Master of Comus

The doctor did not wait for a reply, bending to take her pulse, to look at her eyes and ask her a few discreet questions. Behind him Paul stood like a stone Statue,, watching her. Leonie could not meet the blue glare of his eyes.

'I think a few hours' rest should put matters to rights,' the doctor said. 'These things happen. No cause for alarm.' He patted her hand. 'If anything else happens, get in touch with me at once, though. We can't be too careful in the first months of a pregnancy. Rest and a light diet will put you to rights, eh?'

When he had gone, Paul moved over to the window, his back to her. 'He said a pregnancy?'

Weakly, she murmured. 'Yes.'

'You're pregnant?'

'Yes.'

Paul turned suddenly and faced her, his blue eyes bright and glittering. 'And you didn't tell me?'

'I...'

'You didn't think I had a right to know?'

'I didn't want to tell you,' she said miserably. 'It might have made you feel ... that you had to stay married to me ...'

'You're damned right it makes me feel that,' he cried furiously. 'It is my child, isn't it?'

She went red. 'Of course it is!'

'How long did you think it would be before I found out? You couldn't keep it from me for long.'

'I thought by then you might have started divorce proceedings,' she mumbled.

'So that you could marry Jake?' he demanded,

'Jake?' She stared at him blankly. 'This is nothing to do with Jake. I thought you might want to marry

Diane.'

Paul stiffened, staring at her intently. 'I see. That's why you stayed on Comus for weeks, never writing ...'

'You didn't write to me,' she protested.

'I didn't vanish out of your life as you did out of mine,' Paul stated bitterly. 'I came back to the flat and you'd gone, without a word of where you'd gone to ... I rang the airport and found out you'd flown to Greece. I would have followed you, but that evening George had a relapse and I was torn between staying in case he died or flying to Greece to find you. I rang Argon, and he told me he thought you needed to be left alone for the time being. So I left you alone.' His blue eyes were like bright stones as he watched her. 'And I waited for you to write and ask me for a divorce.'

Her lashes stirred on her cheek. 'Would you have given me one?' she asked faintly.

'Like hell I would!' he snapped. 'I was just waiting to hear you ask so that I could have the pleasure of telling you precisely why I would never divorce you.'

Her lids lifted. The shadowed eyes looked at him. 'Tell me now.'

'This isn't the time or the place,' he said. 'You're too .weak. It will have to wait.'

Leonie moved off the bed and stood beside it, her head swimming a little. 'There! You see? I'm perfectly all right now.'

Paul leapt across the room in a fury of anxiety. 'Lie down again, you little fool! Do you want to lose your baby?'

As he touched her, something deep inside her tightened to a pitch of unendurable sweetness. She drooped like a flower against him, her lids lowered to hide the expression in her eyes. Paul's arms came round her, he lifted her and swung her back on to the bed.

She looked up at him, trembling with the force of her passion for him, and their eyes met, their faces very close together as he lowered her against the pillows.

Paul made a sound deep in his throat, a groan of hungry desire which was unmistakable. 'Leonie,' he muttered thickly.

They moved together in one involuntary movement, their mouths meeting, clinging, parting. Paul's hands slid over her body, he flung himself down beside her on the bed and the long kiss deepened until her head swam and her breath hurt in her lungs.