From Waif To His Wife

fluttered wildly at the base of her throat and she felt her nipples jut against the wool of her top.

Oh, please, don’t let him notice, she prayed, and added, almost tripping over her words, ‘That-that was a nasty thing to s-say and I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t annoyed the life out of me as well as frightening the life out of me.’ She broke off and bit her lip. ‘That probably doesn’t make sense.’

He released her abruptly and studied the more rounded lines of her figure beneath the heather top and satin trousers, then he looked into her anxious eyes. ‘Yes, it does. It’s the truth that often gets thrown up in the heat of the moment and I should have thought of-frightening you, anyway.’

She plaited her fingers. ‘I keep looking over my shoulder, I can’t seem to help myself.’ She looked around and sniffed. ‘As for owning me, I can’t help feeling considerably in your debt. All these…’ she gestured at the clothes she was sorting ‘…they make me uncomfortable.’

‘Maisie?’

He waited until she was finally able to bring herself to look at him, to find his expression austere and unreadable. ‘Perhaps the solution is to make this a real marriage. We are two mature adults, aren’t we?’

‘Rafe.’ She paused and sniffed again, then she sighed. ‘Thank you, and I do seem to have grown up pretty fast lately. But I guess one thing that won’t change about me is the conviction that it needs to be love, not lust, for me, for the next time around-if there ever is a next time around.’

‘Sometimes the first can grow from the second.’

She shrugged and tried to make light of things. ‘Maybe I’ll always be strictly a horse-before-the-cart kind of girl from now on. But don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine. This rarefied sort of life is getting on my nerves, that’s all. Although your sister has been marvellous.’

He looked at her drily. ‘If for no other reason than the fact that my sister has given me to understand she’ll personally strangle me if you come to any harm at my hands, we will find a way to make this work, Maisie.’

Maisie blinked. ‘Sonia said that?’

‘More or less. And Sonia, mad, is not to be trifled with.’

Maisie had to laugh, and finally the situation was defused.

He stayed to have a drink with her, and he told her about the plans he’d made for after their wedding-a week in the country.

‘Not-not Karoo?’ she queried warily.

‘No, another station, with not a Dixon in sight.’

‘That’s a rel…’ Maisie stopped awkwardly.

He raised an eyebrow. ‘A relief? I realise you’re not a fan of the Dixons in general but we aren’t all-’

‘No, I meant, it’s a relief there’ll be no family to have to put on a charade for.’

‘Ah.’ Something flickered at the backs of his eyes. ‘No, there won’t. There will be staff but they have their own quarters. I thought you might find it interesting. I happen to love it and sometimes I’d give my right arm to spend more time there.’

‘How will we get there?’

‘By helicopter.’

Maisie found herself watching him out of new eyes for a moment. As if she was glimpsing another fascinating facet of Rafe Sanderson.

‘However,’ he said then, ‘after that we’ll come back here to Brisbane and we’ll get down to where you’d like to be based.’

Sonia came back at that point. She poured herself a drink and updated Rafe on the arrangements she’d made for the wedding day.

‘The marriage celebrant will arrive at your apartment at eleven. We’ll be there then, so will Jack, and I’ll arrange to get all Maisie’s stuff sent over earlier. Any objections?’

Rafe raised his glass to her. ‘Beloved, I don’t know what I’d do without you.’

He left not long after that and he and Sonia had a short private conversation as he was leaving. Maisie didn’t ask what it was about, and Sonia didn’t offer to tell her.

Truth to tell, Maisie had more on her mind than what Sonia and Rafe had been discussing.

Had she given her feelings away to Rafe? Was that why he’d suggested a real marriage? But why would he even be thinking along those lines unless-as he’d intimated when he’d asked her, no, told her he was going to marry her-it was a marriage he needed to make rather than wanted to make?

So how would she feel about that? A marriage, not in name only but a marriage of convenience, all the same, for them both?

Terrible…

The next morning all, so far as Maisie believed anyway, was revealed about Sonia and Rafe’s private conversation-a day at the beach accompanied by Sonia’s children.

Maisie had already met the twelve-year-old Marcus, ten-year-old Hilary and nine-year-old Cecelia, and liked them, although she’d decided a little wryly they were the only people in the world who were excited about this forthcoming wedding.

But a day at the beach was an inspired idea on a clear, sunny morning. Although it was a day at the beach done in the style only the very rich could afford.

Sonia had booked two interconnecting rooms at a lovely resort hotel right on the beach at the Gold Coast and just across the road from the exclusive shopping of the Marina Mirage Centre, for the day. And it worked wonderfully well. They swam and romped on the beach in the morning, they had lunch around the pool then they had two cool, stylish rooms to retire to, to shower and change and relax for a while before they went shopping.

Maisie did take the precaution of wearing a concealing hat and dark glasses, and Sonia did the same, but it was a fun expedition with no unpleasant surprises.

Then they had an exquisite afternoon tea at the Palazzo Versace, next door to the Marina Mirage, before driving home, all pleasantly tired.

‘Was that Rafe’s idea?’ Maisie enquired after they’d dropped the kids off.

Sonia nodded. ‘He was worried about you. He reckoned you needed a bit of a break. Are you going to be all right tomorrow?’ she asked directly.

Maisie drew a deep breath. ‘Yes.’

And that conviction stayed with her, helped by a good night’s sleep, through most of the next day…

But Sonia had another surprise up her sleeve. She somehow turned a wedding between two people marrying for all the wrong reasons into a festive affair.

After the short ceremony presided over by the marriage celebrant, Marcus, Hilary and Cecilia, all beautifully dressed, showered them excitedly with rose petals and confetti.

Not only that, but there were also flowers everywhere, champagne on ice and a wedding lunch laid out-even a cake.

So it was a lively lunch for them all. Jack was a surprisingly entertaining guest and proposed a brief but rather sweet and funny toast to the bride and groom.

Then Sonia gathered her offspring and took her leave along with Jack.

She kissed Maisie warmly then she kissed her brother, but her expression directed at him as she stepped into the lift somehow said very much in an older-sister manner-it’s up to you now; don’t let me down!

Both Rafe and Maisie found themselves smiling ruefully as the lift doors closed silently.

‘She is a character,’ he murmured.

‘Yes, but she’s been lovely to me. Is there any hope she and her husband can get back together?’

Rafe sighed and shrugged as he pulled off his tie. ‘I keep trying to promote it, but really, only Sonia can do it. She…Put it this way, I don’t think Liam, her husband, feels he’s ever broken through, or will be able to, to the real Sonia.’

Maisie blinked. ‘Not even three children later?’

‘Not even three children later,’ he repeated. ‘There are reasons why she likes to keep a part of herself to herself but we won’t go into that now. OK. We have half an hour to get changed and get to the airport. Think you can do it?’

‘Yes, but-’ Maisie looked around a bit dazedly ‘-we can’t leave all this.’