Chapter Two #3
Had they just been skimming the surface of a friendship for all these years, or was this new terrain because another dimension had been introduced? A personal dimension, not between friends, but between a man and a woman.
Her heart picked up pace, but her thoughts remained muddled. She watched as he inserted the key into the lock.
He looked at her and said, seriously, ‘My mother would love it,’ his deep voice rising in his driving need to just make her listen to what he was trying to say.
‘It would make her incredibly happy for her to know that you and I are on the road to getting engaged, that we’re in a serious relationship. ’
And just as Jennifer was on the verge of asking the ridiculously obvious question…
but then what happens when she finds out that it was all a sham?
…the door was pulled open and there was Francesca Garcia, her thin, aristocratic face haggard and tired, but still incredibly beautiful and wearing a smile that stretched from ear to ear.
‘Yes, she would!’
Jennifer gaped, mentally wrestling with what Francesca had just said, appalled as the significance of it hit her like a blow.
She stared at the woman she considered a second mother.
Francesca Garcia was slender and willowy. Once blond, her hair was now threaded with silver but still long and pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck. She had green eyes and the sort of soft, cut-glass accent so indicative of the English upper echelons.
Everything about her was gentle and elegant, from the string of pearls that never left her neck to the discreet Cartier watch that never left her wrist.
‘Darlings, I happened to glance out of my window, and I saw the two of you outside in the car. I thought I’d come down and greet you myself. Come in, come in! Jennifer, my darling…’
There were tears of joy in her eyes, much to Jennifer’s growing consternation.
She could feel Gabriel’s brooding presence just behind her. She could recall the intense urgency of his voice when he had told her just how happy his mother would be to know that they were an item, that they were on the way to becoming engaged to be married.
He had meant that statement to be one of desperate persuasion, spoken in an earnest, last-ditch attempt to bring her round to his impassioned point of view.
Jennifer knew that his mother had heard something quite different. She had heard a declaration of intent, of a relationship only waiting to be sealed.
They were both being hurried in, and the imposing door shut behind them.
From nowhere, George, the handyman who ran the gardening crew and the cleaning staff, appeared and smiled.
‘Something to drink, sir? Miss Carlton?’
Francesca smiled and tapped him lightly on his arm. ‘There’s no earthly reason for you to be up and about and offering us drinks, George. You go straight back to bed and leave these treasures to me.’
‘I… I hadn’t planned on staying, Francesca.’ Jennifer still hadn’t looked in Gabriel’s direction. She wondered whether she could somehow dodge the inevitable bullet by making a quick exit, but no such luck. They were both being trooped through into the smallest of the sitting rooms, and then…
‘Darlings! I can’t believe that you two are going to get engaged!
Naughty Gabriel, keeping that under your hat!
I can’t tell you how excited I am by this news.
Jennifer, my love, I expect Gabriel told you…
’ Francesca’s eyes filled with tears. ‘It’s been so hard, frightening.
There were times when I wondered what the point of anything was, felt like my life was over, so eventful, so filled with joy and sadness, and yet I couldn’t help but think that I would die with nothing to show for it.
But now… I can’t believe my ears, my darlings!
When? How? I always knew that you two would one day see sense and end up together. ’
Jennifer finally looked at Gabriel, who stared back at her intently with his head tilted to one side.
She knew what he was thinking. She’d been so adamant that she would have nothing to do with a charade that might lift his mother from her gloom that he was now leaving it up to her to deny everything.
She opened her mouth just as Francesca reached out to clasp both her hands in hers.
‘It’s late,’ Francesca said. ‘You’re tired. We can talk about this in the morning. Jennifer, please do stay the night. Then we can be up early, walk through the rose gardens. I know how much you love them. I’m so thrilled!’
‘I’ve got to get back home, Francesca. You know how my mum is. She’s expecting me…’
‘Does she know?’
Jennifer glanced at Gabriel, who stared right back at her in lazy, amused silence.
‘Know what?’ she hedged.
‘That you two are thinking about getting engaged, of course, darling! At long last.’
‘It’s not… We’re not…’ Jennifer heard her own voice, feeble and weakly protesting. ‘There’s a lot to think about… I mean…’
She felt Gabriel’s arm as he slung it over her shoulder. For a few seconds, she froze, and all her jumbled thoughts left her head. The weight of his arm felt intimate…pulled her into a place never explored before.
‘It’s a big step, Mum,’ he murmured, ‘and of course it’s not something we’ve discussed with anyone else. Yet…’
Francesca made a zipping motion with her finger across her mouth, but she was still beaming like the cat that got the cream.
‘Understood,’ she said with a girlish laugh. ‘I shall head up to bed, my darlings, but you can’t imagine how happy you’ve made me.’ She moved and pulled them both into a warm hug. ‘I’ve been in a dark place, but now I see light. How I love you both…’