Forbidden Night With The Duke

‘But...’ Megan took a swig of her coffee and almost choked on it. ‘So you just walked away...?’

‘I’m sure you’re not naïve enough to imagine that there wasn’t any just about it. We had a few full and frank discussions.’ He hesitated, as if he might be about to elaborate, and then shook his head. ‘The only other thing you need to know is that I left because Sonia called off the wedding.’

‘I don’t...’ Megan covered her mouth with her hand. Actually, she did believe him.

‘You don’t think I’m telling you the truth?’ He shrugged. ‘I’m afraid I can’t help you with that. You’ll have to make up your own mind.’

If he’d been lying he probably would have elaborated, or used his charm to convince her. But his face was impassive, making the sadness in his beautiful eyes even more compelling.

‘But you must have known what everyone at the hospital was saying. Didn’t you want to correct it?’ It would have been easy enough. A ten-minute call to one of the hospital bosses, who would have passed the information on to his secretary, with the hint that it could be tactfully fed to one or two other people. That was how rumours worked.

‘Yes, I knew exactly what Sonia’s friends were saying. And, no, I made no effort to correct it, even though I knew it was untrue.’

Discretion maybe. Or maybe he just didn’t care what anyone else thought. Jaye had always seemed quite capable of that kind of arrogance. Or maybe humbled pride, that any woman could cheat on him.

It didn’t matter. She wasn’t thinking of making Jaye her best friend, she was looking for a boss who she could trust.

‘I believed what I heard and...’ Megan felt herself redden at the thought. ‘I’m sorry. I should have known better than to trust second-hand gossip.’

He shrugged her apology away. ‘What you heard was as much my responsibility as Sonia’s. What matters now is that you make your decision based on the facts.’ He smiled and Megan felt herself flush, heat zinging up her spine.

He hadn’t given her a shred of proof, and precious little explanation, but she believed him. If those eyes were lying then she could kiss goodbye to everything she thought she knew about human nature.

‘I still have a decision to make?’ Megan heard herself whisper the words. If Jaye couldn’t forgive her behaviour, she wouldn’t blame him.

He planted his forearms on the table, hands clasped together, and leaned towards her. Challenging, and yet intimate too. ‘Absolutely. I believe you’ll justify my confidence in you.’

‘Then...’ Megan’s head was spinning, and her heart was pumping fast. Both organs seemed to be vying for their say in the matter. ‘I like working for people who expect success. They generally put fewer limitations on their goals.’

Jaye laughed suddenly. ‘I’m glad to hear that.’

He clinked his mug against hers, and drank. A toast to an unexpected success, dragged from the jaws of failure. If nothing else, working for Jaye’s charity was going to be interesting, and even more of a challenge than Megan had thought.

* * *

If Jaye did nothing else in the next four days, at least he might manage to repair some of the damage. His and Sonia’s engagement might have been a disaster in the making, averted only at the very last minute, but there was no reason why Megan’s career should be damaged by the fallout.

He hadn’t examined the potential consequences of letting the rumours persist, wanting only to disappear. Hurt and feeling that if he shrunk any more, he’d lose himself completely, he’d retreated to Sri Lanka. The clinic that his father had founded after the 2005 tsunami, and which Jaye had helped build, was a place of tranquillity and calm. A place to heal and find his balance.

But it was a different balance. He’d tried dating again, but had found himself caught up in a fury of mistrust, unable to accept that his new partner’s motives for being with him could be any different from Sonia’s. In the end, he’d given up the struggle and had let her go, burying himself once more in the work that brought him peace and fulfilment.

Jaye stared at the crackling logs in the fireplace. When Megan had believed him, it had felt as if a little piece of his heart had been repaired. Here, sitting in his apartment, with only the sound of the fire to keep him company, he knew that one piece would never be enough.

He should get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a full day, and he needed to focus. Preferably on something other than Megan’s smile.

* * *

The conference was under way, and already it felt to Megan that she’d entered a self-sufficient bubble. One that brought people who’d worked in many different parts of the world together with those who were just starting out on their careers. It was almost impossible to find the time to meet and talk to everyone.

