Fiance For Christmas. CATHERINE GEORGE
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rang the bell, and kept his finger on it, but there was no response.
‘There must be someone there,’ said Cassie urgently. ‘The light’s on.’
‘Automatic for security, like the outside lights,’ said Nick briefly. He shivered in the icy wind as he bent to peer through the brass letterbox. ‘Alice!’ he called. ‘It’s Uncle Nick. Are you there, darling?’ He turned to Cassie. ‘You call. Perhaps a woman’s voice will be more reassuring.’
Cassie bent at once, holding the flap open to shout through it. ‘Alice, it’s Cassie. Don’t be frightened.’ After calling a few times more, she straightened and turned to Nick. ‘No use. Haven’t you got a key?’
‘Of course I haven’t,’ he snapped.
‘It was just a thought.’ Cassie hugged her arms across her chest. ‘So what now?’
‘I’m going to the police. Shall I take you home first?’
‘Not on your life!’ she flashed at him. ‘I’m coming with you—’ She halted suddenly. ‘I’ve just thought of something.’
‘What?’
‘Julia.’
‘What about her?’
‘She might still have a key.’
Nick rubbed a hand over his jaw. ‘She was the first one I thought of when I couldn’t track Alice down. That’s why I came round to your place.’
‘I knew you didn’t come to see me!’
‘Look,’ he said angrily, ‘I may not be your favourite person, Cassandra Lovell, but believe me, I’m genuinely worried about Alice.’
‘I do believe you,’ she assured him. ‘And I’m just as worried as you are. But if you’re thinking that Julia’s got her, you’re wrong. Max doesn’t allow her to see Alice, remember.’
‘I’m hardly likely to forget!’ he retorted, and turned up the collar of his raincoat. ‘In the meantime we’re freezing out here. Let’s get in the car.’
‘We’d better drive over to Julia’s, just in case,’ said Cassie reluctantly, as Nick started the car.
‘In case she has a key, or in case she has Alice?’
‘A key!’ she said indignantly. ‘It’s best to make sure Alice isn’t right here at home before dashing off to the police.’
Julia Lovell Seymour lived in the ground-floor flat of a small terraced house in Acton.
‘We should have rung first,’ said Cassie tersely as she pressed the buzzer.
‘She would never have let me through the door,’ said Nick grimly.
‘Do you blame her?’ said Cassie scornfully, then listened as her sister’s voice answered warily. ‘It’s only me, Julia.’
‘Cassie? I thought you had a heavy date tonight.’
‘It fell through. Let me in, please.’
Cassie went into the house ahead of Nick, who stopped dead in his tracks as Julia came towards them like an avenging fury.
‘What in the world are you doing here, Dominic Seymour?’ Julia demanded in a fierce undertone. ‘Be quiet,’ she added, ‘or you’ll wake her.’ She beckoned them into a small kitchen and closed the door behind them, turning on her sister angrily. ‘Now then, Cassie, what are you playing at?’
‘She’s asleep?’ said Nick eagerly.
Julia gave him a hostile look. She wore an unflattering navy dressing gown, and under the harsh striplight her violet eyes were deeply shadowed, her face tired and pale under gleaming hair the exact shade of the gilt streaks in Cassie’s.
‘Why did you tell him, Cassie?’ she said accusingly.
‘Tell me what?’ demanded Nick.
‘I didn’t tell him anything, Julia,’ said Cassie quickly. ‘We’ve come about Alice.’
‘Alice?’ Julia’s eyes widened in alarm. ‘What’s the matter? Is something wrong?’
‘She’s not here, then,’ said Nick in despair, suddenly haggard as the colour drained from his face, leaving it sallow beneath the tan.
‘Of course she isn’t!’ said Julia hotly. ‘Your brother won’t let me near her—but never mind that, what’s happened?’
Her pallor increased as she listened to Cassie’s terse explanation.
‘You mean Max is stuck in some jungle somewhere instead of taking care of his daughter?’ She gave a short, mirthless laugh. ‘And I’m the one who’s deemed not fit to look after her!’ Her face crumpled suddenly, and she clutched at Cassie. ‘Surely there’s been some mistake?’
‘We came to see if you still had a key to the house,’ said Nick with constraint.
Julia rounded on him, eyes flashing through sudden tears. ‘To see if I’d stolen Alice, you mean!’
He shook his head vehemently. ‘Not stolen, Julia. I hoped to God you did have her.’
‘But I don’t, I don’t—’ Julia snatched a tissue from a box and wiped her eyes. ‘Although, unknown to Max, I do still have a key. After I locked myself out of the house in Chiswick once I had a spare made.’
‘We thought there might be messages on Max’s machine,’ said Cassie, wanting badly to cuddle her sister, but knowing Julia wouldn’t appreciate it in front of her tense brother-in-law. And Dominic Seymour was very obviously having difficulty in reconciling this pale, weary woman with the Julia he’d last seen as his brother’s glamorous, beautiful wife in surroundings far removed from these.
Julia searched her handbag and produced a Yale key. ‘I wish I could come with you to see if Alice is all right,’ she said anxiously, as she handed it to Nick. ‘But under the circumstances—’ She looked up as a cry came from a distance.
‘Let me,’ said Cassie eagerly, and Julia hesitated, then nodded, resigned.
Cassie left Nick and Julia, eyeing each other like boxers shaping up for a fight, and went along the hall to a bedroom where a nightlight showed a little figure standing up in a cot. When the child caught sight of Cassie she smiled widely and held up her arms.
‘Hello, Cassie! Where Mummy?’
Cassie scooped up the little body, caught up a blanket and wrapped her in it and cuddled her close. ‘Hi, Emily. How’s my gorgeous girl?’
The child chuckled, her face bright with a victorious smile as Cassie bore her off to the kitchen to meet Dominic Seymour.
‘I see you were putty in her hands as usual,’ said Julia dryly, and gazed at Nick with defiant eyes. ‘I don’t believe you’ve met my daughter, Nick. This is Emily.’
Nick stared at the child wildly, then at Julia and Cassie. ‘No one told me.’
‘Why should they?’ said Cassie, nuzzling her niece’s feathery curls.
‘I don’t understand,’ said Nick blankly. ‘If you were expecting his child why in hell did Max break up with you, Julia?’
‘He thought she was yours,’ she said without emotion.
‘Mine?’ Nick stared from Julia’s beautiful, haggard face to the smooth, rosy cheeks of the little girl. ‘Has he ever seen her?’
‘Of course not,’ said Cassie scornfully.
‘Max must be mad. The nearest I ever got to Julia was to put an arm round her shoulders once. And we all know what happened after that,’ said Nick grimly, then his eyes softened as the child eyed him curiously. ‘But just look at her! She’s