Cinderella Substitute

The Cinderella Substitute

by Nell Dixon

Moonlit Romance

www.moonlitromance.com

Copyright ©2006 by Nell Dixon

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The Cinderella Substitute

by Nell Dixon

The Cinderella Substitute

by

Nell Dixon

Moonlit Romance Publishing

Rich, Arkansas

Contemporary Romance

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The Cinderella Substitute

by Nell Dixon

For David who always believed in me and Jessica Foote, without whom this book would never have seen the light of day.

The Cinderella Substitute

Copyright 2006 Nell Dixon All Rights Reserved Published by Moonlit Romance Publishing, Rich, Arkansas, USA

All characters and circumstances are the invention of the author. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental.

Moonlit Romance Publishing is a small publisher of quality romance novels, novellas and short stories. Visit us at moonlitromance.com

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CHAPTER ONE

Nate jabbed the buzzer on his desk for the third time.

Where on earth was Jenni?
He paced up and down the room, glaring at the closed office door.

What could be keeping her?
Today of all days he needed to get going, finish up the job in hand and escape. Away from the sympathetic glances of his employees and the murmured conversations which stopped abruptly whenever he came within earshot.

He opened the door to her office and saw her in her usual seat behind the curved ash desk.
So why hadn't she
answered the buzzer?
He crossed the pale green carpet in a couple of paces. As he got closer to her, he knew something was wrong. Her back was towards him and her shoulders quivered.

"Jenni?"

He moved round the desk to take a better look. A pile of post lay unopened in front of her, one envelope still secured in her slim fingers.

"What's the matter? Are you ill?"

Nate couldn't imagine why his super-efficient personal secretary appeared to be having some kind of breakdown.

Jenni never broke down. She had insisted on returning to work after only a few days' leave after her adoptive mother died.

She shook her head and he caught a glimpse of tears on her pale face. For a split second he wondered if Jenni had 5

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developed some kind of sympathy scenario for him based on the office rumour mill. He dismissed that idea as quickly as it had arisen. One of his main reasons for employing Jenni had been her complete lack of interest in gossip and speculation.

"I'm all right." She wiped the tears away from under her glasses with shaking fingers.

Nate sighed. "Well you don't look it," he remarked. In fact, now he came to think of it, Jenni looked positively unwell.

"You're not doing one of those faddy diets?" He hoped he'd hit on the right answer. It had to be something like that.

She blinked with astonishment and glared at him. "No!"

Nate settled back onto the edge of her desk and folded his arms. He'd have to think again now his first theory had been shot out of the water.

"Good. You're skinny enough. In fact, he ran a critical eye over her appearance, "—too skinny." He thought she'd lost a lot of weight, diet or no diet. Her black office suit looked baggy and her small face had a pinched expression.

He felt a momentary pang of guilt
. How come he hadn't
noticed?
He spent more time with Jenni than with any other living creature, except Rufus, his chocolate Labrador.

Inspiration hit as he considered the many late nights and weekends Jenni had put in at the company over the last few weeks.

"Boyfriend trouble?" he suggested, confident that he'd managed to solve the puzzle.

"Nate!" The colour returned to her pale face and her expression assumed the cool blank look she reserved for the most irritating of their clients.

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by Nell Dixon

"So do I get an explanation?" He tapped his foot against the side of the desk as he waited for a response.

"I'm not sure that you do, to be honest," she said, sounding icy. At least she appeared to be returning to her normal, sensible, practical self.

He made a mental note to be more considerate of her social life in future when he asked her to do overtime. Just because work saved him from being alone with his thoughts didn't mean Jenni deserved the same.

"Maybe I'd better deal with the rest of the post and then we can get some work done today." He reached over to take the pile of letters from her lap.

"No!" Her quick snatch took him by surprise. "Erm, that is, I mean..." She extracted the letter that had been uppermost in the pile. "Here you are." She passed the remainder over to him.

"Jenni, what's going on?" Her strange behaviour bothered him.

She hesitated. "I got a letter from my mother."

For a moment he questioned her sanity. Dead people didn't write letters. Then it clicked. "Your birth mother?"

"Remember I asked if it would be all right to use the office address because you said not to use my own?"

It came back to him then, a late night conversation after work when Jenni had asked his advice about contacting her real mother.

"She wrote back to you?"

"I sent a letter with a self-addressed envelope. I thought it would make her more likely to respond." Her hands trembled 7

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as she smoothed the envelope. "I recognised it when I fetched the mail."

"You haven't opened it."

She licked her lips and with a desultory shrug of her shoulders said, "I was scared. What if she doesn't want to know me?"

An overwhelming rush of pity surged through Nate. He knew from little things she had mentioned that she'd had a tough life, and she had been on her own since her adoptive parents had died .

