Free In Want of a Wife? by Cathy Williams Page B

braved the elements with her father at football games. She knew more about rugby than most of the guys she had ever dated. She rode a motorbike, which seemed a pretty practical mode of transport, as far as she was concerned, but which most people found a little strange. Was it any wonder that Louis took no trouble to spare her feelings when it came to telling her how things stood? Any wonder that the whole subject of marriage an ongoing background chant from her mother for as long as she could remember, had never actually been applied to
her?
    She sternly told herself that she was perfectly happy with things exactly the way they were. But the following morning, fully recovered and in no mood to spend the day brooding, she packed an overnight bag and announced that she was going back down to London. But she would return for the Christmas period, she added hurriedly, knowing when to change her plans in order to avoid confrontation. So that she could
go to the ball.
Like Cinderella.
    ‘I know they’re not actually expecting me at school.’ She grabbed a slice of toast on the move whilst checking on her phone to see what time the cheapest train would be running. ‘But I have stuff to collect. And I have to tell Colleen and Paula that I won’t be sharing their alternative Christmas.’
    There were also several other things she would have to do, although these she would be keeping under her hat. The first would be to buy something really special for the wretched party at Crossfeld, something sexy and pretty which hadn’t been hurriedly borrowed from one of her sisters. Then she would look up Louis at his London house and, instead ofattacking him and baring her teeth, she would try and plead Rose’s cause—and she would also try and use a few feminine wiles when she did it.
    More than ever now, it seemed vital that he understood how deeply in love Rose was with Nicholas and how important it would be if he could just give them both his blessing. Soft-spoken, bespectacled Nicholas was in awe of his sophisticated, predatory friend; would love actually conquer all if Louis got it into his head to break up the relationship? Lizzy had her doubts.
    But, more than ever, Louis would think that he had the right to protect his friend. The Sharp family was in trouble financially and with everything to win; he would find it perfectly understandable that Rose would be chosen as the sacrificial lamb: beautiful, shy Rose. He would see that as the essence of a good gold-digger. He lived and breathed cynicism. If he had reluctantly been coming round to giving them the benefit of the doubt, that would have been blown out of the sky by revelations of her father’s financial situation.
    When Lizzy thought about it, she had to grit her teeth together and remind herself that trying to bludgeon her way through to him wasn’t going to work. For Louis Jumeau, women should be creatures of grace and beauty, and if they weren’t he had no time for them.
    On the train down, she managed to get his address from Rose with a series of half lies and half truths. She
did
want to see him but he certainly
hadn’t
made any promises about donating money to the school. And it
was
vital that she saw him straight away rather than wait, though not because the school was about to close and she wanted to sort things out before everyone disappeared for the Christmas break. She even managed to get his mobile number, which apparently was only given to a few select people. Lizzy heard this and had to suppress a snort of laughter. Who did the man think he was?
    And wouldn’t it be funny if he was besieged with thousands of unwanted calls because she had sold his number online?
    The following day, however, there was nothing amusing about her situation. She had arranged to meet Louis that evening for dinner at a restaurant in Belgravia and she suspected that the only reason he had agreed had been out of curiosity. He would be wondering what she could possibly have of