Julia was Gavin’s sister and Douglas liked Gavin. He was one of the few acquaintances who held both Douglas’s regard and respect. Julia was also the chosen guardian of Tamsin’s children and that, in addition to his regard for Gavin, meant Douglas had to find some way to make the situation work.
In any other circumstances, he would have been happy to settle a monthly amount of money on Julia and allow her to take the children to whatever backwater town she lived in. Or settle an even larger amount of money on Julia and have her just go away. If she had taken the children, Douglas would have been content with Samantha gathering progress reports and sending appropriate gifts during holidays and birthdays. He quite liked Tamsin’s children, even held some affection for them, but he had no desire to raise them.
However, that wasn’t what Tamsin wanted. Tamsin wanted her children to be raised at Sommersgate and for himself, and Julia, to do it and Douglas would respect his sister’s wishes, regardless of how inconvenient they were.
However, there was another issue with Julia.
He remembered when he first met her, or more to the point, he remembered that he wanted her the first moment he saw her.
She was a great deal different then. When she first visited them in England it was the first time she’d left her home country. She was uncommonly pretty, tall and shapely with thick blonde hair, green eyes and long, long legs. She held herself with a posture that demanded attention, effortlessly wearing clothes that were both timeless and vogue. The Americans called it “cool” and Gavin had been the same way, it was one of the reasons (Tamsin had told Douglas) why the American had caught his sister’s discerning eye.
Douglas had overheard a cousin at Tamsin and Gavin’s engagement party referring to Julia as “a bit intimidating.” At the time, he’d been surprised by the remark but watching Julia, who conducted herself with the grace and confidence of an old-fashioned movie star, he could see how those less confident would think it was true.
When Julia was younger, she lit up a room with her laughter. She was affectionate and cuddled up to Gavin and her mother, and eventually Tamsin, without any embarrassment.
But she’d grown out of that or more than likely Webster had worn it out of her.
Now she was still affectionate with the children. She also had the American, or perhaps Midwestern trait of touching your hand or arm when she was talking to you or hugging when you saw each other after a long period of time.
Monique detested it.
Now, he knew, Julia was no longer naive or unsophisticated. And the natural grace had been refined to unaffected elegance, an elegance that had just the slightest bit of an edge. His cousin would no longer find her “a bit intimidating” but undoubtedly very much so.
This appealed to Douglas.
Julia appealed to Douglas, through the years, she always had.
She’d gained her degree from the same university as Gavin, she’d acquitted herself well even after she’d chosen an ass like Sean Webster and she’d shown unconditional love to Tamsin as a member of her family and the same, in wild supply, to Tamsin’s children. Unquestioning, she’d left every scrap of her life and any future she might have had behind her to do as her brother and Tamsin asked and moved to Sommersgate. That showed loyalty and Douglas valued loyalty above all. It was in short supply, he himself had only had four people in his life show it to him, his sister, his friends the Forsythes, and Nick.
In all the time he knew her, Douglas could have easily, and pleasurably, become entangled with Julia and he had thought of this option often.
Always, he controlled these thoughts, not wishing the nastiness which would no doubt ensue when he ended it (he didn’t relish the idea of angering Gavin who was a very genial man but who was also immensely protective of not only his wife, but his mother and sister, and Douglas wouldn’t even consider eliciting the response Tamsin, who adopted Julia as her sister, would have).
Now, he would be living with her, and his mother who detested her, and his sister’s grieving children and he had to find a way to make it all work, not only for them but also for his own peace of mind.
And this was a problem. A problem with no solution. And that made Douglas impatient. He had not encountered a problem he couldn’t solve and he didn’t like that feeling.
He had a half-formed plan. Of course, he always had a plan.
He would have to do something publically to demonstrate clearly to his mother exactly what place Julia held at Sommersgate. If left to her own devices, Monique would relegate Julia to nannydom in the expanse of a week. But Julia was about as much of a nanny as Grace Kelly was a wallflower. Unfortunately, part of being an Ashton meant they lived their lives relatively publically and Douglas had every intention of putting Julia in her rightful place as Tamsin’s children’s aunt, and thus a member of the Ashton family. And he intended to do it immediately.
As for the rest, he’d managed to control his impulses when it came to Julia for fifteen years, another fifteen would not be difficult. Douglas managed to control a great many of his impulses with very little effort. He was rarely home anyway and Julia would just be a woman, albeit a very alluring one, who happened to live in his house.
Nothing else, except Monique’s attitude, need change.
And that, he could, and would, also control, of this he had no doubt.
He drove down the lane and around the chapel, skirting the fountain. He left the Jaguar in the front drive, knowing that Carter would have heard him arrive and would take the car to the garages and put it away.
Douglas grabbed his briefcase and walked to the door. He noted the lights were blazing in Julia’s suite and the curtains were opened. He wondered vaguely why she was awake at this hour, it was well after eleven and she had to be exhausted.
He shoved open the heavy door, not bothering to lock it behind him. Carter would see to that as well.
He intended to go straight to his study. Even if Julia was awake, she would most likely not wish his company this late at night and, with the call from Japan coming soon, he did not wish hers. The last time he had seen her, he remembered her eyes were sunk in their sockets with heartache but she had been resolute in telling him she’d be moving to Sommersgate directly after she arranged things in Indiana. And she had been true to her promise.
He moved down the hall, his study was opposite the dining room and he was about to turn into it when a flash of white caught his peripheral vision.
Immediately on alert, he turned toward the dining room and saw Julia running directly at him.
Taken off guard at the sight of a woman running through his house in the dead of night, he wasn’t prepared and she crashed right into him, rocking him back on his heels. Then she pushed away, disengaging herself from the arm he’d automatically thrown around her waist.
“The children…” Julia muttered urgently before he could say a word and then she pulled away and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
He stood there, staring up the stairs, wondering if this was some strange manifestation of jetlag or if he should follow her. The house was silent, save for her footsteps pounding down the hall. His keen sense of danger, bred in him through a lifetime of assessing his mother and father’s moods and honed through the secret life he had chosen, registered nothing.
He made his decision and walked calmly into the study, turned on the lights, deposited his briefcase on the desk, pulled his tie free, shrugged off his suit jacket and tossed them on the couch before he walked out to see what was happening.
By the time he exited the study, she was racing back down the stairs.