14

Day 27

Sunday March 11

Nigel looked at Chloe over breakfast. She looked as pale and sick as he felt and seemed to have lost her appetite as well. The whole weekend had been a washout. Far from flat hunting and shopping for rings which he’d planned, he’d hardly seen Chloe. She’d gone up to her room to call her parents and stayed there. She’d texted him to say they were coming over at some point on Sunday, but hadn’t replied to any messages he’d sent.

He’d even tried knocking on her door, but hadn’t got a reply. Instead, he retreated to the small chapel and read and prayed, trying desperately to find the answers he sought. But the more he prayed, the more he seemed to get exactly the opposite. His sense of disquiet grew until he knew he only had one course of action.

“What time are your parents coming?” Archie asked.

“They’ll be here at one,” she replied, pushing the plate of half-eaten toast away. Even her voice was quiet. She was so unlike the fiery, determined woman he’d fallen for.

Nigel folded his serviette and laid it on the table, hating himself for what he’d done to all of them, in particularly Chloe. “It means we can go to church first. Assuming you want to come, that is.”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll get the car out.” He left the room, pausing as voices carried through the open door into the hallway.

“Answer me one question, Chloe. Do you love my brother?”

“Yes, I do,” she replied quietly. “But it’s not enough, is it? He wants the money, not a wife who loves him. He doesn’t love me.”

Nigel hurried out of the house, and leaned against the front wall. How could she not know how he felt about her? Maybe they could salvage this even now. Love was enough. Love was all they needed. Not the house or money or the trappings that came with this fortune he no longer wanted. What he wanted was Chloe.

****

Not knowing how to broach the conversation, Nigel didn’t say anything to Chloe during the trip to church. The sermon just made his stomach turn more. The topic was marriage and how it mimicked the love of Christ and the church. How could he have ever thought this was the right thing to do?

Marriage wasn’t simply a business arrangement or a paid partnership. He had to call it off. He was compounding a lie with an even bigger one.

They arrived back at the house to find Chloe’s parents already there.

Great. I’m not going to get a chance to talk to her at all. Perhaps it’s just as well. I do love her, I know that, but we need a clean slate.

Lunch was as stilted a meal as he’d ever known. No one spoke except to say pass the salt. After eating, they moved into the library and sat in silence.

Archie cleared his throat. “Well, we’re waiting.”

Nigel took a deep breath, praying for guidance as he didn’t want to make the situation any worse. “OK. The truth. According to the terms of my fathers will, if I don’t marry by Easter, I’m disinherited and lose everything. All the money goes to the local dogs’ home and the house to the Heritage Organization. I made up a girlfriend last year to stop dad nagging me about getting married. Knowing him, he was probably calling my bluff.”

Archie glowered from the wing chair he sat in. “So you invented the first Chloe?”

Nigel’s cheeks burned and he shifted uncomfortably on the chair. “Yes I did. Anyway, after the reading of Dad’s will, I prayed about it, and then found this card advertising the rent-a-bride site. It seemed an answer to prayer, especially when I found Chloe’s profile. Her details and picture matched my fake girlfriend. I contacted her, she replied, and things went from there.”

Mr. Wilkes raised an eyebrow and looked distinctly disapproving. “Chloe Rosamund Wilkes?”

It was Chloe’s turn to shift on the chair. “Don’t look at me like that. I told you we’d met on line on an agency site. Besides, it was Caleb who signed me up.”

Nigel sighed. This was rapidly turning into an Adam and Eve situation. The atypical it wasn’t me it was her; no it wasn’t me it was him.

Everyone looked at Caleb. “Fine.” He shoved his hands into his coat pocket. “I signed her up as a joke. Well, she does have dating issues. There has been no one since Leon. She gave up her career and became a recluse.”

“It’s only been a year, for goodness sake.” Chloe sounded as frustrated and annoyed as she looked. “I’ll have you know that teaching kids is a perfectly good career and is hardly being a recluse. I could have shut myself away and became a hermit. Or become a nun, but I didn’t. ”

Caleb scowled. “Like I said, signing you up to the website was a joke. You weren’t meant to do it.”

“And if you had given me the password, I would have closed the account the day you told me about it. I was trying to do just that when Nigel’s email came. I was going to delete it, like all the other idiotic ones I’d received.”

Nigel looked at her. “You never told me that.”

“They were all idiots. Telling me how hot I looked in my picture. And those were the polite ones. I was going to delete your email as well, figuring it was just more of the same, but clicked open instead. It intrigued me; that’s why I replied. We arranged to meet and—”

“And agreed to go through with this.” Archie interrupted. He looked at Chloe’s parents. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“Not completely.” Her father replied. “We knew some of it.”

“You knew?” Archie scoffed. “Oh, this just gets better and better.”

