A suitable husband Page 2

  Stunned. She'd taken a dreadful tumble and hurt her back.'

  'What does the doctor say?' Jermaine asked urgently.

  'poor darling, she's so brave—she's refused point-blank to see a doctor.'

  'She's refused...? Can she walk?'

  'Oh, yes. But with great difficulty. Between us, Mrs Dobson and I—she's Lukas's housekeeper—' he explained, 'got Edwina upstairs and into bed. She's there now. She tried to insist on getting up, but when she fainted I made her stay exactly where she was.'

  Fainted! Suspicions which she did not want began to stir in Jermaine's mind. How well she remembered how conveniently Edwina would limp with some knee injury or other should she be called upon to do some errand she wasn't keen on. Jermaine clearly recalled when she had been thirteen, Edwina seventeen, and Edwina, who had had her own small car, had been in a fury because her mother wouldn't allow her to borrow her much larger and zippier car. There had been a fearful screaming match, Jermaine remembered. It had ended with Edwina flouncing out of the drawing room. Her mother had gone after her a minute later—and had found Edwina in a dead 'faint'.

  Only Jermaine, who had rushed out at her mother's call, had seen the way Edwina had surreptitiously peeped beneath her lashes to see how her 'faint' was going down. Not many weeks afterwards Edwina's car had been changed for her first sports car.

  'So you see, Mrs Dobson has looked after Edwina, but now she's busy with her other duties,' Ash was going on. 'And although I know I've got a colossal neck to ask it of you, I just had to ring to ask if you'll come down to Highfield and look after your sister?'

  'Colossal neck' was putting it mildly. 'I'd better have a word with her,' Jermaine answered coolly, feeling mean for her suspicions, but years of living with her sister had left few blindfolds.

  'She doesn't know I'm ringing!' Ash exclaimed. 'She'd have a fit if she did. I didn't want to ring at all, which is why I'm ringing so late after her accident. But Lukas has just asked what family Edwina has and seems to think that you, as her only sister, would be sure to want to come down to Highfield to look after her, so...'

  'Now wait a minute!' Go down to Highfield? Go to look after her back-stabbing, excellent horse-woman sister who, more than probably—if past knowledge of her was anything to go by—had not hurt her back as badly as she was making out? 'I've a job to go to. I can't drop everything and come dashing down to Hertfordshire just because...'

  'Just because?' He sounded horrified. 'Edwina's your sister...' he began to remonstrate.

  'And she's your girlfriend!' Guilt at the small percentage of doubt that remained, because maybe Edwina had seriously injured her back, made Jermaine's voice sharp. 'You look after her!' she told Ash, and discontinued the call.

  She couldn't rest, of course. Jermaine paced her small flat, furious with Ash, angry with Edwina—but plagued by conscience. Drat, and double drat. Then she remembered the mobile phone from which Edwina was never parted. In seconds Jermaine had dialed the number.

  'Hello?' enquired a sweet, totally feminine voice.

  'Thanks for pinching Ash. How's your back?' Jermaine opened with sisterly candour.

  'He rang you?' Edwina was clearly outraged, her sweet tone swiftly departing, sounding not the slightest abashed that Jermaine knew about her and Ash. 'He had no right...'

  Edwina could talk of right! 'Why wouldn't he ring—with you ''suffering" the way you are.'

  'Stuff that—you should see his brother!'

  Click. In that one sentence Jermaine, who knew her sister so well, had it all worked out. The wealthy elder brother, bachelor brother, had returned home unexpectedly and Edwina—never one to miss a chance and already established at Highfield—had no intention of removing herself from his orbit. Due to leave Highfield the next day, Edwina must have had her greedy little brain working furiously in her endeavour to find some way of lingering on at Highfield. Jermaine saw it all. Lukas Tavinor would be a much better catch than his brother. Poor Ash; like the proverbial hot coal, he would be dropped.

  'You're a better rider than Ash?'

  'He'd barely settled in his saddle when I took off,' Edwina boasted.

  'He wants me to come down and "look after" you.'

