So, after a brief but earnest talk Lily had seen them have in the hallway, Laura, with Victor’s adamant concurrence, insisted she stay the night with them rather than taking the train back to Clevedon. Then they insisted she take a bath.
Without the strength to resist them, or, indeed, the ability, they were very insistent, very nice but not the kind of people who took no for an answer, there she was in their Georgian mansion, in their opulent bathroom which was off an equally sumptuous guest bedroom decorated in what she had counted were at least seven different but coordinating shades of pale peach.
And she’d finally met the man Fazire had sent to her.
Lily was certain of it – as certain as she was that she was Lily Sarah Jacobs, daughter of Rebecca and Will Jacobs and a Hoosier born and bred. And there was no denying any of that.
When she’d lifted her gaze to look into the eyes of her tall defender she’d nearly fainted. Swooned. Fallen to the ground in an unconscious heap.
If he hadn’t been imminently facing a life sentence for strangling a man to death regardless if he was a nasty purse snatcher, she would have done it.
And now…
Now…
Now what?
She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t exactly throw herself at him. Tell him she’d wished for him to come to her through her own personal genie that just happened to live at home with her parents in a small town in Indiana. She couldn’t seduce him because, since she was a virgin, she wouldn’t even know how. In fact he probably, considering how handsome he was (impossibly handsome), didn’t know she existed as a female with all the right parts in all the right places and with all the yearning she felt for him even though she only knew his name.
Nathaniel.
That was a very, very good name.
“Lily, my dear, the police are here.” Sweet, kindly, Laura was in the other room.
Lily had taken to Laura immediately. The older woman was petite and slightly but pleasantly rounded with middle-age. She had a soft dark-brown bob that framed her face, elegant hands with perfect fingernails (Lily thought they looked like pianists hands, they were so lovely) and warm, brown eyes.
“I’ll be right out,” Lily called.
She quickly towelled off, wrapped the towel around her body and rummaged through her saved purse for a hair band. She pulled her hair into a ponytail at the back of her head and went into the bedroom where she saw Laura standing at the bed which now had a half a dozen shiny boxes resting on it.
Lily stopped and stared.
Laura explained, “I called a few shops. Since you’re staying, you need a few things, of course. I hope you don’t mind but I checked the labels on your clothes and found your size.”
How long was I in the bath? Lily thought incredulously as she stared at the boxes.
“I can’t,” Lily resisted.
“You can, you will, you must,” Laura returned in a mother’s voice that would not be denied. Lily had heard that voice before; her own mother used it on her often. Laura lifted the lid off a box and pulled out a silvery blue silk robe with long flowing sleeves like a Japanese kimono and ordered, “Put this on.”
Lily let out a soft laugh and then exclaimed, “I can’t face the police in a robe!”
“They only have a few questions. I told them you’re in no state to be given the third degree,” she stated smartly then ripped the lid off another box and pulled out a pair of pristine white satin underwear edged in delicate lace. “If it will make you feel better, wear these… and… this.” She found and shook the matching bra at Lily.
Lily couldn’t help herself, as rude as it was, and she knew it was rude, she continued to stare.
Two hours ago she’d been walking down a London street intent on doing a bit of window shopping as her meagre finances didn’t allow much more. She had several days off from work at Maxine’s store and didn’t fancy working on her house, scraping, painting, priming or hauling herself under a sink with a plumber’s manual to try to fix a pipe. She’d come to London for a little day break, to go to a few museums which were free admission and to do some shopping.
Now she’d entered Fantasy Land.
“Laura you… honestly, really, I just can’t.”
Laura moved toward her, pressed her palm against Lily’s face like Lily’s Mom did sometimes in her tender moments (of which there were many), and looked into Lily’s eyes.
“Don’t keep them waiting, my dear. The sooner you get this over with the sooner we can all enjoy our evening.”
On that she exited the room and Lily, because of the motherly touch that Laura had given her (such a familiar touch), swiftly donned the undies, the robe and just stopped herself from running to the bathroom to grab another bath sheet and wrap that around her as well.
She gingerly walked out of the room. The bath had helped as had the pills but she most definitely felt like she’d been flipped over someone’s shoulder onto a concrete sidewalk.
Lily didn’t know what she was thinking; charging after a purse snatcher except it was an expensive designer purse that she could never have afforded under normal circumstances. She’d found it while trolling through a vintage clothing store and she’d bought it for a song. She’d never be able to replace it.
Regardless of that, her actions were reckless. She could have been hurt or harmed in some other way if he’d had a knife or another weapon.
Her parents, if they ever heard of this, would kill her. Fazire would start floating and look down his genie nose and wag his genie finger at her. She could never tell them.
Carefully, holding onto the banister, she descended the stairs. She kept her body even stiffer than it felt so as not to jar any of the aches and pains that threatened. Her head was throbbing where it had hit the wall, not the pounding pain of one of her intermittent migraines but not pleasurable either.
She was concentrating on her feet hitting each of the dove grey carpet-runnered stairs. She was also assessing her pedicure, mentally telling herself that, even in England, as it was May, it was time to move away from the deep wine colour of winter and find something else like a pearly pink. Her foot hit the parquet floor of the entryway and it was then she became aware that she wasn’t alone.
