The Best Man for the Job (7 page)

Celia wouldn’t be pleased to see him any more now than she’d been to have him following her into Zoe’s parents’ house that sunny Saturday afternoon. No doubt she’d be making her displeasure known the instant he walked in and be reverting to acerbity at the earliest available opportunity.

Frankly he didn’t think he had the stomach for it any more, not now he knew how it could be between them.

But it was too late to back out now because even as his head churned with the desire to leave he heard the sounds of a catch being turned. The door swung open and there was Lily smiling broadly and waving him in, and he had no option but to grit his teeth and brace himself to get through the next couple of hours the best he could.

‘Marcus,’ she said warmly, ‘I’m so glad you could make it. Come in.’

‘Thanks.’ He stepped over the threshold and handed over the bottle and the box, and smiled as she let out a little whoop. ‘Champagne and truffles,’ she said, grinning even more widely. ‘A perfect combination. Thank you. Come and meet everyone.’

He followed her down the hall, listening for one voice, one laugh, every cell of his body on high alert. More tense than he’d been at any point over the past month, he walked into the sitting room, the smile on his face still firmly in place. He shook hands with Kit and accepted a gin and tonic. Then he nodded and chatted as he was introduced to their friends, all the while scouring the room for Celia.

Who wasn’t there.

Late? he wondered, or—

‘She couldn’t make it,’ murmured Lily, who’d clearly been watching him scan the guests.

‘Who couldn’t?’ he said, annoyed at both wanting to see her and at being so transparent.

She rolled her eyes. ‘Celia.’

‘Shame,’ he said coolly, and knocked back a slug of his drink.

‘Yes. A headache apparently.’

Perhaps brought on by the discovery that he’d also been invited? He didn’t know whether to be thrilled, cheated or devastated that she wasn’t going to be there. ‘So nothing serious, then.’

‘Only for my table plan,’ said Lily with a grin, before sobering. ‘Actually, she didn’t sound too good at all.’

‘Oh?’

‘In fact, she sounded dreadful.’

Marcus kept his face expressionless, and ignored the stab of concern that struck him squarely in the gut. Celia would be fine. A headache was nothing to someone like her. She had the constitution of an ox, a backbone of steel and ice running through her veins. ‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ he said evenly.

‘I saw her ten days ago, you know.’

‘Did you?’

‘She wasn’t looking well then.’

‘What’s the matter with her?’ he asked, purely for the sake of conversation and not out of any interest whatsoever.

‘I’m not sure. It sounds like she’s working hard.’

‘She does that.’

‘Too hard maybe.’

‘She does that too.’ Especially on Sundays.

‘Maybe you should go and check on her.’

He went still, his hand tightening around his glass. ‘Why would I want to go and check on her?’ he said, the need to do just that now suddenly—and perversely—thundering through him.

‘You’re itching to,’ said Lily, and he stamped it down because he wasn’t interested in how she was, and in any case he was pretty sure that the last thing she’d want was him pitching up on her doorstep, even if she hadn’t been unwell.

‘No, I’m not,’ he said coolly. ‘How hard Celia works is entirely up to her. I couldn’t care less how she is or what she’s up to.’

Lily looked at him shrewdly. ‘Funny, she said that about you too.’

‘Did she?’

‘Strikes me that there’s a lot of protesting going on here.’ She pretended to consider for a moment then said, ‘Maybe a bit too much.’

Just about resisting the temptation to grind his teeth, Marcus had had enough of beating around this particular bush. If it went on any longer she’d crush him to dust. ‘If you have a point, Lily,’ he said tightly, ‘would you mind getting to it?’

‘My point is that you get to each other.’

‘And?’

‘You should do something about it.’

He’d tried. He’d failed. He wouldn’t be going there again. Or even thinking about it. ‘She knows where I am.’

Lily let out a huff of exasperation. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, will you just go and see if she’s all right? As a favour to me? Please.’

At the genuine worry now filling Lily’s eyes, Marcus felt his resolve begin to waver and silently cursed. Oh, bloody hell. What choice did he have? He might not be keen to see her but if Celia was in real trouble, as Lily clearly thought she was, would he ever be able to forgive himself if he’d had the chance to help her and had done nothing, simply out of dented pride? Would Dan? And if she wasn’t in trouble, well, surely he could deal with the tongue-lashing he’d undoubtedly get.

Sighing deeply, he ran a hand across the back of his neck. ‘OK, fine,’ he said, and then, because he’d never be able to sit through supper, chatting and laughing while the visit to Celia’s loomed, added, ‘Want me to go now?’

