The Choices We Made Read online

  He was taking longer than she expected and she was now desperate for him to hurry up; glancing out of the window again, she was intensely annoyed to see that the decorator had stopped him for a chat. For goodness sake, she thought crossly, my needs are greater than his.

  She returned to titivating the table and as he finally pushed open the door, she jumped, a look of surprise crossed his face.

  “Sorry, did I startle you? I thought you were expecting me.”

  “Well of course I was expecting you, I wouldn’t be here for fun, would I? Not on a Saturday. Here are the businesses I believe will interest you.”

  She glanced down again at the table where she had laid out the information and pictures of hotels she considered he might like to add to his empire. For a moment she had a flurry of nervousness as she acknowledged the enormity of what she was about to do.

  Trying to calm herself she spoke. “Christos, can I ask you something?”

  “Um?” He replied, his concentration on the papers on the table.

  “Christos! Could I ask you a question?”

  Sighing he sat back against the chair while he continued to push the papers around, his mind focussing on them as he looked at her.

  “Of course, ask away.” He told her politely.

  “Do you regret all of this?”

  “Regret? What do you mean by all of this?” He raised an eye quizzically.

  She glared. “Don’t pull a face like that at me young man. I’ve known you since you were in your nappies! Do you regret what you’ve become, what you’ve lost?”

  He shrugged his shoulders and dropped his eyes from hers. “This is neither the time nor the place to discuss this.”

  “I know, but then, when is the right time and place? Call it old age, I looked at my life and the dreams I had had in my youth, then I thought of you and how the death of Mikolas changed your dreams forever.”

  He was silent for so long that she thought he would pretend she hadn’t spoken.

  “I’m sure we all have some regrets for the choices we have made in our lives, after all we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t. But whatever regrets I might have I did what I did for my mother, for the company, for all the employers who depend upon me to keep their jobs secure. If I had the time all over again then I would make the same decision, despite what I really wanted. Family is everything you know that.”

  He sighed deeply. “Now if you don’t mind shall we get on?”

  He began to read the first paper he had picked up then looked up at her with a quizzical look in his eyes.

  “And you chose this hotel because?”

  She blushed self-consciously, “I felt it was very interesting, very different from anything we’ve ever looked at before. It is so quintessentially English and I was intrigued by some of the events they offer to their guests.”

  He sighed, “I’d normally bow to your better judgement but...,” he paused as he registered that there was a blush slowly disappearing from her cheeks and he could sense the tension that was emanating from her; curiously he noted that her fingers were drumming nervously on the table.

  Something was up.

  He had never seen her behaving like this; normally she was so calm and business-like.

  He looked again at the paperwork in front of him trying to fathom out what was so important about this business, but for the life of him he couldn’t work it out. He began to speculate on the blush that he had witnessed and upon the fact that she had been a widow for over ten years. Smiling up at her lazily he questioned her discreetly.

  “Tell me something about the owners.”

  Again she blushed slightly, not quite look him in the eye and he realised that there was definitely more to this hotel than she was actually telling him.

  He continued teasingly. “So is the owner very handsome and available and am I about to lose you, at last, to a lifetime of romance?”

  This time she looked him squarely in the face, her blue eyes flashing angrily as she sternly replied. “I can’t believe you just said that. You know you should never be so impertinent to your elders. For your information he just happens to be a nice gentleman, and that is all.”

  “Nice? Just nice?” He began to laugh and was going to say more but decided against it, once he had registered the anger in her eyes.

  “Oh very well then, we will go and have a look at this unusual hotel, more to let me see a man that has actually made you blush like a teenager than because I am at all interested in the property. I suppose that you deserve a few days rest at my expense, how about next week?”

  She began to breathe more evenly, I’ve got him interested she congratulated herself; the first hurdle is over but there are, oh boy and she shuddered inwardly, there are so many bigger hurdles yet to come.

  Avoiding eye contact with him she nonchalantly replied. “Actually I thought it would be nice to go in a few weeks’ time. They are hosting a charity weekend then and there will be a dance on the Saturday night.”

  He looked at her with renewed interest, “Really? And you hope you might get a dance with your ‘nice gentleman’?”

  He smiled absentmindedly as he looked again at the paperwork.

  “They seem to run a great many events; I can see what you mean by a different type of business but honestly my gut instinct is that this sort of setup is not in our class. But have it you own way, if you really think it is worth a look then we’ll go. Now which weekend is it that you want to go? I’ll be your son this time so that you can pursue your nice gentleman.”

  He eyes twinkled as he teased her with a smile.

  “Indeed!” She glared at him again still bristling with residual anger. “You will be my son because it was past ridiculous last time when we pretended we were married; I don’t know why I ever agreed to it.”

