Ellie was nervous. She hadn't stopped talking for the last twenty minutes, and she was driving him mad. Once he parked the car, Jasper turned to her, taking hold of her hands.
"Ellie, Ellie shh, please stop it. I'm quite capable of making people feel at ease, its part of the job love. I know you're nervous, but honestly, I'm looking forward to meeting your mum and dad. Just let me do the talking okay?"
Ellie closed her eyes, he was right, she had been going on and on. "I'm sorry my mum makes me nervous. I never feel as if I live up to her expectations. I'm not married to a director of some boring company, I haven't given her grandchildren, and my director husband doesn't play golf."
Jasper laughed. "Silly girl. You are marrying a director of one of the most prestigious companies in the world. There is only one Duke of Shettleham, and we will give them beautiful grandchildren, the only thing I'm not too happy about is the golf. It's never really appealed to
Ellie glanced back at him as she went into the apartment "Oh, are you staying?""I could stay for a little while," he grinned.I'm just going to get changed.""Better take the box with you th
Kylie looked at the beautiful paintings hanging on the great hall wall. Some of the portraits were interesting to Kylie because she could see Jasper in some of them. It was the eyes, very blue, sincere. It was a pity that these people in the paintings weren't smiling, it seemed that nobody smiled in portraits in those far off days, but, she could bet if they were, they would look exactly like Jasper. There was one man, dressed in some uniform, lovely red coat, big sword and lots of gold braids, if that man smiled it could be Jasper in fancy dress.She wondered what Richie's family were like. They probably wouldn't be very impressed with her, an unmarried mother at nineteen. It had been hard to leave Richie and the beautiful apartment last night, but she knew he understood and she had received several texts this morning. Kylie had switched off her phone while they were on the coach, she didn't want Grant asking who was texting when he was sitting next to her. When they got to th
Ellie and Jasper waited until the last of the visitors had left the house before they did their tour. They started at the front door. Jasper held it open for her, and he sat on his heels, running his fingers over the blackened oak door. "Look, here," he said, pulling her down with him. "When I was ten, I carved my initials into the door. My mum had a fit, and she made me boot black them out before my dad saw what I'd done. You can still feel them." Ellie ran her fingers over the door, tracing the J the A for his middle name Alexander and N for his surname. "Boys and their penknives!""Ahh, actually more like Mary's vegetable knife, she was so cross. Terrified that I might have cut myself, it was a very sharp knife. Come on, let's see what other trouble I managed to get myself into."Ellie looked around the entrance hall, "Sliding down the bannister?""Yes, trouble is with a dogleg, even though it's quite big it was always a pain having to get off and get o
Kylie was so happy that it was Tuesday, she had told Grant that she was taking Suki to her mum's and staying the night. He didn't seem to have a problem with that, although, "Why are you taking all that stuff?" he asked, looking at the large holdall."Oh its stuff Suki has grown out of, my mum says she has a friend who collects things for refugees. Besides it's filling all the drawers, best get rid of it."Grant grunted his assent. He went back to watching the traffic from the window. Kylie went back into the bedroom and grabbed a couple of tops and another pair of jeans. She shoved them into her holdall. Was there anything else that she should take? She looked around the bedroom, seeing the memories of the past eight months. She and Grant had such fun when they first moved in here, he'd painted the room for her, made it as lovely as he could for, and the baby. She had tried hard to be an excellent partner to him. Kylie cooked him his favourite meals, made sure she ironed
Jasper put the final touches on Ellie's painting, stood back, took it in, and looked for things that needed more work. He hoped she would be pleased with what he had done; he certainly was. Jasper looked at his watch; she should have been back by now. He grinned to himself she was probably downstairs hiding from him. She knew what he wanted to do, and she had been avoiding him. Well, she could hide, and she could run; but he would get her delicious body in his bed sooner or later. He just adored teasing her and seeing the scowl on her face turn into a look of desperate longing.He ran downstairs to the kitchen, Betty and Edna were sorting the laundry out, Carly was ironing, they were listening to the radio, and all was peaceful. "Hey ladies, is it time for a cuppa?" he said, filling the kettle. "Is Ellie back yet?""We haven't seen her since this morning," Betty said."Oh she's probably lost in Selfridges shoe department or something, I'll call her. he made the
Jasper stretched out in a reclining chair in Ellie's hospital room. He'd pulled it right up to her bed so that he could hold her hand. Gus had given her painkillers, and for the moment, she was sleeping."What are you going to do, Jasper?" asked Gus as he checked the IV drip going into her arm. "Do you want me to call the police?""I'm not sure what to do; this is such a mess. I don't want to subject Ellie to the press, but Thwaite needs sorting out." Jasper heaved a sigh and told Gus of the previous intervention that Tom Thwaite had tried."He needs to be stopped Jasp, look at her she's in a dreadful state. She's lucky that she hasn't sustained some permanent damage. If he's done this now; how do we know he hasn't done this before? How do we know he's not going to do this again?" Gus asked.The injuries Ellie sustained looked even worse in this light, and Jasper could hardly bear to look at her. Her beautiful face swollen and discoloured. Black spider leg
Ellie was asleep when her mum and dad arrived. They called Jasper, who went down to the main door to meet them. Jasper took them to a waiting room near Ellie so that he could talk to them without being in Ellie's hearing."I'm so sorry this has happened to Ellie, I can't believe that one of my friends or anyone could even contemplate this," Jasper explained about Tom and his ideas of why he, Jasper shouldn't marry Ellie.Bill grinned when Jasper told him about her throwing the tie back like a lasso, "She can be very fierce my little girl.""Yes she can and don't I know it." Jasper laughed. "From what I can work out what happened yesterday was a total fluke, we don't know yet if Tom Thwaite was following her or if he just saw her and then saw red. I think that is probably more like it. If he had been following her, other times would have been better for him to have done this rather than yesterday in Covent Garden. He took a huge chance.""Is her face terrible?" Ma
Kylie sighed in relief when she arrived back at the flat. Her palms had been damp when she though that Grant may have seen her if he had been watching out of the window, and the last thing she wanted was to explain why she was getting out of the Duke of Shettleham's car.Oh, that would have been something, if Grant had seen that! She looked at her phone, nothing from Richie yet, still he was probably saving his millions, and that took concentration. Where was Grant, she could text him and find out?"Hi, I'm home, where are you?"Kylie put her phone on the windowsill. They had worked out when they first came to live here that there was better signal reception at that end of the room. She filled the kettle and began to clean the kitchen. Grant had not washed up after his burgers the night before,