The Marriage Solution

‘Keep your hair on.’ Her sister’s voice was more amused than offended. ‘Why you care so much about him I’ll never know. You’ll never learn, will you, Katie? You’re just like Mum. Well, I’ve got to go, sweetie. I’ll phone tomorrow and tell you what flight I’ll be on. OK?’

‘Goodbye, Jennifer.’ Katie replaced the phone jerkily and strove for control. She should be hardened to it by now—she should, but her sister’s total lack of emotion about anything but her precious job seemed to get harder to take as she grew older. And the casual reference to their mother... Katie could still remember the day she had died—the bleak, total despair and sense of loss that had never really dimmed through the years. She had learnt to live with the ache but had never really got over her mother’s sudden death in a car accident when she was ten. They had been kindred spirits, totally different to look at but twin personalities and, in dark moments, Katie would still have given anything she possessed to gaze upon her face one more time and hug her tight.

It hadn’t helped that her father and Jennifer had seemed almost unaffected either, although Katie had often thought, with her father at least, that it had been a way of coping with grief, to shut it in and refuse to acknowledge that it was there. But perhaps that was wishful thinking? She shook her head. Maybe Jennifer was right after all—she’d never learn, the eternal optimist always wanting to see the best in people. The thought brought the image of Carlton Reef into sudden focus before her eyes and she heard his scornful and derisive voice as though he were in the room with her.

‘Right, enough is enough.’ She rose determinedly from the chair. Tomorrow she would go into school, throw herself into the work there and face all the other mountains in her life when the time came. There was nothing she could do or say that would avert the catastrophe that had befallen them—it was far too late for that—but she was going to need to be strong for her father and herself.

How he would face the shame and humiliation she just didn’t know; he was a fiercely proud man with unshakeable principles and this house in itself meant far more to him than mere collateral. Why on earth had he mortgaged it? She caught herself abruptly. No, recriminations were no good now; she needed to concentrate on the positive.

Over the next few days that resolution was to be sorely tested. News of the disaster travelled quickly in the business world and when she returned home from the school, often exhausted, the phone never seemed to stop ringing. Some of the callers were openly curious, digging for news, others faintly gloating that they themselves weren’t in such dire straits; one or two were sympathetic and concerned and several verged on the abusive. The latter were mainly creditors who were doubting whether they would ever get paid.

Jennifer had called as promised, the day after her father’s collapse, to say that the paper had contacted her shouting for a first-class reporter in France for a few days and would Katie mind terribly if she just did that little job before she came home? Katie had replied that her sister must decide her own priorities and Jennifer had finished the call quickly, saying that she had to run as the plane to France was going to be a tight one to catch.

Altogether, as Katie made her way to the hospital on Friday night for her regular evening visit, four days after her father’s collapse, she felt tired in mind and body and sick to her soul. Her father hadn’t improved as Dr Lambeth had hoped. Indeed, he seemed faintly worse each day, as though the will to live was ebbing away, and, forcing a bright smile on her face as she walked into the small sideward, she dreaded what she would find.

‘Hello again.’ The deep, cool voice hit her at the same moment that her numbed gaze took in the dark, lean body lazily seated at her father’s side.

‘You?’ She barely glanced at her parent, all her energy concentrated on the hard, handsome face watching her so intently. What was he doing here? The answer was obvious—he’ d come to badger a sick man. How dared he? How dared he?

‘Not the most charming of greetings but it will have to do, I suppose.’ And the creep was laughing at her. ‘How are you, Katie?’ he asked softly as he rose and offered her his chair.

‘I think you ought to leave, Mr Reef.’ She forced her voice to remain low but her eyes, daggers of steel aimed directly at his, spoke volumes. ‘My father is a sick man and I won’t have him upset.’

‘Katie!’

She ignored her father’s horrified exclamation and continued to look at the tanned face in front of her, which had lost its mocking amusement as though by magic. ‘Did you hear me?’ she asked tightly.

‘I’m not here to upset your father, Katie,’ Carlton said coldly, ‘although you seem to be doing a pretty good job of that yourself at the moment. Now would you please sit down and stop making a spectacle of yourself?’ he finished coolly.

