The Last-Minute Marriage

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE telephone service was out of order.

‘Out of order?’ Marcus had his people contact the telecommunications authorities in Australia, only to be told that the fault had been reported as non-urgent. The people concerned had cellphones. And no, he couldn’t obtain those numbers, no matter how much he paid.

He knew Ruby’s cellphone number. She had it turned off. She’d sent a fax from the local post office saying she’d decided to take a month off and learn how to milk cows.

Ruby was milking cows while Marcus was…

Marcus was earning money. Launching a new range of Internet software. Ruling his empire.

Doing what he always did.

‘How long can silence last?’ Peta asked and Ruby paused from her first attempt at milking a cow.

‘As long as it takes. Be patient.’

‘I can’t.’

‘You can.’

Two weeks. Three.

Marcus took a lunchtime stroll down to Tiffany’s. He spent a long time staring at the jewel cases and in the end chose a single diamond. Perfect. Flawless. Worth a king’s ransom.

He insured it for another king’s ransom and sent it courier.

‘To my Cinderella,’ the card read. ‘Please reconsider.’

By return courier came a small box containing the diamond and something else. A withered daisy chain.

‘I’m not Cinderella. I’m just me. I love you, Marcus. But I don’t want your diamonds.’

Nothing else.

He stared at the note for a long time. So long that his temporary assistant grew nervous.

‘Are you okay, Mr Benson?’

‘I’m fine,’ he told her, his face grim. He handed over the diamond. ‘Can you arrange to have this returned?’

‘Oh, Mr Benson…’ The girl looked down at the diamond and let out her breath on an ecstatic sigh. ‘Oh, Mr Benson, any woman would die for a diamond like this.’

‘Not my woman,’ he said before he could stop himself. ‘Not the woman I love.’

‘Are you sure?’

It was the end of three long weeks and Peta was still staring out at the moon every night. Somewhere under this moon was Marcus. Alone.

‘He has to see,’ Ruby told her. ‘He has to have time to realise what he’s missing.’ She gave a rueful smile. ‘It took me more than twenty years to learn to love again. Let’s hope Marcus can do it faster.’

‘And if he doesn’t?’

‘Then we panic,’ Ruby told her. ‘But not yet. There’s things we can do.’

Marcus was in a meeting when the next delivery arrived. His secretary interrupted him with apologies. ‘But you did ask me to let you know if anything came from Australia.’

Two boxes were waiting.

The first box contained Peta’s wedding dress. Satin, lace, matching shoes, ribbons from her hair. Regardless of the curious eyes of his office staff, Marcus lifted it out. He could smell the perfume she’d worn that day. There was a small note.

‘Thank you for the fairytale.’

‘There’s another box,’ his secretary told him, obviously agog to see what it held.

He took a grip-sort of-and opened the second box.

It was a pair of gumboots. His size. And another note.

‘Reality is more fun.’

He set the gumboots down on the gleaming mahogany desk. Ridiculous.

Fun?

Ridiculous.

The time dragged. He put the gumboots and the wedding dress in the top of his closet and left them there. The concept of him ever needing either again was crazy!

He dated again. Or he tried to date again. The women seemed shallow, pointless, cold.

Peta…

Peta was on the other side of the world.

She’d said she loved him. If she loved him why wouldn’t she take him? he asked himself. On his terms.

Because, a small voice whispered behind his heart, because his terms were…cruel?

What he’d offered was all he was prepared to concede, he thought grimly. To promise more was to promise something that he couldn’t deliver.

Coward, he told himself.

But to take the next step…

To take another step was impossible.

Ruby contacted him at the end of the month. For a moment he couldn’t believe he was hearing right, and then he excused himself from his meeting and locked himself in his office to take the call where he could concentrate.

‘Ruby. Where the hell are you?’

‘Where you should be,’ she informed him cheerfully. ‘Here. In Australia. Having a really good time.’

‘You’re my employee.’

