City Cinderella

She realized too late that she had nowhere to go. Lucas had backed her up against the bed, the edge of which fitted nicely behind her knees. If he moved only a fraction, she would fall. She shivered as she pictured all too vividly what might come next.

“Just a kiss, Emily,” he whispered. “As thanks for the flowers, or good-night, or whatever reason suits you best—”

At the first touch of his lips on hers, Emily’s legs buckled. She sat abruptly on the bed, and Lucas fell to his knees beside her, hauling her against his chest to kiss her with such force and hunger she yielded to him, powerless to control her response.

“You see what you reduce me to?” he demanded roughly, raising his head a fraction. “Does it give you a kick to see me on my knees?”

CATHERINE GEORGE was born in Wales and early in life developed a passion for reading that eventually fueled her compulsion to write. Marriage to an engineer led to nine years in Brazil, but on his later travels the education of her son and daughter kept her in the U.K. And instead of constant reading to pass her lonely evenings, she began to write the first of her romantic novels. When not writing and reading she loves to cook, listen to opera, browse in antique shops and walk the Labrador.

City Cinderella

Catherine George

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER ONE

THE wind from the Thames came whistling up the cobbled street as he paid off the taxi. Aching in every bone, he hurried into the building and leaned against the wall in the lift, cursing the virus that had finally caught up with him. On the top floor he heaved himself upright when the doors opened, and with a groan of relief at the prospect of warmth let himself into the loft apartment he called home. He shrugged off his overcoat, dumped his briefcase on the pile of mail on the military chest in the hall, and, desperate for hot coffee with a slug of Scotch in it, opened the kitchen door. And stood rooted to the spot.

The kitchen’s stainless steel and granite was immaculate, as expected. But it was occupied. A young woman he’d never seen in his life sat on one of the retro-style stools at his breakfast bar, tapping away at a laptop, her concentration so intense she had no idea he was there.

Before he could demand an explanation his sudden, hacking cough brought the stranger’s head swivelling round, her eyes wide in utter dismay as she slid to her feet to face him.

‘Mr Tennent?’ she said at last, in a surprisingly deep, husky voice for someone only an inch or so over five feet. ‘I do apologise. This is the very first time, I swear.’

Lucas Tennent remained standing in the doorway, staring at her blankly, his thought processes blunted by the dull pounding in his head. ‘The first time for what? Who the devil are you?’

‘I’m your cleaner.’

He blinked. ‘My cleaner?’

She nodded, flushing. ‘Thank you for the cheque you left for me today—unless you’d like it back now.’

‘Why the hell should I want it back?’ he said irritably, grappling with the fact that this was the E Warner who kept his flat in mint condition. Not elderly and aproned, but young, in jeans and skimpy sweatshirt, with soot-black curling hair skewered up in an untidy knot.

‘Mr Tennent,’ she said after a moment, eyeing him closely. ‘You don’t look at all well.’

‘I feel bloody awful,’ he snapped. ‘But keep to the point. Explain about the laptop.’

‘I was using my batteries, not your electricity,’ she said defensively.

‘My sole interest, of course,’ he said with blighting sarcasm. ‘Tell me what you were doing.’

Her jaw set. ‘I’d rather not do that.’

‘Tell me just the same,’ he said relentlessly.

‘Nothing criminal, Mr Tennent,’ she said with hauteur. ‘I’m—doing a correspondence course.’

‘So where do you normally work on it?’

‘In my room. But this week it’s half-term. At the moment peace and quiet are in short supply where I live. So I did some work here today. But only after I finished your cleaning,’ she assured him.

‘Sorry I came home early to spoil your fun—’ he began, the rest of his words engulfed in a sudden spasm of coughing. To his surprise, he was gently taken by the arm and led towards the breakfast bar.

‘Sit there for a moment, Mr Tennent,’ she said with sympathy. ‘Do you have any medication?’

He shook his head, gasping for breath as he subsided on a stool. ‘No. I just need coffee. Make me some and I’ll double your money.’

She gave him a withering look and turned on her heel, presenting a back view rigid with offence while she dealt with the machine guaranteed to turn beans into coffee at top speed. Lucas sat silent, chin on hands, diverted from the thumping in his head by the sight of E Warner tugging her sweatshirt down to cover an inch of bare midriff as she put her laptop to sleep and closed it before pouring the coffee.

