Czytaj książkę: «A Husband Of Convenience»

CHAPTER ONE

‘I’M SORRY, Josie. But Charles is dead.’

‘But he can’t be. I’m pregnant!’ Josie exclaimed, tearing her gaze away from sinfully deep, assessing eyes to glance frantically around the room, unaware of the stunned silence her comment had caused. Her father was seated on the sofa, while Major Zarcourt was at his desk, but there was no sign of Charles Zarcourt. The look of shock on her father’s face registered and to her horror she realised she’d spoken out loud, before the sound of sardonic laughter broke the silence.

Her violet eyes swung back to the tall, dark man standing by the drinks cabinet. It was Conan Zarcourt who had delivered the thunderbolt. And, of course, it was Conan who’d laughed! She might have guessed; he must have a penchant for outrageous statements, she thought angrily.

Immaculate in a dark business suit and crisp blue shirt, Conan was leaning against the cabinet with a glass of amber liquid in his hand. As she watched he raised the glass to his mouth and drained it. Then he slammed the empty glass back down with unnecessary force, the expression on his ruggedly attractive face hard to define. He looked more than angry, Josie thought, he looked positively venomous, and for a second she saw a flash of what looked like anguish in his dark eyes. But she must have been mistaken, as he smiled a grim smile.

‘Let me get you a drink. You’re going to need one,’ he offered bluntly:

‘No. No alcohol for me. An orange juice.’ Even in her shocked state Josie still had the sense to realise she couldn’t drink in her condition.

‘As you wish.’ Conan’s mouth turned down in a wry grimace as he filled a glass with juice and then walked towards her.

He held the glass out to Josie. She looked down at his large hand and back up into his face. Was it only a couple of minutes ago that she’d walked into the study, and been stopped in her tracks by Conan’s outrageous response to her casual enquiry, “Has Charles arrived early?”

Her fingers brushed against Conan’s as she took the glass he offered, and her hand trembled slightly. What was it about Conan that even when he was at his most vile, cracking stupid jokes about his half-brother Charles, her body reacted alarmingly when he was around?

She stared up at the man towering over her. With thick black hair, broad forehead, a straight, rather large nose, and wide mouth and square jaw, Conan wasn’t conventionally handsome; his was a face too rough-hewn for that, but it was still strangely compelling. To her certain knowledge he had visited Beeches Manor only twice in the ten years Josie had lived in the area.

The first time she’d met him she had been looking after the jumble stall at the church summer fair. Charles was supposed to be helping her, but had gone to get her a cold drink when a man impeccably dressed in a three-piece suit had appeared.

‘The only thing here that would fit me...is you.’ His deep, sexy drawl had shivered along Josie’s nerves, giving her goosebumps, and her startled gaze had locked with his for a second, before his eyes had swept over her body in blatant male scrutiny. ‘Tell me, are you for sale?’ Josie had fought back a chuckle at his cheek, but before she could respond Charles had returned.

‘No chatting up the local girls,’ Charles had told the stranger, and much to Josie’s surprise he’d slipped an arm around her waist, adding, ‘And certainly not mine.’

‘I might have guessed,’ the man had murmured, and he’d walked away.

‘You know him?’ Josie had asked Charles.

‘You could say that. But never mind him; how about having dinner with me tonight?’

Josie had had a crush on Charles Zarcourt for years, and the disturbing stranger had been forgotten as she’d jumped at the chance of a date with Charles.

Forgotten until the second time she’d seen Conan, when she had almost died of embarrassment.

She dismissed the disturbing memory with a shake of her small head. She could not think about that now. She needed to discover why Conan was here. But then why not? Technically it was his home, she supposed. Conan was right about her needing a drink. Today had been the worst day of her life so far, and she had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that it wasn’t going to improve.

She’d taken the afternoon off work and driven from Cheltenham to Oxford to visit the clinic attached to the hospital there, and had her worst fear confirmed. She was pregnant. She had returned home to Low Beeches farmhouse to find an urgent message asking her to go to the Manor House. She had naturally presumed her unofficial fiancé, Charles, had returned from active service in the Army a day early. But looking at the grim faces around her she’d begun to wonder.