‘Not any more. I quit. Darrell’s asked me to marry him.’

Silence. He thought of his clinical, efficient assistant who in the years he’d employed her had never let her personal life interfere with her work. She’d never had a personal life!

She was marrying his dour, scarred sergeant?

‘He’s lovely,’ Ruby said in a voice he hardly recognised. ‘You know he is. And we’ve decided to stay on and help Peta for a while. This farm really needs more than just Peta to run it. Marcus, I can milk!’

‘Peta’s never let you near her cows!’ He couldn’t believe it.

‘It took time to gain their trust,’ Ruby conceded. ‘A month. Darrell and I have been helping to bring the cows in, getting them used to us, learning each one’s name. And now I can put the cups on. I can clean the vats. I know all about mastitis and bacteria counts and swishing down the dairy’s my favourite. Oh, Marcus, it’s so much fun.’

‘But…you belong here.’

‘No. I belong here. Darrell’s here. No one stares at his scarred face here. He’s much better at milking than me. Peta says we can redecorate the pink house and live in it for as long as we want. We’ve both got savings and Darrell’s got his veteran’s pension. We can be really comfortable. We don’t need much here. There’s so much already. We can be really rich-with nothing. Nothing but each other.’

Silence. Marcus sank down on to the desk behind him, aware suddenly that he needed its support.

‘You know that I asked Peta to be married to me?’ he said at last. ‘Properly, I mean.’

‘Are you talking about sending her that darned fool diamond?’

‘It cost a fortune,’ he snapped and from the other side of the world he could hear the smile crossing Ruby’s face.

‘Why would Peta need a ring that cost a fortune?’

‘She said she loves me.’

‘She told me that, too.’

‘So why won’t she marry me?’

‘You didn’t ask her to stay married to you,’ Ruby said softly, her voice growing serious. ‘You know you didn’t.’

‘How the hell…’

‘You asked her to visit you in New York. Visit! You implied she’d be your society hostess. Your wife in the short periods you had time for her. You told her you’d stay here for a couple of weeks a year. What sort of marriage is that?’

‘If she loved me…’

‘She’d give up her life for you. Is that what you want? Well, maybe she would. Maybe she’s breaking her heart because she can’t.’

‘She can.’

‘You know, the real Cinderella didn’t have commitments,’ Ruby said gently. ‘Stepping out of rags into riches is all very well if you have nothing to leave behind. Nothing to lose. As I remember, Cinderella had no alternative. But there’s Harry.’

‘Harry could come with her.’

‘And her three other brothers? They’re still really close. She’d never leave them. She has an old dog, Ted-dog. You met him. Ted-dog went off his feed last time Peta was in New York. He’d pine. So… Peta has a life here. And what are you offering? Diamonds? Diamonds don’t make very good bedtime companions.’

‘Ruby…’

‘It’s your fear,’ Ruby told him. ‘I’ve never said this before because I’ve been just the same as you. Dead scared of life. But you know very well that Peta could never accept your offer of riches and position. She loves you.’

‘How can she?’

‘Of course she does,’ Ruby snapped. ‘But you, you don’t love her. You love what she could be if she forgot her responsibilities-her family, her farm-yet it’s that very loyalty that’s made you want her. You’re deceiving yourself, Marcus. You’re telling yourself you’d like a wife but you’re making it impossible for her to be just that. You’re a loner. Your offer of marriage to Peta is nothing more than a taunt.’

‘Ruby…’

‘I know, I know,’ she said and her tone was suddenly almost cheerful. ‘This is no way to speak to my employer. Isn’t it lucky I quit?’

He was left alone. With his corporation. His fortune. His position in society. With the black marble in his bathroom.

Hell!

It took three months. Three months when every morning Peta sat in her dairy and thought of what she’d left in New York. Three months when the annulment papers weren’t served. She should do something about it herself, she thought, but each time she raised it Ruby said, leave it.

‘He won’t…’

‘He must,’ Ruby told her.

