Her heart turned an odd little flip.
She schooled her face to polite helpfulness. “Certainly, sir. What do you think they would like?”
“I don’t know.” James sounded helpless and clueless.
Typical, for most men faced with gift buying.
“We haven’t seen much of each other for quite a long while, but I gather they’re keen on Victoriana. Steampunk. That sort of thing.”
Satisfying as getting him to buy her teenage nemesis something she’d hate would be, that petty revenge wasn’t worth stooping to. Her job was to help him find the best gift, just like any other customer.
The huge handmade clock was perfect, all gears and pulleys and whirring wheels, like an H.G. Wells time machine.
“It’s a unique piece. The artist in Cornwall makes each one individually from recycled materials. Would this be suitable?”
No need to mention the eye-blinking price tag. Little chance of sticker shock here.
As expected, he didn’t ask how much it cost, just told her he’d take it and handed over a credit card.
Awareness of James’s gaze on her as she gift-wrapped the present trembled through her.
Lord, please, help me stay calm. Help me get this done.
Get the box wrapped in shiny black paper without dropping it and wiping out her whole week’s commission.
And get rid of James before he realised who she was.
His gaze made her hands shake so badly, the red ribbon rolled right off the counter.
When she stood after bending to pick it up, his eyes behind those huge glasses of his sharpened. He stared at her oddly, intently.
Not at her face, at her chest.
He hadn’t been that type when she’d known him before, and besides, there wasn’t much there worth staring at.
Except now there was.
Her necklace had dropped over the front of her dress. A wave of nausea washed through her as her stomach plummeted to the floor. She rushed to tuck the gold book shaped charm he’d given her for her sixteenth birthday out of sight, but not quickly enough.
“Beth? It’s you, isn’t it?” He peered at her, brows pulled together, then certainty replaced doubt on his face.
His lips narrowed. The receipt she’d just handed him crumpled in his clenched hand. “These glasses are plain plastic so I’m blind as a bat, but you were going to let me leave without so much as a hello?”
Of course, he had every right to be angry.
And she had every right to be angry too. What happened ten years before hadn’t been her fault. She’d been forced to leave, without the chance to say goodbye.
He’d never tried to contact her. She'd longed for him to, and he hadn't.
Every inch of her seemed to have frozen into stone.
No point trying to pretend he was mistaken. She closed her eyes and nodded.
“You owe me an explanation for the way you disappeared without a word.” He paused. “No, you owe me more than that.”
Her eyes flew open at his emphatic tone, in time to see a sudden smile light his face.
“Be my partner tonight.”
He ignored her head shake.
“If this isn’t God’s guiding, I don’t know what is. I need a partner for a costume wedding. I come to the wrong store and find you, already in costume. We can’t ignore it or refuse it. Come to the wedding.”
It was a statement, not a question. The determined gleam in his hazel eyes told her he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
James was back in her life.
And God thing or not, the only possible outcome was another heartbreak.
Chapter 2
James almost grinned at how commanding his voice sounded.
Not his usual style. But something about Beth seemed to bring out an inner Alpha male he hadn’t known he possessed.
He didn’t grin. That would spoil the effect. He wanted her to agree and come to the wedding.
If being Alpha would do the trick, he’d be as Alpha as it took. If he needed to pound on his chest like a gorilla, he would.
Though the shock on her face didn’t look too promising. Her wide eyes staring straight at him, pupils so dilated her eyes became more black than brown. Her dropped jaw, mouth forming a surprised O.
The confident and competent image she’d managed to project despite her outlandish costume crumpled.
“I… I can’t,” she stammered. Her hands raised to cover her mouth.
He forced his mind to stay calm and analytical.
The sensations rioting through him were merely a biological reaction to proximity.
Hormones.
He’d studied enough neurobiology to know that.
His racing heart — dopamine and norepinephrine.
The sensation of warmth and wellbeing — serotonin and oxytocin.
His uncharacteristic desire to go caveman, swing her over his shoulder and carry her off — testosterone.
Feelings were a distraction.
He had to focus on the facts. She’d run away from him all those years ago, and she tried to hide from him now.
Though she still wore the necklace he’d given her.
That had to mean something.
“Come to the wedding with me tonight,” he repeated. He allowed himself a smile then. “You’re already in costume. Like I said, this is too much to be coincidence. It has to be God.”
Hope sparked in her eyes for a nanosecond, lifting his heart, then she looked down and her posture slumped. “Imogen’s wedding? I can’t, James. I don’t belong in your world.”
His golden flash of joy at that spark in her eyes transmuted to leaden grief.
Her aunt had said something similar when he’d gone to the Servant’s Quarters and asked her to explain why Beth had left. The story that she’d stolen a necklace had to be a lie.
He’d gotten to know her well enough over the summer to realise that.
His Beth might have unofficially borrowed books, but she wouldn’t steal.
The truth was, the son of the house’s friendship with the housekeeper’s niece was unsuitable, so they’d made sure they ended it. Beth had been got at, when he wasn’t there to protect her.
When he came back from his climbing weekend, longing to see her again, she was gone.
