Carole Mortimer - Mistletoe Magic

‘He did,’ Molly confirmed numbly. ‘But—I—you knew about that night?’

‘Well, of course I did,’ Crys assured her lightly.

She frowned dazedly. ‘But I… All this time…’ she shook her head ‘…and you’ve never said.’

Crys gave a rueful smile. ‘What could I have said? Derek was a very selfish man, and he hurt you very badly; there was no point in my bringing up the subject again when you obviously didn’t want to talk about him.’

‘But the night I stayed at your apartment—’

‘What of it?’ Crys asked. ‘Look, Molly, you’re my best friend and I trust you implicitly, just as I trusted James, so what was there for me to say about that night? Without reminding you of Derek’s duplicity, that is,’ she added grimly.

Molly shook her head dazedly. ‘I can’t believe you’ve known all this time that I stayed at your apartment with James when you were away…’

Crys smiled. ‘I’ve known and never for a moment thought there was anything wrong with it. Why should I have done?’ she said unconcernedly.

‘Well, Gideon certainly thought there was something wrong with it!’ Molly snapped disgustedly.

‘Gideon did?’ Crys looked more puzzled than ever, and then her brow cleared in understanding. ‘Oh, you mean because he called in to see James that morning and saw you there? Molly, Gideon didn’t think that you and James were having an affair, did he?’ She gasped as the idea suddenly occurred to her. ‘No! He can’t have done. Can he?’ She frowned dazedly. ‘He did, didn’t he?’ she realized incredulously. And then she began to laugh.

‘Crys, it really isn’t funny,’ Molly told her disgruntledly. She was relieved that Crys had known the truth all along, but utterly bemused by her friend’s reaction to knowing what conclusion Gideon had come to concerning Molly’s presence in Crys and James’s apartment that morning.

‘No, it really isn’t,’ Crys agreed, sobering slightly. ‘You and Gideon are incredible, do you know that?’ She stood up. ‘You think he’s in love with me—which he most definitely is not,’ she added firmly as Molly would have spoken. ‘And Gideon thinks you had an affair with James—which you most definitely did not. You know, for two very intelligent people, you’ve both been incredibly stupid.’

‘Thanks!’ Molly grimaced, not sure she agreed with Crys’s summing up of the situation at all.

‘You’re welcome,’ Crys assured her dryly. ‘Not completely stupid, of course,’ she continued conversationally. ‘Somewhere amongst all this confusion the two of you have managed to fall in love with each other anyway, so I suppose I can forgive you.’

‘Gideon isn’t in love with me,’ she cut in dismissively.

‘Oh, yes—he is,’ Crys said with certainty. ‘Who do you think sent me up here because you were so upset? Who do you think is even now pacing up and down my kitchen wearing out the flagstones as he waits for me to go back downstairs and reassure him that you’re okay?’

Molly swallowed hard, suddenly still, a slight hope beginning to burn somewhere deep inside her. ‘Gideon…?’ she said hopefully.

‘The one and only.’ Crys nodded, pulling her to her feet. ‘Come downstairs with me—’

‘I can’t!’ Molly resisted, jerkily shaking her head. ‘I really can’t, Crys,’ she added, as her friend gave her a look of reproof. ‘What if you’re wrong?’

‘I’m not,’ Crys assured her.

‘But if you are?’

‘I’m not,’ her friend repeated firmly. ‘Although maybe the kitchen isn’t quite the place for…’ She paused, obviously thinking. ‘Okay.’ She nodded as she came to a decision. ‘You stay here and I’ll send Gideon up—’

‘He won’t come,’ Molly told her with certainty.

‘We’ll see,’ Crys murmured speculatively. ‘Just don’t stay up here together all afternoon—otherwise, knowing Sam, he’s likely to come looking for the two of you and demand that Gideon make an honest woman of you!’ She grinned.

Molly frowned. ‘I wish you would stop making a joke out of all this, Crys.’

‘Can I be chief bridesmaid?’ Crys asked conversationally. ‘I’ve never been a bridesmaid, you know, and—’

‘Oh, go away!’ Molly told her irritably.

‘I’m going,’ her friend assured her. ‘But no attempting to climb down the drainpipe after I’ve gone,’ she warned on her way out of the room. ‘You won’t look a very elegant bride with your leg in plaster!’ She grinned again as she made her parting shot.

Molly gave an exasperated shake of her head once she was alone, thinking that Crys was turning into as much of a tease as Sam.

Although that didn’t change the fact that even now Crys was probably down in the kitchen talking to Gideon.

Was Crys right? Would Gideon come up here to see her once he had spoken to Crys?

She would have the answer to that question in the next few minutes.

‘CRYS said that you’re feeling a little better…?’

Molly’s heart leapt as she turned to see Gideon standing hesitantly in the bedroom doorway, his face guarded, the expression in his deep blue eyes wary.

She swallowed hard before speaking. ‘Er—yes, I’m feeling better.’ She nodded. ‘I—I’m sorry I shouted at you. Before.’

Wonderful, Molly, she inwardly chided herself; she sounded like a tongue-tied idiot.

But that was probably because she felt like a tongue-tied idiot!

Just because Gideon was here, as Crys had said he would be, that did not mean anything more than that he wanted to apologize for upsetting her concerning not telling her earlier about Rachel Gibson.

‘Perfectly understandable in the circumstances,’ he allowed abruptly. ‘It was arrogant of me to ask Sam not to tell you.’

Arrogant, yes—but it could also have another interpretation… ‘Why did you do it, Gideon?’ she prompted.

He drew in a harsh breath. ‘I—do you think I could come in?’ He grimaced. ‘It’s a little—public, standing out here in the hallway.’

Considering that besides themselves only David had a bedroom on this floor of the house, and he was probably still in conversation with the others downstairs, she wouldn’t exactly have called it ‘public’. But if Gideon wanted to come into her bedroom…

‘Please do,’ she invited, standing awkwardly in front of the window as he entered the room and closed the door quietly behind him, her hands twisting tightly together as she eyed him warily.

Gideon gave a strained smile obviously as uncomfortable as she was.

‘I—’ Molly hesitated, shaking her head, not really sure where to begin. Or what she was actually beginning!

Gideon drew in a harsh breath. ‘Will it help the—the situation if I tell you that I’m not in love with Crys?’ he bit out abruptly. ‘That I never have been.’

Molly felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. Okay, so he wasn’t in love with Crys, but that didn’t mean he was in love with her.

She bit her lip painfully to stop it trembling. ‘I was never in love with James, either,’ she told him huskily. ‘And I certainly didn’t have an affair with him,’ she added firmly.

‘I know that.’

She nodded. ‘Crys will have told you—’

‘No,’ Gideon cut in determinedly. ‘Crys didn’t tell me anything.’

Her eyes widened. ‘But—’

‘She didn’t have to,’ he continued evenly. ‘Molly, I know that I owe you an apology for—for the things I’ve said to you over the last few days.’ He gave a self-disgusted shake of his head, thrusting his hands into his pockets. ‘I saw you in James’s apartment that morning and I—’

‘Drew your own conclusions?’ she finished heavily.