Infatuation

'Sounds like fun,' Judith said jerkily. 'She has told Luke she's earning back, has she?'

‘Oh, yes, she said she's rung him lots of times. He keeps pressing her to come back, she said. Well, she can't be surprised about that—she's been away for ages and it isn't fair on Luke, but I think she's been having such a great time over there that she didn't want to come back. It's been like a simply fabulous holiday; all I expenses paid. She said she had three different tests; and…'

'Is this director married?' Judith interrupted, and Ruth giggled.

'Just between you and me, that's what I asked her—but he is, and his wife's a darling, Baba said, she gets on with her like a house on fire. It was his wife who asked Baba to stay with them, the hotel was so huge that Baba got lost when she tried to find her room.'

Judith sighed. 'That was nice of them. American hotels are much bigger than ours—some of them have a thousand rooms.'

'Help! No wonder Baba wanted to get out of it. She's keeping her fingers crossed about the part—as she's only done some amateur acting up to now the producer was dubious about giving it to her, but now that he's seen all her tests she thinks he may just change his mind.'

Why hadn't Luke told her that Baba was coming home soon? Judith wondered as she put the phone down later. She sat staring at nothing, her face pale. She had to get a new job, that was obvious. It was going to be a bit difficult to explain why she should suddenly leave such a highly paid, high status job after only a short while. She was never going to get anything as good, she had to face that. But she knew she would not be able to stand the torture of being with Luke all day after he had married Baba. That would just send her quietly out of her mind.

CHAPTER NINE

MRS DOULTON rang Judith next morning just as she was dashing out to a meeting. 'I wondered if you could come down this weekend, Judith—I haven't seen you for some time and I enjoy our little chats. Could you drive down on Sunday?'

Judith hesitated; she would have loved to go, but she was afraid of finding Luke there. 'Well, I…'

'Would it be too boring for you? I suppose it must be, it's been good of you to put up with all my anecdotes about people you've never met,' Mrs Doulton said, picking up her hesitation and misinterpreting it.

'I love talking to you,' Judith denied quickly. 'It's just that I have to see my grandmother this weekend—I rarely get a chance to visit her during the week, I'm too busy' I thought I'd take her out on Sunday; now that I have a car, you see, I can drive her to the sea or into the country, it gives her a, change of scenery.'

'Bring her here,' Mrs Doulton said at on

ce as though under the impression that that was what Judith had been hinting at, and Judith stammered: 'Oh, I couldn't ... I mean ... it's kind of you, but you don't even know her…' She was horrified, caught between two fires, she did not want to hurt or offend Mrs Doulton, but she equally did not want to go down and visit her, running the risk of seeing Luke.

'I’d like to know her,' said Mrs Doulton, laughing. 'From what you've told me about her I think we'll take to each otter. At least ask her if she'll come, will you, Judith?' and, of course Judith had to say she would.

Judith had a very shrewd idea of her grandmother's character and how she would react in any situation; Mrs Murry was obstinate and unsociable, she did not like strangers, she was bound to refuse to go down to Lambourne to visit Luke's mother. Judith didn't feel too worried about promising Mrs Doulton that she would pass on the invitation; she would be amazed if it was accepted.

'I'll let you know if we can come,' she said before she rang off. 'Will your daughter and her children be there?' She dared not ask if Luke was going to come; that would be too much of a giveaway.

'They may drop in—I'm never sure if they will or not, it depends what else is happening. Angela's husband often has visitors for lunch on a Sunday and then they don't drive over to see me.' Mrs Doulton paused, then said: 'And Luke can't get down, either. He's flying to Paris on Friday night, isn't he?'

'Is he? I've no idea,' said Judith with a sense of wild relief. Was Luke going to be away long? She didn't know whether to hope he was or to fear it; she would miss him, but at the same time she would be able to breathe more easily if he wasn't around for a while.

When she mentioned the invitation to her grandmother on the phone that night Mrs Murry unpredictably sounded quite excited. 'I'd love to go, I've been dying to see this lovely house for myself.'

'It's a long drive,' Judith warned, taken aback. Of course, Luke wouldn't be around, she wouldn't be running the risk of being alone with him again, but she still felt unwilling to go because the place would always remind her of those moments when Luke kissed her and told her that he loved her. She was trying very hard not to remember the piercing happiness she had felt then.

'I'm not senile, a long drive won't kill me,' Mrs Murry protested, very offended.

On the Friday evening Judith came out of her office to make her way to the lift and met Luke bound the same way. Some of the office staff were in the corridor; both Judith and Luke smiled politely at them and each other. It was such a farce—Judith was tempted to laugh at their pretences except that she didn't find it funny, either her sense of humour had gone on the blink or the nagging pain inside her made -it quite impossible to laugh at anything.

Luke was carrying a tan leather suitcase. She looked at it, asking: 'Going away for the weekend?' as if she had no idea he was off to Paris, and Luke nodded.

I'm combining business with pleasure and spending a couple of days over in Paris. I'm seeing Rene Larchain for lunch tomorrow.'

She nodded. 'Well, good luck with him—on the phone and in his letters he sounds very tricky.'

Luke's mouth was wry. 'He is,' he agreed, and his brief glance at her reminded her how well he knew the man. 'But I'll manage,' Luke added, and she was sure he would.

They went down in the lift together. It was so crowded that she was forced into the corner and felt Luke's hip touching hers all the way down, aware of his dark sleeve brushing her breast as he shifted to make more room. Most of the office staff got out on the ground floor, they would be taking trains or buses home, but Luke and Judith went down to the underground car park two floors below. They walked side by side towards the bay in which their cars were parked; each department had its own bay. The shadows and sudden crude pools of yellow light from the overhead strip lighting made the place ominous, Judith heard their footsteps echoing on the concrete walls. Luke paused beside his own car, looking at her.

'Have a good weekend. Try to relax, you're like a piece of stretched elastic lately. Take the whole weekend off, don't do any work at all.' His voice was rough, his hand moved to touch her arm, then fell again.

'Have a good time in Paris,' said Judith, equally husky, and Luke got into his car. He was already driving away before she had switched on the ignition; she sat and watched the orange flare of his tail lights vanishing before following him up the steep ramp into the daylight.