Flowers for My Love (12 page)

For a while she wandered round the lounge admiring the deep easy chairs, the well chosen pieces of good furniture, the prints and etchings tastefully displayed on the walls. She sat down for a while, picked up the
Financial Times
from a low table nearby and flicked through it.

Nick’s voice awakened her. He was standing over her with a cup of tea.

‘Tea time,’ he said with a smile. ‘Mrs. Flowers left everything ready. All I had to do was make the tea. Cake?’

He gave her a plate, then offered a sliced homemade plum cake.

Davina took a small slice and watched him sit down in a comfortable chair nearby.

‘Enjoy your sleep?’ he enquired politely.

‘Sleep? Have I been asleep?’ Davina consulted her wrist watch.

‘Gracious—five o’clock! What must you think of me? I’m the one who ought to have made the tea. Have you completed your business?’

He smiled, a charming smile that was one of his attractions and, to Davina’s way of thinking, a most infuriating attribute at times.

Still under the impress of her sleep, she sat sipping the welcome tea, her eyes very green as she studied him.

‘Almost,’ he admitted. ‘One more telephone call that didn’t come through.’

She raised a delicate brow and he watched with pleasure the way her eyes with their tantalising tilt danced.

‘A woman?’ she queried.

‘As a matter of fact it is, a real matriarch of a woman with a business head on her shoulders.’

‘I take it you don’t like career women?’

‘No time for them. They’re apt to become bossy and that is death to any marriage where the man is concerned.’

‘Is that why you want me to give up working at the flower shop?’

Nick raised a brow and reached to pour himself another cup of tea.

Then he leaned over to refill hers.

‘I thought that was a foregone conclusion. Marriage is a full-time job, at least being married to me will be.’

‘But we haven’t a house or anything yet!’

‘We can look around for one. In fact, I have one or two in mind.’

She said indignantly, ‘You never said anything to me about it.’

‘I wanted to surprise you.’

‘Fibber! You were going to buy one and take me to see it, saying,

“This is the house. Like it?” Well, I won’t be treated like that.

Marriage is a partnership between two people. You bought me this ring instead of taking me with you to choose it myself.’

‘I thought you liked it.’

‘I do, but it isn’t the same.’

He met her anger with an unruffled air. His complacency was proof against criticism from her or, indeed, from anyone.

He merely said, ‘Take it back. I’ll come with you to choose another.’

She glared at him in exasperation. ‘Oh, you make me so mad! I could kill you!’

He eyed her with approval, taking in the tailored dress of finely pleated green cotton that enhanced the angry green sparkle of her eyes before he concentrated on her mouth.

His mouth quirked at the corners. ‘Come and kiss me instead,’ he said wickedly.

‘You’re incorrigible, Nick Tabor, and I think it’s time I went home. I’ve kept you from your work long enough.’

Davina drank the rest of her tea, put down her cup and stood up.

She moved forward to stand before him and he put down his cup to eye her lazily. ‘What’s the hurry?’

Before she knew what was happening he had her in his arms across his knees. She was like a bird caught in a snare, for he had her firmly pinned down with her legs over the arm of his chair.

Then he bent his head and claimed her lips. Davina closed her eyes and her heart was like a jumping bean. She resisted him as long as she could until the old magic began to work. As she relaxed in his arms his lips became more gentle and his hand moved over her back.

When he eventually released her Davina felt bruised and battered, with no breath for words and a nameless fear in her mind.

Nick was the kind of man one would feel safer married to. She put an unsteady hand to her ruffled hair and he caught hold of it to kiss it.

There was laughter in his voice. ‘And to think that I regarded you as being all gentle and dewy-eyed! I find this new Davina most stimulating.’

‘Look, Nick,’ she entreated, ‘just let me go. It’s so ridiculous being here in your arms and fighting.’

‘I’m not fighting, my sweet, and don’t you think you ought to stop behaving as if I was a big bad wolf instead of your intended?’

