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‘So, when shall I see you?’
‘I’ll fetch you over here in the morning,’ Zac said. ‘You’ll be more central for shopping. Long or short, make it white, will you? Grandfather’s a traditionalist, as you might have gathered.’
‘He’s hardly likely to approve our cohabiting before the wedding then.’
‘He doesn’t have to know.’ There was a slight edge to his voice. ‘I take it you’ve no objection to premarital relations yourself?’
The irony stung. ‘Obviously not,’ she returned tartly.
His sigh was clearly audible. ‘Sorry, that was uncalled for. We’re both of us under pressure. I’ll see you in the morning.’
He cut the call before she could respond. She replaced the receiver in its rest feeling decidedly downbeat.
‘I get the feeling there’s rather more to this than meets the eye,’ Leonie observed. ‘Want to talk about it?’
Jessica’s hesitation was brief. Much as she needed to unload, she was too aware of how it would look. To marry in the throes of overpowering love was one thing, to do it for the reasons she and Zac were doing it was quite another. ‘Hardly likely to last very long’ would be the least of Leonie’s comments.
‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ she denied. ‘If I seem a bit distracted, it’s just that everything seems to be happening so fast! Zac’s grandfather wants us to get married from his home down in Dorset.’
‘So he said.’ It was obvious that Leonie wasn’t totally deceived. ‘Nice of him to indulge the old man. Afraid I won’t be able to make the wedding myself. I’m working in Frankfurt over the weekend.’
Jessica made the appropriate noises, scarcely knowing whether to be glad or sorry. There was every chance that it would finish up with just the four of them, anyway, because she very much doubted if either of her parents would attend. They both had their own very separate lives to lead.
Leonie made no further mention of Zac at all until she was leaving for work the following morning.
‘I’m not doing any more prying,’ she said. ‘I just hope you know what you’re doing.’
‘I do.’ Jessica wished she could convince herself of it. ‘Everything is absolutely fine!’
The doubts didn’t wholly disappear on sight of Zac shortly afterwards, but they became immaterial in his embrace. When he kissed her like this, with every evidence of having missed her as much as she had missed him last night, she could think of nothing else.
The morning traffic was heavy. It took them almost an hour to make it to Chelsea. Jessica’s spirits were dampened again when Zac departed almost immediately for the office, although she could understand his need to be there after several days away, and more to come. In the meantime, she was hardly short of things to do.
She began by unpacking. She’d brought nothing but her clothes and a few personal items away from the rented flat she had shared with Paul, so her whole life was contained in the two suitcases.
There was a wall of wardrobes in the master bedroom. She fingered through the suits and casual clothing already stored there, visualising the well-honed male body they were made for. Tonight they would share a bed again. Every night from now on, in fact. She knew a sudden swelling resolve. They were going to make a go of this. They couldn’t fail to make a go of it!
The unpacking completed, she considered her options. It was midday already, but she still had the afternoon and the whole of tomorrow to do what she had to do. White, Zac had said, so white it would be. Anything to make his grandfather happy in his declining days.
One thing she certainly didn’t need to do was set about any housework. Zac hadn’t mentioned any domestic help, but he must employ someone to keep everything so pristine. She had no quarrel with that. The thought of spending her days dusting and polishing held little appeal. Although willing to indulge Henry Prescott’s ideals up to a point, she had no intention of remaining a stay-at-home wife either. Zac could surely find her a job with the company.
She had just finished a light lunch when the domestic help arrived. The woman who let herself into the house with a key was in her mid-thirties; her tailored overall bore a logo Jessica recognised as that of a well known agency. From the newcomer’s lack of surprise on seeing her, she deduced that this wasn’t the first time overnight visitors had been found lingering.
‘Sorry to disturb you,’ the woman proffered with more than a hint of irony. ‘I’m here to do the cleaning.’
Jessica gave a smile. ‘I’m Jessica Saunders. Mr Prescott’s fiancée.’
That did gain a reaction. ‘Fiancée!’
‘That’s right.’ Jessica kept the smile going. ‘And you are?’
‘Barbara Manners. I’ve been cleaning for Zac for the last twelve months.’
Jessica wasn’t slow to note the slight emphasis on her use of Zac’s first name. Typical of him not to stand on ceremony, though she wouldn’t have thought the two of them met up very often if this was the hour Barbara usually arrived.
‘Well, just do what you normally do,’ she said lamely.
She took herself to task as the other went on through to the kitchen. So Barbara was an attractive woman, not all that much older than Zac himself. Was she going to suspect him of bedding every attractive female he came into contact with?
