Emma Darcy - Last Stop Marriage

‘Ah, Mr. Drayton has arrived,’ Lin Zhiyong announced, apparently picking up some signal from the aide stationed by the gateway. ‘You will accompany me to greet him?’ he invited, obviously wanting to observe their meeting firsthand.

‘Thank you,’ Jayne accepted, maintaining her pose of absolute confidence as she matched her step to his.

How she didn’t falter when Dan entered the garden was little short of a miracle. Her heart certainly stopped in shock, kicking painfully when it resumed beating again. Her mind locked, one thought only exploding within the jammed compartment.

Baby…

He was holding a baby…a real baby…cradled contentedly in the crook of his arm…a baby with the face of a cherub, chubby little hands waving excitedly, a rosebud mouth blowing bubbles as she gurgled her delight in the glowing paper lanterns strung around the garden.

A baby with black curly hair…

Like Dan’s!

A baby that looked to be about nine months old, certainly less than a year.

It was two years since she had rejected Dan’s idea of having a baby to give her something to do, to keep her happy in their marriage, to hold her with him; ample time for him to father this child with some other woman; the baby she had denied him; denied herself.

The baby was observing her now, wide-eyed with wonder, dark-eyed like Dan…and there was an ache of emptiness in Jayne’s stomach, a heavy, dragging feeling in her thighs, a cramping in her heart.

Somehow her feet kept moving. Dan had come to a standstill, obviously having observed her approach with Lin Zhiyong and waiting for the formal welcome to the Chinese official’s home. It was not until they were virtually face-to-face that Jayne managed to wrench her gaze from his child to look directy at the man who no longer belonged to her, and would never belong to her again.

‘Hello, Dan.’ It was all she could think of to say. Her voice was smoky, insubstantial, barely emerging from the sense of dead ashes, all that was left now of their former relationship.

‘Jayne…’

The bare acknowledgement was spoken in a guarded tone. The face that had once captivated her with its entrancing mobility of expression was unnaturally still, highlighting the distinctive bone structure that had fascinated her when he was asleep; the planes of his forehead, nose, cheeks, chin, all seeming to flow gracefully, one to the other in a complement of strength, yet the soft sensuality of his mouth hinting at a poetic soul that was at odds with the tensile power of his long, lean body.

His dark eyes clashed briefly with hers before turning to their host, and Jayne was left with a disturbing impression of deep, smouldering anger. She performed the ritual introductions with passable aplomb, yet she was acutely aware of a pins-and-needles sensation firing through her body, an instinctive alert to danger.

Despite the baby, despite whatever he shared with its mother, Dan Drayton was no more indifferent to this situation than she was, and exploding mountains was not the only explosion he had in mind. The life she had crafted without him was on a short fuse. She would have to tread very carefully once she was alone with him.

DAN was so used to dealing with officials in foreign countries, Lin Zhiyong presented no problem to him. He exchanged the proper courtesies with the appropriate amount of respect, and Jayne had to admire his deft charm in sidestepping some subtly probing questions from their wily host. Dan was giving nothing away, not his private nor his professional motives for being here.

Having gained no useful information whatsoever, Lin Zhiyong found his presence required by other guests and moved away to observe what transpired between Dan and Jayne at a distance. Jayne had privately decided that if she stuck rigidly to business she was on safe ground.

‘Shall we stroll around the pond?’ Dan suggested, taking the initiative from her with consummate ease. ‘It will entertain Baby. I trust we have some leisure time for entertaining Baby this evening.’

Jayne felt a flush scorching up her neck and quickly half turned to accompany him side-by-side. If he hadn’t exactly misled her about Baby when she had called him, he had certainly not laid out the truth for her. Nevertheless, she hated the feeling of being in the wrong, hated even more Dan driving it home to her.

‘I didn’t realise that Baby was actually a baby,’ she admitted, wanting to clear the decks between them. ‘When I called you I was still in shock from Monty’s collapse.’

‘Monty now, is it? You called him Mr. Castle on the phone.’

‘I didn’t know how well you knew him.’

‘How well do you know him?’

The pointed question startled her into glancing at him. His gaze locked onto hers, holding it. He looked dark and dangerous, his eyes glittering with savage mockery. She stopped walking and confronted him face-on, deeply insulted by what he was implying.

‘Are you asking if I’m sleeping with a man who’s old enough to be my father?’ she demanded, her own eyes projecting twin bolts of blue lightning to sizzle that idea out of his brain.

‘It’s been done by many a younger woman than you, Jayne. They usually have one thing in common.’ His gaze raked her from head to foot. ‘They’re magnificently dressed and dripping with jewellery.’

Jayne almost stamped her foot in outrage at his horribly false interpretation of her dressing tonight. ‘I bought this outfit myself,’ she declared, breathing fire. ‘In Hong Kong where we had a few days’ stopover before coming on here. And the jewellery is costume jewellery, which I also bought myself.’

‘It must have cost a lot.’

‘I earn a lot. And Monty Castle is my boss. Nothing more.’

