Outside the cottage he cautioned her abruptly when she would have opened the door and left him the moment he stopped his car.
‘Remember, by the end of the week we’ll be married. If you want to convince Sam and Vanessa that it’s a love match you’ll have to do your bit too. I’ll come in with you.’
‘But my car. Sam…’
‘We’ll tell him you’ve got engine trouble and that having bumped into you in town I offered to bring you home. I also think we should have dinner together tonight. Oh, it’s all right,’ he assured her sardonically, seeing her face, ‘I won’t inflict my presence on you for any longer than necessary. We can eat at the house. I’ve got some paperwork to do, so I suggest you bring a book with you or something else to occupy your time. If we’re going to be at all convincing about this marriage we have to create at least an illusion of intimacy.’
She knew that he was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to endure the sensation of his fingers against her skin as they walked towards the cottage with his arm draped casually across her shoulder.
She could see the questioning surprise in Sam’s eyes when they walked in, as well she might, she thought wryly, remembering their earlier conversation.
Even so, Sam managed to hide his surprise as he chatted easily to Jonas, although he did glance rather curiously at Sara’s purposefully averted face when Jonas anounced that they were having dinner together.
Sam wasn’t given an opportunity to question her. Almost as though he did, in reality, not intend to let her out of his sight, Jonas insisted on taking her back to the house with him, claiming that in view of Vanessa’s defection to Sam, he needed Sara’s help in watering the plants in the greenhouses.
There was nothing she could do to protest effectively. There was no excuse she could give for not going with him.
They were married less than a week later. That neither Sam nor Vanessa evinced the shock she had expected was a little unnerving, and Sara was thankful that Jonas did not share her awareness of the reason behind the amused and knowledgeable smile with which Sam greeted his announcement.
They had gone straight from the register office to the cottage, and Sara now sat in silence as she listened to Jonas explaining that, because of pressure of business, they were not going to be able to go on honeymoon.
‘Why on earth was there all the rush, then?’ Vanessa demanded, grimacing faintly at her stepbrother. ‘Poor Sara, she didn’t even have time to look for a wedding dress, not to mention what the parents will say.’
‘They already know. I rang them the day Sara accepted my proposal and told them. As to the rush—well, apart from the obvious reason,’ he gave Sara a long, contemplative look that made her skin colour and Vanessa exclaim, ‘For heaven’s sake, Jonas, you’re embarrassing Sara to death, not to mention what you’re doing to me!’
‘And me,’ Sam interrupted with a grin. ‘Suddenly a whole fortnight seems far too long to wait to get you all to myself, Van,’ he teased his bride-to-be.
‘There is another reason.’
The seriousness of his tone alerted Sara to what he intended to do. In a fever of panic she reached out towards him, but he simply captured her hand in his, caressing the backs of her fingers in an almost absent-minded way.
‘Sara is carrying my child.’ Before anyone could make any comment he went on calmly, ‘We had intended to wait to make our announcement until after your wedding, but in the circumstances…’ He let his voice trail away and then turned to Sara, lifting her fingers to his mouth and lightly kissing them. Her response was totally out of proportion to the brevity of his caress. ‘We both decided it was better to be completely open about the situation. After all, you’d know soon enough anyway, and I must admit I can’t pretend to be anything other than delighted at the thought of becoming a father.’
Of course Sam insisted that they must all have a drink, and it was some time before Jonas exclaimed that they would have to leave. Sara had already packed a suitcase in anticipation, and when she came downstairs with it she found Sam waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs.
‘Jonas has gone with Vanessa to pick Carly up from playschool,’ he announced. ‘They won’t be very long. How long have you known you were pregnant?’ he asked quietly.
Sara’s silence betrayed her.
‘You didn’t have to marry him, you know, Sara; you could have come to me.’
‘I love him,’ she responded truthfully. ‘And this is the only way I could keep the baby.’
She saw Sam’s face and said huskily, ‘Yes, I know what you’re thinking, Sam, but how could I have told you? The first thing you’d have asked me would have been the name of the father. Can’t you see how embarrassing it would have been? Me pregnant by your brother-in-law. I was going to have an abortion,’ she added, feeling that having told him so much he might as well hear the rest. ‘I couldn’t go through with it in the end, and when Jonas found out and insisted we get married it seemed the right thing to do. Oddly enough, loving him made it that much harder.’
‘Does he know how you feel?’
She shook her head. ‘No…nor will he do. Like I said before, he doesn’t love me, he just…’ She broke off as she heard the car. ‘Please don’t repeat any of this to Vanessa, Sam,’ she begged her brother. ‘I didn’t want you to know, and there’s no reason…’
‘No, I won’t tell her. You didn’t expect him to say anything to us about the baby, did you?’
>
Sara shook her head.
‘Well, we would have had to know sooner or later, he was right about that, and if you hadn’t told me how you felt beforehand, after his performance today I’d have been totally convinced that the pair of you were deeply in love. Are you sure that…’
He broke off as Sara shook her head desperately. Vanessa, Carly and Jonas were already coming up the path towards them, and Sam, correctly interpreting her gesture, adroitly changed the subject before they were close enough to hear.