The Mistress's Child (15 page)

He went rigid. 'My God,' he said, in disgust. 'You really know how to twist the knife, don't you?' He picked up his overcoat and walked to the front door and opened it without another word.

She wanted to call after him, to take back the hateful words which had seemed to come pouring out of her mouth like poison, but one look at the icy expression on his face as he turned round made her realise that it would be a futile gesture.

He gave a cold, hard smile. 'If your idea was to insult me so much that I would go away and never come back again, then you have just very nearly succeeded,' he said.

And, bizarrely, the thought that her hurt pride and resentment might have cost Tim a relationship with his father wounded her far more than anything else. 'Philip—'

He shook his head. 'Please don't say any more—I don't think I could take it. I'd better just tell you that this particular campaign won't work. You see, Tim is far more important to me than the obvious loathing you feel for me. I'm here, Lisi—and I'm here for the duration. Better get used to it.'

And without another word, he was gone.

CHAPTER NINE

Marian Reece pursed her lips together in a silent whistle. 'Good heavens—just how much do you think he's spending on that property?'

Lisi looked up from her computer, and, lo and behold— another upmarket van was cruising past the office towards The Old Rectory. What was it this time? Lisi peered out of the window and read from the gold lettering on the side of the van. 'Tricia Brady; Superior Interiors'. 'He's obviously having the place decorated now,' she said, with a sigh.

Marian's eyes goggled. 'And how!' she exclaimed. 'I've heard of her—she must have come all the way down from London. This early in the New Year, too—I'm surprised she wasn't fully booked.'

'She probably was,' said Lisi gloomily. 'She's probably got long blonde hair and legs up to her armpits and Philip probably just outrageously batted those beautiful eyes at her and she probably cancelled every engagement in her diary!'

Marian gave her a shrewd look. 'Do I detect a sign of the green-eyed monster?' she asked.

Lisi replaced the gloomy look with a fairly good impression of devil-may-care. 'Not at all,' she said airily. 'I expect that's exactly what happened. Either that or he's paying well over the odds.'

'He must be,' said Marian. 'It's only the middle of January—and already he's transformed the place! I've never known builders be quite so willing, or so efficient!'

'No,' said Lisi tonelessly.

Marian shot her a glance. 'How's it going between you two?'

'It's not between us two,' replied Lisi carefully. 'The only relationship I have with Philip is that we happen to share a child.'

'Only?' spluttered Marian, then sighed. 'And is it... amicable?'

Lisi sighed. She had vowed to keep it that way, but ever since her outburst on Christmas night he had been keeping his distance from her. He had been round three times to see Tim, and the atmosphere had been awkward, to say the least.

For a start, the house always seemed so much smaller when he was in it, and the unspoken tension between them was so strong that Lisi was surprised that Tim wasn't made uncomfortable by it.

But no. Tim didn't seem to notice anything or anyone— he was so enraptured by the man he had almost immediately taken to calling 'Daddy'.

The first time he'd done it, Lisi had spoken to him gently at bedtime that night. 'You don't have to say Daddy if you don't want to,' she suggested gently. 'Philip won't mind being called just Philip, I'm sure.'

He didn't answer and she wasn't even sure if he had registered her words or not, but he obviously had, because at the end of Saturday's visit Philip paused on his way out of the front door, his eyes spitting with undisguised rage.

'Did you tell Tim not to call me Daddy?' he demanded.

She sighed. 'That's not what I said at all.'

'That's what he told me!'

She kept her voice low, tried to stay calm, though heaven only knew—it wasn't easy. I merely suggested that he might find it easier to call you Philip. For the time being—'

'Until you decided that the time was right, I suppose?'

he questioned witheringly. 'And when would that be, Lisi? Some time? Never?'

She stuck to her guns. She was not going to let his hostility get to her. She was not. 'I just didn't want him to feel that he was being railroaded into anything—'

'By me?'

'Not by anyone!' she retorted, her voice rising. 'It's just such a huge thing to suddenly start calling you Daddy!'

