Carole Mortimer - Hired For His Pleasure

Stazy was rational enough now to be able to see the logic in Jaxon’s reply. ‘Maybe we should just change the subject …?’

‘That might be a good idea,’ he drawled ruefully.

She nodded. ‘As you probably aren’t going to be able to speak to my grandfather about it for several days yet, perhaps you would like to tell me what it is you found earlier and wanted to talk to him about …?’

Jaxon gave a wince. ‘Another lose/lose question as far as I’m concerned, I’m afraid. And it seems a pity to spoil things when we have reached something of a truce in the last few minutes …’

‘It’s probably an armed truce, Jaxon,’ Stazy said dryly. ‘And liable to erupt into shots being exchanged again at any moment!’

‘Okay.’ He grimaced. ‘Curiously, what I’ve found is something the reporter who wrote the biography seems to have missed altogether …’

‘Hmm …’

Jaxon raised one dark brow at that sceptical murmur. ‘You don’t think he missed it?’

‘What I think,’ Stazy said slowly, ‘is that, whatever you found, my grandfather will have ensured the reporter didn’t find it.’

‘You believe Geoffrey has that much power …?’

‘Oh, yes.’ She smiled affectionately.

Jaxon shook his head. ‘You don’t even know what this is about yet.’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t need to. If my grandfather left some incriminating papers in the library for you to look at then he meant for you to find them.’

That made Jaxon feel a little better, at least. ‘There were two things, actually, but they’re related.’

Stazy looked down at her fingertip, running it distractedly around the rim of her cup as she waited for him to continue.

He sighed. ‘I found your grandparents’ marriage certificate for February 1946.’

‘Yes?’

‘And your father’s birth certificate for October 1944.’

‘Yes?’

‘Leaving a discrepancy of sixteen months.’

‘Two years or more if you take into account the nine months of pregnancy,’ she corrected ruefully.

‘Yes …’

The tension eased out of Stazy’s shoulders as she smiled across at him. ‘I’m sure that there are always a lot of children born with questionable birth certificates during war years.’

‘No doubt.’ Jaxon was literally squirming with discomfort now. ‘But—’

‘But my father’s place of birth is listed as Berlin, Germany,’ she finished lightly.

‘Yes.’ Jaxon breathed his relief.

‘With no name listed under the “Father” column.’

‘No …’

‘Meaning there’s no way of knowing for certain that Geoffrey was actually his father.’

‘I didn’t say that—’

‘You didn’t have to.’ Stazy chuckled. ‘It would have looked a little odd, don’t you think, to have the name of an Englishman listed as the father of a baby boy born in Berlin in 1944?’

‘Well, yes … But—’

‘More tea, Jaxon?’ She stood up to put more hot water into the teapot before coming back to stand with the pot poised over his cup.

‘Thanks,’ he accepted distractedly. He had been dreading having to talk to any of the Bromley family about his discovery earlier today, and especially the unpredictable Stazy. Now, instead of being her usual defensive self, she actually seemed to find the whole thing amusing. To the point that he could see laughter gleaming in those expressive green eyes as she refilled his cup before sitting down again. ‘Like to share what’s so amusing …?’

‘You are.’ She gave a rueful shake of her head as she resumed her seat. ‘You’re aged in your mid-thirties, Jaxon, a Hollywood A-list actor and director, and yet you seem scandalised that there might have been babies born out of wedlock seventy years ago!’ She grinned across at him.

‘I’m not in the least scandalised—’

‘Um … protesting too much, much?’ she teased, in the manner of one of her students.

Jaxon eyed her frustatedly. ‘These are your grandparents we’re talking about. And your father.’

‘Geoffrey and Anastasia never tried to hide from me that my father was actually present and sixteen months old at the time of their wedding,’ she assured him gently. ‘We have the photographs to prove it. Which I can show you tomorrow—later today,’ she corrected, after a glance at the kitchen clock revealed it was now almost two o’clock in the morning. ‘If you would like to see them?’

‘I would, yes.’

She nodded. ‘I’ll look them out in the morning.’

‘So what happened?’ Jaxon said slowly. ‘Why didn’t the two of them marry when Anastasia knew she was expecting Geoffrey’s child?’

‘They didn’t marry earlier because Anastasia didn’t know she was pregnant when she was dropped behind enemy lines in late February 1944. By the time she realised her condition she had already established her cover as a young Austrian woman, recently widowed and bitterly resentful of the English as a result, and it was too late for her to do anything but remain in Berlin and continue with the mission she had been sent there to complete. She always maintained her pregnancy actually helped to confirm that identity.’

‘My God …’ Jaxon fell back against his chair.

‘Yes.’ Stazy smiled affectionately. ‘Of course my grandfather, once informed of Anastasia’s condition, ensured that she was ordered out of Berlin immediately.’

‘And she refused to leave until she had finished what she went there to do?’ Jaxon guessed.

Stazy met his gaze unblinkingly. ‘Yes, she did.’

‘She went through her pregnancy, gave birth to her son, cared for him, all the while behind enemy lines under a false identity that could have been blown apart at any moment?’

Her chin tilted. ‘Yes.’

He gave an incredulous shake of his head. ‘God, that’s so—so—’

‘Irresponsible? Selfish?’ There was a slight edge to Stazy’s voice now.

‘I was going to say romantic.’ Jaxon grinned admiringly. ‘And incredibly brave. What a woman she must have been!’

Stazy relaxed slightly as she answered huskily, ‘I’ve always believed so, yes.’

Jaxon nodded. ‘And so you should. You’re very like her, you know,’ he added softly.

‘I don’t think so, Jaxon.’ Stazy gave a choked laugh. ‘Even in her nineties Anastasia would have made sure she got on that Harley tonight and somehow managed to ride it out of here, despite all those guards trying to stop her!’

‘Maybe,’ he acknowledged dryly. ‘But you definitely gave it your best shot.’

She shrugged. ‘Not good enough, obviously.’

‘Choosing the Harley for your first attempt was extremely gutsy.’ In fact Stazy’s behaviour tonight was so much more than Jaxon would ever have believed possible of that stiffly formal and tightly buttoned down Dr Anastasia Bromley he had been introduced to six weeks ago. ‘So you think Geoffrey meant for me to find the marriage and birth certificates …?’

She nodded. ‘I’m sure of it.’

‘Why?’

Stazy gave a rueful smile. ‘For some reason he seems to trust you to do the right thing …’ she said slowly, knowing there was no way her grandfather would ever have put the reputation of his darling Anastasia in the hands of a man he didn’t trust implicitly.

Something she should probably have appreciated more while resenting Jaxon these past six weeks.

He leant across the table now, to take one of her hands gently in both of his. ‘And do you trust me to do that too, Stazy?’

She did trust him, Stazy realised as she looked across the table at him. That silver-grey gaze was unmistakably sincere as it met hers unwaveringly.

Yes, she trusted Jaxon—it was herself she didn’t trust whenever she was around him!