‘Katie, for crying out loud...’ Her father’s agitated tones brought her eyes to his face for the first time and he nodded at the chair violently, his eyes lethal ‘Sit down, girl,’ he barked angrily, more himself than he had been in days. ‘Carlton is here purely as a friend, nothing more.’

‘Really?’ The word carried all the mistrust she felt for the man and her father shut his eyes for a moment in exasperation, shaking his head silently.

‘Sit’ It was an order and she sat, but as Carlton moved another chair near the bed and stretched out his long legs to within an inch of hers it was all she could do to restrain the impulse to jerk away. She managed it—just. ‘I’m sorry, Cadton.’ David White waved his hand at her as he spoke. ‘She isn’t normally this way but my illness seems to have brought out the lioness-defending-her-cub mentality.’

‘Not altogether a bad thing.’ Carlton smiled back but, as the dark grey eyes moved to her, the smoky depths were as hard as iron. ‘But the exterior doesn’t quite prepare one for the fire and brimstone underneath.’

‘Her mother was the same.’ She glanced at him, utterly astounded as he spoke. She had never in all her life heard him compare her to his wife and it was still more amazing that his tone held a faint touch of embarrassed pride. ‘She was sweetness personified, but if anyone threatened her family all hell was let loose. She was one special woman—’

He broke off, clearly horrified at having said so much, and there was a brief moment of charged silence before Carlton stepped into the breach. Katie was staring at her father open-mouthed, quite stunned. If a choir of heavenly angels had suddenly appeared in the room she couldn’t have been more surprised.

Carlton glanced at Katie whose astounded countenance spoke for itself and then at David who was staring determinedly out of the window, his face ruddy with embarrassment, before shifting slightly in his seat and speaking in a cool, matter-of-fact voice that defused the awkward atmosphere.

‘There are some papers in your father’s study at home that might be important. Katie, and he’d like me to have a look through them in case there’s a way out of this mess. Perhaps we could leave together and I could pick them up on the way home?’

‘I’m in my own car,’ she answered automatically as she dragged her eyes away from her father’s stiff face with tremendous effort and turned to Carlton.

‘No problem.’ He smiled easily. ‘I’ll follow you home in mine. I’d really rather look at them as soon as possible. If anything’s going to be done it’s got to be quick.’

‘You think there’s a chance?’ Katie asked quietly as she looked fully into the smoky grey eyes, receiving a slight jolt as the full power of the piercing gaze held hers.

‘Possibly.’ She couldn’t read a thing from his face—it was a study in neutrality. ‘From what David tells me, he was ill-advised himself and someone has certainly reaped a vast profit from this little deal. Now, whether it was actually illegal or not is another question and one that needs answering before the dust settles.’

‘I see.’ She didn’t want him to come to her house; she didn’t want anything at all to do with him, but in the face of what he was suggesting she had no choice but to smile, albeit painfully, and incline her head. ‘Well, of course, if my father thinks you should investigate further—’

‘I do.’ David cut into the conversation sharply, his voice more alive than it had been for the last four days and certainly more full of energy than she had expected when she’d walked into the room that evening. ‘Bankruptcy—’ He stopped abruptly. ‘I’ve never owed anyone a penny in my life,’ he continued gruffly, ‘and it doesn’t sit well, Katie, dammit! If there’s a chance—’

‘If there is I’ll find it.’ Carlton’s voice was smooth as he spoke but there was some inflexion, just something she couldn’t put a name to, that made Katie stare at him hard. He was so cold this man, so in control. She didn’t trust him; she didn’t trust him an inch, and she was suddenly more sure than ever that there was an ulterior motive governing what appeared to be a straightforward request.

‘Dad, these papers...’ She hesitated and searched for a way of disguising the question she had to ask. ‘Are there any you’d prefer to keep confidential? I could bring them all in here tomorrow and let you sort through them with Mr Reef if that would be more helpful. You must know what you’re looking for, after all, and he might miss—’

‘No, no. Let Carlton take anything he needs, Katie,’ David said briskly. ‘He probably knows what he’s looking for better than I do.’

She didn’t doubt it, Katie thought grimly, and that was exactly what was bothering her. She stared helplessly at her father, willing him to read her mind and know what she was thinking but he just smiled back at her before turning to Carlton with an easy gesture of thanks. ‘Anything you can do would be appreciated, Carlton.’

