He's My Husband! - Lindsay Armstrong [39]
She advanced with a wide smile. ‘These are for you, Nicola—’ she handed over the flowers ‘—as a thank-you for dinner. This—’ she held up the briefcase ‘—is for Brett. When I found out he’d rung in and asked for some briefs to be delivered here I thought I might as well bring them since it would give me the opportunity to discuss them with him at the same time, as well as to bring this.’ She held the present aloft. ‘It’s for Chris, poor kid. How is he?’
‘He’s...he’ll be fine. That’s very kind of you,’ Nicola said somewhat dazedly beneath this onslaught.
‘Well, don’t you two disturb yourselves; I’ll go and find them. My...’ she ran her eyes over the drawings and plans ‘...you do have a project going together, don’t you?’ she said with an oddly meaningful twinkle, and waltzed off.
Nicola clenched her teeth. ‘I don’t believe it!’
‘A bit of a metamorphosis,’ Richard commented.
‘Not only that—anyone would think she owned the place. How can Brett be so blind?’
The little silence that followed her words caused her to flinch, then resolutely look at Richard. ‘Sorry, but—’ She stopped and rubbed her brow. ‘Is it my imagination that she gives off unmistakable vibes to the effect that she’s—interested in him?‘
‘No,’ Richard said slowly, ‘I must say I found myself wondering that the other night. She seemed to be rather subtly—well, putting herself on the same plane with him, and putting you on a lower one.’
‘Thank heavens!’ Nicola said fervently, and added as his eyes widened, ‘I mean, I was beginning to wonder whether I was going mad. But what I can’t understand is why she should imagine there’s any—any hope for her. We’ve only just met.’
Something flickered in Richard’s eyes and he looked away.
‘You know something I don’t?’ Nicola said slowly.
He grimaced.
‘Well, I know you know...what Sasha said, but is there more?’ she asked.
‘Nicola, I hate gossip, and—’
‘No, please tell me,’ she persisted.
He twined his fingers, then untwined them. ‘It may be more common knowledge than you realise—oh, hell.’
He looked genuinely disturbed, then went on, ‘What happened was this. If you recall, Kim was a bit stirred up the other night. And she kept on at Rod about it on the way home—did they think it was wise to have such a man-eating woman on the loose in the profession?—the kind of silly thing Kim is prone to say at times, even if she is my mother’s cousin. And Rod—whether in his own defence or not, I don’t know—said that if anyone should be worrying about it, it was not her but you.’
Nicola swallowed. ‘Go on.’
‘Of course Kim leapt on this,’ he said with distaste. ‘And although Rod couldn’t be persuaded to say any more, she—she took to musing aloud, and said that it would make sense of the rumours she’d heard even before Sasha spilt the beans.’
‘That this marriage was...not what it seemed?’ Nicola’s voice sounded strange to her own ears.
‘I’m sorry,’ Richard murmured. ‘But it would explain why Tara is—if she’s heard the rumours, too...’ He gestured. ‘That’s assuming—’ He broke off abruptly.
Nicola stared at him. ‘Assuming Brett hasn’t instigated it?’
‘It...only crossed my mind,’ he said awkwardly. ‘But I wouldn’t imagine he’d—well, publicly embarrass you, Nicola.’
‘No,’ Nicola said slowly. ‘No...’
Richard sat forward. ‘Can I tell you something?’
She looked at him blankly. ‘There’s more?’
‘No. Not that I know of. This—is different.’ He paused, moving his shoulders restlessly, and Nicola was suddenly gripped by a presentiment of what was to come. She swallowed, and cast around desperately for something to say. But her tongue seemed to want to cling to the roof of her mouth.
Richard finally went on, ‘The thing is, I fell in love with you the moment I laid eyes on you, standing on the garden path, and if there’s anything I can do, please let me.’
Nicola’s mouth fell open, then she jumped at a sound and turned to see Brett standing in the doorway.