Deceit Of A Pagan

‘Oh! Oh, I’m sorry.’ She sat down in the chair she had recently vacated.

‘So,’ he sat opposite her. ‘Would you mind telling me what it was only my brother could help you with?’ His eyes narrowed to two icy slits. ‘Or is it so private you cannot tell me about it?’

Templar’s eyes flashed angrily at his condescending tone. ‘You aren’t being very polite, Mr Marcose.’

‘Am I not?’ he asked tautly. ‘But then you are being particularly obstructive. You sent an urgent letter to my brother and when I come in his stead you refuse to tell me what the matter was you wanted to discuss with him.’ He stood up in one fluid movement, a ripple of pure ripcord muscle the only sign of effort. ‘It seems you are right, and I have had a wasted journey.’

Templar stood up to aid his departure, but was prevented from doing so by an ear-piercing scream from Keri. Without waiting to answer his look of astonishment she dashed into the bedroom, her only thought to quieten her before she disturbed the whole household. Keri raised tear-wet cheeks and Templar couldn’t resist her endearing little face. ‘There, darling,’ she crooned softly. ‘It’s all right, my baby.’

Leondro Marcose stood transfixed in the doorway, his darkly handsome face a shuttered mask. ‘So,’ he said harshly, the voice that she had thought attractive grating with suppressed violence. ‘You have a child.’

‘As you can see.’ Templar still smiled reassuringly at Keri.

Keri’s big green eyes fixed themselves on the tall dark man’s face, and she chuckled delightedly. ‘Mama,’ she chortled. ‘Mama.’

To Templar it was a triumph, but it only seemed to incense her visitor more, if that were possible. Ignoring his censorious look, she smiled happily at Keri. ‘Aren’t you clever, darling. Now are you going to go back to sleep? Mama has a visitor, and you’re being very naughty.’

‘Please do not hurry yourself because of me.’ The man’s voice was like a rapier, cutting all down before him, and at the moment it was her. ‘If this is the reason you wanted my brother’s help, then you are right, I can be of no service to you. You have formed your own destiny, and to involve other people in your troubles is not something I appreciate.’

‘Really, Mr Marcose?’ she asked tartly, taking Keri over to this tall imperious stranger and placing her in front of him. He had little choice but to take the squirming bundle into his strong arms, staring at her intently.

Templar waited with bated breath as Keri played with the buttons on the front of his snowy white shirt, her four tiny white teeth showing between ruby-red lips. Leondro Marcose looked from Keri to Templar and back again, his face pale.

‘This child,’ his voice was husky and curiously uncertain. ‘There is no doubt that you are the child’s mother. And the father—–’ he stopped. ‘The father was my brother, was he not?’

She nodded. ‘Yes, he was. But I—–’

‘Please!’ he said curtly, carrying Keri into the other room where he sat down abruptly in one of the armchairs. Keri looked at him with gleeful eyes, enjoying this unexpected treat. Men didn’t very often come into her orbit, except Ken of course, and as their dislike was mutual he didn’t count. As Leondro Marcose looked at her his face softened, the harsh lines beside his firm mouth dissipating. ‘And what is your name, little one?’

‘Her name is Keri,’ put in Templar. ‘And she’s ten months old.’ She still hadn’t told him that Keri wasn’t her child, but somehow now didn’t seem to be the right moment.

‘I see.’ He looked at her over Keri’s copper curls. ‘And of what assistance can I be to you?’

She looked taken aback. ‘Why, none,’ she said in a surprised voice. ‘It was your brother I wanted to see, and as he’s—dead,’ the word choked in her throat. Poor Keri, both parents dead so young. ‘As he’s dead, I’ll have to solve my problem on my own.’

‘I disagree. Must I remind you that Keri is my niece?’

Templar was dumbstruck. It was an aspect she hadn’t thought of. She shook her head. ‘You only have my word for that. I couldn’t swear Alex was her father.’

