He's My Husband! - Lindsay Armstrong [58]
‘I know. I started it,’ she said hollowly. ‘But, well, I did start it.’ She gazed at him, willing him to understand why.
He smiled, but with not much amusement. ‘Prompted by Tara.’
She sat down again slowly. ‘Let me get this straight. For two years you never gave me one sign of how you felt so you could keep a promise to my father—Brett, that’s...that’s... How did you do it?’
‘As a matter of fact, it took more self-control than I thought I was capable of, but there are ways. You just don’t allow yourself to dwell on it. You work like the devil and—’ he shrugged ‘—I’ve had other less than easy periods in my life. This was one more.’
Nicola was silent, and she was suddenly assailed by the memory that Brett had four younger brothers and sisters, now scattered around the country, all successful, all having fulfilled their mother’s wish before she had died—that they get university degrees—and all given an enormous amount of support by Brett. She remembered what a bitter blow it had been to Brett that their mother shouldn’t have been able to live to see all their success.
A man of steel, she thought, toughened and hardened by adversity, and a man who honoured his promises—yes, perhaps it was possible that he’d endured two years of living in the same house with her and loving her, but...
She frowned as an element of doubt plagued her, and something else pricked her consciousness before finding expression—this didn’t have the authentic ring of a happy outcome.
‘Well...’ She hesitated. ‘That may be, but now you’re going to tell me you’re going back to Marietta, aren’t you? For Chris and Sasha’s sake? Are you trying to let me down lightly, Brett?’
He sat up abruptly. ‘No. Nicola—’
‘But she wants it. You told me so yourself. And don’t think I couldn’t work it out, with some help from Ellen—’ She stopped, and could have bitten her tongue.
He said incredulously, ‘Help from Ellen?’
Nicola sighed. ‘She...it was the only time she ever discussed it with me. Normally she’s the soul of discretion—’
‘So why did she change—and when was this?’
‘Just before Marietta got home—when Chris broke his leg. She—’ Nicola moved uncomfortably ‘—she’s never forgiven Marietta for deserting them, and she was...annoyed enough about her coming home to “steal the limelight”, as she put it, to dredge up a conversation between you that she’d overheard—or more like a row.’ She shrugged.
‘Which one was that?’ he asked wearily.
Nicola stared at him. ‘Over whose career was the more important, when she said...if you’d only give her five years, she’d be anything you wanted her to be,’ she said bleakly.
‘That was—’
‘Brett, no.’ Nicola sat forward intently. ‘Don’t you see how it all fits in? It suited her to have you married to me. It took care of the kids, took care of me—and it kept you out of other women’s clutches. Why do you think she took such an instantaneous dislike to Tara? Tell me I’m wrong, Brett.’
‘You’re not wrong. But that was never my plan, Nicola.’
‘What about her plans?’ she whispered. ‘You just said I wasn’t wrong. And Ellen thought that Marietta never believed you would do it—divorce her. On top of that, I’m quite sure she only brought Ralph home to make you jealous. She wouldn’t let him sleep with her.’
He raised a wry eyebrow and was silent for a moment. Then he said, ‘Perhaps. And for what it’s worth, Nicola, she was spurred on by you yourself. She couldn’t believe you could be so complacent about Tara, for one thing—’
‘Complacent!’ Nicola echoed incredulously.
‘She did only see you together once—that night—the only time she saw Tara, for that matter, but she marvelled at how composed you were. And for another thing you seemed so determined to throw us together and get rid of the toy boy. She knows you well, and she said to me, “You haven’t done it, have you, Brett? I’ll bet she’s still as pure as she was the day you married her.”’
Nicola swallowed.
‘But the thing was, she’d completely miscalculated the reason why I hadn’t done it. Nicola, I