Daniel's Bride (20 page)

Daniel lifted himself away from her and a moment later he
traced her mouth with his finger. In spite of everything he had done, of the
way he had touched her and kissed her, and had her completely at his mercy, her
skin still burnt as if she needed more of him. He bent and kissed her on her
lips, full and deep and long. Without a word, he moved to the side, before he
pulled the covers up over her.

“I don’t think I can move,” she murmured. “I’m exhausted.”

His eyes flashed, and he lay on the side, leaning on his
elbow. Naked and watching her.

She reached out, ran her hand down his lean hip back up over
his muscled stomach and he captured her wrist at his chest. “That was never how
I intended it to be,” he told her. “Especially your first time, I’m sorry.”

 “No.” It had been perfect. Every second of it. Waiting
clearly had a benefit no one had told her about. “Do you regret it?” she asked.

“No.” His skin was sheened with perspiration, smooth and
muscled. "Hell, no." He looked straight at her. “Is there a chance
you could be pregnant?”

She bit down hard on her lip. She didn’t think the timing
was right for her to fall pregnant but she couldn’t be sure.

“It’s unlikely,” she told him, “but there’s always a
chance.”

He stood up then, and he walked, tall, big and lean to her
bathroom and a minute later came back, a towel wrapped around his waist.

“I’ll take a shower then I need to go back to the office.
There’s a lot to plan for Grandad’s service…”

His voice cracked.

He leant over her, kissed her forehead, then her mouth. His
lips lingered on hers and she breathed him in. The intimacy, the awareness. The
physical reaction of her body to his. It all shocked her.

He pulled away and she said, “Go. I’ll shower when you’re
gone.”

Mel waited until Daniel had left the apartment.

She went to her wardrobe and took down the rest of her
clothes, and when her cases were full, she stuffed the overflow in plastic bags
from Patsy’s stash in the kitchen.

What had happened in bed did not change anything.

She stopped, and rubbed her hands down her face. How could she
trust him? Ever again? There had been no indication these past months that the
annulment wouldn’t fly. Nothing to indicate it at all or to give her any reason
to doubt the way it was going to end up.

Daniel Christie was a very good actor. Or liar. Perhaps this
past hour had just been one very good lie on his part, too?

It didn’t matter. She could never trust him. She would
always remember how the last few months had been a deception, that he had known
the truth just hours after their wedding.

She left the credit cards on the kitchen counter. It took
three trips to lug her bags down to her car, and without a backward glance, she
drove away. She found a single room in a close-to-full backpackers, sat on the
bed with the sounds of travelers and tourists around her, and let tears slide
down her cheeks until she grabbed tissue paper from her bag and wiped her face.
The tissue became sodden and she found a café paper napkin in her bag and wiped
until that, too, was sodden. Exasperated, she yanked a t-shirt from her bag and
buried her face in it for long minutes, until the flow of tears slowed down.
She cried out her disappointment in Daniel, her frustration for loving him, her
grief at losing Barnaby and Sir Arthur. Even more, at losing a part of herself
knowing that, unlike Max, she was never going to fully recover from this.

It just wasn't possible.

Finally, she took a deep breath and examined the contents of
her tote bag.

She had cash to pay for a week at the backpackers, to cover
food and petrol. She needed a job desperately. The word desperate seemed to
churn around her mind like a very annoying stuck record. She was about to be
desperate for the basic necessities of life – food and shelter.

A fifty dollar note fell from her wallet, and she folded it
carefully and slotted it back in. It wouldn’t go far.

She pulled out her diary and pen, and turned to today’s
date. She’d have to stay with her mum after here, apply for any job she thought
she could do...

The envelope with the cheque slipped out from between the
pages and drifted to the floor, and for a moment her heart went still. She drew
in a deep breath, and bent down to hold the crisp white paper between her
finger and thumb.

A shiver went down her spine, and she slid the envelope open
slowly and pulled out the cheque. An authorized bank cheque for more than she
would make in several years of working. It was hers. Every cent of it was hers.
She could go right now down to her bank and deposit that cheque, and she’d have
cash to buy a small place for her and Ellie, to pay off her credit card, to
help her mum out in ways neither of them could imagine.

