Annie Claydon - Forbidden Night With The Duke

Most people did that. When she’d first seen him five years ago, sweeping through the hospital ward, deep in conversation with one of the senior doctors, Megan had done it. The dark good looks of his Sri Lankan father, along with the title he’d inherited from his mother’s family, tended to make an impression. And when Jaye apologised for not being where he was supposed to be at the appointed time, his regret seemed heartfelt.

But Jaye Perera had a history of not being where he was supposed to be. He hadn’t even turned up at his own wedding.

‘Welcome, everyone.’ His smile swept the room, and even Megan couldn’t help the involuntary response, feeling herself smile back at him. ‘This is a new venture for us. We’ve got together with three other charities to provide this induction course for doctors and nurses wishing to work abroad. We have session leaders here from each of the four charities, who’ll be sharing their experience and giving you a taste of the realities of what you’ve signed up for.’

He was a good speaker, Megan had to give him that. In just a few moments he’d got his willing audience in the palm of his hand, everyone believing that he was speaking to them alone.

‘Working abroad for a charity is something that many medical professionals aspire to, but the truth of it can be a little different from the theory. You’ll be faced with hard work, challenging conditions, frustration and more than a little heartbreak. It won’t matter that the pay’s not what you could hope to earn in other fields, because you probably won’t get much of a chance to spend it.’

A ripple of laughter flowed around the room. If Jaye was trying to change anyone’s mind, he wasn’t making much of a start. But then he knew that. This was all a PR manoeuvre, a deftly arranged exercise in making everyone think that he knew what working abroad was really like. Megan doubted he’d ever really got his hands dirty.

‘Okay. So who has a significant other...?’ His gaze ran around the room, seeming to pause for a moment on Megan, who was one of the few who hadn’t raised her hand.

Jaye nodded. ‘Well it’s not rocket science to say that working abroad does affect family relationships, and we’re interested in your thoughts about how you’re going to deal with that...’

Megan felt herself flush. Jaye Perera had the out and out gall to talk about other people’s relationships? When he’d walked out on his pregnant fiancée three days before their wedding?

She could hardly hear what Jaye was saying through a blur of misery. She’d really wanted this job, but working for a man like him? Being expected to follow his lead, when she knew that he had no sense of integrity? It was impossible, and she had to let it go now.

* * *

She sat through Jaye’s talk, feeling her dreams slip away. There was going to be a buffet lunch at one o’clock, which was obviously intended to be a chance for everyone to start getting to know each other, and that would be Megan’s chance to leave inconspicuously.

Easier said than done. When everyone rose from their seats, the knot of people surrounding her kept her waiting for a way out of the room. Jaye, on the other hand, had clearly acquired the knack of making his way through the obstacle course of empty chairs and groups of people who were intent only on talking, his way opening up before him in response to his dazzling smile.

‘Lord Marlowe.’ Megan might not be able to run, but she could hide behind the formality of his title.

‘Nurse Wheeler.’ He somehow made it sound as if he thought her title actually meant something, more than his maybe. That was a sham, too. On the occasions that he’d come into contact with her at work, he’d seemed only to see and hear the senior staff, as if the other people busying themselves around him didn’t exist.

‘I’m surprised you remember me.’ The paper badge on the lapel of her jacket gave only her first name. The nurse part might be a lucky guess, but Wheeler couldn’t possibly be.

‘It’s not difficult to notice someone who does her job well.’ The comment was clearly designed as a compliment, but Megan knew it had no substance. Maybe he’d just studied the applications carefully and had a good memory.

‘As you’ve already spent some time working abroad, we’re hoping you’ll be able to share some of your experience with the others,’ Jaye continued smoothly, as if he already knew what he wanted to say, and her replies didn’t make much difference to him.

She could play along, and then disappear quietly. Or she could show him that she had a good memory, too.

‘How’s Sonia? We didn’t hear from her after she left the hospital.’ There was no particular reason why Megan should have heard from Sonia, they hadn’t been close. But what had happened two weeks after Sonia had left her job, the cancelled wedding and the missing groom, had been a talking point for months.

The smile slid from Jaye’s face for a moment. ‘I haven’t been in contact with Sonia since then, either.’

Which meant he hadn’t been in contact with his child, either. Megan knew exactly what it was like to be the unwanted child of a rich and influential man, who had no scruples about rewriting history whenever it suited him. Maybe that was why she wanted to slap Jaye now. Not for Sonia, but for the child.

‘I heard she had a baby.’

A pulse beat at the side of his temple. ‘That’s what I heard, too.’

A baby who had no place here. If Jay hadn’t turned suddenly, in response to his name being called, Megan thought she might have slapped him. There was no excuse now. He knew he was a father, and clearly he’d decided that was a technicality that he could afford to overlook.

‘I’m sorry...’ When he turned back his face was impassive. ‘I have to go, it seems that lunch is ready. I hope we’ll be able to speak more later.’

Then he was gone, helping John Ferris to chivvy everyone through to the next room for lunch. Megan waited for the press of people to thin a little and slipped out of the room, turning left instead of right, and making her way back to the great entrance hall and up the stairs.

* * *

Jaye had remembered Megan as soon as he’d seen her application form. The nurse who could always coax a smile from her patients. Her enthusiasm for the work of his charity had shone through her answers to the carefully worded questions on the application form, and after he’d interviewed her, John Ferris had agreed that Megan was the one candidate who stood out from all the rest.

He’d wondered whether Megan would remember him, and, despite the awkwardness of the situation, rather hoped she would. When Megan had replied within the hour to the email inviting her here, he’d supposed that either she was inclined to overlook the most damning and humiliating episode in his life, or that he’d made much less of an impression on her than she’d had on him.

Wrong. On both counts. When he’d scanned the room for her, his heart beating a little faster at the remembered warmth of her blue eyes, he’d found only ice. And her pointed remark about Sonia told him that she remembered him all too well, and that she was inclined to overlook nothing.

There was time. Four days was more than enough time to gauge her feelings, and talk about it. Jaye’s gaze rested on the empty seat at the dining table. It was possible that Megan had taken some time out from the group to decide what to throw at him next, but he doubted it. When he’d seen her working on the wards, he’d been impressed with the way that she sized up a situation, took decisions and then acted on them.

‘Have you seen Megan Wheeler?’ He buttonholed one of the teenagers from the village, who’d been co-opted to help show everyone to their rooms. ‘Blue jacket. White top with a...’ He waved his hand to indicate the soft folds of Megan’s blouse.