‘The devil you can’t!’ he rasped, and Keri’s face puckered tearfully at the harshness of his voice. ‘It is all right, little one.’ He placed her on the floor and stood up to pace the room, taking out a long cigar and a gold lighter. ‘I have your permission to smoke?’ he asked grimly, igniting the lighter at the nod of her head. He didn’t speak again for several long seconds. ‘So you do not know if my brother is your baby’s father, or if she belongs to one of your other lovers,’ he addressed her coolly. ‘Well, let me put your mind at rest. Keri is Alexis’ child, of that there can be no doubt. She is very like him to look at. Have you not noticed the resemblance? Or have you forgotten how my brother looked in the sea of faces that were no doubt your lovers?’

Templar blanched under his insults. ‘And what do you intend doing, Mr Marcose? Paying me off?’

His mouth twisted tauntingly. ‘That is the one thing I do not intend doing, Miss Newman. I’m sure that you expected as much from Alex, but you will find I am made of much sterner stuff than my brother was. No, Keri is my niece and I intend taking her into my care. If I gave you money you would no doubt spend it on things other than the infant, and although I realise you have a certain amount of affection for the child, I am sure you will appreciate that I can give her more than you will ever be able to. No matter how many men you take into your bed.’

She hit out at him instinctively, her only thought to hurt him as he was verbally hurting her. Her finger marks stood out livid against his dark skin and she moved away from him in horror, snatching the frightened Keri off the floor and hugging her tightly against her. The two of them looked at him with apprehensive eyes, Templar noting a strange expression cross his face, but it passed so fleetingly she didn’t have time to analyse it. ‘I do not have a “certain amount of affection” for Keri,’ she said in a low controlled voice. ‘I love her. And no—no stranger is going to take her away from me. Oh, I know you can give her more than I can, you’re obviously wealthy enough to, but I love her. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?’

‘Not a great deal,’ he replied coldly. ‘And as you know I have money I do not think there was any need for that remark about my being wealthy. Alexis must have told you it was so and you obviously thought it was time to play your lead card. As a small baby Keri may not have made the impact that she has now, especially as she has your hair and eyes. But then most babies look alike. But now, now that her features are becoming distinctly like my brother’s you decide the time is right to make us aware of her existence. What is the matter, Miss Newman? Are you tired of caring for a young baby? Do you long to go back to the life you no doubt led before my young brother was gullible enough to fall for your undoubted charms?’

She shook her head. This just couldn’t be happening to her! Oh, she realised the remark she had made about being unsure of Keri’s parentage had sparked off this cold chilling anger, but if he had only given her chance she could have explained that her uncertainty was due to the fact that Keri was not her child. Now it had gone too far. If she told him the truth now he would probably take Keri away from her altogether, and then she might never see her again. ‘Keri is my life now,’ she said simply. ‘And I won’t let you take her from me.’

‘You would not be able to stop me if that were my intention. If none of your—admirers would be willing to come forward I am sure I could find a couple of men who would give evidence against you. I only have to cast doubts on your ability to be a proper mother and Keri will be given into my care. Do you want that?’

‘You think money can buy everything, don’t you, Mr Marcose?’ she said brokenly.

‘Please, call me Leon, anything else would be verging on the ridiculous in the circumstances. And I shall call you—–?’ he paused expectantly.

‘Templar,’ she replied miserably.

‘Unusual,’ came his comment. ‘And no, I know money cannot buy everything. Most things, but not everything. But in this case it will get me what I want.’

‘And what is that?’ Templar asked dully, cradling the now sleepy Keri against her.

‘I wish to make a future for Keri. I cannot do that by taking her into my house as my brother’s child. Everyone will know her for what she is, and that I do not want. She is a beautiful child and deserves to have the sort of background I would wish for her. So I propose to marry her mother and so pass Keri off as my own child.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘WHAT!’ Templar stared at him in horror. ‘You can’t possibly be serious?’

Arrogant eyebrows rose over heavy-lidded eyes, the firmness of his mouth showing his displeasure. ‘But I am, perfectly serious. The final decision does of course lie with you. You can either give up your daughter or marry me.’

Templar placed Keri back in her cot, moving like an automaton. She wrung her hands together, her eyes dwelling thoughtfully on the copper curls just visible from the bedroom. She looked again at the dark forbidding face of the man who had the power to wreck her whole life, and saw no softening there, he obviously meant what he said.