‘It’s all your fault.’ She dug her fingers into the tight curls on his head. ‘I’ve always wanted to do this,’ she said.

‘And do you want to live with me? Have you given any thought to it?’

She said tentatively, ‘Yes, I have. I don’t want to be rushed, that’s all. We have plenty of time.’

Nervously she pushed her fingers through the fair curls and he lifted a determined hand to grasp her wrist.

‘Now relax,’ he said brusquely, ‘and tell me what’s troubling you. Do you love me?’

Davina moved restlessly, as much as she could in his firm hold.

‘Don’t spoil our day, darling. I’ve been enjoying it up to now, please.’

She put her cheek against his hard unyielding one.

He said coldly, ‘We aren’t discussing a day in our lives, we’re discussing all the years in the future. Either you want to marry me or you don’t, and you haven’t answered my question.’

‘Oh, Nick! How can you ask such a question? Of course I love you. I’m crazy about you, but ...’

‘But what?’

Davina swallowed on a dry throat. All free will seemed to have vanished. He was so agonisingly near. His fingers, strong as steel, were resting with deceptive lightness on her slender wrist. His other arm was clamped round her.

‘Well? I’m waiting, Davina.’

She lifted her head but refused to meet his relentless gaze, looking down instead at the brown hand holding her wrist.

Haltingly she began, ‘I’m not like you, free to do what you want to do. I have my family to think about. We’re only just remaking our lives since my parents died. In a year or so ...’

‘A year or so? What the devil are you talking about? If it’s money you’re bothered about I have plenty of it to pay for your brother’s training or to set Cheryl up in anything she wants.’

‘But don’t you see, Nick? In about two years we shall really be getting somewhere with the shop and with the investments we’ve made.’

He laughed, a deep musical laugh that weakened her defences.

‘Peanuts,’ he scoffed, ‘compared with what I can give you.’

‘That’s just it. Oh, I can’t explain. You simply wouldn’t understand,’ she cried helplessly.

‘Try me.’

She wriggled her wrist from his grasp and clasped his hand as if clinging to a lifeline. But if she was looking for help from him it was not there. He was frowning at her, a hint of anger bringing all the obstinate arrogance back to his face.

Davina tightened up inwardly. This was the Nick she was afraid of, who would ride along to brush anything fiercely away that stood in his path.

‘Go on,’ he urged inexorably. ‘What else can you think up as an obstacle to our marriage?’

His grey eyes were as cold as the snows. Hers were wide green pools of distress.

She moistened dry lips. ‘First I want to say that I love you very much and it would be wrong to let you think otherwise.’

‘That’s something anyway.’ His manner changed, grew more gentle as he reached up to draw her head against his chest. ‘Go on.’

‘There’s no problem with Cheryl apart from the fact that I want to stay with her in the shop until she has the hang of it. I do most of the paper work and go to the market for supplies and I have to land her with that gradually.’

‘You could get a man to do all that,’ he suggested. ‘You need a man for the donkey work anyway.’

She sighed. ‘We could hire a man now, but his pay would eat too much into our profits. Then there’s Darren. He’s still feeling lost after losing his home and his parents. Mother spoiled him and he will take a lot of diplomatic handling to keep him on an even keel. I

... I’ve tried to take my mother’s place. You understand?’

‘You little idiot! I understand perfectly. That’s why I love you so much. You’re sweetly honest, sincere and loving, and you care about others more than yourself. In fact you’re a perfect fool when it comes to your own happiness. It doesn’t grow on trees. You have to take it when it’s offered.’

Nick fondled the brown cap of thick shining hair, his hand moving up from her waist to caress the curve of her cheek.

‘Suppose you let me handle it? I’ve had a great deal of experience in handling all kinds of people.’

Davina quivered as she recalled Darren’s dependence on her.

‘I’ll do it,’ she answered, stubbornly insistent. ‘I’ll talk to Darren.’

There was a brief silence, then Nick dropped his hand to her waist.

‘You know that you have to give me a date for our wedding if I agree to that, don’t you? Say three weeks from now?’

