A Pretend Engagement (10 page)

She did not know what she had expected but, had she nursed any thoughts that the evening would be spent in some sort of spasmodic monosyllabic conversation, she discovered she could not have been more wrong. Johnny had said that Leon had charm by the bucket load. And he had. She sipped her drink and was amazed by how the evening was going! Leon charmed her by inviting her opinion on any subject that came up, and, more, with never a cross word between them, genially allowed her opinion when it did not exactly match his own.

She was having a really pleasurable evening, she realised, and wondered if her pleasure stemmed from the fact that she had usually been too busy at the business end of hotel life to be able to just sit back and relax. Or could it just be the company she was with? That thought startled her, and she jerked a glance to Leon.

`Was it something I said?' he asked, amusement playing at the corners of his mouth.

She shook her head. `I've just realised I am enjoying myself.' `You didn't expect to?'

`Well...' she prevaricated, for in truth she was feeling a little mixed up inside. `Well?' he prompted.

'We-er-didn't get off to a very good start, did we?"

'You were lippy,' he documented.

`And you were as suspicious as the devil,' she said lightly, a touch stunned that they were getting on so well. Though as a mixture of guilt smote her, about the way she was deceiving him by not telling him that she was John Metcalfe's sister, and was joined by the memory of her nerve in telling both Antonia King and her husband what she had, so Varnie saw that this could only be a short respite between her and Leon. `And tomorrow you'll be back to the suspicious devil I met ten days ago.'

`And tomorrow you'll go back to being a pert baggage without a care to what lies you tell complete strangers.'

That was too close to home, and although she knew he was referring to the lies she had told the King duo, Varnie's conscience was again tweaked with regard to her lies of omission in connection with her brother. `Truce?' she pleaded. `If I promise to do my best not to be lippy again, not to tell any more lies, and you promise to try not to return to being a grumpy brute-' She broke off when it looked as if he would accuse her of being lippy again already. Varnie gave him her best grin, and he seemed fascinated for a few moments by her mouth, and she went on, `Shall we call a truce just for tonight?'

He considered the matter. `That shouldn't be too difficult,' he agreed. And Varnie laughed out loud when, simultaneously, they both touched wood. It was his turn to grin-and Varnie was on the way to thinking that there must be something quite magical in the air around Ruthin Castle. Indeed, everything about the evening seemed to have been touched with magic. They were still talking, not rowing, when they were shown to their table in the dining room. In fact, so in tune did they seem to be, they had both ordered the delicious sounding glazed goat's cheese on a tomato and shallot salad with a port wine dressing for a starter.

They were on their main course when, apropos of absolutely nothing, although her eyes were alight-she was finding him a most stimulating dinner partner-quite out of the blue he looked across at her and, totally involuntarily, she was sure, suddenly said, `You really are exquisitely beautiful, Varnie.'

Then he abruptly looked away, just as if cursing because his unthought comment-in view of past history-may have made her feel uncomfortable with him. What was a girl to do? `I wondered when you'd notice,' she said, a cheeky grin on her face so he should know that she had not wondered at all. But, as well as seeming a touch relieved that he had not completely ruined the atmosphere between them, Leon looked a little surprised too at her answer, and she found she was going on, `I come downstairs in my best frock-having changed out of my skivvying outfit-and all you can say is, "Ready?".'

Suddenly she wished she had not said that last bit. She was making this much too personal. And that was not what this evening was about. What this evening was about, she only then realised, was the two of them getting back to the way they had been before Leon had come to her room yesterday and begun kissing her.

`I'm sorry,' she apologized. `I'm making this much too personal, and it isn't about that, is it?'

He did not answer her question, but documented, `With the best will in the world, bearing in mind we're neither of us machines, I'd say, since we are in daily contact, that it would be surprising if "personal" did not creep into it now and then.' She thought about that, but only for a moment. `You're right, of course,' she realised. `I hadn't analyzed it that way....' Her voice tailed off. Did he think about her when she wasn't there-the way she did of him? No, said the brighter part of her brain. Not that she wanted him to, insisted another part of her, the proud part.