Josie took a great gulp of the juice and almost choked as it went down the wrong way, so her father’s words barely registered.

‘You have to be brave, Josie.’

‘Brave,’ she murmured. She glanced around again but there was no sign of Charles. Josie blinked and rubbed one damp palm against her thigh. She hadn’t eaten all day and was feeling light-headed. Her puzzled gaze sought Conan’s. He looked angry and deadly serious, but he couldn’t be...

‘If this is another one of your outrageous comments masquerading as a joke, Conan, I don’t find it funny!’ she said curtly.

‘No joke. It’s true. There’s been an accident. Charles is dead,’ he affirmed, his glittering dark eyes holding her own.

She stared at him in disbelief, all the colour draining from her face. ‘An accident?’ Josie repeated parrot fashion. There certainly had been an accident, and she was carrying it. Nervously she licked her dry lips. Charles dead! It was unthinkable and, raising the glass to her mouth, she downed the rest of her juice.

She hardly noticed Major Zarcourt’s, ‘Thank God for small mercies,’ before darkness enveloped her, and for the first time in her life she fainted.

Her eyes fluttered open minutes later; she wasn’t sure where she was, or what had happened, only aware of the strong arm around her shoulders and the comforting feel of the broad chest her head rested upon.

Then her memory flooded back. Someone had said Charles was dead. But he couldn’t be; she was pregnant with his child. She stiffened guiltily. Horrified at her purely selfish thought and raising her head, she jerked out of Conan’s protective hold to sit tensely on the edge of the sofa, her hands clasped tightly together in her lap. She glanced at her father sitting beside her, his elbows resting on his knees, head in hands. She turned back to Conan. She did not need to ask the question. The answer was there in the compassion that was evident in his dark eyes.

‘Is it true?’ she demanded unevenly.

Conan covered her hands with his own large hand and squeezed lightly as he replied. ‘I’m sorry, Josie, so sorry, but yes.’

She wanted to cry—she should cry—but the tears would not come, not yet...

How did it happen?’ she managed to ask almost normally, and, shrugging his hand away, she sat up straighter, amazed at her own control.

‘Don’t think about it now, Josie. Are you all right? That’s the important thing,’ he prompted.

‘Yes. Yes, I’m fine, but please, I want to know,’ she demanded, her glance sliding from one man to the other in her agitation. Major Zarcourt was sitting in the hard-backed chair behind his desk, while Conan, her father, and herself were seated in a row on the sofa—like the Three Stooges, she thought wildly, before her eyes were drawn back to Conan’s face, waiting for his answer.

‘I think I should let my father explain. I’m sure he can tell you the correct story much better than I,’ Conan drawled cynically, lounging back against the arm-rest, his long body angled towards her, dark eyes ranging slowly over her small face and down over her slender body perched on the edge of the seat.

Josie felt the colour rise in her cheeks, and for a second she remembered the last time she’d seen Conan. But now was not the time to give way to embarrassment, and deliberately she turned her attention to the Major. Then she listened in mounting horror as he confirmed Charles’s death.

Two days ago, while travelling in a Jeep, Charles had driven over an unmarked landmine. He’d died instantly. The family had been informed at lunchtime, but as Josie had not been at work all afternoon they hadn’t been able to contact her.

A lump lodged in her throat, threatening to choke her. Her lovely eyes glistened with unshed tears as the Major’s voice droned on.

‘It was the way he would have wanted to go. On active service with his regiment. He was a hero.’

She heard the words, but all Josie could think of was poor Charles. All her doubts about him were put aside as the desperate horror of his death hit her. Charles—blond, blue-eyed, handsome Charles—was dead. It was unbelievable. So swamped was she by the enormity of what had happened and all its ramifications, she saw nothing odd in the Major’s next words and answered him without thinking.

‘Tell me, Josie, is it true? Are you carrying Charles’s child? Is it confirmed?’

‘Yes, I was at the clinic this afternoon; that’s why you couldn’t find me,’ she explained, her tears overflowing and slowly running down her soft cheeks.