  'Don't you dare!' Edwina shrieked.

  'Don't worry, I wasn't going to,' Jermaine retorted, and hung up.

  Well, she had no need to feel guilty any more, Jermaine fumed. All too plainly there

  was nothing wrong with Edwina's back. Her 'accident' had merely been a means to an end. By the sound of it, the globe-trotting Lukas Tavinor was back in England for a short while—Edwina wanted to be 'on the spot' while he was still around, and before he went away again. And what Edwina wanted, she invariably got.

  Jermaine was familiar with her sister's tactics, yet even so it still shook her that there had not been a scrap of remorse from Edwina, or apology, for 'holidaying' with her younger sister's boyfriend. Edwina had cared not a bit, nor felt any need to pretend when they'd been on the phone just now. She had not hurt her back, but took Jermaine's loyalty for granted, assuming without question that she would not tell anyone what a humbug Edwina really was.

  And the devil of it was, Jermaine fumed, Edwina was right. Edwina had done nothing to earn her loyalty, but she had it. She knew Jermaine wouldn't be telling Ash what a fraud she was. But he had enough to learn. Jermaine went to bed wondering if he knew yet that he and Edwina were history.

  By morning Jermaine was coming to terms with her ex-boyfriend's duplicity and was starting to feel a little incredulous that she had ever given more than a passing thought to the sort of commitment Ash had wanted. Good grief, he was as freckle as the rest of them! She had been so sure about him too. So sure that he wasn't remotely interested in Edwina.

  Well, it was doubly certain now that the next man who dated Jermaine Hargreaves had better not try the 'commitment' angle. She positively was not interested. Come to that, she wasn't interested in dating again either. She had a good job; she'd concentrate on that.

  Thinking of which, Jermaine left her flat and drove to her place of work, aware as ever that something seemed to cut off in her when her boyfriends strayed in her sister's direction— Jermaine was no longer attracted to them and Edwina was welcome to the spoils. One or two had come back, pleading for a second chance, but Jermaine just hadn't wanted to know.

  It was the same with Ash—she had lost interest in him. She had enjoyed his company but should he ever again ask her to go out with him then she would tell him, quite truthfully, thanks, but no thanks.

  And, having moved on. Ash Tavinor would become someone she once knew, and would be no more than that—Jermaine got on with her work.

  'Coming for a swift half?' Stuart Evans invited when they were clearing their desks for the day.

  She had nothing else pressing, and Stuart was more a friend than anything else. No way could his invitation be construed as a date. 'Since you ask,' she accepted, and the 'swift half turned out to be a bar meal. Jermaine arrived home around nine to hear her phone ringing.

  'It's Ash,' he said as soon as she answered.

  Ash who? or Hi? Since she knew full well that there was nothing whatsoever the matter with Edwina, Jermaine simply couldn't bring herself to enquire how she was. 'How's Ash?' she enquired instead.

  'Look, Jermaine, couldn't you come and look after Edwina? Not that there's a lot to do,' he added quickly. 'The poor darling's talking of going back to her place—she doesn't want to be a nuisance. But I can't let her do that and...'

  'In case you didn't hear me last night—I have a job to go to.' Jermaine cut him off, with no intention at all of going down to Highfield to hold her sister's hand.

  'I never knew you were so hard!' Ash complained.

  Hard! 'Let me put it this way. Edwina's your holiday companion—take an extended vacation.' There was a brief silence, but if Ash was drumming up some kind of an argument, Jermaine didn't want t
o know. 'Goodbye, Ash,' she bade him, and had barely put the phone down before it rang again.

  'Have you no concern at all about your sister?' enquired a harsh voice she had never heard before—though her mind was working overtime as to whom her caller might be.

  Jermaine only just managed to bite back a snappy retort. She swallowed hard. 'Good evening,' she managed pleasantly.

  'Your place is here, looking after your sister, not staying out half the night.'

  It was only a little after nine o'clock! Which monastery had he sprung from? Jermaine strove hard for control. 'Have we been introduced?' she tossed in shortly.

