Christmas Nights (38 page)

As he quickly assimilated the information Heaven had just given him, Jon recognised that she had unwittingly given him the very tool he needed to pressure Harold into giving his sister a much fairer financial
settlement; he also recognised that Harold had perhaps guessed all along just why he, Jon had publicly appeared to take his side.

No mention of Harold’s plans to withhold the new patent, or even a whisper of their existence, had been included in the information Jon had been given about the deal, which would have meant that had he even the smallest part in helping to draw up any kind of sale contract his reputation would have been destroyed in much the same way and just as effectively as Heaven’s had been once the Americans discovered how Harold had cheated them.

But also, and right now far more importantly, once Harold realised who his cook for the evening had been, and if he discovered just how much Tiffany had told her about his business affairs, Heaven herself could be in grave danger.

Quickly he came to a decision. As luck had it he had called at the petrol station on his way out and filled the car up, so he had enough fuel to get most of the way to the Borders before having to stop…

Now that she was over the initial shock of having him walk into Harold’s kitchen, and her fear that Harold might discover her presence there, Heaven was growing tense, increasingly aware of the danger of her remaining in Jon’s presence for a single second longer than necessary. That kiss he had given her in the kitchen had proved more than well enough to her, thank you very much, just how femininely vulnerable she still was to him.

‘You can drop me here,’ she announced determinedly, reaching for the door handle as Jon stopped
for the lights and then frowning as she discovered that the door was locked.

‘Jon,’ she started to protest as the lights changed and the car moved away, her initial irritation giving way to disbelief as Jon swiftly changed lanes and she saw the road sign up ahead of them indicating the distance to the M25.

‘Jon,’ she protested this time more forcefully. ‘I want to get out…’

‘You can’t,’ he told her promptly, adding dryly, ‘Not in the middle of the traffic.’

‘Then pull over to the side,’ Heaven insisted irritably. ‘I—’

But instead of obeying her Jon changed gear and the car picked up speed as the traffic opened up ahead of them and they started to leave the congested heart of the city behind them.

‘I want to go home,’ Heaven told him angrily, ‘and I—’

‘Really…? It won’t take long for Harold to track you down, you know,’ he warned her grimly.

‘Harold doesn’t know it was me,’ Heaven shot back. ‘Tiffany found me in the classified ads: “Mrs

Tiggywinkle’s figgy puddings”…’

‘Maybe she did, Mrs Tiggywinkle, but I noticed she referred to you as Heaven and it isn’t the most common of Christian names, is it?’

Heaven bit her lip. She had forgotten about that, deeming it unimportant in the heat of her determination to pay Harold back for the damage he had inflicted on her.

‘No doubt you gave Tiffany your telephone number, where she could reach you even if you didn’t give her
your actual address,’ Jon continued remorsefully. ‘As I said, it won’t take a man like Harold long to track you down, Heaven, and when he does…’

‘He won’t be in any state to think about tracking me down for at least twenty-four hours.’ Heaven retaliated spiritedly, but in truth Jon’s warning had made her stomach muscles clench in nervous fear.

‘I’ll bet you haven’t even given a thought to the outcome of your little piece of culinary engineering, have you?’ Jon demanded scornfully. ‘Harold isn’t the kind of man to grin and bear it, Heaven; you should know that already,’ Jon reminded her.

‘In view of the fact that you have such a low opinion of him I’m surprised that you’re working for him,’ Heaven shot back, determined not to let him get the better of her, too engrossed in her argument with him to realise that they were now on the M25 and heading north, the large Jaguar picking up speed under Jon’s expert touch.

Jon was aware of it, though. Hopefully he could keep her occupied… talking… arguing… until they were far enough away from the city for her to accept what he was planning to do…

The car’s speedometer crept upwards and he thanked the fates that the road was relatively quiet and empty of other traffic.

‘The reason I’m working for him, as you put it, has nothing to do with any fellow feeling for him,’ he told her grimly. ‘Far from it.’

‘No? You’re just earning your living, is that it?’ Heaven demanded scathingly. ‘What about your sister? What about Louisa?’

‘It’s because of Louisa that I’m doing this,’ Jon returned curtly. ‘Heaven…’

‘I don’t want to hear any more. In fact, what I want right now is for you to stop this car and let me out… At once… Immediately!’

