Into Temptation (Spoils of Time 03) (93 page)

He stopped, looked up at the house; it needed a lot of work done to it. The man hammering the sign up looked at him.

‘Morning.’

‘Good morning,’ said Sebastian.

‘Nice place, isn’t it?’

‘Very.’

‘You live round here?’

‘Yes. Just two houses along.’

‘Well you’ve got some very nice new neighbours.’

‘I have?’

‘Yes. Young man came in, put the offer down on it just this morning.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. Charming, he was.’ He paused, stood back, looked at his handiwork, then said, ‘Sad, though.’

‘What was?’ asked Sebastian patiently. He was beginning to wonder if he did want friendly new neighbours.

‘Well, he was blind. Managed wonderfully, though, considering . . .’

They were sitting in the River Room, Jenna having had breakfast and Charlie a great many cups of coffee, when they saw Boy walking across the lounge. Followed by Lucas and Venetia. All looking rather agitated. Jenna saw them, and stood up, went over to them.

‘I’m really sorry,’ she said, and her voice was oddly authoritative. ‘But would you mind leaving us alone a little while longer? I’m perfectly all right, as you can see. And Charlie and I have rather a lot to talk about.’

‘Right,’ said Ann Thynne. She looked at Izzie and Nick, who were sitting side by side in her consulting room. She sounded very serious. Izzie reached out for Nick’s hand. Her mouth was very dry.

‘Now, we do have a bit of a problem here.’

‘Oh,’ said Izzie, very quietly. ‘Oh, I see.’

That was it: she was going to tell her it wasn’t even worth examining her tubes. Clearly she had discovered something just then, while she was doing her examination, something they had missed before. She was never going to be able to have a baby. Never.

‘The thing is,’ she paused, looked at her notes, ‘I can’t do this examination until after your next period. As I told you.’

‘No,’ said Izzie, ‘I know.’

‘And that was due – when?’

‘Well – like I told you. Almost a fortnight ago. Just before I left New York. But what with the journey and then the memorial service, and we’ve had a bit of family drama – ’ she realised she was rambling ‘ – and I suppose that’s held it up. Maybe I should book in to have it done in New York, instead of with you. It was just that I’d prefer it here.’

‘Yes. Maybe. How do you feel in yourself?’

‘Oh – fine. Absolutely fine. Yes.’

‘Sweetheart, you were sick this morning,’ said Nick.

‘Yes, I know, but that was only Venetia’s mousse.’

Ann Thynne looked at her, and her lips twitched. She tried to retain her rather serious, cool expression, but she couldn’t. She suddenly burst into peals of laughter.

‘Izzie,’ she said, ‘may I call you that?’

‘Yes, of course. But—’

‘Izzie, I would say that it is extremely likely that you are pregnant.’

‘Pregnant! But I can’t be pregnant, I—’

‘Darling, we’ve been doing all the right things,’ said Nick mildly.

‘I know, but – but—’ She remembered reading anxiety could inhibit conception. And ever since she’d told Nick about the abortion she’d felt quite different . . .

‘It’s very early days, I know,’ said Ann Thynne, ‘but if your period really is a fortnight late, and you’ve been sick – well, it doesn’t require a very extensive gynaecological training to make a tentative diagnosis. And your breasts certainly look very active.’

‘She has active breasts?’ said Nick. ‘Good God.’

‘Yes, she does. That is to say, they’re very veined, and I managed to coax a little colostrum out of them just now. I don’t suppose you noticed.’

‘No. I just wished you wouldn’t squeeze them. It hurt.’

‘Well, then. More proof. Now, what I want you to do is to give me a urine sample, and I’ll send it along to the lab for a pregnancy test. But I really don’t have many doubts.’

She sent Izzie off with a small phial and looked at Nick; he was sitting back in his chair, his eyes fixed on the ceiling.

‘What are you doing?’ she said, smiling.

‘I’m lying here in the gutter,’ he said, ‘looking up at the stars.’

Two hours later, Jenna arrived back at Cheyne Walk in a taxi; she looked very calm, very determined.

Adele had been standing at the window with Jamie, watching out for her. She went into the hall.

‘Hallo Jenna.’

