Licence to Dream (30 page)

‘You can’t do that! What about Cheryl and the boys?’

‘I’ve set up a trust fund for them, one you won’t be able to touch. I haven’t much longer to live so I won’t be here to see the mess you make of the rest of your life.’

He paused to draw breath, then looked at his son and spoke with such sadness that Meriel felt tears well in her eyes out of pity for this kind, decent man.

‘And now you understand that, Phil, I’d be grateful if you’d leave us. I don’t want to see you again, ever. I haven’t long to live and I want to spend that time in peace with your mother. My lawyer will be in touch with you about your debts.’

‘Dad, please – ’

Rod beckoned and a burly man got out of the big luxury car waiting on the other side of the street and came to stand beside their table. ‘My son is reluctant to leave, George. Will you help him on his way, please?’

Phil glared at Ben and left, shaking off the burly man’s hand and striding down the street, radiating anger.

‘I’m so sorry, Uncle Rod,’ Ben said quietly.

‘I’ve come to terms with it, as much as one ever can come to terms with losing a child, which is how my wife and I have decided to regard it.’

He looked at Meriel, then smiled at Ben. ‘This is the new woman in your life, I gather? She and I have already spoken on the phone.’

‘You have?’

‘I felt she should be here.’

‘And I agreed,’ Meriel put in. ‘Though I’d have come anyway.’

Rod held out his hand. ‘I’m delighted to meet you in person, Meriel. I hope you and Ben will be happy together. I wish I could get to know you properly, but I’m afraid that won’t be possible now.’ He sighed and beckoned to the burly man, who had watched Phil till he was out of sight then returned to stand nearby. ‘I’m afraid I’m tiring rapidly, so I think I’ll let my attendant take me home and put me to bed. Please stay and have a meal here at my expense.’

‘I think we’d rather go home,’ Ben said. He went to bend and give the older man a hug. ‘I wish . . . ’

‘No use wishing for the impossible.’ Rod patted his arm, smiled at Meriel and nodded to his attendant, who wheeled him out of the café.

Ben looked at Meriel. ‘Was I right about that? Do you want to go home now?’

‘Yes. I’m not at all hungry at the moment. Oh, Ben! I’m so glad for you.’

He nodded and blinked his eyes furiously but a tear still rolled down his cheek. ‘Uncle Rod’s a great guy, you know, doesn’t deserve all this.’

As they walked down the street, Ben said in a husky voice, ‘I still can’t believe that I’m free of debt – and of Phil, too.’ He suddenly picked Meriel up and swung her round several times. Passers-by stopped to stare so he grinned at them. ‘She’s just agreed to marry me.’

He accepted their congratulations and watched them walk away smiling, then turned to Meriel. ‘I couldn’t resist it!’

‘I forgive you this once. It’s been a fraught time.’

‘Now that I’m free, we really can get married. How soon is the only question?’

‘Let’s discuss that when we get back. I was thinking. Do you have anything at the office that you want?’

‘Yeah, there are some useful bits and pieces and some sentimental stuff, too.’

‘Well, we’d better go back and them pack up straight away. I wouldn’t put it past that louse to smash everything of yours. If ever I saw a man who’d like to harm you, he’s it.’

‘There’s nothing much he can do now.’

There he went again, being an optimist. ‘Humour me. Let’s get your stuff, then go home.’

‘All right. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to go and choose a ring first?’

‘No. We can do that later.’

Much later, if she had her way. She wasn’t into all the fuss and botheration of getting married, still shuddered at the memory of the pink meringue of a dress she’d had to wear to her sister’s wedding – and from her mother’s recent letters, it looked as if Helen’s marriage was failing too, which didn’t add to her confidence about the marital state.

No, marriage was unlucky, a stupid sort of institution. Either you wanted to stay together or you moved apart. No one should tie you forcibly to another person.

She wasn’t going down that path, but she’d have to ease Ben into accepting that they didn’t need a piece of paper saying they were married to make them stay together.

* * * *

The outer door of the office suite was unlocked and after a shocked glance at Meriel, Ben hurried across to his room, cursing under his breath as he stopped in the doorway. The place had been ransacked and most of his professional drafting equipment smashed, as well as his mementoes and worst of all the portrait of Sandy.

‘Stay back,’ he told Meriel. ‘I’m contacting the police. It’s Phil who did it, of course, though we may never prove that, but this time I’m definitely bringing in the police.’

