Gracious Lady Read online

  'Celia...!' Maximilian groaned impatiently, ob­viously not in the least pleased at the prospect as he crossed to Jennie's side at the window. 'Just what I need,' he muttered after looking down on to the driveway himself, turning back with irritated movements to look at Sophie. 'Could you possibly go downstairs and talk to Celia while I—?'

  'Me?' It was Sophie's turn to gasp now.

  Why on earth would she want to go down and talk to Celia Taylor? More to the point, after Celia's rather pointed aversion to her company the last time the two of them had met, why should they—any of them— assume Celia would want to talk to her?

  'If you would?' Maximilian looked at her pleadingly. 'I need to talk to Jennie.'

  Sophie looked at him searchingly, realising, as she did so, what it was costing him to ask for her help in this way at all. And he was asking for her help, desperately needed to resolve his differences with Jennie—because he now knew, as she had warned him would happen, that he was close to losing his daughter forever if he didn't soon do something.

  Sophie knew that, no matter what her own re­lationship with Maximilian, she wasn't proof against such a plea...

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  'LADY SOPHIE GORDON?' Celia drawled, the folded newspaper she held beating a steady tattoo against her trouser-clad thigh, her eyes narrowed in new critical as­sessment as she looked Sophie up and down.

  Without quite knowing how it had happened, Sophie had found herself going down to the sitting-room, where her aunt had shown Maximilian's visitor, a few minutes ago. But Celia wasn't sitting, and from her restlessly agi­tated movements about the room, she had no intention of doing so!

  'That's right,' Sophie acknowledged the accusation with a dismissive shrug. 'Would you like me to get you some coffee while you're waiting?' she offered uncomfortably.

  What on earth was she doing, attempting to entertain Celia Taylor, of all people, when a short time ago Maximilian had ordered her out of his home?

  She was doing it, she knew, because upstairs in Jennie's bedroom just now he had asked her to do it so nicely she hadn't the heart to refuse him!

  Celia's top lip curled back scornfully. 'And you're Max's companion, not Jennifer's at all!'

  Sophie frowned at that statement. If Celia had a re­lationship with Maximilian, why would the other woman believe such an outrageous claim by that not very repu­table newspaper?

  Because they didn't have a relationship, Sophie sud­denly realised, no matter how deeply the other woman might wish it were otherwise.

  Celia still tapped the newspaper against her thigh. 'No wonder he decided, in spite of the threats, to keep the two of you here with him rather than coming to my house. And I thought it was because he was being pro­tective of me!' she added self-derisively. 'What a stupid fool I've been all these years!' She shook her head.

  Threats? What threats?

  Obviously Celia thought—because she believed that ridiculous claim in the newspapers about a relationship between Maximilian and Sophie!—that Maximilian would have told her what Celia was now talking about.

  And suddenly, like a glimmer of light at the end of a very dark tunnel, it was all starting to make sense...

  There was Maximilian's suspicion of her when he had first met her in the kitchen and hadn't realised who she was. There was that sudden decision of his not to have Jennie here after all. There was a new assistant, Paul Wiseman, whom Jennie had never even heard of. There were all those other 'new' members of staff Maximilian had told them about. There was that order about not leaving the house to go anywhere without telling someone where they were going. There were any number of in­cidents which, now she thought about them, had either seemed odd or heartless at the time, which could all make sense if— There was Gracious Lady's presence here!

  'I think perhaps you should discuss that with Maximilian,' she told the other woman noncommittally now; there was a lot she now wanted to discuss with Maximilian herself!

  'What would be the point?' Celia dismissed im­patiently, throwing the newspaper down disgustedly. 'It was a mistake for me to come here at all. Tell Max—'

  'Tell Max what?' he queried curiously as he entered the room and almost walked into Celia on the point of leaving it. 'Steady!' He grasped her arm to stop her from losing her balance, frowning down at her flushed face. 'Celia...?'

