Читать книгу A Bride For His Convenience - Lindsay Armstrong, Lindsay Armstrong - Страница 6

FLYING into Cairns on a clear day was like floating into a wonderland.

Caiti Galloway watched, mesmerised, from her window seat as the jet descended over the Coral Sea. Brilliant turquoise and sandy patches studded the deep blue surface of the water where coral reefs rose from the depths like delicately tinted birds’ eggs.

Although it was the gateway to her hometown of Port Douglas, it never failed to fascinate her.

Then they crossed the coastline and the flat patchwork of sugar-cane fields spread beneath them, flanked by darker green mountains that encroached on the city.

But as the wheels of the aeroplane touched down, she closed her eyes. Flying into Cairns might be magical but it was also a region that held many memories for her. Memories of falling in love with a man who wanted her but didn’t love her.

She opened her eyes as the jet roared into reverse and started to slow down, and the woman sitting beside her smiled at her in relief.

There was the usual wait as they taxied to the terminal, the usual awkward scrambling for bags from the overhead lockers, but finally the passengers were released into the tropical humidity of far-north Queensland.

Being May, it wasn’t as humid as it could be in mid-summer, when it was like walking into a warm blanket of air. Caiti had started her journey in much cooler Canberra and now she felt overdressed in jeans and a long-sleeved blouse.

Once in the terminal, she followed the signs to the baggage carousel and at the same time looked about for her cousin, Marion, who was coming to meet her. Marion was the kind of person who always favoured being early rather than late.

Indeed, her cousin was the reason Caiti was back in Cairns. Marion was getting married in a fortnight and Caiti was to be her chief bridesmaid.

There was no sign of her cousin yet and Caiti frowned as she turned her attention to the carousel. Preoccupied with her task, Caiti was unaware of the tall man who, in the act of walking past, had stopped abruptly and was studying her intently.

Rob Leicester would always stand out in a crowd for his height alone but it didn’t stop there. He was dark-haired, broad-shouldered and tanned. Wearing jeans and a khaki shirt, he looked all tough man. If you looked closer, however, and many women did, there was a latent sensuality about him that set them wondering.

Did it come from those slightly moody hazel eyes? A rather hard mouth? His lean, strong hands?

The two girls in their late teens he’d stopped beside were eyeing him with definite awe—as if precisely these thoughts were running through their minds.

Not that he even noticed them as he watched Caiti Galloway retrieve her luggage.

She hadn’t changed. Still the same long, blue-black hair that had always reminded him of rough silk and fish-plaited today. The same smooth, golden skin—his fingers tingled as if he were touching her body. Still slender and essentially chic even in jeans, a plain white blouse and hiking boots.

How did she do it? he found himself wondering. Was it the little touches like the way her collar was turned up? Or the unusual leather belt that emphasised her narrow waist? She could even turn hiking boots into a fashion statement.

She pulled a bag off the carousel and turned fully towards him. Rob found himself holding his breath, wondering at what he would see in her long-lashed lavender-blue eyes when she recognised him.

It took a few moments as people moved about then the space between them cleared and she was looking straight at him, and, heaven help him, he thought grimly, her reaction couldn’t have been more satisfactory.

Her eyes widened incredulously, she went paper pale then a rush of colour charged into her cheeks. She dropped her bag and her breasts, which he happened to have an intimate knowledge of, heaved beneath the white cotton of her blouse.

So, eighteen months apart hasn’t lessened the impact I always used to have on you, Ms Galloway, was his immediate reaction as he moved forward smoothly and retrieved her bag.

‘Caiti,’ he murmured, ‘this is a surprise. Have you decided to come back to me?’

Caiti swallowed several times and put her hand to her heart. ‘R-Rob,’ she stammered. ‘What are you doing here? I was expecting my cousin, Marion…’ She ran out of words and the flood of colour left her cheeks so that she was unnaturally pale again.

‘You need a drink.’ He took her elbow and began to steer her towards the bar.

‘No… I mean…’ she started to protest.

He said quietly, ‘Don’t be silly. You look as if you might faint.’

He found them a table in a secluded corner behind a potted palm and settled her in a chair then walked over the colourful carpet to the bar to order.

