“She was the queen and you had to pay homage to her?”
She winced at the description but was unable to deny how apt it was. “There were rules made. Rules that had to be kept for the sake of harmony in the home.”
“And now? When there is no home?” he pushed, leaning forward, keenly interested in her reply.
She managed an ironic smile. “The whole basis for those rules no longer exists. We face chaos.”
He returned the ironic smile as he relaxed back in his chair. “Not necessarily. Not you, Sally.”
His eyes simmered with the promise of other possibilities. The singling out of herself made her feel uneasy. “What do you mean…not me?”
The waiter interrupted, serving them with glasses of champagne, asking for their luncheon choices. Sally glanced distractedly at the menu and picked out the fish dish, thinking it would be the easiest to eat. Jack casually ordered the same, plus a platter of hors d’oeuvres for starters. The waiter departed and Sally stared at Jack, waiting to be enlightened. He picked up his glass of champagne in a teasing toast.
“Let’s drink to a harmonious settlement between us.”
“Like what?” she demanded, tentatively reaching for her glass, hoping he would offer something acceptable.
His eyes weighed up her eagerness. “What do you want me to offer you, Sally?” he asked.
“You said we’d talk about the horses,” she swiftly reminded him.
“You love your horses.”
“Yes, I do.”
He cocked a challenging eyebrow. “More than you love Lady Ellen?”
She frowned, not wanting to make any comparison.
“You’ve already taken one step away from her in your desire to keep what you’ve had,” he pointed out. “I’m wondering how many steps you’re prepared to take.” His mouth formed a very sensual moue. “Will you throw in your lot with me or will you run home to Mummy?”
Sally bridled at the thought of running home to Mummy. Her parting remark “I wash my hands of you” typified her mother’s tyrannical attitude: Do what I say or suffer the consequences. Becoming her whipping boy for the loss of what she had believed would be her inheritance did not appeal, and Sally had no doubt that would be her role. And Jane’s. If they remained dependent on her mother for anything.
“I have my own life to live,” she said, determined on finding a way to do it. “That’s a third choice, Jack, which doesn’t involve either you or my mother.”
“A brave choice…starting from nothing,” he remarked, his eyes sceptical of her ability to make good on her own.
“How did you start?” she threw back at him, wanting to know how he’d come to be so wealthy.
He ignored the question, boring in on her. “You’re twenty-four years old, Sally, with no training for anything apart from a sport which requires a great deal of financial backing. What do you see yourself doing with your life?”
“Did you have financial backing?” she persisted, having had too little time to think about her own situation to make a list of employment possibilities.
“A stable hand?” he mocked, still boring in on her. “Looking after other people’s horses?”
“I could be hired to ride them. That’s done in showjumping competition,” she said belligerently.
“Second-string horses? At the whim of another owner? Whom you might disappoint?” He shook his head. “Not what you’re used to, Sally.”
She flushed at the reminder of how easy it had been for her, while he…“How did you start?” she repeated insistently.
He shrugged. “I found I had a talent for poker. I won millions of dollars at poker tournaments around the world. When I’d built up a big enough stake, I diversified, finding investments that turned a quick profit. It’s all about playing the percentages.”
His eyes targeted hers with riveting intensity. “Throwing your lot in with me is a much higher percentage play for you than trying to find work at the bottom of the pile.”
It felt as though a jackhammer was attacking her heart. Jack Maguire was intent on making her choose to do what he wanted. She suddenly knew that with absolute certainty. Whether it would be another triumph for him to draw her away from her family and plant her at his side, or whether he was simply acting on an attraction he wanted to satisfy, she didn’t know. Maybe both.
“You haven’t told me what throwing my lot in with you entails,” she said, trying her utmost to look as though she was objectively weighing up the situation and not helplessly affected by a hormonal rush of excitement.
His mouth curved into a quirky little smile. “Sir Leonard’s secretary told me that when my father flew home each evening, Lady Ellen always met him at the property’s helipad, beautifully dressed for dinner and with a martini in hand ready to pass it to him. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“She devotedly serviced all his needs.”
The sexual glitter in his eyes played havoc with her nerves.
“I don’t know what went on in their bedroom,” she blurted out.
“Oh, I have no doubt Sir Leonard got whatever he wanted. That was Lady Ellen’s power. Why would a man give up being king of his castle for a son who couldn’t give him what his wife did? My father played the percentages, too.”
Love didn’t come into it, she thought. Love wouldn’t come into any proposition Jack Maguire laid out, either. The butterflies in her stomach folded their wings, leaving it feeling strangely hollow. Yet the sense that her future was bound up with this man did not go away.
The waiter returned, set a platter of hors d’oeuvres on the table between them, checked that their glasses of champagne didn’t need refilling, and left them alone again.
“The situation is this, Sally,” Jack said, leaning forward to pick up a smoked salmon roll and move it to the side of the plate. “That represents your horses.” Egg and caviar on a little circle of toast was similarly shifted. “The facilities you use—stables, horse truck, training field.” A quiche tartlet followed. “Financial support, vet fees, showjumping competition fees, all operational costs.” Sun-dried tomato on mozzarella. “Sole mistress of the house you have always called home, overseeing its running and the running of the property, with the same staff if they want to stay, hiring others if they want to leave. A generous salary for you to maintain the status quo…”