She slipped the cheque back in the envelope, placed it
between the pages of her diary, and put the book in her handbag. She closed her
eyes against the loud thumping of her heart.

Daniel had been right. He’d told her she could have checked
it out herself. She was educated. She claimed to be intelligent. She advised
teenage girls as a career. After the mockery she’d just made of herself, how
could she even consider going back to that?

She brought her palm to her forehead, and shook her head in
disbelief. Why had she believed that annulment because of non consummation was
a viable reason? A century ago, maybe. Yet she had believed Hugh. She had
believed Daniel.

Mel stood up fast from the bed, and collected her bag. In
the corridor, she locked the door with an old key, and went outside the
backpackers to the main road. She’d passed a post office at the shopping centre
a mile or so down the street. There’d be enough time to get there before the
last mail collection of the day.

And then it really would be over.

Daniel nearly dropped the plain, white envelope in the
middle of the pile he'd been flicking through, but the huge swirly writing
caught his attention. He guessed it was another sympathy card or note about the
loss of Sir Arthur. Curiosity made him take the envelope. For a moment he
thought of Mel. She’d left her key and the credit cards on the kitchen counter
and it had not required a nicely written note to say it was over. They were
officially separated. Only another 363 days to go until they could put the
divorce proceedings in motion.

He had no idea where she was or who she was with. He’d rung
Ellie, but she hadn’t heard anything, although he’d agreed to pop over for tea
some time. Daniel had spent the last two nights alone in his apartment and they
had been the worst two nights of his life. No Mel. No Barnaby. No family. It
had been so miserable he’d watched infomercials and then several hours of TV
preachers but none of it had helped. He couldn’t even think of work. He gritted
his teeth.

He could have admitted everything to her at the beginning
because she was sure as heck going to learn the truth at some point. But he’d
kept it to himself, he’d buried it deep and told himself he’d deal with the
problem when the end came, when he could do it in such a way that she would
accept his lie. His deception.

He’d screwed up big time.

He slid open the envelope and slowly pulled out a piece a
paper. His eyes blurred, he blinked, and cleared them. It was a cheque. He
turned it over and his heart slammed hard in his chest. It was a mistake. It
had to be. He frowned. This was Mel’s cheque.

He grabbed the envelope and flipped it. On the back were two
letters in capitals. MG.

Mel’s initials.

His hand curled around the envelope in shock and
bewilderment as he realized what she had just done.

She had thrown the money right back in his face.

“We’re going to visit Mel’s mother,” Daniel informed Hugh as
they detoured away from the main road. He checked the rear view mirror, then
changed lanes. “I’ve met her before. You'll like her.”

“I’m sure I will, but what do you want to see her for?” The
interest in Hugh’s voice was palpable. “Mel’s got the money. In twelve months
you can apply for a divorce.” He glanced at his watch. “And this detour wasn’t
on the schedule, Dan.”

“Mel didn’t take the money.” Daniel pulled up to an
intersection, rubbed his hands down his face, and sighed with an exhaustion he
hadn’t felt in a long time. It was as if both his body and his mind were tired,
so tired, that if he fell asleep, he wasn’t sure he’d ever wake up. “She gave
it back.” Threw it back was more accurate.

Hugh was silent.

Daniel shot him a look. “You’re not surprised?”

Hugh pointed. “The light’s green.”

As the car pulled away, he said, “It’s not that I’m not
surprised. It just seems a very 'Melinda Green' kind of thing to do. She’s
honourable. She’s not after anything from you. She was given an offer and she
accepted it because she had no job and she needed money." He was silent a
moment. "There was something about her that made you trust her. Arthur
liked you and Mel.”

“I know he liked her.”

“He liked you and Mel. Together. He had a feeling.”

Cautiously, Daniel said, “What do you mean?”

“He’d met a few of the girls you dated over the years but
Mel was the only one who didn’t seem to care about your money, your name, your
position.”

That was true. She didn’t give a damn about him in the end, either.
And she had never been his girlfriend. Only his wife; in name only.

