Fliss’s wilfulness shocked Maxi. She had never realised quite how jealous and inferior her sister had felt. Maxi had never been vain of her beauty, nor of the way men had always run after her, but it had been salt in the wound for Fliss. Now, having at last put one over on her sister, Fliss had been determined not to lose her victory.
When a discreet visit to the police had failed, because there was nothing they could do, no charge they could bring, she had seen only one thing to do. She had to stop the marriage, and there was only one sure way of doing it and making sure that Fliss fell out of love with Colin at the same time. With no help to be gained from outside, she had had to rely on herself. Her sister’s happiness meant more to her than her own, and, though she knew Fliss would hate her for what she was about to do, she had hoped that in time she would come to understand and forgive her.
So she had set out deliberately to lure Colin away. He had responded to her flirting and teasing with alacrity, because he understood what it meant. Maxi felt nothing but disgust for him, but had discovered an unsuspected talent for acting. To universal condemnation, she had refused to stop, although pretty soon she was the talk of the neighbourhood. She had steeled herself to ignore Fliss’s tears, her father’s angry disapproval and her mother’s anxiety and confusion. The only way was to carry on regardless, even though it had broken her heart to see the way she was hurting the people she loved best in the world.
Unfortunately, her plan had had two parts, one to get Colin away from Fliss, then to free herself. The first part had worked easily, but not the second. Colin had refused to let her out of his sight until she married him. She had thought of running away, but he had told her the threat to her sister hadn’t vanished, and wouldn’t until the wedding. She had known herself to be trapped, but she hadn’t knuckled under, even though less than a week after her sister’s eighteenth birthday the pair of them had gone to America together and were married.
Maxi shuddered and drained the last drops of now cold tea from her cup. Some marriages were made in heaven, but hers had not been, and it had proved impossible to walk away unscathed from that kind of marriage. The scars might not show, but they were there, and she had vowed to herself that she would rather spend the rest of her life alone than ever risk adding to them.
One thing alone cheered her: she might be scarred, but she had had her victory too. More than that, the proof of how right she had been to do what she had was in this engagement. Fliss had achieved the happiness she had always wanted for her. And that put a smile on her lips as she closed her eyes.
CHAPTER THREE
AT SEVEN-THIRTY that evening, Maxi descended to the ground floor and made her way to the lounge. She had dressed with care out of sheer habit, although the prospect of the evening to come would have made her don any armour she possessed. All she had was her make-up and the manufactured smile that any good model soon learnt to project. Fortunately clothes were never a problem. Unprepared as she was for the celebration, it was still second nature to pack at least one good dress in her case.
There was a certain unintentional amusement in the fact that the said dress happened to be scarlet. Freud would probably have had a field day, but the truth was that it was her latest buy. The fitted bodice needed no straps and clung lovingly to a bust that was a little fuller than was usual in a model. The skirt was full, ending a couple of inches above her knees. Around her neck she wore a simple gold rope and on her feet were moderate stilettos in the same shade of red.
Feeling that she at least looked ready for anything, she braced herself to meet the family. Walking through the door, however, she found only one person there, and that a most unwelcome one. Kerr turned from the painting he had been studying and ran a lazy eye over her. Normally that would have irritated her, but his appearance was such a surprise that she found herself doing the same.
Tonight he was dressed formally in a black dinner suit, complete with bow-tie and cummerbund. The change was startling, as her senses registered instantly. The raw power he had exhibited in casual dress was now leashed, and all the more potent for it. This man is dangerous, was the message her brain received. Not in any life-threatening way—this went deeper, to the core of her, by far more subversive means, and, as if recognising a potentially superior foe, her defences rose instantly.
‘Are we to assume you’re playing the scarlet woman tonight?’ Kerr enquired sardonically, raising his eyes to hers, and there it was again, that infinitesimal moment of pure rage. Instantly masked, it was replaced by a gleam that raised the fine hairs on her flesh, causing her to shiver.
Not liking at all the wilful way her senses were reacting to him in spite of her volition, she produced an insouciant smile. ‘Why not? Everyone will be thinking it, so why disappoint the public?’ she quipped, turning away from him and wandering to the open terrace doors, because once again she was suddenly finding it necessary to have air. Nerves, she told herself irritably, and faced him again. ‘What are you doing here?’
He grinned. ‘The way you say that, I get the impression I’m not wanted. But you know what they say—you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your rela
tions.’
