A Contract, a Wedding, a Wife?

by Christy McKellen

  The thought of being caught out like that only increased Soli’s anxiety about them not knowing each other well enough yet. What if she had to answer questions about him that she didn’t know the answers to? He could potentially lose his inheritance if the solicitor didn’t believe they were a real couple, which would mean their deal would fall through and that could signal the end of the café.

  ‘I can’t lose this place, Soli, and I’m definitely not going to let it go to my money-grubbing cousin because we messed up the small stuff,’ Xavier said, echoing her thoughts.

  ‘Okay. No problem,’ she said, trying to sound reassuring. She’d do everything in her power not to let that happen.

  ‘Good. Well, now you’ve had a look around I’ll bring your cases in here and you can get settled in.’

  Following him out of the bedroom and back to the grand entrance hall, she tried not to let a feeling of being on the very edge of control overwhelm her.

  She needed to focus on the positives, such as this amazing place being her home for the next year.

  It would be so exciting to be here.

  Or terrifying—depending on which way you chose to look at it.

  Xavier seemed like a good guy though, if a little cold and reserved. Everything she’d found out about him had been positive, she reminded herself. Especially the things she’d read about his business practices. And her father wouldn’t have rented a property from a shyster after all; he’d always been a very cautious and thorough businessman himself.

  ‘Why did your great-aunt want you to be married in order to inherit this place?’ she blurted as they reached the front door. It had been playing on her mind as he’d shown her around. ‘It seems a little extreme in this day and age.’

  He turned back to face her with a grimace. ‘Yes, well, my great-aunt had very traditional values. Her marriage was arranged by her family and she stayed married to my great-uncle for forty-three years, until he died of a heart attack. I think she had some romantic notion that if she forced me into getting married I’d end up the same way she did. Blissfully happy.’ He pulled a face.

  ‘Not convinced, huh?’

  ‘Not one bit.’

  ‘Shame.’

  He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’ From his tone she suspected he was unnerved to hear her talking about marriage in such a positive way. Perhaps because he was worried she might become more attached to the idea of being his wife than he was comfortable with.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ she reassured him quickly. ‘You’re really not my type. When I get married for real it’ll be because I’m in love with my partner and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. That won’t happen with us.’

  He continued to look at her in that unnervingly intense way he had, as if he was trying to read her innermost thoughts and catch sight of any lies she might be telling him. She stared boldly back, trying not to think about how devastatingly attractive he was.

  ‘I promise you, I will not want to stay married to you after the year is up,’ she reiterated firmly. ‘I’ve got too much going on in my life to be a wife and mother right now.’

  She was sure she saw him flinch when she said that, but before she could say anything more he nodded curtly and said, ‘Anyway, you’ll need these for the doors.’ He pulled a plastic key card and a key for her apartment out of his pocket and handed them to her.

  ‘So you’re not planning on keeping me locked up inside all day, then?’ she asked in as jovial a tone as she could muster.

  ‘Of course not,’ he said, waving away her words as if they were completely ridiculous.

  Her skin prickled as she remembered how reluctant he’d been to introduce her to Hugo as his wife earlier, but she bit her tongue. She really didn’t want to have a row with him on their wedding day. Not that it seemed they were actually going to celebrate it in any way.

  This was confirmed when Xavier said, ‘Well, I’ve a lot of work to do today so I’ll let you get settled in. There’s food in the fridge or takeaway menus by the phone in the kitchen if you want to eat in tonight.’

  Disappointment trickled through her. ‘We won’t be eating together?’

  ‘Not tonight. I need to deal with something that’s just cropped up at work right away.’ He gestured towards his phone. ‘I’ll put your bags in your apartment and catch up with you tomorrow.’

  ‘No, don’t worry, I can take them.’

  He paused, then nodded distractedly, and she watched him walk away and mount the stairs, heading up the wide staircase to the top landing.

  She suddenly felt very small and alone in the huge, dark house.

  Looking down at the sheath dress she’d made especially for the ceremony out of one of her mother’s old dresses, she felt a heavy sense of trepidation sink through her.

  No, Soli, don’t let it get to you.

  Why she’d thought she needed to look good for this farce of a wedding today, she had no idea now. But it had been important to her to make an effort, even if Xavier hadn’t appreciated it. He’d not said a word about how she looked.

  She hadn’t sewed her own clothes for a very long time, but being strapped for cash and not wanting to waste money on buying a proper wedding dress, even a second-hand one, she’d decided to make her own. She’d worked for three nights straight on it and was really pleased with the results. Whilst working on it she’d remembered how much she’d enjoyed designing and making her own clothes before her mother had become too ill to look after herself and her father had died, requiring her to step into his role as carer, parent and breadwinner. Experiencing that had made her appreciate just how hard he’d worked to keep them all in the lifestyle she’d taken for granted. She wished fervently now that she’d had the opportunity to tell him how grateful she was to him for providing that for her.

  She hoped he would have been proud of her for what she was doing here—making sure that her sister and mother were well looked after.