"Do you want me to open it?" He made the offer before he had time to think.

"I..." She hovered for a moment, and then pushed the envelope towards him. "Okay."

He ripped it open and thought at first the woman had merely mailed back Jenni's original letter. Then, as he flipped it over, he saw the short note scribbled on the back in unformed child-like scrawl.

"What's the matter? What does it say?" Jenni's slender frame trembled and her face paled even further.

He spoke quickly to reassure her. "It's all right. She wants to meet you." He passed the letter over.

Jenni read it through, then glanced up at him with a worried expression. "Tomorrow. She wants to meet me tomorrow."

"Do you know the café she's talking about?" Nate was deeply concerned. The hasty scrawl didn't smack of a mother desperate to make a good impression on a daughter she hadn't seen in years.

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"I think so. It's on the other side of town. Near where the new ring road is being built." She still looked shell-shocked as she studied her mother's handwriting as if it would yield some hidden message.

He knew the area she meant. The buildings appeared rundown and gangs of youths hung around on the street corners.

Many of the shops had been boarded over as once thriving businesses had closed down.

"I'm coming with you tomorrow." He noted Jenni looked stunned rather than grateful.

"That's very kind of you, Nate, but I'll be fine," she stammered. "It's nice of you to offer though."

"It wasn't a suggestion, Jen. I'm coming with you. It's a bad area. There have been a lot of muggings around that part of town." He couldn't let her go on her own.

"It's Saturday tomorrow, Nate. You can't give up your day off just for me." A pretty pink flush tinted her cheekbones and her eyes shone. Jenni had nice eyes. Very nice eyes. What was the matter with him today? He'd seen Jenni's eyes a thousand times before, hadn't he?

"Really, it's no big deal. I haven't anything planned and you've done me loads of favours. Think of it as me paying you back a little." He shuffled uneasily on the hard edge of the desk while Jenni continued to study his face.

She smiled at him, taking him by surprise.

"Well thanks anyway, Nate. It's really nice of you and I do appreciate it.

* * * *

The Cinderella Substitute

by Nell Dixon

After Nate had departed to his own office, Jenni stashed her precious letter away inside her handbag, and made sure the fastener of the inner pocket was locked shut.

Why had she become so emotional over that letter?
Nate must think she was such an idiot. Still, it was hard not to feel rattled when he had sat himself in front of her like a big brooding colossus! Interrogating her on her diet and her love life!
What love life?
asked the little voice in her brain.
The
only guy who's interested in you is the Fed Ex man and he
must be fifty!

Jenni sighed as she crossed the room to switch the coffee machine on. She twitched her skirt back into position. She
had
lost weight. The stupid thing had twisted around on her again. Maybe she should do as her friend Lorna suggested and break into her precious savings for a new outfit.

The phone on her desk rang, making her switch her mind back on to work as she walked over to answer it. Jenni felt sure Nate wasn't in the mood today for his twin sister's well-intentioned concern as she transferred the call to his phone.

Nathalie often called the office as she appeared to be close to her brother, but today wasn't any ordinary day.

Sure enough, a few minutes later the door of his office flew open. He stalked out, pulling on his jacket as he walked.

"Jenni, get your coat! We're going on a site visit."

She grabbed her handbag ready to shove her notebook and Dictaphone into the side pocket. "Where are we going?"

"River Park. Anywhere, as long as I'm away from interfering..." he broke off, still muttering.

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She pulled her coat on hurriedly and followed as he strode down the cream walled corridor to the lift.

Only when they were several miles away from the office did Nate appear to relax. Jenni ventured a cautious peek. His shoulders had slumped and although his mouth was still set, the lines of his face appeared less harsh.

A pang of sadness pierced her heart. He must have loved Cerys very much. Two years had passed since the accident and he still grieved. Wistfully she allowed herself the luxury of wondering what it must be like to be loved so much.

The car slowed and stopped at traffic lights. Jenni noticed the name on the street opposite.

"That's the Café!" The words jolted out of her mouth before she had time to think.

It wasn't a cosy tearoom with chintz-covered tables.

Layers of road dirt partly obscured the glass window at the front and a cracked, gaudy neon sign hung above the door.

Inside the gloomy interior, Jenni could just see the fat red and yellow plastic condiment containers on the brown table tops.

"That's where your mother wants to meet you?" Nate's voice was curiously gentle. Jenni blinked back tears for the second time in one day.

"Afraid so." To her dismay, her voice sounded brittle. She was relieved when the lights changed and the car moved forward.

She tried to picture herself and Nate entering the grubby little café, but failed miserably. If she were on her own maybe no one would notice her, but with Nate? She fiddled with the 11