‘Heaven, listen to me…’

‘No. I don’t want to hear another word,’ Heaven told him fiercely, lifting her hands to cover her ears.

‘Heaven, this is important dammit,’ Jon told her grittily. ‘I’ve spent months trying to get Harold’s confidence so that I can find out how he managed to conceal his financial assets and persuade the divorce judge that he couldn’t afford to give Louisa and the girls a decent settlement. Months…’ he stressed as Heaven slowly uncovered her ears and looked uncertainly at him.

‘Why should I believe you?’ she asked him flatly. ‘You might just be trying… You’re Harold’s business advisor; Tiffany told me so.’

‘I was, you mean,’ Jon told her grimly. ‘Once Harold realises that you were the one who fed them that appalling concoction—and he will find out—and he realises that I concealed the fact—and you—from him, I doubt he’s going to have a lot of faith left in my loyalty, don’t you?’

‘So why did you do it?’ Heaven asked him slowly. ‘Why did you protect me from him?’

‘I’m going to have to claim the fifth amendment on that one,’ Jon told her forthrightly. ‘At least for the time being.

‘Heaven, you said something earlier about some new software Harold is planning—’

He broke off as Heaven’s eyes suddenly widened as she caught sight of the motorway sign ahead of them.
She turned furiously towards him, demanding, ‘That said “North”. North where? Where are you taking me, Jon?’

‘To the Borders,’ he told her quietly.

‘The Borders? What Borders?’

‘The Scottish Borders. I’ve got a property up there and I—’

‘You can’t be serious,’ Heaven interrupted him again. ‘I just don’t believe this. Pull over and stop this car immediately, otherwise I’ll…’

‘You’ll what?’ he asked her dryly. ‘You can’t get out. I’ve activated the central locking system.’

‘I don’t believe this… This is… this is kidnap,’ Heaven told him wildly. ‘This is…’

‘The safest precautionary measure I could come up with,’ Jon intervened grimly.

Precautionary measure… Heaven’s throat had suddenly gone very tight. Her lips felt dry. She touched them nervously with the tip of her tongue and then wished she hadn’t as she saw a sudden certain male gleam flicker in Jon’s eyes.

‘Yes… precautionary measure,’ Jon repeated, ‘for both of us. Once Harold discovers that you and Tiffany talked about far more than recipes—and, again, he will—you are going to be in very grave danger. Anyone who has the kind of information you have is going to be in danger, at least until after he’s got those contracts safely signed.

‘I’ve no doubt that Harold thought he was being extremely clever, planning to get the contracts signed before Christmas and then having the new patent come into effect with the new year, but what he hadn’t bargained for was you and the fact that your figgy pudding
will mean that the Americans aren’t going to be in any fit state to sign anything for several days. It’s probably too late now for him to stop that patent going through and until he gets those contracts signed he’s going to be in a very, very vulnerable position. The first thing he’s going to want to do is to make sure you can’t use the information that Tiffany has given you.’

Despite the heat inside the car Heaven had started to shiver.

‘I know that you are deliberately trying to frighten me,’ she warned him. ‘You’re just exaggerating… Harold wouldn’t—

Abruptly she stopped.

‘Harold would,’ he told her softly, and as she looked across at him Heaven knew that the knowledge that what he had just said was true showed in her eyes, and with it her growing apprehension.

‘Perhaps what I’ve done is rather dramatic,’ Jon acknowledged, ‘but it seemed the best solution for both of us, given the short time I had in which to make a decision.

‘Harold’s possibly forgotten that I own property in the north and being there will provide you with a safe haven and give me the chance to use the information you’ve given me to force Harold into giving Louisa the money she’s entitled to…’

‘Aren’t you afraid he might try to retaliate? To…?’ She stopped and shivered again.

‘To what?’ Jon asked her softly. ‘To ruin my reputation the way he did yours? Well, I suspect he was intending to do that anyway, but thanks to you that won’t now be possible. I know that taking you off like this must seem a trifle dramatic, but believe me, Heaven,
I am not in any way overdramatising when I say that you will be much safer somewhere where Harold can’t find you.

‘Is there any problem about you being away from home?’ he asked her carefully. ‘A friend… a lover who might—?’

Quickly Heaven shook her head.

‘No. There’s nothing… no one like that. My parents are in Australia with my brother and—’

‘You were going to be on your own over Christmas?’

