Appointment at the Altar

something of it.’

‘There’s a limit to what you can achieve as a receptionist,’ grumbled Lucy, but he only tutted.

‘That’s the wrong attitude. Let’s just see what you can do.’

Lucy sighed and looked out of the window. The glass was darkened so that they could see the commuters hurrying along the pavements, but no one could see in. It was like being in their own quiet, dim world, cut off from the noise and the hassle of city life.

‘So where have you been all weekend?’ asked Guy after a moment. ‘I missed you when I got back to the flat on Friday and you were gone!’

‘I went to stay with my friend, Meg,’ said Lucy, not averse to moving the conversation away from the challenges she still apparently had to meet. ‘She’s got a tiny spare room which she said I could have for a couple of months. It’s not much more than a cupboard, but I don’t have a lot of stuff so it’s fine for me, and I certainly couldn’t afford to pay proper rent.’

‘Is Meg an old friend?’

She nodded. ‘We were at school together. She’s got some hot-shot job in a law firm now and she’s got loads of suits and shoes that I can wear, which is lucky because I’ve got no money until pay day.’

‘I’m sure it would be possible to arrange an advance if you need it,’ said Guy in a neutral voice.

‘Oh, I’ll be fine. Meg has said she’ll lend me some cash if I need it.’

Or did that just mean she was letting Meg look after her the way Meredith usually did?

Lucy shook the uncomfortable thought aside.

‘Meg’s good fun. There aren’t usually any other women at Wirrindago, and I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed sitting down for a good gossip.’

‘Enough to make you change your mind about going back?’

‘No.’ She ruffled up immediately. Why was Guy so determined to believe that her feelings for Kevin weren’t real?

Of course, the fact that she had kissed him back the other night might have made him wonder if she was quite as besotted as she claimed to be, but he would have to be incredibly conceited to think that it had made a difference to her.

He was incredibly conceited, of course, so maybe that was exactly what he thought. She had told him that the kiss hadn’t bothered her. It had, but Guy wasn’t to know that.

Her chin lifted. ‘Of course I’m going back,’ she said. ‘That doesn’t mean I can’t make the most of being here.’

‘I’d be disappointed if you didn’t, Cinders,’ said Guy. ‘Making the most of the moment is what you do best.’

Why was it that conversations with Guy always ended up wandering into uncomfortable territory? Lucy wondered. She never knew quite how to take comments like that.

‘There’s better news about Richard,’ she offered in an attempt to change the subject-again! ‘I’ve been going to the hospital every day and he’s out of his coma.’

‘So Meredith was right after all,’ he said. ‘Your voice did make the difference.’

‘We can’t know that.’ Lucy shifted uncomfortably. She didn’t like to think of Richard loving her as much as Meredith and his parents seemed to think, because that would mean she would have to hurt him again one day. ‘I’m sure it’s just coincidence,’ she said. ‘He’s still very ill and can’t talk much, but obviously it’s progress.’

‘Well, that’s good news. His parents must be relieved.’

‘They’re delighted, of course…’

‘But?’

She made a face. ‘It’s very difficult. They’re treating me like a daughter-in-law already. I don’t know if it’s just that they don’t really listen when I mention my boyfriend, or if they don’t believe me, but it’s getting really embarrassing.’

‘You can’t have been talking about me enough.’

Guy’s voice was threaded with amusement and Lucy cursed the moment she had told Richard’s parents that her invented boyfriend was called Guy. Why on earth hadn’t she chosen Paul or Jack or…Ethelbald? Anything other than Guy!

‘I don’t talk about you at all,’ she said with a quelling look. ‘I do try and mention my fictional lover as much as I can, but it doesn’t seem to have much effect. I can’t keep going on about him. I’m already pretending that he’s completely besotted with me. If I’m not careful, I’ll end up marrying myself to him!’

‘I’m sure Guy won’t mind,’ said Guy. ‘He’ll have been a lost man as soon as he kissed you.’

A tide of colour flooded Lucy’s cheeks and she was desperately grateful for the dim light in the back of the car. Beside her, Guy seemed very big and very close and her whole body was thumping with awareness of him as the air between them thrummed with the memory of that kiss on the quayside. She was sure that he must be able to hear her heart thudding.

‘It was stupid to have started the whole story,’ she muttered, turning to stare out of the window and willing her flush to fade. ‘I shouldn’t have said anything.’

‘Well, it’s done now,’ said Guy practically. ‘You could tell Richard’s parents that you made the whole thing up, but that would probably be embarrassing for them, as well as for you.’

‘I know. I’ve thought of that, but they’ve got enough to cope with at the moment.’ She sighed. ‘I’m just going to have to learn to think before I open my big mouth.’

The rush hour traffic was moving slowly and the car edged to a halt in front of yet another red light. Lucy glanced at her watch. Her feet might appreciate the ride, but it might have been quicker-and less unsettling-to have stuck with the tube.

‘Do you ever think of using public transport?’

‘As it happens, I do if I’m just going home, but I’ve got a few things on tonight. I’m going to see my mother in the hospital, and then there’s a reception at the Guildhall, and later I’m going out to dinner with friends in Putney, so it just seemed easier to take the car and let Steve earn some overtime. It’s one of the benefits of being a bloated plutocrat!’

‘How did your mother’s operation go?’

‘Pretty well, the doctors think. They’re making her walk already. She had a double hip replacement so it was quite a big operation, but, as far as I can tell, she’s assumed command of the whole ward and the medical staff are clearly longing for the time when she’s ready to go home!’

‘When will that be?’ asked Lucy.

‘Next week some time, I think. The occupational therapist has been to Ma’s house and I’ve had a list of things to organise to make things easier for when she comes out of hospital. I’ve had a second banister fitted to the stairs and bought her a new armchair and a higher bed, but I’m braced to discover that I’ve chosen absolutely the wrong thing.’

His voice was light, but Lucy didn’t laugh. She glanced at him, a tiny crease between her eyes.

‘I would have thought that someone like you would be the apple of his mother’s eye,’ she said, and Guy lifted an eyebrow.

‘Someone like me?’

‘I’m sure you’re perfectly aware of how good-looking you are,’ said Lucy with a touch of spice. ‘You can be charming-when you’re not being really irritating, that is-and you’re obviously attentive. I might not appreciate you myself, but I can see that most mothers would adore having a son like you. Some women are grateful if their sons ring them once a month, let alone visit them in the hospital every day.’

Guy had laughed at her comment about him being irritating, but at that he sobered. ‘I think my mother is grateful,’ he said quietly. ‘And she loves me, I know she does. She just can’t show it that easily. Remember, she grew up in the outback. It’s a tough life out there, and they weren’t encouraged to spend a lot of time talking about their emotions, at least not in those days. She’s had a hard time, too. When she’s brusque, it’s just her way of dealing with the fact that she’s lost the two people she loved most in the world.’

‘Your father…?’ Lucy asked, wondering why Guy wasn’t the person his mother had always loved most in the world.

‘And Michael.’ Guy’s voice was expressionless. ‘My brother. Now, he was the apple of my mother’s eye. My father’s, too. Michael was everything they wanted in a son. He worked hard, he was head boy