All that class and wealth nonsense meant nothing to him.
But it seemed it did to Beth.
Unless, of course, the reason was that she simply didn’t care for him.
He pretended he’d misunderstood. “Not many people do understand statistical physics and the extremes of complexity theory. But I’m asking you to be my partner at a wedding, not a physics convention.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, trying to lighten the mood. “You do owe me, after all. You left without saying goodbye.”
She didn’t reply, didn’t even raise her eyes. Instead, she busied herself cutting red ribbon, wrapping it around the gift wrapped box, taking time to tie a perfect bow. Her face behind that awful grey makeup was an equally perfect expressionless mask.
He needed to demolish all her possible objections, one by one.
“I’m not dating anyone. I have a deal with one of the other researchers that we partner each other to these things. But when she had a last minute invitation to present a paper at a seminar in Edinburgh, of course I released her from our agreement.”
Beth glanced up, doubt pursing her mouth.
He smiled, though he didn’t feel much amusement, and shook his head. “She’s not a girlfriend, just a friend. Like me, she’s in love with someone she can’t have.”
He wasn’t about to tell her that the someone was her. Always had been, always would be.
Please Lord, let this be a second chance for us.
She looked at him sharply, but said nothing.
“I didn’t cheat on you last time, either. No matter what Immy told you, there was nothing between us —”
Beth interrupted. “You don’t need to explain. We never dated. Who you
saw then and who you see now is no business of mine.”
The hint of fire in her brown eyes suggested he’d hit a raw nerve.
A raw nerve for him too. Losing Beth and believing she didn’t care for him had hurt more than anything else in his life.
“We weren’t really dating, no. We were friends. But I hoped you’d realise I wanted us to grow into something more.” He smiled, a smile that covered a depth of emotion. “I missed you when you left.”
She curled her lip in a way that said, ‘Sure you did,’ loud as if she’d spoken.
He leaned on the counter to see her face better. Not having his real glasses was proving to be a royal nuisance. “Tell me, are you seeing someone else? If you’re already dating, I won’t pester you. I’ll go away and leave you alone.”
Giving her the ‘Get out of jail free’ card, was the gentlemanly thing to do, though he doubted she’d still be wearing the necklace he gave her if she was seeing someone else.
Or if she didn’t care, if the memory of their friendship meant nothing to her.
A struggle played out on her face. Clearly, she was tempted.
Then she shook her head. “You know why I don’t want to go. Please don’t pretend you don’t.”
So she wasn’t seeing anyone. Joy exploded through him, like caesium in water.
“Immy will hate me if I make her numbers uneven by turning up without a partner.”
Her lips twisted in a humourless smile, and she shook her head again. “Don’t you think Imogen will be even less impressed if you turn up with a former housemaid as your partner?” Her voice held the bite of sulphuric acid.
Something in his chest hurt at the way she devalued herself.
He reached toward her. “You aren’t a housemaid now. And even when you were, I didn’t think any less of you because of it. We’re not characters in a Victorian novel. Anyway, the Bible says we we’re all equal in Christ. I believe that. Don’t you?”
Finished with the ribbon, Beth slapped her scissors on the counter, looking more as if she’d like to stab him with then. She ignored his outstretched hand. “Not everyone thinks that way.”
She was silent a moment, turned inward, frowning. Her thoughts obviously weren’t happy.
He hated thinking of his Beth being bullied or put down. But she did it to herself, as well.
A fleeting smile softened her face, surprising him. “That was something I admired about you, James. You seemed to treat everyone the same. I never felt you judged me.”
Triumph tightened his muscles. He wanted to punch victory fists in the air. Soon, she’d agree.
Then her expression hardened, holding a bitterness he’d never seen in the younger Beth. “Though it seems I was wrong about that. Imogen told me you wouldn’t bother with me once I left, and she was right.”
That wasn’t the truth at all. He shook his head.
Her lips tightened, but tears glimmered in her eyes. “You say I owe you. Maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe you owe me an explanation, too. I didn’t contact you, because I wanted to see if you cared enough to get in touch. You didn’t.”
Memories of his bleak loneliness after she left swept him. There’d been no way for him to reach her after she left, while she knew where he lived, and where he was studying.
When she hadn’t contacted him, his hypothesis that a girl like her wouldn’t care for a geek like him was confirmed.
After all, his own parents didn’t, so why should she?
He’d done what any rejected geek would do. Turned brainiac, focused on his studies, and graduated with a double-starred first.
Perhaps he had been wrong. Relationships couldn’t be explained away with science. Beth had waited for him.
But how to explain…
A nasal toned announcement came over the store’s P.A. system. “Our store is closing in five minutes, will all customers please bring their final purchases to the sales counters. Thank you.”
Beth clearly didn’t try to hide her relief at the interruption. She pushed the beautifully wrapped gift toward him. “I’m sure Imogen will love this enough to forgive you for being partnerless.”
She hadn’t hidden her relief. He didn’t try to hide how much he wanted her to agree to partner him, either.
Seemed they’d both played silly games and tested each other over who’d make contact first in the past. If this was a game, he’d be playing for keeps this time.
