She had been negative, accusing and martyred and suddenly she was ashamed. She had thought only of her own pride and feelings, not even once about his. Donald had known all too well what her bottom line was. And take away the false pride and Molly was now facing that same hard reality. Ultimately, whatever it took, whatever it cost, she could not bear to lose Sholto again.
She was coming down the stairs, dressed for dinner, when Sholto came home. He looked devastatingly handsome and suddenly so precious to her, more precious still when she recognised the lines of strain girding his mouth and the shadowed darkness of his eyes.
He saw her and stilled. ‘Have I time to get changed?’
‘Of course…’ Molly tested a rather nervous smile on him.
‘Has Nigel bombed out of his training course already?’ Sholto enquired with rich cynicism.
Molly tensed. ‘I—’
‘There has to be some reason why you should be smiling at me. After all, I am the guy who stands convicted of wrecking your life,’ he reminded her very drily.
Discomfiture sent a wave of scarlet climbing up Molly’s throat.
Fifteen minutes later Sholto joined her at the dinner table, freshly shaven but casually clad in a pair of faded blue jeans and a sweater. Maybe it was over-sensitive of her but she felt he might be making some sort of statement. She was wearing a green watered silk evening suit, selected with care from the clothes he had bought her.
She fiddled with her cutlery and cleared her throat uncomfortably. ‘I’ve been thinking over your proposal—’
‘I don’t actually recall proposing,’ Sholto inserted with lethal effect.
Shot down in flames, Molly swallowed hard. ‘I was very upset…and, well, I may have said some things I didn’t really mean.’
‘Really?’ Sholto said very discouragingly, lounging fluidly back from the table and cradling his wineglass elegantly in one lean brown hand.
‘You’re not making this easy for me, are you?’ Her eyes were full of reproach.
‘Give me one good reason why I should.’ His shimmering golden gaze rested on her in unashamed challenge. ‘We got you pregnant to
gether, Molly. I am no more proof against temptation than the next man. You weren’t very receptive to my efforts to clear the air the next morning or when I took the trouble to come and see you a couple of weeks later, hoping that by then you would be more approachable. But all you could focus on was your brother and I couldn’t even get a hearing unless I focused on him too.’
His candid condemnation shook her. ‘You said some very hurtful things that night at Freddy’s,’ Molly protested defensively.
‘I get upset too but rarely do I say things I don’t mean.’
She studied her starter with a shrinking appetite. ‘I’m willing to marry you.’
‘It has to be want,’ Sholto told her softly. ‘We’re unlikely to make one anniversary on willing. It’s a wishy-washy word and I am not a wishy-washy male, cara.’
‘All right…I I want to marry you…do you think you’ve got your full pound of flesh now?’ Molly could not resist asking, for he had made her jump through hoops of fire in punishment for her refusal almost five days earlier.
‘Was that what I was doing?’ Sholto poured himself another glass of wine and looked reflective. ‘If we marry, I don’t want any more of that lachrymose sex-isa-sin nonsense when you enjoy it as much as I do. And if you ever try to get a rise out of me again by giving the come-on to another man I will embarrass you so severely you will never repeat the experiment in this lifetime. Never bring our personal problems into public view.’
Molly had changed colour several times during that pithy lecture, travelling from embarrassment to rage and then back again. ‘You stuck me at the far end of the table that night!’
‘Naturally I did. I put you beside Natalie who chatters incessantly. It was a business dinner. Believe it or not, you were placed at the foot of the table for your own comfort and enjoyment.’
Molly flushed.
‘We’ll get married in the private chapel at Templebrooke. It’s still in occasional use. The Press will tear their hair out but they won’t get a single photo. Nigel and Lena will act as our witnesses. I’ll apply for a special licence. Freddy’s kid brother, Ned, is now a bishop and he will both grant the licence and perform the ceremony.’
Molly was breathless. ‘You seem to have it all worked out.’
‘Wear something bright. Anything even remotely like a wedding dress would rouse unfortunate memories,’ Sholto told her flatly.
And then he simply changed the subject. He told her about the man whom the police had arrested for arson in Milan. A disaffected former employee with a history of mental problems, made wretched by the discovery that the fire he had set had extracted a human toll.
‘You see, it’s most unwise to make snap judgements about people,’ Sholto drawled, shrewd dark eyes curiously intent. ‘People are rarely what they seem to be. But I must say that Donald was rather predictable in his earnest and sincere need to help us both.’