Anything he could do? She felt a little shiver of premonition as her father spoke. He had never made a mistake before in the business world that was his lifeblood; it seemed very strange that now, suddenly, he had made one, and one of such gigantic proportions that it would leave them totally destitute. Exactly what part had Carlton Reef played in all this? she wondered suspiciously. And why this offer of help now, after the rage of a few days ago?

As she turned to the dark figure at her side she realised, with a sudden surge of panic, that if her father had been unable to pick up the waves she was attempting to send him Carlton Reef had had no such problem. The grey eyes were chips of stone in an otherwise expressionless face, the mouth a taut, sardonic line of enquiry.

‘I have a photocopier in my study at home, Miss White,’ he said coolly, the use of her surname a distinct put-down. ‘Would you like to accompany me there tonight so you can keep the originals in your possession?’ It was a definite challenge and one, in view of her father’s comments, that he didn’t expect her to take up.

She stared at him for a few moments, her natural politeness and gentleness warring with the feeling that possessed her where this man was concerned. ‘Yes, I would,’ she said quietly, hearing David’s exasperated indrawn breath with a resigned sense of the inevitable. He would disapprove of her actions in dealing with Carlton Reef in the same way he disapproved of everything but she wouldn’t have been able to sleep tonight if she hadn’t followed through on her instinct.

She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the astute, intelligent mind ticking away behind those hard grey eyes was several paces in front of theirs. Quite what he bad in view she wasn’t sure, but if she had had to answer the old ‘friend or foe?’ question there would have been no hesitation. Carlton Reef was no friend of theirs.

For the rest of the visit Katie sat quietly listening to the two men talk. Carlton didn’t broach the business difficulties again, concentrating on light, witty conversation that kept David amused without him having to make any effort himself.

Carlton Reef was a formidable adversary, she thought silently as the minutes sped by. She had never met a man who generated such an air of easy authority, who seemed so totally sure of himself. And she was forced to recognise, after nearly an hour had passed, that, in spite of her distrust and dislike for the man, there was something compellingly attractive about him that was both fascinating and frightening.

She remembered the feel of being in his arms and that light kiss as he had left her a few days before and shivered in spite of the over-hot room. This was ridiculous, she told herself sternly. She needed to keep all her wits razor-sharp around him and thoughts of this nature were definitely out of order.

The smoky eyes turned to her as the round, clinical clock on the wall ticked to seven o‘clock. ‘Would you like a few minutes alone with your father, Katie?’ he asked quietly. She noticed that he hadn’t asked David and surmised that he had gleaned enough about their relationship to know what her father’s reply would have been.

‘Thank you.’ She smiled stiffly. ‘I won’t be long.’

‘There’s really no need...’ The older man’s protest was lost as Carlton rose and leant across the bed to shake him by the hand, making his goodbyes as he did so.

‘It’ll probably take a few days to sift through the correspondence, David,’ he said easily as he walked to the door after replacing the chair near then wall, ‘but if there’s anything I’ll call you immediately after the solicitors have checked it out OK?’

‘Fine, fine.’ Her father was beaming as the door closed and for a moment, as Katie glanced at him, she knew a dart of intense irritation. ‘What’s the matter?’ As his eyes switched to her face she tried to relax her features but it was too late. ‘You don’t like him, do you? Why?’ he asked disapprovingly.

‘I don’t know him,’ she prevaricated quickly.

‘He tells me you went to see him on the day I was brought in here,’ he said quietly, ‘after he’d phoned the house. That took some guts, Katie, but why didn’t you tell me?’

‘There was no need.’ She forced a bright smile to her face as she wondered where the conversation was leading.

‘Katie...’ Her father hesitated and then leant back against the pillows, his face more drawn now that Carlton’s stimulating company had left. ‘The situation can’t get worse than it is, now can it? If there’s the faintest chance he can pull it round, even if it means we’re left with the house and nothing else, it’s worth a try. I got greedy, girl...’

She stared at him in absolute amazement for the second time in an hour, aware that they were having the first real conversation of their lives.

