The Mistress's Child (20 page)

'Okay!'

They heard him scampering down the stairs and their eyes met.

'That was easier than I had anticipated,' admitted Philip.

'You were expecting him to find us in bed, then, were you?'

He shrugged. 'Well, it had to happen some time, didn't it?'

How sure of himself he was—and how sure of her. But she wasn't going to be a hypocrite and feel badly about the most wonderful night of her life.

He gave her a quick kiss, and yawned. 'At least this makes things easier.'

Lisi stilled. 'How do you mean?'

'Well.' He paused and lifted her chin so that she could not escape the cool scrutiny of his eyes. 'How would it sound if I told you that I was moving to Langley?'

The words did not seem to make any sense. I don't understand.'

'I love the rectory,' he said softly. 'And I find myself increasingly frustrated at commuting down there every damned weekend, when I'd happily see Tim every day.'

Tim. Not her. Just Tim. 'Go on,' she said painfully.

'So I've decided to base myself in the village.'

'But what about your business?'

He smoothed a lock of hair away from her cheek, noticing that she shut her eyes very quickly. 'Technology has given people in my kind of work the freedom to work from anywhere.' He hesitated, drawing back from telling her the one really big bit of news.

She opened her eyes, sensing that something else was coming. 'What?' she questioned.

'I'm in the process of buying Marian Reece out.'

'You're what?

'Don't look like that, Lisi.' He put his hand on her shoulder, but she shook it away and sat up in bed, her hair tumbling down to her waist, and he had to stifle the urge to start making love to her again. Tim was downstairs, he reminded himself, though he could see from the angry look on her face that an attempt at love-making now would not be particularly well received.

'You just didn't bother telling me that you're about to become my new boss?' she accused crossly. 'And neither, for that matter, did Marian!'

'It was tricky for her. She was undecided about whether or not she wanted to stay or go—she'd been thinking of it for some time, apparently.'

'But presumably you made her an offer she couldn't refuse?' she asked sarcastically.

'I gave her a good price, yes, but then I wanted—no, I needed a property base in Langley.'

'Perhaps you'll be pushing the existing staff out, and bringing in new people altogether!' she said, her voice rising on a note of hysteria. 'Or maybe I'll just hand my notice in—that might be best all round! Have you thought what it would be like if we were working together?'

He had thought of little else. 'I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to, Lisi,' he said placatingly. 'I wasn't planning to be hands-on—particularly as I hoped we might be spending a lot more time together anyway.'

She stared at him uncomprehendingly. 'Because you'll be seeing more of Tim if you're living in the village, you mean?'

'Well, not just Tim. You, as well—that's if you agree to my next proposal.'

Proposal? Her hands had gone suddenly clammy. 'Your proposal being what, exactly?'

The words had gone round and round in his head countless times, but there was no guaranteed way of making sure that she would not take them the wrong way.

'I thought that you and Tim could come and live with me. At the rectory.'

Her heart stood still. 'What?'

'It seems crazy for us to live in two houses on the same road, when the three of us seem to have forged a pretty good relationship.'

Pretty good relationship. How tepid and passionless that sounded!

'And last night proved something, didn't it?'

'What?' she asked shakily.

'That you and I are compatible in many, many ways.'

He meant, of course, that they were good in bed together. She guessed that it was intended as a compliment, so why did it make her feel distinctly uncomfortable?

Because sex without love was only ever second-best, that was why.

She wondered whether last night's magnificent seduction had all been part of his grand plan. Have her begging in his arms for more and she would not be able to deny him anything.

Least of all his son.

She supposed that she could toss her head back in a gesture of pride and thank him for his charming 'proposal', but tell him that she preferred what she already had.

But it would be a lie.

She had already decided that she couldn't bear for anyone else to have him and that she would settle for whatever he was offering. Hearts and flowers it was not, but perhaps it was the best she could hope for.

'What do you say, Lisi?' he asked softly. 'Will you and Tim come and live with me?'

