‘Well, I guess the feeling is all o
n my side.’
Sasha’s heart flipped around. Nathan Parnell, falling in love with her? That put a different complexion on things. Maybe she should stop giving blanket denials. If there was a real possibility... On the other hand, she had told him she wouldn’t marry without love. This could be a ploy to win her over to the idea that a future together might be the answer to all her dreams, while its only real purpose was to solve his problems.
Would he be that low?
She scrutinised him as he studied the marble top again. He looked very sober and serious. If there weren’t a determined jut to his chin, she might have said he looked depressed. After all, he had every reason to be depressed with the situation he faced with Elizabeth.
Sasha reconsidered. Maybe she should marry him. In name only, of course, just to get him over the hump of the legal situation. She wouldn’t commit herself to a consummated marriage. There would have to be a way out. She could be a pretend wife and a pretend mother until the danger from Elizabeth was over. And then...
‘Sasha...’ He lifted pained eyes. A sharp touch of regret, a dull edge of resignation. ‘There’s been a grave misunderstanding. I don’t quite know how to tell you this...’
Was it the truth? The unvarnished, unbent truth? Sasha had the impression of a great pit yawning open before her feet. Nathan was deadly serious and, whatever the misunderstanding was, it was going to affect her. Badly. She could feel it coming.
‘Spell it out, Nathan,’ she said, impatient to know the worst.
He hesitated. ‘Let me get this absolutely clear. You really don’t want to marry me?’
Sasha hesitated. Was she blocking off a door she really wanted left open? ‘The circumstances are hardly propitious,’ she said carefully, trying to keep all the options open.
‘I can’t help the circumstances, Sasha.’
‘You did say there was another way,’ she reminded him.
‘You’d rather I take it?’
‘That would certainly be best for me.’ It gave her more time to explore what was happening between them, to make sure it was not a passing fancy.
‘So what you said to Elizabeth was a ploy, a strategy, a tactic?’
‘It was like you with Tyler in the park. Telling him you were a police officer to make him stop what he was doing to me.’
He nodded, closed his eyes briefly, then made a fair attempt at a grateful smile. ‘I thank you, very sincerely, for standing up for me.’
‘No one has the right to force their will on others. Elizabeth has no more right to do that than Tyler or anyone else.’
‘I agree.’ He nodded some more, took a deep breath, then added, ‘And now that Elizabeth has been suitably diverted, I can get on with what really has to be done.’
Sasha frowned at him. ‘What do you mean, Elizabeth was suitably diverted? I saved you from Elizabeth.’
‘Yes, you did. I’ve never seen anything to equal it. Inspirational. I’ll remember this day all my life.’
Sasha was somewhat mollified by the accolade but he hadn’t answered her question. ‘How will you beat her custody case if you don’t marry me?’
‘There is an alternative.’
‘Yes?’
‘When you were moving in yesterday, Matt and I went visiting. Marion told me you were short of work, so I interested Hester in your potential. But Matt and I did one other thing, as well.’
‘What?’
‘I signed a contract...establishing that...well, the long and short of it is that I’ve contracted another marriage arrangement.’
‘You did what?’ Sasha could scarcely believe her ears.
‘She’s a nice young Polish woman. Needs permanent residential status in this country. The problem was quite simple really. She wants...’