"I don"t-but Nik Prince is sure to know. And I do have a number where he can be reached," Jerome a.s.sured her with satisfaction.
Nik Prince? The man had been pleasant enough last night, but once Rik had told him of the way she had kept his son"s existence a secret from him for the last five years, she very much doubted that would continue! Even on such a brief acquaintance, she knew that Nik Prince would be a formidable enemy.
More formidable than Rik was at this moment?
The answer to that was a definite no!
"OK," she sighed. "If you wouldn"t mind giving me that number...?"
"Just a second," Jerome dismissed. "Dee, honey, would you just come and talk to Sapphie while I get my Filofax from my briefcase?"
"Hi, Sapph, what"s going on?" her sister demanded bluntly.
"I-er-I have one of the b.u.t.tons from Rik"s suit in my bag," she invented lamely! "It dropped off last night and I just wanted to return it to him." Lame. Very lame!
"Aren"t you being a little obvious, Sapphie?" Dee drawled, not fooled for a moment. "Haven"t you learnt yet that if you have to run after a man, then he isn"t worth bothering with?"
Was that the reason that, even after five years of marriage, Jerome was the one who still did all the running? Probably, Sapphie acknowledged ruefully. But if it worked for them...
But, unfortunately, their relationship bore absolutely no resemblance to her own present situation!
"I"ll explain some other time, Dee," she moved on briskly, knowing that soon, if Rik was to continue with his intention of involving lawyers, everyone was going to know that Sapphie Benedict was the mother of his son..."Right now I just need to contact Rik."
"Well, don"t say I didn"t try to warn you," Dee replied before putting her husband back on the line, with an audible caution to him not to be too long.
Sapphie forgot all about Dee"s warning as soon as the call was ended, staring for a good five minutes at the piece of paper where she had written down Nik Prince"s telephone number.
What was she going to say to Rik"s brother? Would he, like Dee, think that the b.u.t.ton was just a ruse, and that she was chasing his youngest brother?
What did it really matter what Nik Prince thought about her now when pretty soon he, and the rest of the Prince family were going to be told they had one more to add to their number!
For all she knew, Nik Prince might already have been told about his nephew!
"Will you just back up a few sentences?" Nik frowned darkly, standing across the room from where Rik paced up and down in front of the unlit fireplace.
Rik came to a halt. Sapphie hadn"t told him he had a son. A son. Every time he thought of Matthew he felt as if he was going to fall down on his knees at the wonder of him.
He had arrived at Nik and Jinx"s a short time ago and, so far, he knew, he hadn"t made a great deal of sense. Because his brain wasn"t functioning properly, and his heart felt as if it was about to burst!
"Does this have anything to do with what I told you earlier about Matthew?" Nik guessed shrewdly.
Did it have anything to do with Matthew...?
It had everything to do with Matthew. And he couldn"t think about Matthew without thinking about Sapphie, too.
Sapphie...!
Every time he thought about her he felt driven to his knees, too. His emotions were so confused; on the one hand he was so angry with her for keeping her pregnancy, and consequently Matthew"s birth, a secret, but on the other he was full of admiration for the way she had dealt so capably with both those things. She hadn"t just dealt with them, with Matthew, she had excelled; Matthew was a beautiful and intelligent child.
He"d had Rik figured as a "bad man" within minutes of meeting him!
And no wonder Sapphie had looked as if she hated the sight of him when they"d met again in Paris. It also explained her determination that Dee and Jerome shouldn"t know they had ever met before. Met-they had created Matthew!
"Rik, what-" Nik broke off to glare impatiently at the telephone as it began to ring.
"I should answer that if I were you," Rik advised drily, knowing that Jinx had gone out with her father this morning. "I know I"m not making a lot of sense at the moment!"
Because this was just so big. So onerous. It was going to blow the family"s minds once they knew about Matthew. Rik was the loner, the private, reserved one, the one who was always there to advise the rest of the family. But now he was the one who was falling apart!
He desperately wanted to see Matthew again. Just wanted to look at him, to breathe him in. All he had wanted to do earlier was pick him up and walk out of there with him. And what would that have achieved? A broken-hearted mother and son-and possibly a father in a police cell.
For once in his life he didn"t know what to do next. In his anger this morning, he had threatened Sapphie with lawyers; he wasn"t stupid enough-stunned enough!-to believe he would ever win a custody fight for a little boy who didn"t even know him. But he would have a right to see him, despite the fact that his mother so obviously didn"t want to share him.
He was back to Sapphie again...