  He stood up and wagged a finger at her, “You did it because I am your boss, and therefore my word has to be your command, oh lowly worker mine. So my next command is that you can book some rooms for us at this place. Then you can go home and relax for the rest of the weekend allowing me to have some peace. I have this feeling that I am going to regret this and as an undutiful ‘son’ I shall take the greatest pleasure in telling you so.”

  He pushed back his chair and walked slowly out of the office.

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  Adrienne watched him leave, as he did she slowly sank down into the chair as her legs refused to support her anymore. Just for a moment her confidence faltered.

  What would he say to her when he realised that this was not, in fact, a fact finding mission to find a new business to buy but was, instead, a way to make him finally face his demons.

  Those very ones he had told her about years ago, the night when she had found him drunk and bemoaning life, his fate and the loss of his love. He had told her enough for her to be convinced that this girl was the one and the more she saw him sidestep every relationship the girls he dated tried to initiate, the more sure she became.

  His description of the girl and her name plus the picture she had purloined and copied convinced Adrienne that she would be able to find the girl. Now after so many years of looking she had finally come up trumps.

  All that was left was to put the two of them together and see what they made of each other.

  She just hoped that all her years of searching and organising would be worthwhile in the end and that it was not too late for both of them to start again and build for themselves a future. If nothing else by the end of this weekend he would have found out that he was a father and he could tell Maria that she had grandchildren which she would be able to dote upon.

  She tried to focus on how happy they could both be if they would only remember the feelings they had once had for each other. Even as she thought that a shudder went through her as she considered how furious Christos would be with Lindy once he saw the children and realised she had shielded their existence from him. And from something her daughter had said Lindy obviously still retained unhappy memor
ies of their relationship.

  If they could only look past those slight problems it would help them to accept the fragile reconciliation she was attempting to orchestrate.

  She consoled herself with the thought that no matter what had happened in the past and how badly he had behaved towards Lindy she could not continue to deny their children the right to know that they had a father and a grandmother and that they were heirs to a rather large business enterprise.

  Patrick’s mischievous twinkle swam through her mind and she swallowed nervously, she really liked him and the minute he realised she had masterminded this event, she knew she would lose all hope of being able to develop those feelings into something more tangible. Why is it that the first time I meet someone I like he has to be the father of my bosses’ ex-girlfriend?

  Life is never fair she thought.

  She closed her eyes to calm the panic that was beginning to bubble below the surface, in two weeks’ time Christos was going to be confronted, not only with his lost love, but with the proof that she had born him children and then concealed that fact from him.

  On top of that Lindy’s Irish father could either welcome him with open arms or be so protective of his daughter that he’d take a shotgun to him.

  And all because she had engineered it.

  By the end of the weekend she was sure everyone involved would want to kill her.

  And Patrick? What would he think, would he blame her for disrupting their lives, or would he thank her instead for bringing them together?

  Somehow she doubted that.

  She dropped her head on to her hands and let her mind wander over the momentous events of the past few weeks.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  She remembered back to when Christos and Mikalos had been young, even then it was obvious that it was Mikalos who was a carbon copy of his father, determined to be the best at everything. Christos had been the calmer child, always bringing up the rear, quietly determined to sooth troubled waters and keep everybody happy.

  She smiled to herself as she realised that Christos had only appeared the calmer against the volatile Mikalos, but in truth he still had a temper that would flare given the right situation. He was still his parent’s child, it was just that he had learnt to control his temper better than any of them. Christos was never more fulfilled than when he was helping others to achieve, which made his choice of teacher seem right for him, leaving Mikalos to follow in his father’s ruthless footsteps.

  In retrospect she realised that Christos seemed more prone to temper flares since he had had to step into Mikolas’ shoes.

  On the death of his brother he had changed his university course to hotel management rather than teacher training in order to be prepared to take over the family business. For someone who had lost his dream, he managed to return from college in the holidays with a smile on his face and she had been sure a girl was at the heart of it. She found it unbelievable that his mother had never noticed, but then both Maria and Stephanos had taken Mikalos’ death very hard. Perhaps in their grieving they had not spared enough thought to their other son.

  With the death of his father Stephanos she had seen an immense change in Christos, he tried hard to emulate his father’s business practices even though it went against his very nature. She had thought that it was his determination to change his nature that had been the catalyst resulting in his hidden sadness.

  That was until the night she had found him drunk and he had confessed to her how he had broken the heart of the only girl he would ever love. That gave her a greater insight into his feelings, it also gave her the girl’s name.

  Like his mother Maria, her dearest wish was also to see Christos finally settled. But, knowing what Maria did not, that he nursed a dream of what his life should had been with the love of his life, she was determined to help him. She watched the parade of beauties, saw how he played and discarded them, and she saw the loneliness and despair that he sought desperately to hide.