‘When I came in I thought I was hallucinating, Ms Warner,’ he remarked eventually, as the scent of his best Blue Mountain filled the air. ‘But a laptop seemed an unlikely accessory for housebreaking.’ He took a relishing gulp of the strong, steaming liquid she set in front of him. ‘Thank you. I think you just saved my life.’

She shook her head, frowning. ‘Not really, Mr Tennent. You should be in bed.’

‘I will be shortly.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Aren’t you having any coffee?’

Her smile activated a dimple near the corner of her mouth. Which was a very enticing feature, he noticed—unpainted, full-lipped, and eminently kissable. The curves outlined by the sweatshirt were equally enticing… And the fever was obviously affecting his brain, he thought in swift disgust, hoping she couldn’t read his mind.

‘It seemed best to wait until invited,’ she said ruefully.

Lucas nodded, then winced when the movement made his headache worse. ‘Do please join me, Ms Warner,’ he said formally. ‘Or are you Mrs?’

‘Miss.’

‘What does the E stand for?’

‘Emily.’ She eyed him, frowning. ‘Mr Tennent, do you mind if I touch your forehead?’

‘Not at all.’ He submitted to a cool hand laid briefly on his brow, and sat back. ‘Diagnosis?’

‘High temperature. You’ve got flu, hopefully.’

‘Hopefully?’

‘I meant rather than anything worse.’ She hesitated, then bent to search in a backpack on the floor and came up with a packet of paracetamol. ‘Will you take these? Two now and two tonight, and drink plenty of fluids.’

He stared at her in surprise. ‘That’s very kind of you, Emily, or do you prefer Ms Warner?’

‘You pay my wages, Mr Tennent. Your choice.’ She looked at her watch, then stowed her laptop in the backpack. ‘I won’t have any coffee, thank you. Time I was off. I’m taking the twins to the cinema.’

His eyebrows rose. ‘Twins?’

‘The children on half-term. Their father’s my landlord, and I’m taking them off his hands for a couple of hours,’ she explained. ‘I did your shopping on the way in, so there’s plenty of orange juice and fruit. Goodbye, Mr Tennent. I’ll be in on Monday as usual.’ She eyed him with concern. ‘Is there someone who can look after you?’

‘I wouldn’t ask my worst enemy to risk this blasted bug. Which you could be doing right now,’ he added suddenly.

Her shake of the head dislodged another hank of hair. ‘I’ve already had flu this winter.’

‘What did you do to get over it?’

‘Went home to my parents to be cosseted.’

‘My mother’s asthmatic, so that’s out of the question.’ He shrugged. ‘And otherwise I prefer to wallow alone in my misery.’

She pulled on her jacket and thrust her arms through the straps of her backpack. ‘There’s no point in calling a doctor if it’s flu, of course. Not unless you develop something else, like bronchitis. But please take the pills—eight a day max—and drink lots of water. A good thing it’s Friday, Mr Tennent. You’ll have the weekend to get over it.’

‘If I live that long,’ he said morosely, and saw her to the door.

‘Mr Tennent,’ she said diffidently as he opened it.

‘Yes?’

‘I’m sorry.’

His bloodshot eyes narrowed to an unsettling gleam. ‘Because I feel like death, or because you were caught in the act?’

Her chin lifted. ‘Both. Please accept the coffee-making for free by way of recompense,’ she added, and stepped into the lift.

Her mind occupied with Lucas Tennent, for once Emily Warner had no eyes for the view of the Thames as she crossed Tower Bridge. Up to now, the man she worked for had just been one of her four employers. He left a cheque every week for her wages, and owned a flat she’d give her eye-teeth to live in. But now she could put a face and body to the name the situation was different. He’d given her the shock of her life by catching her redhanded, of course. But her first startled glimpse of Lucas Tennent was rubber-stamped on her brain, partly because he’d looked so ghastly she’d been afraid he was about to pass out on her.