  'Lukas Tavinor!' he barked—as she'd surmised. Ash's brother. 'Ash has an important meeting he can't miss tomorrow. You'd better come now and...'

  At which point Jermaine lost the small control she had over her annoyance with the whole lot of them.

  'I've got an important meeting tomorrow!' snapped she who hadn't, not caring at all for his tone, much less his orders. 'Edwina's your guest— you look after her.'

  A tense silence was her immediate answer. Followed by a clipped, 'Ash was wrong to suggest I should try ringing you. You are as hard as he said you were.'

  Jermaine's breath caught. She didn't even know this man, yet here he was ready to brand her—when all she'd done was to go out with his brother. This, and his brother's duplicity, was what she received for her trouble!

  'That's right,' she agreed.

  'You won't...?'

  'I won't.'

  'My...' He seemed to find her insensitivity beyond words.

  'Oh—go and play with your train set!' she erupted, and abruptly terminated his call.

  Suddenly she was the bad lot in all of this! Jermaine felt like throwing something. She didn't even know the man. He didn't know her. Yet, even so, he was ready to believe her to be heartless!

  Well, on reflection she supposed it did look bad. But it wouldn't look half so bad if Lukas Tavinor knew the truth—that all time she'd believed his brother was her boyfriend he had been dallying with her sister. Not that Jermaine

  was likely to tell him. And it certainly didn't sound as if Ash had. But she could sit back with a feeling of relief; at least her parting remark had ended any odd chance that Lukas Tavinor Esquire might telephone her again.

  Strangely, when the day before Jermaine had thought frequently of how when she had been cosily imagining Ash slaving away in Scotland he had been cosily having a fine old holiday with her sister, it seemed the following day to be his brother that occupied quite a few spare moments.

  She'd got the impression that Lukas Tavinor had rather a nice voice, though there had been little to hear of it in the harsh way he had spoken to her. Who did he think he was anyway? He didn't know her. In fact, he knew nothing about her. Other, of course, than what Ash and Edwina had told him.

  While Jermaine wouldn't put it past her sister to put a little poison down if it would elect some sympathy from Lukas Tavinor, Jermaine couldn't think that the three months she had gone out with Ash counted for nothing. She had always thought him to have honesty and integrity. Which, if that was true, must mean he was pretty besotted by Edwina to have been carrying on a liaison with her while still going out with her sister.

  All of which meant that Ash was going to be the one to be hurt when all of this was over. For, as sure as night followed day, Edwina was going to dump him when it suited her.

  It was at that moment that Jermaine, finally over her shock at Ash's behaviour, all at once realised that she would never have made that commitment to him which he had at one time wanted. She had been fond of him, but her emotions, she now knew, had not been any deeper than that.

  Jermaine went home from her office having come to terms with Ash's duplicity and realising that she still felt a little fond of him. Fond enough anyway to know that she didn't want him to feel very badly hurt when Edwina gave him the big heave-ho.

  Jermaine made herself something to eat, wondering again about his brother. Lukas sounded a particularly nasty piece of work. She smiled. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Edwina pulled it off? From the little she knew of Lukas—and, thank you very much, she didn't want any more communication with him—they seemed exactly right for each other.

  She was still having rosy dreams of one Edwina Hargreaves and one Lukas Tavinor giving each other hell when there was a ring at her doorbell. Thinking it might be one of her neighbors, Jermaine went to the door. But, on opening it, she saw not a neighbor but a tall, dark-haired, firm-jawed, mid-thirties man standing there.

  The fact that he was immaculately suited told her he hadn't come to read the electricity meter. Add to that the grim look about him, and Jermaine's own anticipatory welcoming smile went into hiding.

  He said nothing, this man, until those steady grey eyes had fully taken in her platinum-blonde hair—loose about her shoulders—her large violet eyes, and her slender yet curvaceous body.

  'And you are?' She hadn't intended to say a word.

  Tavinor!' he clipped.

  Her insides gave a funny little squiggle. Grief—and she'd not long since decided she didn't want anything further to do with him! 'Which one?' she snapped right back, knowing full well he had to be Lukas—surely there couldn't be three of them!

