For One Night

by Penny Jordan

  For One Night

  By

  Penny Jordan

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  FOR ONE NIGHT

  Diana had made love with a complete stranger that night of her best friend's funeral, and when she found she was pregnant she was glad. A fresh start in a new village, to have her baby under the cover of widowhood, was just what she needed. Until she found that she knew one person in that village rather better than the others…

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  When Claire's daughter Lucy brought a friend home from school Claire soon realised that the child was unhappy - and that her father's apparent neglect was the main cause. So when he arrived to collect his daughter, sparks began to fly. And even when they calmed down there was still a tension between them that Claire was not about to explain…

  TOO SHORT A BLESSING

  The tragedy of her beloved fiancé's death had left Sara unwilling to love again. But the effect of Jonas Chesney on her reluctant senses was something she wasn't prepared for…

  PASSIONATE RELATIONSHIP

  Shelley had never known her parents - so when a solicitor told her that her father had been searching for her for years, but was now dead, she had no hesitation in travelling to Portugal to meet the woman he had married and the rest of her stepfamily. But her stepbrother, Jaime, believed from the start that her motives were purely mercenary…

  A SAVAGE ADORATION

  Ever since Dominic Savage had brutally rebuffed her when she was in her teens, Christy had been afraid to love again - which was one reason why she had returned to her parents' home, to get away from an involvement with David Galvin. But it wasn't going to help to discover that Dominic had turned up on her doorstep again…

  First published

  in

  Great Britain 1987

  by Mills & Boon Limited

  © Penny Jordan 1987

  ISBN 0 263 75732 3

  CHAPTER ONE

  Numb with shock, Diana moved to one side as the first spadeful of earth hit the coffin.

  A long, deep shudder racked through her body as she stared down into the darkness of the open grave. In that box was the body of her best friend; for eighteen long months they had fought together against the enemy destroying Leslie's body, and less than a week ago they had lost their fight.

  Even now, she could hardly believe it. She and Leslie had been at university together; they had got their degrees at the same time, and their first jobs. Then they had lost touch for several years, meeting again only when Leslie's first book had been published, and she herself had been working as a researcher for the host of the television chat show on which Leslie had been asked to appear.

  To their mutual delight they had discovered that they still shared the same outlook on life, and the same zany sense of humour. Now that she could support herself as a writer, Leslie had decided to move to London, and it seemed a natural follow-on from this decision that they should buy a flat together.

  Both of them had their own personal lives; Leslie was still getting over a two-year relationship that had turned sour when her lover became jealous of her writing success. And as for her own love-life… Diana sighed.

  In the days when she had first joined the television company and had still been starry-eyed with wonder and excitement, she had fallen hard for one of the producers, only to learn quite by accident from one of his previous victims that he made a second career out of bemusing and seducing all the young and naive newcomers to the company, callously notching up his tally of successes with a celebratory booze-up with his menfriends, when he regaled them with the intimate details of his amatory skills.

  She had been one of the lucky ones, she had found out about him before it was too late, but it had left her with a deep mistrust of all media men. She froze them off the moment they attempted to get close to her.

  Between themselves, she and Leslie had agreed that they were better off concentrating on their careers, and treating men with the same casual disregard that the male sex adopted towards women. What neither of them had realised was that there was going to be precious little time in their lives for socialising. Leslie had developed the first symptoms of the disease that was to kill her within weeks of them moving in together.

  At first she had said nothing; but Leslie was wasting away visibly, and in the end she had been forced to tackle her friend about her loss of weight, Diana remembered.

  She turned her head away from the awfulness of the gaping hole in the earth, a cruelly bitter spring wind teasing silky strands of red-gold hair and blowing them against her pale face.

  She had thought that perhaps Leslie was suffering from some eating disorder; but the truth had been far worse than her imaginings.

  She had been woken up one night by Leslie's heartbroken sobs, and had gone into her room. At first, Leslie had tried to deny that anything was wrong, but, finally, she had told Diana everything.

  She had felt unwell for a while, tired and listless, and at first she had put it down to the strain of her broken relationship, plus the heavy workload she had taken on. She had gone to see her doctor, hoping he could recommend a tonic, only he had sent her to hospital for tests, and the results were indisputable. She had leukaemia.

  They had talked long into the night; Leslie had been completely open with her about her prognosis. She had no family; the aunt and uncle who had brought her up had been killed in a plane crash while they were at university. She had decided that she would find herself a privately run hospice where she could be properly looked after, but Diana had firmly refused to countenance this.

  They were friends, and they would stay friends. She would look after Leslie.

  It had proved harder than either of them anticipated. On several occasions the doctors had wanted to keep Leslie in hospital but, knowing how great her fear and distress would be, Diana had refused to allow them to do so. She had taken Leslie home and nursed her herself. In the last dreadfully painful weeks, Diana had applied for compassionate leave from her job.