Lily beamed. ‘I think it would be best, don’t you? And actually, as it would even up my table plan you’d be doing me a favour. Another one,’ she added, ushering him back down the hall and opening the door he’d stepped through only ten minutes before.

‘Text me her address and apologise to Kit for me.’

She nodded. ‘I will. Give her my love and tell her I said to get well soon. And thank you, Marcus.’

‘No problem,’ he said, and with the vague suspicion that, for all his reputation, when it came to powers of persuasion he had nothing on Lily, he left.

SEVEN

Half an
hour later Marcus had crossed London and was at the top of the steps that led up to Celia’s building, thinking that here he was unexpectedly standing on yet another doorstep he’d had no intention of gracing a week ago.

As the taxi had pulled up at her address he’d noticed that her lights were off and for a split second he’d contemplated leaving her be. But then Lily and Dan had shot into his thoughts, and his conscience—which had never given him much trouble before—had sprung into life, propelling him out of the taxi and up the steps.

So he’d do what he was here to do. He’d check on her, and then go, and with any luck he wouldn’t have any reason to see her ever again, bar the odd Dan/Zoe occasion that might require both their presence.

Marginally reassured by that, he pressed the buzzer and waited. He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels for a couple of minutes. Was just about to give up when the intercom crackled to life.

‘Yes?’ came the muffled voice.

‘Celia,’ he said, leaning forwards. ‘It’s Marcus.’

There was silence. And then a grumpy, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

Yup, as he’d thought. No more pleased to have him visit than he was. ‘To see if you’re all right.’

‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

‘You tell me. I heard you had a headache.’

‘I do. I was asleep.’

‘Then I apologise for waking you up.’

‘Not accepted,’ she said crossly. There was a rustle, and then, ‘Wait. How did you hear about my headache?’

‘Dinner. Kit and Lily’s. You were meant to be there.’

A pause while she presumably processed this fact. ‘That’s right,’ she said slowly, as if realisation had only just dawned. ‘I was. Have I missed it?’

‘Half of it at least.’

‘How rude of me.’

‘Not
that
rude. You cancelled.’

‘Did I?’

OK, so this was getting a little odd, thought Marcus with a frown as a flicker of concern edged through his frustration. Celia sounded confused, disorientated. Which was possibly a consequence of being abruptly woken up. Or possibly not. ‘Apparently so.’

‘Oh,’ she said vaguely. ‘So why aren’t you still there?’

‘Lily was worried.’

‘She has no need to be. I’m fine.’

At the ensuing silence he sighed and ran a hand through his hair and wished to God that her brother were here. Even either of her parents—who both unfortunately lived a couple of hundred miles away—would do because he was
not
the man for this job. However, something was telling him she wasn’t all that fine, and right now there was no one else. ‘Can I come up? Just for a second.’

‘I’m not a child, Marcus,’ she said, frustration clear in her voice. ‘I don’t need checking up on or looking after.’

‘Then prove it and let me in. Five minutes. That’s all I ask.’

There was a pause. A sigh. ‘Then will you leave me alone?’

‘Yes.’ If she really was as all right as she claimed.

‘OK, fine.’

The door buzzed and Marcus pushed it open. He leapt up the four flights of stairs to Celia’s top-floor flat, and at the sight of her he stopped dead, the breath knocked from his lungs.

She was standing in the doorway, her arms crossed and her chin up, and she might be channelling defiance and trying to appear all right, but she looked absolutely horrendous. Her skin was grey, her eyes dull and her hair was all over the place. She was wearing a pair of faded pink pyjamas that had seen better days, and even though she was covered from head to toe he was willing to bet that she’d lost weight. Her cheeks were hollower than they’d been the last time he’d seen her and her collarbones sharper.

Apart from that ten minutes with him in the garden, she always looked immaculate. Magnificent. Totally together and composed. Now, though, she looked like a dishevelled ghost, the energy and drive all sucked out of her, and it shocked the life out of him.

Frustration gone and concern sweeping in to take its place, he strode towards her, then, as she stepped back to let him in, past her into her flat and spun round as she closed the door behind him.

‘What on earth is the matter with you?’ he said, worry making his voice sharper than he’d intended.

Celia winced and put a hand to her temple. ‘Don’t shout at me.’

Guilt slashed through him and he swore softly. ‘Sorry.’

‘I have a headache.’