Oblivious of traffic noise and passers-by, Emily hurried back to Spitalfields, her mind busy with the physical details of the employer she’d never actually met before. There were no photographs of him in his apartment, but because he did something in the banking world she’d visualised brains as well as brawn. In the flesh, Lucas Tennent was well over six feet tall, his windblown hair black as her own, possibly eyes to match, when they weren’t too bloodshot to tell. His intelligence was self-evident, but it came combined with dark, smouldering good looks undiminished by even his current deathly pallor. And his Savile Row suit was no disguise for the musculature she would have expected, since it was part of her job to dust the rowing machine and treadmill up in the gallery. Emily sighed enviously. All that space for just one man. If she lived there she could work on her laptop to her heart’s content under the gallery’s pitched glass roof, which not only boasted sunblinds controlled electronically by temperature, but led on to a roof terrace overlooking the Thames. Perfect. And in total contrast to her solitary room on the second floor of a house owned by one of her brother’s friends.

But it was a pretty room, and she was lucky to have it, she reminded herself as she reached the familiar cobbled street. Built originally for refugee Huguenot silk weavers in the seventeen hundreds, most of the houses in this part of Spitalfields had been painstakingly restored, including the one owned by her landlord. Nat Sedley was an architect with a London firm and a home in the Cotswolds. Originally he had bought the house in Spitalfields as a city base. But he now lived in it permanently, with only his two tenants for company, while his children remained with his estranged wife in the house in the country.

When Emily reached the railings which flanked the front door it flew open to reveal two excited six-year-olds lying in wait in the hall, ready and raring to go.

‘They’ve been dressed for ages,’ said their father, grinning in apology. ‘I warned them you might want tea first but it fell on deaf ears.’

‘I’ll just dump my things and we’re away,’ Emily assured them, rewarded at once by beams from two faces so unalike it was hard to believe that Thomas and Lucy were brother and sister, let alone twins.

‘I’ll have supper waiting when you get back,’ said Nat, as he saw them into a taxi. ‘Now be good, you two, and maybe we can coax Emily to share it with us.’

By the time she’d brought the jubilant twins back to Spitalfields Nat Sedley had the promised supper waiting, and Emily not only enjoyed a family meal, but surrendered to pleas to stay afterwards until the twins were ready for bed.

‘Thanks a lot, Em,’ said Nat gratefully, as she made for the stairs later. ‘You’re a life-saver.’

She chuckled. ‘That’s the second time I’ve heard that today.’

Nat demanded details, amused when he heard she’d been caught red-handed at her laptop. ‘But I’m sorry you were driven out to find quiet to work. I should have put your room out of bounds to the twins from the first. By way of a peace offering, fancy coming down later this evening for a drink?’

She smiled. ‘Thanks, I’d like that very much.’

In the quiet of her room, Emily collapsed into a chair, suddenly weary. The outing with the twins had been great fun, but after a morning spent cleaning two apartments, followed by a couple of hours’ solid slog on her laptop, the confrontation with Lucas Tennent had rather knocked the stuffing out of her. He’d had every right to sack her on the spot, too, which would have done serious damage to her finances. Lucky for her he’d been feeling so rough, otherwise he might not have taken her trespass nearly so well. She’d felt like Goldilocks caught by the bear. Emily chuckled. Wrong hair, wrong fairy tale. There were no fireplaces in Lucas Tennent’s flat, but her role was Cinderella just the same. And she’d done no harm, other than just being there in his kitchen, where she wasn’t supposed to be on a Friday afternoon.

But from now on her activities in Mr Lucas Tennent’s flat would be restricted to the cleaning duties he paid her for. Emily frowned, wondering how he was feeling. He’d looked so ill she’d been a bit reluctant to leave him to fend for himself. Which was nonsense. If she hadn’t stayed on for an extra hour or two she wouldn’t have met him, nor known about his flu.

Emily took a reviving shower, dried her hair and treated her hands and face to some extra care, grateful to Nat for asking her down for a drink. Much as she despised herself for it, Friday evenings were still hard to get used to on her own. And to add to her pleasure, when she arrived in Nat’s small, panelled drawing-room her fellow tenant, Mark Cooper, gave her a hug and shepherded her to the sofa to join his girlfriend, Bryony Talbot.

‘Hi, Emily.’ Bryony patted the place beside her. ‘Come and sit down. Are you exhausted? Nat said you’ve been entertaining the twins.’

‘And enjoying it. Evening all. How are you feeling now, Mark?’ asked Emily. ‘Recovered from your cold?’