`But since we are being a touch personal...'

`Are we?"

'I've decided we are.' He smiled to take any hint of bossiness out of his statement. `Just for this evening.' And, while her heart gave the most peculiar flutter, `Now, tell me about Varnie Sutton.'

No way! Everything in her backed away in alarm. For herself, her life was an open book. But she was Johnny's sister, and Johnny's job the job he loved; she mustn't forget that-was at risk here.

`You know all there is to know,' she answered lightly.

Leon looked at her skeptically. `I thought you weren't going to tell any lies tonight,' he said accusingly.

`When did I promise that?' she exclaimed in mock alarm. Quickly she turned the conversation to him. `How about you'? Tell me about you?' she invited.

He gave her a wry look, but enquired, `Where would you like me to start?'

At the very beginning. Suddenly Varnie found she felt curious to know all that there was to know about him. `Well-er-in order to spare my blushes, I suppose you'd better give me the edited highlights only,' she suggested. `You weren't going to be saucy either,' he reminded her.

She laughed; she was having a splendid time. `Well, and it's true. I expect, you do have um-a bit of a reputation.'

He seemed genuinely a shade surprised. `In what area?' he wanted to know.

Surely he already knew?' With-the Ladies.' She immediately apologized. `I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. But you did decide to be "a touch personal".'

`Wretched woman,' he called her lightly, and Varnie fell just a little in love with him. Nonsense, objected her head. `You're referring to Antonia King?' Leon enquired.

`She's just one of many, I suspect,' Varnie replied, feeling oddly a touch eau de nil around the gills. `Weren't you recently involved in some rather unsavoury divorce?'

Leon looked at her levelly for some seconds, but, when Varnie would not have been at all surprised had he curtly told her to mind her own damn business, he merely shrugged. `They were separated,' he answered. `The lady in question was living apart from her husband well before I arrived on the scene. I only took her out a couple of times anyway-we'd stopped seeing each other before said husband attempted to involve me as a reason for not paying up when she decided on a divorce and tried to relieve him of a fortune he wasn't keen to part with.' Leon shrugged again. `My lawyers eventually saw them both off.'

`You came out the innocent party?"

'I sure as hell had nothing to feel guilty about. Though mud clings, if only briefly.'

She supposed that it did. Though even the most ghastly happenings were only nine- day wonders before the next news item arrived. `And then there was Antonia King. You were innocent there too?"

'Even less guilty there. I never so much as thought of the woman in any way other than as a valued member of the team. I should have dismissed her the moment she started to come on to me.'

`Why didn't you?' she enquired, interested.

Leon gave self-deprecating look. `Pride, I suppose. It seemed more than a mite feeble, from where I was looking at it, that I should get rid of the woman solely because she was hmm-after me.'

He was embarrassed! Varnie laughed softly. `No wonder you're fed up with women- two in general, one in particular,' she itemized. `So fed up you decided it was time to get away from the lot of them. That it was time to take a holiday.'

`And barely had I closed my eyes in my isolated retreat,' Leon took up, his eyes steady on her face, his small embarrassment gone, `than, as naked as the day you were born, you walk in.'

Her skin burned. `Don't remind me!' She was the one to be embarrassed now.

`Perhaps that was a little unfair,' he conceded with a gentle kind of smile. `You're blushing.'

`I know!' she exclaimed huffily.

And he grinned, totally unoffended by her sharp tone. `Your turn,' he said.

`My turn?'

'Aw, come on. It's not every day, or ever, that I share such confidences over dinner. You're obliged, out of courtesy if nothing else, to share a confidence with me.'

She thought she could argue that statement, but instead asked, `Such as?"

'Such as-the man you dumped when you found out he was married.'

`Martin!' she said with a start of surprise. Only ten days ago she had thought she loved Martin. Now she could not recall the last time she had thought of him.

`You were in love with him?'

She shook her head. She knew now that she had never been in love with Martin. `I thought I loved him. I was going to go on holiday with him, but when he was late meeting me at the airport I rang his office and learned he was married and that he had children.'

