Carole Mortimer - To Mend A Marriage

Because if all their lives hadn’t been turned upside down fifteen months ago by Jemima’s selfishness, he could have been Jessica’s father…!

‘I SUGGEST we put the baby back to bed and you can tell me what the hell you’re talking about!’ Nick rasped now, his mouth tight.

Gemini could completely sympathise with his feelings. Fifteen months ago Nick had been her sister Jemima’s fiancé, a little fact her sister seemed to have forgotten when she’d seen someone else that she wanted! And her engagement to Nick hadn’t been the only thing Jemima had conveniently forgotten!

‘Shouldn’t I feed the baby first?’ she prompted uncertainly; after all, it was now four hours since Jessica’s last feed.

‘Hardly!’ Nick gave a pointed look at the sleeping baby.

Gemini could feel that heated colour enter her cheeks once again. Damn it, she was usually so cool and in control, especially around Nick, who was always so competent himself; it was totally unfair that she found herself in this unfamiliar role with him as a witness!

And she didn’t feel any more comfortable with the situation as the two of them placed the baby back into her carrycot and arranged the blankets over her. They looked like a pair of doting parents, for goodness’ sake—and, considering the sterile state of their marriage, that was something they would never be!

‘Time for a brandy, I think,’ Nick muttered grimly once they had settled the baby back in her cot in the spare bedroom.

‘I’ll just get my robe,’ Gemini told him lightly, ever conscious of the fact that she was only wearing the milk-stained pyjamas.

Nick gave her a mocking sideways glance. ‘I’ve seen women in less, Gemini,’ he drawled derisively.

She flicked her hair back, her chin raised haughtily. ‘Not me, you haven’t,’ she snapped.

‘True,’ he murmured mockingly. ‘But it’s a fact you are my wife…’

She knew what she was. Didn’t need any reminding. Nor did she need to be reminded of the fact that there had been other women in Nick’s life before he married her.

And since…?

She’d tried over recent months not to think too deeply about Nick’s private life. Before that it hadn’t occurred to her to think about it; it was only lately she had begun to wonder—

No! These were thoughts that took her nowhere—except to sleepless nights as she lay torturing herself with wondering whether or not Nick really was away on business, or if there could be some other reason, someone, who kept him away from home for days at a time!

It was an aspect of their marriage they hadn’t discussed when they’d decided to marry each other fourteen months ago. It hadn’t occurred to Gemini at the time to discuss it; if she’d thought about it she’d probably assumed that Nick would make his own arrangements. It was only in recent months that Gemini had found herself thinking about that side of his life too…

Because, as she knew only too well, Nick was a very attractive man, and it would be ridiculous to assume that he had remained celibate during their marriage. And it certainly hadn’t been her he was making love to…!

Damn it, she didn’t want to think about that, had no right to do so. They had married each other for their own reasons, and they weren’t reasons that allowed for interference in each other’s private lives.

Nick had poured the brandies when Gemini joined him in the sitting-room, its gas-flame fire adding a cheeriness to the room. Which was just as well, because Nick’s grim expression wasn’t in the least cheering!

‘So, true to form, Jemima has done it again—only this time she’s dumped her baby on you?’ he rasped without preamble.

‘Not exactly.’ Gemini grimaced, taking her glass of brandy to sip it gratefully; she should have guessed Nick would get straight to the point! ‘What I mean is that, yes, Jessica has been brought here, but it wasn’t by Jemima. You see—’

‘No—I don’t see,’ he cut in with icy disdain. ‘But then, where your irresponsible sister is concerned—does anybody?’

Gemini wasn’t even going to attempt to defend her twin sister. She simply couldn’t imagine two people more unalike than Jemima and herself; Jemima roamed the world in search of the latest scoop, very rarely in the same place for any length of time, whereas Gemini had lived in London all of her life, dedicatedly etching out a career for herself in the world of fashion.

No, she couldn’t say she understood her twin’s need for travel and excitement, but by the same token she was her sister…

‘Jemima is in America,’ she told Nick evenly. ‘The young lady she engaged as Jessica’s nanny is going to be married tomorrow, and so obviously she can’t look after her at the moment—’

‘Obviously,’ Nick acknowledged disgustedly.

Gemini drew in a deep, controlling breath, knowing his anger was well merited; Jemima was going to hear exactly what she thought of her when she returned. When…!

‘But the nanny has assured me that Jemima should be back on Monday,’ she added, more with hope than any degree of certainty; if Jemima didn’t have her story by then, there was no telling when she would be back!

‘And so she’s left you here holding her baby—literally?’ Nick dismissed scathingly.

She frowned. ‘Admittedly, it’s a little inconvenient—’

‘Inconvenient!’ Nick echoed, shaking his head disgustedly. ‘Considering the two of you haven’t even spoken for well over a year, I find the whole thing incredible. I won’t say unbelievable—because nothing your sister does surprises me any more!’ he added grimly.