  'You're already acquainted with my brother, Ash, I believe.'

  Like we'd had something going from strength to strength before I introduced my sister—oh, does she have a nice surprise waiting for you, Lukas Tavinor! How fast can you run? 'We have met,' Jermaine concurred.

  'Are we going to have this discussion on your doorstep?' he demanded.

  It wouldn't have taken much for her to have said no and shut the door; end of discussion. But manners were manners, and, regrettably, she had a few. 'Come in,' she invited, and led the way to her small but, thanks to her mother's insistence, very pleasantly carpeted and furnished sitting room.

  Jermaine knew why he'd come. She opened her mouth to tell him 'Not a chance' but he got in first. 'I thought perhaps I should call to personally appeal to you to come to Highfield to do your duty to your sister,' he said without preamble.

  You don't appeal to me personally or any other way, Jermaine fumed, not taking kindly to that 'duty' dig. 'I trust you haven't come very far out of your way, for nothing,' she hinted.

  'Aren't you interested in your sister's well-being?' he demanded, her hint not lost on him.

  For a moment she was stumped for a reply, but, since loyalty forbade her from telling him what a fraud her sister was being, Jermaine settled for, 'I'm sure Edwina must be feeling better by now.'

  'Is that all you can say?' he enquired harshly.

  Jermaine had suddenly had enough of the whole of it. Ash, Edwina, and now him. 'Look,' she said snappily, 'if you're that concerned somebody should look after her, hire a nurse!' He'd got pots of money—he could afford it.

  'I've offered to get a nurse in. Your sister wouldn't hear of robbing some other patient of a nurses' expert services.'

  I'll bet she wouldn't hear of it. It wouldn't take a nurse very long to realise that there was very little the matter with Edwina's back. 'Then Edwina will have to put up with it without a nurse!' Jermaine stood her ground to tell Lukas Tavinor.

  He didn't like it; he didn't like her tone. Jermaine could tell that from the slightest narrowing of his eyes. She had an idea that few

  Opposed this man and got away with it. Oh, my word, that jaw looked tough.

  'And that's your last word?' he questioned grimly.

  '''Goodbye" seems a better one,' she said sweetly, and didn't miss the glint that came to his suddenly steely grey eyes the moment before she moved round him and went and opened the door wide.

  Without a word he strode straight past her, and Jermaine closed the door after him and went back to her sitting room—and found that her hands were shaking.

  For heaven's sake, what was the matter with her
? She'd repeated to Tavinor what she'd told him on the phone last night, that she was not going to go anywhere near Highfield, his home, to look after her sister. And that was the end of it—so why did she think that, somehow, she hadn't heard the last of it?

  CHAPTER TWO

  Memory of a pair of grey eyes glinting steel made Jermaine leave her bed the next morning well before her alarm went off. Ridiculous, she fumed, as she showered and went over yet again Lukas Tavinor's visit last night. She was giving the man far too much space in her head. For goodness' sake, she hardly knew him— and no way on this earth could he make her go down to Highfield to 'look after' her sister.

  Jermaine tossed him out of her head. Overbearing pig—who did he think he was? She went to work, however, with the feeling starting to creep in that she wasn't too happy that anyone should think her the unfeeling kind of monster that Tavinor, and his younger brother, obviously believed her to be. But, since she couldn't very well tell either of them what an utter sham her sister was, Jermaine knew that she was stuck with the 'unfeeling monster' label.

  'Come out with me tonight and make all my dreams come true?' Tony Casbolt, ace flirt,

  waltzed into her office with his usual Thursday offer.

  'I'm shampooing the dog,' she answered without looking up.

  Tony knew as well as everyone else that she didn't have a dog; he never gave up. 'One of these days you'll say yes, and I'll be shampooing my cat,' he threatened.

  She laughed. She liked him. But she wasn't laughing a half an hour later when she took a call from her mother. Her mother rarely phoned her at her office.

  'Are you all right?' Jermaine asked quickly; her mother sounded rather strained.