Caiti watched him with a hand to her throat and the utmost turmoil in her heart. Eighteen long months ago she’d run away from Rob Leicester because she’d fallen deeply in love with him, only to discover that she’d completely misread his feelings for her. It had been an agonising realisation and had plunged her into despair and desolation.

How could she have allowed herself to be swept off her feet so completely by this man? she’d asked herself repeatedly. Why was it only in hindsight that she could identify all the little signs along the way that had pointed to a man who wanted her but had no intention of allowing himself to fall in love with her?

By the greatest effort of will she’d pulled herself out of the chasm and put it all behind her. She’d even accepted Marion’s invitation to come back to Cairns to be her bridesmaid, but now, as she stared across at Rob Leicester, her stunned reaction told her that she’d put nothing behind her.

All she’d done was paper over it in the most flimsy way because one glimpse of him had sent her reeling.

He turned towards their table with two glasses but someone tapped him on the arm, a man in his fifties. Rob put the glasses back on the bar to shake his hand and greet him. They chatted for a few moments and the other man said something to make Rob laugh—and Caiti caught her breath.

There were times when you couldn’t doubt Rob Leicester was a tough, complicated man. There were other times, if you knew him well enough or thought you did, when he had a laid-back side to him that had enchanted her. Seeing him laugh, even only briefly, brought that side of him back to her in the most treacherous manner.

Her pulses started to hammer as her memories of him making love to her came flooding back in the most disturbing and intimate way. A tide of heat ran through her and the barren months were swept away as if he were actually kissing and caressing her body and she was writhing beneath the sweet torment of it.

He put two glasses of brandy on the table and pulled out his chair.

‘W-who was that?’ she asked disjointedly, anything to cover her disarray.

‘A friend of my father’s. Here,’ he pushed a glass towards her, ‘you certainly look as if you could do with it.’

She sipped some brandy gratefully, and coughed—it was neat, and made her eyes water but it helped.

‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I guess it was a bit of a shock, running into you like that.’ She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

He sat back and studied her. ‘I would have thought this part of the world would be a place to avoid if you didn’t want to run into me, Caiti.’

‘I’m only here for Marion’s wedding.’ She paused and thought back swiftly. ‘I don’t know if I told you about my cousin, Marion? She was overseas with her boyfriend on an extended working holiday when we…when we—’

‘You mentioned her in passing, that’s all.’

‘Oh. Well.’ She flicked him a brief glance. ‘We used to be very close—she actually came to live with us when her parents died—but she’s been overseas for ages. Now they’re back, she and Derek, and they’re getting married in a fortnight. I’m going to be a bridesmaid.’

‘I know.’

Caiti blinked. ‘What? I mean, how could you—?’

‘I know you’re going to be her bridesmaid.’

‘How on earth…?’ She broke off and stared at him.

His lips twisted. ‘I, for my sins, am the best man.’

‘You…know…Derek Handy?’ Her eyes were huge. ‘You know my cousin Marion?’

‘I have yet to meet Marion but I was at boarding-school with Derek for years.’

Caiti reached for her glass and took a solid sip of brandy. It went down like firewater again but this time it paralysed her vocal cords and she could only open and shut her mouth several times.

Rob Leicester looked amused. ‘You don’t feel I make good best-man material?’

‘No,’ she got out at last. ‘Well, I have no idea.’

‘Or,’ he gazed at her narrowly and continued softly but lethally, ‘you’re wondering how the hell this could have happened to you?’

Caiti breathed raggedly and could only be honest. ‘Yes.’

As he watched her, Rob Leicester was presented with a vivid mental picture of the last time he’d had her in his arms. Even in the short space of their relationship he’d discovered that you never knew quite what to expect from her, but one thing had never changed. Her slim, golden body, and all that gorgeous black hair. But it was her stunning lavender eyes, whether they were laughing at him or dreamy and content, that had tantalised him almost unbearably.

‘So you didn’t come back to Cairns to look me up at the same time?’ he suggested with an undertone of harshness.

‘Rob,’ she gestured, ‘perhaps, but only after the wedding.’

‘How thoughtful of you,’ he drawled.

She closed her eyes then her lashes flew up. ‘You said—for your sins, you were Derek’s best man. What did you mean?’

