Читать книгу To Make A Marriage - Кэрол Мортимер, Carole Mortimer - Страница 8

AUDREY gave a wistful smile. ‘It’s simply time for me to move on, Andie,’ she lightly answered the latter’s enquiry.

Andie hadn’t meant to come to the estate at all this weekend, had felt she was going to need time on her own after her enforced leave of absence from the magazine had started yesterday. But annoyed as she might have felt at Adam’s remarks earlier in the week, they had struck a chord, and she had decided she had to come down after all and talk to Audrey.

She had arrived at the estate the previous evening, but this was the first opportunity she had had to talk to Audrey on her own, Rome a glowering presence at the dinner table the evening before, but luckily out on estate business this morning.

Audrey looked as beautiful and composed as she usually did, the blue of her tailored dress a match for the colour of her eyes, her blonde hair loose about her shoulders. But there was also a sadness in those blue eyes Andie had never seen there before…

‘But move on where?’ she questioned now as the two women enjoyed a mid-morning cup of coffee together in the sun-lounge.

Audrey gave a laugh. ‘I haven’t exactly thought that far ahead yet,’ she admitted.

Andie’s eyes widened at the admission. ‘You haven’t…?’ she said slowly. ‘But I assumed—I thought you must have found yourself a better job?’ She frowned her confusion.

Was it her imagination, or did Audrey’s gaze suddenly become slightly evasive. And if so, why had it?

Could Adam be right, after all—damn him!—and there was more to Audrey’s decision to leave than was at first apparent?

Audrey shrugged. ‘I’m actually thinking of not getting another job for a while. I have quite a bit of money saved—after all, what do I have to spend it on?—and so, I thought I might travel, see some of the world.’

Andie didn’t feel in the least reassured by this answer. ‘But you travel with Daddy all the time…’

The other woman sighed. ‘Travelling with Rome is nothing more than a series of business meetings. Most of the time I have no idea which country I’m in at any particular moment; boardrooms look the same the world over!’

This explanation sounded feasible enough, Andie decided. After all, Audrey was only in her early forties, still young enough to want to do some of the things that she might have dreamed of in her youth. And yet…

Adam had put these doubts into her mind, Andie realised irritably. After all, it was Audrey’s life, and she must be allowed the freedom to do with it what she wanted. The same freedom Andie had recently insisted on in her own life…

‘You never know,’ Audrey added with a smile, ‘I might just meet someone and have children of my own. I’m not too old yet, you know.’

‘You most certainly aren’t,’ Adam remarked firmly as he strolled unannounced into the sun-lounge. ‘And whoever he is, he’ll be a lucky man!’ he added warmly.

Andie had known Adam would be here this weekend—he had made that more than obvious on Monday!—but, nevertheless, she was rather nonplussed at having him walk in on her conversation with Audrey in this way.

It was also a little disconcerting to hear him talking to Audrey in this slightly flirtatious way, especially as she was still processing Audrey’s remark through her own thoughts!

She was ashamed to admit she had never thought of Audrey in that particular way before, had always assumed the older woman was happy with her life and career. Or maybe Adam was right, and they had all just selfishly taken Audrey’s presence here for granted all these years…!

But Audrey was quite right, too; at only forty-two, there was still time for her to have a family and home of her own.

From the warmly appreciative way Adam was looking at Audrey now, he was more than aware of the other woman’s attraction. And why shouldn’t he be? There were only just over two years’ difference in their ages…

‘Thank you for that kind remark, Adam,’ Audrey told him warmly as she stood up to kiss him on the cheek.

‘I’m not being kind, Audrey.’ He looked down at her intensely. ‘I’m stating a fact.’

‘I thank you, anyway.’ Audrey smiled up at him as she squeezed his arm. ‘I’ll just go and get another cup and you can join us for a coffee,’ she said before disappearing out of the room.

The silence that followed her departure was stilted to say the least, Andie decided as she glanced across at Adam beneath long lashes.

He was dressed casually today, in a black silk shirt teamed with fitted black denims, having thrown his silver-grey jacket into one of the wicker chairs as he’d entered the sun-lounge a few minutes ago. He was looking tall and lithe, his slightly overlong silver-blonde hair brushing the collar of his shirt, a slender gold watch nestling in the golden hair of his right wrist.

Adam looked exactly what he was, Andie realised: a highly successful businessman, and a very eligible bachelor!

His expression was guarded as he looked across at her. ‘You decided to come down, after all,’ he murmured distantly.

