A Contract for His Runaway Bride

The older woman’s cheeks developed a dull flush along her cheekbones. ‘I tried to tell Lincoln I’d found it on the hall table, but he was so hungover after the wedding day and so angry...he wouldn’t have your name mentioned. I was shocked when I saw it there. I didn’t think you’d return it.’

‘Because you had me pegged as a gold-digger?’

Morag’s blush deepened. ‘I know I should have tried to tell him a bit later, but I thought it best not to.’

‘Why?’

‘I thought if I told him you’d returned it he might consider asking you to come back to him.’

‘But you didn’t want him to do that, did you?’

Morag pressed her lips together and let go of the handle of the wooden spoon. ‘I didn’t think you loved him the way he deserved to be loved.’ She swallowed again and met Elodie’s gaze with an imploring one. ‘Please don’t tell him what I did. I can’t lose this job. It’s the only thing I have that brings me pleasure, a sense of purpose, a sense of being needed... I can’t tell you how much he means to me. My own children don’t speak to me now, because their father poisoned them against me. Lincoln is like a son to me. I know that sounds ridiculous, and sentimental, but I watched him grow up. Me and Rosemary, his adoptive mother, were at school together. He’s the only connection I have with her now. I don’t know his brother and sister the way I know him. I’ve known him all his life and I can’t bear for him to think badly of me.’

Elodie jumped down from the stool and raked a hand through her hair. ‘I’m sorry you’ve had such awful stuff happen to you. No woman deserves to be treated like that. And to lose contact with your children...well, that’s heart-wrenching. But you’re asking a lot of me to say nothing to Lincoln about this.’

‘I know, and I won’t really blame you if you choose to tell him. I haven’t exactly been very welcoming to you.’

Elodie gave a long-winded sigh. ‘I’m not going to tell him. Besides, he probably wouldn’t believe me if I did.’

There was a pulsing silence.

‘You do love him, don’t you?’ Morag’s expression was tortured with lines of guilt. ‘You’ve always loved him...’ Her words trailed off in an agony of realisation.

Elodie stretched her lips into a humourless smile. ‘More fool me. He doesn’t love me back.’

‘I know how that feels...loving someone who doesn’t love you the way you love them. You live in hope, wasting years of your life, and for what? To be rejected, cast aside. But you have a second chance with Lincoln. He’s married you, after all, and—’

‘Our marriage is a sham. We’re only together to please his dying biological mother—Nina. But I think you already suspected that.’

‘But you’re sleeping together?’

Elodie gave her a worldly look. ‘It’s what you might call a marriage of convenience with benefits.’

Morag opened and closed her mouth, seemingly speechless for a moment. ‘I wish I could undo the past. If I had my time over I would tell Lincoln about the ring whether he wanted to listen or not.’ Tears shone in her eyes and she continued in a harrowed tone, ‘I know it’s too much to ask you to forgive me...’

Elodie walked around to Morag’s side of the bench and wrapped her arms around her in a hug. ‘It’s in the past...let’s leave it there.’

How could she insist on the older woman revealing her role in the disappearing engagement ring? As much as she wanted Lincoln to know the truth, another part of her understood the motivation behind Morag’s seven-year silence. After all, Elodie had her own secret—she loved Lincoln and always had.

And there was no point revealing it now.

***

Lincoln came home a couple of days later and immediately noticed a different atmosphere in the house. His housekeeper and Elodie seemed to have resolved their differences, for he found them cooking together in the kitchen. Elodie had a streak of flour on one cheek and her hands were busily kneading what looked like pizza dough. Morag was tearing leaves of fresh basil off a plant near the sink, and chatting to Elodie about a trip to Italy she had taken some years ago.

‘Oh, hi, Lincoln.’

Elodie looked up with a smile that was so welcoming and bright something in his chest pinged.

‘How was your Dublin trip?’

‘Fine.’ He stepped further into the room. ‘Looks like you two are busy.’

‘Elodie’s teaching me how to make pizza from scratch,’ Morag said. ‘I’ve only ever used shop-bought bases. This is so much better.’

‘Smells good so far.’ Lincoln dropped a kiss to Elodie’s lips, then dusted the flour off her face. ‘How’s the studio going?’

‘Great,’ Elodie said. ‘I’ve employed two assistants and they’re helping me organise things for my first show. It’ll take a few months to get ready, but I’m hoping to have a collection together for spring next year.’

‘I’ll take over now, if you like,’ Morag said. ‘You two go and have a pre-dinner drink in the sitting room and I’ll let you know when dinner’s ready.’

‘Thanks, Morag, you’re a gem,’ Lincoln said.

A minute or two later, Lincoln handed Elodie a glass of champagne in the sitting room. ‘Here you go.’

‘Lovely, thanks.’ She smiled and took a sip, and then screwed up her nose and frowned.

‘Is something wrong?’