Unexpected Blessings

  ‘Oh.’ She gaped at him, total surprise flickering on her face. ‘That’s strange. Why on earth would they do that?’

  ‘Local-boy-made-good syndrome, that’s what Gideon calls it. From what I understand, the police have wiped the slate clean and the hospital has done the same thing. Therefore the incident never happened. Also, Gideon’s quite certain that Dusty’s not bringing charges against the woman.’

  ‘India does say it was an accident.’

  ‘I suppose it was. And in a way, Linny, that’s what I was getting at a moment ago. Is India swimming in dangerous waters because of Melinda Caldwell? This woman is apparently totally obsessed with Dusty, which probably means she’s slightly bonkers. How do we know she won’t pester him on a continuous basis, stalk him, make life hell for him, and for India as well? And there’s another thing: how serious is their relationship?’

  ‘It’s serious as far as India’s concerned, that I do know. She’s very much in love with him. Actually, she’d like to make it permanent. But he’s not so keen about marriage.’

  ‘What chap in his right mind would turn his nose up at India?’ he exclaimed, sounding slightly irate.

  ‘Dusty Rhodes, the poor boy from the back streets of Leeds.’

  ‘But why?’ Julian shook his head, his expression a mixture of puzzlement and disbelief.

  ‘Why?’ Linnet repeated, and she couldn’t prevent a small smirk from settling on her mouth. ‘Because she is India, because of who she is. He doesn’t like her family, which is all of us as well as her parents, whom he’s never met. And not any of us, either. He’s against the Hartes because we’re too posh and well-to-do, apparently, and even more against her parents Anthony and Sally because Anthony has a title. It’s a kind of reverse snobbery, I suppose. For instance, he won’t call his butler the butler, but instead insists on referring to him as the house-manager, if you can believe that one.’

  ‘Oh, I can all right, I’ve met chaps like Dusty. But I suppose he’ll come round when he’s met us. We’re not so bad.’

  ‘I think you’re wonderful, Julian Kallinski, husband-to-be, light of my life. Since we finally decided to get married on December the first I put the invitations into work earlier this week, by the way.’

  Julian beamed. ‘That’s great.’ He touched her face lightly with one hand. ‘That’ll please my grandfather.’

  ‘It’ll please mine, too.’ She cocked her head on one side and said, ‘The last ten days have been sort of…hellish, wouldn’t you say? What with one thing and another, I sometimes think this family’s cursed.’

  ‘That’s a silly thing to say!’ Julian exclaimed, quickly looking at her. ‘The Hartes are a big family and more things happen in a big family than they do in a small family…so it just seems overwhelming at times. But the Hartes are not cursed, neither are the O’Neills or the Kallinskis…’ He shook his head. ‘Very simply, life can be catastrophic at times–’

  ‘For some families more than others, though,’ she cut in. ‘Currently there are two divorces pending, and one is going to be supremely unpleasant. There’s been an abduction, failed, of course. But nonetheless it’s put the fear of God in Tessa, changed her life to a certain extent. India’s been involved in a stabbing, and let’s face it, she could have been hurt–’

  ‘That’s what I was getting at when I mentioned dangerous waters,’ he interrupted.

  ‘I know that. And this Melinda Caldwell is a problem for Dusty. He’s going to have to solve that one, Jules, because India won’t put up with any nonsense. Which means her future with him is even more dubious than I thought.’

  ‘I agree with you. Back to Tessa for a moment…do you think she means it when she says she wants to spend more time with Adele? And that her career must come second?’

  ‘I’m not sure, but, well, yes, I suppose I do believe she means it…at the moment. It’s hard to really know with Tessa, because she can change her mind so easily. But I believe she is afraid of Mark Longden, or rather, what he might pull next. Her solicitors met with his during the week, and there’s now some sort of financial negotiation going on. But it doesn’t make her feel any easier, from what she said to Mummy on the phone the other day.’

  ‘Does your mother know you and I finally set the date for the wedding?’

  Linnet smiled at him. ‘Yes, and she’s happy we’ve settled the matter. But to be honest, I’m wondering if we shouldn’t have planned it for earlier, maybe for November.’