He shrugged. ‘As it happens, I don’t particularly see myself as good best-man material and I would have found some way of dodging it if it hadn’t been for Derek mentioning who the chief bridesmaid was—you.’

If only Marion had told me, she thought anguishedly. If only I’d thought to ask who the best man was! But how would that have helped? I could never have refused to be Marion’s bridesmaid…

‘As a matter of interest, where have you been over the last eighteen months, Caiti?’ he queried. ‘I spent a small fortune trying to find you, even going so far as to make enquiries in New Caledonia.’

Caiti flinched. Her French mother came from New Caledonia and, not long before she’d met Rob, her parents had separated unexpectedly, her mother returning to her home country. She’d been deeply disturbed by their separation; she adored both her parents. It had often occurred to her that because of it, she’d been much more vulnerable to being swept off her feet by Rob…

‘Uh—my mother reverted to her maiden name,’ she said, and avoided the rest of the question. ‘How is your brother, Steve?’

‘He’s fine now but it was a long convalescence.’

‘So…so you’re back at Camp Ondine?’

He nodded. ‘I’ve just flown in from Cooktown.’

‘Rob—’

‘Caiti,’ he interrupted, ‘let’s not beat about the bush or indulge in any further mindless pleasantries.’ The look he tossed her was laced with pitiless irony. ‘You married me then ran away two days later. Shouldn’t we be discussing that?’

She put a hand to her mouth. ‘You know why.’

‘I—’ But he broke off as a call came over the loudspeaker system for Miss Caitlin Galloway to proceed to the information desk.

‘That must be a message from Marion,’ Caiti said. ‘She must have been held up.’

He got up. ‘I’ll go.’

Two minutes later he was back and he handed her a slip of paper. On it was printed the news that Marion had been involved in a minor traffic accident—she was not hurt, but couldn’t leave the scene until the police arrived; and would Caiti please take a taxi from the airport to Marion’s home…the key was in the same place.

‘Look,’ she let the paper flutter to the table, ‘Marion has no idea, I haven’t seen her in two years…’ She broke off abruptly, then, ‘Does Derek know?’

‘No,’ he said slowly. ‘I thought I’d await your wisdom on the subject.’

Her throat worked. ‘I can’t just spring it on Marion,’ she said urgently. ‘She’ll be horrified.’

‘Possibly,’ he agreed sardonically.

‘You should have dodged it,’ she accused.

He linked his long, strong fingers. ‘That’s a matter of opinion.’

‘No,’ Caiti denied, ‘it’s not! Anyone could see that it has to cast a shadow over their wedding. Not only that but you’re not related to Derek as I am to Marion and you just said you don’t see yourself as—’

‘By the same token,’ he broke in impatiently, ‘anyone could see there is unfinished business between us, Caiti, so—’

‘There needn’t be,’ she said intensely. ‘You could have instituted divorce proceedings through my solicitor, as I wrote and told you just after I left.’

‘Your solicitor,’ he repeated drily. ‘Did you honestly think I would be happy only to communicate with you through your solicitor?’

She swallowed. ‘Be that as it may, I don’t know what to think now.’ She put her hands delicately to her temples.

Rob Leicester watched her closely again. If the truth were known, her Gallic gestures, passed on by her French mother no doubt, had always fascinated him. She used her hands a lot. And he’d always been able to tell when she was disturbed, not only from her hands but also by the way a pulse disturbed the deliciously smooth skin at the base of her slender throat. It was beating rapidly now…

‘The sooner you break the news to Marion the better.’

‘That’s easy for you to say,’ she objected. ‘She’ll probably be hurt that I didn’t write to her about it. It was something I just couldn’t put in a letter—she may even have decided to come haring home!’

‘But you intended to confide in her at this reunion, I imagine?’ He studied her critically. ‘Or have you decided simply to block it all out of your mind?’

‘Of course not!’

Their gazes clashed and his was sardonic as he murmured, ‘One could be forgiven for wondering about that.’

She swallowed. ‘I—’

‘Then the sooner also,’ he overrode her, ‘you acknowledge that things aren’t finished between us, Caiti Leicester,’ he said deliberately, ‘the better.’

‘Things?’ she echoed huskily.

He sat back, his hazel gaze terribly mocking. ‘Would you have got such a shock to see me again if I meant nothing to you now?’