‘My God! Father, can’t you see the girl is in shock?’ Conan prompted scathingly. ‘Are you really so desperate that you have to question the poor girl at a time like this?’

Poor girl indeed! Conan’s comment was just what she needed to stop herself wallowing in self-pity. She might have just lost her boyfriend, and be pregnant, but no one was going to call her a ‘poor girl’, and certainly not an arrogant devil like Conan.

‘I’m taking her home.’ Conan’s voice penetrated her chaotic thoughts. Raising her head, she saw the derisory glance he flicked at her father before he added, ‘She is your daughter, Mr Jamieson. Instead of sitting there as if the weight of the world rested on your shoulders, you could try looking after her. She sure as hell needs someone to.’

‘No. No.’ Josie finally found her voice and, jumping to her feet, she brushed the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.

She was a small girl, just five feet tall, but perfectly proportioned. Her blue-black hair hung in a profusion of curls down past her shoulders. Her violet eyes were large and outlined with thick sooty lashes, her nose was small and straight, her mouth full-lipped and gently curving. Dressed in a simple blue cashmere sweater, a colour-coordinated short straight skirt that ended some four inches above her knees, and her feet encased in classic navy blue high-heeled pumps, she had no idea how lovely she looked, or how courageous, to the three men whose startled eyes were fixed upon her.

‘You’re in shock, Josie.’ Conan unfolded his impressive length from the sofa, and in one lithe stride was beside her. ‘Let me take you home; your father is in no state to drive.’

Her father might not be, but no way was she letting Conan take her home. She remembered the last time he had driven her to the farmhouse all too clearly. He had made it very obvious he didn’t approve of her relationship with Charles, and she didn’t need his false sympathy.

‘No thank you. I am perfectly capable of driving.’ Turning to look at her father, she added, ‘Come on, Daddy. I’ll drive us home.’

A large hand curved around her upper arm. ‘Don’t be stupid, Josie; you’re in shock. Let me...’

‘Let go of me!’ she cried, and violently she pulled her arm free from Conan’s grasp, staggering slightly as she did so. ‘I don’t need your help.’ Again turning to where her father still sat, she added, ‘Please, Dad. I want to leave.’ The trauma of the last few weeks, the doctor’s confirmation of her pregnancy this afternoon, and the ultimate irony—the death of Charles—were threatening to make her break down completely. She had to get away from Beeches Manor, and more importantly she had to get away from Conan.

Luckily her father, finally sensing her real need to leave, agreed.

How she drove the old Ford car home she would never know. Tears blurred her eyes, but whether they were for herself or Charles she wasn’t completely sure.

Later that night, Josie lay in her small bed, unable to sleep. The events of the past few weeks flickered through the windmills of her mind in a series of brief pictures, ending with the tragic death of Charles Zarcourt. Their engagement was supposed to have been made official this weekend. But Josie knew, if she was honest with herself, that she’d had every intention of cancelling the arrangement. Within days of Charles’s departure, she had realised she didn’t love him. Like thousands of girls before her, she’d been blinded by a romantic ideal and had made a stupid mistake. It was only when she’d begun to suspect she might be pregnant that the full enormity of her mistake had been brought home to her. Even so she’d decided there was no way she was marrying Charles. Her plan had been to explain to Charles in person when he arrived tomorrow—Friday—and hope he would understand. But not any more. He was dead... But from deep in her subconscious a devilish little feeling of relief surfaced. She’d been spared the arguments that refusing to marry Charles would have fuelled. And there would have been arguments, simply because her father and the Major had been friends for years.

Charles and his father lived at the Beeches Manor House not far from the village of Beeches, in the heart of the Cotswolds. After the death of Josie’s mother, her father had moved from London and rented Low Beeches farmhouse from the Major. The old men played chess every Tuesday, and Josie had known Charles for ten years and had harboured a schoolgirl crush on him for almost as long. He was not at home very much, but he’d been back for a month in the summer before being posted overseas. He’d asked Josie out three times in all, and she supposed one could say they’d been courting, but only just. Until the fatal night of his going-away party at the Manor House...

Josie stirred restlessly on the bed and groaned out loud as the memory came back to haunt her. It had been the most humiliating experience of her life.

