‘No, but you run across Finn from time to time, and sometimes you speak to Amber when she phones me. I’d rather they didn’t know that I was going to help you with Katy. Not just yet, anyway. I’ll tell her in my own time.’
His dark gaze was piercing. ‘Any particular reason?’
Ursula felt uncomfortable as his bright stare lanced through her defences. ‘They think I work hard enough as it is,’ she said. ‘That’s all.’
But Ross was not easily fobbed off with lame excuses. The dark eyes remained quizzical for a moment, before comprehension dawned in them with a raw black gleam. ‘Oh, I think I understand,’ he said slowly. ‘They’re protecting you. They won’t want you getting involved with a married man?’
‘But I won’t be getting involved with a married man, will I?’ she questioned patiently, though the blood was pounding in her head. ‘I’m just helping you with your daughter.’
His gaze was mocking. ‘And you think you can do one without the other happening?’
She considered this. ‘I think so.’
He nodded. ‘How can I ever thank you?’ he queried, very softly.
Ursula almost suggested a good way would be by taking her in his arms and hugging her—simply as a friend, of course. But that was out of the question. Because in Ross’s eyes she was nothing more than Good Old Ursula, his plump, reliable assistant—as comfortable and as unexciting as an old pair of slippers.
And not only did men like Ross Sheridan never fall for women like that.
It seemed that they never hugged them either...
CHAPTER SIX
December
KATY’S lips curled into a near-perfect pout as she stared at her father. ‘But, Daddy—why? Why can’t Ursula spend Christmas Day with us?’
Across the sitting room of his Hampstead home, Ross threw Ursula a look, the kind of look which said, ‘Over to you, O’Neil’! And he kept that infuriating half-smile pinned to his lips as he answered his daughter’s question with an evasive, ‘I don’t know exactly, kitten—why don’t you ask her?’
‘Why, Ursula?’ repeated Katy quietly, a determined and intent look on her face.
Without missing a beat, Ursula continued to unload scarlet and gold wrapped presents from the bulging carrier bag she had brought in with her. ‘Because I have to spend Christmas Day with my sister, Amber,’ she replied steadily, as she carefully placed the gifts beneath the Christmas tree which she and Katy had decorated. ‘I already explained that.’
‘But you’ve only just come back from a holiday!’ objected Katy moodily. ‘When you went looking for that wedding dress!’
‘You don’t begrudge me a holiday, surely?’ asked Ursula, laughing.
The pout disappeared, and Katy set her mouth into a stubborn line which made her look the image of her father. ‘But you always spend Christmas Day with your sister!’ she observed.
‘Exactly!’ said Ursula triumphantly. ‘So she’d think it pretty odd if I didn’t this year, wouldn’t she?’
‘Well, why can’t you just tell her that you want to spend it with Daddy and me for a change?’ pleaded Katy. ‘Because you do want to spend Christmas with us, don’t you, Ursula?’
Ursula sighed, fixing Ross with a ‘rescue me’ expression, but he completely ignored it. Just continued his policy of pleasant non-cooperation—with nothing more than a slightly shrugged look of bemusement. Awkward beast!
Ursula sent him a half-hearted frown. ‘Of course I want to spend Christmas Day with you and D...your daddy,’ she amended with a sigh. ‘But I see you nearly all the time as it is, and Amber is the only family I’ve got, and—’
‘But Daddy says your sister’s engaged now!’ Katy pointed out slyly. ‘To the man who owns the model agency.’
‘To Finn. Yes, she is.’ Ursula’s head shot up sharply. ‘So?’
Katy ignored her father’s warning look. ‘So—won’t they want to be on their own? So they can get all lovey-dovey, and stuff like that! Won’t you be a gooseberry if you hang around?’
‘Why? Is that what Daddy told you?’ questioned Ursula sweetly, the look she directed at Ross lit with the light of battle.
‘Why don’t you run upstairs and get ready for bed now, Katy?’ suggested Ross hastily. ‘Because the sooner you go to sleep—’
“‘The sooner Christmas Day will come!’” chimed Katy obediently. ‘Okay.’ She moved over to where her father was sprawled in one of the armchairs, looking like a man who didn’t know how to relax properly. She bent and kissed the top of his dark, wavy head. ‘You need a haircut, Daddy,’ she remarked.
