Lucy Gordon - A Winter Proposal / His Diamond Bride - A Winter Proposal / His Diamond Bride

The door opened. Somebody flew into the room, speaking breathlessly. ‘Oh, my, what a day! But it was worth everything to see the look on Blakely’s face when I had all the figures—’

She stopped as Roscoe turned from the window.

‘Good afternoon, Miss Jenson,’ he said.

FOR a moment Pippa’s face was full of shock. ‘You,’ she murmured.

Then shock was swiftly replaced by a smile. ‘So prayers do get answered after all,’ she said.

‘I’m the answer to your prayers?’ he queried. ‘Now that I wasn’t expecting.’

‘Meeting you again is the answer to prayer,’ she said. ‘It gives me the chance to say thank you, otherwise I’d have had to search for you all over London. You came to my rescue three times last night—towing me to the garage, taking me home, bringing my papers over—and then I was rotten to you. I can’t forgive myself.’

‘No, that’s my job,’ he agreed. ‘Let’s forget it now.’

‘That’s kinder than I deserve. When I think—’

The door opened. It was David with the man he’d been trying to get rid of, and who was now talking nineteen to the dozen, causing David to make a face of resignation.

‘We’re in the way,’ Roscoe said. ‘Let’s have a bite to eat. Cavelli’s is very good, and it’s nearby.’

‘Great. I’m famished.’

Cavelli’s was a small restaurant over the road, just opening for the early evening. They found a table by the window.

‘I’d toast you in champagne,’ Roscoe said, ‘but I’m driving. What about you?’

‘I’m afraid my car’s still on the sick list. I came in by taxi.’

‘Champagne, then.’

‘Not on my own. What I’m really dying for is a cup of tea.’

He placed the order and sat regarding her for a moment. Her hair was pinned back again, as he’d first seen it, but the rich honey colour still had a luxuriant appearance. She was dressed for business in a dark blue trouser suit of decidedly mannish cut. But if she thought for a moment that it masked her vibrant sexual allure, she was deceiving herself, Roscoe thought.

He pulled himself together. This was a time for business. The ‘other’ Pippa, the one he’d seen last night, must be firmly banished. He did his best to achieve that, but it was hard when all around them people were turning to look at her in admiration.

They toasted each other in hot tea, and Pippa sighed theatrically with relief.

‘You don’t know what I owe you,’ she said. ‘Those papers won the case for me. Without them, it would have been a disaster.’

‘Yes, you couldn’t have made Frank Blakely sorry he was born, which I gather you did.’

She gave a triumphant chuckle. ‘I reported the figures, he disputed them, I produced the papers that proved them, he demanded to know how I came by those papers, I said my lips were sealed—’

‘That sounds a bit dodgy,’ Roscoe said, grinning, pleased.

‘Do you mind?’ she demanded, mock-offended. ‘I am not “a bit dodgy”’

‘I beg your pardon—’

‘I’m very dodgy—when I have to be. It depends on the client. Some need more dodginess than others. Some don’t need any.’ She added wickedly, ‘They’re the boring ones.’

‘I see you believe in adjusting to their requirements,’ he said appreciatively.

‘That’s right. Ready for anything.’ She chuckled. ‘It makes life interesting.’

‘Miss Jenson—’

‘Please, I think we’ve passed the point where you could call me Pippa.’

She didn’t add, After the way you saw me, but she didn’t need to.

‘Pippa—I’m sorry if I embarrassed you last night. I only wanted to return your property.’

‘It wasn’t your fault. It was just unlucky that you turned up…well…at that moment.’

‘He seemed to feel very strongly about you.’

She sighed. ‘He’s a nice boy but he can’t understand that I don’t feel the same way. We went out for a while, had some fun, but there was nothing in it beyond that.’

‘Not on your side, but surely his feelings were involved? ‘

For a moment Roscoe fancied a faint withered look came over Pippa’s face.

‘And if it had been the other way around, do you think he’d have cared about my feelings? ‘ she asked quietly.

‘Perhaps. He seemed to have really strong emotions about you.’

The look vanished so fast he couldn’t be sure he’d seen it. ‘Life’s a merry-go-round.’ She shrugged. ‘You have to look forward to the ups but always be ready for more downs.’

‘So there’s nobody special in your life at the moment? Or are there a dozen like him ready to spring out like last night?’

‘Possibly. I don’t keep count. Look, I just wanted to apologise for the way I flew at you. After what you did for me, you deserved better. Today was a triumph. I had two job offers as I was leaving the court, and without those papers I’d have got nowhere. So I owe you, big time. I meant what I said. I’d have hunted you down through all London to tell you that.’

‘And if I hadn’t known exactly where to find you, I’d have hunted you down too. I have a job that only you can do.’

‘Are you the client David mentioned? ‘

‘That’s right.’

‘Ah, I begin to see. You want someone good with figures, right?’

‘Among other things,’ he said carefully. ‘The case I want you to take concerns my younger brother, Charlie. He’s not a bad lad, but he’s a bit irresponsible and he’s got into bad company.’

‘How old is he?’

‘Twenty-four, and not very mature. If he was anyone else I’d say he needed to be taught a lesson, but that—’ he hesitated before finishing stiffly ‘—that would cause me a certain amount of difficulty.’

‘You couldn’t afford to be connected with a convict?’ she hazarded.

‘Something like that.’

‘Mr Havering—’

‘Call me Roscoe. After all, what you said about me calling you Pippa—well, it works both ways, doesn’t it?’

For a moment the naked nymph danced between them and was gone, firmly banished on both sides.

‘Roscoe, if I’m to help you I need full information. I can’t work in the dark.’

‘I’m a stockbroker. I have clients who depend on me, who need to be able to trust me. I can’t afford to let anything damage my reputation.’

His voice was harsh, as though he’d retreated behind steel bars. But the next moment the bars collapsed and he said roughly, ‘Hell, no! You’d better know the real reason. If anything happens to Charlie, it would break my mother’s heart. He’s all she lives for, and her health is frail. She’s been in a bad way ever since my father died, fifteen years ago. At all costs I want to save her from more suffering.’

He spoke as though the words were tortured from him, and she could only guess what it cost this stockbroker to allow a chink in his confident facade and reveal his emotions. Now she began to like him.

‘Why is he in trouble?’ she asked gently.

‘He went out with his friends, had too much to drink. Some of them broke into a shop at night and got caught. The shopkeeper thinks he was one of them.’

‘What does Charlie say?’

‘Sometimes he says he wasn’t, sometimes he hints he might have been. It’s almost as though he didn’t know. I don’t think he was entirely sober that night.’

Pippa frowned. This sounded more like a teenager than a young man of twenty-four.

‘Do you have any other brothers or sisters? ‘ she asked.

‘None.’

‘Aunts, uncles?’

‘None.’

‘Wife? Children? Didn’t you mention having a daughter?’

‘No, I said if you were my daughter I’d give you a piece of my mind.’