She’d been sad at the thought of Charles leaving, but hardly broken-hearted. But all that had changed when he’d danced with her, plied her with drinks, and sworn he loved her, wanted to many her, later leading her to his bedroom and finally into his bed.

Afterwards he’d patted her bottom, leapt off the bed, saying, I need a drink,’ and had left the room, muttering, ‘Stay here; I’ll be back in a minute.’

It had been the first time for Josie, and if she hadn’t drunk so much it would never have happened. Making love was nothing like she had expected; in fact she had been horribly disappointed. But worse had been to follow.

Suddenly the bedroom door had opened, the light from the hall illuminating a path across the room. She’d hastily sat up and wrapped the sheet firmly around her, wishing she had dressed and left. She’d glanced towards the door and gasped, her mouth falling open in astonishment.

‘Very nice—a joke of Charles’s no doubt, but I’m not in the mood tonight. Go peddle your wares downstairs, sweetie,’ a cynically mocking voice drawled lazily.

It wasn’t Charles but a total stranger, although the voice had sounded vaguely familiar. But Josie was not about to hang around to find out who it was. She swung her feet to the floor, desperate to hide anywhere away from the dark man standing in the doorway. Then the bedroom light clicked on.

‘You!’ he’d exclaimed. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he demanded furiously. His dark eyes took in the rumpled bedclothes and Josie’s obvious naked state beneath the sheet she had wrapped clumsily around her.

She looked at him and groaned. It was the man from the church fête. That was all she needed—a sophisticated stranger witnessing her downfall. She did not stop to answer him but, frantically scrambling around on the floor for her clothes, picked them up and made to dash for the bathroom.

Her wrist was caught and held, and he pulled her to a stop. ‘Not so fast. I think you owe me an explanation. After all, it isn’t every night a man walks into his room and finds a young girl obviously, well...’ His dark eyes narrowed, his firm mouth twisting in a knowing sneer. ‘I’m sure I don’t have to spell it out for you.’ His contemptuous gaze skimmed her from head to foot, lingering on the soft curves of her breasts and then back to her bright red face.

‘Your room?’ she cried ‘Don’t be ridiculous; this is Charles Zarcourt’s bedroom! Who on earth do you think you are?’ she demanded, her fear giving way to anger. She felt as if she was in a nightmare, and any minute she would wake up. And this very large, very hunky guy was doing nothing for her peace of mind.

‘Charles didn’t tell you. That doesn’t surprise me.’ And, bowing his head slightly, he added, ‘Allow me to introduce myself. Conan Zarcourt, half-brother to Charles, at your service.’ By the cynical gleam in his eye she knew he was relishing her discomfort. ‘And you are?’ One dark brow arched enquiringly, and he waited...

‘Josie—Josie Jamieson.’ Why was she even talking to him? she asked herself a second later. Talk about being caught flagrante delicto, she thought with a grim smile. She had never been so humiliated or felt so small in her life. But she was not about to show it.

‘Well, Josie Jamieson, I am waiting for your explanation—or perhaps I should ask Charles...?’

‘Charles and I are engaged to be married actually; not that it is any concern of yours,’ she said, forcing herself to meet his eyes. ‘It is perfectly normal for engaged couples...’ She trailed off, stunned by the thunderous expression on his darkly handsome face.

‘But why here? Why now? Why in my bed? I want some answers and you are going to give me them,’ he demanded arrogantly.

Was it really his room? She was confused; Charles had said it was his—but she was not going to tell this man that So instead she said, ‘So what if we did use your room! You weren’t using it.’

‘But I am now, little lady, and I know my half-brother never misses a trick where I am concerned,’ he said dryly. ‘But what about this engagement? You can’t seriously be intending to marry Charles. How old are you? Eighteen, nineteen?’

‘Twenty,’ Josie said indignantly. Her height and youthful looks were the bane of her life.

‘My God! Have you any idea how old he is? Almost forty. He could be your father,’ he said scathingly.

