For some reason she could not stop shaking; she could feel James’s body absorbing the frantic tremors of hers. His hand was stroking her hair, and he was talking to her, but she was totally unaware of what was being said. Lucy had gone to James. She was still trying to assimilate it.
‘I must go to her.’
‘No.’ He said it gently but firmly. ‘You’re both too overwrought at the moment. Let her stay with me tonight. She’ll be perfectly safe.’
‘Why are you doing this to me?’ Jenna cried out despairingly, suddenly hating him. ‘Wasn’t it enough that you’ve ruined my business to get the old Hall? Did you have to do this too?’
She felt him tense and then he was turning her face up so that he could look down at her. She could see the anger glittering in his eyes and flinched from it.
‘Do you honestly think that’s true? Any of it?’ he demanded bitingly. ‘I don’t know what all this about your business is, but I can assure you if it’s ruined, then it’s not because of anything I’ve done. And where Lucy’s concerned…’ His mouth compressed. ‘Come and sit down.’
He led her over to the sofa and pushed her down on to it gently.
‘It seems she’s got some bee in her bonnet about my being her father. Don’t ask me why, something to do with all this nonsense in the papers, probably. She came to see me to ask me if I was. That was why she came to see me.’
Jenna stared at him. ‘Lucy thinks you’re her father?’ She couldn’t take it in. Later she would be relieved and grateful that her niece was safe, but now she was so battered by shock and fear herself that she could barely function.
‘That’s what I said,’ James agreed with fine irony. ‘Look it’s no business of mine, but wouldn’t it be better to tell her the truth?’
Jenna went white. ‘I can’t,’ she told him wildly. ‘You don’t understand…’ To her horror she started to cry again. She tried to stop, and found she could not.
‘Hush…it’s all right,’ James murmured, his arms enfolding her again. ‘It’s only reaction and shock…it will soon pass…’
‘I’ve got to ring Norma Goodman, and the police and Nancy…’ Jenna muttered hectically. ‘I—’
‘I’ll do that in a minute.’
It was wrong to let him take control like this, but how heavenly it was to have the burdens shifted off her shoulders even if it was only momentarily.
Even now she could not believe that Lucy had actually thought James was her father, and her heart ached for her niece.
‘I have a proposition to put to you,’ James told her quietly. ‘Maybe now isn’t the time…’
She pulled away from him, searching for a tissue to dry her face. God, she must look dreadful, eyes all blotchy, hair untidy…
‘If it’s another offer to buy the Hall, then the answer’s no,’ she told him tautly.
‘Not exactly.’ His voice was carefully neutral. ‘What I actually had in mind was that you and I get married.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘MARRIED!’ Jenna stared disbelievingly at him, and then said bitterly, ‘Just what sort of a joke is this?’
‘No joke,’ James assured her coolly. ‘I’ve been giving the matter a good deal of thought lately. You weren’t far off the mark when you said I needed a wife. A London apartment is no place for Sarah at the moment; she needs the type of care and attention that being part of a family unit can provide.’
‘And for your step-sister’s sake you’re proposing to me?’ Jenna thought she must be hearing things.
‘Not entirely.’ He looked at her thoughtfully and then said, ‘I take it you never intend to tell Lucy the identity of her father?’
Jenna shook her head. ‘I can’t…and I can’t tell you either.’
He shrugged powerful shoulders. ‘Well, frankly it’s none of my business, but it has occurred to me that since Lucy is so desperately in need of a father-figure to relate to and since she seems to have already cast me in that role, it would do no harm to allow her to continue to think so.’
What he was suggesting was ridiculous. Jenna frowned. ‘Haven’t you told her you’re not her father?’
‘Not in so many words,’ he admitted. And then added wryly, betraying an odd hint of vulnerability, ‘Would you like to tell an emotional adolescent who’s just cast herself on your chest crying “Daddy!” that she’s got the wrong man? I’m not suggesting that we allow her to believe I’m her father for ever, but certainly until she’s over this present emotional trauma. I believe that given a secure family background for a few years, she’ll find it easier to accept the truth than she would now.’
From Lucy’s point of view what he was saying made good sense, but from her own…She swallowed hard.