She tried telling herself that for Tim's sake she could not refuse, but that would not be the whole picture. For her sake too, there was only one answer she could possibly give.

'Yes, Philip,' she answered quietly. 'We'll come and live with you.'

CHAPTER TWELVE

'No, Mummy!'

'But, darling, you need a new pair of shoes—you know you do—and we're going to meet Philip's parents at the weekend. They have to see you looking your best, don't they?'

'Granny and Grandpa,' said Tim happily.

Lisi suppressed a sigh. Everything seemed to have happened so quickly. It seemed bizarre that a few short months ago it had been just her and Tim, and yet now he talked all the time about Daddy, and his grandparents and the uncle and aunt he was soon to meet.

One great big extended family—for him, at least—although Lisi still sometimes felt as though she was standing looking in from the sidelines. But her role was as Tim's mother and Philip's mistress, and she must never forget that.

The move from Cherry Tree Cottage to The Old Rectory had been seamless—practically, if not emotionally. She had been apprehensive about it at first, but her fears had been groundless and it had turned out to be nothing short of a delight to move into her old home, with all its happy childhood memories.

To the outside world they probably looked just like any other family—and, indeed, that was just how it felt most of the time. In every sense of the word.

After years of abstinence, Philip certainly wasn't holding back. He made love to her at every opportunity he got, and Lisi wasn't complaining. He took her to heaven and back

every time, even if the words of love she longed for never materialised.

He was warm and tender when she lay in his arms, but he didn't let his defences down—nor she hers. He never told her whether he regretted that circumstances had forced them into this quasi-marriage, and she didn't dare ask. And he, like her, seemed happy enough to go along with the status quo. Either that, or he was a consummate actor.

He had persuaded Marian to stay on in a consultant capacity. She now worked mornings only, two new staff had been taken on, business was booming—and Lisi had been promoted to office manageress in the afternoons.

'Philip, I can't!' she had protested, when he had first mooted the idea. 'Everyone will say it's nepotism!'

'Then everyone will be wrong,' he had replied patiently. 'You've worked here for years, and you've worked damned hard. You're good—you know you are! You deserve it, Lisi—so enjoy it!'

And she did—especially so on the all-too-infrequent occasions when Philip himself was in the office. He had not exaggerated when he had told her that he did not plan to be too hands-on. He continued to travel around the countryside and, as often as not, chose to work from the beautiful study he had created at The Old Rectory, where he said the view made his heart sing, and Lisi had never thought she could be so jealous of a view!

Thank heavens she was essentially a practical person, determinedly enjoying what she had and not wishing for the impossible.

But the trip to meet his parents loomed. She wanted to make a good impression, and that meant a brand-new outfit as well as shoes for Tim.

'Let's leave Daddy a note, shall we?' she suggested. 'You can do him a little drawing while  load up the dishwasher before we go. Here.' She scribbled a few words

down, resisting the desire to add hundreds of kisses. 'Have taken Tim to Bilchester to buy shoes and a dress for me— back in time for work. Love, Lisi.'

Tim grizzled from the moment she put him in the car, and Lisi wondered whether he was coming down with a cold.

'Don't want to go!' he screamed, and she looked at him.

Which was more important—a happy son, or a miserable son? His trainers weren't that bad—and surely Philip's parents would be more interested in seeing their grandson, than in analysing her choice of footwear for him! She glanced at the heavy clouds in the sky, and the thought of being caught in rain with an out-of-sorts Tim made her mind up for her.

'Tell you what,' she said as the car Philip had insisted on buying her bumped its way down the drive. 'We'll call in to see if Rachel's there. If she is and if she isn't too busy, we'll see if you can stay with her and Blaine, while Mummy goes to Bilchester on her own. How does that sound?'

'Hurrah!' cheered Tim.

Rachel seemed all too pleased to have him. 'That'll keep Blaine from under my feet.' She grinned. I have four tons of laundry to sort out, and all he wants to do is play!'

Bilchester was quiet, but Lisi suspected that the drizzle which had now turned into a torrential downpour had something to do with the lack of shoppers.