Ross laughed up at her. ‘That’s neat—coming from a ten-year-old who has to be dragged screaming to the hairdresser’s!’
‘Oh, I didn’t say you needed it!’ said Katy airily. ‘Ursula did!’
‘Oh, did she?’ queried Ross softly, and now the light of battle was in his eyes.
Ursula averted her gaze. She didn’t feel like looking at him just now. Instead, she raised her arms up as Katy came over and gave her a big hug and a kiss. ‘I’ll come and say goodnight and wish you a happy Christmas before I go,’ she told the child.
‘And when will we see you?’ asked Katy breathlessly.
Ursula stroked a whirly strand of hair off Katy’s cheek, deciding that she would not let her irritation with Ross affect her relationship with his daughter. ‘I could come straight round here tomorrow night, when I get back from Amber and Finn’s place—if it’s early enough. How about that?’
‘Could you? That would be perfect!’ murmured Katy, nuzzling her nose into Ursula’s neck, like a little puppy dog.
‘And I’m coming to Prague with you and Daddy next week, don’t forget!’ Ursula reminded her. ‘Just think of the New Year’s Eve we’ll have!’
‘With Mummy,’ Katy put in hesitantly.
‘That’s right,’ said Ursula evenly. ‘Mummy will be there, too—’
‘And Julian.’
‘And Julian,’ echoed Ursula, and this time she didn’t have to look pleadingly at Ross for him to leap in smoothly to her assistance.
‘Off you go to bed now, kitten.’ He smiled, his face betraying nothing of the conflict of emotions which Ursula knew the forthcoming trip to Prague had stirred up. ‘Or Father Christmas won’t come down the chimney later!’
Father’s and daughter’s eyes met.
‘Oh, Daddy!’
‘What?’ he replied innocently.
‘You know!’ Katy twinkled.
Ross shrugged ‘All I know is that if you don’t believe in him, he won’t come. It’s as simple as that! Even for grown-ups. Believing is everything. Okay?’
Ursula recognised the blinding relief in Katy’s smile, knowing that this year—of all years—she needed to hold onto her dreams. After all, it wasn’t every year that your mother left without saying a proper goodbye. Then phoned you only intermittently from around the other side of the world. Or sent presents which were supposed to compensate but never really did, no matter how expensive they were. Katy was a brave little girl, Ursula thought with a pang.
‘Okay, Daddy! I’ll go upstairs and get straight to sleep!’ And Katy skipped from the room with a last, fleeting smile.
There was silence after she had gone, and Ursula felt Ross’s eyes on her—though it was a moment or two before she could meet them with any degree of calm.
‘Katy seems...okay,’ she observed. ‘I’d been wondering if she’d find it extra difficult—being Christmas and all that.’
‘Yes, she does.’ But his eyes looked bitter. ‘Jane rang at lunchtime today.’
‘Christmas Eve lunchtime?’ Ursula blinked. ‘Bit of an odd time to ring. Why didn’t she ring this evening—before Katy hung her stocking up?’
‘It’s the time difference in Australia,’ he explained evenly. ‘She was just going to bed.’
‘Oh.’ Maybe it was best not to dwell on Jane’s sleeping habits. Ursula bent to pick up a discarded sweet wrapper instead.
�
��I wish you weren’t going to Amber’s,’ he said suddenly, and she straightened up to find him staring at her.
Ursula had learnt to guard against the odd crumb of affection which Ross occasionally threw her way. She had decided that it didn’t actually mean anything, and just complicated what was a very workable arrangement.
Because, in the five months since Jane Sheridan had left the family home and gone off to live in Australia, Ursula had become indispensable to Ross and Jane. She knew that. They knew that. And it suited them all.
But only for the time being! She kept having to remind herself of that. Only until Ross and Jane had sorted out their situation one way or another. Or until she met a man whom she could settle down with.
Ursula stifled a sigh. If only she could be bothered!
At the moment it just seemed so unlikely. Especially when such close contact with Ross only rubbed in just how lacking other men were—in just about every department which mattered.
