Daniel's Bride (18 page)

“Barnaby could have stepped inside, thinking he was going
out again for a walk. The old lady had pressed the button, and the lift went
down.”

“So we must have just missed him. Barnaby might have been…”
She couldn’t bring herself to say the words. He could have been mere metres
away. They might have passed him in the street and not been aware of him.
Because they “knew” he was upstairs, safe and sound, in the apartment.

“Then that makes the time that he went out…” She mentally
backtracked and felt sick. “Nearly three hours ago.”

Daniel grabbed his keys and Mel grabbed his leash and bag of
dog biscuits. “He can’t have gone far with those short legs,” she told him,
hoping her voice sounded more reassuring than she felt.

Daniel didn’t answer. His body language said it all. His
face grim, his body taut, his eyes harder than she’d ever seen them. This was
Sydney. A city of four million people. Panic slapped her hard. And one little
dog wandering the streets would barely be noticed.

The late afternoon rapidly turned to evening, then night,
and even as darkness descended, they couldn’t bring themselves to stop searching.
They phoned authorities to check if a Jack Russell had been reported missing,
drove to his usual walk spots, split up with the dog biscuits to comb the
streets. But no one had seen him.

Back in the car, the darkness intensified the impossibility
of finding him. Mel turned to Daniel. In the mottled light, his face was a mask
of grief. “Would he have tried to go home to Sir Arthur’s house?”

Daniel frowned. “It’s too far. He’d never make it. He
wouldn’t know the way.”

But he shoved the car into gear, and with a piercing screech
of wheels, they headed away to Sir Arthur’s house.

When they arrived, the mansion was cloaked in darkness,
except for the lights of the top floor apartment where the housekeeper and her
groundsman husband lived.

Daniel handed Mel his phone. “Press autodial five. It’s the
staff residence. Tell them why we’re here.”

She spoke to the housekeeper and by the time the car pulled
up to the house, lights flooded the grounds.

They searched, calling and combing the section, torchlight
illuminating areas the floodlights failed to find, but there was nothing.
Nothing at all to indicate just where Sir Arthur’s beloved companion had gone.

Daniel caught a cab back to the hospital and Mel spent the
night in turmoil. Barnaby.
Where was he?
Was he sleeping under a bush,
cold and lonely and tired and lost? Or had kind people found him and taken him
in, and would report him in the morning? He had a collar, and on the collar a
disc with Sir Arthur’s phone number. And he was micro-chipped. If he was found.

She wrapped her arms around herself at a sudden blast of
cold air through the open window. Did Daniel blame her for Barnaby running
away? If she hadn’t been late getting ready for the hospital, they’d have left
Barnaby safely chomping on his dog biscuits while they’d driven away. Was it
her fault this had happened?

In one way, she had to admit it was. But she suspected
Daniel blamed himself more. He was the one who had left the door unattended.

Her heart ached to comfort him.

She loved him.

Mel climbed into bed, and punched the pillows before she lay
down with a heavy sigh. Even though she was tired, her mind continued to race.

She thought of her father. Ellie had worked for him as his
secretary, and she had loved him for years. He’d been married although at first
he’d led Ellie to believe he was leaving his wife. But he hadn’t, and years and
years went by and even when she fell pregnant with an unplanned baby, it had
made no difference. He had been stringing her along, playing on her love for
him, and now she was left to raise a child on her own.

Mel swung around to lie on her back, and reached up to touch
the pendant. Ellie had sacrificed so much and she had coped with everything
life had thrown her, and it had thrown her more than her share and she’d learnt
to live with it.

But Mel knew there was one thing her mother could never live
with – that Mel had made a sacrifice for her. Ellie Green would never get over
the guilt that Mel had married a stranger for money and even more, was getting her
heart broken in the process.

Mel finally fell asleep and awoke again around six. She’d
left her door partially open, and she could make out noise in Daniel’s suite,
and then the sound of running water. Later, there was noise in the kitchen.
Then nothing.

She drifted back to sleep and woke with a jolt around eight.