‘Three weeks? But isn’t that a bit unreasonable? I ... I mean ...

three weeks? Nick, you don’t know what you’re asking! It would be one mad rush.’

He smiled. ‘A beautifully mad rush. Don’t you agree?’

She gripped the hand still holding hers and clung to it. Love, she had discovered, was not a quiet feeling of love and contentment. It was a wild rushing stream which carried you along, swerving around rocks and boulders to the final fulfilment.

Nick had treated the family problems as unimportant in regard to their happiness. To his mind they could be filed away like any other problems he had dealt with. But Nick did not carry a mental picture of Darren cut adrift from an adoring mother, sent away from home when his main anchor had been taken up for ever. Desperately, she played for time.

‘Six weeks,’ she said.

He laughed and hugged her. ‘You strike a hard bargain, my sweet. It’s Darren, isn’t it?’

‘But how did you know what I was thinking?’

‘Because you and I belong together. Between us we make a whole—a rare thing to happen between people. We’re going to be content with each other for the rest of our lives!’

Nick looked at his watch. ‘My telephone call is due. When I’ve taken it we shall go to the kitchen to see about our dinner. Mrs.

Flowers has left everything to hand. I hope you don’t mind a cold banquet?’

‘Anything with you is nectar,’ she said.

He had to show her then in actions that he appreciated her compliment. He was going to his study for the telephone call when she said, ‘What’s the name of your lady client?’

His eyes gleamed wickedly. ‘That, my sweet, is something I can’t divulge to you. My business is private and secrecy is vital.

I’m fairly ruthless where my work is concerned. Be with you in five minutes.’

That evening was one of the happiest Davina had ever spent.

There was much laughter and fooling in the kitchen with Nick knowing where everything was kept and knowing something about cooking as well. It was he who made the coffee and carried everything in to the dining room.

‘You’re not marrying a helpless nitwit, darling. I can look after you and myself too.’

Davina nodded happily, finding it hard to believe that the whole stupid worry about her family was already on the way to being solved. The important thing to do was to keep on the shop for a while after they were married, working for the same end that she had visualised from the start of her business venture.

At her door as he was kissing her goodnight, she sighed.

‘See you next Thursday, darling.’

He raised a fair brow. ‘You’re seeing me tomorrow evening—or should I say late afternoon, before the shops close. I’m taking you to pick your own engagement ring.’

Her blankness gave way to a surprised look. ‘But I already have one. Remember?’

He kissed the ring. ‘You can keep it for a dress ring. You’re going to have one you have chosen yourself.’

‘Oh, but, Nick—I don’t want another. This is fine. I love it.’

‘All the same, you’re going to have one of your own choice,’ he told her firmly. ‘You can leave the shop an hour or so before closing and leave Cheryl to cope.’

‘But I can’t,’ she wailed. ‘Friday is one of our busiest days.’

He regarded her with a half smile. ‘The whole day on Monday, then. We can combine all our shopping then in one day.’

Davina looked at him blankly. ‘All our shopping?’

His eyes twinkled wickedly. ‘That’s right. We have only six weeks. Remember?’

Davina’s green eyes widened as she comprehended. With a youthful dignity which made his mouth quirk with amusement, she said primly, ‘Nick Tabor, if you think I’m going to allow you to buy my trousseau you have another think coming! I’d never dream of such a thing. My mother would turn in her grave!’

He put his face close to her warm one. ‘And so she would too if you insist upon torturing me by your indecision. I’m going to make sure you have no excuses about not being ready when the time comes. So go and have your beauty sleep. See you on Monday at ten sharp.’

That weekend was the busiest Davina and Cheryl had ever had to cope with. They were run off their feet. Consequently, Davina had little time to talk to her sister about the plans for an early marriage.

Then Nick telephoned on Saturday morning from Brussels to change their shopping day on the following Monday to Tuesday. He had had to go away unexpectedly. Davina felt as if she had been granted a reprieve from she knew not what.