He had moved a little closer, his body language just short of menacing—so how come she didn't feel in the least bit intimidated by it? How come she wanted to tell him to forget their stupid rows and to kiss her like he had done on Christmas night?

'Or is it just that you feel threatened by it, Lisi?'

'Threatened? Me?'

'Yes, you! Unwilling to share him, are you? Do you want all his love for yourself, is that it?'

'Oh, don't talk such rubbish!' she snapped. 'I was thinking of Tim!

'So you claim. When it would clearly suit you far more to have me as far away from you as possible! Well, just don't use him as a pawn in our little disagreement—do you understand, Lisi!'

Little disagreement? If this was his idea of a little disagreement, then she'd hate to enter into all-out warfare with him!

Marian was still staring at her with a question in her eyes, and Lisi shook her head.

'No,' she said slowly, in answer to her boss's question. 'It isn't exactly what I'd call amicable—even though that's what we both wanted originally.'

'You should talk to him about it!' urged Marian.

But there didn't seem anything left to say, thought Lisi as she picked up the telephone which had just begun to ring. 'Good afternoon, Homefinders Agency.'

'Lisi? It's Philip.'

Of course it was Philip—no one else had a voice that rich, that deep, that dark. 'Hello, Philip,' she said, cursing her body's reaction as she felt the inevitable prickle of excitement. 'What can I do for you'?'

Silently, he cursed. How shocked she would be if he answered that question truthfully.

'I'm up at the house,' he said.

'Here?' she questioned stupidly, her heart racing. 'In the village?'

'Yeah. I drove up early this morning.'

He was here, just down the road and he hadn't even bothered to tell her he was coming. Just why that should hurt so much she didn't know, but it did.

'I'm having the house decorated,' he was saying. 'Someone is over here now with some sample fabrics.'

She certainly wasn't going to pander to his ego by telling him that she had seen the plush van driving by. 'Really?' she asked pleasantly.

'Really,' he echoed, mocking her insincere tone. 'And I wondered whether you were free for half an hour?'

Her pulse began to race. 'Why?'

She could be so damned abrupt, he thought. 'I didn't know if you wanted to choose some colours for Tim's room.'

Time stopped. He seemed to be speaking in some strange, terrible language. 'T-Tim's room?' she croaked.

Something in the way she said it made him want to offer reassurance, until he remembered her monstrous accusation on Christmas night, and he hardened his heart against the tremor in her voice. Did she think that he didn't have feelings, too?

'That's right. He will need his own room, Lisi—surely you realise that?'

The only thing she realised was that she was fighting to

control her breath. 'I have to discuss this with you, and we can't do it on the phone,' she said.

'Then come up to the house.'

'I'm working.'

'Doesn't Marian owe you a few hours? For your unscheduled work when I demanded that you show me around the rectory?'

'I'll ask her,' she said, in a low voice. 'I can't promise anything.'

His voice sounded noncommittal. 'Suit yourself. It's up to you, Lisi—you're the one who wants to talk.'

She put the phone down, feeling close to tears, and saw Marian looking at her with concern.

'Philip?' she asked.

'How did you guess?'

'Normal clients don't usually leave the agent looking as though the bottom has just fallen out of their world.'

Maybe it just had. Lisi cleared her throat. 'Marian— would it be possible to take an hour off? I need to talk to Philip and he's up at the rectory.'

'Of course it would.' Marian hesitated. 'Listen, my dear—have you thought about consulting a lawyer?'

Lisi shook her head. 'There's no point—it would achieve precisely nothing. He isn't being unreasonable. Tim adores him. He's his father—by law he is allowed contact. It's just me who has the problem with it.'

Marian nodded. 'Take as long as you need.'

Lisi gathered up her coat and wrapped herself up in it, but once outside it seemed to offer little protection against the bitter wind, although maybe it was the bitter heartache which was making her teeth chatter.

She trudged up the lane to The Old Rectory, and for a moment she stood stock-still with amazement, for she had seen the comings and goings of various vans and contractors, but had deliberately stayed away from the place, tell-

ing herself that it would be too traumatic to see her former home being completely changed.

But her amazement was tinged with admiration, because, whatever Philip was doing inside the house, on the outside, at least—his taste could not be faulted.