‘So you said,’ he said, gritting his teeth in an effort to moderate his tone, ‘but this looks like more than just a headache to me.’

‘I guess it might be a migraine but I’ve never had one so I wouldn’t know.’

‘Have you taken anything for it?’

‘Aspirin, but it hasn’t made any difference.’ She walked past him into the kitchen and picked up a bottle of water, holding it to her chest as if she needed the defence. ‘You really didn’t need to come over,’ she grumbled. ‘I’m sure I’ll be fine in the morning.’

‘Possibly.’

‘I’m just tired, that’s all.’

He glanced at the dark circles beneath her eyes and thought that exhausted was more like it. And she was way too thin. ‘When did you last eat?’

She frowned then shrugged. ‘Yesterday evening. The deal went through and we went out to celebrate.’

‘Congratulations.’

‘Thanks.’

‘I’ll make you something and then put you to bed.’

She jerked, her eyes widening and her cheeks flushing, which at least gave her some colour. ‘No,’ she said hotly. ‘Absolutely not.’

At the thought evidently going through her mind Marcus let out a sigh of exasperation and dragged a hand through his hair. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Celia.’

Her eyes flashed. ‘I
don’t
need a nurse.’

‘You need food.’

‘I need to be left alone.’

‘Well, that’s too bad because I’m not going anywhere.’ Two could play the obstinacy game, and with the state she was in she didn’t stand a chance of winning. How on earth could he leave her when she obviously wasn’t well at all? Dan would have his balls on a plate.

‘I hate you seeing me like this,’ she said.

He hated seeing her like this too. He’d always thought of her as so strong and resilient, and to see her a mere shadow of herself was twisting something in his chest. ‘I’ve no doubt you do, but you might as well get used to it.’

‘Well, you can’t make me something to eat,’ she said, clearly sensing that this battle was one she wasn’t going to win and, to his relief, giving in. ‘There’s nothing in the fridge apart from bread. I don’t cook, remember.’

‘Then we’ll get something in.’

‘Not sure I feel like eating.’

Ignoring that, Marcus spied the pile of takeaway menus on the immaculately gleaming counter, snatched up the one on the top and hauled out his phone. Tonight, it seemed, they’d be having pizza. Not quite the gourmet spread Lily had probably planned, but good enough.

‘What else is wrong besides the headache?’ he asked, tapping the number into his phone.

‘Nothing, really.’

He shot her a look of warning. ‘Celia.’

‘OK, sometimes I ache.’

‘Ache where?’

‘All over.’

‘And?’

She bit her lip and frowned. ‘I might have been having a few heart palpitations as well.’

Marcus froze, then blanched, his thumb hovering over the dial button. Migraines? Aches? Heart palpitations? What the hell was wrong with her? ‘A few?’

She shrugged. ‘More than a few.’

‘Anything else?’

‘No, that’s about it, I think.’

Well, it was quite enough, he thought grimly, deleting the number and scrolling through his list of contacts. Sod the pizza. Sod tucking her up in bed and keeping an eye on her till morning. She was going to see a doctor. Now.

‘I need a taxi,’ he said the second his call was answered, and then reeled off her address.

‘I thought you were calling for food,’ she said, looking a bit bewildered.

‘Change of plan.’ Then into the phone, ‘No. Half an hour’s too long. Make it ten minutes and I’ll double the fare.’ And with that he hung up.

‘Where are you going?’ she asked.

‘
We
are going to A and E.’

She stared at him in surprise and then gave a weak laugh. ‘I’m sure I don’t need to go to A and E, Marcus. I’ll just take some more aspirin and go back to bed. You’re overreacting.’

He looked at her steadily. ‘Heart palpitations, Celia?’

‘Stress,’ she said firmly, dismissively, and he wanted to shake her. ‘Which will undoubtedly diminish now that the deal’s gone through.’

‘What if it isn’t just stress?’

‘What else would it be?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said, struggling to keep a lid on his temper because she just didn’t seem to be taking this seriously and it was threatening to make him lose it. ‘How about burnout? How about a breakdown? How about a bloody heart attack?’

She recoiled. Went as white as the walls of her pristine flat, and he bit back an instinctive apology because he was glad he’d shocked her. She
should
be concerned.

‘Fine,’ she said, coolly rallying and pulling her shoulders back. ‘You win. I’ll go and get dressed, then, shall I?’

* * *

By the time Celia’s name was called four hours later and she went off to see the doctor Marcus was practically climbing walls.

