City Cinderella. CATHERINE GEORGE
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Which was obvious from the interest he was taking in her appearance.
‘Back to bed now,’ she said briskly. ‘Read the paper while I tidy up.’
‘Forget that. I need conversation. Come and talk to me for a while—’ Lucas broke off to cough, and Emily gestured towards his bedroom.
‘Please go back to bed.’ She went ahead of him to stack the pillows and turn down the newly changed covers. ‘You should have waited for me to do this,’ she said severely. ‘Because you don’t feel so marvellous now, do you?’
‘No,’ he admitted, and slid into bed with a groan of relief.
‘Have you had anything to eat today?’
‘I drank some milk.’
‘Better than nothing, I suppose,’ said Emily, and smiled her approval.
‘Cute dimple,’ he commented.
‘What would you like to eat?’ she asked, ignoring him. ‘Eggs in some form would be best. Something light to start you off.’
‘At the moment I feel too feeble to lift a fork. Later, maybe. When I’ve got over my exertions.’ He eyed her irritably. ‘For the moment just sit down and talk to me, woman.’
Objecting hotly to this form of address, Emily stood her ground for a moment, then sat down on the chair beside the bed. ‘Oh, very well. What shall I talk about?’
‘You.’
She grimaced. ‘Boring subject.’
‘I disagree.’ He slid further down in the bed. ‘Tell me what you did before the domestic engineering.’
‘I worked in a commercial retail agency—I told you it was boring.’
‘Emily, that sexy voice of yours could recite the phone book without boring me.’ He threw up a hand at her scowl. ‘Sorry, sorry. Go on. Tell me why you switched careers.’
She shrugged. ‘I lived for a while with a man who worked in the same agency. When we broke up I moved out and packed in my job.’
Lucas lay watching her, his shadowed eyes alert with interest. ‘Non-amicable parting, obviously. When was this?’
‘Fairly recently. Now, how about that breakfast?’
His mouth twisted. ‘I’m a bit wary of eating. It’s bloody mortifying to keep dashing away to throw up.’
She nodded sympathetically. ‘My mother got a leaflet about flu when I was ill. It said one must try to eat if possible. So will you try?’
‘On one condition—that you keep me company while I do.’
‘If you insist.’
‘Not at all. I’m asking you nicely!’
Emily laughed and went off to the kitchen. When she returned to the bedroom with a laden tray she found Lucas waiting with barely concealed impatience, the daily paper unopened beside him. ‘Sorry I was so long,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I’m used to cleaning your kitchen, but not cooking in it.’
‘Which you shouldn’t be doing at all,’ he said irritably.
‘Of course I should.’ She laid a clean towel across his chest. ‘Better use this now you’ve made the effort to change your bed.’ She handed him a fork and a plate of scrambled eggs on toast, then feeling a little awkward sat down again. ‘Salt, pepper?’ she asked. ‘I seasoned the eggs a bit, but you might want more.’
‘They’re perfect,’ he said, tasting them. ‘Now, entertain me while I eat. I can tell you’re not a Londoner. Where do you come from?’
‘Chastlecombe, in Gloucestershire.’
‘Snap—same county,’ he informed her with a grin. ‘We’re both country bumpkins, then.’
Anything less like a country bumpkin than Lucas Tennent was hard to imagine. Even lying in bed, haggard and feverish. ‘Speak for yourself,’ she said pertly, then bit her lip.
‘What now?’ he demanded.
‘I keep forgetting.’
‘Forgetting what?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Oh, right. Me boss, you slave.’
Emily glared at him. ‘I wouldn’t put it quite like that!’
‘I should bloody well hope not,’ he said forcibly, and eyed his empty plate in surprise. ‘That was good. Thank you.’
Emily took his plate to the kitchen, then returned shortly afterwards with two mugs of coffee. She handed one to Lucas, then resumed her place in the chair. ‘You look a little better now,’ she said with approval.
‘I feel it.’ He drank with relish, then settled back against his pillows. ‘So tell me more, Emily. What course are you doing?’
She winced. ‘I lied about that.’
‘Did you now?’ he said, eyeing her flushed face with amusement. ‘So what exactly are you doing on that laptop of yours? Hacking into state secrets?’
‘Nothing so exciting. I’m trying my hand at a novel. I make a sort of rough draft of the next bit in my head while I’m cleaning, then get it down on my laptop later. But if I hadn’t been stupid enough to lie to you when you caught me,’ she added bluntly, ‘I wouldn’t be telling you this. No one else knows, not even my family.’
‘My lips are sealed,’ he assured her, hand on heart. ‘But why the secrecy?’
Her chin jutted. ‘I experienced a pretty humiliating form of rejection recently. If—or more likely when—the manuscript’s rejected, too, I’d rather no one knew about it.’
CHAPTER THREE
LUCAS eyed her with respect as she got up to refill his coffee cup. ‘You’re a lady of surprises, Emily.’
She shook her head. ‘Not really. All my life, until recently, I did everything by the book.’
‘What happened then?’
‘Miles Denny happened.’ Emily sat down again. ‘My family disapproved. They don’t like him.’
‘I don’t either.’
She laughed. ‘You haven’t met him.’
‘I don’t have to.’ He frowned. ‘Emily, I’ve got a name, but you haven’t used it yet. I thought we’d sorted that out.’
She gave him a fulminating look, and jumped to her feet. ‘Right—Lucas! I’m going to clear up now.’
‘Don’t go yet! Please?’ His eyes met hers with a persuasion she found impossible to resist.
‘I’m still going to clear away and so on,’ she said firmly, picking up the coffee tray. ‘But I’ll come back afterwards for a few minutes. Then you should try to sleep.’
‘I can do that when I’m alone,’ he said testily.
While Emily loaded the dishwasher later she fought a losing battle with her common sense. She’d achieved her aim in coming here to check on Lucas Tennent, feed him, and make sure he wasn’t any worse. So she should go home once she’d finished her usual routine. But it was such balm to her dented ego to have a man like Lucas Tennent pleading for her company. Besides, she thought, brightening, it was all an aid to research. The more she saw of him, the more her fictional hero would take shape.
She paid the living-room some attention, made sure the kitchen was immaculate, then cleaned the bathroom in the hall to complete at least part of her usual routine for Mondays. Afterwards she brushed her hair, used a lipstick, then went to rejoin Lucas, who regarded her with bloodshot, accusing eyes.
‘I