‘Hi Adele. I’m so sorry if you were all worried about me. Could I have a word with Jamie, please? Alone?’

‘Of course.’

Jenna followed Jamie back into the drawing room. She closed the door.

‘Jamie,’ she said, ‘I want you to pay one million dollars out of my trust fund and into Charlie’s bank account. Today. Please.’

‘Jenna, I can’t do that.’

‘Of course you can. I know you can. You and the trustees can just decide it’s in my interests. Which it is. Mine and Charlie’s.’

‘But—’

‘I’m sorry, I don’t want any more buts. I want that money for Charlie.’

‘What did he tell you?’

‘Not a lot. He didn’t need to. I have the diaries. Out there in the hall. I hope you won’t be disgusting enough to count them, but you can if you like.’

‘And – where is Charlie?’

‘On his way to New York. Well, sitting at London airport, actually. Now is that all quite clear, or do we need to run through it again?’

‘You know I absolutely can’t agree to that.’

‘Oh, but I know you absolutely can. Charlie deserves that money and I want him to have it. There’s a very great deal more besides. All right?’

‘Jenna—’

‘Jamie, would you just listen to me? I love Charlie. I love him very much. I don’t know how many more times I have to say this, but let’s run through it again. I couldn’t have survived since my mother died without him. He’s loved me and cared for me and sat up all night with me sometimes and dried my tears and made me laugh and cheered me on and always, always been there whenever,
whenever
I’ve needed him. And I don’t think you can put a price on that. OK, it was a funny way of asking for it. I don’t care. It’s my money, not yours. Why won’t you let him have it?’

‘Jenna—’ Jamie hesitated; he seemed to be about to say a great deal more, but then he stopped. She looked at him and half smiled.

‘If you were going to tell me things about Charlie you think I ought to know, please don’t. In the first place, I don’t want to hear them and in the second place – well—’ She paused and smiled at him and it was Laurence’s smile suddenly, and even Laurence’s tone of voice.

‘Jamie,’ she said, ‘did you really think I hadn’t worked a whole lot of it out for myself?’

She went upstairs after that and stood at the window, looking out. Wondering how many times her mother had done the same thing, stood at the same window, looked down at the same view. She felt very close to her suddenly. Happily close.

Later that day, Lucas asked her if she’d like to go for a walk with him; she said she’d love it. It was a brilliant afternoon, the fog quite gone. They set out along the River Walk; the water was shining in the sunshine, seagulls wheeling noisily overhead, people bustling along, smiling, as if almost surprised to be able to see one another again. Lucas suddenly stopped and gave her a hug.

‘You OK?’

‘Yes, I’m fine.’

‘Good. I just – wondered. It can’t have been exactly easy for you.’

‘Not exactly.’

He took her hand, and they started walking again.

‘You were really great today,’ he said. ‘You dealt with them all so well.’

Jenna looked up at him and smiled.

‘I wasn’t exactly dealing with them,’ she said, ‘I just wanted to sort things out. For Charlie, I mean.’

‘You really like Charlie, don’t you?’

‘Yes, I do. Well actually, more than like, of course. I love him. Very much.’ She hesitated, then said, ‘I mean I know he’ll probably waste a lot of that money, get in a few more messes. But it really doesn’t matter to me. I just want him to have it. Because I think he should.’

‘I can understand that,’ said Lucas. ‘Just about.’

‘I was thinking,’ she said, after a pause, ‘about something my mother once said to me. We were alone together one night, she’d been talking about my dad. It’s very odd, you know, never to have known your dad.’

‘I hardly did either,’ he said. ‘I was only a baby when we left Paris. So I do know how – odd it is. Unsettling, wouldn’t you say? Only to know what people tell you.’

‘Yes. Yes, that’s exactly right.’

‘Maybe that’s one of the reasons we get along so well.’

‘Maybe.’

He grinned at her. ‘Anyway, tell me what your mum said.’

‘She said how he was wonderful in many ways, but he wasn’t perfect, nobody was perfect. And then she said, “that’s what love is. Still loving someone, in spite of knowing the bad things.” She said I should never forget that. And I know I never will. Never. Not for as long as I live.’

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