Francesca cleared her throat and tried to find a way out of the thick fog of guilt engulfing her.
‘What…what can I do for you?’
’What can you do for me?’
‘Look, I think I know why you’ve come here…’
‘I’m sure you do,’ Georgina said scathingly. ‘I bet that bastard came running here just as soon as he could.’
Silence, Francesca thought, was the best form of self-defence. What she had done had been wrong. She deserved every bit of the attack about to be launched at her.
‘I should never have considered you for the job. Never! I told Angelo that you were nothing but a two-bit company and I should have stuck to my guns. But oh, no! I thought I would be obliging and go along with giving you a fair try. Didn’t know then what I know now, though, did I? And you, you…you nobody…didn’t see fit to fill me in, did you?’
Francesca remained in mute silence, mortified and prepared to weather the onslaught. If she could have turned back the hands of time, oh, she would never have agreed to cook dinner for him, would never have agreed to let him into her house in the first place. If, if, if…
‘Well, if you and Angelo think that he can break off the engagement so that the pair of you can walk into the sunset holding hands, while I’m left looking a complete idiot in front of my friends, then you’re both in for a shock!’ Georgina’s porcelain skin was mottled with fury.
‘He’s broken off the engagement?’ Francesca asked weakly. Oh, dear Lord. Why? She felt her legs on the verge of giving way and decided that sitting down might be a good idea. Crumpling to the floor in a heap would add to her mortification and, aside from that, those very pointed yellow shoes looked as though they could inflict severe damage when wielded by a tiny furious blonde.
‘Perhaps we ought to sit down,’ she said and left Georgina no option by heading straight into the sitting room.
‘When…when did this happen?’ she asked.
Georgina wasn’t sitting down. She was pulsating by the window.
‘Please don’t pretend that you don’t know. Five days ago.’
‘Five days ago?’ Francesca did the maths. So Angelo hadn’t been playing around. He had come to her as a single man. Why hadn’t he said anything? Maybe, she thought slowly, because he had come intending to seduce her and he figured his chances of success would have been lower had she seen herself as no more than a romp in the hay with a man who, even if he was the one to break off the engagement, would still be smarting from the sting of it.
Or maybe, she thought, digging into her knowledge of him, the way his mind worked, just maybe it had given him a kick to think that he could have her against all the odds, have her blinded to his situation by her own desires. And, if that was the case, had he really even wanted her? The way she had wanted him?
‘How did you find out that Angelo and I…?’
‘Had once been lovers? Well, certainly not from you! Nor from Angelo. Your partner, Jack, told me.’ Her voice was laced with venom but Francesca still felt sorry for her, sorry for the marriage which wasn’t going to take place, even if for Angelo it had only been a marriage of convenience. Even if it had only been a marriage of convenience for both of them.
‘Jack…?’
‘Although I would have twigged sooner or later. You might have tried to keep it under wraps but I would have found out. I would have made it my business to find out. Tell me, when did you decide that Angelo was a good bet? Did you see him and think that here was your chance to try and get him, having failed the first time? Or do you sleep with all your male clients in the hope that you might net one of them, and you had the advantage with Angelo because you had already been lovers?’
‘I’m sorry about your engagement, Georgina, and I won’t be walking off into any sunset holding hands with Angelo.’ She stood up but didn’t venture too close. Instead, she folded her arms and did her best to remember that, however guilty she felt, this was still her house and she could determine how much of the conversation she wanted to hear. Right now, no more of it. ‘Now, I think it’s time you left.’