Consequences

Part 13

A few minutes later Isabelle entered the kitchen. She looked toward their housekeeper and asked with more than a hint of exasperation in her voice, "Cara, where is my grandmother?"

Cara blinked and wondered why Isabelle was asking her about her grandmother's whereabouts. Surely they had discussed this before she left. Cara frowned. "She left to stay with Verity. She said she'd be back next month." Cara watched the emotions flit across Isabelle's face and her anxiety levels rose. "Is everything ok?" She was extracting a card from a bunch of flowers.

Isabelle shook her head. But her eyes reflected resignation even as she huffed in quiet discontent, "Apparently I am engaged!"

"What?" Squawked Cara. Engaged, since when?

"Exactly." Came the droll response. "And I bet Grandma had something to do with it." Isabelle gritted her teeth. Now to face that man. No wonder he was annoyed. Her family was responsible for this debacle. He did not look the type that would take too kindly to being played like this. And why would her grandmother do this? "Excuse me, I've left Mr Hawke in the study."

"What does he want?"

"I am apparently engaged to him." Isabelle announced with a rueful smile and a shrug. Though on the inside she was far from relaxed. No wonder the man was incensed. From his perspective he'd been implicated in a scam.

"What?" Cara's eyes widened in utter shock. Then things that had happened over the last twenty-four hours started to make a bit more sense. Cara pointed, "That would explain all these flowers."

"What do you mean, these flowers?"

"They started arriving yesterday." Cara frowned. "I thought they were for Marina. Late, albeit, but people sending her flowers because she was now married." She scowled. "They had notes that said congratulations. I didn't open them so didn't see who they were made out to. I just assumed they were for her. So I've kept the notes for her and put the flowers in water. I thought, what with her being away on her honeymoon, they were...."

"Hers." Isabelle sighed. "Mr Hawke, as you can well imagine, is far from pleased!" She smiled, "And to be honest, I've been labouring under the impression that he was some sort of con-man!"

Cara looked worried. "Didn't look the type to tolerate nonsense." She mumbled.

"No. I don't think he is." She squared her shoulders. "Wish me luck." She pirouetted and headed back out of the kitchen.

Isabelle re- entered the study a few moments later and found him exactly where she had left him. She'd expected him to have moved, given that sense of leashed energy. But he had remained where she'd left him. "I can only apologise Mr Hawke. I do believe my grandmother placed the announcement."

"Your grandmother?"

She could see he was far from convinced. "She's due back next month, she's gone to stay with my sister in South Australia."

"Your grandmother." He muttered. What the hell was going on here.

She nodded. "I will give her a call."

"Your grandmother announced your engagement to a man you have never met?" He asked quietly, still not quite sure what to make of her announcement.

She nodded again. "Yes, I think we can safely say she's the culprit." And the more she thought about it, the more feasible it sounded. Though Isabelle was at a loss to work out why her grandmother would do this.

The sincerity in her voice finally cut through his exasperation. "Why would she do this?" Doug demanded.

"I haven't the faintest idea. I can only apologise for the inconvenience it may have caused." Then a thought struck her, "Would you like me to contact your family, your girlfriend, whatever, and explain that there's been a mix up? I could explain or offer some measure of explanation?"

"What sort of mix up?" He smiled arrogantly, "You or your grandmother posted an announcement to the wrong man? You posted an announcement for something that doesn't exist?"

"I will explain that my Grandmother posted this announcement. That, well that neither of us were aware of her actions" Isabelle could understand his frustration, but really there wasn't anything she could do apart from what she had proposed.

"And when they ask why?" He wasn't sure what impressed him more, her calm manner in the way she was handling the situation, or the unflustered way in which she was dealing with him.

"I'll wait to hear my Grandma's reason." Isabelle stated with measured reasonableness. She wasn't sure why he suddenly seemed to be taking an interest in her, but she sensed that his demeanor had changed.

"You think she has one." Doug prevaricated, interested to hear why her grandmother would consider hooking her grand daughter up with a man she hadn't met, and one who came from completely the wrong side of the tracks.

"Oh yes, Grandma doesn't do anything without a reason."