He was still angry, Andie realised. But by what right? Okay, so they had all been a bit unthinking where Audrey’s resignation was concerned, but Adam had no idea of the circumstances of the last few weeks—and he would remain in ignorance as far as she was concerned! He had no right to judge what he didn’t understand. Besides, she still stuck by her position that it wasn’t for any of them to stand in the way of what Audrey had decided she wanted to do.

‘Yes, as you can see,’ she replied, sitting forward in her seat as she prepared to stand up. ‘You’ll have to excuse me, I’m afraid; I was just about to go over to the hothouse to check on Mummy’s roses.’

Adam gave her a derisive glance. ‘I’m sure they can continue to grow for the next ten minutes or so without your checking on them! Long enough for you to sit with me while I drink my coffee, at least.’

She drew in a sharp breath at his undoubted mockery. She and Adam seemed to have been at odds with each other just recently—and she couldn’t say it was something she was very comfortable with.

‘I’m sure they can,’ she acknowledged softly as she remained seated. She was feeling slightly vulnerable since her leave-taking of the magazine yesterday, and certainly didn’t feel up to another confrontation with Adam. ‘Did you know that it was Jonas presenting Danie with a bunch of yellow roses, just like the ones Mummy loved to grow, that confirmed for Danie that she was in love with him?’ she continued conversationally.

‘No.’ Adam smiled as he stretched his long length in the chair opposite hers. ‘Although that sounds like the unpredictable Danie we all know and love,’ he went on affectionately. ‘How do you feel about having a doctor in the family?’

Her aversion to anyone in the medical profession, since going into hospital at the age of five to have her tonsils out, had become a family joke. And as Adam had been almost part of that family for the last twenty years…

She retained her casual demeanour. ‘He could come in useful, I suppose,’ she answered flippantly.

Adam chuckled. ‘I’m sure Jonas would be pleased to hear it!’

‘He’s an obstetrician, did you know?’ Andie said.

‘I think Rome did mention it.’ Adam nodded. ‘I wonder how on earth Danie ever met him?’ he asked thoughtfully.

Andie knew exactly how her impulsively madcap sister had met the gorgeous Jonas Noble. But that was something else that wasn’t for public knowledge. And in this particular case, Adam was definitely part of the public…

‘Rome is out on the estate somewhere,’ she very firmly changed the subject. ‘But he shouldn’t be too much longer.’

‘I’m not complaining,’ Adam drawled, smiling warmly as Audrey returned with the promised cup and saucer.

‘What man would complain about having coffee with two beautiful women?’

‘One beautiful woman, I’m afraid,’ Audrey announced.

‘The post has just arrived, so I’ll have to leave the two of you for a while,’ she told them regretfully.

‘Shall I pour, or would you like to be Mother?’ Adam invited sardonically, once he and Andie were alone once more.

Andie gave him a sharp glance, her hands clenched tightly on the arms of her chair as she felt her cheeks lose all their colour, breathing shallowly in her shock.

Did Adam know? Had her father, despite her request for privacy, confided her condition to this man, his best friend?

Because she was going to be ‘Mother’—in six months, she was going to have a baby!

The realisation of her pregnancy nine weeks ago had come as a tremendous shock to her, one that she hadn’t taken to too readily initially. After all, without the baby’s father in her life, it was something that she would have to go through alone.

But four weeks ago there had been the scare that she could lose the baby, and from feeling in the depths of despair, not knowing quite what to do, she had suddenly realised how much she really wanted her child. So much so that she wasn’t willing to do anything that might jeopardise the pregnancy going full-term. Which was why, on Jonas’s advice, she had taken a nine-month leave of absence from her high-powered, time-demanding job…

Her family knew of her pregnancy, of course, as did Audrey, but they had all been sworn to secrecy. Had her father now broken that promise and confided in Adam…?

Andie looked at him searchingly, seeing only lighthearted enquiry in his expression as he didn’t wait for her answer but poured the two cups of coffee himself, and started sipping the strong, milky brew unconcernedly.

No, he didn’t know, Andie realised with a thankful sigh. There would be plenty of time for that later, once her pregnancy began to show.

Strangely, she had lost weight at the beginning of her term, but Jonas had assured her that was only because of the worry and strain she had initially put herself under, because of her uncertainties, and that eventually she would start to put that weight back on. If the tightness of her clothing about her waist was anything to go by, that was starting to happen now!