`There was no mistake? About him being married?'

Varnie shook her head. `His secretary said his wife had been at his office with the children only that day. Besides, I asked him. As soon as he turned up at the airport, I asked him.'

`He admitted it?'

`Reluctantly, I think. He said he hadn't seen his wife in ages, and that they were getting divorced.'

Varnie looked across at Leon. He had an understanding kind of look in his eyes. `Poor Varnie,' he said softly. But, his tone sharpening, `You're better off out of that sort of relationship.' She looked down, and was a little staggered to see that they had eaten their way through the main course with her barely noticing. But, when she might have commented on it, the notion was taken completely out of her head by Leon's next remark, and she looked up again, sharply.

`I suppose it was a full-blown relationship?' he asked point-blank.

His nerve was staggering! `If by full blown you mean did I sleep with him,' she replied snappily, `then it is absolutely none of your business.'

Leon eyed her steadily for several moments, and then declared, `You didn't.'

She had to laugh. He was a most infuriating man, but, yes, he made her laugh at the oddest moments. `That was delicious,' she said, casting her eyes to her cleaned plate.

They had been served their last course when Varnie began to feel a tinge of regret that this magical evening was almost over. She guessed it would not be repeated. Holidays, even working holidays, had to end some time, and while she still had no idea when Leon intended to leave, she felt instinctively that the call of his office would soon get to him. Soon he would leave-this evening would be a one-off and would never happen again.

She looked across at him-only to find Leon had stopped eating, as if arrested by some sudden thought. `What?' she asked. And, when he did not immediately answer but continued to look at her, a touch speculatively, she felt, `I've got cream on my chin?'

His mouth quirked upwards at the corners. `Your chin is delightfully cream-free,' he replied, but did not shrink from asking about that which he did not know. `In relation to your non-relationship with the contemptible married Martin, just how experienced are you, Varnie?' She stared at him, totally taken aback. `What has that got to do with the price of firelighters?' was the best she could come up with at such short notice. He was not put off.

`You yesterday told Neville King that you were no stranger to my bedroom, allowing him to swallow the obvious implication. But you and I both know the truth behind your familiarity with my bedroom, don't we?"

'I' m-er-not comfortable with this conversation,' Varnie retorted primly.

`Well, we can't have that!' Leon said toughly, and she hated him that he had brought a sour note into her magical evening. `As I remember it, I had to put up with a conversation where, astonishingly, when you knew full well how I feel about women just now, you claimed to be engaged to me.'

`Don't be stuffy!'

`Stuffy? Your nerve is astounding!' he accused curtly.

`Well, yours isn't so dusty!' she retorted. `I've kept out of your bedroom-it's a pity you didn't keep out of mine!' Immediately the words were out, she regretted them. 'I'm sorry,' she apologized at once. `I'm so sorry. You're feeling badly enough about that without me rubbing it in. Forgive me,' she said, and looked across at him-to see that all at once every scrap of aggressiveness had gone from him.

`Me, forgive you?' he asked quietly. `You really are quite a lovely lady.'

Her heart started to thunder at the gentle look in his eyes, at the compliment he had just paid her. She shook her head. 'I'm lippy, and I tell lies,' she reminded him.

`Both, regrettably, true,' he agreed. But, proving as she was discovering that when he was on the trail of something he never let up, `So, neither lippy or lying this evening-your other lover, so you led me to believe, was John Metcalfe. Want to tell me about him?'

Most definitely not. She shook her head. `Some things are private,' she replied flatly. He looked at her long and hard, but did not look likely to give up. `And you're on the way to ruining what had been a very pleasant evening,' she told him quietly. He seemed to bend a little. She smiled sweetly. `And it has to last me I've got this tyrant of an employer who seldom lets me have a night off,' she informed him.

He laughed, seeming unable to prevent himself from laughing at her sauce. He shook his head. `My stars, the man who eventually gets you is going to have to keep on his toes.'

She laughed too. 'He'll be special,' she said.