Maxi widened her eyes. ‘But we aren’t related,’ she pointed out with a certain satisfaction—something she knew he’d noted by the way his grey eyes gleamed.
‘Yet,’ he reminded her succinctly, and indicated the tray of drinks on the sideboard. ‘Can I get you something?’
Deciding she’d feel more comfortable if her hands had something to do, Maxi nodded. ‘I’ll have a Baileys, thanks.’
Pouring her one, and a whisky for himself, he came to join her. ‘You don’t have to watch your diet?’
‘Thankfully not.’ Taking the glass, she couldn’t help but touch him, and felt a frisson of electricity shimmer up her arm. She only just managed to hold back a gasp of pure shock. It was peculiar how the silence which fell then made her tense up, although it was barely measurable. Feeling unnaturally gauche, she knew she had to break it, and hastily cleared her throat. ‘I’ve been trying to remember Andy at school, but I can’t.’
Of course, she had to look at him then, and there was a faint smile hovering about his lips, almost as if he knew exactly how she had been feeling—a realisation calculated to bring warmth to her cheeks, although she refused to look away.
‘That’s not surprising. He wasn’t the handsome devil he is now. He had glasses in those days, a jacket that was too big for him, and permanently grazed knees.’
His description brought his brother to life so clearly that Maxi gave a gurgling laugh. ‘Now I remember. He used to call me “Beanpole”, and I used to hit him.’
Kerr’s smile was wiped from his face. ‘So he told me. He remembered you all right. Apparently he had quite a crush on you at one time,’ he said flatly.
Maxi sobered instantly. ‘Don’t blame me for that. All children have crushes. Even you.’
‘I’ll admit to a certain salacious interest in my old gym mistress. She was a large lady, as I recall. But as I got older, my tastes changed. In fact, I tend towards women closer to my own height—like you,’ he finished softly, and took malicious delight in the way her colour fluctuated wildly.
‘You’re joking!’ The thought made her stomach lurch painfully, but not, she was ashamed to admit, from fear.
‘As it happens, I’m not. But don’t worry, I also feel a need to respect the women I take out, so you fail on at least one count.’ He waited until he was sure the hit had gone home before continuing. ‘No, what worries me right now is the thought that there might be some lingering embers of the crush he felt for you, just waiting to be rekindled.’
She gaped at him incredulously. ‘Don’t be silly; he’s engaged to Fliss!’
The way his attractive mouth broadened into a wide, knowing smile should have warned her of what was coming. ‘Why, Grandma, what a short memory you have! So was Colin Ellis, wasn’t he?’
Her head went back, and her lips parted in a tiny gasp of anger, whilst at the same time it surprised her that she actually felt hurt. ‘That was different,’ she protested hardly.
His look was sceptical. ‘Oh? In what way?’
And there, of course, he had her. Even if, for some obscure reason, she should want to explain herself to him, it still had to come after Fliss and her parents. They had the right to hear what she had to say first, if anyone did. Her eyes glittered, signalling her impotent anger, then she shrugged. ‘It just was, that’s all. I give you my word I have no designs on your brother.’
Kerr sighed elaborately. ‘Unfortunately, darling, your word really isn’t worth a brass farthing.’
That had her temper rising again, and her eyes flashed her dislike. ‘What do you want me to do? Have a document typed up and sign it in blood?’ she scoffed, and could have hit him when he appeared to consider it. Then he laughed.
‘It has certain merits, and, being a lawyer, I could get it done easily enough, but I have the feeling you’d simply claim you signed it under duress.’
‘My God, you certainly know how to hit below the belt, Kerr Devereaux. When I give my word, I never go back on it,’ Maxi declared forcefully, only to see that mocking smile reappear.
‘Don’t I remember a part of the marriage service where you promise to stick by your husband for better or worse?’
He was a devil! No wonder he was a lawyer; he’d run rings around witnesses and enjoy watching them squirm! Her teeth gnashed together. ‘That was different, and you know it!’
‘The same different as before, or is that a different different?’ he mocked back.
Maxi was so angry she could feel herself shaking. ‘Oh, for a gun or a knife!’ she exclaimed in fury.
Kerr, although he claimed to dislike her, still found her endlessly amusing. ‘Fortunately for me, they’re just like policemen—never around when you want one.’
