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

replied, wondering what that had got to do with anything, though she would not have minded asking if the blonde were his steady. Not that she was terribly interested, of course.

     

    She took the seat he indicated and opened her mouth, ready to put this conversation along the lines it was to go, when, `Coffee?' he asked, and she knew then that she was not the one in charge of how the conversation went-he was. He was playing with her!

    `No, thank you,' she refused, her tone perhaps a little less civil than it should be in the circumstances. `When I came here last Friday I was under the impression you had not honoured the debt you owed my father. I...'

    `So I gathered,' Jonah replied, having retaken his seat behind his desk, leaning back to study her.

     

    She did not care to be studied; it rattled her. `You should have told me!' she flared. `You knew you had repaid that loan!

    He smiled-it was a phoney smile. `I knew I would end up getting the blame.'

     

    Just then guilt, embarrassment, and every other emotion she had experienced since seeing him again last Friday after seven years, all rose up inside her, causing her control to fracture. `And so you should!' she snapped. `You set me up!' she accused hotly.

    The phoney smile abruptly disappeared. He cared not for her tone; she could tell. `I set you up?' he challenged. `My memory is usually so good, but correct me if I'm wrong-did I ask you to come here, dunning me for money?'

    Dunning! Put like that it sounded awful. Her fury all at once fizzled out. `I trusted you,' she said quietly. `Yet you, the way you hinted that I should pay the cheque into my father's bank straight away, made sure I did just that.'

    Jonah Marriott eyed her uncompromisingly. `Would you rather I had not given you that cheque?' he questioned toughly. `Would you prefer that your father was still in hock to his bank?' She blanched. It was becoming more and more clear to her that Jonah Marriott was much too smart for her. He knew, as she had just accepted, that by taking the money from him she had allowed her father some respite. At least there wasn't a "For Sale" notice being posted in their grounds that morning. `Why did you give me that money?' she asked. `And why make it pretty certain that I'd bank it first and tell my father afterwards?'

    Jonah shrugged. `Seven years ago your father's faith in me, his generosity, made it possible for me to successfully carry out my ideas. From what you told me on Friday, Wilmot was in a desperate fix with no way out. Without a hope of repaying any financial assistance, I knew there was no way he would accept my help.'

    That was true. Lydie sighed. She felt defeated suddenly. `My father wanted to see you as soon as possible. I said, since I was coming to London today, that I'd make an appointment and that we would both come and see you.'

    Jonah eyed her solemnly. `You lied to him?"

    'I'm not proud of it. Until last week, when I told him I was going to see a great- aunt but came here instead, I had never lied to my father in my life.'

    Jonah nodded. `I can see reason for you lying to him about coming here the first time-obviously either your brother or your mother has been bending your ear with falsehoods too-but why lie to your father about coming here today?"

     

    'Because-because he's been a very worried man for long enough. It's time somebody else in the family took some of the load.'

    `Namely you?"

    'It was I who asked you for that money. I who-er-um-borrowed it, not him. The debt is mine.' Jonah stared at her for some long moments. `It's yours?' he queried finally.

     

    `My father didn't ask for the money. Nor would he. As you so rightly said, he wouldn't not for something he couldn't see his way to pay back.' She broke off and looked into a pair of fantastic blue eyes that now seemed more academically interested than annoyed. `The debt is mine,' she resumed firmly, `and no one else's. I've come today to...' her firm tone began to slip