High-Society Secret Baby - Maxine Sullivan Page 0,42
Dominic asked, coming to hold out her chair for her.
She jolted as she looked at him. “Secret?”
“Why are you smiling?”
Relief raced through her. She’d thought he meant real secrets. “It’s just that everyone keeps calling me Mrs. Roth instead of my first name.”
He lifted a brow. “Who’s everyone?”
She’d been thinking of Jane Clyde, as well. Then she realized this was the opening she needed to sort things out. “Nesta, and everyone at the dentist’s office.”
He sent her a penetrating look. “That’s strange. I thought you’d been going to him all your life?” he said, reminding her that he never forgot a thing.
Her pulse stopped for a moment. Then, “Yes, and that’s the bizarre thing. Once I married…” She didn’t mention which marriage, “They started calling me Mrs. Roth.”
He stared a moment more. “I’m sure you can handle it.”
“Of course.” She took a sip of her champagne. “By the way, I had my dental appointment today and my treatment isn’t as intensive as we thought.”
“That’s good news,” he said, thankfully not looking suspicious of her at all.
Still, she hesitated before she spoke again. “Incidentally, I spoke to the director of the nursing home and she wants me to start my volunteer job next Tuesday.”
One eyebrow lifted. “So soon?”
“Yes. They’re very busy with Christmas and are thrilled I’ll be there to help out.”
He considered her. “You look happy about that.”
“Very.”
“Then I’m pleased you’ll have an interest.”
His comment both surprised and comforted her. That was so not like Liam. Liam had wanted her at home, ready to be the perfect hostess for their parties, or the perfect wife in public. He hadn’t cared that she’d been bored out of her brain with all the meaningless activity. At first she’d even wanted to please him, but once he’d shown his true colors, she’d realized she was trapped.
And then he’d gotten sick…
Just then Nesta came back into the room carrying the soup. Once she’d served them and left again, Cassandra decided to put aside the subject of the dentist and the nursing home. The further the distance between those two things and the money she needed to ask about, the better.
“By the way, your mother stopped by this morning,” she said, then lifted a corner of the lavender-colored silk at her neck. “She gave me this.”
His gaze traveled down over the scarf to her pale pink top she’d matched with cream pants. “It suits you,” he said, an appreciative glint in his eyes.
She could feel her cheeks warm. “Thanks. Your mother has good taste.” She picked up her spoon. “And I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve invited your parents to dinner on Sunday. Adam, too. I thought we might put up a Christmas tree beforehand. Make it a family event.”
He scowled. “What’s brought this on?”
“It’s for Nicole’s sake. She’s only little, but I think it’s important for her to be around her extended family, don’t you?”
All at once his features softened. He acknowledged her comment with a nod. “I couldn’t agree more,” he said, turning her heart over. “By the way, we’ve got a Christmas tree from last year around here somewhere. Ask Nesta.”
“Yes, she’s already told me.” She idly began stirring her soup, remembering how Nesta had said one of the gardeners usually decorated the artificial tree each year. It had made Cassandra wistful. She’d never had a real tree, not as a child and not with Liam, who had suffered from hayfever.
“Is there a problem?”
She stopped stirring and glanced at Dominic. “I was thinking about getting a real tree for our first year.” No one need know, but it had been a dream of hers for so long now. A silly dream. “It would be nice, don’t you think?” She so much wanted this Christmas to be as normal as possible.
He merely nodded. “If that’s what you want. Just let Nesta know. She’ll arrange it.”
He started eating and she did the same, glad he hadn’t noticed how sentimental she was being. Having a real tree was such a trivial thing to be concerned about when there was so much else going on in her life, but she didn’t want him to know what a sap she really was about this. And perhaps next year they could even go and pick out a tree together. As a family.
He mentioned it to Nesta when she brought in the main meal shortly afterward.
“Mrs. Roth and I have already discussed it, but I think a proper tree would be just the ticket this year.” The housekeeper