And then one morning she could bear it no longer. She woke and found Darrell and Ruby were already bringing in the cows. Harry was preparing his own breakfast, interspersing cornflakes with wedges of chocolate cake Ruby had made the night before. Peta walked into the kitchen: the warmth of the old wood stove reached out to meet her and her ancient dog wuffled around her feet.

And she couldn’t bear it.

‘Harry, would you mind if I went back to New York for a bit?’ she asked, and Harry gave it his careful consideration while he attacked his cornflakes.

‘To fetch Marcus?’

She took a deep breath. ‘Someone has to.’

‘Ruby says we have to wait for him to be sensible.’

‘I think I’ve waited long enough.’

Harry thought about it some more. And nodded. ‘Okay. Ace by me.’

‘You’ll be all right here by yourself?’

‘Darrell and Ruby will look after me. Will Marcus come, do you think?’

‘I hope so.’

‘Tell him Ruby cooks now. He doesn’t have to eat your sausages.’

‘If he loves me he’d eat my sausages.’

‘Even Ted-dog doesn’t like your sausages,’ Harry told her. ‘But good luck.’

Marcus emerged from a meeting and his chauffeur was waiting for him. Which was unusual. Robert usually met him at street level. What was even more unusual was his message.

‘There’s someone waiting for you on the fire-escape.’

‘What do you mean, there’s someone on the fire-escape?’ he demanded.

‘Just what I said. Someone with lunch.’ Robert smiled and Marcus’s heart gave a lurch.

‘Is it…’

‘See for yourself, sir,’ Robert told him.

Peta.

Of course it was Peta.

She was sitting on the fire-escape where he’d first met her, only this time she was seated on a step out of range of the swinging door. She was wearing tattered shorts, a faded T-shirt and sandals. She was holding a bag of bagels and a couple of drink containers were by her side.

‘Hi,’ she said and held out her bag. ‘You want a bagel?’

‘Peta,’ he said cautiously and she smiled.

‘Yep. You remember me?’

Remember her? It was all he could do not to lunge forward and take her in his arms-right now. But her expression forbade it. She was smiling but she was formal. Holding him at arm’s length.

‘What are you doing here?’ he managed.

‘I thought we could start again.’ She bit into a bagel.

‘You thought we could start again?’

‘We could share.’ She wiggled over on the step so there was room beside her. ‘I’ve brought enough for two.’

‘But why…’

‘I figured out we started all wrong,’ she said. ‘You saved me and I’m very grateful. By the way, I see Charles’s plate has disappeared from your list of occupants. That makes me even more grateful. But no relationship can exist on gratitude. Ruby says I should leave you a bit longer but I got lonely. So I figured… If I was lonely you might be worse. I thought I should come across and see if we can be friends.’

‘Friends.’ She was still sitting on her step, holding out her bag of bagels. She was taking his breath away. ‘I don’t know whether I can be a…a friend.’

‘Everyone needs a friend,’ she said, biting into her bagel as if the bagel and not the words were the most important thing. There was a moment’s pause while she chewed and swallowed. Then she stared down at the bitten bagel, considering where to bite next. Not looking at him. Chatting as if they were casual acquaintances. Nothing more. ‘According to Ruby, you think you can live in isolated splendour for ever,’ she told him. ‘But black marble’s not all it’s cut out to be.’

‘No?’

‘Sit. Eat your bagel.’ She held out her bag again and he sat and took one without thinking. The last thing he wanted at this minute was a jelly-filled bagel. ‘We get to share,’ she said and the seriousness in her voice was unmistakeable.

‘Share what?’

‘What friends share. Bagels. Fire-escape steps. Life.’

‘Peta…’

‘I love you, you know,’ she said conversationally. ‘You might have rescued me, but now it’s my turn to try to rescue you. To save you from a lifetime of black marble. If you want saving. But you have to decide. Now… Tell me if I’m intruding. Robert says you’re busy.’

‘I’m always busy.’