  The more she watched the more she saw and understood and the more determined she became to find the solution to his heartache.

  His mother might think that he was being picky but she knew better.

  As she analysed his behaviour she became convinced that he needed to see his Lindy again and finally resolve the issues that his actions had created. Which was why, while out scouting for properties that might be absorbed into their business, she had spent many years looking out for her. She had started out so optimistically in those early years, so sure that the girl he loved would be in the hotel business as well as him. Ever hopeful that she had been as much in love with Christos as he had been with her and all it would take would be a little nudge to bring them together again, let them realise their mistakes and then allow them to finally live happily ever after.

  She had never contemplated what she would do if she actually found her; even now her heart thumped uncomfortably in her chest as she thought back to last week.

  Branscombe Manor was a jewel of a find, a beautiful building in good repair standing in extensive grounds and being run very successfully as a hotel. Now a successful business was always slightly harder to try and buy as, if they were running in profit, they would not necessarily be interested in selling and, if they were interested, it would be at a higher price than Christos would want to pay.

  Reading through the hotel brochure, she had been intrigued by the number of cultural events that they ran throughout the season interspersed with local events and she decided to book herself in for a night to look the place over and discover if it was a business that the Cervantes Empire might attempt to acquire.

  She recalled the frisson of anticipation that fizzled through her bones as she stepped out of her car and walked towards the entrance. She saw again, in her mind’s eye, the events of that weekend as if it were a film playing before her.

  “Welcome! Welcome!” an elderly, silver haired gentleman almost danced across the floor, so enthusiastically did he move towards her, his face wreathed in smiles as he clasped her hands in a warm embrace. Just as suddenly he dropped her hands to scoop up her suitcase while, with one hand, he gently held her elbow and guided her towards to the desk, all the while chattering away to her.

  “Now let me look after that for you so that I can get you settled in. I’m afraid my managers deputising for the gardener today so you’ll have to make do with me I’m afraid. Poor fellow, he fell down the stairs this morning and broke his leg and, well you see it’s like this, the roses needed pruning and that has to be done with love and, well the thing is that she has the way with her, the magic touch, and obviously the roses have to look perfect. I’m sorry, here I am chattering away. Now, have you booked?”

  Sparkling jade green eyes twinkled up at her as he raised his head from the ledger to smile mischievously at her.

  The warmth of his smile took her breath away and she found herself smiling back at him,

  “I have booked, I’m sorry to hear about your gardener, Mr?” She waited politely for him to furnish her with his name.

  “Mackay, Patrick Mackay, and you are? It’s easier to find a booking when you know the name you are looking for.”

  He held his pen in the air waiting for her to tell him who she was so that he could tick her name on the register.

  “Jones, Mrs Adrienne Jones.” She replied then found herself compelled to continue speaking. “Why do roses need to be pruned with love so that they look perfect?”

  She couldn’t for the life of her think why she was asking him this but his greeting as she arrived was so unlike the professional greeting that she would have expected from any of Christos’s reception staff that it had taken her totally by surprise. She realised that she had not only been amused by his comments but also slightly intrigued by them. Then again she had to admit to herself that she was most definitely rather taken by the merry twinkle in his friendly, smiley eyes and she wanted to keep him talking to her so that she could enjoy looking into them for a little while longer.r />
  His eyes widened with what she hoped was interest in her, the woman, and she was amazed to see that the warmth of his gaze deepened the cool jade of his eyes to a dark green as he responded earnestly.

  “Well now Adrienne, I do hope you don’t mind me calling you by your name, it’s just that it is so much friendlier than Mrs Jones, and I so hope that we will become good friends. Beside your name is so beautiful, just like you, and because of that it should be spoken often. Now then let me see, where was I? Ah, well, yes. You see, every year we have a charity event here to raise money for our local hospice and we always open the rose garden to the public. Now, those roses have to look perfect on that day and the only way to ensure that they are blooming spectacularly is to make sure they have been pruned with love. You see when it is done like that then they; well they absorb all that love and bloom as a testament to it. I believe it’s their way of saying thank you for caring. Now enough of that let me find someone to show you to your room, then please make yourself at home here; supper is any time after seven.”

  With a flourish he had signed her in, and as he gave her the room key his fingers gently caressed her hand for a fraction of a second, then he rang for someone to help her with her suitcase and was off to greet the next guest, leaving her slightly shell-shocked as she followed her suitcase to her room.

  She sat down on the bed a little taken aback by the events of the last few minutes and the way her heart was jumping erratically in her chest. Asking if he could call her by her first name was rather personal she mused, but, oh boy that twinkle! Her eyes roamed around the room and she looked at her reflection in the mirror on the dressing room table. Very slowly she smiled to herself as she acknowledged that her stay looked as if it would very interesting.