But the one person she never seemed to talk to was Jaye. Although he was always there, he was always at the opposite end of the room from her. The coincidences were beginning to form a pattern.

At least she could watch him, and that had its very definite pleasures. Tall, graceful and always impeccably dressed, he was the stuff that daydreams were made of. And if he caught her watching him, then that could surely only be because he was watching her.

* * *

Jaye had retreated to his apartment in the west wing of the building, and sat in his study with John Ferris. It had been an exhausting two days.

‘You’re pleased with how things are going?’

‘On the whole.’ John sank into the leather chair on the other side of the fireplace. ‘I was a bit disappointed about Steven.’

Jaye and John had spent over two hours last night with the young doctor, talking through all of his reasons for leaving. ‘But you did say that was the point of this. That we shouldn’t assume any particular outcome for any particular candidate but find out what the best way forward was.’

John nodded. ‘Yeah. Steven’s not in the right place to take up a job with us at the moment. He’s got a lot of potential, though, and I want to keep in touch with him.’

‘You think that in twenty years’ time he’ll be Head of Surgery somewhere. Consulting for us, and mentoring our young surgeons?’

‘Who knows? We have to look towards the long term, and funnier things have happened.’

This was exactly why Jaye had recruited John. Four years ago, Jaye had returned from Sri Lanka with a new commitment for a future that had seemed empty without a wife and the prospect of children. It was time to take a step back from his private practice in London and concentrate on the charity that he and his father had built together. And he had needed an organiser, someone who could work side by side with him and run the charity, while Jaye concentrated on its medical activities. John had been that person.

‘What about Megan?’ John’s question interrupted his reverie.

‘What...about her?’ Megan had occupied his thoughts for much of the last two days, and that was a very good reason to take a step back. John’s decisions would be far less clouded by the urgent need to look into her eyes and see her smile.

‘It looked as if she was intent on leaving the other day, before you threw yourself in front of her car in the driveway. I asked her if everything was all right.’

‘What did she say?’

John laughed. ‘She played her cards as close to her chest as you are now. Told me that it was a misunderstanding, and that you’d come to her rescue. She made it very clear that it was all her fault and that you’d addressed her concerns very fully.’

Jaye resisted the impulse to smile. Since he hadn’t spoken with Megan himself in the course of the last two days, he’d relied on her demeanour and the few shy smiles that she’d given, when his gaze had met hers. It felt good to hear that Megan was moving forward on the basis that she really did believe him.

‘It wasn’t all her fault. Mostly it was mine.’

‘Yeah. Takes two to tango.’ John was looking at him steadily. ‘Is there anything else I should know? You and her?’

The question knocked Jaye off balance for a moment. Maybe because he’d wondered more than once how it might have been had he met Megan before Sonia. But the truth of it was that the only moments of intimacy between them had been in his head.

‘No. Megan and I met before, years ago and in the course of our jobs. But that’s all, there’s never been anything between us.’

‘In that case... I wonder how you feel about offering her a posting in Sri Lanka. They’re short-staffed there and, with the new doctor in residence still settling in, they could do with the help.’ John flashed Jaye a questioning look.

‘Staffing’s your province, John. I trust your judgement.’

‘And I appreciate that. But considering your close ties with the clinic in Sri Lanka, I thought I’d get your opinion before I mentioned the idea to Megan.’

‘I think it’s a great idea. I’d like to see what Megan makes of Sri Lanka.’

* * *

Megan trudged across the well-manicured lawn, sliding down the steep slope to the edge of the woodlands beyond, where Jaye’s father was shovelling clumps of sticky earth into a wheelbarrow.

‘Megan...’ Raj Perera straightened up, leaning on his spade as she approached. ‘You’ve decided on a walk?’

‘No.’ Megan pulled the piece of paper from her coat pocket. ‘I was wondering if you could help me with something.’

‘Of course. That’s my role as your group leader this weekend. And I could do with a break.’

Megan handed over the paper, and Raj looked at it. ‘John’s set us all a challenge. We all have to give a five-minute talk about one of our charity’s programmes. I’ve been given the Western Province Free Clinic in Sri Lanka.’