  The beautiful woman shook off his restricting hands, her eyes flashing deeply violet. 'What a lot of years I've wasted waiting for you to notice me!' she snorted self-derisively. 'But my God, no more!' She tossed the dark thickness of her hair back over her shoulder. 'You're living in false hopes, Lady Sophie,' she turned and said challengingly to Sophie as she stood across the room, quietly witnessing the exchange, 'if you think you've found a permanent place in his life.' Her mouth twisted. 'So enjoy it while you can!' she advised mockingly. 'Goodbye, Max!' She stormed out of the room, her de­parture from the house heard seconds later as the front door closed with a loud slam.

  Complete silence followed this heated departure, and Sophie was almost afraid to look at Maximilian; he was sure to think, having the opinion of her that he now did, that she had said or done something to bring about that explosion from Celia, was never going to believe her even if she claimed otherwise. Well, it was his own fault; he must have known Celia didn't like her!

  She risked a tentative peep up at him between lowered lashes, her lids flying wide open as she saw he was grinning. Not just grinning, actually, but smiling from ear to ear, it seemed! 'Maximilian...?' she said with slow uncertainty. Minutes ago he had been breathing fire and brimstone, and she couldn't think of anything that could have happened in the intervening minutes to change that. And yet he was definitely smiling...

  'There you go again,' he murmured huskily. 'You know what hearing you say my name does to me!'

  Sophie was totally stunned as he took her in his arms and kissed her!

  In fact, for several seconds she was so stunned that she didn't move—and then she remembered all too clearly how Maximilian had ordered her to leave earlier!

  'Stop that!' She pushed away from him, her face flushed. 'What do you think you're doing?'

  'Kissing you,' he shrugged. 'And I think I must be doing it wrong, because there seems to be some con­fusion as to what I'm doing every time I do kiss you!'

  'I know you were kissing me,' Sophie snapped frustratedly. 'I meant—'

  'Every time I kiss the woman I love,' he added thoughtfully.

  'What do—you—think...?' She trailed off lamely, looking at him with widely disbelieving eyes; he couldn't have been talking about her? But who else was there in the room!

  'The woman my daughter assures me loves me in return,' Maximilian murmured as he put his arms about her again. 'Although she also said that I, quote, "don't deserve you", unquote.' He looked down at her with tenderly loving eyes. ‘I don't think I do either, but, if you're agreeable, I would like to keep you.'

  Sophie opened her mouth to speak, and when no words came out she closed it again, opening her mouth a second time, and as quickly closing it again. She knew she must look like a fish out of water, but for the moment she couldn't seem to do anything else!

  'Keep me?' she finally managed to choke out, latching on to the part of the statement she could deal with. 'Don't start believing your own publicity, Maximilian—'

  'I wasn't talking about that sort of "keeping you",' he rasped impatiently. 'I meant, I would like you to stay in my life. As my wife,' he added huskily.

  Sophie couldn't breathe, coughing and spluttering, choking for breath, sure she must have misheard him; Maximilian couldn't really have asked her to marry him!

  ‘I know I've been unreasonable and pig-headed with you—Jennie's choice of words, not mine,' he explained with a grimace. 'I happen to believe I've just been a straightforward bastard to you.' He groaned self-disgustedly. 'I know it's not really an acceptable excuse, but this last week has been one of the most worrying I've ever known.' He frowned.

  'Bec
ause of the threats against Lady.' Sophie nodded understandingly, slowly recovering from the shock he had given her, especially now they were talking about something she could answer. 'And Jennie,' she added softly.

  Maximilian's frown deepened. 'How did you know about them?'

  'Don't start that again!' she warned impatiently, moving away from him completely. 'Celia told me just now. She was so upset about the story in the newspaper about the two of us that I don't think she particularly cared what she said any more!' Sophie shook her head ruefully. 'I'm not really surprised. It was the biggest load of—God, it was awful!' She shuddered to think what her parents—and Aunt Millie!—were going to have to say about it.

  Maximilian nodded grimly. 'What did Burnett have to say for himself?'

  Sophie shook her head. 'He's as upset about it as we are—well, probably not quite as much as we are,' she grimaced, 'because he isn't personally mentioned in the article, but—'

  'You're burbling again, woman,' Maximilian told her indulgently.