He still cared, Gemini realised with dismay. It had been almost fifteen months since Jemima had broken her engagement to him so thoughtlessly, but it was obvious from the bitterness Nick was showing now that the insult had been far from forgotten. Or forgiven…

And why should it be—wasn’t it for that very reason that she and Nick were now married to each other…?

Nick’s romance with Jemima had happened so suddenly and so quickly, sixteen months ago, that it had only been at the dinner to celebrate their engagement that the two of them had been introduced to each other’s families. Both sets of parents were dead, and so it was left to Gemini, as Jemima’s sister, and Danny, Nick’s younger brother, to represent what little family there was left.

Gemini had been sceptical about the suddenness of the romance, believing it to be just another of Jemima’s rash—and usually disastrous!—impulses. But to her surprise Nick Drummond had turned out to be exactly the sort of man every mother would wish their daughter to meet and marry: obviously wealthy, very handsome, with an arrogance that protected all of those close to him. And, as Nick’s future wife, Jemima had definitely come into that category.

The only problem Gemini had been able to see with the match had been that if anything Nick was just too perfect, too arrogant, too much in control of himself and those around him. Jemima, on the other hand, had been ten years younger than her new fiancé, full of fun and life, eager for excitement and adventure.

But the four of them had enjoyed a pleasant dinner together. Danny Drummond was ten years younger than his brother, a professional naturalist photographer who worked freelance for several well-known magazines. He was completely different from his brother in looks, a little under six feet in height, with overlong blonde hair and laughing brown eyes.

What should have been apparent to all of them that night was that Danny was also full of fun and life, eager for excitement and adventure…

Gemini had been bowled over by him, fascinated by his stories of trekking through Africa in his search for wildlife pictures that would appeal to others as well as himself, and at the end of the evening she’d been only too happy to accept his invitation for the two of them to have dinner together the following evening.

There had followed a month in Gemini’s life the like of which she had never known before. Danny was completely unconventional; their dates had been equally so. Danny had even whisked her off to a Scottish island for the weekend on one occasion—because he’d wanted to film the birdlife there.

Gemini had been enthralled, enraptured, her own life and career put on hold every time Danny made one of his unannounced appearances. But it had all come to an abrupt end the day she had visited Danny’s apartment and found Jemima there with him…!

She looked across at Nick now, remembering all too clearly the humiliated anger they had both felt at learning that her sister and his brother had been indulging in a little relationship of their own behind their backs…

‘I should have known, damn it,’ Nick muttered to himself now.

Gemini gave him a puzzled look. ‘Should have known what?’

He looked as if he were about to explode with anger. ‘Jemima called me today—’

‘Jemima did?’ Gemini cut in angrily; the last she had heard of Jemima and Nick’s friendship they hadn’t even been talking to each other! And now it appeared Jemima was telephoning him…!

He nodded. ‘On my mobile. Apparently she tried to call the house this morning—’

‘I was out shopping,’ Gemini said dazedly. Her sister had called Nick on his mobile…! For the first time in the last year. Or had Jemima contacted him before in this way?

Nick’s mouth twisted. ‘And Mrs James was away for the day,’ he realised. ‘Jemima wanted to know if we would be at home this weekend. I assured her that we would,’ he said grimly. ‘I had no idea the reason she wanted to know was because she intended dumping her baby here!’

Well, at least Jemima’s telephone call to Nick proved that her sister wasn’t quite as irresponsible as she had thought her to be; at least she had ascertained that someone would be at home before Jessica was brought here!

But what else did it mean…? Was Jemima in the habit of calling Nick on his mobile? Despite the fact he was her husband, Gemini simply didn’t have the sort of relationship with Nick that would allow her to ask him such a question.

‘If it’s not too stupid a question—who the hell is the father?’ Nick rasped, with a return of that cold, remorseless anger that had become such a part of him fifteen months ago on learning of Jemima and Danny’s duplicity.

And the question wasn’t so unreasonable, either—because two months after Jemima had broken her engagement to Nick, because she’d supposedly been in love with Danny, she and Danny had also parted!

But it had been too late then for any second thoughts on Gemini or Nick’s part—because they had already been married to each other…

She wasn’t naturally impulsive by nature—she believed Jemima must have inherited all that part of their character at their birth—but at the time there had been no doubt in Gemini’s mind that she had fallen in love with Danny Drummond, hook, line and sinker. Only to find that he had been having an affair with Jemima almost from the very first evening they had all been introduced!

Gemini had been devastated by both Danny and Jemima’s behaviour. Nick’s reaction to his brother and fiancée’s duplicity had been much less predictable—he’d asked Gemini to marry him!

Her initial reaction to the proposal had been one of disbelief. And a questioning as to why, after being hurt so badly, she should want to marry anyone!

But even as she had asked herself that question she had known the answer all too clearly; all of her friends and business acquaintances had known of her relationship with Danny, of how for one wild, impetuous month she had put the rest of her life on hold to be with him—even GemStone had taken second place to the relationship for a while. She was going to look a complete idiot, both privately and professionally, when it became public knowledge that Danny had actually preferred her sister!