His thick dark hair was brushed casually back from his high forehead, his nostrils flaring arrogantly as she continued to look at him. How could she let her little Keri live with this hard, embittered man, with no one to give her a mother’s love? Or would he get someone else to provide that? He was a very determined man and a little thing like her unhappiness wouldn’t matter to him as long as he got what he wanted. And there could be no doubt that he wanted Keri. If she told him now that Keri wasn’t her child he would take her away from her anyway; much better to keep that knowledge to herself. As long as this man attained control of his niece what possible difference could it make that Templar wasn’t her mother? As far as she could see it would only be Keri and herself who suffered by his gaining such information.

‘Why—’ her lips felt stiff and she found it difficult to articulate. ‘Why should you want to do a thing like that?’ she asked nervously, licking her lips.

His expression didn’t alter as he flicked a speck off the tailored jacket of his light grey suit. ‘Why should I not?’ he returned coolly. ‘And do not obtain the mistaken idea that I am considering this course of action for any other reason than Keri’s future. You, as a person, do not interest me in the slightest. Secondhand goods are not my line.’

‘And just what is your line, Mr Marcose?’ she asked, ignoring his insults as she felt sure he wanted to annoy her, and she wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.

‘Surely Alex told you?’

He sounded slightly mocking and Templar flushed uncomfortably. ‘No,’ she answered lightly. ‘I don’t believe your occupation ever entered into our conversation, in fact, I don’t think we ever discussed you at all.’ Which happened to be true. How could she have discussed anything with a man she had never met?

His eyes darkened to a metallic grey. ‘Alex seems to have been remiss concerning several of his relationships. I had never heard of you either. Just what was your line-before you had Keri?’

Templar bridled angrily at his condescending tone. ‘My line, as you put it, happened to be modelling.’

‘Really? Alex seems to have found girls in that profession particularly attractive for some reason.’ His eyes studied her intently. ‘Ah, yes, I remember now. When I first saw you I thought you appeared familiar. You are the girl in the make-up advertisement, are you not?’

Her nose wrinkled slightly at his obvious distaste. ‘That was one of my last assignments,’ she remembered wistfully.

‘You would like to return to your profession?’

Templar shook her head. ‘Not now. It’s too late. I have Keri and she’s my whole life.’

Her visitor looked bored. ‘You do not have to continually try to convince me of your devotion to the child. I have given you the options, you have only to make your choice.’

She paced restlessly about the room. ‘It’s not as simple as that,’ she insisted.

‘I see. You have a—boy-friend?’

Momentarily Templar thought of Ken and then dismissed him. He could hardly be cast in the light Leondro Marcose was trying to put him in. ‘No, I have no boy-friend.’

‘You surprise me,’ he said dryly.

‘I have a male friend, but that’s all he is,’ she said firmly. ‘Anyway, that isn’t the reason for my hesitation. You can’t honestly expect me to seriously consider marriage to a man I’ve known barely an hour, a man that I know nothing about. You claim to be Keri’s uncle, but I only have your word for that.’

‘Do not be hysterical!’ he snapped. ‘If it is information about myself that you want then I will gladly tell you a few facts about myself. My name you already know. I am thirty-six years of age, and unmarried. I have worldwide business interests, mainly hotels and property. I am Greek, but I live mainly in my apartment in London. Of course, if you decide to marry me, I will move you into my house in the country. I shall be taking Keri there anyway, whatever you decide to do. A nanny will be obtained for her.’

‘It most certainly will not!’ Templar said adamantly. ‘If, and I emphasise the if, I allow you to force me into this senseless marriage, I will continue to care for Keri myself. Goodness, I could have arranged for a nanny for her myself and carried on working to pay for her. But I don’t think that’s the way to bring up a child. It would be heartless to do that to her now, she has come to rely on me completely.’

He gave a slight inclination of his head. ‘That is, of course, unfortunate. It seems you have little choice in the matter, then.’ He stood up.

She stayed his departure, her face desperate. ‘Please! Look, couldn’t you just care for Keri and myself? We could—well, we could still come and live with you. But surely we don’t have to marry?’

