Married By Christmas

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘A Liberal Democrat,’ she taunted.

  ‘Oh, very funny!’ Her father, a staunch Conservative voter, wasn’t in the least amused at her continued levity.

  ‘Look, Father, I don’t—’

  ‘And will you stop calling me “Father” in that judgemental tone?’ he bit out tautly.

  ‘I’m sorry, but you just don’t seem like “Daddy” to me at the moment,’ she told him in a pained voice, unable to look at him at that moment, too.

  Her father had always been there for her in the past, she had always been ‘Daddy’s little girl’, and now he suddenly seemed like a stranger...

  ‘I’m really sorry you feel that way, Lilli.’ He spoke gently. ‘It wasn’t meant to be this way.’

  ‘I’m not even going to ask what you mean by that remark,’ she said scathingly, turning towards the door once again.

  ‘I haven’t finished yet, Lilli—’

  ‘But I have!’ She swung round, eyes flashing deeply green. ‘To be honest, I’m not sure I can listen to any more of this without being sick!’ This time she did turn and walk out the door, her head held high.

  ‘He’s Geraldine’s brother,’ her father called after her. ‘Patrick Devlin is Geraldine’s older brother!’

  She faltered only slightly, and then she just kept on walking, her legs moving automatically, that numbness she had known the night before thankfully creeping over her once again.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Her father now stood at the bottom of the stairs she had half ascended.

  ‘To bed,’ she told him flatly. ‘To sleep.’ For a million years, if she was lucky!

  ‘This mess will still be here when you wake up, Lilli,’ her father told her fiercely. ‘I’ll still be here!’

  She didn’t answer him, didn’t even glance at him, continuing up to her bedroom, closing the door firmly behind her, deliberately keeping her mind blank as she threw off the clothes she had worn last night, not even bothering to put on a nightgown before climbing in between the sheets of her bed, pulling the covers up over the top of her head, willing herself to go to sleep.

  And when she woke up maybe she would find the last twelve hours had been a nightmare...!

  Geraldine Simms’ brother!

  She didn’t know what time it was, how long she had slept, only that she had woken suddenly, sitting up in the bed, her eyes wide as that terrible truth pounded in her brain.

  Patrick Devlin wasn’t a past or present lover of Geraldine Simms, but her brother!

  No wonder he had been so familiar with the house, with where the wine was kept. And he hadn’t been going to spend the night there with Geraldine, but was obviously her guest at her house during his visit to London.

  Lilli had thought she was being so clever, that she was walking away with a prize taken from under Geraldine’s nose. But all the time Patrick was the woman’s brother! No wonder Geraldine had tried to stop the two of them leaving together; considering her own involvement with Lilli’s father, any relationship between Lilli and her brother was a complication she could well do without!

  Lilli had been to bed with the enemy...!

  But she wasn’t involved with Patrick Devlin, had no ‘relationship’ with him; one night in bed together did not a relationship make!

  One night in bed...

  And she didn’t even remember it, she inwardly groaned. But Patrick had been singing quite happily to himself in the shower this morning, so he obviously did!

  With the exception of her ex-fiancé, she had spent the majority of the last four years ignoring the obvious advances of the ‘beautiful men’ she met at parties, not even aware of the less obvious ones. But in a single night she had wiped all of that out by going to bed with the one man she should have stayed well away from.

  Her father was right—this was a mess!

  She fell back against the pillows, her eyes closed. A million years of sleep couldn’t undo what she had done last night.

  Her only consolation—and it was a very slight one!—was that she was sure Patrick had been involved in a conversation with his sister this morning very similar to the one she’d had with her father. She wouldn’t be ‘Just Lilli’ to Patrick any more, but Elizabeth Bennett, daughter of Richard Bennett, of Bennett International Hotels, the current man in Geraldine’s life. No doubt her identity as the daughter of his sister’s ‘ageing lover’ had come as much of a shock to him as it had to her to realise he was Geraldine’s brother.

  Lilli opened her eyes, her expression thoughtful now. Patrick hadn’t seemed any more pleased than she was at his sister’s choice of lover, which meant he wouldn’t be too eager ever to meet the lover’s daughter again, either. Which meant she could forget the whole sorry business.