  'Well, of course I'm burbling!' She looked up at him exasperatedly. 'You and Jennie are at odds with each other—'

  'Not any more,' Maximilian assured her confidently. 'Oh, I have no doubts we will have our ups and down in future, like any parent and child—in fact, I'm sure we will!' he acknowledged ruefully. 'We're too much alike for it to be any other way. Yes, I do realise that.' He looked at Sophie with raised brows as she smiled knowingly. 'But at least now Jennie realises that I've been the way I have because I love her, not because I don't want her in my life. Now, why else are you burbling, Sophie?' He looked at her mockingly now.

  Sophie gave him a feigned glare, absolutely delighted that he seemed to have sorted things out between himself and Jennie. And he was right, it would still be far from easy between father and daughter the next few years, possibly until Jennie was out of her teens. But as long as Jennie knew Maximilian loved her, it should never be this bad between them ever again.

  'Then there are those threats,' Sophie reminded worriedly.

  'There were those threats,' Maximilian told her firmly. ‘I had received several telephone calls telling me to withdraw Lady from a certain race, that if I didn't something would happen to either the horse or Jennie. It isn't so unusual for owners to receive threats like that, and usually they turn out to be a hoax. But this one had much more serious undertones, especially when Lady became mysteriously ill several days ago and it didn't look as if she was going to be able to race anyway. The next telephone call after that claimed that Jennie could be next, and that she might not get off as lightly as Lady. I brought the horse here where I could keep a closer eye on her, decided it would be better for Jennie to go to

  Celia—with suitable security, of course,' he added grimly. 'But it's no longer necessary; the young stablehand who was being paid to nobble Lady's food was caught in the act this morning, and the person paying him is even now being sought by the police. In retrospect-' he frowned '—I would probably have been wiser to have returned Lady to her trainer as soon as it became obvious Jennie would be safer here with me, but I wasn't thinking straight at the time! When I took Lady back yesterday afternoon I realised—' Maximilian frowned as Sophie gave a start of surprise. 'Where did you think I had gone yesterday afternoon?' he asked astutely.

  With Celia Taylor! And instead he had been taking Gracious Lady back to her trainer.

  'Ah.' Maximilian nodded understandingly as delicate colour darkened her cheeks. 'There was never anything between Celia and myself,' he assured her huskily. 'In fact,' he added self-derisively, ‘I must be rather stupid—'

  'You, Maximilian?' Sophie mocked with widely innocent eyes.

  '—where Celia is concerned,' he finished drily, looking down at Sophie with raised brows. 'Because until that outburst from her a short time ago, I had no idea how she felt about me! I've certainly never thought of her in that way. Good God, she was Jo's little sister! And Jo and I were unsuited, God knows, but Celia and I would have been even more so!' He shook his head dismissively.

  Leaving Sophie in no doubt whatsoever that no matter what Celia might have thought—or hoped!—to the con­trary, there had never been any emotional or physical involvement between her and Maximilian.

  'It seems I've been less than astute with all of my family since Jo died,' Maximilian continued with a grimace. ‘I had no idea Jennie realised all about her mother and me—which was insulting to her intelligence. Jo and I only stayed together as long as we did because of Jennie. I don't know what went wrong between us exactly.' He shook his head sadly. 'Possibly we were too young when we married.' He shrugged. ‘I was twenty and Jo was nineteen.'

  Sophie knew all about marrying when you were too young!

  'As we matured,' Maximilian sighed, 'we grew to want different things from life. With the money and success, Jo wanted a lifestyle to go with them—travel, a high-profile social life. And that wasn't me at all,' he shrugged. ‘I tried to compromise, but Jo was having none of it, doing exactly what she wanted to do, when she wanted to. That's when the arguments began, until in the end there didn't even seem any point to them any longer. And once the rows stopped we went our separate ways, the only thing we apparently had left in common being Jennie. It wasn't easy, for any of us, I'm sure, living like that, but at the time it seemed better than the alternative,' he said sadly. 'And then Jo met someone else, someone she decided she wanted to marry.'

