Lee Wilkinson - From Mistresses To Wives?

Barbara had gone by the time she got downstairs.

Turning to Zac, Jess asked, ‘Shall you be going to see the new arrival?’

‘I’d doubt Brady would look too favourably on a visit from me,’ Zac returned drily. ‘I don’t imagine he was any too pleased to know you’d been there at the birth when he couldn’t be.’

Jessica lifted her shoulders. ‘Understandable. Not that he made it all that obvious. He was just glad someone was with Sarah when it began. He’s beautiful. The baby, I mean. They’re calling him Henry, after his grandfather.’

‘Naturally.’ Zac studied her with a certain cynicism. ‘Made you feel a little broody yourself, did it?’

Her laugh was forced. ‘I can think babies are lovely without necessarily wanting one. It’s a lifetime commitment.’

‘And you don’t see us being together that long?’

Green eyes sought grey, unable to penetrate the depths. ‘Do you?’ she challenged.

‘Why not? Marriages have succeeded on far less than we have in common. Maybe a baby wouldn’t be such a bad idea?’

‘Especially if it put you back on a par with Brady.’ Jessica shook her head forcefully. ‘I’ve told you before, I’ve no intention of having a baby just to satisfy your grandfather. He might have the two of you in the palm of his hand, but he doesn’t have me!’

‘Fair enough.’ Zac sounded remarkably calm about it. ‘So we carry on the way we are for as long as it lasts. Where do you want to eat tonight?’

The swift change of subject left her floundering for a moment. She pulled herself together. ‘Anywhere. I don’t mind.’

‘The Minotaur, then.’

Eating out was the last thing Jessica felt like. Eating at all, in fact. Right now, bed and sleep offered the greatest inducement.

Whatever Zac’s inner feelings, he appeared his usual self on the surface the rest of the evening. The problem at the Lyon end had been ironed out without too much difficulty, he said. He didn’t mention how he’d passed the previous evening, and Jessica didn’t ask. It wasn’t outside the bounds of possibility that he’d simply had dinner at the hotel.

Perhaps with their earlier conversation in mind, Zac took care to use protection that night. His ardour was certainly no less for it though. Jessica responded as always, losing herself in the passionate caresses, in the feel of the lean, hard body, the power in his loins. As long as they had this, she could deal with the rest, she told herself on the edge of sleep.

She rang Sarah as promised the following morning, finding her exactly as she had left her the day before.

‘Life’s absolutely wonderful!’ the young mother exclaimed. ‘I can’t wait to get home with him, and show him off to everybody! Brady insisted on my having some help. Not a full-time nanny exactly, but she’ll be there several hours a day.’ She laughed. ‘I think he’s afraid I might find the whole thing too much for me and leave the poor little mite to fend for himself. As if I’d even consider it! You must come over to see us when we’re home. Zac too. It’s high time he and that husband of mine got together, if only socially.’

‘We will,’ Jessica promised, putting her doubts on that score aside. ‘Give Richard a kiss for me.’

‘Everything all right?’ asked Leo, emerging from the inner office as she put the phone down. ‘You look a bit tired this morning.’

‘Never tell a woman she looks tired,’ Jessica returned lightly. ‘It’s like saying she’s looking old!’

‘Hardly germane at your age.’ He smiled back. ‘Too many late nights, maybe? Zac doesn’t strike me as a man content to don a pair of slippers and watch TV of an evening.’

‘You’re right,’ she said, still on the same light note. ‘He’s far from ready to settle down to domesticity. Me too, for that matter.’

‘Well, providing you’re both of the same mind, there’s nothing to worry about. My marriage might have lasted a lot longer than it did if we’d shared the same outlook on life. I wanted kids, Christine saw them as too much of a tie. Something we should have gone into before we took the plunge, I suppose, but the subject never came up.’

Jessica kept a tight rein on her emotions as she gave him the file he asked for. So she was looking a little off-colour. Hardly a cause for concern on its own.

Except that it wasn’t on its own, of course. She was more than a week late. Still not such a lot, but she’d never fluctuated by that much before.

Suspicion became certainty the very next morning when she was struck by a sudden wave of nausea on rising. She made it to the bathroom just in time, viewing her pale face and lack-lustre eyes through the mirror in wry acceptance. Zac had already gone down, which was some relief. She was going to need to come to terms with this herself before telling him. Not that his reaction was likely to be a bad one with his grandfather still pulling the strings.

Women were at something of an advantage when not looking on top form in having the use of make-up. Jessica applied a light foundation, and took extra care with her eyes to combat the lack of sparkle. The result wasn’t perfect, but she doubted if Zac would notice any difference.

Breakfast finished, he was on his second cup of coffee by the time she got downstairs, his attention concentrated on the morning newspaper.

‘I was beginning to think you’d decided to go back to bed,’ he commented without looking up. ‘You’d better get a move on if you want a lift in. I’ve an early appointment. The coffee’s fresh, and there’s bread already in the toaster.’

Jessica fancied neither, but crying off breakfast altogether was hardly likely to go unnoticed. She made the toast, and spread a little marmalade, unable to face even the thought of butter. One sip of coffee was enough to convince her that drinking the rest would be tantamount to announcing the condition she was already taking as definite. She was glad she’d only half filled the cup to start with.

‘Are you likely to be going away again in the near future?’ she asked.

‘There’s nothing on the immediate agenda,’ he said. There was a slight drawing together of the dark brows as he looked across at her, but if he noted anything untoward in her appearance, he made no comment. ‘Why?’

Jessica shrugged. ‘I just wondered.’

‘Thinking about that proper honeymoon I promised you, by any chance?’ he queried. ‘Unfortunately, this isn’t the best time to go to the Maldives. It’s the start of their rainy season. Plenty of other places, though.’

Jessica stirred herself, shaking her head emphatically. ‘I didn’t mean that at all. In fact, I’d forgotten all about it!’

Regard enigmatic, he said, ‘So think about it. I like to keep my promises. Just name the place, or places, you most fancy seeing.’

‘I can’t!’ Her tone was too abrupt; she took steps to soften the rejection. ‘I mean, I can’t take time off now after just starting the job.’

‘You don’t have to do the damned job at all!’ he declared with sudden force.

Jessica firmed her jaw. ‘I know that. I want to do it.’ For as long as possible, she tagged on mentally. She swallowed as nausea stirred again, pushing back her chair. ‘We’d better get moving if you want to make that appointment.’

Zac made no further reference to the subject. He didn’t speak much at all on the way to Holbourn. He’d pick her up at five-thirty if nothing cropped up in the meantime, he said on dropping her off.

The day was fraught. Jessica wasn’t sick again, but she felt decidedly queasy. It could take as long as three months for the hormones to sort themselves out, she’d read somewhere. The nausea could apparently be relieved by medication, which called for a visit to a doctor. Zac would have one, of course, but she wasn’t ready yet to give him the news. Not while there was still the slightest chance that it was a false alarm.