For Better for Worse

‘It’s people, not places that make us happy, Nell,’ Jade told her quietly.

‘We’ve got to do something,’ Eleanor told her unhappily. ‘I haven’t said anything to Marcus yet—he’s so busy at the moment on this new case—but this constant moving in and out of his room to make way for Vanessa is upsetting Tom. Julia has announced that she’ll be working in America throughout the summer and that we’ll have to have Vanessa.

‘It isn’t easy just coping for a weekend, never mind the whole summer holidays. Vanessa is at a very difficult age.’

‘So let Marcus deal with her. She’s his daughter.’

‘And my stepdaughter. I can’t go running to Marcus every time there’s a squabble and I can’t refuse to have her. Marcus is her father.’

‘You know your trouble, Nell—you try too hard. You’re too accommodating… too willing to please others at your own expense. Let me give you a small warning. Don’t. Especially not with Vanessa. It won’t do you or her any good. She won’t respect you for it. Once you let her think she’s gained the upper hand, she’ll use it on you.’

‘She’s at a vulnerab

le age. She needs to know that Marcus loves her… that there’s a place for her with us.’

‘She also needs to know that you’re Marcus’s wife,’ Jade told her drily. ‘Don’t be too idealistic, Nell. It doesn’t work. Let her know there’s a place for her by all means, but make sure she knows what that place is, what its limitations are… and make sure that she doesn’t make a takeover bid for your place.’

She saw Eleanor’s face and raised her eyebrows.

‘I’ll bet you anything you like that Vanessa could have gone to America with her mother, if she’d wanted. Now ask yourself why she doesn’t want to…’

‘But she’s never lived permanently with Marcus… not since the divorce. I haven’t tried to come between her and her father at all.’

Jade shook her head pityingly. ‘You don’t know anything really, do you, you poor naïve thing? Vanessa means trouble, Nell.’

‘But you’ve only met her a couple of times.’

‘Yes, and recognised the type instantly. I should do. I was once a Vanessa myself. I almost drove my stepmother to the brink of a breakdown before she and my father divorced. It’s a problem some teenage girls have. She’ll grow out of it, but your marriage to Marcus might not,’ Jade warned.

‘Jade, you’re wrong! Vanessa might not like me but she would never be deliberately vindictive.’

‘No? Honestly, Nell, you…’

She stopped speaking abruptly, her body tensing, a barely discernible tinge of colour creeping up under her skin.

Fascinated, Eleanor followed the direction of her concentrated stare. A man had just entered the restaurant and was making his way towards their table. He was, Eleanor reflected in awe, possibly the most physically perfect male she had ever seen: closer to six feet six than six feet, he had the body to match his height, and yet for all its power he also had a physical grace reminiscent of that of a dancer.

Every woman in the place was watching him and no wonder, Eleanor acknowledged.

She had seen good-looking black men before, but never one like this. His features could have been sculpted, so perfect that you actually wanted to reach out and touch his skin just to see if it was real rather than hewn from polished marble.

Unlike most very tall and powerfully built men, he wore his clothes easily and comfortably, a softly structured suit that looked casually thrown on, but which Eleanor suspected was every bit as expensive as Jade’s own.

He had reached them now and Jade was starting to introduce him.

No wonder she had said that this was the one, Eleanor reflected as she read the intelligence in his eyes. This was no fawning puppy; this was one full-grown, wholly adult male, and while it might be possible to guess from Jade’s demeanour that they were lovers, there was nothing to be gauged from his manner as to what his feelings for her might be.

Whatever they were, Sam was a whole world away from Jade’s previous lovers, Eleanor estimated as they all exchanged pleasantries and she thanked Jade for her lunch and prepared to take her leave.

‘I’ll ring you,’ Jade promised as Eleanor got up.

They hugged one another briefly and then Eleanor turned to leave.

It was only when she was back in her office that Eleanor remembered that she hadn’t shown Jade the details of the house.

Jade would surely have changed her mind had she seen them.

Almost like a child seeking comfort and reassurance in a favourite fairy-story, Eleanor reached into her briefcase, withdrew the brochure, and placed it on the desk in front of her.