‘I’d always planned to leave the house to you, you know. Jennifer would have been looked after with an equal financial payment but I’ve always seen my grandchildren being raised in the old home, somehow. I know that’s what your mother would have liked. She was always so upset she hadn’t produced a son to carry on the White name that she didn’t realise all I wanted was her—’

He stopped abruptly and there was a moment of deep silence before he continued. ‘I don’t know why I mortgaged the house—it was a crazy thing to do—but I thought I was going to make a killing.’ He smiled grimly. ‘And there was a killing all right.’

‘Don’t think about it now, Dad.’ She stood up quickly; the expression on his face was too painful to watch. ‘You’ve got to concentrate on getting better.’

‘I didn’t want to before Carlton came today,’ he said thoughtfully, his expression introspective, ‘but if there is a chance...’ He looked up, his face touchingly hopeful. ‘You do see we have to take it?’

‘Of course.’ She bent to kiss him goodbye and he turned his cheek to her as normal, the gesture as aloof as always. On the rare occasions in the past when she had gathered her courage and tried to hug or kiss him the response had always been the same—this formal offering of his cheek for a brief caress. ‘Goodnight, Dad,’ she said quietly, her voice bleak. Nothing had altered, not really. No wonder he liked Carlton so much. They were two of a kind—cold, reserved men who gave nothing of themselves and wanted no one.

Carlton was waiting for her just down the corridor, deep in conversation with one of the doctors. ‘Katie?’ He looked up as she carefully closed the door, and beckoned her to them. ‘There’s a chance that your father might be allowed home some time next week.’

‘I understand you have a live-in housekeeper, Miss White,’ the young doctor said quietly. ‘So he would have someone with him at all times?’

‘Yes.’ She stared at him anxiously. ‘You think he might have another attack?’

‘We hope not.’ She received the standard reassuring smile. ‘But obviously he will take some time to recover from this one, you do understand that?’

‘Of course.’

‘And rest and quiet are essential,’ he continued briskly. ‘So, we’ll think again after the weekend and give you a day or so’s warning before he comes home.’

‘Thank you.’ As Carlton took her arm the doctor smiled and left them, to enter the main ward on their right.

‘Encouraging news?’ Carlton said softly as they walked towards the lift, his fingers burning her flesh as she strove to remain calm and cool. She was vitally aware of him, his touch, the timbre of his voice, and she allowed her head to fall slightly forward so that the thick, silky fall of her hair hid her face from his gaze.

‘I suppose so.’ There were several other people in the lift and she relaxed slightly as it sped to the ground floor, but once in the corridor leading to the car park she voiced what was on her mind. ‘But I’m hardly going to be able to keep him quiet and calm with the house being sold over our heads and everything else that’s going to happen.’

‘Is there anywhere he could go while the worst of it takes place?’ Carlton asked slowly. ‘I understand your sister has a flat in London. Would she—?’

‘No, she wouldn’t,’ Katie cut in flatly. ‘The current boyfriend is in residence and, anyway, Jennifer is the last person to have her lifestyle interrupted in any way. She’d make my father miserable.’ She shrugged. ‘I’ll think of something and perhaps, if you’re successful, it won’t be necessary anyway.’

‘Right.’ Again there was something, a slight inflexion in the bland voice, that made her glance at him sharply as they left the hospital.

‘You meant what you said?’ she persisted carefully as they walked down the path leading to the car park, a few thin flakes of wispy snow blowing in the icy wind. ‘About trying to help?’

‘Of course.’ He stopped at the end of the path and turned to face her, his eyes veiled. ‘It’s in my own interest after all, isn’t it? I do stand to lose as well by this deal, you know.’

‘Some money, perhaps.’ He seemed to tower over her as she looked up into his face, her honey-blonde hair blowing in silky tendrils over the satin-smooth skin of her face and her eyes huge in the dim light. ‘But my father loses everything.’

‘So do you.’ His voice was very deep as his eyes followed the soft line of her mouth. ‘But that has hardly occurred to you, has it?’ There was a faint note of bewilderment in his voice but she was thinking about her father’s face in those few minutes she had had alone with him and didn’t notice.

‘I have my work.’ She looked up at him gravely. ‘And I can find us a small flat somewhere but it will take time. How long—?’ She paused and then continued painfully. ‘How long do these sorts of things take to happen?’