‘The idea appeals to me no more than it does you. But Keri’s likeness to Alex is too noticeable for her to be other than his child—or my own. And in this case I would prefer that she was thought to be mine. Alex may have had a fleeting relationship with you, but in Greece he has a fiancée who could be hurt by your mere existence. In your country it may be accepted that women have children outside of marriage, but such a thing would not be allowed to happen in my country.’

‘Must I remind you that it was your brother who was responsible for Keri’s birth? The woman is not solely to blame for the situation she finds herself in.’

His mouth set in firm lines. ‘I realise this. That is why it is only right that I should care for you and your child. It is unfortunate that this has occurred at all, but now that it has, and Alex is no longer alive to face up to his responsibilities, I will have to do so for him.’

‘And you think love didn’t enter into it?’

His eyes flickered over her contemptuously. ‘You are surely not trying to tell me that you loved my brother?’

Templar flinched from the derision in his voice. Whatever he thought, Tiffany had loved his brother, and there was no denying this fact. ‘Surely the fact that Keri was born at all is proof enough. No single woman would bring a child into the world if she didn’t love its father—or at least, she doesn’t have to. It isn’t necessary nowadays.’

‘Maybe not in your estimation, but in mine every child conceived with love or without it should be given the chance of life. So what you are saying is that if you hadn’t loved Alex, Keri would not have been born? And yet a few moments ago you said you were not even sure Alex was her father. Have you been in love with all the men who have shared your bed?’ he scorned.

‘Mr Marcose,’ she began tightly, ‘if you have such a bad opinion of me, aren’t you taking rather a risk by marrying me? After all, I might be a very disruptive influence in your life.’

‘You will not be allowed to be,’ he said arrogantly. ‘You will lead a very quiet life at my country house.’

‘Oh, yes? And just what will you be doing while I keep out of trouble in the country?’

‘Working. At my London apartment. I rarely visit the house you would be living in, and as soon as you move there I will endeavour to make my visits even more infrequent. I have no wish to behave as the doting husband too often.’

‘The—the what?’

He looked impatient. ‘We will have to show a certain amount of affection towards one another, no matter how much we hate it. It will be expected.’

Templar shook her head. ‘Not by me it won’t! I couldn’t possibly pretend to feel affection for someone I—–’ she broke off.

‘Hate?’ Leondro Marcose suggested. ‘You can be assured, Templar Newman, that the feeling is mutual. But I think my brother must have had some feelings of love for you. I do not know if he was aware of the type of person you actually are. Not even to know the father of your own child!’ his top lip curled back in a sneer. ‘I will leave you now. But arrangements will be made for our marriage of which you will be notified.’

‘Couldn’t I just have a little time to think it all over?’ begged Templar. ‘It’s all so—so sudden.’

‘Why sudden?’ he asked tartly. ‘You must have expected something of the sort when you wrote that letter.’

She shook her head numbly. ‘I didn’t. I just thought your brother—Alex,’ she amended quickly, ‘I thought he might be able to help me.’

‘And why is it that you suddenly need this help? Keri is ten months old, did you not consider asking for his assistance when she was born? Ah, but I forgot—you did not know Alex was her father. So why this sudden necessity for his aid?’

Templar thought of refusing to answer him, but knew he would only force it out of her. ‘I’ve been told I have to leave here at the end of the week, and I simply have nowhere else to go. No one wants to take in an unmarried mother, and I thought Alex might just be able to help for a couple of months until I had something sorted out.’

‘And now you find yourself placed in the position where you either marry someone you hate, or lose the one thing you love. It is a pity, of course, but then you were instrumental in forging your own destiny. You must have known you could never have married Alex.’

‘And why should I have known that?’

‘Because of his fiancée. A betrothal is almost as binding as a marriage in my country, and Alex was very much betrothed. He was killed only four weeks before the wedding was to have taken place. And do not think you were the first girl he had been involved with. There was another model just before his involvement with you.’

‘Then he couldn’t have been very much in love with his fiancée, to have behaved that way.’

‘Love!’ he scoffed. ‘What does love have to do with marriage? His betrothed was a quiet girl of a good family and breeding, and she would have brought a large dowry to her husband.’

‘Everything I’m not, apparently,’ said Templar dryly.