Heaven’s vulnerable heart gave a small treacherous leap at that past tense ‘were’.

‘I… I was invited to join a friend and her family but…’ She took a deep breath. ‘What about you? Was Louisa…? Were you…?’

‘Louisa is taking the children to stay with our parents,’ Jon told her, shaking his head as he added, ‘I did have the option of joining a party of friends who are going skiing but a telephone call is all it will take to notify them that I shan’t be going.’

‘But surely all this will be over by Christmas?’ Heaven pointed out, suddenly panicking at the thought of having to spend several days with him.

‘Perhaps, but not necessarily, and you have to remember that it’s going to be quite some time before Harold forgets the part you’ve played in ruining his plans to cheat the Americans. Although, with a bit of luck, he should have rather more on his mind than pursuing you.’

‘Quite some time… How… how long?’ Heaven asked him dry-mouthed.

‘It’s hard to say,’ Jon told her seriously, but inwardly he was feeling far more light-hearted than he looked
and than the situation warranted because, if anything, he had played down rather than over-emphasised the danger they were both potentially in.

‘What about Tiffany?’ Heaven queried, suddenly remembering the other girl. ‘Won’t Harold…?’

‘Harold won’t be able to do anything to harm or hurt Tiffany. I happen to know that her mummy and daddy are very protective of their precious little chick and none too happy about losing her to Harold.’

‘But I can’t stay with you… I… I don’t have any clothes…’

For the first time since their journey had started Heaven saw Jon smile.

‘No! What a pity,’ he drawled teasingly. ‘That means…’

The look he gave her made Heaven turn crimson from the tips of her ears all the way down to her toes. Toes which curled up in her shoes with something that was very, very different from the self-conscious embarrassment burning her skin.

‘Well, I’m sure we can remedy that. We’re not far from the nearest town.’

‘But I can’t go out and buy a new wardrobe just like that,’ Heaven protested. ‘For a start I haven’t—’

She stopped, closing her lips over the admission she had been about to make. But Jon had obviously guessed what she had been about to say as he finished her sentence for her by saying, ‘You can’t afford it. Did Harold pay you for the dinner?’

‘No.’ Heaven shook her head.

‘Well, then as his business advisor I strongly suggest that you write to him in strong terms demanding payment,
and in the meantime I will be more than happy to make you a small loan against that payment.’

Heaven was not so easily gulled.

‘He won’t pay me,’ she told Jon positively.

Jon was equally positive back.

‘Oh, yes, he will,’ he told her softly. ‘I shall make sure of that! I’ve spent months searching for a way to force him to make a decent settlement on Louisa and the girls but he’s kept on claiming that the business is losing money even though it’s been perfectly obvious that he’s lying, that that sleazy accountant he employs has no doubt siphoned off all the assets to some dubious off-shore tax haven. He’s even threatening to stop paying the girls’ school fees.’

‘What makes a person like that? So mean and… and horrid,’ Heaven wondered out loud, adding, ‘He’s even kept the dining-room furniture that Louisa was given by your parents.’

‘Yes, I know,’ Jon agreed, his mouth growing grim. ‘And thank you for reminding me of that, Heaven. That’s something else to put on the list.’

‘What will you do?’ Heaven asked him uncertainly. ‘You’re not going to let him cheat the Americans, are you? I mean…’

‘Oh—’ Jon shook his head ‘—the most he can expect from that is I keep quiet about the potential fraud he was planning to enact; the price for my keeping quiet will be Louisa’s settlement and the sale of the company with all its software.

‘We have very strong fraud laws in this country and so do the Americans. If what he was planning to do becomes public it won’t just be his reputation he’ll lose
and somehow I can’t see Harold settling happily into prison life.’

‘Prison…’ Heaven’s eyes widened.

‘Now you see why I’m so concerned for your safety,’ Jon pointed out to her.

‘What about yours?’ Heaven challenged.

‘Oh, I shall be safe enough,’ he assured her.

‘The Borders,’ Heaven murmured sleepily, smothering a yawn as the events of the evening began to catch up on her. ‘That sounds so romantic…’

Her eyes were already starting to close so she didn’t see the look that Jon gave her, but she did hear the softly sensual note in his voice as he told her, ‘Then we shall have to see if we can’t make them live up to your image, shan’t we?’