  Fresh tears blurred her vision, the first she had been able to weep for her friend. Her pain and anger went beyond mere tears; it seemed incomprehensible, an enormity of unfairness and illogical wrong that Leslie should be dead. She had been so young, had had so much to give to life.

  Diana shivered in the cold wind. It was April; the earth was beginning to awake to spring after a long, cold winter. It seemed bitterly ironic that Leslie should have died now, just before nature's resurgence of life. She remembered how, when she was well enough, Leslie had loved to watch the slow progress of the bulbs forcing their way through the cold earth. It had been a winter of record frosts and snowfalls, and she had had to wait a long time to see the first snowdrops and crocuses bloom.

  Someone touched her on her arm and she swung round. The Vicar was watching her compassionately.

  In those last few months he had called regularly to see Leslie. Neither of them had any deep-founded religious beliefs, but she had been able to see how cheered Leslie was by his visits.

  Now she was gone forever, buried deep in the earth of this North London cemetery.

  'It's too cold to stand here. Would you like to come back to the Vicarage and have a cup of tea—'

  There were no other mourners; Leslie had wanted it that way. She had no family, and the other people who could have been present would have been her friends and colleagues from the publishing world.

  Diana started to re
fuse and then nodded. She didn't want to be alone. She didn't think she could face going back to their empty flat.

  All the legal details had been seen to already. She had contacted Leslie's solicitor as her friend had asked her to do. She swallowed the painful lump in her throat. She already knew that her friend had made her her sole legatee. They had argued about it. Diana had suggested that Leslie should donate any money she had to medical research, but Leslie had shaken her head.

  'No, I want you to have it,' she had insisted, and because any form of argument, no matter how slight, had wasted her fragile strength deplorably, Diana had given in.

  She had an appointment to see the solicitor, Mr Soames, later in the afternoon, but right now she didn't want to think about that. She didn't want to think about anything… anything…

  She turned and followed the Vicar, pausing to look over her shoulder one last time, and say a painful final goodbye to her friend.

  Leslie's solicitor, now her solicitor, Diana reminded herself, was a partner in a very old, established city firm who had been recommended to Leslie when her first manuscript was sold.

  'Rather old-fashioned, with county connections,' was how Leslie had once described him to Diana. 'I get the impression that most of his clients are of the "gentlemen farmer" fraternity—good solid yeoman stock. Frightfully British, and very, very honest—that's Mr Soames.'

  'Miss Johnson, please sit down…'

  Diana suspected that everything Leslie had told her about him was perfectly true, as she studied the plump, middle-aged lawyer, sitting opposite her. He was sensitive enough net to offer any formal condolences, for which she was very grateful.

  His office was furnished just as an old-fashioned solicitor's office ought to be, with a traditional partners' desk, and a wall full of glass-fronted bookshelves holding fat and no doubt dusty tomes. Even the telephone was the old-fashioned, plain black traditional variety. Diana refused his offer of a cup of tea, and waited as he unfolded the document on his desk, discarding the pink tape which had tied it.

  'I know you are already familiar with the contents of Miss Smith's Will. You are the sole legatee.' He mentioned a sum of money that made Diana gasp in shock. 'And then there is the flat you shared with her. You each owned half of it, but now, of course, you are the sole owner.'

  He put down his papers and studied her over the top of his glasses. 'If you will take my advice, Miss Johnson, you will make use of this bequest to make a fresh start in life. This isn't the advice I normally give newly bereaved clients; the comfort of familiar things, familiar places, is something they need to cling to, but in your case…'

  Diana stood up abruptly. She knew what Mr Soames meant, and part of her knew that he was right. Already she was dreading going back to the empty flat; not solely because Leslie was no longer there, but because its very atmosphere had become imbued with the hopeless-misery of those last agonising weeks; and she could no longer bear to so much as walk inside it.

  They shook hands and she left his office, stepping out into the harsh spring sunlight. On impulse she hailed a taxi and gave the name of a prestigious London hotel.

  She would spend the night there. That would give her breathing-space. Leslie's doctor had given her a small prescription of sleeping pills which he had advised her to use if need be, but until now she had not bothered to resort to them. There had been too much to do… too much to keep her busy. Sorting out Leslie's clothes… things like that. But now she longed to sleep, and the blessed anonymity of a hotel bedroom was the ideal place for her right now.

  The foyer of the hotel was busy. There was a conference on, the clerk told her when Diana booked in. Perhaps because of this no one seemed to notice that she had no luggage, and she was speedily shown up to a very elegant bedroom, the last one they had empty, according to the clerk.

  Once inside, she closed the curtains, and then opened her private mini-bar with the key provided.

  The staff were busy, she reflected, as she noticed that someone had removed some of the stock from the bar, and that it had not been replaced. There was even a glass on the coffee-table. Ignoring it, Diana poured herself a generous gin and tonic, and took it through to the bathroom with her.