Groggily, she went to the bathroom and in front of the
mirror she blinked rapidly to clear her eyes. She stared at herself. Dark
shadows lay beneath her eyes, and there were lines on her face that hadn’t been
there a week ago.

Dear Lord, they cannot have lost Barnaby. She brushed her
teeth furiously, scrubbing hard to atone for his disappearance. While Arthur
lay unconscious in a hospital bed, they cannot have been careless enough to
lose Barnaby, too.

She showered quickly, anxious not to waste a minute more of
precious time. She would look for Barnaby and she would find him if it took all
day. He’d be scared, lost, starving. She’d have posters made. Call radio
stations.

She dressed, went down to the kitchen and on the counter saw
a note. Slowly, she picked it up.

He’d scribbled along the top 6.20am.

She drew in a long, shaky breath, and blinked back a sudden
rush of tears at the words of the short crisp message. Sir Arthur had passed away.

Mel called the office to find Daniel was not taking calls. A
flustered Nora told her Mr Christie would not be available for the remainder of
the week, but she should try Human Resources if she wanted a job, and honestly,
to ring the CEO was extremely inappropriate. Mel dialled his mobile and heard
it go straight to voice mail. When the beep sounded, she hesitated. It was
wrong to leave a message at a moment like this, it was so impersonal.

“I saw the note about Sir Arthur,” she began, and mentally
kicked herself. This was as bad as when Max texted her to tell her it was over.
“If there’s anything I can do to help… I mean, I’m sorry…” She grimaced at the
feeble platitude. “Let me know,” she went on. “I’m not sure if I should come in
to the office, I mean I can’t, can I. No one knows we’re married. ” She
massaged her forehead. She needed to get out of this painlessly now. “I’m going
out to look for Barnaby some more.” She stopped. Winced. “Bye,” she said, and
disconnected the call.

Mel grabbed her bag and phone, and got to work searching for
Barnaby. She rang animal shelters, pet stores and vets, but no one had found a
Jack Russell Terrier. She showed people photos of Barnaby on her phone but he
looked just like any other terrier.

In the early afternoon, she drove back to the apartment, and
sat outside on the balcony with the views towards the ocean, and eat a
sandwich. The complex was eerily silent. Daniel’s neighbours were all
professionals; many of them worked overseas and only used the apartment as a
base for trips home.

The silence was deafening, loneliness crowded in around her
and dejection sat like lead in her stomach. Barnaby was lost and Sir Arthur, a
man she had grown to love as if he were her own grandfather, had gone. And it
was over between her and Daniel. She didn’t need to be here anymore.

She closed her eyes against a sudden dazzling glare of sun.
As crazy as it had been, the plan had worked. Sir Arthur had died a happy man.
He believed Mel would produce heirs and had told her he’d be thrilled if their
first boy was named William, after his father. William Arthur Daniel, she’d
promised, and he’d smiled, such a smile it brought tears to her eyes. Now
Daniel would focus on his brothers, and try and get them back in the country,
and try and get them the help they needed. And no one beyond a small handful of
people would ever know that Melinda Green had, for a few months, been the wife
of one of Sydney’s most eligible bachelors.

Another thought struck her and settled over her like a chill
the heat couldn’t get through. There were arrangements to be made for Sir
Arthur’s funeral, and the last thing Daniel would need was a soon-to-be-ex-wife
dragging him down.

Maybe he wanted her out right now.

She took her plate to the kitchen, stood there a moment, and
debated what to do. They hadn’t discussed this aspect of it; it had been too
painful. She really needed to speak to him but she didn’t want to leave
messages or speak on the phone. She needed to see him in person. Did he want
her out now? Was he expecting to arrive home, hoping to find every trace of her
gone?

She changed into a floral skirt and white top, grabbed her
shoulder bag, and caught the train in to town.

