Hitched! (6 page)

‘How does Whellerby fit into your plan?’

‘Hugh was my mentor when I first joined the firm in London,’ I
said. ‘He was really supportive, and I missed him when he left to set up his own
design and build company up here, although I knew he wanted to come home to
Yorkshire. His wife always stayed here, and he’d go down to London for the week,
and I think he got fed up of the travelling.

‘It was such a shame that he had the heart attack just when
he’d got the big contract with the Whellerby estate. The conference centre will
make his reputation locally, so it’s just as important for us that it’s a
success and we stick to the budget as it is for you.’

‘Hugh must think a lot of you if you’re the one he asked to
come and help him out,’ George said.

I turned my own glass between my hands, thinking about how much
I owed Hugh. ‘He knew I wanted some site experience. I was just working on
highway contracts in London, and my next step is to go overseas and work on a
really major construction project. They’re going to build a new airport in
Shofrar, and if I could get on that, then I’d be in a good position to be
promoted to senior engineer by the end of my five years.’

‘I see.’ George set down his beer. ‘And then, once you’re
promoted, you’re going to look around for a relationship?’

‘Exactly. Another civil engineer makes sense. He’d understand
about moving around from project to project, and we could go together if
necessary. Plus, I only ever meet engineers.’

‘I’m not an engineer,’ said George. ‘You’ve met me.’

‘Only temporarily,’ I said, a bit thrown. ‘As soon as Hugh is
better, I’m going to apply for a job in Shofrar. Besides,’ I said, ‘we’ve
already established that you’re not my type.’

‘Only because you’re a lookist.’

‘Because I’m
sensible
.’

‘But what about passion, Frith?’ George shook his head. ‘What
about love? You can’t reduce that to a plan.’

I’d tidied up the coasters, so George had put the glasses
straight onto the table where they left wet rings. I moved my glass around,
making a precise pattern.

‘I’m not looking for love or passion,’ I said. ‘I’ve seen what
happens when it goes. My mother gave up everything for my father. She could have
had a career of her own, but she chose to help him set up his business instead.
So when he got bored of us, she had nothing.’

‘She had you.’

Very carefully, I completed my circle of ring marks and placed
my glass in the middle. ‘I wasn’t enough,’ I said.

It was the first time I had said that out loud. I had been
good, and I had worked hard, and I had done everything she asked of me, and I
had always felt guilty because I wasn’t enough.

‘Mum retrained. She took care of me. She did everything she
could to make a good life for us together. She loved me, I know,’ I said, while
part of me was marvelling that I should be telling this to George Challoner of
all people. ‘But I don’t think she ever got over my father. I don’t think she
ever stopped loving him.’

I sighed. ‘The truth is, she was never truly happy without him.
I’ll never know, but I wonder if when that embolism struck, there wasn’t a
moment that she was glad. Part of my mother just gave up after my father left.
Without him, life didn’t hold anything for her.’

‘Tough on you,’ said George.

‘You can’t plan for emotions,’ I said. ‘You can’t predict what
people are going to do or feel, but you can think about the practicalities of
living and working and choose to make a relationship with someone who
understands those.’

‘So you stick to engineers?’

I thought about my boyfriends, and it didn’t take long. It
wasn’t as if I’d had a whole string of relationships. Nick had been a fellow
engineering student, and we’d parted ways amicably after we graduated. I’d
worked with John in London until he got a job overseas, and then there had been
Phil, but the truth was that neither of us were that bothered, and I suspect it
was a relief to us both when I accepted Hugh’s offer and went north.

It was an unimpressive record. Not that I had any intention of
admitting that to George.

I nodded. ‘It’s more convenient to date engineers.’

‘Convenient?’ He shook his head. ‘How many of these convenient
guys have made your heart beat faster, Frith?’

I avoided his eyes. And the question. ‘I’ve been friends with
all of them.’

‘And I’ll bet you kept them all at arm’s length,’ said George.
‘You didn’t let any of them jog you out of your calm, ordered life, am I
right?’

Of course he was right. I had deliberately played safe. I’d
only ever been out with men who were more friends than lovers, so when they left
it wouldn’t hurt at all. And to make sure, I had always ended things first.