For the first time ever, she was beginning to be a bit of a clock-watcher, and always tried to go home bang on the dot of six—simply because, as she kept telling Ross, it was important that he spent some one-to-one time with his daughter. Though—if she were being truthful—she was acting on a purely self-protective instinct. Too much exposure to Ross at home was madness!
But Katy always wanted her to stay. More to the point—so did Ursula! It was usually left to Ross to be the calm, noncommittal member of the trio, who didn’t seem to care one way or another whether she lingered or not.
But not tonight, it seemed.
Now he seemed to be renewing his attack.
‘So can’t you stay for Christmas Day?’ he persisted. ‘Really?’
Ursula tried to fill her voice with conviction. ‘Oh, yeah, sure! I can just imagine how pleased my sister would be if I told her that I’d changed my mind—especially after she’s been out and bought a mountain of sprouts and an aeroplane-sized turkey!’
‘She probably wouldn’t care, if you stopped to think about it. Maybe she’d prefer to spend the day in bed with Finn,’ he suggested deliberately. ‘Alone.’
Ursula felt far too anxious to be embarrassed by his sexy statement. She shook her head so emphatically that her hair swung wildly round her neck, like frayed black satin. ‘That’s just where you’re wrong,’ she told him worriedly. ‘I don’t think that the two of them have been getting along too well just lately.’
Ross pleated his mouth into a disapproving line. ‘I can’t say I’m particularly surprised—’
‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’
Ross shrugged. ‘Well, I like your sister very much—but I can’t blame Finn for being angry with her. I mean—whatever possessed her to give that dreadful interview to ‘Wow!’ magazine?’
Loyalty came naturally to Ursula. ‘Oh, come on—tt wasn’t that dreadful!’ she defended, even though the piece in question had caused her to cringe with embarrassment when she had read it.
‘Sure it was! It was worse than dreadful! Amber was sprawled out looking unbelievably sexy in about eight different shots and she was blabbing about her relationship with Finn!’ He shook his head rather sorrowfully. ‘Without even bothering to tell him that she’d done the interview! You can’t really blame Finn for blowing his top—I’d have been pretty angry if it had been me!’
Privately, Ursula agreed with Ross. But it was one thing criticising your own flesh and blood—quite another matter if somebody else had the cheek to do it!
‘She hardly gave away any state secrets, did she?’ disagreed Ursula doggedly.
‘Well, she told the world how Finn had proposed to her—and did it in such a way that everyone could tell that he’d done it straight after having sex with her—’
‘Ross!’
‘But it’s true.’
Ursula frowned, her concern for her sister making her oblivious to the fact that she was discussing sex with her boss! ‘I know,’ she sighed. ‘Which is why it’s extra important that I spend Christmas Day with them—maybe I can stop them from killing one another!’
He glanced up at her, his dark eyes narrowing critically. ‘You look tired.’
‘I am, a bit.’
‘So break the habit of a lifetime. Stay and have a drink.’
It was tempting... She shook her head. ‘No, really—I ought to get home and wrap Amber and Finn’s presents—’
‘Oh, that!’ he scoffed. ‘That won’t take long, surely? Stay and have a drink with me, Ursula—I haven’t seen you for almost a fortnight.’ He stood up and went over to the drinks cabinet where he opened a bottle of claret and poured them both a glass. ‘Since you took your impromptu little holiday—’
‘So now you’re objecting as well as Katy, are you?’
He shook his head, and gave a tight smile as he handed her a glass of wine. ‘Of course I’m not objecting! It’s just that I...we...well, we missed you... That’s all. Especially Katy.’
‘Yes,’ answered Ursula slowly. She sank down onto one of the squashy sofas and sipped her drink. ‘I missed her, too.’ And her daddy.
Ross sat down opposite her. ‘So what’s all this about a wedding dress?’
Ursula had let her eyelids drift down; now she opened them again and looked at him. ‘Mmm?’
‘Katy mentioned it just a minute ago. Something about you going off to find a wedding dress.’
‘Oh!’ Ursula wrinkled her nose. ‘It isn’t really a story designed to appeal to men—’
‘Don’t patronise me, Ursula,’ he warned softly.