He still didn"t know how he felt about her now! Part of him could have strangled her for not coming to him five years ago, for not telling him about the baby she was expecting. His baby. But another part of him wanted to kiss her for giving him such a beautiful son. He wasn"t- His attention focused on Nik as he realised that, although his brother was talking into the receiver, he was actually looking at him while he did so.
"There"s no need for that; he"s right here." Nik spoke tersely. "No, I don"t think he"s going anywhere any time soon, so why don"t you just come over here? No, it"s no trouble," he responded to the next question before reciting the address of the house he and Jinx shared with Jinx"s father. "See you soon, then, Sapphie," he said politely before ending the call.
Sapphie. That had been Sapphie on the telephone? And she was coming here?
Why? To threaten him as he had threatened her? Or to cajole him into seeing that he had no part to play in Matthew"s life? Neither of those options appealed to him!
Although he had to admire Sapphie for trying...
"Sapphie mentioned something about meeting on neutral ground," Nik told him darkly. "Exactly what have you been doing to that lovely lady, little brother?" He glowered at Rik from beneath lowered brows.
Rik hadn"t actually done anything yet. Neither would he, having already come to his senses enough to know he was on a hiding to nothing if he took Sapphie to court to gain custody. But Sapphie didn"t know that!
"I can"t talk about it yet, Nik." He shook his head.
"Fine," his brother replied. "I"ll go make us both some coffee."
The coffee, and the waiting, didn"t improve Rik"s mood; Nik was treating him as if he had been drinking this morning too. And maybe to his brother it did seem that way; he certainly wasn"t making a lot of sense!
But when the doorbell finally rang to announce Sapphie"s arrival, he knew that he couldn"t just leave his brother in the dark like this, that he owed Nik an explanation, at least.
He drew in a deep breath, standing up to pace the room again. "Nik, in a minute or two you"re going to hear something..." He stopped, not sure how to continue, but knowing time was running out, that the housekeeper must have answered the door by now, that Sapphie was on her way in here. "Nik, Matthew is my son, OK?" he burst out, having decided there really was no easy way to say it.
The dark thundercloud that suddenly gathered in Nik"s face was probably very reminiscent of Rik"s own reaction earlier this morning!
"No!" Nik exclaimed. "It is not OK." He looked at Rik as if seeing him for the first time.
No, Rik accepted leadenly, it really wasn"t OK.
And from the bleak look on Sapphie"s white face as she was shown into the sitting-room, it wasn"t OK with her, either; the look she gave him from beneath her long, dark lashes was wary to say the least.
Rik"s first instinct was to wrap her in his arms and keep her safe, to a.s.sure her that he would never let anyone hurt her. Except, to her, he was the one threatening her...!
Nik stood tall and powerful across the room, his sheer size forbidding. "Do you want me to go or stay-"
"Stay!"
"Go!"
A humourless smile twisted Nik"s mouth as they both answered at the same time. "As the choice seems to be split down the middle, I think I"ll go with the lady and stay. If only to see fair play," he added with a warning look in Rik"s direction.
Rik and Sapphie stared wordlessly at each other, the tension increasing as the seconds pa.s.sed. She looked so fragile, Rik acknowledged, so vulnerable.
Finally, when Rik didn"t think he could stand it a minute longer, Sapphie drew in a deep breath and began to talk. "Rik, you had no right to come to my home this morning and-"
"I had every right!" he returned, all of his anger seeming to return in a split-second. "You should have come to me five years ago!"
"And how was I supposed to do that, when it was Dee whom I would have to have asked where you were?" she reminded him. "I had the same trouble this morning, as it happens," she added. "I had to call Jerome."
"Proving that you could manage to track me down when the incentive was strong enough! You could have done the same thing five years ago if you had wanted to!"
"Asked Dee, you mean?" Sapphie came back.
"If necessary-yes!"
"Just have contacted the woman you were in love with and asked her where I could reach you?"
"Why not?" he returned. "And I am not in love with Dee!" he added harshly.
"You thought you were five years ago!"
"I thought there was a Santa Claus until I was eight years old; that doesn"t make him real!"
"Oh, very funny." Sapphie glared at him, eyes sparkling deeply amber. "And when I spoke to Dee, was I also supposed to tell her the reason I needed to reach you was because I was pregnant with your child?"
"Well, it would certainly have been a step in the right direction!" The last thing Rik wanted to do was argue with Sapphie, but at the moment he couldn"t seem to help himself.