When he went to use the phone, it wasn’t working.

‘Here, take my mobile again.’ Meriel fished it out of her bag. ‘I’m going to buy you one of your own when we get back and chain it to you.’

He made the call, then gave a thumbs up. ‘They’ll be here in a few minutes. They’ve got a campaign on about inner city break-ins and burglaries, apparently. We haven’t to touch anything.’

They wandered into Phil’s office, which hadn’t been disturbed, then Ben said, ‘I think I’ll just nip along to the toilet. I won’t be long.’

When she heard footsteps, Meriel turned round, but it was Phil standing in the doorway, not Ben. And he was looking her up and down in a very offensive way.

‘Well, well. What are
you
doing here?’

‘Waiting for Ben.’

He moved forward towards her. ‘Maybe we can think of some way to enliven your wait. A lovely woman like you should share herself around a bit.’

She realised he was drunk and also, to her astonishment, that he was about to assault her. He must have poured the booze down to get drunk so quickly. Was the man utterly stupid? It appeared so.

With a foolishly confident smile on his face he reached out for her as if expecting her to stand there and wait for him to grab her. She stepped sideways, shoving him away from her hard. ‘Back off, you idiot!’

But he laughed and moved forward again, arms outstretched to bar her way.

‘I’ve taken self-defence classes,’ she warned him, moving behind a chair. ‘I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if you don’t leave me alone.’

He sniggered and let out a mocking, high-pitched ‘Oooh! I’m so scared.’

Well, she’d given him warning. In a rapid series of moves, she jabbed at him with the chair and when he grabbed it, as she’d known he would, she let go suddenly. While he was off balance, she darted forward and hurt him in a very private place.

As he yowled and folded up on the floor, she turned and saw two people standing in the doorway, grinning. Footsteps pounded along the corridor and Ben pushed them aside, stopping to gape at the sight of Phil, still curled up in agony on the floor. ‘Are you all right, Meriel?’

She stepped back and mimed dusting off her hands. ‘He tried to assault me so I had to protect myself. I did warn him to keep away. I’m afraid I’ve hurt him, well, I hope I have. You men have one particular weak spot. His is a little more tender than it was.’

Ben stood glaring down at Hantley. ‘I’d like to punch him.’

The man behind him tried to turn a laugh into a cough but failed. ‘Better not, sir. I’m Detective Constable Paganino, madam, and this is my colleague, Detective Constable Sterran.’ He flashed an identification at Meriel and the woman with him did the same.

She said crisply, ‘We both overheard this man threatening to assault you, and you warning him to stay away. I think we’ll make credible witnesses if he complains, don’t you?’

‘Couldn’t find better.’

Ben dragged her towards him. ‘You are,’ a kiss landed on her nose, ‘the most amazing,’ another kiss landed on her cheek, ‘woman I’ve ever met.’

She had had enough of this pussy-footing around, so she grabbed his head with both hands and pulled his face towards hers for a much more satisfying kiss.

It was interrupted by the female detective clearing her throat rather close to their ears. ‘I wonder if you two could spare me a moment? The original complaint was about an office that had been burgled.’

They turned to look at the woman who had a distinct twinkle in her eyes. ‘Spoilsport,’ Meriel complained.

Ben led them into his office which looked as if a tornado had hit it. ‘I suspect my ex-partner did this.’

‘I deny that absolutely,’ Phil said, still in a rather wheezy voice.

‘We’ll pursue our investigations later, sir,’ the female detective said to Ben. ‘But in the meantime this gentleman will be taken to the police station and questioned about the burglary. You’ll need to make a statement too, Ms Ingram.’

‘I’ll be delighted to.’

When the police officers had left and taken Phil with them, Meriel looked at Ben. ‘I was worried about you for a while back there, Elless.’

‘I was worried about you, too, Ingram. I should have been there to look after you.’

She rolled her eyes at him. ‘Here we go again. Look, Elless, I can deal with a drunk without any help from you. I
don’t – need – protecting.
’

He sighed. ‘It’s going to take me a long time to get used to a wife like you.’ He pulled her towards him with one arm and they began to walk towards the door. ‘So I think I’d better start some intensive training.’

When they were sitting in his car, he looked sideways at her. ‘Right, to get back to my original question – how soon can we get married? You didn’t answer me.’

