Next Door to Romance (12 page)

'Your modesty does you credit, Mark,' he said dryly. 'Your future—well, we won't go into that just now. But since, as I'm sure we both hope, your future and mine will be closely linked, do you think it unreasonable of me to be concerned about your prospective marriage?'

'Not in the least, sir,' Mark said equably. He had expected this one! But after all, what objections could anyone raise about Lisa? She was sweet and pretty, her background was good—

Mr Cosgrave gazed thoughtfully at the column of smoke that rose from the cigar he held in his hand.

'A man who marries the wrong sort of girl has got a millstone round his neck! And I know what I'm talking about. Mind you, I'm not saying I blame Violet for not having moved with the times—moved with
me
. That's the way she's made—limited in her outlook, set in her ways. No, I blame myself. I should have realized—oh well, it's too late to talk about that now— but my experience has taught me just how important it is for a young man like you to make the right choice. And so, when I take a particular interest in a young man, as I do in you, my boy, then I get just a bit anxious. Of course, you probably feel it's no business of mine—'

'No, no, sir! It's very good of you. I appreciate your interest very much!' Mark assured him earnestly.

'It
is
interest. Very real interest,' Mr Cosgrave told him solemnly. 'And I'm very glad you realize that, because it encourages me to make a suggestion. Knowing you as well as I do, Mark, I'm quite sure you've chosen wisely and that this little girl of yours is the right sort. None the less, you haven't known each other very long—'

'That's perfectly true,' Mark interrupted blandly. 'And it's a point of view that we realize, Lisa and I, may be held by other people than yourself. To be frank, we thought there might be opposition from Professor and Mrs Bellairs on just those grounds, and so, though Lisa and I consider ourselves to be engaged, we don't intend to make any public announcement to that effect for another two months. Nor do we plan to get married until the summer of next year. They—Lisa's parents—found that reassuring. I hope you do too, sir?'

He knew perfectly well that he'd cut the ground from under the old man's feet just as he had where Lisa's parents were concerned, but he was less sure of the result here. Simon might take it that he'd been told, in effect, to mind his own business because Mark was quite capable of managing his own affairs. Mentally, he crossed his fingers. He need not have worried.

Mr Cosgrave stood up, smiled, and offered his hand.

'Excellent, my boy, excellent! Just what I would have suggested myself! And first class that the idea should have come from you two instead of old busy-bodies like the Bellairs and myself! We'll all have time to get to know one another—you must bring Lisa to meet us in the capacity of your fiancée, Mark. Perhaps it would be an idea if I—no, if Violet were to write to the parents giving the invitation through them?'

'Good idea, sir!' Mark agreed, but suddenly he felt as if there was no air to breathe in the room.

He'd managed things pretty well, but all the same, he wasn't out of the wood yet. Sentence hadn't been pronounced—but he and Lisa were on probation, and whether they made out or not was going to make a very real difference to his future.

The devil of it was he couldn't possibly explain that to Lisa. It was the sort of thing that a girl like Evadne understood without being told, but Lisa was very different, thank goodness!

Very different! He thought of the look in her face as she lifted it to his—the sweetness, the tenderness, the hint of underlying passion—oh, he was worrying needlessly! Lisa would twist the old man round her little finger without even knowing she was doing it!

No, he'd got nothing to worry about. All the same, it was a long time before Mark went to sleep that night.

Mark had told Simon Cosgrave that
we
—Lisa and himself—had made the decision not to announce their engagement immediately nor to think of getting married for another year. With this statement Lisa would have agreed unhesitatingly. Indeed, it never crossed her mind that anyone could take a different view.

Tom, however, was the exception and made no bones about telling her so. His listened attentively to what she had to say and then nodded.

'Yes, I think I understand,' he commented, and went on with brutal bluntness: 'What you mean is that if, at the end of this probationary period, his lordship is graciously pleased to decide that you're up to his standard, then he'll fork out for a ring. But even then, he's not finally committed for another nine months or so! An impetuous lover, I must say, Lisa!'

Lisa stared at him. She could understand that her news hadn't been welcome, but that he could read anything so unpleasant as this into the delay—and even more, put such a thought into words—was as alien to Tom's nature as it was absurd. And she didn't hesitate to tell him so.

'If Mark and I had no one to consider but ourselves, then of course we'd get married at once,' she explained coldly. '
We
know it's the real thing, but we do realize that other people might think we haven't known each other long enough to be sure—'

'Which other people?' Tom wanted to know.

'Oh, really, Tom!' Lisa's impatience was unmistakable now. 'Mummy and Daddy, of course!'

'But I always understood that your people's was a whirlwind courtship and marriage,' Tom commented with infuriating certainty. 'A matter of ten days or so after their first meeting.'

Lisa bit her lip. What he said was perfectly true, but though she'd always thought of her parents' love affair as extremely romantic, strangely enough she'd completely forgotten in what a strong position they were when she and Mark had discussed their own future plans.