  Julian nodded, understanding what she meant immediately; they had known each other since they were toddlers, had been involved with each other all of their lives. ‘Because Grandfather’s old, and not up to par,’ he murmured, pulling her into his arms, stroking her hair. ‘That’s what you’re getting at, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes,’ she murmured against his chest. ‘And mine’s getting on in years, too. Mind you, Grandfather Bryan’s not showing his age.’

  ‘Not at all, and it’ll be fine, Linnet. The grandfathers are not going to die on us before we’re married.’ He chuckled. ‘You know they’ve always wanted us to tie the knot, because Emma loved the idea of the three clans being united in marriage. They’re going to will themselves to stay alive until after the event.’

  Linnet laughed with him. ‘That’s what Mummy said.’

  ‘When is she coming back from New York?’

  ‘The first week of September, as planned. Dad’s going to the Bahamas for a few days, and flying back from there. Emily and Winston will be returning to London with Mums.’

  ‘What did she say about the reception?’

  ‘She wants to have it at Pennistone Royal, she’s never changed her mind about that, nor will she.’

  ‘I’m glad.’

  Julian held her closer, his arms tightly wound around her and they lay together like this for a while. It was Linnet who broke the silence when she said, ‘Two good things happened in the past week to counteract the bad. You and I finally set the date, and Evan and Gideon became engaged.’

  ‘That’s right! He’s going to meet her parents on Sunday, make it official, then he plans to phone Emily and Winston in New York to tell them.’

  ‘They’ll be so happy, they love Evan.’ There was a pause, and then Linnet said softly, ‘I’d like us to have a baby straight away, Julian. I don’t want us to wait to start a family. Is that all right with you?’

  ‘Of course it is. I think it’s best to have babies when we’re young.’

  ‘Especially women who work. A baby and a job are easier to handle when you’re in your twenties.’

  ‘Oh, you can handle anything, darling,’ Julian pronounced in a confident voice. ‘After all, Gideon has anointed you…you’re a stormy petrel who can walk on water.’

  There was a hint of laughter in her voice when she answered. ‘Oh, Jules, darling, let’s start practising now.’

  ‘Walking on water?’

  ‘No, silly! You know very well what I mean…making babies.’

  ‘It’ll be my pleasure,’ he whispered against her hair, bent over her and began to kiss her passionately.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Evan sat at her desk in her office at Harte’s on Saturday morning, staring at the simple sketches she had made for Linnet. She had started them last week, when she was at the Leeds store, and they showed her suggested changes for the various fashion departments. She was pleased with her ideas and hoped Linnet would be, too, because she knew the changes were good, could be made without the expenditure of a large amount of money.

  When Linnet had given her the task of revamping three different fashion departments on two separate floors, Evan had been flattered by Linnet’s confidence in her, as well as excited by the challenge the task posed. Now her eyes swept over the sketches, which were somewhat rough, but certainly they would help a draughtsman come up with more finished plans. What’s more, they were absolutely accurate in their details and measurements.

  Setting the drawings aside, Evan now turned on her compute
r to check her e-mails, made a few notes about the Leeds project, then sat back in her chair and took a sip of coffee. All manner of things began to run through her head, but within seconds she was thinking about the dinner last night with her parents at Rules.

  It had been successful in the end, but it had certainly started with a strange undertone. Her mind automatically veered to her father. He had seemed difficult when he had arrived with her mother for drinks. Her mother had been perfectly all right, though changed in her demeanour and looking wonderful. But her father was peculiar; it was almost as if he were spoiling for a fight.

  Perhaps he had been nervous, and maybe he had imagined, perhaps even worried, that she had somehow changed in the eight months she had lived in London, that she was not the woman he had said goodbye to in New York.

  In certain ways she had changed, Evan knew that, but not very drastically, and certainly not in her character or her personality. They were still intact. It seemed to her that once he had realized this he had calmed down, become his normal self again, the man she knew.

  She had always been close to her father.

  She loved him; no, adored him, really. And they had been a team of two when she was growing up. Inseparable. Grandma Glynnis had joked about that, the way they did everything together, like two old buddies, Grandma always said.