  End of mess.

  Of course it was.

  Now if she could just make her father see sense over this ridiculous involvement with Geraldine Simms—

  She turned towards the door as a knock sounded on it. She hadn’t left instructions that she wasn’t to be disturbed, but even so she was irritated at the intrusion. ‘Yes?’ she prompted impatiently, getting out of bed to pull on her robe.

  ‘There’s someone downstairs waiting to see you, Miss Lilli, and—’

  The young maid broke off in surprise as Lilli wrenched open the door. ‘There’s someone to see you,’ the maid repeated awkwardly.

  ‘What time is it?’ Lilli frowned, totally disoriented after her daytime sleep.

  ‘Three-thirty,’ Emily provided, a girl not much younger than Lilli herself. ‘Would you like me to serve tea to you and your visitor?’

  She wasn’t in the mood to receive visitors, let alone sit and have tea with them. ‘I don’t think so, thank you,’ she replied distractedly. ‘Who is it?’ She frowned.

  ‘A Mr Devlin,’ Emily told her chattily. ‘I asked him to wait in the small sitting-room—’

  ‘Devlin!’ Lilli repeated forcefully, causing the young maid to look alarmed all over again. ‘Did you say a Mr Devlin, Emily?’ Her thoughts raced.

  Patrick was here? So much for her thinking he wouldn’t ever want to see her again either once he realised who she was!

  ‘Yes.’ The young girl’s face was alight with infatuation—all the evidence Lilli needed that indeed it was the handsome Patrick Devlin downstairs.

  Thinking back to the way he had looked last night—tall, and so elegantly handsome—she found it easy to see how a woman’s breath could be taken away just to look at him. And she had just spent the night with him!

  Lilli drew in a sharp breath. ‘Please tell him I’ll be down in a few minutes.’ Once she was dressed. His last memory of her must be of her wearing only cream lace panties; she intended the memory he took away of her today to be quite different!

  It took more than the few minutes she had said to don a black sweater, fitted black trousers, apply a light makeup to hide the pallor of her face, and to braid her long hair into a loose plait down her spine. But at least when she looked in the mirror at her reflection she was satisfied with the result—cool and elegant.

  Nevertheless, she took a deep breath before entering the room where Patrick Devlin waited for her. She had no idea what he was doing here—didn’t a woman walking out on him without even a goodbye, after spending the night with him, tell him that she didn’t want to see him again—ever? Obviously not, if his presence here was anything to go by...

  He was standing in front of the window looking out at the winter garden when she entered, slowly turning to look at her as he became aware of her presence.

  Lilli’s breath caught in her throat. God, he was handsome!

  She hadn’t really registered that last night, but in the clear light of day he was incredibly attractive, ruggedly so, his hair so dark a brown it almost appeared black, with those distinguished wings of silver at his temples. His skin was lightly tanned, features so finely hewn they might have been carved from stone, his eyes a light, enigmatic grey.

  He was dressed very similarly t
o her, except he wore a fine checked jacket over his black jumper. Which meant he had been back to Geraldine’s house this morning—if only to change his clothes!

  He moved forward in long, easy movements, looking her critically up and down. ‘Well, well, well,’ he finally drawled. ‘If it isn’t Just Lilli—alias Elizabeth Bennett.’ His voice hardened over the latter.

  ‘Mr Devlin.’ She nodded coolly in acknowledgement, none of her inner turmoil—she hoped!—in evidence.

  She had chosen to go with this man the evening before for two reasons: to hurt her father, and hit out at Geraldine Simms. And at this moment Patrick Devlin seemed very much aware of that!

  His mouth twisted mockingly. ‘Mr. Devlin...? Really, Lilli, it’s a little late for formality between us, isn’t it?’ he taunted.

  She moved pointedly away from him; his derisive manner was deliberately insulting. ‘Why are you here?’ She looked at him across the room with cool green eyes.

  Dark brows rose at her tone. ‘Well, I could say you left your bra behind and I’ve come to return it, but as you weren’t wearing a bra last night...!’