Caleb’s wife, Vicky, spoke for the first time. “I didn’t.”

Archie smirked. “Not alone then.”

Nigel stood and paced across the room. “You are all missing the point.”

“No, we’re not.” Archie said. “The point is you are paying her to marry you, just so you can get your millions. How much are you paying her, out of interest?”

Nigel glared at him. “Mind your own beeswax.”

“It is my business,” Archie retorted.

Chloe took a deep breath. “A hundred thousand, if we stay married for the year. It’s more than I’ll make in several years of teaching, He also said separate rooms, a hands off, pure business relationship. If you like a twenty-first century arranged marriage.”

“So this Leon?” Archie asked. “Were you living with him?”

“No, I was not.” Chloe objected, a rosy hue covering her cheeks. “We were never married. Engaged, yes, but nothing ever happened. He started as my dancing partner.” She pinched the bridge of her nose.

“That’s enough Archie.” Nigel strode across the room, and sat beside. “It’s OK.”

Chloe looked down at her hands. “Leon drank. And when he was drunk, he got careless. He dropped me a few times. I didn’t break my leg in a fall. I broke it when he dropped me during rehearsal. It healed enough to teach, but I can never dance professionally again.”

Mr. Wilkes looked at her. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Chloe sighed. “And what could you have done? I would have only ruined his career as well. The drink will kill him soon enough. And the contract I signed would have made suing the ballet company impossible.” She smiled slightly. “Hence my distrust of lawyers other than Adam. Besides, I knew how you and Caleb would react.”

“I’d punch his lights out,” her brother muttered.

“Exactly,” Chloe said. “But Nigel isn’t like that. I admit we may have gone into this for the wrong reasons at first, but over the past few weeks, I’ve got to know him. And he is nothing like Leon.”

“I don’t drink for one thing. Not since I met you.”

“No. And you’re not mean either.”

“I’d never hurt you. It’s a name only marriage. That way we can get it annulled.” Nigel looked at Caleb. “So, whilst we’re all sitting here being honest, tell me about the night I was assaulted.”

“No, I didn’t attack you,” Caleb said. “Not that I wasn’t tempted to. I sat in my car outside Chloe’s flat, praying that we could talk things through. All I cared about was Clo and her not getting hurt. I saw you leave and got out of my car to talk to you. Then somebody else appeared, hit you, kicked you, and took your wallet. His build was kind of familiar, but he wore a mask over his face. I gave chase, and when he dropped your wallet, I picked it up intending to give it back. But then the cops picked me up and I still had it.” He shrugged. “I told them what I could.”

“So it was just a simple mugging?” Nigel asked. Relief filled him at the thought of it not being Caleb. He didn’t want any more animosity between the two families than there already was.

Caleb nodded. “Chloe’s right. She can make her own decisions. I may not agree with how she’s gone about this, but have no one to blame but myself for the two of you meeting. So, if this is what she wants then so be it. But if you hurt her in any way…” He left the threat hanging.

“I won’t,” Nigel said.

Her father frowned. “You’re still asking her to give up everything just so you can gain your inheritance. What about her job, her friends, her way of life? Not to mention her faith and church.”

Chloe sighed. “Dad, they do have churches in Bournemouth. And it’s quite appropriate. After all Jesus gave up everything at Easter so we could gain our heavenly inheritance. Nigel’s a friend I have come to care deeply about. If this is a way to help him, then I’ll do it without question or pause.”

Nigel looked at Chloe. He began to notice things about her that he hadn’t before.

Her poise and elegance as she sat. The way she paid attention to what was being said, but never chiming in unless it was important or she felt she could contribute in a meaningful way. She shone with inner beauty. Words from the Song of Solomon filled his mind. You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. How much better is your love than wine and the fragrance of your perfumes than any spice!

She’d stolen his heart like the verses said. She was the one, he knew that, but he couldn’t do this to her. He couldn’t force her into a business arrangement when that was the last thing he wanted. He wasn’t going to pay for her. He wanted her to marry him because she loved him. “I can’t do this.”

The room fell silent.

Archie looked at him. “You what?”

Nigel looked at Chloe. “I can’t marry you. I’ll uphold my end of the contract we signed. You’ll get your fee in a year’s time. I’m not going to have you give up everything because I’m some money grabbing…” He broke off, unable to think of a polite way to describe himself. “I’m sorry I wasted your time.”

“Nigel?”

He pushed upright. “The wedding’s off,” he repeated. He stood still, praying she’d say no. Praying she’d tell him what she’d told Archie earlier, that she loved him.

“But what about your inheritance?”

He shrugged. “The dogs can have it. Dad can have the last laugh. I earn enough to get by.” He gave her another moment, then when she said nothing, he turned on his heel and strode from the room before his resolve broke, the same way his heart had just broken inside him.