Millionaire's Woman

‘But engagements were your speciality. At least you never got married—and divorced—like him.’ Anna looked speculative. ‘There’s no one significant in his life right now, though. According to Lucy Beresford—the fount of all knowledge—the eligible Jack Logan lives all by himself in that showplace of his.’

‘Amazing. When I saw that article about it in the Sunday magazine I took it for granted Dawn lived there with him.’

‘They must have split up before he developed the property.’ Anna downed her tea at the sound of footsteps upstairs ‘Stand by your beds! Ben’s on the move at last.’

‘I’ll just wait to say hello and goodbye, then I’m off home,’ said Kate, and smiled. ‘Home. That sounds so good, Anna.’

‘You owned the flat in Notting Hill.’

‘True, but I never thought of it as anything but a temporary arrangement, somehow. But, thanks to darling Aunt Edith, I now have a home worthy of th

e name. And, most important of all,Jo loves it as much as I do.’

When Kate reached Park Crescent she stayed in the car for a moment, gazing in satisfaction at her inheritance. The house was a small gem of early Victorian architecture with white walls, bay windows and a dark blue door with a fanlight and stone pediment. Mine, all mine, gloated Kate as she locked her car and went inside. She scooped up the Sunday paper on the way to the room her aunt had always referred to as the parlour, and smiled, pleased, as she examined her handiwork. The wall she’d painted the day before was the exact shade she’d been aiming for now it was dry—somewhere between cream and muted pink—or Coral Porcelain as it said on the tin. A perfect background for the white-painted 1857 fire grate.

Interior decorating was new in Kate’s life. Jo had helped choose furniture and pore over paint cards, Ben had given invaluable advice; Anna had been forthcoming, as usual, with her own opinions and Kate had been grateful to all of them. But the end result, she thought with satisfaction, was mostly her own.

She read a few pages of the Sunday paper over breakfast in the kitchen she’d had refitted before she moved in, then, rather lacking in enthusiasm after her sleepless night, went upstairs to change into jeans and sweatshirt ready for her daily session with a paintbrush. She checked her emails and then paused, as she always did, to look at the view of the lake. She jerked the curtain aside as she spotted a man running through the rain with long, ground-eating strides, a black dog loping beside him as they skirted the lake. Jack! Kate watched as he slowed down to a walk, the dog, a retriever, she noted enviously, padding obediently beside him. She dodged back in anticipation, sure Jack was making for Park Crescent. And felt like a complete fool when he unlocked a mud-splashed Cherokee Jeep near the park gate, loaded the wet dog inside and drove off. She was too busy for visitors anyway, she told herself irritably, and ran downstairs to open a tin of paint.

When Elizabeth and Robert Sutton moved to London Kate had lived with them at first. But after Joanna was born she eventually left the Sutton household to share a flat with Anna Travers. The two girls were kindred spirits from the moment Kate answered Anna’s advertisement for a flatmate, and lived together in complete accord right up to the day Anna married Ben and then moved away, at which point Kate gave in to her current boyfriend’s urging. Her feelings for David Houston were nothing like the passion she’d felt for Jack Logan, but Jack was long since married and she was long since over him, so she accepted David’s proposal and moved in with him. But eventually their relationship wound down to an amicable end, and Kate exchanged the brick walls and leather and chrome of David’s hip Thames-side loft for a small fla to of her own at last in Notting Hill.

At that stage Kate’s life was as close to ideal as she could make it. She moved swiftly up the ladder in her job, enjoyed a lively social life, spent her Sundays in her sister’s household and remained on friendly terms with David. This well-ordered phase of her life went on until she met Rupert Chance, heir to a chain of supermarkets. He singled her out at a party and instantly began a relentless pursuit she was human enough to find flattering. He soon began persuading her to share his house in Chelsea, but Kateheld back. She was attracted to the persuasive Rupert but caution prompted her to wait before burning her boats. Byronic good looks coupled with effortless charm had always won Rupert Chance anything he wanted the moment he wanted it, and he objected strongly when Kate insisted on keeping to her own flat. When they were married, he informed her,things would change.

Drastic changes came before that, in a way neither of them could have foreseen. Edith Durant, elder sister of Kate’s father, died at the age of ninety-one, and in her will left money to her niece Elizabeth and her house and contents to her younger niece, Katherine. Elizabeth and Robert Sutton celebrated their windfall with a luxury holiday during Joanna’s autumn term, but died together when their hired car swerved off a mountain road during a storm.

Kate broke then ewsto Jo. She drove down to the school, held the child in her arms while she cried her heart out, and in her capacity as official guardian arranged for Joanna to take time off after the funeral. When the service was over Kate took Jo to stay overnight with Robert’s elderly, grief-stricken parents,then on to Anna and Ben to recuperate. Their support was a great comfort while the child struggled to come to terms with her loss, and during their week’s stay Kate took Joanna to see the house in Park Crescent. The child fell in love with it and, after much discussion, the decision was made to move from London. Instead of selling Aunt Edith’s house they would live in it together,in the town where Joanna’s mother and aunt had grown up.

The Notting Hill flat had been expensive to buy but with the improvements Kate had made over the years proved profitable to sell. The proceeds were enough to renovate and furnish the house in Park Crescent, and leave enough over for a respectable nest egg to cushion Kate’s altered lifestyle. Joanna’s education had been provided for since her birth, and her inheritance from her parents, along with the proceeds from the sale of their house, was carefully invested to provide for the future. Kate was determined to make life as happy and secure for the child as humanly possible.

Kate finished a tin of paint with a feeling of satisfaction for a job well done and called it a day. She soaked in scented hot water later with a heartfelt sigh of pleasure. Another wall had been painted and she’d taken it in her stride when Jack Logan drove off instead of calling in to see her. Her shrug rippled the water. No point in getting uptight. Casual sightings could be a fact of life from now on. She could run into Jack anywhere and any time. It was not a problem.

Anna rang later while Kate was getting dressed. ‘Hi. How’s it going?’

Kate reported on her painting progress, but Anna brushed that aside.

‘How are you, really?’

‘A bit tired, but I’ve had a long, lazy bath—’

‘I meant after meeting the old flame!’

‘Fine. Why shouldn’t I be?’

‘Not even a little bit singed round the edges?’

‘Not in the slightest.’

‘Thank goodness,’ said Anna, relieved. ‘Sleep well.’

Kate dried her hair, left it loose on her shoulders and took some coffee upstairs to the study at present doubling as both workplace and sitting room until her decorating was finished. She drew the curtains, switched on lamps and, with a sigh of satisfaction, curled up in the armchair to read the rest of the Sunday papers before supper. She frowned in surprise when the doorbell rang shortly afterwards. She got up to peer down from the window and saw a long, sleek car parked at the kerb and an all too familiar male figure standing under her exterior light. She went downstairs, fixed a polite smile on her face and opened the door to Jack Logan.

Her visitor loomed tall on her doorstep, looking very different from the night before in a battered leather windbreaker and jeans. He smiled, raking a hand through hair ruffled by the wind blowing along the street from the lake. ‘Hello, Kate. I took a chance on finding you at home. May I come in?’

‘Of course.’ She led him along the hall to the kitchen and pulled out one of the kitchen chairs. ‘Nowhere else to receive visitors yet, I’m afraid. Would you like coffee, or a drink?’

‘Coffee would be good. Thank you.’ Jack leaned against the counter, his eyes on the fall of burnished hair as he watched Kate get to work. ‘I went for a run in the park with the dog this morning, intending to call on you afterwards, but Bran and I were so wet I decided against it.’

This information won him a warmer smile. ‘Have you had the dog long?’