  ‘That’s enough!’ she snapped, two bright spots of embarrassed colour in her cheeks now.

  ‘More than enough, I would say,’ he agreed, his eyes glittering icily. ‘Lilli, exactly what did you hope to achieve by going to bed with me?’

  To hit out at her father, to hurt Geraldine Simms. Nothing more. But certainly nothing less. At the time she hadn’t realised the man she had chosen to help her was actually the other woman’s brother. She accepted it complicated things a little. Especially as he had come here today...

  She deliberately gave a careless shrug. ‘A good time.’ It was half a question—because she couldn’t remember whether or not they’d had a good time together!

  He gave an acknowledging nod at her reply. ‘And did you? Have a good time,’ he persisted dryly at her puzzled expression.

  She frowned. ‘Didn’t you?’ she instantly returned. Two could play at this game!

  His mouth quirked. ‘Marks out of ten? Or do you have some other method of rating your lovers—?’

  ‘There’s no need to be insulting!’ Lilli told him sharply.

  ‘There’s every need, damn you!’ Patrick advanced towards her, his hand on her arm, fingers warm against her skin.

  ‘Don’t touch me!’ she told him angrily, pulling away, and only succeeding in hurting herself. ‘Let me go,’ she ordered with every ounce of Bennett arrogance she possessed. This was her home, damn it, and he couldn’t just come in here—uninvited!—and insult and manhandle her!

  He thrust her away from him. ‘I ought to break that beautiful neck of yours!’ he ground out fiercely, eyes narrowed. ‘You looked older last night... Exactly how old are you?’ he bit out, his gaze sweeping over her scathingly.

  She looked startled. ‘What does my age have to do with anything?’

  ‘Just answer the question, Lilli,’ he rasped. ‘And while you’re at it explain to me exactly how the haughty Elizabeth Bennett ended up with a name like Lilli!’

  Her own cheeks were flushed with anger now. ‘Neither of those things is any of your business!’

  ‘I’m making them so,’ he told her levelly.

  This man might be as good-looking as the devil, but he had the arrogance to match! Why hadn’t she realised any of this the previous evening when she had met him? Because she hadn’t been thinking straight, she acknowledged heavily, had been blinded by the fury she felt towards her father and the woman he was obviously involved with. This man’s sister... She still had trouble connecting the two—they looked absolutely nothing alike!

  ‘Well?’ he prompted at her continued silence.

  She glared at him resentfully, wanting him to leave but knowing he had no intention of doing so until he was good and ready—and he wasn’t either of those things yet! ‘I’m twenty-one,’ she told him tautly.

  ‘And?’ He looked at her hardly.

  ‘And three months,’ she supplied challengingly, knowing it wasn’t what he had been asking. But she had no intention of telling him that she had acquired the name Lilli because the baby brother she had adored, the baby brother who had died when he was only two years old, hadn’t been able to manage the name Elizabeth. Just as she had no intention of telling him that she knew to the day exactly how old she was, because her mother, the mother she had also adored, had died on her twenty-first birthday... It was also the day her fiancée, her father’s assistant, had walked out of her life...

  He grimaced ruefully at her evasion. ‘A mere child,’ he ground out disgustedly. ‘The sacrificial lamb!’ He shook his head. ‘I hate to tell you this, Lilli, but your efforts—enjoyable as they were!—were completely wasted.’ His gaze hardened. ‘If my own sister’s pleadings failed to move me, you can be assured that a night of pleasure in your arms would have had even less effect!’

  Lilli looked at him with haughty disdain. ‘I don’t have the least idea what you’re talking about,’ she snapped.

  ‘No?’ he queried sceptically.

  ‘No,’ she echoed tartly. ‘I don’t even know what you’re doing here today. We were at a party, we decided to spend the night together—and that should have been the end of it. You came here, I didn’t come to you,’ she reminded him coldly.

  ‘Actually, Lilli,’ he drawled softly, ‘I came to see your father, not you.’

  Her head went back in astonishment. ‘My father...?’ she repeated in a puzzled voice.

  Patrick nodded abruptly. ‘Unfortunately, I was informed he isn’t in,’ he said grimly.