  The way she needed to look at it was that Xavier was providing her with a unique opportunity to set them all up for the rest of their lives.

  All she had to do was make sure she didn’t do anything to jeopardise it.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Frustration (UK)/Trouble (US)—roll a six before you can make a move.

  THE NEXT MORNING Xavier came down to the kitchen at seven a.m. to find to his relief that it was empty of his new wife. He’d been hoping that Soli wasn’t an early riser and wouldn’t expect to have breakfast with him so he could continue with his usual morning routine of sitting at the kitchen table and reading the news on his tablet whilst sipping his first cup of coffee of the day in peace.

  It looked as if he was in luck.

  As he set up the coffee machine, he noticed some cake tins and spatulas and a few bags of ingredients on the worktop. The sight of them sitting in what he thought of as his personal space sent a tingle of annoyance through him.

  Telling himself to relax, he tamped down on his irritation, knowing he was going to have to get used to sharing his house with Soli for the next year and getting uptight about a few pieces of kitchen equipment lying around wasn’t a good way to start. Anyway, it needed to look as if she lived in this house, he reminded himself, so having a few of her things scattered around would actually be a good thing.

  He was just pouring the coffee into a mug when there was the sound of footsteps behind him and he spun around to see Soli standing in the doorway wearing a slouchy pair of pyjamas with a cartoon character on the front and her hair wild and sticking up around her head.

  ‘Morning,’ she said, hiding a yawn behind her hand. ‘You’re up bright and early.’

  ‘I always leave at this time,’ he said, averting his gaze as the idea of seeing her as she’d just rolled out of bed suddenly felt way too intimate.

  ‘So you don’t have time to have breakfast with me?’ she aske
d, moving towards the kettle, which she flicked on to boil.

  ‘No, sorry. I need to leave in a minute.’

  ‘Oh, okay.’

  She looked disappointed, but he pushed aside the sting of guilt this brought about. He couldn’t just change his routine to fit in with her. She’d need to work around him.

  As if she’d sensed this, she leant back against the work surface, smiled at him and said, ‘Perhaps we could spend some time together this evening instead? It’d be nice to get to know you a bit better since we’ll be sleeping under the same roof for the next year. We could spend a bit of time drawing up a list of dos and don’ts for the relationship.’

  He frowned as the uncomfortable reality of having someone at home waiting for him every night struck him. ‘Yes, of course, but perhaps not tonight. I have a really heavy day at work and I’ll want to relax this evening. Once my workload’s calmed down a bit we’ll have plenty of time to do that.’

  ‘Perhaps we could just play a board game or two, then. It’ll be a fun, unpressurised way to learn more about each other,’ she suggested. ‘They’re great icebreakers and it’ll give us something else to concentrate on so we can chat freely. Our café is a popular destination for first dates precisely because of that. At least it used to be.’ A frown flickered across her face. ‘I’ll cook us a light meal and we can play afterwards?’ she suggested brightly.

  His phone had beeped for the third time in as many minutes and he plucked it out of his pocket distractedly and glanced at the screen, seeing with a wave of concern that it was a message from his financial director. There must be an urgent issue for him to get in contact before the working day had begun. He glanced up from the screen to see Soli was looking at him with a questioning expression. ‘Er, yes, okay. I should be back by about eight o’clock,’ he said, wondering what could have happened for Rob to try him three times already.

  ‘It’ll be useful for us to know what makes each other tick,’ she added.

  ‘Yes. Quite right. We’ll need to put up a good front at Hugo and Veronica’s party and it’ll be good to be prepared for that,’ he said with a sigh, running his hand over his jaw as the idea of it sent a twinge of frustration up his back.

  Would they really believe he’d married someone like Soli of his own free will? She really didn’t dress, or act, like the type of woman he usually dated.

  ‘I’ve been thinking about your question about what you’re going to do during the day when you’re not working at the café.’

  ‘Oh, yes?’

  ‘I’m going to arrange for a monthly stipend to be put into your bank account which you can use to go shopping for new clothes and book hair and beauty appointments and the like. Those sorts of things ought to keep your free days busy enough and they’ll be practically expected of a woman who’s married to me and not working full-time, so it’ll fit our story.’

  She lifted a hand to smooth down her wild curls, then adjusted her pyjama top, her brow creasing into a bewildered sort of frown. ‘Okay. Well, thanks.’

  Feeling satisfied with this act of generosity, he cleared away his empty mug and gave her one last nod before striding out of the house and setting off for the office, feeling a strange sense of relief at having something to focus on outside of Soli and his brand-new marriage.

  * * *

  Soli let out the sigh of frustration she’d been holding in when she finally heard the front door slam closed behind Xavier.

  Well, that had been an incredibly frustrating meet-up.

  Awkward didn’t even cover it.

  It was clear he wanted them to look like a convincing couple at the party, but he seemed reluctant to actually spend any time with her.

  Work, apparently, was going to take precedence.

  Her heart sank at the anticipation of the fight she might have on her hands to get his full attention.

  She shook off her worry. She’d find a way to make it work. Her family was relying on her and there was no way she was going to let them down now.

