Lucy Gordon - His Pretend Wife

‘I told you I wouldn’t let you go,’ he said softly as she lay cradled in his arms. ‘And now I never will. Let’s get married quickly.’

She stirred. ‘Andrew, wait, please. It’s a little soon to start talking about marriage. We’ve only just found each other.’

‘That’s why it’s so important not to lose each other again.’

‘I don’t want that either-’ she tried to sit up but he drew her firmly down beside him ‘-but we could lose each other again if we’re not careful. No, listen to me-’ She fended him off as he tried to kiss her. ‘After twelve years we’re different people, and we don’t really know who those other people are. We both have years of secrets.’

‘There’ll never be any secrets between us from now on, I promise. If we know that we love each other the rest can come. Darling-’

He stopped, seeing the sudden unease in her eyes, and his hands fell from her.

‘Oh, no!’ he said, in a horrified voice. ‘I’m doing it again, aren’t I? Trying to hurry you into doing what I want.’ He got up with a convulsive movement. ‘And if you listen to me it’ll end the same way.’

‘Darling.’ She slid quickly across the bed to where he was sitting on the edge. It hurt her to see him troubled. This was important to her, but she moved swiftly to comfort him, putting her arms about him and resting her head against his back. ‘Don’t make so much of it. I just want a little time to know you, and not make the same mistakes as last time. I love you. I always will.’

‘Then why-?’ He checked himself quickly. ‘Never mind, we’ll do it your way.’ He turned back to her, revealing himself at an angle that aroused her immediate interest.

‘Whatever I want?’ she asked, craning her head to see better. ‘Anything at all?’

He stroked her head tenderly. ‘Your wish is my command.’

‘In that case, come here.’ She pulled him towards her.

Andrew tensed suddenly.

‘What is it?’ she asked.

‘I thought I heard a noise.’

They listened together, but there was only silence in the darkened house.

‘Come back,’ she said, drawing him close again.

But the next moment they both heard the noise, footsteps coming up the stairs and the sound of a voice that they both recognised.

‘Thanks a bunch, Daisy. Don’t worry, I know my way.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ Andrew said, appalled. ‘It can’t be.’

‘I’ve got a terrible feeling that it is,’ Elinor breathed.

The next moment the door opened. Andrew had just enough time to pull the sheet over him before Myra swept into the room.

‘Surprise!’ she cried.

‘Myra, how did you get here?’ Elinor asked, aghast. ‘You were in Detroit this afternoon!’

‘I didn’t actually say I was.’

‘No, you never did,’ she realised.

‘I arrived yesterday to stay with Uncle Elmer. He wanted me here for his big weekend.’

‘Never mind that,’ Andrew said hastily.

‘Which means you haven’t told Ellie.’

Elinor looked at Andrew. ‘Secrets?’ she asked quietly.

‘I’ll explain later,’ he growled. ‘Not with her here.’

‘I got suspicious when you weren’t at Uncle Elmer’s weekend,’ Myra said.

‘Maybe I was trying to avoid you,’ Andrew suggested.

‘Oh, no, darling. Uncle Elmer’s house party is a step up the ladder, and you’ve never missed one of those. You wouldn’t risk damaging your career just to avoid me.’

‘Why should a house party affect his career?’ Elinor asked.

‘Because Uncle Elmer is about to nominate his successor, and he has rather old fashioned ideas about surgeons. He doesn’t think medical skill is enough. To him a heart surgeon should be a great man who rides loftily above the rest of society.’

‘Rubbish,’ Andrew snapped.

‘But you should have been there,’ Elinor cried.

‘Tonight was the big banquet,’ Myra said.

‘Tonight I had something better to do,’ Andrew said.

‘Go to a funfair, I believe. And for that, you snubbed his big weekend, full of the medical glitterati. And I asked myself why you’d do that. Not just because you don’t believe in his ideas. In the past you’ve always done whatever came next, so why not now?’ Her eyes flickered over Elinor. ‘And I thought I knew the answer. So I came over to see if I was right.’

‘And now you know you are, I suppose you’re going to make hay with it,’ Andrew growled. ‘Well, do your worst.’

‘No,’ Elinor protested, ‘Andrew, I know what it means to you-’

‘It means nothing to me beside you,’ he said. ‘Let her tell him anything she likes.’

‘And I’ve got a fair bit to tell him, haven’t I?’ Myra mused. ‘Some people might call this little set-up an unprofessional relationship. Ellie isn’t your patient but her daughter is. And moving them into your house, bringing Ellie into your bed-I think the General Medical Council would have a field day.’

‘Myra, you wouldn’t,’ Elinor cried in horror. Surely she couldn’t have been wrong about Myra, who had seemed good-natured despite her touch of hardness?

‘I might,’ Myra said. ‘I might do anything, unless, of course, you draw my claws before I do it.’

‘I see,’ Andrew said in disgust. ‘Blackmail.’

‘Hmm. A kind of.’

‘So what do you want?’

‘Well, if you two were to tell the world that you were going to get married it would all become quite respectable, wouldn’t it? It wouldn’t matter what I said. Even Uncle Elmer would approve.’

‘But-’ Andrew hesitated, then said with difficulty, ‘about getting married-there’s a problem-’

‘Oh, don’t be stupid, darling, of course there isn’t. Don’t tell me the two of you are going to make the same mistake again. Andrew, when we talked this afternoon I gave you the key to Ellie, but something told me you were going fumble it. Why, I can’t imagine. She’s not going to run out on you this time. She’s as nuts about you as you are about her.’

‘Myra,’ Elinor protested, almost laughing as she realised that Myra was, after all, a good, if unorthodox, friend, ‘it’s not that simple.’

‘Yes, it is. Things usually are simple. You see what you want and go for it. Open your eyes, Ellie. Think what’ll happen to Andrew if he loses you again? He isn’t a man who loves easily, or often. It was his misfortune, and yours, that he met the “one and only” when she was too young. The time was all wrong. Now it’s right.’

‘It’s just that we thought we’d spend a little time getting to know each other first,’ Elinor tried to explain. ‘We’re older now, and we want to go carefully.’

‘Whatever for?’ Myra demanded, aghast. ‘Honestly, sweetie, that’s not the way. Just cut the cackle and get on with it. And make it as soon as possible. Next month would be nice. Cyrus and I are coming over here for a publicity do, and I wouldn’t miss your wedding for anything.’

Elinor clutched her head. ‘This conversation is making me dizzy. How can you be saying these things to me? You were his wife.’

‘But I’m not his wife any more. Or if I am, poor Cyrus is deluding himself. I’m sure I married him. Yes, of course I did, I sent you the pictures. By the way, I’ve got some wedding cake for you all downstairs. All right, all right,’ she said quickly, seeing the fulminating look in Andrew’s eye. ‘I’m very happy, and I’d like to see you both happy too, which, of course, would be the best thing for Simon.’

‘And the best for you,’ Andrew observed cynically. ‘Cyrus really doesn’t want your son by your first marriage spending too much time with you, does he?’

‘That depends where he is,’ Myra said thoughtfully. ‘It’s fine at Disneyland because he and Simon are about the same mental age and they can enjoy it together. But at other times Simon would be distinctly in the way. But he loves it here with both of you and Hetta. He’s told me so when we’ve talked on the phone. OK, OK, I’m a selfish cow who doesn’t want her son cramping her style. But I do love him, and I’d like to see him settled in the place he wants to be.’