She bit her lip. ‘How long are you in Cairns for?’

‘A few days, I’m here on business as well. I believe that in a couple of days’ time we’re having a get-together; the bridal couple, bridesmaids, best man, Derek’s mother, sister and her boyfriend.’

Caiti closed her eyes then her lashes flew up as he laughed softly.

‘If you could see your horrified expression,’ he said.

‘R-Rob,’ her voice shook, ‘would you have just sprung yourself on me at this get-together if we hadn’t bumped into each other today?’ she queried.

He considered. ‘If necessary, although I doubt you would have gone on in ignorance for that long. I’m actually taking things one day at a time. There was no way of knowing when the chief bridesmaid would discover who the best man was.’

‘That’s diabolical!’

His eyes narrowed and he watched her intently. ‘Is it, Caiti? Any more diabolical, would you say, than the way you left Camp Ondine two days after we got married?’

Her lips parted.

He stood up. ‘Think about it. In the meantime I’ll give you a lift to Marion’s.’

Caiti hesitated then stood up too. ‘Thank you.’

The drive from the airport to Marion’s house was mercifully short. All the same, it was ten tense minutes until he nosed the powerful Range Rover into her cousin’s driveway.

He’d said nothing on the way. She’d stared out of the window and observed that little had changed since she’d last been in Cairns. Still the same lush, tropical foliage and flowers, and still the same bird calls that were so evocative of the region.

Then he pulled up and turned to her. ‘You wouldn’t be so silly as to do another bunk, would you, Caiti?’

She took an angry breath as their gazes clashed. ‘There was no silliness involved the first time,’ she said tautly.

‘But you agree it was a bunk?’ he countered with lazy insolence.

‘I agree that I was misled,’ she said precisely, ‘and I found it impossible to carry on in the circumstances. However, no, I won’t be doing a bunk, Rob, until we’ve sorted things out because we obviously can’t go on like this.’ She opened her door and slipped out of the car. ‘Don’t worry, I can manage my bag.’

But he got out and retrieved it for her. ‘Until the party, then, but I’ll give you this should you need to get in touch in the meantime.’ He fished a business card out of his pocket and handed it to her.

She didn’t even glance at it. ‘I won’t.’

‘You’re very proud, Caiti,’ he said softly. ‘Takes me right back to when we first met—remember?’ He waited for a moment as her eyes changed beneath a flood of memories, then he swung himself back into the vehicle, and drove off.

Caiti had just let herself into the house when Marion arrived home with a large dent in her car’s front fender.

The cousins fell into each other’s arms.

Marion Galloway was short and generously curved with curly brown hair and she had a warm, open nature. At twenty-five, she was two years older than Caiti and an audiologist by profession. Despite losing her parents as a teenager, she had her life well organised and her long relationship with Derek Handy had always run smoothly.

‘I’ve missed you so much!’ she said to Caiti as they hugged exuberantly.

‘Me too,’ Caiti responded. ‘How was it? Did you have a marvellous time? I want to hear all about it!’ she warned.

‘Let’s have a cup of tea. Phew!’ Marion wiped her brow. ‘What an afternoon!’

A few minutes later they were sitting over a cup of tea on the pleasant, creeper-shaded veranda, and Marion was reminiscing about her trip.

‘But it’s so wonderful to be home,’ she said at last. ‘It’s been six weeks but it’s still wonderful. I’m only sorry we couldn’t have got together earlier.’

‘Better this way,’ Caiti said. ‘I’ve got a whole month off.’

‘Tell me about it! Sounds great, working for the French Embassy in Canberra. Lucky you to have had a French mother.’ But Marion sobered rapidly. ‘Is there any hope of a reconciliation between your parents?’

Caiti and Marion’s father’s were brothers.

Caiti heaved a sigh. ‘No. I can’t quite believe it happened, you know. She’s got this new man in her life I don’t like at all. Dad is roaming around South America—he’s in Patagonia at the moment—and I’m sure he’s bereft. They were married for twenty-five years when they split up.’

Marion shook her head in dismay. They discussed Caiti’s job as an interpreter for a while, and the pleasures of living in the nation’s capital.

‘It’s a long way from Cairns,’ Marion said humorously, ‘but what made you give up teaching?’

