Her eyes widened as she looked about her awkwardly to see who else had witnessed his abrupt departure.
Grey eyes met hers mockingly, and Daniel bent his head as if to nuzzle against her throat. ‘Maybe you should have told your lover about your father’s will,’ he mocked. ‘He seems a trifle put out!’
She stiffened in his arms, turning slightly as if to kiss the powerful line of his jaw. ‘I suppose Cassandra is quite happy to continue to be your mistress even when you have a wife?’ she taunted.
He straightened, his mouth taut, his eyes glittering dangerously. ‘You——’
‘Speech, Daniel,’ her uncle demanded cheerfully. Lionel was tall and loose-limbed, with hair almost as black as Heather’s, although his was liberally sprinkled with grey in his fifty-fifth year.
‘Yes, Daniel,’ drawled Stella, Lionel’s wife of the last five years, twenty years her husband’s junior, beautifully exotic in the clinging red gown that made her hair appear like spun gold. ‘Do tell us all how you and Heather fell in love.’
Heather felt her cheeks burn under her aunt’s derision. Not that she was allowed to call the other woman Aunt, Stella insisting she was far too young for the title. And Stella knew damn well that she and Daniel hadn’t ‘fallen in love’; as a member of the family she was well aware of the contents of her father’s will.
Daniel looked at the older woman mockingly.
‘The same way most couples fall in love,’ he said drily.
‘But it was so sudden,’ Stella taunted, her blue eyes maliciously bright.
He gave an inclination of his head. ‘As sudden as your own marriage to Lionel five years ago!’
Stella’s face flushed at the challenge: before becoming Lionel’s wife she had been his secretary for several months. Heather had always thought the other woman’s motives slightly mercenary, but Daniel’s challenge was as close as anyone had ever come to saying so outright. And Stella obviously didn’t like to be reminded of her more humble beginnings, having firmly established herself in this society over the last five years.
She put her arm through the crook of her husband’s, smiling up at him brightly. ‘Love can be rather sneaky in its unexpectedness, can’t it?’ she purred.
Heather shot Daniel a relieved smile as she realised he had won that battle. Stella was hardly in a position to ‘throw stones’! ‘Daniel?’ she prompted huskily, their guests still waiting expectantly.
He nodded abruptly, turning back to their guests. ‘Heather has kindly consented to be my wife,’ he told them evenly. ‘The wedding will be next month, and——’
‘Next month?’ one of the female guests exclaimed incredulously.
Daniel arched questioning brows at the blushing woman. ‘Is there some problem with that?’
‘Er—no, of course not.’ Heather recognised the woman as a friend of Stella’s. ‘I just—it isn’t long,’ she excused lamely.
‘No,’ he acknowledged drily. ‘But you’re all welcome to come to another party here in three months’ time, and I’m sure you will find Heather as slender then as she is now!’
Heather’s uncle gave an uncomfortable cough. ‘I’m sure Rita didn’t mean——’
‘It’s all right, Lionel,’ Daniel sighed. ‘The truth of the matter is, what man in his right mind would want to wait any length of time to make Heather his bride?’ Several of the male guests gave an appreciative murmur, and Daniel gave them an acknowledging smile of his good luck in being the man to make Heather his bride. ‘As I was saying,’ he began again pointedly, ‘Heather and I will be married next month, and I’m sure you—and several hundred others!—will all be invited. For the moment, I suggest we all continue to enjoy the party!’
As if on signal the band began to play a slow love song, and everyone moved back expectantly, leaving Heather and Daniel at the centre of attention.
She turned to him with frantic eyes. ‘They’re expecting us to dance!’
‘I’m not completely stupid,’ he rasped, taking her in his arms to move expertly around the room in time to the music. ‘And I do know how to dance!’
She knew that, had watched him with other women. Strange, but in all the time she had known him, all the parties he had come to here, she had never danced with him before tonight. For such a big man he moved with a natural grace, in complete command as he guided their movements, his steps smooth and sure.
‘I didn’t mean——’
‘Just dance, Heather,’ he snapped. ‘And let’s get this over with!’
It was ‘over with’ soon enough, Daniel not speaking to her again as their bodies occasionally touched, releasing her as the music came to an end to ask Stella to dance, leaving her with her uncle. She absently took the glass of wine her uncle handed her, watching the other couple as they moved fluidly together. They were of a similar height, Stella several inches taller than her own five foot five inches, and with the three-inch heels on her sandals Stella’s body matched Daniel’s perfectly, a fact she seemed to take note of as she danced much too closely to Daniel in Heather’s opinion.
On the few occasions Heather had seen them together Daniel hadn’t seemed overly fond of Stella, and yet surely the couple were speaking together more warmly, and dancing together more closely, than their relationship required?
She glanced at her uncle, receiving an affectionate smile in return before he turned to watch his wife admiringly. Oh well, if he didn’t mind she was sure she shouldn’t either. But somehow it didn’t seem quite right to see her aunt dancing so intimately with the man she intended to marry, even if it wasn’t a love-match.
She turned her back on the dancing couple. ‘I hope that you will give me away, Uncle Lionel,’ she invited warmly.
‘Not because I want to,’ he agreed reluctantly, ‘even though Daniel is a fine young man.’ His eyes twinkled blue-grey. ‘I’d rather you had moved in with Stella and me and become the daughter we never had. But,’ he sighed, ‘I’m sure you and Daniel are doing the right thing.’
Given the choice between moving in with her uncle and Stella, or becoming Daniel’s wife, she had no doubt she was making the right choice! She and Stella would have been at each other’s throats in a day!
‘Let’s hope so,’ she dismissed lightly, absently noting that Daniel was dancing with one of her friends now.
‘I think the conditions in Max’s will were completely unfair, but——’
‘When did he ever behave any other way?’ she finished bitterly. ‘He never forgave me for not being the boy he’d wanted!’
Her uncle sighed, his smile regretful. ‘Max could be an unreasonable man——’
‘You know he could be worse than that.’ Her eyes were hard with the memories.
Her uncle frowned. ‘In his own way he did care for you, Heather.’
‘Then why has he arranged to marry me to a man he despised?’ she scorned.
‘He didn’t despise Daniel,’ Uncle Lionel sighed. ‘He resented him——’
‘Because he came along at the right time with the money he needed!’ Her eyes were bright. ‘If I could have proved he was insane when he made that will, Uncle Lionel, then I would have done so, I would have publicly contested it.’
‘Daniel, too,’ he nodded with a sigh. ‘But it was impossible.’
Her father had made certain