‘Charles loves me and we are going to be married. Age doesn’t matter when you’re in love.’ Josie mouthed the clichéd words, not really believing them herself. But, dragging her wrist free from Conan’s grip, she made a dash for the bathroom. Something caught the sheet that was covering her, and she froze for a second stark naked, her eyes fixed on the elegantly dressed man in the three-piece suit. The contrast couldn’t have been more startling. Gulping hard, she ran...

‘Very nice.’ Conan’s deep voice followed her as she continued her headlong flight across the room, and slammed the bathroom door behind her.

Calling herself every kind of fool, she pulled her clothes back on, tidied herself up, all the time wondering why Charles had not introduced her to his half-brother at the church fête. It had never entered her head that they might be related—one so fair and the other so dark. She had thought the dark man looked good but had dismissed him from her mind as a stranger passing through the village.

‘Conan Zarcourt.’ She said the name softly. It suited him. She hoped it also suited him to have done a vanishing act. She could not hide in the bathroom much longer.

Eventually she walked back into the bedroom, praying Conan would have left. But no such luck.

He had changed from the suit he had arrived in, into a white tee shirt that revealed his strong, tanned arms, dusted with soft black hair, and well-worn blue jeans that hung low on his hips. The zip was fastened but the top snap was undone and gaping.

Josie swallowed hard, and bit down the disloyal thought that he looked a whole lot better than Charles.

‘Are you okay?’ he demanded, roughly pushing the shirt into his jeans and snapping the fastener. ‘I’ve seen the bed. Your first time...if that bas—’

‘Well, well, this is cosy,’ a voice smoothly interrupted. ‘I see you have met my half-brother Conan, Josie, sorry I took so long.’ He held a bottle in his hand.

Josie turned at the sound of Charles’s voice and quickly crossed the room to join him at the door. Charles slipped an arm around her waist and pressed a wet kiss on her lips that made her want to wipe her mouth.

‘Well, Charles, I gather congratulations are in order. Josie has just told me of your engagement. When is the wedding to be?’ Conan asked silkily.

‘What did you tell him that for?’ Charles demanded angrily of Josie.

‘Don’t blame the child,’ Conan drawled. ‘I forced it out of her. You know me, Charles, I always find out in the end, and I’m sure you really wanted me to know.’ Fixing Charles with a glacial glance, he added, ‘There’s no need for embarrassment We’re all family, as you are so keen to remind me every quarter, and Father will be delighted. His eldest son finally getting married.’

Josie was struck dumb as Charles agreed... She didn’t understand why he hadn’t simply denied they were engaged. She hadn’t actually believed Charles’s offer of marriage was genuine; she had simply been carried away by the romance of it all—he a soldier off to war, and, more realistically, the drink.

But before anyone could object Conan was leading them downstairs and into the study where he seemed to take a devilish delight in prompting Charles into telling his father that he and Josie were unofficially engaged.

The Major was delighted. Charles appeared equally pleased, and Josie was simply confused. So much so that when Conan insisted on driving her home because Charles was over the limit she made no objection. Her last glimpse of Charles was his blond head bent over a tall, red-headed woman, their arms wrapped around each other. Josie had been introduced to her earlier. She was the wife of Charles’s commanding officer.

Josie sat stiffly in the passenger seat of the car, suddenly stone-cold sober. How on earth had she got herself in such a mess? She shot a fulminating glance at the arrogant male at her side. It was all his fault; if he hadn’t caught her in his bed and goaded her into saying she was engaged to Charles, she could have put the events of tonight down to experience and tried to forget. But she’d no doubt the Major would tell her father, and she was going to have great trouble explaining her behaviour.

‘Your home, I believe,’ Conan said coolly as he halted the car outside the door of Low Beeches farmhouse.

Josie hastily unfastened her seat belt and reached for the door handle. ‘Thank you,’ she mumbled.

‘Wait!’ The command was curt, and, leaning forward, Conan caught her hand in his much larger one and turned her back to face him.

‘What for? I think you’ve done enough for one night.’ She was exhausted, sore and fed up, and when his hand moved to her bare arm she flinched, her skin burning where he’d touched.

‘Not so fast. After all, we are soon to be related; surely I merit a brotherly kiss?’

