Marriage Without Love & More Than a Convenient Marriage(21)

‘Thank goodness he didn’t wake up earlier,’ she added on a shudder.

‘Perhaps it would have been better if he had done,’ Gina said softly. ‘He needs his father, Briony.’

It was no longer ‘a’ father, but ‘his’ father, Briony noted bitterly as she left.

* * *

That was the third letter she had had to re-type this morning, Briony thought tiredly as she pulled it out of her machine.

Kieron was in a savagely critical mood, which seemed to intensify with every passing day. He kept her working late almost every night and if was often way past Nicky’s bedtime when she got home. She had been scouring the papers for another job, but there had been nothing. Hardly a day went by without Kieron making some caustic comment about her relationship with Matt. He had found Matt in her office one lunchtime, bursting in on them in a furious temper and demanding that Matt left her alone to get on with her work. It had been on the tip of her tongue to remind him that it was her lunch hour, but the atmosphere between them was so tensely inflammable that she had thought better of it. Time enough to tell him what she thought of him, if and when she got another job.

At the moment he was absent from the office. There had been a question of libel over an article they had printed—the nightmare of every editor, and he was down with the sub-editor of Features talking about it. The heat which seemed to hang over the city in a pall, combined with the long hours she was working, was leaving Briony feeling limp and drained. Gina complained that she did not eat properly, and Briony knew that her accusations were well founded. Since Kieron had arrived her appetite had diminished, and besides, with all the work she had to do, there simply wasn’t time to eat. It had occurred to her that he was deliberately driving her hard, hoping that she would break, and this knowledge only strengthened her resolve not to give in.

The phone rang and she reached for it listlessly, her face paling as she heard Paolo’s anxious voice. At first she didn’t understand what he was trying to tell her, and then when she did, she dropped the receiver with a low moan, covering her face with trembling hands, trying to comprehend what had happened. The outer office door suddenly swung open and Kieron strode in, his eyes fastening on her shocked face and the dangling receiver.

‘What the hell’s going on?’ he bit out, reaching for the phone.

Briony snatched feverishly for her handbag, getting unsteadily to her feet.

‘I’ve got to go out.…’ She was trembling with pain and fright, her eyes cloudy and vague, unaware of who was with her or even where she was.

‘Sit down,’ Kieron commanded curtly, pushing her back into her chair, but she struggled to sit up, her face white and drawn.

‘I’ve got to go,’ she said unsteadily. ‘Nicky needs me,’ and to her horror tears filled her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. The receiver was emitting anxious noises and Kieron spoke into it, frowning heavily.

‘Blake here,’ he said tersely. ‘What.…Paolo?’ He stared at Briony, obviously listening intently. ‘Okay, leave everything to me,’ he said coolly. ‘Which hospital?’

‘So Nicky’s your son?’ he said grimly when he had replaced the receiver. ‘God, no wonder you didn’t want Matt to go back to his wife! Why the hell doesn’t he stop shilly-shallying and make up his mind which one of you he wants?’

Briony barely heard him. Since Paolo had told her that Nicky was in hospital there hadn’t been room for anything but her son in her mind. She had always known something like this would happen, she thought in anguish, unable to bear the thought of Nicky, ill and in pain and crying for her.

‘I must go,’ she muttered, pushing past Kieron.

‘Just like that?’

She stared at him, his features slowly coming into focus. Like someone in a dream she said slowly, ‘I’ve done your letters.’

‘To hell with the letters!’ Kieron swore viciously. ‘Have you rung for a taxi?’

She shook her head and he swore again, picking up the phone and dialling a number forcefully. He said something into the receiver and then hung up, grasping Briony’s arm.

‘My car’s outside. Come on.’

‘I don’t want you.’

She spoke the words from a mind cloudy with pain, pulling back as he ushered her through the door.

‘Don’t be so damned stupid,’ Kieron said curtly. ‘Your child’s in hospital. All that matters is that you get to him as quickly as possible—or would you prefer me to send for Matt?’

When she said nothing he bundled her out of the room impatiently, stopping at the reception desk to say that he was going out.