‘I don’t
want
to be jogged out of
it,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to get into a state and not be able to concentrate on
work because I’m waiting for the phone to ring. I don’t want to spend my life
fixating on one person and pinning all my happiness on him.’

‘Poor Frith,’ said George. ‘Haven’t you ever longed to throw
caution to the wind and let yourself go, just for once?’

My mind flickered to Charles. Once, I had. It wasn’t a mistake
I would be making again.

‘There are worse things than never having been in love,’ I
said.

‘It just seems such a waste,’ said George, studying my face
with those disquieting blue eyes. ‘You look so cool always, but then I look at
your mouth, and I can’t help feeling that there’s all this passion bottled up
inside you.’

‘Oh, please,’ I said, rolling my eyes.

‘It’s actually quite exciting,’ he went on. ‘You know, like one
of those fantasies where a stern teacher suddenly whips off her specs, shakes
out her hair and turns into a sexpot.’

‘I have no intention of whipping or shaking anything,’ I said,
taking a prim sip from my glass. ‘Besides, you’re not one to talk,’ I went on,
anxious to move the conversation away from my non-existent sex life. ‘I notice
you’re living on your own. How come you haven’t taken the plunge into a
passionate marriage if it’s such a good idea?’

‘I’ve tried,’ said George and I paused with the glass halfway
to the table.

‘You’re divorced?’

‘No, we didn’t get as far as the wedding. Annabel called it off
when I got fired.’

‘You were
fired
? What did you do?
Or shouldn’t I ask?’

‘Not very much, that was part of the problem.’ George picked up
his glass and studied the beer as he swirled it around. ‘Annabel made the right
decision. I’m amazed that she ever agreed to marry me in the first place, to be
honest. I was a mess in those days.’

I shifted on the settle so that I could look at him. I was
surprised. George Challoner struck me as many things, but a mess wasn’t one of
them.

‘You’ve changed.’

‘I hope so,’ he said. ‘I’m not proud of what I was like then. I
grew up in a wealthy family too,’ he told me after a moment. ‘Life was all
mapped out. You’d have approved,’ he added with a sidelong glance. ‘The family
had a plan. I was destined for the family bank, in spite of the fact that I had
no qualifications and all I wanted to do was work with horses.’

Family bank? I sat up straighter. ‘You’re not one of
those
Challoners?’

‘I am.’ George’s smile was twisted. ‘Or, I was.’

Even I had heard of Challoners Bank, one of the most
prestigious investment banks in London. Challoners had been bankers to the
British establishment for generations, and were notoriously stuffy. None of
Kevin Taylor’s headline-grabbing antics for the Challoners. They moved in a
different world from my father. They never flaunted their undoubted wealth, but
no one doubted their power and influence. There were Challoners in politics and
the law and on the boards of blue chip companies across the land.

And, apparently, in Whellerby.

No wonder he had that glossy assurance that had reminded me so
bitterly of Charles when I’d first seen him.

‘My parents take the family name very seriously,’ George said.
‘They don’t believe in passion either. Their marriage was a business merger as
far as I can tell, and Harry and I investments for the future. We were shipped
off to boarding school as soon as possible, and were supposed to move seamlessly
on to Oxford, after which a nice little position would be found for us in the
bank so that we could fast track to the board and continue the great Challoner
tradition.’

I had never heard George sound bitter before. ‘And you didn’t
oblige?’

‘No. Harry knuckled down, but I was the family’s black sheep
right from the start. I was a pain in the arse, and my parents despaired of me,
which was the point, obviously. Eventually I got myself expelled, and there was
no question of Oxford after that.’

I was trying to imagine George as a rebel, but it was hard. He
was so easy with people now, so annoyingly charming, that I just couldn’t
picture him being surly or difficult.

‘There was a family conference, after which it was decided to
ship me out of the country for a while. I had one of the best years of my life
working on a ranch in Montana, but when they thought I had learnt my lesson I
was summoned home.’

George pulled down his mouth as he set his glass on the table.
‘If I’d had any guts, I’d have refused,’ he said, ‘but I took the easy option.
An allowance, a car, a “job” in the bank...I could have said no to all of that,
and lived my own life, but I didn’t.’