Somehow reluctant to leave her alone in the house, she rescheduled the shopping trip for the following day, and took it on herself to sort out laundry from the basket in the main bedroom, although there wasn’t a great deal. The small utility off the kitchen held a combined washer-dryer. Barbara came into the room as she loaded it.
‘I always do that on a Friday,’ she said. ‘The ironing too. Zac’s very particular about his shirts.’
Jessica said mildly, ‘I’ll leave you to it in future, then. I was going to make coffee. Would you like a cup?’
She made the coffee, and took it through on a tray to the sitting room where Barbara was running a quite unnecessary vacuum over the carpet.
‘Sit down for a few minutes,’ she invited.
The other woman perched on the arm of a chair, her gaze speculative as she took the cup Jessica handed her.
‘It’s a bit of a shock, I must say,’ she remarked. ‘I had Zac down as a sworn bachelor! Known him long, have you?’
Jessica kept her tone light. ‘Long enough.’
‘Well, I can’t blame you for snapping him up. Not that I envy you the job you’re going to have. I know what it’s like being married to a man used to variety. Vows don’t mean a great deal when the sap rises.’
‘There are exceptions to every rule,’ Jessica returned, determined not to let the cynicism get to her.
Barbara gave a short laugh. ‘So they say.’ She drained the cup, and got back to her feet. ‘Must get on. I’ve another job to go to after this.’
She left at three, having first stacked the dried laundry in a basket ready for Friday. Knowing it was sheer perversity on her part, Jessica set up the ironing board and spent the next half hour on a job that had never held any great appeal for her at the best of times. What she did like to do was cook on occasion, but the refrigerator held little to inspire her. Zac, she guessed, would more often than not eat out.
That particular problem was solved when Zac rang to say Leonie had contacted him to invite the two of them over for dinner that evening.
‘She’d have phoned you,’ he said, ‘only she didn’t have the number. I’m ex-directory,’ he added, anticipating the question that leapt to Jessica’s mind. ‘Anyway, I’ll make sure I’m home early enough to make it back across town for eight.’
She could hardly keep the two of them apart indefinitely, Jessica acknowledged, struggling to overcome her reluctance to see them together. She would just have to put a rein on her imagination.
Zac got in at six-thirty, surprised to see the freshly ironed shirts Jessica had hung to air on the wardrobe door before putting them away.
‘There was no need for this,’ he said mildly. ‘Barbara does the laundry on a Friday. I completely forgot to tell you about her. Must have had other things on my mind,’ he added with a smile that slowly changed character as he viewed her appearance in the silky black trousers and pale cream top. ‘Speaking of which—’
‘We don’t have time,’ Jessica interjected with reluctance. ‘You still have to shower and change.’
His shrug made light of the moment. ‘I guess it will keep.’
He exchanged the suit in which he’d spent the day for a pair of cord trousers and a designer T-shirt, shrugging on a beige suede jacket that sat on his frame the way only bespoke tailoring could. Looking at him, Jessica still found it difficult to consider it was only a matter of days since they’d first met. Most couples getting married had at least been together long enough to have some understanding. Apart from the obvious, they knew so little of one another.
With traffic at its heaviest, it was gone eight by the time they made it to St John’s Wood. Neither Leonie nor Zac showed any awkwardness in their greeting. Jessica did her best to act naturally herself. Leonie had invited a friend to make up a foursome. Around the same age as Zac, he proved to be very good company. He was something big in information technology from what Jessica could gather.
‘Any chance of a lasting relationship?’ she asked her cousin when they had a few minutes on their own in the kitchen.
‘With Greg?’ Leonie laughed, shaking her head. ‘He’d run a mile if I showed any sign of getting serious! Same here.’
‘Do you plan on staying single all your life?’ Jessica said curiously.
‘Depends on whether I ever meet a man I could contemplate spending my life with. You already cornered the best of the bunch.’ She turned a glance when Jessica failed to answer, her smile brief. ‘Just teasing again. You should know me by now. Anyway, how’s it going so far?’
Jessica made an effort to infuse enthusiasm. ‘Fine! He has a mews cottage in Chelsea. It’s absolutely gorgeous!’
‘Not quite what I’d have imagined him to choose,’ Leonie commented. ‘Though I can see the advantages. Getting the car off the road, for one.’ She paused, her regard too shrewd for comfort. ‘I don’t see you going in for domesticity wholesale.’
‘I’ve no intention,’ Jessica acknowledged. ‘I’ll be looking for a job.’
‘With Prescotts?’
‘Hopefully.’
‘You’ve discussed it with Zac?’
‘Not yet.’ Jessica slanted a glance. ‘You doubt he’ll agree?’
Leonie gave a brief shrug. ‘Who am I to say what he will or won’t do?’
‘You’ve known him longer than I have. And you’re very much alike in outlook.’