  Sophie squeezed his arm comfortingly, could see how the failure of his marriage still affected him. Not be­cause he had still loved his wife—she could see that he hadn't—but because it had been a failure.

  ‘I was adamant,' he continued grimly, 'no matter what Jennie may have thought to the contrary, that Jo shouldn't have custody of Jennie. Jennie was in boarding school by this time, basically because I believed we could protect her from the situation between Jo and myself more easily that way, not because I ever wanted her to go away from me.' He gave a pained frown that Jennie should ever have thought that had been the reason. 'Jo was killed only six months after Jennie went away to school, the contention between us concerning Jennie's future still unsettled between us. So much so that I felt almost guilty for having got Jennie in that way,' he ad­mitted gruffly, his eyes shadowed with the memory.

  And that guilt, Sophie could see, had reflected on his future relationship with Jennie, making him hold back his love, when he should have drawn even closer because of Jo's death. Sophie really hoped Maximilian was right when he said that lack of understanding between himself and Jennie was over now; they both deserved so much more.

  'When the threat was made on Jennie's life because of Lady I just went to pieces,' Maximilian admitted shakily now. 'The school holiday was looming, but I thought it best if she was kept away from me and Lady, that she would be harder to find if she stayed with Celia. I had forgotten at the time that I had asked your aunt to get you here for an interview,' he shook his head self-derisively. 'Although I'm glad I did now.' His gaze was warm on her flushed face. 'Otherwise you would just have received a telephone call telling you not to bother coming here at all, and then where would we all be?' he murmured huskily.

  Where indeed? Sophie wasn't a hundred per cent certain where they were now; she still felt flustered by his proposal—certainly in no fit state to answer it yet!

  'Jennie obviously had other ideas about going to Celia's,' she put in quickly.

  Maximilian looked at her indulgently for her de­laying tactics, seeming to guess at her near panic. 'Ob­viously,' he drawled, allowing her this small respite, 'Jennie had "other ideas" about a lot of things! It threw Paul's security completely when she just saddled Lady and rode her out of here!' He shook his head disgustedly.

  So she had been right about Paul Wiseman's being the extra security here.

  'Needless to say,' Maximilian added darkly, 'there has been a considerable shake-up there! And Paul is now on his way back to Lady's trainer to concentrate on security there. He's better with horses than people anywa
y!'

  ‘I noticed that,' Sophie said ruefully, remembering how Paul had got her hackles up from the first with his not very subtle questioning.

  Maximilian looked down at her teasingly. 'And I wondered if you might think he was a "good-looking young businessman"!' he drawled mockingly.

  'Hardly,' she grimaced. ‘I was too busy, as it happens, being captivated—in one way or another!—by a good-looking not-so-young businessman!' She gave him a mischievous look from beneath lowered lashes.

  Maximilian burst out laughing. 'A "not-so-young businessman", hmm, "Jane"?' he repeated softly, his arms going about her.

  'A good-looking not-so-young businessman, "Mr Rochester",' she corrected laughingly, sobering sud­denly at the burning intensity of his gaze, realising that for the moment the laughter was over. 'Maximilian—'

  'Sophie, I realise we haven't known each other very long,' he accepted huskily. 'But, as you said earlier, it's been an eventful few days. Emotionally charged,' he added grimly. 'But I knew that first night that there was something different about you—'

  'Oh, there's something different about me, all right,' Sophie acknowledged self-derisively.

  'Don't knock it, Sophie.' Maximilian's arms tightened about her waist. 'You're loyal, brutally frank, caring, honest—'

  She frowned. 'A short time ago you believed I was totally dishonest,' she reminded him. 'That I had used my position here to give Brian that story.'

  'It was because I guessed it was Burnett that I over­reacted to that,' he admitted with a sigh. 'I knew I loved you, and if you had been in this with Burnett then I knew you must be in love with him.' He grimaced. 'I kept you here in the first place, not just because of Jennie, but because my reaction to you was completely different than to any other woman I've ever met, and if, as it now appeared, you were in love with another man, then I was just left with the heartache of loving you.' He shook his head. 'I know it's no excuse for the things I said to you, but I was hurting very badly at that moment.'