  ‘So you asked to see me instead?’ she realised incredulously.

  ‘Correct,’ he affirmed, with a slight inclination of his head. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, Lilli,’ he added.

  She swallowed hard, quickly reassessing the situation. ‘And just why did you want to see my father?’

  Patrick looked at her with narrowed eyes. ‘I’m sure you already know the answer to that question.’

  ‘Because he’s having a relationship with your sister?’ Lilli scorned. ‘It must keep you very busy if you pay personal calls on all her lovers in this way!’

  Anger flared briefly in the grey depths of his eyes, and then they became glacially enigmatic, that gaze sweeping over her with deliberate assessment. ‘I’m sure you keep your father just as busy,’ he drawled.

  After her comment about Geraldine, she had probably deserved that remark. Unfortunately, both this man and his sister brought out the worst in her; she wasn’t usually a bitchy person. But then, this whole situation was unusual!

  ‘Perhaps he’s paying a similar call on you at this very moment?’ Lilli returned.

  ‘I very much doubt it.’ Patrick gave a smile. ‘It hasn’t been my impression, so far in our acquaintance, that your father has ever deliberately gone out of his way to meet me!’

  Her eyes widened. ‘The two of you have met?’ If they had, her father hadn’t mentioned that particular fact earlier!

  ‘Several times,’ Patrick confirmed enigmatically.

  Exactly how long had her father been involved with Geraldine? Lilli had assumed it was a very recent thing, but if the two men had met ‘several times’...

  ‘Perhaps you could pass on a message to him that we will be meeting again, too. Very soon,’ Patrick added grimly, walking to the door.

  Lilli watched him frowningly. ‘You’re leaving...?’ She hadn’t meant her voice to sound wistful at all—and yet somehow it did. In the fifteen minutes Patrick had been here he had made insulting comments to her, enigmatic remarks about her father—but he hadn’t really said anything. She wasn’t really sure what she had expected him to say... But the two of them had spent the night together, and—

  He turned at the door, dark brows raised questioningly. ‘Do we have anything else to say to each other?’ he questioned in a bored voice.

  No, of course they didn’t. They had had nothing to say to each other from the beginning. It was
just that—

  ‘Ten, Lilli,’ he drawled softly. ‘You were a ten,’ he explained dryly as she gave him a puzzled look.

  He laughed huskily as his meaning became clear and her cheeks suffused with heated colour.

  She hadn’t wanted to know—hadn’t asked—

  ‘I’ll let myself out, Lilli,’ he volunteered, and did so, the door closing softly behind him.

  Which was just as well—because Lilli had been rooted to the spot after that last statement.

  Ten...

  And she didn’t remember a single moment of it...

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘I WANT to know exactly what is going on, Daddy,’ Lilli told him firmly, having waited in the sitting-room for two hours before he came home, fortified by the tray of tea things Emily had brought in to her. After Patrick Devlin’s departure, Lilli had felt in need of something, and whisky, at that hour of the day, had been out of the question. Although the man was enough to drive anyone to drink!

  She had heard her father enter the house, accosting him in the hallway as he walked towards the wide staircase.

  He turned at the sound of her voice, his expression grim. ‘I was left in no doubt by you earlier that you didn’t want to hear anything more about Geraldine.’

  ‘I still don’t,’ Lilli told him impatiently. ‘Her brother, however, is a different matter!’

  ‘Patrick?’ her father replied.

  Her mouth twisted. ‘Unless she has another brother—yes!’

  Her father stiffened, striding forcefully across the hallway to join her as she went into the sitting-room, closing the door firmly behind him. ‘What about him?’ he said warily.

  She gave an impatient sigh. ‘That’s what I just asked you!’

  ‘You spent the night with him, Lilli,’ her father reminded her. ‘I would have thought you would know all there is to know about the man! We none of us have defences in bed. Or so I’m told...’

  She bit back the reply she would have liked to make; that sort of conversation would take them absolutely nowhere, as it had this morning. ‘I’m not talking about the man’s prowess—or otherwise!—in the bedroom,’ she snapped. ‘He said the two of you know each other.’