“I’ve taken care of everything,” Mrs. K whispered, Julia started and looked to her right at Mrs. K whose head was poking into the hall from the doorway that led to the kitchen. “I’ll serve you but I’ll be discreet. Roddy has taken the children to the cottage and Ronnie has already gone home.”
Julia nodded, a small, expectant (but slightly anxious) smile on her face.
Mrs. K winked and disappeared.
Julia heard footsteps down the hall, and voices.
She went still and listened.
Voices?
A man’s and a woman’s.
Julia walked into the room and the voices became more distinct.
Before they could turn the corner to the room, she knew. She knew both voices.
All the breath left her body and she realised there was a good possibility she would faint.
Then Monique Ashton and Sean Webster turned the corner and entered the dining room.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Archie and Ruby’s Heartache
Tonight was the night.
Douglas wasn’t going to allow her to hide in her rooms like she did last night (even at dinner, she gave the ridiculous excuse of a headache making the children eye each other speculatively throughout the meal).
He was going to ask Mr. and Mrs. Kilpatrick to take the children and he was going to find her, hunt her down if required, and make her agree to marry him using any means necessary.
Everything was in place; there was not a nuance he hadn’t considered. He had the ring in his pocket and he had an enormous bouquet of two dozen exquisite white roses in his hand.
He knew about the roses because of Patricia.
While Julia was hiding last night, nursing her “headache”, Douglas called her mother. He had never told Julia he’d play fair and drastic times called for drastic measures.
“Douglas, my God, is it the children?” Patricia said upon hearing his voice.
“No,” Douglas replied shortly, still not believing he was making such a call. “It’s Julia.”
“Is she all right?” Patricia’s voice was filled with worry.
“She’s fine,” he assured her calmly, “although I have a problem with her.”
Silence.
Douglas did silence very well, this time using it to stall while he contemplated the unpleasant task ahead of him.
Eventually Patricia was forced to ask warily, “What problem?”
Through gritted teeth, still not believing Julia had reduced him to this, Douglas forced out, “I seem to be unable to convince her to marry me.”
Silence again, this time the shock was palpable over the phone line.
Then, to his stunned disbelief, she asked, “Even after the kitten?”
Douglas didn’t deign to answer.
“The kitten was a crowning achievement.” Douglas heard the amusement in his future mother-in-law’s voice, forgot that he actually held some regard for the woman and at that moment would cheerfully have wrung her neck.
She continued, oblivious. “Jewel is stubborn as an ox and she doesn’t like men all that much, though don’t think I blame her, considering. Must admit, though, she does hold on to things a bit.”
“A bit,” Douglas agreed sardonically.
This caused Patricia to roar with laughter. When she was finished, he could practically hear her wiping her eyes.
“White roses,” she said, apropos of nothing.
“Pardon?”
“White roses, she loves them, her favourites. Start with that and then whisk her off to Fiji. She’s always said she wouldn’t consider that she’d truly lived until she went to Fiji, God only knows why but once that girl gets something in her head, she doesn’t let it go.” Douglas made no response, he’d lived that nightmare. “And let’s face it,” Patricia spoke into his silence. “The girl needs a vacation. If you go, I’ll come out and see to the children.”
It took a moment for the realisation to dawn that Patricia was helping him and he hadn’t had to convince her.
“I take it I have your blessing?”
Three months ago, Douglas wouldn’t have cared less.
Now, he did.
“Let me tell you something, my boy, you’ve had my blessing for fifteen years. I saw the way you looked at her all this time, Tammy and Gav did too. Not to mention the way she looked at you. Why do you think you’re in this pickle? Tammy would be beside herself with sheer, unadulterated glee. By God, you’ve taken your sweet time.”
He was trying to cope with being called her “boy” and was definitely not willing to think of the rest of what she said.
“You want me to talk to her?” Patricia offered helpfully.
“No,” Douglas responded forcefully.
She laughed again and then, after a moment of contemplative silence, she said softly, “She’ll make you happy.”
He felt something reminiscent of the dazed feeling he’d had in the hall the night before but set it aside and said, “I’ve been trying to convince her that it will be the other way around.”
She gave an uninterpretable “humph” then she demanded, “See that it is.”
Now he was walking up the hallway toward the voices in the dining room.
He was looking forward to this. He didn’t know what he was looking forward to most, sliding his ring on her finger or taking her to bed while she was wearing it.
He rounded the corner and came to an abrupt halt at what he saw.
The room was set to a romantic glow with softened lighting, a fire burning at the grate and candles on the table. An elegant table, set for two, ready for an intimate dinner. Julia was standing in front of the fire looking ravishing in a stunning black dress with her hair softly pulled up at the crown, tendrils tickling the glowing skin of her neck where his emerald hung.
And Sean Webster was standing opposite her staring at her with earnest intent.
For the second time in his life, Douglas Ashton, Baron Blackbourne, completely lost control.
“What the fuck is going on?” he demanded, his voice rumbling with barely controlled rage.
Julia jumped, a reaction that took her dangerously close to the fire. She didn’t seem to notice it, her face snapped toward him and he saw that she was pale.
And her green eyes, usually alight with some emotion, were completely, frighteningly, blank.
“Douglas!” Sean exclaimed, the other man walking toward him beaming. “Good to see you, man.” And then he stopped and his gaze shifted to the flowers. He looked from Douglas then turned to Julia and started to ask, “What the –?”
“Julia?” Douglas barked, completely ignoring Webster and she jumped again, taking her closer to the fire, so close she could easily get burned. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Douglas finished tersely and he walked forward, threw the flowers unceremoniously on the table as he passed, grabbed her upper arm and yanked her unresisting body away from the flames.
“Do you want to explain this to me?” he clipped, not taking his hand from her arm.
“I was –” she started to speak and her voice was small in a way he’d never heard before, in a way that, hearing it, made his heart squeeze painfully. She looked up at him and her eyes cleared.
As she gazed at him, he saw raw emotion take the place of the blankness that preceded it. He’d seen that look in her eyes twice before, once after the first time they made love and again, in the hall Christmas night after Ruby’s outburst. Both times, seeing it, he’d nearly come undone.
He surveyed the room, his hand gentling on her arm.
Julia wouldn’t invite Sean Webster to a cosy, romantic dinner in his dining room.
Julia wouldn’t invite Webster anywhere.
Douglas turned to the other man. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to talk to Julia. I heard about Gavin and –” Sean was also surveying the room, Julia’s dress and the flowers and the cosy scene finally dawned on him making his face get red. “What are you doing with my wife?” he demanded hotly.