He nodded, smiling smugly. ‘Bryony kissed me better.’

Nat shook his head as he handed Emily a glass of wine. ‘His own private nurse, lucky beggar.’

‘But my medical skills don’t come cheap,’ said Bryony promptly. ‘He’s buying me a very expensive dinner tomorrow night.’

Emily chuckled. ‘Demand Claridges, at the very least.’

Mark winked at her. ‘Flash your dimple at me like that, Emily, and I’ll bring you back a doggy bag.’

‘Gee, thanks!’

‘Lots of strange bugs about where I earn my crust, though,’ he commented, squeezing between his beloved and Emily on the sofa. ‘Move up, you two.’

‘Can’t you sit on a chair?’ complained Bryony affectionately.

‘Much more fun like this, darling.’

Emily felt a stab of concern at Mark’s mention of bugs. But Lucas Tennent was big enough and old enough to look after himself. And he could call on professional medical help if he became really ill; a thought which allowed her to relax in the stimulating company of people she liked very much. Mark rented the floor below hers in Nat’s house, and along with Bryony had been a good friend when Emily, in urgent need of somewhere in London to live, had taken Nat up on his offer of a room. With two homes to keep up, her landlord insisted he could do with all the extra money he could get. Emily had scoffed at his idea of rent, which was ridiculously low for London. But Nat was a close friend of her brother, Andrew, and remained adamant. In the end she had pocketed the pride she couldn’t afford, grateful for his help and generosity.

After a place to live, a new job had been the next priority on the agenda. When Emily moved into the room in Nat’s house he had been trying for some time to find a suitable replacement for his cleaner, who wanted to retire. Because the elegant house was very old, and correspondingly fragile, he needed someone who would treat it with the care and respect it deserved. But when Emily proposed herself as substitute, at the same rate of pay, Nat thought she was joking at first. At last, when he realised she was in deadly earnest, he agreed with enthusiasm, and the moment Mark heard about it he begged Emily to take on his rooms as well. When it became obvious that Emily actually enjoyed cleaning, Nat asked permission to recommend her to one of his married female colleagues who’d just acquired a new flat in Bermondsey. The added job proved such a happy arrangement that Liz Donaldson soon suggested Emily kill two birds with one stone and also take on a friend’s loft apartment in the converted warehouse across the street. And so what had been intended as a stop-gap before finding another secretarial job suddenly snowballed into a whole new career.

Emily’s parents disapproved strongly, and friends thought she was raving mad. But in secret she was working to plan. The new job left her mind and imagination free to function separately from her busy, careful hands, and at the same time paid enough to provide financial backing while she tried her hand at writing a novel. Taken on the hop, she’d had to fib to Lucas Tennent, because not even her nearest and dearest had any idea what she was really up to in her spare time.

The plot of her novel was already mapped out, with some of the main characters automatically cast: villain and wicked witch no problem at all. But she’d had difficulty in conjuring up a charismatic central male. Nat was outrageously handsome, and Mark boyish-faced and charming. But, despite covert observation of both men as a possible role model, her hero had stubbornly refused to come to life. Then Lucas Tennent had caught her in flagrante with her laptop today, and wham, her main character had materialised right before her startled, guilty eyes.

After a couple of hours, much as she was enjoying herself in such convivial company, Emily resisted pleas to stay longer and went up early to her room. She sat down at her desk, booted up the laptop, and set to work on her novel. By the time she went to bed she felt tired, but very pleased with herself. Adding Lucas Tennent’s physical assets to the previously bare bones of her central male character had provided her with exactly the charismatic hero she needed for her plot.

The moment Emily was dressed next morning the twins came knocking on her door. ‘Hi, you two,’ she said affectionately.

‘Dad said we mustn’t bother you if you’re busy,’ said Thomas in one breath, then smiled cajolingly. ‘But please come down for coffee. We’ve got to go after lunch.’

‘We’ll miss you,’ said Lucy, giving Emily a hug.

‘But you’ll be seeing Mummy today, sweetheart, so you won’t need me. I bet she’s missed you a lot,’ said Emily, deliberately cheerful. ‘Give her my love.’

Lucy’s big blue eyes filled with tears. ‘Emily, will you ask Mummy to be friends with Daddy again?’

‘You can’t ask Emily to do that!’ said her twin gruffly.