But not enough, she was relieved to realise, for Adam to be in the least suspicious that his sardonic remark was actually fact! She was glad about that; Adam was the very last person she wanted to know about her pregnancy.

Because although she knew Adam had always been in love with her mother, Andie—for her sins!—had always loved Adam. Oh, she had always known it was a pointless love, that her feelings would never be returned, but she couldn’t help that, she loved Adam anyway. So his pity—or even worse, his scorn!—concerning her pregnancy, were not things she felt able to cope with on top of everything else…

Adam sipped the coffee without tasting it, his thoughts broodingly introspective. He had been pleased on his arrival to see Andie had come down this weekend after all—damn it, he was more than pleased! But it had become glaringly obvious during the last few minutes that the strain which he had sensed between them on Monday was still there. In fact, it was worse!

Hell!

He drew in a ragged breath. ‘How is Rome this weekend?’ His coffee finished, he relaxed back in his chair.

Andie grimaced. ‘About the same.’

Considering Audrey—from the little Adam had heard of the two women’s conversation when he’d arrived—was still intent on leaving, he wasn’t in the least surprised by Andie’s reply.

He shook his head. ‘I suppose I’ll have to have a chat with him,’ he said reluctantly; ordinarily Rome was the most genial of men, but not when it came to interference in his personal life. And whether Rome realised it or not, Audrey was very much in his personal life!

Andie gave a rueful smile. ‘He’s extremely volatile at the moment, so make sure you have your body armour on first! I only asked him to pass me the pepper at dinner last night, and he almost bit my head off,’ she explained with a pained grimace.

Adam groaned. ‘Maybe I should come and look at the roses with you before tackling Rome.’ He thought of the confrontation he would no doubt have with the older man once he had said what he felt needed to be said on the subject of Audrey’s resignation. ‘Isn’t there some sort of saying about stopping along the way to smell the roses…?’ he wondered.

Andie laughed as she stood in one fluid movement. ‘I think that applies to people who need to relax more—not someone who wants to avoid someone else!’

Adam looked up at her appreciatively. Her golden-coloured hair was loose today, falling silkily down her back, framing the loveliness of her face, a face dominated by those beautiful green eyes, her skin having attained a light golden tan from the summer months.

Yet as he continued to look at her he realised there was something different about her…

But as he stood up to accompany her out to the hothouse at the back of the house, where Barbara had spent so much of her time tending her beloved roses, he couldn’t quite decide what it was.

The heady perfume of the beautiful blooms assailed them as they entered the heated greenhouse, bringing back vivid memories to Adam of the woman who had first grown and tended them. Barbara had been such a lovely woman, inside as well as out, and her death ten years ago, from cancer, had been yet another blow in Adam’s life. He—

Now he knew what was different about Andie! Like her mother before her, Andie always looked perfect, her make-up in place, no matter what the time of day, her clothes always beautifully tailored. Andie’s make-up was still perfect, but for once she wasn’t wearing any of her designer label clothes. Instead, she had on a loose green shirt over fitted denims, the former so big it looked as if it could be one of Rome’s cast-offs!

Not that Andie didn’t look as gorgeous as always; in fact, the casual clothing gave her a more approachable appearance, Adam decided thoughtfully. He was just surprised at the change in her, that was all…

She paused in the act of dead-heading roses, turning as she seemed to sense his gaze on her, a slight blush colouring her cheeks as she looked at him—warily, it almost seemed to him…? Had their friendship really come to that?

Probably, he acknowledged with a regretful sigh for the easy camaraderie they had once shared. But what had he expected? Nothing stayed the same. The fact that Harrie and Danie were now both married was testament to that.

‘I was just thinking how much like your mother you are.’ He spoke quietly, knowing, with this newfound strain between them, that Andie would not welcome any comment he might make concerning her personal appearance.

Andie’s expression changed from guarded to noncommittal. ‘She would have approved of Harrie and Danie’s choice of husbands,’ she commented huskily.

Yes, she probably would. Barbara, like Rome, had adored all of her daughters, wanted only the best for them. From the little he had seen of Quinn and Jonas, he had a feeling Barbara would not have been disappointed.

But what about Andie—would Barbara have approved of her lifestyle…? Andie was a career woman, had been the senior editor of Gloss for three years now, and showed no signs of wanting to change that for a husband and family of her own.

Yes, Barbara would have approved, he decided; Barbara would approve of anything that made her daughters happy.

Besides, Harrie and Danie still had their respective careers, as well as their husbands!