“Beth, I want you there with me tonight. Not to make Immy happy. I don’t care about that. To be honest, I’m surprised she even asked me. I’ve barely seen her for years. My mother and hers had something of a falling out.”
She said nothing, though her eyes widened a little.
Of course, Immy would have made much of the fact that their mothers were childhood best friends, who’d cooked up the plan to marry off their children before either baby was even born. No need to tell Beth they’d rowed over his refusal to marry Immy, and only recently began speaking again.
“I want you there because I’d be proud to have you as my partner.”
Her lip curled.
Looked like she’d take some convincing.
He checked his watch. “In case you change your mind, I’ll wait outside the staff entrance until six fifteen, then I need to go. I can’t arrive late for a wedding.”
She shook her head. “Don’t wait. I won’t be there. I thought you said you were running late?”
He smiled. “Not so late I wouldn’t wait for you.”
“You’ll be wasting your time if you do. The doors close at six, but by the time we finish end-of-day, it’s six thirty.” Her smile held a tinge of triumph. “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t get off in time for Imogen’s wedding. Anyway, I’m already busy tonight.”
She turned her back on him, busying herself with the cash register. “I have work to do.”
The last thing he wanted was to push her too hard. That risked seeming stalkerish. But standing watching her, he was sure Beth felt the same spark he did.
If she wouldn’t go to the wedding, he’d convince her to meet him some other time.
They needed to talk. He needed to explain to her why he hadn’t contacted her. And hear her explanation of why she’d left ten years before, not the version he’d been told when he got back to Tetherton Hall.
Then, he’d formulate a plan to solve whatever the problem was.
His hypothesis – she believed her working class background made her unsuitable. He’d seen the flash of shame in her eyes, when she’d told him she couldn’t go to the wedding because she didn’t belong in his world.
The crazy thing was, he didn’t belong in that world, either.
Why she thought what her relatives did for a living made a difference, he didn’t know. He surely didn’t. All he knew was that she was his Beth, no matter whether her father was a street sweeper or a Lord, and whether she had no education or a PhD.
Of course his mother didn’t agree. For the sake of continuing her family line with the right sort of girl, she’d introduced him to an endless stream of Honorables and Ladys and even a few mere Misses. But not one of her Hooray Henriettas had made his heart beat faster like Beth had, for all their wealth or breeding or connections.
It hadn’t taken more than one season for Mother to wash her hands of him and let him hide away in this lab again.
He’d treat Beth’s reluctance and her misguided beliefs like any other research question. Work the problem, and find the solution. It worked with complex physics conundrums, it would work with her, too.
This time, he wouldn’t give her the chance to walk away from what they had.
And if the answer was the theory he least wanted to be true, that Beth didn’t care for him, he’d have to suck it up and accept it. Just like any other proven theory he’d wanted to be untrue.
A second announcement with more urgency came over the public address. “Will all customers please leave the store, as we are now closed for the day. Thank you f
or shopping at Pettett and Mayfield’s. The store will reopen at ten am tomorrow.”
Looked like he had to be the one to walk away. At least until tomorrow.
Beth swung around to face him. “James, you need to go. I’m sorry, I really can’t go with you tonight.”
He hoped he hadn’t imagined that tinge of regret in her voice.
“So I’ll give up on tonight. That doesn’t mean I’ve given up on seeing you again. You’re right. I do owe you an explanation. You deserve one. Give me the chance to do that.”
“Please, just go.” Again, she turned away.
It ached like a broken bone to see her ignoring him, the way his parents had his whole life.
But he wasn’t quite caveman enough to drag her out of the store. Whether he wanted to or not, he had to leave now. That didn’t mean letting her go.
The knowledge straightened his back and squared his shoulders.
At the top of the escalator, the round red headed teapot wearing shop assistant, grinned at him.
“You and Beth have history?” she asked. “I’m Anita, Beth’s friend.”
He hesitated. If they were friends, how much had Beth told her?
“We knew each other in our teens,” he said cautiously, peering at her, trying to judge her reaction.
Difficult without his proper glasses on. Unless he focused hard, faces were a blur.
Her open freckled face and friendly smile seemed trustworthy.
“I asked her to partner me to this wedding tonight.” He pulled out the invitation and handed it to her. “She said no.”
“James Tetherton-Hart and partner,” she read. Her smile widened in a way that suggested she’d heard of him and wasn’t above playing matchmaker.
So he hadn’t imagined that she’d winked at Beth as she escorted the older woman away. In retrospect, it seemed obvious she’d deliberately left the two of them alone together.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course she said no. Even if she wanted to go, she should refuse. It’s the Rules.”
“I’m a man of science, you’ll have to enlighten me on these rules.”
He was asking dating advice from a teapot on legs.
“No girl should ever accept a last minute date. But as it happens, she is already booked for tonight. I wouldn’t worry too much though. You know the wedding isn’t until tomorrow night?”
Love In Store Books 1-3: Collection of three sweet and clean Christian romances with a London setting: The Wedding List, Believe in Me, & A Model Bride Page 2