‘Depends on the direction. I certainly never saw him as a hook, line and sinker man. But then, who can ever know? You’ve proved a regular bundle of surprises yourself. After your experience with Paul, this is the last thing I’d have expected of you. Meeting to marriage in one short week! You have to admit, there’s a distinct ring of fairy tale in there.’
Jessica forced a smile, a lighter note. ‘With a happy ending!’
‘I hope so. For both your sakes.’
There was no more said on the subject, to Jessica’s relief. It was only too obvious that her cousin was far from convinced of the reasons for this marriage.
‘Leonie’s suspicious,’ she said on the way back to Chelsea.
‘Of what?’ Zac asked.
‘The time element, for one thing. She seems to find it difficult to believe that you of all people could fall that far that fast.’
‘So it’s just my feelings she doubts?’ he said after a moment.
‘Mine too, considering I was supposed to be still getting over Paul.’
‘She thinks you were caught on the rebound?’
‘Something like that.’
‘Then we’ll just have to convince her she’s wrong on both counts.’
Jessica gave him a swift glance, but there was no reading anything from the profile etched against the sodium street lighting. What was she looking for anyway? she asked herself. She already knew exactly where she stood in his estimation: the same place he stood in hers. Whether there would ever be more was a question only time could answer.
The drive down to Dorset on Friday was accomplished in sunshine, with a forecast for a fine weekend to come; a welcome change from the damp and dismal days just passed.
Jessica viewed the coming events with mixed feelings. While Henry Prescott’s condition appeared to have remained static over the past week, his impending death was bound to cast a shadow over the whole proceedings. It was only to be hoped he’d at least see the ceremony through.
Which was more than her parents were going to do. They’d both of them expressed themselves delighted for her, but each found pressing reasons why they couldn’t possibly attend the wedding. Something of a relief, Jessica had to admit. The two of them together would hardly have enhanced the weekend. She could just imagine Henry Prescott’s reaction to their constant wrangling.
Zac’s mother had returned to her family in Scotland on his father’s death. Jessica had spoken to her on the phone, and found her pleasant enough on the surface, though there had been more than a hint of underlying doubt concerning the marriage itself. Hardly surprising, considering the suddenness of it. She would be travelling down today too by train.
As Zac hadn’t mentioned anyone else, it seemed safe to assume it would be just the five of them at church. With no one of her own attending, Jessica was glad about that. Less stressful for Henry Prescott too.
‘Do you think your grandmother was being quite truthful last night when she said your grandfather was just the same?’ she ventured.
‘Probably not,’ Zac admitted. ‘She sounded evasive. No reason to let the blues take over though. He wouldn’t appreciate it.’
Recalling the old man’s attitude, Jessica could only agree. The way to treat him was as though nothing at all was wrong.
They reached the house just after six. Esther came out to greet them, her manner subdued.
‘Your mother’s been delayed. She’ll be coming down overnight,’ she said. ‘But Brady and Sarah will be here for dinner. I’m sorry your parents weren’t able to make it,’ she added to Jessica.
Jessica murmured something appropriate, aware that as Zac had expressed no surprise over the news that his cousin and wife were expected, he must have known they were coming. He could at least have warned her!
Henry Prescott looked no different physically from when they had last seen him. He greeted the two of them benevolently.
‘You’ll be wanting to get yourselves settled,’ he said. ‘We can talk later.’
They were to occupy the same rooms as before. Jessica confronted Zac in his.
‘Why didn’t you tell me the whole family was going to be here?’ she demanded.
‘It didn’t occur to me,’ he returned mildly. ‘What’s the problem, anyway? You had to meet them sometime.’
He had a point, Jessica had to admit. And she probably should have anticipated it. She spread her hands in a rueful gesture. ‘I know that. It’s just…’
‘Just that you’ve no one of your own coming,’ he finished for her as she paused. ‘Those parents of yours should be ashamed of themselves. Your mother, at least, might have stirred herself!’
Jessica kept her tone matter-of-fact. ‘She had something else already arranged. Anyway, it isn’t really that. More the thought of facing your family en masse.’
‘Five people hardly constitute a mass. Anyway, you’ll cope. You handled Grandfather pretty well.’ He put out a hand, his smile an invitation. ‘Come here a minute.’
She went willingly, meeting the kiss with an ardour she couldn’t withhold. Zac ran his hands down her back to bring her up closer against him, his arousal as instant as hers. He made a rueful gesture of his own when he reluctantly let her go.
‘Not the time, and definitely not the place, I’m afraid.’ Grey eyes looked deep into green, expression soft. ‘You never fail me.’
‘Tell me that after next weekend,’ she answered huskily.