She drew in a sharp breath. "You shouldn"t have threatened me this morning-"
"What else was I supposed to do-pat you on the head and tell you what a clever girl you are?"
What little colour had stained her cheeks in her anger now quickly drained away, her hands clenching at her sides. "I"ll fight you, Rik. I won"t let you take Matthew away from me," she told him with quiet determination.
"Sapphie," Rik lowered his voice reasoningly, knowing that shouting at each other wasn"t going to help anything. Probably nothing was, but he had to try! "I"m sure that we can sit down and come to some sort of reasonable compromise that doesn"t involve a court battle.."
"That you threatened me with, you mean," she reminded hardly, her eyes huge pools of accusing amber. "I don"t want Matthew to end up shuttled backwards and forwards across the Atlantic like some sort of human ping-pong ball-"
"You know, Sapphie," Rik cut in, "I think we reached the point some time ago in this conversation where what you want isn"t of primary importance. Matthew deserves to have a father. d.a.m.n it, he has a father-"
"A father he doesn"t even know!"
"And whose fault is that, do you think?"
"OK, OK, that"s enough." Nik moved to stand between them as they glared at each other across the width of the fireplace, jaws jutting out aggressively. "Time out!" he added firmly as neither of them made a move to back down. "Sapphie, would you please go and sit down in that chair over there?" he prompted gently, giving an approving nod as, after several lengthy seconds, she did so. "You," he turned impatiently to Rik, "sit! And don"t give me any arguments, Rik," he added as Rik would have done just that. "You"re behaving like a child, so I"m treating you like one!"
As if to prove his brother"s point, Rik found himself only just managing to clamp his lips shut. He gave a low groan of self-disgust before moving to sit down in the armchair opposite Sapphie"s.
He was behaving like a child. In fact, they both were. When it was their son they should have been thinking about, discussing, like the two sensible adults they really were. Nik"s was the only voice of reason...
Nik turned to Sapphie, his smile gentle. "Do you have a photograph of Matthew with you, Sapphie? Of course you do," he said as she took a small photograph wallet out of her shoulder-bag and shakily handed it to him.
Rik"s fingers itched to s.n.a.t.c.h the wallet out of his brother"s hand, to look at his son once again. But the warning look Nik shot him before he began looking at the photographs was enough to advise him against even trying!
Nik"s expression was unreadable as he looked at the half-dozen snaps. "Matthew"s adorable, Sapphie," he told her gruffly as he handed the wallet back before turning once again to Rik. "He looks just like you did at four years old. It"s a pity you had to grow up into an idiot!"
"Now, look-" Rik broke off his protest as Sapphie gave an involuntary laugh, instantly biting her lip as he looked across at her with annoyance.
"Better." Nik nodded his satisfaction as Sapphie seemed more relaxed. "Now, I didn"t want to stay and listen to this conversation-I was asked to do so. And I"m glad I was. Left to your own devices, you two are just going to rip each other apart."
He was right. Rik knew that he was. At the moment, he and Sapphie were just continuing to hurt each other.
"Now, I"ve listened to the two of you," Nik continued softly. "And I can see where all the anger and pain is coming from. But in reality there"s a very simple answer to this whole problem."
"Don"t tell me." Rik"s mouth twisted derisively. "We"re back to the parable suggesting cutting the baby in two, and the one of us who loves Matthew the most will then back down-"
"Get real, will you, Rik?" his brother interrupted. "There"s absolutely no question about who loves Matthew the most-Sapphie does. She carried him inside her, gave birth to him, has loved and nurtured him for the last four years-Rik, you"ll get your chance to talk in a minute, OK? At the moment it"s still my turn!" d.a.m.n it, Nik always had a way of making him feel five years old!
"This is just a suggestion, you understand?" Nik continued gently.
Nik"s suggestions had a way of being orders, but for the moment Rik was willing to give his brother the benefit of the doubt.
"The answer to the problem seems pretty clear to me," Nik reasoned. "The answer to all the problems; the lawyers, the tugging Matthew backwards and forwards across the Atlantic, the fact that you"re both his parents-"
"Will you just get on with it, Nik?" Rik urged impatiently, having no idea where this conversation was going.
He received another narrow-eyed glare. "Fine." Nik nodded tersely. "Then the obvious answer to all this confusion is for the two of you to marry one other!"
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
"AND on that cheery little note," Nik quipped, as both Sapphie and Rik stared at him in shocked disbelief, "I will leave the two of you alone together to discuss the possibility!"
Sapphie was barely aware of him leaving the room and closing the door gently behind him.