‘As you say,’ he agreed coldly. ‘But obviously your other attributes meant more to him at the time than anything Katina could give him.’ He glanced impatiently at his wrist watch. ‘I have an important appointment to go to now; you have until Friday to make up your mind. But be assured that whatever you decide to do for yourself, Keri will come to me. You are perfectly free to live your own life.’

‘Keri is my life,’ she repeated vehemently.

‘So you have said. I will call again on Friday.’

The room felt strangely empty once he had left, the smell of his cigar lingering in the air. Templar stared blankly at the closed door. Things had seemed desperate before, but they were even worse now. Leondro Marcose might be able to give Keri the sort of up-bringing Templar could only dream about for her, but it meant a lifelong marriage for Templar to a man she could only ever despise.

She stood at the side of Keri’s cot, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘Oh, darling,’ she breathed softly, ‘what shall I do? Oh, what shall I do?’

Templar looked around the shabby room she had moved into the day before. When the kindly landlady had told her that she could have the room and that she would look after Keri while Templar worked she couldn’t believe her luck. She had told no one she was moving, except of course Mrs Marks. Not even Mary and Ken knew. She daren’t risk being traced by them. Men like Leondro Marcose could wield a lot of power, and it wouldn’t take him long to trace one very frightened girl and her baby.

And she was frightened, terrified in fact. She couldn’t possibly spend the rest of her life married to that cold arrogant man. He had the look of a springing leopard about to leap on its prey. And Templar felt as if she was that prey.

Keri seemed little bothered by her change of scene, not that it was all that different. All these rooms were the same, although this one was shabbier than most. But then the landlady was kind, and that made all the difference.

Of Ken she had seen little; he had finally washed his hands of her. In fact, like Leondro Marcose, Ken had given her an ultimatum: marry him and give up Keri or else their relationship ended. He seemed to think he had waited long enough for her, and the argument that had followed had not been pleasant. Templar had told him so many times that she would never give up Keri that she had thought he would actually have realised by now that she meant what she said. But he hadn’t, accusing her of playing at mother, and Keri’s contented gurgles of ‘Mama’ had only incensed him more. Finally he had stormed out of the room with a vow to waste no more time on her.

In a way his departure had been a relief. His complaints about Keri had become more pronounced of late and Templar often had to bite her tongue from preventing herself from saying something she would regret. Like most red-haired people, she had a hot temper, although she usually managed to control it. As a child she had often been punished for losing her temper with another child, or even more disastrous, with an adult.

At every movement or knock on the door Templar physically jumped, dreading opening the door in case it should be Leondro Marcose, although Keri didn’t seem affected by the air of electricity that surrounded her.

Templar took Keri downstairs and left her with Mrs Street. She had to leave earlier in the mornings now, the journey to work taking twice as long from here. Her employer, Howard Hathaway, ran a small insurance agency, and Templar, besides being his secretary, was his assistant, the tea-girl, general telephonist and also the cleaning lady. Not that she minded. A huge impersonal complex wasn’t her idea of enjoying work, although occasionally Howard became just a little too familiar. Templar never ceased to be amazed by this. Howard had a beautiful and loving wife and two young children, and yet still he had to try and prove his irresistible manhood—another reason for her disillusionment of men’s fidelity.

‘Good morning, Howard,’ she said breathlessly, placing her bag full of groceries in the corner of the room with her coat. ‘Sorry I’m late, but I just had to get some food in.’

‘That’s all right,’ accepted Howard, a man in his mid-thirties beginning to go slightly bald on top. ‘Although you look worn out before you even start. What have you been up to?’

‘Why, nothing,’ she blushed. ‘But Keri did have rather a wakeful night last night.’

‘Teething,’ sympathised Howard. Having had to put up with it twice himself he knew how wearing it could be.

Templar shook her head, beginning to sort through the letters on her desk. ‘No, it wasn’t teething. She decided that two o’clock this morning was the time to play,’ she grimaced. ‘You try telling a determined ten-month-old that you’re too tired to play! It doesn’t work.’

‘I know,’ he laughed. ‘Look, leave those for a minute and make us both a cup of coffee.’