Next Door to Romance by Margaret Malcolm Read Free Book Online

was with him, but they had sufficient interests in common for such a marriage to be a success—a tie that wasn't too burdensome for either of them.
    At least, that was how he'd seen it, and had thought that Evadne had, too. Now, he wasn't so sure. If her remark about marrying her family's way into local society was a warning, it was in effect reminding him that there were as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it. And only one reason could explain why she had thought fit to give it. Somehow, due to feminine intuition, no doubt, she had decided that she had a possible rival and she intended to make it clear, right from the beginning, that she would not tolerate such a state of affairs if their future was to be a united one.
    Mark felt a little breathless. He hadn't realized until now that Evadne had sufficient femininity in her as to make jealousy a possibility.
    'Yes, that's an idea,' he repeated. 'But would you like the prospect of being condemned to live in the country all your life?'
    Evadne laughed. Really, she and Mark understood one another very well and it was rather an amusing game to convey each other's thoughts in this roundabout way! Mark, she knew, had appreciated her point of view completely—but he had also contrived to call her bluff.
    'No, I wouldn't,' she admitted frankly. 'Any more than you would! So it's something we should both bear in mind, don't you think?'
    'Oh, I never gave such an idea a thought,' Mark said lightly, and went up to his room feeling satisfied that, on the whole, the little skirmish had done no harm. Possibly quite a lot of good!
    To Lisa he gave only a fleeting thought.
    'An attractive little soul,' he thought drowsily. 'But not for me, of course! That redheaded vet will take care of that!'
    And he went to sleep with an easy mind.

    But his sleep might not have been so untroubled had he heard a conversation between Evadne and her father earlier that evening.
    It had been a very real disappointment to Simon Cosgrave that Evadne had been a girl, particularly when he was told that his wife would never be able to have another child. He had set his heart on having a son and had taken it for granted that he would get what he wanted. However, in those days he was too busy making his way either to dwell on his disappointment or to spend much time with his wife and his little daughter.
    Then when Evadne was about seventeen he had a pleasant surprise. Evadne, whom he had taken for granted would show no more interest or understanding of finance than her mother did, suddenly proved that she was indeed his daughter. She was at an exclusive and very expensive boarding school at the time and one day she turned up without warning at her father's office, only to be told that he was busy and had given instructions that he wasn't to be disturbed.
    'And honestly, Miss Evadne, it's more than my job's worth to go against Mr Cosgrave's express orders,' his secretary insisted.
    'It'll be more than your job's worth if you don't let me see him,' Evadne said grimly.
    It took a little time, but in the end she got her way, and once her father understood what it was all about, he grinned delightedly.
    'You're a good girl—and a clever one, Evadne,' he told her. 'Now then, just go through it again—I can't afford to make a mistake, you know!'
    Briefly, she had brought him information which she had realized was almost certainly of great value to him. It was based on the fact that there had been a lot of talk recently of a merger between two big firms, but this had been strenuously denied and speculation had died down, particularly as, so far as anyone could discover, there was no contact at all between the two men who would have been principally concerned.
    But the daughters of both men were at the same school as Evadne, and what more natural than that both fathers should have turned up to the School Sports Day?
    'If you'd come as well, you'd have seen them for yourself,' Evadne had pointed out, not