Her head snapped up and there he was.
Nathaniel.
He was watching her as any romance-novel hero would watch the heroine. With one shoulder leaned against the wall and his arms crossed on his chest.
And he was utterly beautiful in a raw, powerful, immensely masculine way.
They didn’t, however, stare at each other with blissful, love-induced wonder or at least he didn’t stare at her that way. She, unfortunately, was more than likely staring at him that way to her horror. He was watching her with narrowed scrutinising eyes. Eyes that didn’t miss a thing.
Not… one… thing.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, his voice deep and strong and sending tingles across her skin.
“Fine,” she lied and tried for a jaunty smile.
His face darkened. Obviously the jaunty smile didn’t work.
“Liar,” he said softly, dangerously, and he looked like he wanted to commit a violent act. Something like what he did to the thug, ferociously slamming him against the building like the thief had slammed her, exacting her retribution for her. The very thought of that memory chased a thrill up her spine.
“I will be fine…” she hesitated, doing a mental assessment of her aching body, “eventually.”
He watched her for a moment, his eyes sweeping the length of her, that awful look on his face. She blushed at his gaze and found she was frightened of him just a little bit. He looked sophisticated and urbane on the outside, wearing that suit so casually as if he was in jeans and a t-shirt. Somewhere, though, somewhere very close to the surface, he was anything but sophisticated and urbane.
He broke into her thoughts. “The police are in the drawing room.”
Lily was relatively certain she’d never been
in a drawing room before or not one in a house where people actually lived. She didn’t know people who had drawing rooms. He pulled away from the wall and she found her body stiffening in weird preparation for something as he came toward her but he just walked by her.
With no choice, she followed.
He entered a room and she came in after him. In the room were Laura, Victor and two police officers.
“Here she is,” Laura announced, smiling at Lily encouragingly.
The room was lovely, decorated in soft pale greens accented with white cornices and stately yet comfy-looking furniture. Nathaniel moved to stand behind and beside a high backed chair. He glanced at Lily and then down at the chair and she understood somehow that he wanted her… no, was telling her to sit in the chair.
She did what she was mutely told.
The interview, as Laura promised, took less than ten minutes. They asked questions, they took notes and Laura and Victor watched her with kind, parental eyes. Not as if she’d met them hours before but as if she had been under their guardianship and devoted care since birth.
However this was not why the interview was so short.
Although she did not see him, she knew that Nathaniel stood behind her the entire time. And she knew this because she felt him there. He did not move a muscle or make a noise until the police seemed to be checking facts and asking the same questions over again.
Then in a tone that even General Patton would have calmly and unresistingly obeyed, he said, “You have enough.”
They didn’t argue or even demur, immediately one of them said, “Right, Mr. McAllister.”
They nodded at Nathaniel and Lily found she now had his last name, a name of which she approved. McAllister.
“Mr. and Mrs. Roberts.” The police nodded at Laura and Victor.
The realisation dawned that Nathaniel and the Roberts did not share the same surname and Lily wondered at Nathaniel’s relationship with Laura and Victor because he obviously wasn’t blood as she thought. He didn’t look like either Laura or Victor but Lily thought for certain the relationship was deep enough for blood ties.
Maybe he was a favoured nephew.
“We’re off,” the policeman finished.
They did not give Lily a card, ask her to call them if she remembered anything else, they just left.
Before anyone could say anything, a boyishly good-looking, not-as-tall-as-Nathaniel but still tall, brown-haired man walked in.
“What’s this? First the anniversary celebration is off, now the police are at the house. What? Has Nate’s chequered past finally caught up with us?”
Then he stopped dead and stared at Lily for some reason in open-mouthed surprise.
She didn’t think much about this new man’s open-mouthed surprise. She instead found herself thinking she did not at all consider it was surprising that Nathaniel had a chequered past.
“My God,” the man breathed bringing Lily’s thoughts back into the room.
“This,” Victor stated as introduction to Lily, “is my son, Jeffrey.”
Jeffrey came forward, extending his hand and told her. “Everyone but Mum and Dad call me Jeff.”
She lifted her hand to shake his but he turned it, bent at the waist and brought it to his mouth, brushing his lips against her knuckles. Then his eyes came to hers.
“And who are you?” he asked and she thought his tone was flirtatious although she didn’t have a great deal of experience with flirtatious, or at least for the past four years or so she naively hadn’t noticed it relentlessly coming her way.
“I’m Lily Jacobs,” she answered.
“No, you’re not Lily Jacobs. You are an angel sent from heaven,” he surprised her by saying quietly, definitely flirtatiously, finally dropping her hand after holding it longer than necessary.
As he straightened Lily noticed the entire room changed and seemed even to shift at his words. The air became so thick it could be cut with a knife. Victor tensed and his eyes flew to where Nathaniel was still standing at the back of her chair. Laura slowly stood and her eyes slid to Lily, her hand moving to her throat in a strange gesture of imminent peril. And Lily could actually feel something dangerous emanating from behind her.