‘I’m—’

‘So here you are, Adam,’ Rome’s rasped comment as he entered the greenhouse interrupted what Adam had been about to say. ‘Audrey said you were around somewhere.’

Adam briefly studied the older man, and he did not like what he saw. Rome’s boyish good looks—blonde-haired, blue-eyed—were still the same, but there was a look of strain about those eyes and his mouth, a hardness to the latter that boded ill for anyone who got in his way.

‘And, as usual, she was right,’ Adam returned lightly.

‘How on earth are you going to manage without her, Rome?’

Rome glared at him through narrowed lids. ‘No one is indispensable, Adam,’ he responded coldly.

Adam raised blond brows. ‘No employee, possibly,’ he returned acidly. ‘But I always thought of Audrey as being more than that,’ he added challengingly, aware that Andie was listening to the verbal exchange with a pained expression.

But it had taken only one look at Rome’s face, at the hard implacability of his expression, to realise that the friendly chat he had intended having with his longtime friend was out of the question; Rome looked as approachable as a wounded bull-elephant!

Rome gave a dismissive shrug of broad shoulders. ‘Obviously Audrey had decided differently,’ he rasped harshly. ‘And, as I have learnt to my cost recently, there is absolutely no point in trying to stand in the way of a woman who has made up her own mind what she intends doing with her own life!’

The remark, Adam knew, could have been directed at Harrie and Danie as much as at Audrey, and their determination to marry the men of their choice with as little delay as possible. However, Adam sensed, rather than actually saw, Andie’s reaction to her father’s remark, could feel the tension emanating from her as she paused in her care of the roses.

Leading Adam to wonder about the decision concerning what she intended doing with her own life Andie could possibly have made recently for her to assume Rome’s remark was actually directed at her…?

Seeing no immediate answer to his question in either Andie or Rome’s faces, he turned his attention back to Audrey; he would try and talk to Andie later on in the weekend. Try—because that hadn’t been too easy to do just recently!

‘And what does Audrey intend doing with her life?’ he prompted the other man.

‘I have no idea,’ Rome answered scathingly. ‘I suggest you ask her that yourself.’

‘Meaning that you haven’t bothered?’ Adam countered, his expression deliberately innocent as the other man scowled at him.

‘Meaning that Audrey has made it more than plain that it’s none of my damned business!’ Rome snapped.

‘Hmm,’ Adam murmured thoughtfully.

‘What, exactly, does that mean?’ Rome challenged hardly.

“‘Hmm”?’ Adam repeated, realising he was provoking the other man but knowing he had no choice if he was to get anywhere in this conversation at all. ‘I’ve always thought of it as a pretty noncommittal remark, myself.’

‘Then why make it?’ Rome grated disgustedly. ‘You—’

‘Daddy,’ Andie interrupted softly. ‘Aren’t you being just a little—aggressive to your guest?’ she said, once she had Rome’s full attention.

Rome looked far from pleased at the obvious rebuke. Adam couldn’t say he was exactly overjoyed by it himself; since when had he been relegated to being Rome’s guest…?

But he already knew the answer to that, he acknowledged heavily. He and Andie, although still polite to each other—overly so, Adam felt!—were no longer friends, that easy camaraderie they had once shared no longer there. He knew the reason for that all too well, and regretted it more than he could say! More than he had ever regretted anything else in his life!

‘I can take a little aggression,’ Adam assured Andie lightly; in fact, he would relish it. His relationship with all of the Summer family had changed over recent months, necessarily so with Harrie and Danie, now that they were both married. But he had a feeling that if he were to speak as plainly to Rome as he wished to concerning Audrey, then he might jeopardise his friendship with the older man to such a degree that it would be irretrievable. Which meant his visits here would be a thing of the past…

Did he really want that?

Of course he didn’t! His friendship with the Summer family had been his anchor for more years than he cared to think about!

But he couldn’t just stand by and watch Rome make the biggest mistake of his life, either. He, perhaps more than most people, knew what it was like to love a woman who was completely out of your reach. As Audrey would be to Rome if he should let her leave…

‘Let’s walk back to the house,’ he suggested to Rome as he walked over to join the other man in the doorway.

‘There are a few things I need to discuss with you anyway.’

‘And I thought you just came down to visit with all of us,’ Andie put in with hard derision. ‘How silly of me!’

Adam glanced back at her, sighing heavily at the sparks in her eyes as they easily held his.

His own friendship with Andie, it seemed, was already irretrievable…