‘See, that’s the thing I don’t understand,’ she said, licking a jelly-smeared finger with concentration. ‘You’re a billionaire already. You’re busy making money. Why? So you can buy more black marble?’

‘No.’

‘So what else do you want to buy?’

He stared at her. They were seated side by side but she’d pulled back as he’d sat so she was two feet away from him. Too far.

What did he want to buy?

‘A new bed for your veranda?’ he said cautiously. ‘A big one.’

‘Now you’re talking.’ She beamed. ‘What else?’

‘Maybe a jet. So I can commute.’

‘What, come home at weekends?’

‘Home?’

‘Home’s where I am, Marcus,’ she said softly. ‘I love you. Ruby says I should stop saying it, and let you figure it out for yourself, but I can’t. I love you so much that I can’t bear it a minute longer. I love you, I love you, I love you. And I love you so much that there’s no way I can accept your offer of a couple of weeks a year and a few weekends thrown in for good measure. I’d go crazy. That’s the life for someone who wants your position. But I don’t want the position, Marcus. I just want you.’

‘I can’t…’

‘I know. You can’t take it in. That’s why I’m here. Now don’t panic. I’m not here for ever. I’m just here for a little while to see… To see if there’s any possibility that it can work.’ She rose, crumpling her empty carrier bag and looking at it ruefully. ‘That’s lunch. Finished. But you’ve got things to do, places to go. I’ll meet you tomorrow.’

To say he was bewildered would be an understatement. He reached out to grasp her but she backed off fast.

‘Same time, same place?’ she said. ‘Bagels okay with you?’

‘No!’

‘I’m not eating caviar.’

‘You don’t have to eat caviar.’ He made a lunge but she was fast, dancing down to the next landing and laughing up at him.

‘See you tomorrow. Bye.’

It was a really long day.

Marcus went to his afternoon meeting but he had to excuse himself. He could think of nothing but Peta. Peta of the ragged clothes, the dancing eyes, the lovely voice…

I love you, I love you, I love you.

People had said it before.

No one had meant it. No one like Peta.

All he had to do was step forward. Risk everything?

Risk what? His independence? His money? His black marble?

Halfway through the afternoon he left the building and made his way to Central Park. And walked. Never before had he walked as he walked that afternoon. He walked and he walked, unaware of where he was going, unaware of the people around him, unaware of anything but Peta’s lovely face and her dancing eyes and her words…

I love you, I love you, I love you.

Such a simple thing. To take this step…

Fairytale heroes had never had it this hard, he thought ruefully. Find your Cinderella, marry her in all honour, install her in your palace and get on with your life.

His Cinderella had had the happy ending. The white lace and wedding vows. His Cinderella wanted more.

A friend? A friend as well as a hero?

And finally he found he was smiling. The longer he walked the more he smiled.

She was no Cinderella. She was his own lovely Peta. She’d sent back the white lace and offered him gumboots instead. He’d ignored her offer. So she’d followed him. She was doing her own rescuing. She was offering him…

He knew what she was offering him. The world.

The world his mother had taught him to believe in was a world where the white lace was everything. He’d rejected that, but he hadn’t seen that there was an alternative.

A lovely, lovely alternative called Peta.

Where was she?

She wouldn’t be staying at the same dangerous place she’d stayed at last time, he thought. No! Almost as soon at the thought entered his head he was in a cab heading across town.

She wasn’t there.

At least she wasn’t staying somewhere dangerous. The thought was a little comforting but not very.

Where the heck was she?

She’d meet him same place, same time tomorrow? Could he wait that long? Short of phoning every hotel in New York it seemed he had no choice.

Dammit, what was money for? He headed back to his offices, put his staff on to the job and together they phoned every hotel in New York.

No Peta. Where…?

He travelled across town to Ruby’s and then to Darrell’s apartments. Both of them were locked and deserted.

There was nothing else he could do. He just had to wait.

Or… Maybe there was something he could do. Maybe there were a few things…