Across the room, their eyes clashed and Ursula’s heart beat out a frantic and erratic beat. ‘I wouldn’t dream of patronising you.’
‘I want you to tell me the story,’ he told her stubbornly.
Ursula’s mouth twitched. ‘Oh, do you?’
He captured her gaze and didn’t look away as he murmured, ‘Yes, I do.’
She swirled the claret around in the crystal glass and the ruby light bounced and dazzled off her fingers. ‘You remember I told you that my mother worked as a cleaner, when I was a child?’
He nodded. ‘Along with giving me a stern lecture about not exploiting my cleaner!’
‘Did I?’ She sipped her drink again, and the wine gave her courage. ‘Well, she cleaned in a big department store because we were extremely poor,’ she added baldly.
Ross hid a gentle smile. ‘I was able to draw my own conclusions,’ he remarked. ‘I didn’t imagine that she was doing a job like that out of the goodness of her heart—or because she opted for low wages, or because she wanted to observe human behaviour! So what happened?’
Ursula’s eyes became wistful. ‘My mother was an incurable romantic who fell in love with a designer wedding dress. She saved up and queued up all night, and bought it in the sale—’
‘And was it beautiful?’ he interrupted. ‘This dress?’
‘Oh, it was exquisite.’ She read the question in his eyes. ‘No, of course it wasn’t for her—she was already married! It was for us—her two daughters to wear. Me first, and then Amber.’ She laughed, but it was tinged with a slightly brittle sound. ‘Except that Amber’s getting married before me—of course!’
He completely ignored the self-deprecating remark. ‘So what became of the dress?’
‘My father became sick, and then he died—’
His face softened. ‘Yes. I’m sorry.’
‘Thank you.’ She sipped her drink and swallowed down her sadness. ‘After his death we were even more broke than before, and my mother was forced to sell the dress. No one has seen it since...’
Ross studied her with interest. ‘So the trail went cold, did it?’
‘Kind of.’ Ursula nodded. ‘But then—quite by chance—I happened to see a competition in a newspaper. The daughter of the original designer has made a replica of the dress, and she’s raffling the gown in the New Year to publicise the opening of her new shop. So I’ve entered Amber’s name in the competition to win it!’
/> ‘But not your own?’
She was angry that he had been insensitive enough to ask the question, because now she would have to answer him in shaming detail. ‘I’m not the one getting married, Ross—and even if I were I’m much too fat to wear the dress!’
He screwed his eyes up as he looked at her—the way he did when he was working and trying to visualise how a finished advertisement would look on the page of a magazine. ‘Are you?’ he asked, as though her shape wasn’t important, and something in the way he said it filled her with fury.
‘It’s a tiny size, and a narrow, fitted design!’ she snapped. ‘So of course I’m too fat to wear it!’
‘You sound angry, Ursula,’ he commented mildly. ‘Surely not because your sister is thinner than you?’
Yes, she was angry, and no—it wasn’t because Amber had the more fashionable figure. This anger was of the bubbling away variety, the type which was rapidly coming to the boil. Had part of her hoped that, with Jane settled with her lover on the opposite side of the world, her platonic relationship with Ross would be rebuilt into one of intimacy?
Why hadn’t Ross ever noticed her shape before? Not because he was still legally married, that was for sure—but because he regarded her less as a woman, and more as part of the fixtures and fittings. Suddenly, Ursula felt shackled by her comfortable shape and her comfortable image.
‘Let’s skip it, shall we?’ she questioned sulkily.
Ross continued to regard her steadily, and Ursula could tell from that determined expression that he had no intention of skipping it. ‘So why didn’t you tell me this intriguing little story before?’
‘Because usually men aren’t interested in weddings or their spin-off products!’ she told him heatedly. ‘Traditionally, they run a mile if the subject is brought up! And even if I had thought you were interested—it wasn’t the most diplomatic of topics to bring up, was it? I didn’t think that you’d want to hear anything about matrimony, considering...’
There was a split-second pause. Ross raised his eyebrows. ‘Considering what?’
Well, she couldn’t chicken out now. Facing facts was what grown-ups had to do. ‘Considering your wife left you less than six months ago.’
One Husband Required! Page 8