  At another time she would have enjoyed sampling the wide range of exclusive toiletries provided, but now all she wanted to do was to soak in a long hot bath and then to go to sleep.

  She took one of the tablets, grimacing wryly as she swallowed it down with a mouthful of her drink. Mixing drink and drugs—hardly a sensible thing to do, but she didn't feel like being sensible right now.

  Diana lay in the bath until she felt the combination of alcohol and drug beginning to take effect, and then she clambered out and pulled on the terry-towelling robe provided, without bothering to dry herself.

  The closed curtains gave the bedroom an eerie underwater effect heightened by the muted sunlight coming in through the windows. She lay down on the bed and closed her eyes, letting oblivion sweep over her, gradually carrying her out into its depths.

  Marcus Simons grimaced as he glanced at his watch. The conference had dragged on longer than expected, and then he had had a meeting to go to that had extended into dinner. Now it was gone one o'clock, and he was ready to drop.

  Whenever he came to London it affected him like this. Funny really—in the days when he had worked in the City he had found it invigorating and stimulating. Now all he wanted was to get back to the farm.

  Ten years ago, when he had inherited the farm from his uncle, managing it himself had been the last thing he had intended. It had been the last thing that Sandra had intended as well. His mouth compressed grimly as his taxi deposited him outside his hotel. He tipped the driver generously enough to merit a smile and walked inside.

  Sandra had wanted him to sell the farm, and when he had refused she had broken off their engagement. It had hurt at the time, but now he was worldly enough to realise that he had had a lucky escape. There had been more than one woman in his life since Sandra, but no serious relationships. His sister, Ann, was constantly chivvying him about it. She wanted him to settle down and get married, and was forever producing a stream of 'friends' to that end.

  He strode across the foyer; a tall man with a shock of thick black hair, and piercingly direct grey eyes.

  He didn't look like a farmer; his charcoal grey pinstriped suit had come from Savile Row, and he had about him that cool air of command that said unmistakably that he was successful in life. '

  He leaned across the desk and asked for his key. The girl who handed it to him eyed him enviously, studying the tanned planes of his face.

  Now that was a man… He smiled at her, and she felt a frisson of response shake her body. Wow… he was really something.

  It was that peculiar time of the evening, too late for any lingering diners, too early for the night-club set, and the large foyer of the hotel was almost deserted.

  Marcus made his way to the cocktail bar, and then changed his mind about going in when he saw the woman strategically poised on the bar stool. She and the barman were the sole occupants of the room. She smiled at him and he looked away, suppressing a mingling feeling of pity and annoyance.

  Did he look like the sort of man who paid for his sex? She was quite obviously a prostitute looking for business. As he turned to leave the bar he shrugged away his annoyance. Probably to her all potential customers looked the same, and it was juvenile of him to feel offended because she had thought he might be a possible client.

  For some reason this brief trip to London to attend the Farming Management Conference had disturbed him. It brought back too many memories. London reminded him of the world he had shared with Sandra. He had been young then; young and in love.

  Now he was well into his thirties, and cynical enough about both himself and the female sex to know that love had nothing to do with sexual enjoyment. It had been a long time since he had slept with a woman; too long perhaps, he thought grimly, remembering his instinctive masculine r
eaction to the perfumed femininity of his host's wife at dinner.

  It had been a long, hard winter, and there had been no time for extra-curricular activities of any kind; but tonight, with an exotic feminine perfume tantalising his senses, his awareness of the delicious femininity of his host's wife, accentuated by the silky slither of her dress over her breasts and hips, he had suddenly felt an urgent need for the soft warmth of a woman in his bed.

  But not a woman he had to pay, he thought disgustedly, as he pressed for the lift and then stepped into it. Ironically, he knew that there were any number of women among his friends and acquaintances who would be more than pleased to have sex with him. Unfortunately, they were not here in this hotel.

  He had long ago made a rule not to involve himself sexually with the wives or girlfriends of his friends; and one of his longest-standing relationships had been with an attractive divorcee. But she had wanted a second marriage, and so they had amicably agreed to part. Sandra's greed had made him wary of any form of commitment; and the farm took so much of his time that there was precious little left to spend searching for a wife.

  The lift stopped and he got out. Dim lighting illuminated the corridor. He walked along it, checking the door numbers until he found his own. He slid the key in the lock and waited until the panel lit up to show that the door was unlocked.

  The sight of the shuttered curtains threw him for a moment. He couldn't remember closing them, but then he reflected that it had probably been done by the maids when they came to turn down the bed. He fumbled for the light switch and depressed it. Harsh yellow light flooded the room.

  Someone was lying on his bed! His eyes narrowed as he studied the towelling-wrapped figure. All he could see was one set of pale pink polished toenails and a cloud of amber-coloured hair.