Margaret Way - Australia's Most Eligible Bachelor / The Bridesmaid's Secret - Australia's Most Eligible Bachelor

“I wanted to help.”

“Well, you did.” These days Peter was studying the cello at the very prestigeous Royal College of Music in London.

“Still hearing from him?” Corin asked.

“All the time.”

She smiled. A sweet, uncomplicated smile. Peter was her friend. No more. He would never be her lover. He was glad about that. He didn’t stop to question why. But emotions had such intrusive, pressing qualities. Sometimes they had to be pushed away.

“I love Zara’s rainforest painting,” she said, gesturing to it.

“So do I. Zara keeps up her painting. I’ll find one of hers for you. I have quite a collection. But we’re not talking about Zara. Or Peter—though I’m very glad to hear he’s doing so well. We’re talking about you , Miranda. I firmly believe you’ll benefit from a gap year.”

Her fingers laced themselves together.

“Don’t argue. You wanted to fast-track science, remember?”

She looked across at him with pleading eyes. “I could have done it in two years had I worked through the long vacations.”

His tongue clicked with impatience. “Why won’t you admit you were glad when I made the decision for you? I’m on your side, Miranda. I’m simply not going to allow you to crash and burn. Two years was far too gruelling for a three-year science course and you know it. No time at all for a personal life.”

“Who needs a personal life?” she asked discordantly, stretching her slender arms along the sides of the armchair. “ You’re a workaholic, though rumour has it you’re going to marry Annette Atwood. She’s stunning.”

He let the silence build. “So she is,” he agreed eventually. “But you appear to know more about it than I do.”

“You’re not ?” It came out far too intensely. Damn, damn, damn .

“Let’s get back to you,” he said smoothly, aware she hadn’t meant to show such interest. “Professor Sutton shares my view you’d benefit from a gap year. And there’s a man who thinks the world of you.”

Her expression softened. “The Prof would like me to stick to science. He’s told me many times. He thinks I have a future in medical research. When you think about it, nine of our ten Nobel Prize winners have been medical scientists, or doctors of medicine. And Patrick White, of course, for Literature. I know at some future stage the Prof would like me to be in a position to make his team. I’m sure he’s told you he’s enormously grateful for the funding he receives from the Foundation?”

“He’s doing great work,” Corin acknowledged, as though that said it all. “Research doesn’t appeal to you?”

She ran her fingers through her short glittering curls. “I’d be honoured. But I have to get my MB first, Corin.” Her brain was ticking over at a million miles a minute. Travel? See the world? She felt exhilarated. And shocked.

“No reason to believe you won’t. I applaud your ambition. But taking a gap year will work out to be a distinct advantage. The more experienced and the more cultivated you are as a human being, you can only enhance your chosen career.”

“So I’m to do what I’m told? Is that it?”

He could see the mix of emotions in her eyes. “I’ve mapped out an agenda for your perusal.”

“Not my approval?” she commented wryly.

He ignored that. “Zara will be happy to keep an eye on you in London. I know the two of you will get on like a house on fire. Dad splashed out and bought a house in London when our mother was alive—an 1840s house in Holland Park. Rather run-down at the time, but in a superb location of beautiful tree-lined streets and gardens, and of course the park itself, which was once the grounds of a vast Jacobean Manor. Anyway, my mother and her English decorator transformed it. Zara is living in the house now. But there’s a basement apartment which I had turned into a very comfortable pied-à-terre for whenever I’m in London. You could live there. It will give you the feeling of independence. You can come and go as you please, but Zara would still be around for you. There’s a very elegant apartment in Paris too, typically Parisian, but Leila doesn’t go there often. She much prefers the villa she talked Dad into buying on the Côte d’Azur. It has a spectacular view of the Mediterranean.”

“So in the years of her marriage Leila has lived like royalty, greedily soaking up all the luxury your father’s billions can buy?”

“It’s not a new phenomenon. There have always been courtesans.”

“You hate her, don’t you?”

“I hate what she did to my mother ,” he said tautly. “And how shamelessly. That’s when it all began. She worked to alienate Zara from Dad. These days I’m…indifferent to her.”

Miranda had to wonder about that. Only eight years separated Corin and Leila. “She must have to work very hard to be indifferent to you !” She spoke without thinking.

His handsome face tightened and his whole body tensed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She reined herself in quickly. “Leila likes to charm wherever she goes. Men, that is.”

“Well, she doesn’t charm me !” His voice was heavily freighted with hostility.

“Okay, don’t be angry.”

“Maybe you should start thinking about psychiatry?”

She met his dark eyes. “You’ve said that before. I’ve got good instincts, Corin. I let them work for me. Are you going to show me that agenda of yours?”

“I’ve got it right here.” He picked up a sheet of paper, then passed it across the desk to her. He must have been checking it when she arrived. “A bank account will be opened for you. You’ll have all the money you need to travel. See the great art museums of the world, study a language if you like. Go to the opera, the theatre, the ballet. Zara loves the ballet. Buy clothes. I want you to make the best of this time, Miranda. You’ll have a long, hard slog ahead of you.”

Her eyes ran dazedly down the page. “Look, I can’t do this, Corin,” she said eventually. “I’m not family. Yet you’re treating me like family.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, you are family—in a way. Your mother is married to my father. That’s family. Besides, I’m fond of you, Miranda. You must know that. We clicked from the very first moment you near landed in my lap. Your welfare has become important. It’s the least I can do for someone who has taken more than her share of blows. We’re both caught up in this, Miranda, so you must do as I say. This gap year will work wonders. Just see how quickly it goes.”

She closed her eyes briefly. “So a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do? Is that it?”

“I want your promise right now,” he said.

Her eyes opened. Her head flew back. “What if Leila and your father decide to visit London, or the Paris apartment or whatever?” she queried with sharp concern. “I see there’s another apartment in Rome.”

“You wouldn’t need to have contact should they visit. Leila likes the great hotels. Claridges in London, the Ritz in Paris are favourites. Dad does what she wants. She’s an expert manipulator. Anyway, I’ll always know their movements. Leave it to me.”

“Leave it to you?” She drew in a stunned breath. “I’m shocked by all this, Corin. I knew you might spring the gap year on me again, but never an agenda like this! Zara still doesn’t know about me and Leila?”

“I don’t think she could handle it,” he said sombrely. “Not without speaking out. She knows about my clever protégée Miranda Thornton. She knows nothing about the family connection. It’ll have to wait.”

“Until you’re good and ready, Machiavelli. Do protégées usually get world trips and a hefty bank allowance?”