A Paper Marriage by Jessica Steele Read Free Book Online Page A

Charlie. He had been a frequent visitor to his sister's home, but Lydie had known him a year before they had begun to graduate from more than an exchanged hello and goodbye.

    She did not see Jonah again that night, and had a late supper with Charlie and went to bed. They shared toast and eggs for breakfast, and Lydie drove home to Beamhurst Court with her head on the fidget with thoughts of her great-aunt, her parents and a man who appeared to enjoy escorting sophisticated blondes to the theatre. Had he taken the blonde with him to Paris?

     

    She awoke on Monday in a state of anxiety. `Couldn't sleep?' her father asked when she went down to an early breakfast.

    She didn't know about couldn't sleep-he did not look as if he had slept at all! She looked at his weary face and knew she should tell him that she was going to see Jonah Marriott, but somehow she could not. `I thought, with Mother wanting Aunt Alice to look smart on Saturday, that I'd better make an effort and get myself a new outfit,' Lydie announced. And, seeing that her father looked about to remind her of a very important phone call they had to make, `I thought,' she hurried on, `that while I'm in London I'd call in at the Marriott building and make an appointment for us to see Jonah. He was abroad somewhere last week, so I suppose he's still got a lot of catching up to do and will be too busy to see me today.' She was lying to her father again, and hated doing so, but this, seeing Jonah, she felt most strongly, was something she had to do on her own.

    But her father was nobody's fool. `How did you manage to get an appointment with him last Friday? He would have been catching up then too.'

    `On Friday I thought he owed you money. I didn't bother to make an appointment. I just sort of barged my way in.

    Her father looked appalled. 'You...' he began.

    `Please, Dad,' she butted in. `I was wrong. I know it. Which is why I feel I have to do it the right way this time. '

    `I can ring from here. He...'

     

    `I know I've embarrassed you by going to see him at all. But please try to understand-I need to be involved here. I can't let you take over from me.'

     

    Her father grunted. But, muttering something about being determined to see Jonah at the first possible opportunity, he agreed to allow her to make the appointment.

     

    Lydie was walking into the Marriott Electronics head office building when she started to half wish her father was with her. She felt sick, shaky, and she heartily wished this imminent interview were all over and done with.

    She rode up in the same lift, walked shakily along the same corridor and turned round the corner without an earthly idea of what she would say to the man. Eating humble pie did not come easy. Outside his door, she paused to take a deep breath. She knew she was ten minutes earlier than she had been on Friday, but she was too wound up to wait for ten minutes of torturous seconds to tick by.

    She put her right hand on the door handle and took a deep breath, and then, tilting her chin a proud fraction, she turned the handle and with her heart pounding went in.

    Jonah Marriott was not alone, but was mid-instruction to the woman Lydie had seen step out of the lift last Friday. He looked up and got to his feet to greet her. 'Lydie,' he said and, turning to his PA, introduced them to each other.

     

    `We've spoken on the phone,' Elaine Edwards commented with a smile, and obviously aware of this appointment, even if Lydie was early for it, she picked up her papers, said, 'I'll come back later,' and went through into her own office and closed the door.

     

    `Enjoy the play?' Jonah asked, taking Lydie out of her stride-she had intended to pitch straight in there with some "The debt is mine but I can't pay"-type dialogue.

     

    `Very much,' she answered, with barely an idea just then what the play had been about.

    `Take a seat,' he offered. `Was that your steady boyfriend?"

    'Er-what? No. Um-I see him sometimes,' she