  And then last night something truly odd had happened, and it had thrown her off balance. She had spent the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep, thinking about Owen Hughes, who and what he was. He was still her father…but he had lied to her, she was positive of that, and suddenly he had become, in a flash, just like that, no longer the man she thought he was, had believed him to be.

  In the end, in the early hours of the morning, she had convinced herself that it didn’t matter. She still loved him, that was a given. You loved people despite their faults. After all, no one was perfect, everyone had human frailties. He had told her a lie, but it was a white lie, and perhaps there had been a reason for it.

  Actually, Evan wouldn’t have known he’d lied if she had not happened to glance at her mother at that precise moment. Her face had told the story; her mother’s expression had been one of contempt. Or had it been disgust? Whichever, it had telegraphed the truth to Evan, had announced in no uncertain terms that Owen was lying.

  There was a sudden knock, and before Evan could say anything the door flew open. Linnet came hurrying in, looking disturbed, Evan thought, and instantly straightened in the chair, automatically bracing herself for trouble of some kind.

  ‘Do you have a minute, Evan?’ Linnet asked.

  ‘Of course. What’s wrong? You look upset.’

  ‘Perplexed is a better word.’ Linnet sat down heavily in the chair near Evan’s desk, and continued, ‘I just had the strangest conversation with Tessa, and I’ve got to admit it took me completely by surprise. In fact, I’m still taken aback.’

  ‘What was it about?’

  Leaning forward, Linnet said in a low voice, ‘She asked me to look after Adele while she goes to Paris with Lorne.’

  Evan herself was momentarily startled by this, and then she exclaimed, ‘But why wouldn’t she ask you, Linnet? You’re her sister, she trusts you, and has confidence in you. She’s very nervous about Adele’s welfare right now, concerned for her.’

  ‘I know, but on the other hand I was a bit surprised she didn’t ask our grandmother, Daisy Rickards. They’re actually rather close, and Daisy would be much better looking after little Adele than me.’

  ‘Obviously Tessa thinks you’re the best choice, while your mother is still in New York. I’m sure she would have asked Paula to babysit Adele if she’d been here.’

  Linnet puffed her cheeks, blew out air. ‘Gosh, that’s one tremendous responsibility, looking after another person’s child, and especially Adele, under the present circumstances. Mind you, Elvira’s going to be with us, and it is only for a long weekend,’ Linnet explained. ‘At Pennistone Royal, because Tessa’s very insistent about that. Anyway,’ Linnet paused, gave Evan a small smile, and asked, ‘I was wondering if you’d come with us, spend the weekend in Yorkshire? It would be fun if our chaps were with us. Please say yes.’

  ‘Yes.’ Evan laughed, added, ‘I’d be happy to be with you and Adele at Pennistone Royal, it’s one of my favourite places. And you’re right, it would be great if Gideon and Julian joined us.’

  ‘Thank you so much, I do appreciate it, Evan. Anyway, before I accepted to do this for Tessa, I did suggest she took Elvira and Adele to Paris with her, but she dismissed the idea out of hand. I can’t say I blame her. I happen to agree that it’s better if Adele remains in England with some member of the family, that she doesn’t travel abroad until this nasty divorce is over and everything is settled. I fully understand Tessa’s worry about Mark Longden. I don’t trust him either.’

  Evan said, ‘And I have my suspicions about him, and his friend and client Jonathan Ainsley. I think he’s a rotten piece of work, from everything I know about him. He’s been a lousy son to Robin.’

  ‘Jack Figg’s on top of Jonathan,’ Linnet told her, ‘breathing down his neck. At least Jack’s operatives in Hong Kong are, and we’ll know exactly where he is from now on. By the way, Tessa’s become a convert to the religion of Jack Figg, his religion of total security.’

  Evan burst out laughing. ‘You say that in such a droll way, Linnet, and I think Jack’s a pretty terrific guy.’

  ‘He is, and he’s turned Pennistone Royal into the most secure house in the British Isles. Want to bet?’