Caiti hesitated because this was heading into difficult territory. How to tell Marion that in very short order her parents had split up while Marion was overseas, and teaching French to mostly bored high-school students had been no balm to her troubled, suddenly lonely soul?

How then to explain that she’d tossed in teaching and taken up tour-guiding, which had virtually led her into Rob Leicester’s arms?

‘Uh—got bored with it, I guess,’ she said ruefully.

‘To be honest,’ Marion said slowly, ‘I never thought you were cut out for teaching languages. You’re too artistic.’

Caiti relaxed slightly. ‘Well, I’ve been able to indulge that side of me, if it is there, over the past year in Canberra. I’ve done a course in French literature at the National University as well as a music-appreciation course. But listen, I want to know all about the wedding plans!’

Marion blew out her cheeks. ‘It’s been a bit of a rush, to be honest.’

‘I—I wondered about that. Two months isn’t a lot of time to organise a wedding.’

‘Tell me about it!’ Marion looked heavenwards. ‘But I just knew, as Derek and I were coming home, that now was the time to do it.’

Caiti studied her cousin and frowned inwardly as she wondered why Marion’s words had raised a curious little echo in her mind—now or never?

And it struck her that Marion and Derek Handy had been together for at least four years, so could Marion be getting a little desperate to tie the knot…?

But Marion continued blithely, ‘I think I have it all under control, though. Mind you, it’s been a battle. Derek’s mother has very decided ideas and since I have no mother of my own she seems to have set herself up as my mother by proxy. There have been a couple of tense times.’

Caiti blinked. ‘Such as?’

‘She’s pink-fixated for one thing. She wanted pink smoke, pink doves, pink bridesmaid’s dresses and choirboy angels with pink wings.’

Caiti started to laugh helplessly. ‘I don’t believe it!’

‘Wait until you meet her,’ Marion advised. ‘However, you and Eloise—she’s Derek’s sister and the other bridesmaid—will be walking down the aisle in midnight-blue rather than the particularly foul baby-pink she had in mind—all gratitude duly accepted!’

‘Thank you so much, Marion! Baby-pink makes me look as if I have jaundice.’

Marion grinned. ‘As for the rest of it, it’s all fallen into place rather nicely, and Derek is particularly thrilled because the person he most wanted for his best man is available.’

Caiti froze.

It went unnoticed as Marion poured more tea. She added, as she spooned sugar into her cup, ‘It was so lucky really, considering what short notice it was and the fact that Rob Leicester moves about quite a lot. Have you heard of Leicester Camps, Caiti?’

‘Yes…’ Caiti said slowly, and it came out as if she were searching her mind for an elusive name when, in fact, she was searching for a way to break the news to Marion that she had actually married the founder of Leicester Camps then run away from him.

‘They’ve developed a few eco-resorts in remote spots that have really taken off,’ Marion supplied. ‘Well, Rob has. The family owns a grazing empire on Cape York but Rob—he’s the younger son—decided to diversify. The first one he opened was Camp Ondine, north of the Daintree. Apparently it’s a magical rainforest and reef experience. Another biscuit?’ She offered the plate to Caiti.

Caiti shook her head numbly.

‘Anyway, Derek and Rob were at boarding-school together and their friendship carried on from there. I’m not quite sure why but Derek’s always admired Rob Leicester tremendously and to find that he was back at Camp Ondine, and available, was perfect.’

Marion paused and a faint frown knitted her brow. ‘In fact, I sometimes think,’ she reflected, ‘it’s the one wedding detail that has Derek’s unqualified approval.’

‘What do you mean?’ Caiti queried with a frown of her own.

Marion shook her head and laughed. ‘Nothing. Well, it hasn’t been an easy time for poor Derek with his mother and I at loggerheads occasionally. He is her only son and she lost her husband not that long ago. I don’t know—I just get the feeling that he’s really relying on Rob to get him through it all. I haven’t met him myself so I hope he’s right. Incidentally, we’re having a get-together in a couple of days so we’ll all meet the famous Rob Leicester then!’

‘Marion—’

But Marion beat her to the draw. ‘Honey, you look a bit tired,’ she said with concern. ‘You’ve been flying all day and here I am rattling on about Derek’s best man! Why don’t you have a nice long soak in the tub while I get dinner ready?’