‘James rang us last night to tell us that Lucy was with him, but I thought I’d give you a call this morning to see how you are.’
‘Bewildered,’ Jenna admitted honestly. ‘Did James tell you that she’s decided that he is her father?’
‘Yes. Not that you can blame her,’ Nancy added caustically, ‘with all this nonsense that they’ve been printing in the papers lately. What are you going to do about it?’
Jenna hesitated and then said slowly. ‘James has asked me to marry him, Nancy—oh, it isn’t a romance, don’t think that. He still wants the old Hall and he knows there’s no way I’d part with it. If we married he claims that we’d both gain something from the marriage—for him there’d be the old Hall, and someone to help him share the responsibility of his step-sister, and for me there’d be help with the financial problems I’ve got at the moment, and more important, a father-figure for Lucy. James hasn’t told her yet that he isn’t her father. He says he’s quite prepared to take on the role.’
‘So what’s your problem?’ Nancy asked her drily. ‘You’ve left it too late to tell the lass the truth, Jenna, and you
know it. There’s not many men who would offer to do what James has done.’
‘The advantages aren’t all on my side, Nancy,’ Jenna reminded her, her spirits lowered still further by Nancy’s obvious approval of James’s proposal. ‘James will stand to gain as well.’
‘Aye, I’m not denying that, I’m just saying there’s not many men who would be willing to take on the responsibility of another man’s child, to the extent that he would be doing.’
‘I can see I’m not going to get any sympathy from you,’ Jenna interrupted, adding on a suddenly panicky note, ‘Nancy, it’s such a dangerous step to take—like walking off the top of a high building and praying there’s someone down there to catch you. You know I’ve never wanted to marry. You know——’ She broke off. ‘I know that logically I should agree but——’
‘No buts,’ Nancy told her firmly. ‘Tell him yes!’
She was ready half an hour before James arrived, pacing the floor nervously—not so much at the thought of seeing James but because of coming face to face with Lucy. Would she still be as sulkily cold towards her as she had been over the past few months?
Even though she had been waiting for it, the sound of the bell ringing made her jump.
When she opened the door to James, she felt illogically annoyed that he could look so calm and at ease, when she was torn about by nervous qualms.
‘Ready?’
‘I’ll just get my coat.’
She put it on in the hall and walked towards him, stopping when she saw the way he was regarding her.
‘Very nice,’ he said calmly, his thorough inspection over.
He had judged her as coolly and critically as though she were a piece of bloodstock he was considering buying and it infuriated her, goading her into saying, ‘I’m not your possession yet, James, and I don’t need your approval—for anything.’
He smiled and further infuriated her by saying lightly, ‘Don’t worry. I think Lucy is just as nervous of seeing you as you are of seeing her. I had a long talk with her last night, and she knows quite well that I don’t approve of what she’s done.’
‘And of course because you don’t approve, she’ll be duly chastened,’ Jenna spat at him bitterly.
It was childish to resent him because of what had happened, but she did. She was jealous of the fact that Lucy seemed to have transferred her affections from her to James, and even though she knew she was being ridiculous she couldn’t stop herself from flinging the angry accusation at him.
‘Perhaps.’ Something glinted in his eyes as he stopped her by his car, his hand on her arm. Jenna withdrew immediately, her face tight with rage and misery. ‘At the moment, as far as Lucy’s concerned, I’m a novelty—the realisation of her dreams of finding her father, but I can assure you that won’t last. I predict that by the time we’ve been married six months or so, she’ll be complaining to you that I’m too strict with her.’
‘I haven’t agreed that we will be married yet,’ Jenna reminded him sharply.
‘I hope you’re adult enough not to allow a temporary fit of jealousy to blind you to reason, Jenna,’ was his calm reply. ‘I can’t make you marry me, of course…’
‘No, you can’t,’ Jenna agreed, climbing into the car, and closing the door before he could help her.
She sat in silence while he drove them to his apartment, butterflies storming the pit of her stomach. What if Lucy refused to see her…or speak to her…and what about James’s step-sister? What if she didn’t like her?
‘Lucy is having an extremely beneficial effect upon Sarah,’ James commented as they got into the lift. ‘I actually heard her laughing this morning.’ He grimaced faintly. ‘It hasn’t been easy for her, of course, losing her parents, and then being transported to a country where she knows virtually no one.’
‘She had you.’
‘Mmm. You’re not the only one who has generation-gap problems, you know. I’d only seen Sarah on a few brief occasions before the accident. I was already an adult when she arrived on the scene. My father remarried when I was fifteen, and I left home shortly afterwards.’
He saw her expression. ‘No, I didn’t run away, but it was felt in the family that my father and his new wife would have an easier life without the presence of a teenage boy. I went to live with my grandfather on St Justine.’