‘An extremely generous boss.’

‘He happens to value me very highly, which is more than you did. I’m good at what I do.’

‘You always were.’

‘If you think that after you…’ She stopped, appalled at having been goaded so far.

‘Do go on, Jayne,’ he invited silkily. ‘You hold me fascinated. Are you implying that marriage to me put you off men altogether?’

No. There simply hadn’t been anyone with Dan’s sexual magnetism. Not for her. Dressed in a formal dinner suit, as he was tonight, he was as lethally attractive as ever, and Jayne was swamped with the feeling she would never really want any other man.

The reverse obviously wasn’t true for Dan. She reminded herself forcefully of that by looking straight at the child he’d had with another woman. ‘Where’s the baby’s mother?’ she asked point-blank. If he wanted to talk lovers, let him answer to her!

‘She died soon after Baby was born.’

Jayne’s fire wilted. ‘I’m sorry.’ The words tripped out automatically, with no real sincerity. She was plunged into a state of confusion, pain mixed with relief, guilt, shame…

Here was a little baby girl, robbed of her mother virtually from birth. It was terribly, terribly wrong to feel glad the woman was permanently out of Dan’s life. It wasn’t as if she wanted to resume life with Dan, certainly not on the same terms as before. Besides, for all she knew, he could have formed another relationship by now. There might be more babies on the way!

This one didn’t look uncared for. In fact she was beautifully, lovingly dressed in festival clothes. She wore a gold silk tunic with a little Mandarin collar. Underneath it were long pants in scarlet silk. There were beaded gold slippers on her tiny feet and scarlet ribbons tied around her head. She appeared to be as much adored and cherished as Chinese babies were by their parents.

‘Do you have someone to help look after the baby?’ Jayne asked, pursuing her thoughts to their logical end.

‘No. I do it myself.’

‘Everything?’ Jayne’s eyes flew up to his in sceptical amazement.

‘Do you find something wrong with that, Jayne?’

It wasn’t what most men would do. But then, Dan had never been like most men. He was a law unto himself and the only way to deal with him, live with him, was on his terms.

‘I didn’t think you’d take a child this young into the field with you when you’re planting explosives,’ she answered.

‘Why not?’

‘Because it’s dangerous.’

‘Not with me.’

‘The noise…’

‘Baby likes big booms, don’t you, sweetheart?’

‘Boom-boom,’ the baby crowed back at him, clapping her hands as a chorus.

Jayne gave up the unwinnable argument and resumed walking, mortified at the thought that Lin Zhiyong had probably witnessed that incautious little scene. She fiercely vowed she would not be trapped into any more personal conversation. There was nothing to be gained by it and it only inflamed the heartburn that was eroding the composure it was vitally important for her to keep.

Dan wasn’t about to change his rootless way of life. He was even bringing up his child to accept it as normal, carting her with him everywhere as though she didn’t need anything but him. If she didn’t, it made nonsense of Jayne’s contention that children required a proper home base to give them a sense of security. Was Dan proving a point to her? Was that why he had come?

She mentally shook her head. It was far too extreme, even for Dan, to fly from Morocco to China to show her she was wrong. An infant didn’t prove his case anyhow. Wait until Baby reached school age and see how she liked an ever-changing environment!

Dan had to intend taking up Monty’s contract. Jayne felt compelled to pin him down to some firm decision before the competitor for his services arrived. It would not favour her position if Dan appeared to be weighing one offer against another in front of Lin Zhiyong.

‘Monty told me you visited him this afternoon,’ she began.

‘Yes. He was able to curl his left fingers around Baby’s hand. It’s a good sign for recovery.’

‘The doctors say his progress is very promising. He’s well enough now to be flown home to Australia but he wants to settle everything with you first. Do you see some problem with fulfilling the contract?’

‘No.’

‘Monty said you deferred discussing it until tomorrow.’

‘I like to scout a deal before committing myself to it.’

‘What do you need to scout? You said the job was simple.’

‘Other things aren’t so simple.’

‘For example?’

‘Don’t push me, Jayne.’ The warning was spoken in a low, harsh tone. ‘I’ll do what I choose to do in my own time.’

It wasn’t easy to quell her vexation at his elu-siveness but she knew the warning was not an idle one. Persistence would irritate him, any attempt at persuasion would be treated with scorn, and she didn’t have the power to seduce him from his self-set course, She had become bitterly resigned to that last fact before she had made the decision to leave him two years ago.

Their path had circumnavigated the pond and was now approaching one end of the bridge. Jayne looked toward the pavilion where most of the guests had gathered to enjoy the refreshments laid out for them. She didn’t want to join them, not while she was still riven with uncertainty about Dan’s intentions. She would probably choke on the moon cakes she would feel obliged to eat, especially since they were a symbol of reunion.

This meeting with Dan could hardly be classed as a reunion !

She felt sick with tension. Nothing was how she had expected it to be. She was sure she would have coped much better if Dan had been with another woman. That would have killed off any personal element straight away.