‘That’s a place very close to my heart.’ Raj’s way of making an observation, then watching and waiting to see what you’d do with it, was a lot like Jaye’s. A little less disturbing maybe, because Megan didn’t have to contend with her own quickening heartbeat, which happened whenever Jaye was around.

‘I heard that you and your wife were the ones who started it.’

‘Yes, we did.’

‘Well... I asked John if there were any restrictions on how we could get the information we needed and he said there weren’t. And since you were there, right at the start...’

Raj thought for a moment, and then nodded. ‘What do you have in mind?’

‘I thought maybe a short interview, if you could spare the time.’ Megan gestured towards the spade. ‘I can do some digging in return...’

Raj’s smile reminded her of Jaye’s too, but it was a lot more freely given. ‘Very well. What would you like to know?’

‘Why you founded the clinic.’ Megan took the spade and started to dig.

‘Caroline and I were in Sri Lanka, visiting relatives, when the tsunami hit in 2005. Many people needed medical aid, and we immediately gave what help we could. I set up a clinic in a tent, under a tree.’

‘And people came...?’ The earth was sticky and unyielding and Megan heaved her weight onto the spade to sink it into the ground.

‘Yes, they came. There were so many, and sometimes they only had the clothes they stood up in. Caroline helped organise the effort to feed and clothe them and give them some kind of roof over their heads.’

‘It must have been...heartbreaking.’ Megan had worked in areas of great need, but never in a disaster zone.

‘It was. And yet it warmed my heart too. Jaye is my oldest son, I have three more. All four of them came, for six weeks, to give what help they could.’

‘That must have made you very proud.’

‘It did. Each of them has followed their own path, but Jaye... In that six weeks he found his calling.’

Until recently, Megan would have thought that Jaye Perera’s only calling in life was to make money, and exercise the power that he had inherited. Raj was clearly not referring to either of those things.

‘His calling? To be a doctor, you mean?’

Raj smiled. ‘He’d already walked that path—Jaye had just qualified as a doctor. He was evaluating his next step, and had a number of very good options available to him here in the UK. But he gave them up and stayed in Sri Lanka for a year, working with me to build the clinic.’

‘He raised funds?’ This was a new side of Jaye, which Megan hadn’t seen before.

‘No, he built the clinic. He helped dig the foundations, and then poured concrete and laid bricks. And every afternoon he cleaned up and worked at our ramshackle surgery. Accuse me of bias if you wish, but I’ve never seen a man work so hard.’

This definitely wasn’t the Jaye that Megan knew. She’d come to terms with the idea of him as someone who made things happen, and that many of those things were for the benefit of others. But getting his hands dirty? Megan had never, even in her wildest dreams, pictured that.

‘I didn’t realise. He seems...so different.’

‘Maybe you just don’t know him very well.’

Maybe, maybe not. But the tantalising glimpses of what Jaye had been put a new and puzzling perspective on the man that he seemed to be now.

‘Tell me about the challenges.’ Megan straightened, surveying her handiwork. The small dent in the ground put the task of digging foundations sharply into perspective. ‘Um... Medical first. Then social...’

Chapter Three

JAYE SAT AT the back of the group of chairs in the room that had been set aside for the conference activities. Everyone had done well, and each of the five-minute talks was obviously carefully crafted.

Megan stood up, clutching her laptop, and walked to the front of the group, plugging in the cable that led to the screen behind her. A number of people had already displayed photographs to accompany their talks, and Jaye wondered which ones she’d chosen.

‘I’ve decided to make my presentation in the form of an interview. I’d like to thank Dr and Mrs Perera for all the help they’ve given me, and for agreeing to talk about the early days of the Western Province Free Clinic...’

Jaye could hardly suppress a grin. There was no better way to tell the story of the clinic than to use his father and mother’s own words.

‘I’m not sure that’s quite what was intended.’ A voice sounded from the centre of the group.

Jaye was pretty sure that was exactly what was intended. The tasks that John had set here weren’t quite as straightforward as they looked, and this one was clearly about methods, just as much as results.

