CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

"Miss Lambert, are you there?"

Audrey gripped the edge of her desk.

"Miss Lambert," her secretary tried again. A moment later, she knocked at the door. "Miss Lambert, are you okay?"

Audrey found her voice. "Yes, I'm all right. Come in."

Heather entered. "Is something wrong with the intercom," she asked, assuming a broken communication.

"No, it's working fine. It-it's me. I think it's the weather. I'm a bit under. It might be best if I took the afternoon off."

"You do look somewhat flushed," Heather remarked.

Audrey stood up. "Please collect all these files and keep them in a bundle for tomorrow. I don't want them re-filed, nor left in my inbox for anyone unauthorized to see."

"Of course, Miss Lambert. I'll also re-schedule your appointments for today."

"Yes, do that. Thanks, Heather."

 

Wearing her tan spring coat and her shoulder bag, she kept her gaze lowered as she walked through the center aisle of her department. Wil's cubicle was only feet from the main entrance/exit to the hallway. She could see the top of his head, wavy light brown hair. He was on the phone speaking to a customer.

Her great-grandmother had tried to run, afraid the man she loved would have only contempt for her when he learned of her dual identity. But he'd stopped her. He already knew and loved her even more. Was she going to run as well, Audrey mocked herself. Only in her case, Wil might not follow her.

Something inside her snapped, and she entered his cubicle. He felt her presence and raised his head. "Hold on," he said to the person on the other end of the line.

 

Audrey's face was flushed. He could swear she was trembling. Her gaze had riveted on his. He forgot to use the professional address. "Audrey, what's wrong?"

"Wil ... ?" His name on her lips reminded him of an aspen leaf fluttering in the wind. There were tears welling up in her eyes. "Audrey ... what is it?"

She seemed to have lost her voice. With a sigh, more like a groan, she turned and fled.

He sat there a moment, flummoxed. That was not his manager looking at him. That was a lost, unhappy soul. That was a woman who needed him beyond words. Wil forgot the customer on the line. He forgot his jacket hanging on the back of his chair. He leapt up and rushed out of the cubicle, out the door and into the hallway. Audrey had already reached the elevators. One had just opened and she had slipped in.

"Audrey, wait," he cried, as the doors closed an instant before he reached them.

Wil checked the elevator tabs. She was headed down. He pushed the down triangle and cursed every second that passed before another elevator arrived. Three people were inside, each with a different chosen floor. He was trembling himself, wishing he could override the three stops and push the express button to the lobby.

The three minutes it took him to reach the lobby felt like an eternity. Luckily, it wasn't a huge lobby, and he quickly saw she wasn't there. Perhaps she went to the parking lot below the building. He took the stairs this time.

In the parking lot there was no sign of her either, but he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that her Ford Compact remained parked in her reserved space. That meant she was somewhere in the area. But where? Perhaps when she'd reached the lobby, she had gone into the Ladies Room. He hurried back up the stairs. He waited a respectable distance away from the rest rooms. After a couple of minutes, a young dark-haired woman came out. He approached her, apologizing and asking her if a woman with golden brown hair and a tan coat was still inside. He cringed at the scathing glance she gave him.

"Her name is Miss Audrey Lambert. My name is Wil Darcy. I work in her department on the twentieth floor." Hopefully, he added "I have an important message for her."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Darcy —" She stopped suddenly. "Are you—"

He'd seen that look before. "No, ma'am. I'm not the actor. I just happen to look like him. Please, I need to speak to Miss Lambert."

"You're a dead ringer for him. But I'm sorry, there's no one else in the bathroom." She shrugged helplessly.

Wil's shoulders slumped.

Seeing his disappointment, the young woman, solaced, "I'm going back to my office, but if I see her around, I'll tell her you're searching for her."

"Thank you. I'm sorry to have bothered you." He turned away and noted through the glass doors to the lobby that the rain had stopped. An idea struck him. The lobby faced Central Park. He knew Audrey occasionally brought lunch from home, and on warm sunny days, she sometimes chose a bench at the forefront, just past the brick balustrade, to sit and eat. This wasn't a sunny day, but it had stopped raining. What did he have to lose checking out the entrance to the park.

