‘He stands to lose so much,’ Selina pushed on, seeing the doubts in Jenna’s eyes. ‘And if he knew about the baby…’
‘Are you telling me you’re pregnant with Alex’s child?’ Jenna asked huskily. There was a long pause.
‘I lost the baby,’ Selina eventually admitted. ‘It was early days. Alex never knew, and I felt I couldn’t say anything after he broke off our engagement.’
‘I’m sorry; I think you should tell him about the baby, and how you feel, and let him decide if he really does want to marry you after all. I certainly wouldn’t stand in his way.’
‘Unfortunately at the moment he’s besotted with you,’ Selina snorted impatiently. ‘Who can underestimate the power of sex? If you were no longer around his fascination with you would soon fade, and to that end I’m prepared to be extremely generous.’
Jenna stared at the open chequebook and her eyes widened. ‘Are you offering to pay me off?’
‘I know that your finances are somewhat…straitened,’ Selina said coolly. ‘I’ll give you one year’s salary if you leave Morrell and Partners by the end of the week. That’ll tide you over until you find another job—preferably on the other side of the world.’
Jenna stood up, her movements carefully controlled as she fought to keep a lid on her temper. ‘Thank you for the offer, Miss Carter-Lloyd, but I’m afraid I must refuse. Surely you can’t want Alex if the only way you can get him to marry you is to bribe the opposition?’
‘You’re making a big mistake,’ Selina hissed furiously, her cheeks flushed with angry colour. ‘Alex will see the error of his ways eventually. You’ll run out of tricks to keep him entertained and he’ll start thinking with his head again, instead of his trousers!’
Her venomous words ran round and round in Jenna’s head as she walked back to the office, and it came as a relief to discover that Alex was in a meeting and would be unavailable for most of the afternoon. She couldn’t face him right now, Jenna thought numbly as she tried to concentrate on her work. He knew her so well he would recognise instantly that something was troubling her, and, being Alex, wouldn’t rest until he had dragged the truth from her.
It was almost five o’clock and she was packing up her work when he came into her office, his heavy frown warning her that he was not in the best of moods.
‘Something’s come up,’ he said without preamble. ‘I can’t take you home tonight.’
‘That’s all right. Some other time, perhaps,’ she murmured, but her answer barely seemed to register, and he disappeared back into his own office with a distracted air.
It was bitterly cold and wet when she stepped out of the office block, and the gaudy brilliance of the Christmas lights seemed to emphasise the gloomy night as she joined the throng of commuters streaming towards the underground station. Christmas was just over a week away, but Jenna had lost all enthusiasm for it, knowing that Maisie would be spending the day with Lee. For her daughter’s sake she would have to try and dredge up some festive spirit—Maisie was already wildly excited, and tonight she had promised that they would decorate the enormous Christmas tree that Chris had only managed to squeeze into the living room after he had lopped six inches off the top.
As she crossed the road a car splashed through a puddle, the wheels throwing a spray of muddy water up the backs of her legs, and she turned to glare at the driver, her heart stopping for several seconds as she recognised Alex, sitting in the back of the Bentley with Selina Carter-Lloyd beside him. The two of them appeared to be deep in conversation, and Jenna shot down the steps leading to the underground station as if the hounds of hell were behind her.
So Selina was the ‘something’ that had cropped up, she surmised bleakly. Would she tell Alex that she had miscarried his child? she wondered. Selina was desperate to win Alex back, and her offer of a bribe to keep Jenna away from him had been hugely insulting, but at the same time her words had been undeniably true. Selina came from Alex’s world. She would make him an ideal wife, and could offer him wealth and, from the sound of it, half of Hampshire. By contrast, all Jenna could offer was a pre-school child, an ex-husband, and the prospect of a bitter legal battle. She didn’t need a financial reward to end her relationship with Alex; for his sake it was simply the right thing to do.
The next day she determined to keep out of Alex’s way as much as possible, but mid-morning he called her into his office, and her heart sank as he requested she close the door behind her.