She’d been quiet while they’d been waiting. Monosyllabic in her answers to his occasional question about how she was feeling, but that was hardly surprising since he must have put the fear of God into her with talk of burnout, breakdown and heart attacks. Not to mention the way he’d practically bullied her into coming, even though he’d had no choice because, God, he’d never met a more stubborn woman.

But she hadn’t commented on his methods or his motivation, which was actually something of a relief because he wasn’t sure he could explain the reason for the sky-high level of concern that had gripped him when he’d laid eyes on her earlier. He could tell himself as much as he liked that it was Lily, or Dan, or his conscience, but he had the vague suspicion it was something else. Something he didn’t want to investigate too closely.

Instead she’d just sat there, calmly flicking through leaflets and then absorbing herself in her e-reader. She’d drunk the coffees he’d bought, and worked her way through half a sandwich, an apple and a chocolate bar that he’d picked up from the canteen. She’d even had a nap, stretching across four of the uncomfortable plastic chairs and point-blank refusing the offer of his lap as a pillow.

In short, she couldn’t have been more composed.

He, on the other hand, had been going increasingly nuts. When not occupied with the job of going for food and drink, he’d spent practically all of the past four hours pacing, shoving his hands through his hair in frustration and wishing he could just barge in and insist she be seen then and there. But this was a Saturday night in London, and a woman with a headache and the odd palpitation—as she’d insisted on describing herself when asked about her symptoms—came pretty low down on the list when it came to emergencies.

He didn’t like hospitals; the smells, the lighting, the sounds made him shudder. He’d spent quite enough time in them when his father had been ill. He didn’t like the memories they stirred up much either. Memories of his mother’s grief following his father’s death and the way she’d shut him out. The way he hadn’t understood that and so had reciprocated by shutting her—and everyone else—out.

As an only child with an emotionally absent mother he’d been alone with his grief, and, unable to handle it, he’d gone off the rails, partying too hard, drinking too much and sleeping with too many girls. He hadn’t noticed that his mother wasn’t coping either. She hadn’t displayed any sign that she wasn’t and he hadn’t realised she’d been caught in the claws of deep depression until the day he learned she’d locked herself in the garage with the engine of his father’s car running and had had to identify her body in yet another hospital.

But where else could he have taken Celia at this time on a Saturday night? It was the only option he’d had because maybe she was right and he was overreacting but the symptoms she had worried him, and if it came to it he was not going to have another woman’s death on his conscience.

Given that they’d been waiting so long, the fact that Celia emerged a mere fifteen minutes after she went in was unexpected. He didn’t know if the speed of her appointment was a good thing or a bad one. He scoured her face but her expression gave nothing away. She didn’t look happy. Or sad. She just looked blank.

As she went and sat down, Marcus strode over to her, his heart pounding and his blood draining to his feet as something like dread began to sweep through him. God, if there was something really wrong with her he didn’t know what the hell he’d do.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

She looked up at him. Blinked as if whatever the doctor had told her hadn’t sunk in yet, and he got the impression that she wasn’t really looking at him. That she was miles away.

‘Celia? Tell me. What is it?’

She opened her mouth. Closed it. Frowned. ‘Stress, mainly,’ she said finally.

Marcus sank into the chair next to her, almost sagging with relief. Not a breakdown. Not burnout. Not a heart attack. ‘Thank God for that,’ he said roughly.

‘I wouldn’t go thanking God just yet.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because it’s not just stress.’

‘Then what else is it?’

‘I’m pregnant.’

* * *

Celia watched as the news she’d barely registered herself hit Marcus’ brain. Watched him reel as she was still reeling. Watched the shock cross his face and thought that it couldn’t be anywhere near as great as the shock she was feeling. The shock that had made her throw up in the doctor’s wastepaper basket, not that she’d be sharing that delightful detail with him.

‘Pregnant?’ he echoed faintly.

She nodded. ‘Six weeks, they think.’

‘Mine?’

‘Couldn’t be anyone else’s.’

Marcus swore brutally and shoved his hands through his hair.

‘I know,’ she muttered.

Except she didn’t really know anything about anything that had happened in the past six or so hours. She didn’t know why when Marcus had rung her buzzer she’d wanted him to leave, not because she’d thought she was fine, but because she hadn’t wanted him to see her in such a state. She didn’t know why she’d secretly been so pleased that he’d refused to take her hints and go. Why she was glad he’d insisted on her coming to A and E. Why she was grateful for his support now.