He went out and crossed the street to the park. He entered. She was seated on a weathered bench, oblivious to the raindrops that still clung to it. Others might mistake the droplets that streamed down her cheeks for raindrops, but he knew they were tears. Those tears clouding her vision, kept her from seeing him until he'd reached her side. She glanced up, startled. Wil sat down beside her. He felt the dampness seep through his trousers, and couldn't help yelping. The water was cold.

"Audrey, what's wrong? What's the matter?" he entreated, ignoring the wet bench. "Is it me, have I done something to offend you?"

He gasped as she flung herself into his arms, sobbing. "Okay, that's it," he said at wit's end. "Audrey, the seat of my pants is soaked. And now you're drenching my shirtfront. If you notice, I forgot my jacket when I rushed out after you. I'm getting chills. Before I catch Pneumonia, will you please tell me what's wrong?"

She clung to him closer, burying her face in his shirtfront.

"Sweetheart, what is it?" he repeated in desperation.

Very slowly, she raised her gaze to his. Wil swallowed. He'd called her Sweetheart. He couldn't help himself. He loved her so, and her anguish was hurting him. "Please, Audrey. I love you so much, and I can't stand to see you so troubled."

As she met his gaze filled with compassion, her sobs quieted. Tenderly, she said, "You love me?"

"Oh, come on," he said. "As if you didn't know."

"I didn't. You never told me."

"Well, how could I? How could I take the liberty, compare myself to you? And Singhen?

"Singhen asked me to marry him."

"Is this what the tears are all about?" Wil asked. "You don't have to feel bad for me. I-I never expected you to choose me over him. He's a multi-millionaire, an ace in the archaeological field. He can make all your dreams come true. What could I give you compared to him?"

"Tell me, Wil, what could you give me?"

Wil tried to read her expression. Was there the slimmest possibility she was considering requiting his affection? "I don't have millions, barely thousands, but I would give you my undying affection, my loyalty, my life if need be. I couldn't cater to the sophisticated, beautiful woman, so far above me. But the sweet girl within whose idea of happiness is the love and closeness and adventure her great-grandparents shared. To her I would dedicate every moment of my life. You see I admire her, her gentleness and compassion. Her astuteness and her graciousness. I believe I could make that girl happy, dearest Audrey."

Her smile was radiant as she raised her face close to his. Her lips sought his, and he was incapable of resisting. Their kiss was sweet and gentle. Wil controlled his desire to deepen the kiss. He'd sensed her innocence from their first meeting.

Her next words shocked him. "Wil, will you marry me?"

"You want to marry me?"

"Well, you've professed your love so tenderly and so well. But you won't ask me, because you feel unworthy, although you're far from it. So I'm asking."

Of course, he wanted to marry her, Wil pondered. There was no greater happiness in the world he could ask for. "Are you sure, Audrey? Are you sure, I'm the one for you? Please, dear Audrey, don't let me answer and then break my heart. Tell me why first, when all is said and done, why choose me over all that Singhen offered you."

"He is a wonderful man," Audrey said, "who will someday be considered a great man. One who will give this earth great discoveries. But Wil, I can't see myself growing old with him. I can't see him as the simple man who will love me forever, respect me for who I am, be with me through thick and thin, grow old and grey with me, bear with my faults as I bear with his." She lifted her hand and gently caressed his jaw. He continued fighting the desire to take her into his arms, growing stronger with each word flowing from her lips.

"Wil, you are that simple man with whom I see myself spending my life."

Wil filled his mind with her smile. No longer able to contain his feelings, the words rushed from his lips. "I'll love you forever, stay by your side through thick and thin, but I'm not simple. I'm actually the complicated sort. Could you bear with my faults? I have several."

"I'm not that perfect," she said." There may be times you'll scratch your graying head and ponder, What was I thinking?"

"I don't believe I'd ever ask that question."

Audrey laughed. "All right, dear Wil. But to answer yours, I can bear with your several faults, for one very good reason. ... I love you."

There was no more resisting. Wil enclosed Audrey in his arms, holding her close to his heart. "You will be my wife?" he asked, his voice trembling with emotion.

"Yes," she answered, "But didn't I just ask you." He read her teasing smile. "Yes, you did."

"Well," she said, "together, then."

"Yes," they shouted in unison.

Audrey raised her face to his to welcome his passionate kiss.