Lily bravely ignored whatever was happening and her eyes held Laura’s because they seemed the safest.
“What anniversary celebration?” she asked.
Laura started to answer, “It’s nothing, my dear –”
Jeff was moving to the fireplace and he interrupted his mother, “It’s not nothing. I wouldn’t say your thirtieth wedding anniversary is nothing.” He turned and blithely leaned an elbow on the mantel.
Lily gasped and opened her mouth to speak. She couldn’t believe that they’d cancelled their anniversary for her but Jeff wasn’t finished. His eyes moved to Nathaniel and when they did they were calculating.
“By the way, Nate, Georgia called. She’s pretty pissed off about something. Likely best if you put that damned ring on her finger finally. That’ll bring her to heel.”
Lily closed her mouth with a snap.
He had a girlfriend, a girlfriend that sounded very close to being a fiancée.
Of course.
Of course, of course, of course.
She knew it couldn’t be real. He would never have even looked at her anyway, not plain, small town Indiana girl Lily Jacobs. Even with her wish from Fazire, she’d never get a glorious man like Nathaniel McAllister.
Never.
“I hope you didn’t cancel your anniversary for me,” Lily covered her disappointment with words.
Laura’s eyes, which were not so kind at the moment but looked rather nettled, moved away from her son to Lily and immediately softened again.
“We’ve only postponed it until tomorrow.”
“Oh no! You must carry on,” Lily cried.
“It’s all been sorted, Lily. Not to worry,” Victor barged into the short, now dismissed discussion and then started purposefully toward the door saying, “Jeffrey, I’d like a word with you.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, what have I done now?” Jeffrey muttered not-so-under his breath and Laura’s eyes turned back to annoyed. “I see, my dear brother, he doesn’t want a word with you,” Jeff said to Nathaniel looking strangely like a bratty little boy.
Nathaniel didn’t utter a word which seemed to anger Jeff more.
But Lily was wondering how Nathaniel was his brother. The brother thing made sense in the way Victor treated Nathaniel and Laura looked at him. But they didn’t share the same last name and they didn’t look a thing alike.
When Nathaniel was obviously not going to be lowered into a useless fight about what appeared to be nothing, Jeff started to slink away but stopped when he reached Lily.
“I don’t know who you are but I hope to see more of you.” He smiled, his boyish good looks and good humour restored and he seemed quite charming again.
She smiled back tentatively but somehow Lily found that he made her uncomfortable. For the first time in Lily’s life she took a near immediate dislike to someone.
After he left the room, Lily turned back to Laura.
“I feel terrible. Your anniversary –” she started.
“Really, Lily, it’s no trouble. I’m actually relieved. We can have a nice quiet night just the two of us. I’d rather that anyway. I’m sure Nathaniel can entertain you while Victor and I go out to a dinner a deux.”
Laura raised hopeful eyes to Nathaniel and even though she didn’t want to Lily turned in her chair to look at him too.
Gone was the suppressed violence in its place was bland unconcern.
“I should see to Georgia.” He’d been leaning his weight on his hand on the back of her chair and with his words, he pushed away.
“I’m sure Georgia would understand. We have a guest in the house,” Laura replied.
Nathaniel approached Laura and Lily watched in fascination as he stopped in front of her and kissed her forehead in a familiar loving way.
/> “I don’t live here anymore, remember?” His voice was light, even teasing, and Lily felt her insides melt (just a little).
“I suppose Jeffrey will find something for he and Lily to do,” Laura said this like a dare and Lily didn’t know what to make of that.
“I’m sure he will,” Nathaniel muttered, turned his dark eyes, impossibly dark eyes, to Lily and said in his deep voice, “Lily.”
Even as his voice sounding her name stole over her skin like a soft touch, he strode, just like his father, purposefully from the room.
And Lily could swear she heard Laura say the word, “Damn,” under her breath.
Chapter Seven
Nate
“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Georgia’s voice was bitter and angry. “I can’t believe I agreed to attend your parent’s anniversary party with you after you just broke up with me. Tell me again why I’m doing this?”
Nate manoeuvred the Maserati into a parking spot, pulled up the emergency brake and shut down the car. Then he turned to Georgia, resting his forearm on the steering wheel.
“Out of respect for my parents,” he answered what he thought was obviously.
His words were short, his patience was fraying. She’d been carrying on since they left his flat and Nate vowed never again to get entangled with a spoiled-rotten, filthy-rich bitch.
“Well I’ve changed my mind,” she said sharply. “I’m not going to do it.”
He turned from her. “Then I’m sure you’ll find your own way home.”
She gasped in outraged shock as if there weren’t millions of taxis in London that would take her safely home and just like that, Nate was finished with her.
He exited the car and didn’t bother to help her alight as he normally would, a gentlemanly courtesy Laura had taught him years before. Then he walked to his parent’s home. He heard her high heels clicking on the pavement double time to keep up with his long strides. He didn’t knock because he didn’t have to, it was his home even though after all these years he still found that fact difficult to believe, and he strolled into the house.