She managed to buy a flame-coloured dress and a sexy pair of suede shoes, but her umbrella did little to withstand the gathering gale, and by the time she got back in the car she was shivering.

Her progress back was slow and she found herself looking at her watch more than once, and she was just starting to get anxious when she felt the car pulling out of control,

and she managed to steer it over to the side-verge before switching off the engine.

With the rain pouring down, she got out to investigate and her worst fears were confirmed when she looked down to see that her tyre was completely flat. To drive it would be madness, but how the hell did she get home?

She looked up and down the narrow lane, as if expecting a recovery vehicle to come roaring up to her aid, but the road was completely empty and she was miles from anywhere.

So did she sit in the car and wait, and hope to flag down a passing motorist who might just turn out to be a homicidal maniac?

Or should she start walking home—or at least to the nearest phone-box? Philip would be home and he could drive out and pick her up.

Her raincoat already almost soaked through, she took her bags and set off as icy mud spattered up the sides of her legs and the heavens continued to unleash their downpour.

It took for ever to find a phone-box, and by then she felt that there was not one part of her body which wasn't cold and wet.

With chattering teeth she inserted a coin and dialled home, but the phone rang and rang and she remembered with a sinking heart that she had not put the answering machine on before she had left.

She replaced the receiver with a sigh of resignation. Nothing else for it but to carry on walking.

Never had a journey seemed quite so long or so arduous. Two cars passed her, but she let them drive on by—she was nearly into Langley now. A little way more wouldn't kill her.

It was almost two o'clock when she trudged past the duck pond and down the lane towards The Old Rectory. With frozen fingers she was fumbling around in her bag

for her doorkey when the door flew open and there stood Philip, his face so white and furious that she hardly recognised him.

'Where the hell have you been?' he exploded, although the frantic racing of his heart abated slightly.

She was taken aback by the dark fury in his eyes. 'Well, that's a nice way to greet someone,' she managed, but her teeth were chattering so much that her words sounded like gobbledygook.

'I've been worried sick! Worried out of my head! You left a note saying that you'd gone out with Tim and I thought...I thought...' he heaved in a shuddering breath '...I thought that something had happened to you!'

Lisi pushed past Trim into the hall, suddenly understanding his distress. He was out of his mind with worry, but it had been Tim who had been the cause of his concern, not her. Of course it had.

'Why do you have to be so damned stubborn?' he demanded. 'Why wouldn't you let me buy you a mobile phone?'

'Because I don't need one! I've never had one before now, and I'm not going to start now just because I have the good fortune to be living with a rich man!'

'How charmingly you put it!' he snarled.

'Well, it's the truth!' She had never seen Philip quite so het-up before. Never. She glared at him. 'Why haven't you even bothered to ask me where Tim is, as you're so worried about him?'

'I know where he is!' he snapped. 'He's at nursery! I've just taken him there. Rachel rang here to find out where you were because you hadn't collected him, and I told her that I didn't know. You didn't ring—'

'Yes, I did! There was no reply—'

'I was out collecting Tim, that's why. Did you bother to put the answering machine on this morning?'

'Did you? she countered. 'Anyway, there's nothing to worry about now, is there? Tim's safe, and that's all that matters!'

'All that matters?  he said incredulously.

'Yes!' she snapped.

He went very still, and his face took on an implacable look she had never seen there before. 'Take that coat off,' he said suddenly. 'You're soaking.'

She attempted to undo her coat, but her fingers were shaking so much that they slipped ineffectually at the buttons and Philip reached across to help her. She tried to swat him away. 'G-go away!'

He ignored her. 'Now go and get changed,' he ordered. 'And then come down to my study. I've lit a fire.'

She had had enough. Too tired and cold and shaken to care about what she said, she shot him a look of defiance. 'Stop sounding like a bloody headmaster!'

'Then stop behaving like a naughty schoolgirl!'

His rage was both intimidating and yet oddly exciting. 'And if I don't come down?'