“I know it’s been a tough few months and you hated deceiving
Arthur, but you did the right thing in going ahead with this marriage.”

That was one of the kickers about all this Daniel couldn’t
fault the logic on. “Except I spent the last few months lying to him. There’s a
commandment about that.”

“Exceptional circumstances along the lines of the little
white lie. Arthur went to his grave an extremely happy man knowing you had a
good wife and that you were going to have children – in his mind anyway. It
took his attention off Everett and Sean. He believed you were happy, and you
were going to stay happy.”

Happy
. It seemed such an odd word coming from Hugh
but then Hugh had loved being married, loved his daughters and his
grandchildren, loved the very idea of family. Daniel turned into the driveway
of the rest home and as Hugh glanced around with interest, Daniel muttered half
to himself, “We fulfilled our mission, then.”

He pulled up in the visitors’ car park and jerked on the
handbrake. For a second, he sat still. In the end Arthur had died in peace. It
was not a bad way to farewell this world and if he and Mel had contributed to
that, then no, he didn’t regret the craziness for one moment. He’d achieved
what he’d set out to do. They climbed out of the car. He just hadn’t figured
he’d fall in love while doing it. Hadn’t figured he’d be in worse shape at the
end than when they’d begun. Hadn’t figured that with each breath came the pain
of a breaking heart. Hadn’t realised just how much he needed Mel.

And then there was Barnaby. He avoided thinking about him
because it killed him. He’d gotten his knees acquainted with the carpet several
times over the last few days as he’d prayed and begged the old boy would be
found. Where was he? Was he alive, starving, being cared for, roaming the
streets?
Where the hell are you
?

Hugh looked around the grounds and the buildings, and shoved
his hands in his trouser pockets as they walked. “So what’s the story with
Mel’s mother?”

“She suffered a stroke a few years back. It left her
partially disabled. Mel was going to have her live with her and the fiancé when
they were married but when that never happened, Ellie stayed here. Ideally, Mel
wants her mum to have her own place with facilities to make it easier for her,
or even live with her.”

Inside, Daniel signed the visitors’ book, and they made
their way down the corridor heading toward Ellie’s room. “That’s why Mel needed
the money,” Daniel went on. “She had to get her own place and she mentioned one
time she’d had to put living expenses on credit card after she left her job,
but ultimately it was to help out her mother. Ellie Green is barely in her
sixties, if that, but her life is severely restricted.”

They stopped at the door with the name card.

He knocked and Hugh scratched his beard as he looked at the
faded carpet and murmured, “I had no idea.”

“None of us did.” The door was ajar, and he called out, “Mrs
Green? Ellie? It’s Daniel. Daniel Christie.”

“Come in, Daniel.” He pushed the door open to her apartment.
She sat at her small table with a book in front of her, and her face brightened
in welcome. She was an attractive woman. He’d never noticed it before.

“Hello, Daniel,” she said, then noticed Hugh. “Oh,” she
said, startled.

“I'm sorry to surprise you, Mrs Green,” Hugh apologized.

“It’s – it’s Ellie.” She cleared her throat, and Daniel
said, “My apologies. Ellie, this is Hugh Devereaux, a family friend. And Hugh,
this is Mel’s mother, Ellie.”

Hugh moved forward and held out his hand. “Nice to meet you.
Ellie? Is it short for Eleanor?”

“No. Elena.” Ellie’s eyes were wide and curious with a
glimmer of interest as they shook hands. “Hugh Devereax. You’re the lawyer,
aren’t you? Mel mentioned you a few times.”

Hugh arched his eyebrows but his mouth widened. “I don’t
know whether I should be nervous or not that Mel mentioned me.”

Ellie smiled and her eyes lit up. “She spoke very highly of
you. No need to be nervous at all.”

A miracle, Daniel thought wryly, in light of the blatant lie
Hugh had told Mel about an annulment he’d known darn well was never going to
happen.

Hugh gestured to the wall calendar of the national football
team. “I have that exact calendar in my office at home. Do you follow
football?”