‘You were young,’ I said. ‘Everyone makes mistakes when they’re
young.’

‘You didn’t.’

‘I was a good girl at school, but I’ve made plenty of other
mistakes, believe me,’ I said, thinking of Charles.

‘I was old enough to know better,’ said George, clearly
determined to flay himself. ‘I knew what I was doing, but instead of holding out
for what I really wanted, I gave in. Nobody thought I was capable of much, so I
was given a token directorship in human resources. I wasn’t required to do much
more than turn up occasionally and sign where was required.’

His jaw hardened. ‘I didn’t need to live down to my family’s
expectations of me, but I did. It was like I was determined to show them how
useless I could really be. I threw myself into the party circuit. I was a
walking, talking cliché for excess. But of course, I was a Challoner, so I could
get away with it.’

‘You can’t have been that bad if you got engaged,’ I said.

‘Ah, Annabel...’ His smile twisted. ‘I really thought she could
save me.’

‘What was she like?’

‘She was a country girl, or so I thought. Her family were into
hunting, fishing and shooting, and she loved horses and dogs. She had some
so-called PR job, but basically she was doing the social season, and looking for
a husband. I thought she wanted what I wanted, a way out,’ said George. ‘I
thought she was bored with the endless parties and pointless socialising.’

I don’t know why, but I took against the idea of Annabel
straight away.

‘Nobody was forcing her to stay in London, were they?’ I said
sharply. ‘If she’d wanted a way out, she could have got herself a job in the
country and bought her own horse instead of waiting for a husband to do it for
her!’

‘The Annabels of this world don’t think like you do, Frith. And
nor did I then. I had this idealised notion of country living too. Harry and I
used to go and stay with my grandmother during the holidays. She lived—still
does—in a wonderful old manor house, full of dogs and cats, and she had a stable
full of horses.

‘My happiest times were spent there,’ he said with a
reminiscent smile. ‘I wanted that again, and I still do, but I wasn’t as brave
as you. I didn’t think of washing dishes to get what I wanted. I was lazy and
useless and my family were right to fire me, because I certainly didn’t know
what I was doing at the bank, and I hated every moment I was there.’

‘So I’m guessing Annabel decided you weren’t such a good bet as
a husband once you didn’t have the Challoner fortune behind you?’

‘Something like that,’ said George ruefully. ‘I shouldn’t have
been surprised, but I was. I thought she was so sweet and she was ready to
settle down, but...well, anyway,’ he finished with a shrug.

I took the pile of coasters and placed them in a straight line.
‘Let me guess, she was a good cook?’

‘Yes, she was.’

‘And pretty, I presume?’

‘Ravishing.’ He slid me another glance as I arranged the
coasters into a square. ‘And she was fun—and sexy as hell.’

‘Oh, please, not the old sweet-sexy-fun cliché,’ I pretended to
yawn, and was pleased to see the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

‘It was boring of me, wasn’t it?’

‘Very,’ I said. ‘Next time, fall in love with someone more
interesting.’

Then I made the mistake of looking into his eyes. I’d meant it
as a joke, but I found myself trapped, pinioned by their blueness and their
laughter and something else that drove the breath from my lungs and set my pulse
thudding.

‘Maybe I will,’ he said.

There was a small, perilous silence.

He was teasing. He was
teasing
, I
told myself feverishly, but it didn’t stop me feeling as if I had just missed a
step in the dark. My heart was stumbling clumsily around in my chest, getting in
the way of the air I was still trying to suck back into my lungs.

Somehow I managed to drag my gaze away. ‘Well, it shouldn’t be
too hard for you to find a girl who likes to cook and rides horses,’ I said.
‘Whellerby must be chock-a-block with women like that.’

‘Yes, but I want to find the right one, and it’s not that
easy,’ said George, just as his stupid phone started ringing. I say ringing, but
it was that ridiculous squawk, mercifully muffled by his trouser pocket.

PICK UP THE PHONE! PICK UP THE PHONE! HEY
YOU, YES YOU, IT’S YOUR PHONE RINGING! PICK UP THE PHONE!