She took a deep breath. ‘As I said before, I’d rather live together first, see how we go and maybe get married when the time’s ripe to have children. And I’m
not
wearing one of those stupid white dresses when we do it, either.’

His voice was suddenly husky. ‘But you will marry me one day? Promise.’

‘Who else would have you, Elless? Besides, it’s the only way I can keep you safe. And I’m warning you now – you’ll not only have to promise to love me, but to let me vet all your contracts and do all your accounting. I have an idea for getting rid of those developers, too. I’ll need to get Bill Lansome’s help on that. Elless? Are you listening to me?’

He gave her a fond smile. ‘When we’re married, you’ll be an Elless, too, so you’ll have to use my first name.’

‘Oh, no. I definitely won’t be an Elless!’

He stared at her in surprise. ‘What do you mean by that?’

‘You don’t think I’m giving up my name and taking yours, do you?’

‘It’s usual.’

‘Yeah, well, if you insist on us sharing the same name, you can change yours. Ben Ingram sounds fine to me.’

‘Meriel – ’ He broke off and drew in a deep breath. ‘You’re having me on – right?’

‘Not about the name. I’ll seriously consider marrying you, Elless – one day, when we’re ready to start a family – but I’m not changing my name and becoming Mrs Ben Ingram. No way.’

‘We have to have the same name, for our children’s sake.’

‘Hmm. You have a point there. OK, when the time comes we’ll toss for it – Ingram-Elless or Elless-Ingram. They can change their names if they want to when they grow up.’

The argument that ensued was cut short by their arrival back at his house.

‘You know,’ he said suddenly. ‘Once we’ve completed all the necessary formalities, we could drive back to Western Australia. Take a couple of weeks, stop where we like. You could ring up your hippie friends. I’m sure they’d look after things for us.’

‘I’ll think about it. We’ll see how long it takes to sort things out.’

He watched her stretch lazily, her body outlined by the light from the window behind her. ‘If I wasn’t so hungry . . . ’

She grinned at him. ‘Later. I’m hungry too.’

‘The trouble with you, Ingram, is you’ve no romance in your soul.’

‘Are you prepared to go without your food, Elless?’

‘Well, now you put it like that . . . ’

Later, as they lay sleepily entwined, all appetites temporarily satisfied, she remembered something. ‘I’ve got some figures to show you tomorrow. I had an idea while you were away – about our new development.’

‘Are you an artist or an accountant, woman?’ he asked in mock anger.

He’d asked her that before and she’d been unsure of her answer. Now, she had no hesitation in saying firmly, ‘I’m both.’

Which wasn’t a bad thing, she reckoned – especially with a guy like Ben Elless to look after. She snuggled against him, feeling happier than she ever had in her life before.

‘You’re late,’ Ben said thoughtfully. ‘And you’re not usually late starting your period. How long is it overdue now? Two weeks?’

Meriel lay in bed willing herself not to be sick.

A finger poked her in the ribs. ‘Answer me, Ingram!’

‘Yes. I’m late.’

‘And you’ve rushed to the bathroom to be sick the last few mornings, even though you’ve tried to hide that from me.’

‘What are you now, Elless, a detective?’

‘I’m the man who loves you and wants to marry you. The man you’ve been refusing to marry for two whole years.’

She wriggled uncomfortably. ‘There didn’t seem to be any need. I mean – we were happy as we were.’ The wriggle had been a mistake. She groaned, jumped out of bed and rushed into the en suite.

When she came out he was waiting, arms folded. ‘I reckon you’re pregnant.’

‘So, sue me.’ She still felt rather fragile, so walked carefully across to the bed and lay down on it again.

He came to kneel beside her. ‘Would you like a cup of tea, love?’ His voice was gentle.

She looked sideways. ‘Oh hell, Ben, I probably am pregnant – and I’d die for a cup of tea. But no milk. I can’t stand milk at the moment.’

He was back a few minutes later with two mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits. ‘They say a dry biscuit helps settle the stomach.’

She hauled herself into a sitting position and took the mug from him, sipping thankfully, glad of the clean sharp taste. He went round to the other side of the bed and sat next to her. The silence was deafening.

‘So,’ he said when she’d put the cup down and picked up a biscuit, ‘Do you want me to make an honest woman of you or not? Surely you don’t want our child to be born out of wedlock?’