‘But Gran needs—’
‘I understand you’re worried about your grandmother. Take her to a doctor for treatment, but you’ll have to leave after that. I’m not interested in replacing her until my sight returns.’
If my sight returns.
He didn’t say the words, but they hovered in the air like some of those cobwebs she’d mentioned.
Ruby gave a heavy sigh and he heard her clothes rustle again, as if her shoulders had slumped. ‘You can’t stay holed up here for ever. You have a business to run and so do I—which brings me back to Delphine Rainbird’s wedding.’
Lucas ground his teeth. ‘How I run my business is no concern of yours. And I’ve already given you my answer about the wedding.’
‘But you don’t understand how important this is to me.’
The pleading note in her voice was almost his undoing. Almost. But the last thing he wanted was a media circus at his private residence. Paparazzi and drones and helicopters trying to get the money shot. He was a private man at the best of times. What the press would make of his loss of sight was anyone’s guess, but he was not going to do anything to risk exposure.
His childhood had been full of media intrusions as journalists had tried to get the latest on his parents—either their recoupling or their uncoupling. Some of the press had even taken to tailing him, asking for a comment on his parents’ current relationship status. Not only had it embarrassed him, it had made him determined never to allow his emotions to become so out of control that the press would find any relationship he conducted newsworthy.
As if that had worked. He loathed the way the press was always tagging him, speculating on his love-life, documenting his every move.
‘I’m sorry to disappoint you but it’s not going to happen. You’ll have to find somewhere else.’
‘But there’s nowhere quite like Rothwell Park. It’s got such a wonderfully gothic atmosphere, and I know it’ll make Delphine’s wedding all the more spectacular—especially with Harper’s photography. Delphine came here as a child with her parents, to one of your parents’ parties. It left a big impression on her and she’s dreamed of being married here ever since. Some of the world’s biggest celebrities will be coming—possibly even royalty. It might bring Harper and Aerin and I more high-end clients. In fact, we’re counting on it. This is what we need to lift our business to the next level.’
Lucas tried not to imagine Ruby’s imploring expression, but it filled his imagination regardless. A beseeching spaniel had nothing on her. He could picture her toffee-brown eyes, fringed with thick long lashes and framed by dark eyebrows. Her full-lipped mouth—no doubt downturned at the corners right now—her ski slope nose, her high cheekbones...
She wasn’t classically beautiful, more understated girl-next-door than over-the-top glamourous. She lightened her mid-brown hair to blonde, but her roots nearly always grew through an inch or two before she got around to touching them up. He often wondered if she coloured her hair so she didn’t resemble her mother, who had chosen a life of crime over her. Ruby wore the bare minimum of make-up and mostly casual clothes. She was proud and feisty and she had a streak of obstinacy—no doubt inherited from her grandmother.
But Lucas could be stubborn too. And on this issue, he was not going to budge. ‘I hate to disappoint you, but there’s not going to be another wedding at Rothwell Park while I’m the owner. Do I make myself crystal-clear?’
‘I can understand why you want your privacy. I’d be the same. But I need this wedding so badly.’
He heard her proceeding to load their cups and saucers back on the tray, her movements ordered and methodical, but he sensed her frustration all the same.
‘What am I supposed to tell my friends?’ Her lowered tone made it sound as if the question was addressed to herself rather than him. ‘I can’t let them down... I promised.’
The teaspoons clinked against the saucers and he heard her let out a long-winded sigh. Lucas knew all about broken promises. His parents had made numerous promises to each other, and to him, and they had all been broken. Some faster than others, but still ultimately broken.
‘I’m sorry, Ruby, but you shouldn’t have made a promise before you were absolutely certain you could honour it.’
‘But all you have to say is yes and Iwillbe able to honour it. You’re standing in the way of my success. And I know you’re only doing it because of—’
He heard her suck in her breath, as if she had decided not to continue with her rant.
‘Because of...?’
The things on the tray rattled as she picked it up from the table. ‘Because of what happened all those years ago.’
‘Nothing happened.’
Lucas had made absolutely sure of that. Yes, he had been a little brutal in telling her how inappropriately she had behaved, but back then the seven years difference in their ages back had been a chasm that couldn’t and shouldn’t have been bridged.
‘I suppose I should thank you for not taking advantage of me.’
‘Perhaps I should apologise for being a little curt with you.’
There was a pulsing silence.
Ruby drew in a breath and released it on a stuttering sigh. ‘I’m not going to give up, you know.’