'Oh well, you know how it is,' she said lamely. 'Parents rarely think their children are capable of the same judgment as they had.'

Tom shook his head.

'Not your people,' he told her firmly. 'Of all the parents I've ever met, they're the wisest and most far-seeing. And the most honest, which is something again. No, they'd have accepted the situation, Lisa, unless, of course—' he paused reflectively.

'Yes?' she asked, tight-lipped. 'Unless—?'

'Unless, with their greater knowledge and experience of the world, they saw something in Saville that made them doubt whether he would give you the happiness they've had together,' Tom said slowly. 'But of course, you'll deny that such a thing was possible!'

'Of course I do,' Lisa said stoutly. 'What could they possible find to object to in Mark?'

To her surprise, Tom didn't argue the point.

'All right, then,' he said coolly. 'So there wasn't any need to postpone either your engagement or your marriage on your parents' account! So on whose account have they been postponed?'

Lisa was silent. Somehow or other Tom had talked her round into contradicting herself. Just how he had managed it she couldn't quite understand, but she felt puzzled and resentful. What right had he to catechize her like this? And why should he want to? He might not like Mark—if it came to that, Mark didn't like him— but that didn't mean that Tom had the right to sit in judgment like this, or to try to sow doubts in her mind.

'I don't know what you're talking about,' she told him coldly.

'No?' Tom stood four-square in front of her, his head thrust forward between hunched shoulders, his normally pleasant face grim. 'In that case, I'd better spell it out to you in words of one syllable.'

Lisa shrugged her shoulders.

'Just as you like,' she said indifferently, standing her ground despite a longing to escape from those keen, penetrating eyes of Tom's. What was he going to say? He didn't leave her in ignorance for long.

'D'you remember, that first morning we came across Saville in that flashy car of his, I described him as being of the rising young executive type?'

'I do,' Lisa acknowledged. 'I also remember that you were insufferably rude—'

'Yes. I said I disliked the type because, in my experience, that sort are smart, slippery and ruthless. I'm still of that opinion, and though I don't for a moment expect you to see eye to eye with me over that, at least you will admit he
is
a rising young executive?'

'Yes, I suppose so,' Lisa said cautiously, wondering just where the admission was going to lead her.

'Right! Well then, it follows that he's getting on in the world because his boss thinks well of him?'

'Well, naturally. Mr Cosgrave thinks an awful lot of Mark.'

'And with reason, I'd say,' Tom nodded. 'If ever there were two birds of a feather—but that's just the point. At present, as far as Cosgrave's concerned, Saville's the blue-eyed boy. But supposing he were to blot his copybook? Supposing he did something that Mr Cosgrave regarded as being foolish and possibly prejudicial to Saville's future—and even more, to the future of the firm? Then what?'

Lisa's chin went up and her eyes glinted dangerously.

'You tell me!' she suggested.

Tom made an impatient movement.

'Oh, what's the use? You're so dazzled and blinded by that smart Alec that you can't see what's sticking out a mile!' He paused. 'It's so much waste of time, but at least I'm going to have the satisfaction of knowing that you haven't gone into this entirely blindfold!'

He caught hold of her shoulders, his hands gripping with painful force, but Lisa refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing that. She faced him defiantly.

'Saville's future depends on him keeping in with Cosgrave,' Tom said slowly, evidently choosing his words with care. 'And being no fool, he knows that. Now there was a lot of talk about him marrying Evadne Cosgrave, the old man's daughter—ah, you knew that, didn't you?' as Lisa's shoulders stiffened. 'Well, that's fallen through because he's more or less engaged to you!'

'We
are
engaged,' Lisa said stubbornly.

'Oh no, you're not, my dear,' Tom contradicted. 'Not in Cosgrave's eyes! The way he'll see it is this —his young hopeful lost his heart to a pretty, unsophisticated little country girl. His heart—or what goes for one. But his head—never! Saville's left a way out for himself if the old man doesn't approve. And very cleverly he's done it, too! Why, he's even talked you into believing that it's as much your idea as his! Can't you see an inch in front of your nose, you little fool?'

'I can see that you're the most beastly, evil-minded man that I've ever come across,' Lisa told him through white lips. 'And I'll be glad if you'll let go of my shoulders, because I can't stand being touched by you!'

'I'll let you go when I've finished,' Tom retorted ruthlessly. 'These days, so they say in the world of big business, a man's career can be made or marred by the wife he chooses. Well, that's quite likely true in any world, but it means something rather different in the Cosgrave-Saville world. It means that a wife has got to be as slick and smart as her husband if she's to be considered satisfactory. What's more, it means that socially, she's got to entertain and expend her charms on any man who may possibly be of use to her husband—'

With a quick twist, Lisa released herself from his grasp and walked deliberately over to the door of his surgery where the conversation had taken place.