At Circular Quay, she headed up the elevators to road level
and wasted no time walking to the Christie Building. At the front doors, she
was nearly bowled over by an unrepentant courier rushing past with flowers.
Several others hurried out of the building and inside, the foyer buzzed with
activity. Extra security had been placed at the door, and floral tributes
overflowed the reception desk, with more on the floor to one side. It already
smelt like a florist. She noticed reporters standing by with notebooks, their
eyes hungrily watching everyone coming and leaving. They glanced at her
dismissively before searching out people more famous, more interesting.

There were extra staff on reception, she observed, and
nerves hit her as she approached the counter.

She was dismissed almost instantly.

“I’m sorry, but you don’t have an appointment. You need to
call HR yourself. There has been a tragedy in the company and everyone is flat
out.” The receptionist practically threw her a business card for Human
Resources and flustered, answered a call through her headset.

Mel moved away to the side as another bouquet of flowers
arrived. A TV crew had assembled on the footpath with a well-known business
reporter clutching a microphone.

She clenched her fists in frustration. Why was it so
impossible to get hold of Daniel? She tried the cell, but it still went to
voice mail. She rang his DDI but a very irate Nora promptly transferred her
back to reception again. Mel's frustration grew. She was married to the CEO but
she was nothing. She shook her head at the irony and tried Hugh. No response.

She glanced over at the reception desk. One of the women
gave her a suspicious look then took a bouquet from another delivery man.

To her right, the lift opened and a staff member hurried
out.

Mel stared, her mind ticking over, and then quickly checked
her wallet. Buried beneath the department store loyalty cards and
buy-ten-get-one-free coffee cards, was her swipe card. She’d used it to get to
the top floor the week she had worked here. Only a handful of people possessed
one. Although it might, she thought warily, have been de-activated.

And there’s only one way to find out. The receptionists were
overwhelmed with inquiries, so she walked quickly to the lift, stepped inside
the open car, held her breath as she pressed the button for the top floor, and
swiped her card across the panel.

The red light changed to green, the doors closed, and the
lift ascended on a whoosh.

At the top floor, she stepped out on to the plush carpet.
Had it really only been a few months ago that she’d come here, filled with
optimism, thinking she was here for a temporary job, hoping it might lead to
something permanent?

She rapped her knuckles on the door and pushed it open.

Nora sat at the computer, typing flat out. Her eyes widened in
shock. “Mel, you don’t work here anymore, I’ve told you, you can’t-”

Mel pushed open the door to Daniel’s office and stepped
inside.

He sat behind the desk, the phone to his ear, but his eyes
zeroed in on her straight away. Thank goodness he was there.

“Mr Christie, I couldn’t stop her, she just barged in,” Nora
accused.

Daniel waved her away. “It’s okay Nora, I’ll talk to Mel.
Please close the door behind you.”

Nora hesitated, then shut the door swiftly behind her. The
nerves in Mel’s stomach compounded and Daniel terminated the call.

“I got your message,” he said without looking at her.

“I’m sorry it was so lame.” She raised her shoulders
helplessly. “I didn’t know what else to say.”

Finally he turned to look at her. His expression was oddly
remote, as if he had cut himself off from his emotions to focus on all the work
that needed to be done here. “Did you find Barnaby?”

 “No.” The sadness had settled permanently in her
stomach. “I spent hours this morning but no one’s seen him.”

“Then you're not here about Barnaby.”

She’d made a big mistake coming here now. The thought hit
her but it was too late. She should have waited, should have at least stayed
away until after the funeral. She was the least of his concerns at this time.
She cleared her throat. "Actually…" She managed an apologetic smile.
“It was a mistake coming here right now and I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was
thinking. I couldn’t get hold of you and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
That was true.

“I know what you’re thinking, Mel.” The silver in his eyes
had suddenly deepened. “You wondered where the cheque was.”

Dismayed, she took a step backwards. "No. Of course, I
didn't. I’ve been trying to get hold of you but your phone goes to voice mail
and no one at your company would put me through."

With barely a move, he reached into the drawer of his desk
and pulled out an envelope. He slid it across the polished wooden top. “It’s a
bank cheque. It will be cleared instantly. I’d appreciate it if you looked at
it before you leave.”