Before she knew what he intended Conan had slipped an arm around her waist and hauled her across his lap. His other hand tangled in her silky black curls, holding her face up to his. She was trapped, her high round breasts crushed against the massive bulk of his chest, and her violet eyes widened in astonishment as his dark head bent and his lips covered hers.

He tasted slightly of mint, his mouth firm but undemanding. Then suddenly he was kissing her with a deeply sensual passion that lit an answering response in her young body. Josie was too astounded by his audacity to do anything other than submit to the expert demand of his mouth. Her body grew soft and pliant against him, his arm tightened around her for an instant, then suddenly she was back in her seat, but too dazed to do anything but stare up at him.

‘That was just a sample to compare with, Josie,’ And, slipping out of the car, he walked around to the passenger side and helped her out. ‘Don’t be in too much of a hurry to marry. You don’t have to marry the first man you have sex with.’

‘How...?’

‘Never mind, but remember there are plenty more fish in the sea. Take it from me, you have no chance of a happy-ever-after with Charles.’ And he left her standing on the doorstep.

Josie watched him drive off, wishing she had slapped his face or something.

Remembering that night now, Josie sighed heavily. Conan was wrong, she thought wearily as the grey light of dawn glinted through her bedroom window; there were not plenty more fish in the sea, not for her. She was pregnant and destined to be an unmarried mother, and for the first time since discovering the fact she realised she did not mind. The thought of a child of her own to love was somehow comforting, and finally she drifted off to sleep.

Josie yawned and opened her eyes. ‘Daddy,’ she murmured, the word little more than a croak. Her throat felt dry and rough. He was sitting in the chair by her bed.

‘You’re awake, Josephine. How do you feel?’ he asked quietly, his tired eyes fixed sadly on her small pale face.

‘I‘m fine,’ she smiled. Her father was the only person to call her Josephine. Then, like a shutter falling, the smile was wiped from her face, as the memory of yesterday returned to haunt her. ‘What time is it?’ she asked, the mundane question masking her very real distress.

‘About ten-thirty.’

‘Oh, my word! I’m late for work!’ she exclaimed.

‘No. I have already called your office, and told them you were suffering from a severe migraine.’

‘But I never get migraine.’

‘Oh, Josephine! What does it matter?’ Her father sighed and rose from the chair to sit on the side of the bed. He took her hand in his. ‘I am so sorry. I know how hard it must be for you, losing Charles so tragically. I remember how I felt when your mother died. This is all my fault. I feel so guilty. I’ve let you down—and your mother, God rest her soul! If I’d been a better father, given you the guidance and support you needed, this would never have happened.’

Her father’s halting speech made Josie feel worse. She studied his shadowed face in the morning light. Poor Daddy—she had failed him so badly. He’d been so pleased when he’d thought she was going to marry Charles, and she’d not had the nerve to tell him of her own doubt, and now she didn’t need to. But she could see the strain etched into the multitude of lines on his much loved face, and she couldn’t bear the thought of him blaming himself. The tears welled in her eyes. ‘Oh, Daddy,’ she whispered, and one tear rolled down her cheek.

‘Hush, Josephine; don’t cry.’ he soothed, wiping her cheek with a large white handkerchief. ‘We’ll work something out.‘

‘I hope so,’ she murmured. The tears were more for her father than herself; she knew deep down she would manage. But her father was an old-fashioned gentleman, who still considered an unmarried mother a disgrace.

‘Trust me, Josephine. Everything will be fine. Take your time, wash your face, get dressed, and then come downstairs. Conan Zarcourt is here and would like to talk to you—about the funeral arrangements I suppose.’ With a brief, reassuring squeeze of her hand, he left.

Conan! What did he want? He was a decisive, dynamic man, and she could not imagine why he would want to discuss the funeral with her. Just the thought of the man made her hackles rise. But it also gave her the incentive to get out of bed. She washed and quickly dressed in a pair of grey cords and a black skinny-ribbed jumper. It somehow seemed appropriate; Charles had been her unofficial fiancé. even if she had decided not to marry him, her conscience reminded her. She brushed her hair, and with her face free of make-up she slipped her feet into a pair of mules, and went downstairs. Better to face Conan sooner rather than later...