Catherine Spencer - His Child - The Mistress's Child / Nathan's Child / D'Alessandro's Child

And without another word, he was gone.

CHAPTER NINE

MARIAN Reece pursed her lips together in a silent whistle. ‘Good heavens—just how much do you think he’s spending on that property?’

Lisi looked up from her computer, and, lo and behold—another upmarket van was cruising past the office towards The Old Rectory. What was it this time? Lisi peered out of the window and read from the gold lettering on the side of the van. ‘Tricia Brady; Superior Interiors’. ‘He’s obviously having the place decorated now,’ she said, with a sigh.

Marian’s eyes goggled. ‘And how!’ she exclaimed. ‘I’ve heard of her—she must have come all the way down from London. This early in the New Year, too—I’m surprised she wasn’t fully booked.’

‘She probably was,’ said Lisi gloomily. ‘She’s probably got long blonde hair and legs up to her armpits and Philip probably just outrageously batted those beautiful eyes at her and she probably cancelled every engagement in her diary!’

Marian gave her a shrewd look. ‘Do I detect a sign of the green-eyed monster?’ she asked.

Lisi replaced the gloomy look with a fairly good impression of devil-may-care. ‘Not at all,’ she said airily. ‘I expect that’s exactly what happened. Either that or he’s paying well over the odds.’

‘He must be,’ said Marian. ‘It’s only the middle of January—and already he’s transformed the place! I’ve never known builders be quite so willing, or so efficient!’

‘No,’ said Lisi tonelessly.

Marian shot her a glance. ‘How’s it going between you two?’

‘It’s not between us two,’ replied Lisi carefully. ‘The only relationship I have with Philip is that we happen to share a child.’

‘Only?’ spluttered Marian, then sighed. ‘And is it…amicable?’

Lisi sighed. She had vowed to keep it that way, but ever since her outburst on Christmas night he had been keeping his distance from her. He had been round three times to see Tim, and the atmosphere had been awkward, to say the least.

For a start, the house always seemed so much smaller when he was in it, and the unspoken tension between them was so strong that Lisi was surprised that Tim wasn’t made uncomfortable by it.

But no. Tim didn’t seem to notice anything or anyone—he was so enraptured by the man he had almost immediately taken to calling ‘Daddy’.

The first time he’d done it, Lisi had spoken to him gently at bedtime that night. ‘You don’t have to say Daddy if you don’t want to,’ she suggested gently. ‘Philip won’t mind being called just Philip, I’m sure.’

He didn’t answer and she wasn’t even sure if he had registered her words or not, but he obviously had, because at the end of Saturday’s visit Philip paused on his way out of the front door, his eyes spitting with undisguised rage.

‘Did you tell Tim not to call me Daddy?’ he demanded.

She sighed. ‘That’s not what I said at all.’

‘That’s what he told me!’

She kept her voice low, tried to stay calm, though heaven only knew—it wasn’t easy. ‘I merely suggested that he might find it easier to call you Philip. For the time being—’

‘Until you decided that the time was right, I suppose?’ he questioned witheringly. ‘And when would that be, Lisi? Some time? Never?’

She stuck to her guns. She was not going to let his hostility get to her. She was not . ‘I just didn’t want him to feel that he was being railroaded into anything—’

‘By me?’

‘Not by anyone!’ she retorted, her voice rising. ‘It’s just such a huge thing to suddenly start calling you Daddy!’

He had moved a little closer, his body language just short of menacing—so how come she didn’t feel in the least bit intimidated by it? How come she wanted to tell him to forget their stupid rows and to kiss her like he had done on Christmas night?

‘Or is it just that you feel threatened by it, Lisi?’

‘Threatened? Me?’

‘Yes, you! Unwilling to share him, are you? Do you want all his love for yourself, is that it?’

‘Oh, don’t talk such rubbish!’ she snapped. ‘I was thinking of Tim !’

‘So you claim. When it would clearly suit you far more to have me as far away from you as possible! Well, just don’t use him as a pawn in our little disagreement—do you understand, Lisi!’

Little disagreement? If this was his idea of a little disagreement, then she’d hate to enter into all-out warfare with him!

Marian was still staring at her with a question in her eyes, and Lisi shook her head.

‘No,’ she said slowly, in answer to her boss’s question. ‘It isn’t exactly what I’d call amicable—even though that’s what we both wanted originally.’

‘You should talk to him about it!’ urged Marian.

But there didn’t seem anything left to say, thought Lisi as she picked up the telephone which had just begun to ring. ‘Good afternoon, Homefinders Agency.’

‘Lisi? It’s Philip.’

Of course it was Philip—no one else had a voice that rich, that deep, that dark. ‘Hello, Philip,’ she said, cursing her body’s reaction as she felt the inevitable prickle of excitement. ‘What can I do for you?’

Silently, he cursed. How shocked she would be if he answered that question truthfully.

‘I’m up at the house,’ he said.

‘ Here? ’ she questioned stupidly, her heart racing. ‘In the village?’

‘Yeah. I drove up early this morning.’

He was here, just down the road and he hadn’t even bothered to tell her he was coming. Just why that should hurt so much she didn’t know, but it did.

‘I’m having the house decorated,’ he was saying. ‘Someone is over here now with some sample fabrics.’

She certainly wasn’t going to pander to his ego by telling him that she had seen the plush van driving by. ‘Really?’ she asked pleasantly.

‘Really,’ he echoed, mocking her insincere tone. ‘And I wondered whether you were free for half an hour?’

Her pulse began to race. ‘Why?’

She could be so damned abrupt, he thought. ‘I didn’t know if you wanted to choose some colours for Tim’s room.’

Time stopped. He seemed to be speaking in some strange, terrible language. ‘T-Tim’s room?’ she croaked.

Something in the way she said it made him want to offer reassurance, until he remembered her monstrous accusation on Christmas night, and he hardened his heart against the tremor in her voice. Did she think that he didn’t have feelings, too?

‘That’s right. He will need his own room, Lisi—surely you realise that?’

The only thing she realised was that she was fighting to control her breath. ‘I have to discuss this with you, and we can’t do it on the phone,’ she said.

‘Then come up to the house.’

‘I’m working.’

‘Doesn’t Marian owe you a few hours? For your unscheduled work when I demanded that you show me around the rectory?’

‘I’ll ask her,’ she said, in a low voice. ‘I can’t promise anything.’

His voice sounded noncommittal. ‘Suit yourself. It’s up to you, Lisi—you’re the one who wants to talk.’

She put the phone down, feeling close to tears, and saw Marian looking at her with concern.

‘Philip?’ she asked.

‘How did you guess?’

‘Normal clients don’t usually leave the agent looking as though the bottom has just fallen out of their world.’

Maybe it just had. Lisi cleared her throat. ‘Marian—would it be possible to take an hour off? I need to talk to Philip and he’s up at the rectory.’

‘Of course it would.’ Marian hesitated. ‘Listen, my dear—have you thought about consulting a lawyer?’