to me.’ She gave a firm shake of her head, wincing as she did so.
She just wanted to forget about Patrick Devlin. Last night she had behaved completely out of character, mostly because, as her father had guessed, she wanted to hit out at him. But also at Geraldine Simms. Well, she had done that—more than done that if her father’s reaction was anything to go by!—and now she just wanted to forget it had ever happened. She couldn’t even remember half of last night’s events, so it shouldn’t be that hard to do!
‘Oh, yes, Lilli, he is important to you too.’ Her father nodded grimly. ‘Patrick Devlin is the Chairman of Paradise Bank.’
She thought back to the man she had met last night in Geraldine Simms’ kitchen—she couldn’t count this morning; she had left the hotel before he’d stopped singing and emerged from the bathroom! She remembered a tall, handsome man, with slightly overlong dark hair, and laughter in his deep grey eyes. He hadn’t looked anything like a banker.
She shrugged. ‘So? Is he married, with a dozen children; is that the problem?’ Although if he were he must have a very understanding wife, to have gone off to a party on his own and then have felt no compunction about staying out all night. No...somehow she didn’t think he was married.
Her father gave a sigh at the mockery in her tone. ‘Okay, let’s leave that part alone for a while. Do you know what else he is, Lilli?’
‘A Liberal Democrat,’ she taunted.
‘Oh, very funny!’ Her father, a staunch Conservative voter, wasn’t in the least amused at her continued levity.
‘Look, Father, I don’t—’
‘And will you stop calling me “Father” in that judgemental tone?’ he bit out tautly.
‘I’m sorry, but you just don’t seem like “Daddy” to me at the moment,’ she told him in a pained voice, unable to look at him at that moment, too.
Her father had always been there for her in the past, she had always been ‘Daddy’s little girl’, and now he suddenly seemed like a stranger...
‘I’m really sorry you feel that way, Lilli.’ He spoke gently. ‘It wasn’t meant to be this way.’
‘I’m not even going to ask what you mean by that remark,’ she said scathingly, turning towards the door once again.
‘I haven’t finished yet, Lilli—’
‘But I have!’ She swung round, eyes flashing deeply green. ‘To be honest, I’m not sure I can listen to any more of this without being sick!’ This time she did turn and walk out the door, her head held high.
‘He’s Geraldine’s brother,’ her father called after her. ‘Patrick Devlin is Geraldine’s older brother!’
She faltered only slightly, and then she just kept on walking, her legs moving automatically, that numbness she had known the night before thankfully creeping over her once again.
‘Where are you going?’ Her father now stood at the bottom of the stairs she had half ascended.
‘To bed,’ she told him flatly. ‘To sleep.’ For a million years, if she was lucky!
‘This mess will still be here when you wake up, Lilli,’ her father told her fiercely. ‘I’ll still be here!’
She didn’t answer him, didn’t even glance at him, continuing up to her bedroom, closing the door firmly behind her, deliberately keeping her mind blank as she threw off the clothes she had worn last night, not even bothering to put on a nightgown before climbing in between the sheets of her bed, pulling the covers up over the top of her head, willing herself to go to sleep.
And when she woke up maybe she would find the last twelve hours had been a nightmare...!
Geraldine Simms’ brother!
She didn’t know what time it was, how long she had slept, only that she had woken suddenly, sitting up in the bed, her eyes wide as that terrible truth pounded in her brain.
Patrick Devlin wasn’t a past or present lover of Geraldine Simms, but her brother!
No wonder he had been so familiar with the house, with where the wine was kept. And he hadn’t been going to spend the night there with Geraldine, but was obviously her guest at her house during his visit to London.
Lilli had thought she was being so clever, that she was walking away with a prize taken from under Geraldine’s nose. But all the time Patrick was the woman’s brother! No wonder Geraldine had tried to stop the two of them leaving together; considering her own involvement with Lilli’s father, any relationship between Lilli and her brother was a complication she could well do without!
Lilli had been to bed with the enemy...!
But she wasn’t involved with Patrick Devlin, had no ‘relationship’ with him; one night in bed together did not a relationship make!
One night in bed...
And she didn’t even remember it, she inwardly groaned. But Patrick had been singing quite happily to himself in the shower this morning, so he obviously did!
With the exception of her ex-fiancé, she had spent the majority of the last four years ignoring the obvious advances of the ‘beautiful men’ she met at parties, not even aware of the less obvious ones. But in a single night she had wiped all of that out by going to bed with the one man she should have stayed well away from.
Her father was right—this was a mess!
She fell back against the pillows, her eyes closed. A million years of sleep couldn’t undo what she had done last night.
Her only consolation—and it was a very slight one!—was that she was sure Patrick had been involved in a conversation with his sister this morning very similar to the one she’d had with her father. She wouldn’t be ‘Just Lilli’ to Patrick any more, but Elizabeth Bennett, daughter of Richard Bennett, of Bennett International Hotels, the current man in Geraldine’s life. No doubt her identity as the daughter of his sister’s ‘ageing lover’ had come as much of a shock to him as it had to her to realise he was Geraldine’s brother.
Lilli opened her eyes, her expression thoughtful now. Patrick hadn’t seemed any more pleased than she was at his sister’s choice of lover, which meant he wouldn’t be too eager ever to meet the lover’s daughter again, either. Which meant she could forget the whole sorry business.
End of mess.
Of course it was.
Now if she could just make her father see sense over this ridiculous involvement with Geraldine Simms—
She turned towards the door as a knock sounded on it. She hadn’t left instructions that she wasn’t to be disturbed, but even so she was irritated at the intrusion. ‘Yes?’ she prompted impatiently, getting out of bed to pull on her robe.
‘There’s someone downstairs waiting to see you, Miss Lilli, and—’
The