Emily went downstairs with the children, wishing she could do something to help. But the Sedleys’ private affairs were none of her business. She’d known them both a long time, it was true, but had no idea what sin Nat had committed that Thea found impossible to forgive. Nor did she want to know. Sorting out her own personal life was more than enough.

Emily enjoyed a lively half-hour with the twins, but when they were settled in front of Saturday morning television Nat beckoned her into his kitchen and shut the door.

‘Why has Lucy been crying?’

Emily looked at him squarely. ‘She wanted me to ask Thea to be friends with you again, and Tom told her that wasn’t on.’

His handsome face went blank. ‘Are you going to do that?’

‘Do you want me to?’

Nat was silent for a moment, then gave her a smile just like his son’s. ‘If I thought it would do any good, yes. But it won’t.’ He shivered a little. ‘Forget it, love. Don’t get involved.’

Emily eyed him with suspicion. ‘Are you all right, Nat? Not coming down with something, too, are you?’

‘Too?’

‘Like Mark,’ she said hastily.

He shook his head. ‘I’m just dandy, other than taking my children back to the love of my life, who won’t let me over the doorstep.’ He forced a smile. ‘You’ve had enough upset in your life lately without worrying about me, Emily. Enjoy your weekend.’

But before getting ready to go out Emily gave in to her prodding conscience and rang Lucas Tennent, who growled a response so hoarse it was obvious he was worse than the day before.

‘Good morning,’ she said briskly, ‘this is Emily Warner.’

‘Who?’

She bristled. ‘Your cleaner, Mr Tennent. I wondered how you were feeling today.’

‘Oh, right.’ There was a pause. ‘Actually, I feel bloody awful.’

‘Have you eaten anything?’

A spasm of coughing blasted her ear before he spoke again. ‘No,’ he rasped. ‘Not hungry.’

‘Is your temperature still high?’

‘Probably.’ He gulped audibly. ‘Oh, hell—’

Emily seethed for a moment after he disconnected, then told herself it was idiotic to feel offended. Even more so to worry about a perfect stranger. Especially one who couldn’t remember who she was.

Mindful of Ginny, who always looked effortlessly right, Emily took time over her appearance, then went downstairs for a last hug from the twins before she set off for Knightsbridge to meet her friend.

‘I say, darling, you look rather gorgeous today,’ exclaimed Ginny Hart, when Emily joined her in the Harvey Nichols coffee shop.

‘I like the “today” bit,’ chuckled Emily, shedding the amber wool coat bought in the days when she still had a high-salary job. ‘I try my best every day.’

‘A bargain, that coat—matches your eyes,’ commented Ginny, and eyed the clinging black knit dress with approval. ‘Don’t tell me you wear that kind of thing to scrub floors!’

‘I don’t scrub floors. My clients provide labour-saving devices. Like mops.’

Ginny sniffed. ‘The tyrant who cleans for us demands extraordinary things. A new three-inch paintbrush to dust the skirtings, would you believe?’

Saturday morning coffee had been a treat enjoyed together in the days of flat-sharing, and a ritual kept to whenever possible since, despite marriage for Ginny and a relationship of a less binding nature for Emily.

‘So what’s new?’ asked Ginny, after their order arrived.

‘I met the man I clean for at last,’ said Emily, raising her voice slightly.

‘The mystery man on the top floor?’ said Ginny, and bent her blonde head nearer. ‘What’s he like? Tall, dark and gorgeous?’

‘Yes,’ said Emily, giggling when Ginny’s jaw dropped.

‘Really? Not sinister after all, then. Frankly, I always thought it a bit iffy that he took you on without an interview.’

‘You know perfectly well he took me on trust because Liz Donaldson gave me such a glowing reference.’

‘As well she might,’ Ginny frowned. ‘But you’re not going to do this kind of thing forever, surely?’

‘Of course not. But for the time being I’m enjoying it. I work at my own speed in very pleasant surroundings. Especially Lucas Tennent’s loft.’ Emily looked her friend in the eye. ‘Right now the work is good therapy for me.’

Ginny sniffed. ‘And at least you’re being paid to do it, unlike—’ She held up a hand. ‘All right, I’ll shut up. Tell me about this sexy banker, then, now you’ve finally met up with him.’