  Pouring herself a reviving cup of coffee, she mulled over what he’d said to her just before he’d left. She really hadn’t expected him to give her even more money—not that it wasn’t welcome. She’d been acutely aware as she’d hung up her clothes in the wardrobe in her room that the sort of things she wore—mostly high street store outfits or things she’d picked up from a great little vintage clothes stall in Camden Market—probably wouldn’t look quite right for someone married to Xavier McQueen, but his insinuation that she wasn’t the sleek, sophisticated-looking woman he’d hoped for in a partner had still stung a little.

  Not that she couldn’t fix that if she splashed the cash around a bit.

  It was going to feel pretty strange spending his money on frivolous things like that though, and she was going to have to get over that. If he was happy to give it to her, she should just be grateful for it.

  She took a breath and straightened her spine, imagining herself into the role of the lady of the house.

  The first thing she needed to do today was plan what she was going to make for their ‘getting to know each other’ meal. She wanted it to be something that looked as if she’d made a bit of effort, which of course actually meant making a lot of effort. Despite the fact they were only pretending, for the sake of her pride she wanted to be as good a partner as she could be.

  Perhaps she could do steak with a peppercorn sauce and some lovely fresh seasonal vegetables. And Dauphinoise potatoes. Her sister loved it when she made that dish—which wasn’t often because it was pretty labour intensive.

  Yes, something like that perhaps. And she’d make a dessert from scratch too. Something with lots of fresh fruit, like a summer pudding.

  Her spirits rose again.

  While she was out shopping for all the ingredients she could pick up a couple of board games for them to play this evening too. Games that might lead them to interesting discussions and help them to get to know each other a bit better.

  With a sense of positivity and purpose surging through her now, she sat down at the table and began to make a list, planning a wonderful evening of food and entertainment for her and her new husband.

  It would be great to finally feel as if she was on top of things and acting like the kind of daughter her father always wanted to have.

  Yup, she was a grown-up now and determined to prove to Xavier that he’d made a good choice in her and that it would be money well-spent.

  He was going to be so pleased he’d married her.

  * * *

  It was ten thirty before Xavier made it home that evening, after having to deal with the crisis at work that had kept him, his PA and his financial director in the office, scrambling to close a property deal that they’d been working on for the last three months.

  It had been a taxing day, but Xavier was pleased with the way it had gone in the end. He felt buzzed with success as he let himself in through his front door and made his way across the entrance hall towards the back of the house.

  Striding into his kitchen, he experienced a shiver of disquiet as something niggled at the back of his brain.

  He’d not even had a chance to let Soli know he’d be back late; in fact, he’d been so engrossed in what he was doing he’d not noticed how late it was until his PA had jokily pointed out they should eat before all the takeaway outlets shut for the night, but he’d figured it wouldn’t matter. Soli had plenty of things to entertain her here in the house and she seemed like the resourceful type.

  After flicking on the kettle, he leant back against the kitchen counter and took a moment to look around the kitchen. There was something different in here, he was sure of it. It smelt different. A bit like the French restaurant he loved to go to on the bank of the Thames in Southwark. Garlicky and delicious.

  The kettle boiled and he made himself a cup of tea, lifting the teabag out with the
spoon after swishing it around in the boiling water for a few seconds. He never had the patience to let tea brew properly. When he lifted up the lid of the food-waste bin to dispose of the teabag, the garlicky smell grew even stronger and he paused, staring down inside the bin’s depths. It looked as though there was a whole meal in there—what looked like Dauphinoise potatoes and cooked vegetables. What was Soli doing throwing so much food away? How wasteful.

  And then it struck him and his stomach turned over with unease. She’d made dinner for him and he’d not turned up for it. He hadn’t even phoned her to let her know he’d be too late to eat with her.

  He snapped the bin lid shut and stepped away from it, feeling a strange mixture of self-righteousness and guilt. It wasn’t as though he’d deliberately not turned up for the ‘getting to know each other’ dinner, he’d just forgotten about it. Work had had to take precedence today; it had been imperative to get on top of the problem before it had snowballed.

  He’d explain all that to her tomorrow and apologise for missing dinner. There was no point in feeling guilty about it though. They had plenty of time to get to know each other and she’d have to get used to him having to work late without giving her any notice. That was how his life worked and he wasn’t about to change it for someone who was fundamentally in his employ.

  She’d understand that.

  Frankly, he was paying her a hefty chunk of money to understand and accept that.

  With that assuring thought in mind he added a splash of milk to his tea then took it through to the sitting room to drink it, determined to enjoy a few minutes of his evening before he had to retire to bed.

  * * *

  When Soli turned up in the kitchen at seven o’clock the next morning, hoping to catch Xavier before he went to work, she was frustrated to find he’d already been and gone.

  Had he done it on purpose so he didn’t have to see her?

  She’d been disappointed and a bit hurt when he hadn’t come home in time to eat the food she’d spent so much time and energy on, but she’d tried not to take it to heart. She’d decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’d just forgotten about it.