Megan looked around the audience, reddening a little, and Jaye suppressed the urge to come to her defence.

‘Our remit was to find out as much as we could. Which I’ve done.’

‘You’re missing the point...’ Rob was the young doctor whose voice was always loudest in the group discussions, which was a shame, because his vision seemed always the most limited.

‘Which point?’ Megan softened her question with a smile, and Jaye wondered privately what Rob had done to deserve that particular burst of sunshine.

‘You have to do the research and come up with your own answers. You can’t just ask someone else, that’s not in the rules...’ Rob gave a sigh of exasperation, as if he were talking to a recalcitrant child.

Enough. If Rob wanted to throw his weight around, he could do it with him, not Megan. Jaye moved to intervene but Megan was already replying.

‘Isn’t asking someone who was there the best kind of research there is? I’m not aware of any rule against it.’

‘The only rules were the ones that everyone chose to superimpose on themselves.’ John was grinning broadly as he cut in. ‘Let’s see your presentation, Megan.’

Jaye breathed a silent thank you and settled back in his chair. It had been entirely inappropriate to want to defend Megan, but the impulse still lingered, like an uninvited guest at a party.

Megan was speaking again, and then she tapped a key on her laptop and sat down. His mother and father appeared on the screen, seated together at the kitchen table in their apartment.

‘Dr and Mrs Perera, you were in Sri Lanka when the tsunami of 2005 hit.’ Megan’s voice came from somewhere behind the camera. ‘The medical station that you set up to help the sick and the injured was the foundation of the present-day clinic. What were the biggest problems you faced...?’

The video lasted exactly five minutes. By the time it had finished, Jaye felt tears pricking at the sides of his eyes.

This wasn’t appropriate either. He knew the story well enough, he’d been there for much of it. The interview had clearly been carefully edited, and somehow Megan had managed to catch all the passion, the battle against seemingly overwhelming odds, and the achievements that had kept everyone going. At the end of the interview there were photographs, some of which had been taken from his parents’ personal albums.

There was silence in the room and then someone started to clap. Megan grabbed her laptop and hurried back to her seat, red-faced, as everyone applauded.

* * *

Everyone had crowded around Megan when the session ended, wanting to know more about the Sri Lankan clinic. Jaye had hurried from the room, trying not to notice that Megan’s head had turned to watch him go.

He’d taken refuge in an armchair, tucked into the corner of the large landing where the main staircase split in two. It was one of his favourite places in the house where he could sit and watch the world go by, without being a part of it. But as Megan walked through the hallway, she looked up and saw him there.

‘May I join you?’ She walked half way up towards him and then stopped.

‘Yes, of course.’ Jaye rose from the chair and sat down on the stairs next to it.

‘Is this your stair?’ She had a mischievous look in her eyes as she approached him.

Actually, it was. The one where he’d sat as a child, hidden from the hallway by the turn in the stairs but able to peep out and see what was going on.

‘Why don’t you try it for size?’ There was plenty of room there for two.

Megan nodded, sitting down next to him. Looking around, she peered through the heavy banister rails to see down into the main hall.

‘It’s a good stair. Just right.’ She smiled at him, and Jaye felt a warm tingle shoot down his spine.

‘I think so.’ His legs were a little longer now, so it wasn’t such a good hiding place as it had once been. But his initials were still there, carved into the stair tread and hidden by the carpet.

She was hugging her laptop, obviously there on a mission. Jaye waited. No doubt Megan would come out with it, sooner rather than later.

‘I hope you didn’t mind... Your mother and father were really happy to do the interview and they offered to let me scan some of their photographs... They were very kind, and I didn’t mean to impose on them by asking so much. I hope you don’t feel it was too personal.’

‘Not a bit. And my parents looked as if they were really enjoying it. My father never passes up a chance to reminisce.’ It occurred to Jaye that including his parents’ words and photographs hadn’t been an exercise in currying favour. Megan had simply gone down the route that she felt told the story best, despite not being sure whether he’d approve. The thought made him smile.