  ‘Oh, no way! I think you’re correct.’

  ‘There’s one thing that does puzzle me,’ Linnet suddenly announced, getting up, walking over to the window, glancing down into Knightsbridge. Without turning around, she went on, ‘I just can’t get over the fact that Tessa asked me to look after her child. I mean…she’s always been so competitive with me, calling herself the Dauphine, the heiress apparent, wanting to take over from Mummy now. And Mummy doesn’t even want to retire, for heaven’s sake, won’t retire until she’s old and decrepit. Not that I think she’ll ever be that. Oh well, I guess times have changed.’

  ‘Or Tessa has changed,’ Evan suggested softly.

  Linnet swung to face Evan, gave her a hard stare. There was a quickening in her green eyes when she said, ‘There’s a certain truth there. I do believe that the abduction frightened her, made her truly aware how much she loves Adele. And perhaps she does put Adele first, before anything else. At the moment.’

  ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if she did retire and sooner than you think.’

  ‘I’m not so sure she’d do that, Evan. You see, Tessa’s far too ambitious. She wants to run the stores, because she’s the eldest and thinks it’s her right. But she wants to manage them in her way, on her terms, not the way Mummy has run them for over thirty years.’ Linnet laughed lightly. ‘You know what, Evan, Tessa would love me to retire, and that’s the truth.’

  ‘I know how she is, but it’s a bit silly to discuss all this, since nothing’s going to change as long as Paula is in charge.’

  ‘Agreed.’

  ‘Why is Tessa going to Paris with Lorne?’ Evan asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

  ‘Because he’s making a film there, starting in about another week. The whole cast and crew are going over, according to Tessa, and they’ll be in Paris for about six weeks. Then they come back to work for two months at Shepperton Studios. He invited Tessa for the first weekend he’s there, because he thought the change would do her good.’

  ‘He’s a really lovely man,’ Evan said, and then glanced down at the sketches. ‘I was just going over these before you came in, and was about to bring them to your office. My ideas for the Leeds store.’ She handed Linnet the sketches.

  Linnet looked at all of them quickly, and then started at the beginning again, studying the six sketches more carefully. Eventually she looked up. ‘How clever you’ve been. Bringing all of the fashion departments
onto one floor, and designing an open-floor plan so that they flow into each other.’

  ‘With the small boutiques for accessories, in various corners and smaller areas,’ Evan pointed out, ‘there is a wonderful flow, as you just said. And the customer doesn’t have to go to another floor for shoes or bags and other accessories. Everything is there.’

  ‘I think it’ll work perfectly. You’ve done a good job, Evan.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she answered, pleased by Linnet’s reaction. Evan then explained, ‘Actually, what I’ve done is borrow from your mother’s idea on the fifth floor here, the way she has put lingerie, sleepwear, at-home clothes, casual and exercise clothes, hosiery, and casual footwear in different boutiques next to each other.’

  ‘That’s right, I see that now. But I think this open-floor plan works much better, Evan. Let’s go to the fifth floor and take a look, shall we?’

  One of the things Evan loved most about her job at Harte’s was the store itself. Many a morning she came in early, long before its doors opened to the public, so that she could walk the floors. Being out on the floor was thrilling to her, especially when she was alone except for the odd maintenance person, or another early bird like herself. The store impressed her, gave her a great sense of satisfaction.

  Linnet felt the same way about it; they often compared notes, and now as they walked through Lingerie together, Evan confided, ‘I love all the floors, all the departments, but my favourite is cosmetics. What’s yours, Linnet?’

  ‘Cosmetics, too, but I’m also crazy about the Food Halls. You know when my great-grandmother, I should say our great-grandmother, first started she had a little shop in Upper Armley, on the outskirts of Leeds, and her mainstay was her food products. My mother told me that Emma Harte also loved the Food Halls here, too, and perhaps I inherited that inclination from her.’

  ‘Maybe you did, and who wouldn’t love our Food Halls: they’re fantastic. I often see Tessa browsing around, buying there, but then she’s very much into food, such a great chef. Gideon says she missed her calling, that she ought to be cooking for the world.’