He's My Husband! - Lindsay Armstrong [40]
CHAPTER SIX
THE silence stretched, then Richard stood up and began to gather papers. ‘I’ll get going,’ he said quietly. ‘I chose a bad time.’
‘Not the easiest time, no,’ Brett responded, and the two men looked at each other—a steady grey glance from Richard, that wasn’t exactly challenging but wasn’t any kind of a backdown either, whereas Brett returned it coolly.
Then Richard said to Nicola, ‘It’s Saturday tomorrow. How would it be if I came back on Monday? Things might be calmer.’
‘Yes. Uh—I’ll—if you’d like to leave the plans I can go over them, though. Oh! I haven’t had a chance to show Brett the contract yet.’ She stopped, and wondered why she should sound disjointed and uncomfortable.
‘No matter.’ Richard smiled at her. ‘Monday will do for that too.’
‘I’ll see you out, then,’ Brett said briefly.
‘Don’t bother. I can find my way. Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight,’ she murmured, but Brett merely inclined his head.
‘He wasn’t to know,’ she said to Brett as they heard the front door close.
Brett stirred. ‘No. I—’ But he broke off and swore as the front doorbell rang again. ‘Bloody hell, the place is becoming like a railway station!’
But this caller didn’t bother to wait to be let in, and as they both turned it was Marietta who waltzed into the dining room. ‘Hi,’ she said breezily. ‘Couldn’t wait until tomorrow to see my chickadees, so we flew up today. How are you, Nicky darling?’ And she advanced to plant a kiss on Nicola’s cheek.
It was at that moment that Tara entered the lounge from the opposite direction, saying, ‘Brett...’ and a curious little tableau ensued.
Marietta, dressed in a pink and scarlet outfit which should have clashed with her hair, let alone each colour, but which she carried off with great style and her usual vibrant beauty, blinked as her eyes fell on the other woman.
For almost a full minute they stared at each other, two mature, elegant and very sophisticated women who contrived to make Nicola, still in her khaki shorts and blouse, feel as if she hadn’t left her teens. But as their gazes clashed you could almost see their hackles rising, and you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.
Then Marietta turned to Brett and said with a jerk of her head, ‘Who the hell is this?’
It was Nicola who stepped into the breach. She wasn’t sure where or why she found the composure to do it, but she said gravely, ‘Tara, this is Marietta, Chris and Sasha’s mother. She’s just arrived from overseas. And Marietta, this is Tara Wells. She’s joined Hinton, Harcourt as a litigation specialist and she very kindly brought out a present for Chris because he fell and broke his leg yesterday—but he’s going to be fine,’ she said reassuringly.
Marietta snapped her suspicious gaze from Tara. ‘Broke his leg—oh, why wasn’t I here?’ She looked anguished.
‘That’s exactly what I said; I wasn’t there either. Poor Ellen had to bear the brunt of it—but why don’t you go and see him?’ she said warmly. ‘I can guarantee it’ll make him feel a hundred per cent better.’
Brett spoke for the first time. ‘He is going to be fine; it’s a clean break. Come.’ And they walked out together.
‘Tara, would you like a cup of coffee or a drink?’ Nicola offered. ‘I was just going to have another cup of coffee myself. It’s been one of those days,’ she added humorously.
Tara came out of the reverie that had held her uncharacteristically silent for so long and took her gaze from the door Marietta and Brett had gone through to rest it somewhat bemusedly on Nicola. ‘I...no, thanks. I’m on my way to the gym, actually.’
‘Then I’ll see you out. Thanks again for the flowers and the present.’
‘It...was a pleasure.’
Nicola paused in the hall after Tara had left, listening to the sounds of joyful revelry coming from Chris’s bedroom, then quietly closed herself into her own bedroom.
Some time later Brett knocked on her door.
Thinking it was Marietta, she called to come in, then sat up abruptly on the ruby couch, where she’d been lying in her favourite position in her polka dot pyjamas. ‘It’s you.’
‘Yes,’ he agreed with some irony, and closed