‘I had to cut some bits out.’ She looked up at him, her eyes bright. ‘Did you really help dig the foundations of the clinic?’

‘I was a lot younger then.’ It seemed like a hundred years ago. And yet somehow he could still touch the feeling of something fresh and new.

‘John spoke to me about sending me there for my first assignment. I’ll have to check out your bricklaying skills.’ She was clearly testing the water, waiting for Jaye’s opinion on the matter.

‘Well, when you get there, take the path that runs around the back of the building. We all put our initials in the cement, under the window of the main ward.’

Megan gave a broad smile. ‘I will. I can’t wait...’

She seemed to have said all she’d come to say and had begun to fidget nervously. Jaye stretched his legs out in front of him, wondering if he might persuade her to stay. Just so he could breathe her scent a little longer.

‘What do you think of the course so far?’

‘It’s been great, really helpful. It’s been good to talk to people from other charities and compare the different approaches. And being in this house has made all the difference.’

Jaye had always felt he paled into insignificance next to the great house, set in its spectacular landscape, but it was disappointing to hear the words on Megan’s lips. He wouldn’t have minded so much if Sonia hadn’t fallen so irrevocably in love with the place. When he’d first brought her here, she’d hardly looked at him all day, as if he’d suddenly melted into a poor second place in her heart. Jaye had tried to dismiss the feeling, but it had turned out to be a warning of things to come.

‘You think the house is what makes the difference. Not the people in it?’

She flashed him a withering look, as if he’d misunderstood on purpose. ‘What I meant was that we don’t leave every evening, so we sit and talk a lot more. Don’t you think that surroundings have an impact on how people operate?’

Jaye chuckled. ‘Yes, I do. It’s one of the founding principles of the clinic in Sri Lanka. We tried to make it a quiet place, where people could find healing and balance.’

‘The principles of Ayurvedic medicine? You practise that?’

‘No. But we understand that tradition sometimes has a lot to offer. We respect it.’

Megan nodded. ‘Everything I hear about the clinic in Sri Lanka just makes me want to go even more...’

She’d relaxed now, her shoulder brushing his arm as she turned to put her laptop on the stair next to her. That one touch seemed to linger.

‘So what impact do you think this house has had on the way the group has operated?’

‘Apart from the fact that I’m tempted to take a sandwich with me when I trek from my bed over to the shower in the mornings...? Not that my room isn’t lovely, of course, and very comfortable.’

‘Of course. And leaving your early morning hunger pangs out of it?’ Jaye filed the information under the category of irrelevant but nice to know.

‘It’s like a bubble. It seems as if it’s been here for ever, and it must have seen so much over the years. That makes almost anything possible.’

Jaye swallowed hard. She seemed to have reached into him and found his own response to the house he’d been brought up in. Megan had seen past the glitz and the glamour that seemed to preoccupy so many others.

‘These are all the past Dukes?’ She was pointing up at the portraits, which stretched along the landing and up the stairs.

‘Yes, that’s right.’

‘And you’re carrying on their tradition.’

‘Not necessarily.’ Jaye heard his own laugh, almost breathless in the bubble that Megan had created around the two of them. ‘Some of them were rogues. The one just there almost gambled the estate away. Luckily for us, his son was a little more prudent. He’s the next one along.’

Megan craned her neck, staring at the painting and then glanced back at Jaye. ‘I can see a likeness, I think... Between you and the son.’

‘I’d be proud if there was one. He was one of the more enlightened Dukes of Marlowe.’

‘Why?’ She turned and Jaye shivered in her steady gaze. ‘What did he do?’

‘He was a campaigner against social injustice, at a time when no one thought about the sufferings of working people. He put his principles into practice, here on the estate.’

‘You’re very lucky, to have someone like that in your family.’

That was what his father had taught Jaye. When he’d been barely old enough to understand, his father had told him that this collection of paintings was a reminder of the choices that he could make in his own life.

‘We all have someone in our family we can look up to, don’t we?’

‘No. We don’t.’ Megan was shaking her head, quirking her mouth down.

If anything was possible, surely Jaye could ask her what made her so sure of that. But he didn’t dare.