‘Not long,’ Carlton said expressionlessly. ‘David has to declare himself bankrupt first and then things move fairly swiftly, I understand.’

‘It’ll kill him.’ She looked over the cold, dark car park bleakly, her face desolate, and missed the sudden tightening of his mouth at her distress. ‘Well...’ she turned to him again and indicated her car some yards away ‘...that’s my car, so if you want to follow...?’

‘Fine.’ He stood still for a brief moment, observing her quietly before striding over to the Mercedes, lost in the night shadows at the far side of the car park. She unlocked her door and slid into the car, starting the engine and turning on her lights as she waited for him to join her. The snow was falling a little more heavily now, big, flat flakes beginning to outnumber the tiny, thread-like ones of a few minutes ago. She normally found the sight entrancing but tonight her heart was too heavy for the normal elation.

As the powerful headlights of the Mercedes drew up behind her she pulled carefully out of the dark car park, the icy conditions and the fact that Carlton was just behind her making her unusually nervous. Stop it, Katie, she told herself sternly. You’re a big girl now and you’ve been driving for years.

It didn’t help.

The journey home through a world fast becoming a winter wonderland was uneventful and as she drew into the winding drive, grateful for the scrunchy pebbles under the car’s wheels instead of the black ice she had encountered more than once on the main roads, her heart plummeted right into her boots. ‘Jennifer.’

She pulled up at the side of her sister’s expensive sports car and glanced back to where Carlton had just entered the drive. What was her sister going to make of all this? And, more importantly in the circumstances, what was Carlton going to make of her sister?

She wondered, for a split-second, if she had time to dash into the house and warn Jennifer to be on her best behaviour or at least be civil, but as Carlton unfolded his long body from the front of the car and slammed the door shut she resigned herself to the fact that it was too late.

She was fumbling with her key when he reached her side, and he gestured behind her to the car as the door swung open. ‘That’s my sister’s car,’ she said hurriedly as the warm, scented air from the hall reached out a welcome. ‘She must have just arrived.’

‘Better late than never,’ Carlton murmured sardonically as he followed her into the house. ‘Or perhaps in your sister’s case that old cliché doesn’t apply?’ he added wickedly.

She didn’t have time to reply. As they entered the house both Jennifer and Mrs Jenkins appeared from the drawing-room, the former cucumber-cool and as regal as ever and the latter clearly flustered.

‘Darling...’ Jennifer’s beautiful almond-shaped blue eyes rested briefly on her sister before transferring to Carlton’s hard, dark face, whereupon they brightened considerably. ‘We’ve only just arrived, Katie,’ she continued as she remained looking at Carlton, ‘so there was no time to visit father tonight.’

‘The visiting doesn’t end till ten,’ Katie said automatically, stiffening as another figure sauntered lazily out of the drawing-room.

‘Oh, this is Donald,’ Jennifer said in an aside over her shoulder. ‘And this is...?’ She held Carlton’s impassive glance for a long moment before turning briefly to Katie. ‘Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend, sweetie?’

‘I...’ Katie found herself at a loss for words and tried desperately to pull herself together. Why on earth had Jennifer brought her current lover here now of all times? she thought helplessly. It had to be the worst possible timing.

Donald had come to a halt just behind her sister, resting a casual hand on her shoulder as he glanced nonchalantly in Katie’s direction.

‘You must be the little sister?’ he drawled with a confidence that grated on Katie’s nerves like barbed wire. ‘Been holding the fort for Jennifer, then?’ he added patronisingly.

‘She’s been doing a lot more than that.’ Carlton’s voice was crisp and clear and both Jennifer and her swain stiffened at the tone. ‘And today has been a hard day like all the other ones before it, so might I suggest that we indulge in further niceties over a cup of coffee in the drawing-room?’ The last part of the sentence he directed at Mrs Jenkins with a warm smile that had been totally absent when he had looked at Jennifer and Donald, and the small woman nodded quickly, her eyes grateful at his mastery of the situation.

‘You go and sit down, my dear,’ Mrs Jenkins said quickly as she glanced at Katie’s drawn face. ‘I’ll bring it through in a minute.’