The exterior had been painted a cool, pale grey and all the mildew had been removed. Window frames were gleaming, as was the newly painted front door, and the garden had obviously been lovingly attacked by experts.

The front door was slightly ajar, and when she received no reply to her knock she pushed it open and walked into the hall where another shock awaited her. The walls were a deep, vibrant scarlet—red as holly berries—and the floorboards gleaming, with an exquisite long, silk runner in shades of deepest cobalt and scarlet and jade.

It looked utterly beautiful, she thought, and a lump rose in her throat as she called.

'Hello?'

'Hello, Lisi,' came a voice from upstairs. 'Come on up— we're up here.'

We? And then she remembered the interior design van.

With reluctant feet she made her way slowly upstairs in the direction of the voices she could hear speaking and laughing, and she felt a wave of objection that he should feel happy enough to laugh while her world seemed to be caving in.

To her horror, the voices were coming from the direction of a room she knew only too well—her old childhood bedroom—and her heart sank even further. Had he known, or guessed, she wondered, or was it simply coincidence which had made Philip select that particular room for Tim?

Drawing a deep breath, she walked straight in, and then stopped.

Two heads were bent close over a swatch of fabrics— one dark and nut-brown, the other blonde, and Lisi almost

gave a hollow laugh. She had imagined Tricia Brady to be blonde with legs up to her armpits, and in that she had been uncannily accurate—but she had imagined the blonde hair to have come out of a bottle and for an aging face to be caked in heavy make-up.

But this woman fulfilled none of those criteria.

Her shiny blonde hair was fair and pale and completely natural, and when she lifted her head at the sound of Lisi's footsteps she didn't appear to be wearing any make-up at all. But then she didn't need to—skin that flawless and china-blue eyes that saucer-like did not need any help from nature to enhance them.

She was dressed practically and yet stunningly—in a pair of butter-soft suede trousers which must have cost what Lisi earned in a month. A cream silk shirt and a sheepskin-lined waistcoat completed the look and Lisi shuddered to think what her off-the-peg department store workaday suit must look like in comparison.

Philip smiled, but the expression on his face was as cool as it had been since Christmas. 'Lisi, hi,' he said. 'This is Tricia Brady—she's helping me with decor for the house.'

She's helping me. It didn't sound like a strictly working relationship, did it? thought Lisi indignantly. He could have said, Tricia is the designer, or, Tricia is working for me.

'Hello,' she said, thinking how wooden her voice sounded. 'I'm pleased to meet you.'

'Me, too.' Tricia grinned. 'I would shake hands, but my fingers are freezing—I keep telling Philip to turn the heating up, but he won't listen!'

'That's because people tend to go to sleep if it's too warm. Not good—but especially not good for people who are working,' he responded drily, but flashed her an answering smile.

Lisi felt sick, but she guessed that this was something she was going to have to get used to. If it wasn't Tricia it

would be someone else. Some beautiful, expensively dressed woman who would temporarily or permanently share Philip's life one day.

And become a surrogate mother to Tim while he was here, she reminded herself, gritting her teeth behind a smile which pride forced her to make.

'Lisi is the mother of my son,' explained Philip. 'And so I thought she could give us some input on colours and fabrics.'

It was the coldest and most distancing description he could have given her—and yet, when she thought about it, how else could he have put it? She wasn't his girlfriend— current or past.

Pulling herself together, she walked over and looked down at the swatch of fabrics which Tricia was still holding. 'May I?' she asked pleasantly, and Tricia handed it to her.

She pretended to lose herself in them, though her mind was only half on the task—but she had spotted immediately the one which Tim would like the most.

'This one,' and she jabbed at the brightly coloured piece of material which depicted Mickey Mouse dancing all over it.

'Lisi likes Disney,' Philip explained with a smile, thinking how jerky and unnatural her movements were. 'She always has done, haven't you, Lisi?'

He was remembering her birthday cake, and so was she. That innocent start to a supposed friendship which had brought so much heartache in its wake. She nodded. 'Wh-what colour are you planning to do the walls?'