That should have sent her temperature off the scale completely, but the odd effect of his quip was to calm her down, and she eyed him in reluctant amusement. ‘However have you managed to live so long?’
This time his laughter was genuine. ‘Just lucky, I guess. Ah, here come the others.’
Maxi quirked an eyebrow. ‘Like the cavalry, always in the nick of time?’ she bantered back, and caught a gleam of appreciation in his eyes as they turned to the door.
It was her parents who entered, her mother looking very fetching in a violet silk two-piece, and her father, in dinner dress, looking quite dapper for his age. Almost twenty years older than his wife, he was now in his seventies, but still strikingly handsome. Until fairly recently he had had his own law firm. Maxi recalled that Kerr had said he was a lawyer, and it occurred to her to wonder if he might not have taken it over.
A fact her father confirmed as he greeted the younger man. ‘Hello, Kerr, how’s the old firm doing these days?’ he asked as they shook hands.
‘Managing to live up to your high standards, I think, John,’ he replied before turning to kiss her mother on the cheek. ‘You look lovely, Bernice. You’re going to cut quite a swath through the club tonight.’
Lady Ambro laughed delightedly. ‘Flattery will get you everywhere, you dreadful tease!’ She had already noted her elder daughter’s presence but now she remarked upon it. ‘Maxine, what a gorgeous dress. You look beautiful. Don’t you think so, John?’ she appealed to her husband.
Maxi found herself holding her breath as her father was obliged to turn to her. He looked grim and forbidding, without forgiveness. When the silence dragged on, she swallowed to moisten a dry, tight throat.
‘Hello, Father,’ she greeted huskily. ‘You’re looking well,’ she added, hoping against hope to see a chink form in his reserve.
His expression didn’t change for a moment, neither did he speak. The only sound he made was a guttural grunt as he turned back to Kerr. ‘Young man, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about...’
Maxi didn’t hear any more; it faded away as sudden tears welled behind her eyes, and she pressed her lips together in a struggle to hold them back. Throat tight, she swung away, knowing it was what she had expected, but hurting all the same. After a moment her breathing eased, and she sipped at the remains of her drink, finding it soothing. Only then did she become aware that her mother had joined her.
‘I’m sorry, Maxine,’ she apologised. ‘I should have known better than to think I could bludgeon him into talking.’
Maxi looked round and smiled, only a slight pallor showing that anything had been amiss. ‘Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten that Father always did see things as black or white, no grey. Mother, are you sure you want me with you tonight? People are bound to talk.’
‘They would talk even more if it was known you were here but hadn’t been invited. No, dear, this is by far the best way,’ her mother decided, and smiled across the room to where Fliss and Andy had arrived.
Maxi eyed her sister ruefully. ‘Fliss won’t like it.’
Lady Ambro patted her daughter’s hand. ‘Perhaps not, but she’s old enough now to do what’s right. Family should stick together, and any disagreements should be kept strictly at home.’
With a scowl, Maxi wagged a fist at him. ‘Call me that again, Buster, and I’ll find some ants and put them down your shirt the way I did last time!’ she threatened.
Andy threw up his hands. ‘Pax. I couldn’t stand it. My skin crawled for weeks after that little stunt of yours, Maxi.’
She laughed. ‘Well, it served you right. I was always sensitive about my height.’
‘I don’t know why, all the boys thought you were great. Legs right up to your—’
‘Yes, well, never mind about that!’ Maxi cut him off abruptly, glancing sideways at her sister and seeing the gleam of anger in Fliss’s eyes. Not directed at her fiancé, it should be noted, but at Maxi. Nor was she the sole audience. Kerr was watching too, and he was far from amused. She recalled what he had said, and, although she still didn’t believe it, it caused a niggling doubt to surface, especially in light of what Andy had said.
Diplomatically changing the subject, she smiled at her sister. ‘That’s a great dress, Fliss. Yellow suits you.’
Fliss refused the friendly gesture. ‘Naturally. You aren’t the only one with style and good taste, you know,’ she said acidly.
Smile becoming fixed, Maxi bit down hard on her tongue, determined not to give the sort of retort that remark demanded. ‘I never thought I was,’ she replied quietly.
‘Unfortunately, her good manners seem to have gone begging,’ Andy interposed sharply, causing Fliss to gasp faintly and stare up at him in surprise at the rebuke.
An Old Enchantment (Harlequin Treasury 1990's) Page 3
