Scandals and Secrets

Damian lay where he was for some time before slipping out from under the bed and returning to his room. Though furious, he put his frustration on hold with the thought that tomorrow was another day. He determined that it would not only be Gemma's drink he put the sleeping draught in the next time. Darling Celeste was going to have her insomnia fixed as well.

Gemma woke with a terrible hangover. She groaned when she saw the time. Nearly noon. How could she have slept for so long?

Dragging herself out of bed, she visited the en suite then returned to draw on her only modest dressing gown-a floor-length cream silk number whose coverage was adequate, although it wasn't the thickest of material. Still,

only Cora would be left in the house at this late hour. Damian and Celeste would have gone to work.

Work ...

Gemma felt guilty about how she'd let her own workmates down yesterday, ringing up at the last moment and claiming she was sick. She would have to ring again today and let them know the real situation, though maybe Byron had already done that. From what Celeste said last night, her father- in-law already knew everything.

Picking up her hairbrush, she began putting some order into her tangled hair. She really had had a restless night, despite sleeping so long. There was a vague memory of dreams which she was rather glad she could not remember. She was sure they hadn't been happy dreams. But they weren't likely to be, were they?

With her appearance in some semblance of order, she went in search of Cora and a cup of coffee. Maybe some aspirin as well. She really did not feel too good. Her head was terribly thick. Not exactly a headache but a woolly feeling.

Gemma glanced admiringly around on her way downstairs, especially at the elaborate stained-glass window rising above the landing halfway down. Her stark outback upbringing made her appreciate beautiful things but she was not naive enough to think that riches brought happiness. Her own marriage to a wealthy successful man certainly proved the saying that money wasn't everything. It was nothing 'if not combined with love and true intimacy. Nathan had showered her with clothes and gifts, given her everything but himself in a real sense. She'd been worried all along by their lack of emotional bonding, worried Nathan's feelings for her didn't go deeper than lust and possessiveness, and she'd been proven right.

Gemma stepped off the staircase with a sigh and headed for the kitchen, looking in the other rooms on the way.

The kitchen was empty, and there, on the counter, propped against a bowl of fruit, was a note.

Gone to do the week's shopping. I've put a selection of cereals on the side. Coffee and tea next to them. There's milk and orange juice in the fridge, bread already in the toaster. Help yourself. Be back by three. Cora.

'Just coffee to start with, Cora,' Gemma told the absent housekeeper. 'Pity about the aspirin.'

She took the steaming mug back upstairs with her, sipping down most of it before stripping off and plunging into the shower, in the hope that the hot jets of water would clear her head. No such luck. She really needed a couple of painkillers.

Unfortunately, the wall cabinet in the guest en suite was empty apart from a spare toothbrush, some mouthwash, and a couple of tubes of toothpaste. Gemma didn't think anyone would mind if she searched the other medicine cabinets for something to take, so she covered her nakedness with her robe and walked out of her bedroom into the next.

Clearly, it was a man's bedroom, the furniture dark, the brown and gold furnishings having not a single piece of feminine frippery about any of them. There was also an absence of the type of ornament and knickknack women dotted around their rooms. The bed was made and the room tidy, but the black trousers and shirt Damian had worn the previous evening were draped across a chair in the corner.

Not wanting to linger, Gemma hurried across the room and into the connecting bathroom. This time, the cabinet was full of a wide range of medicine and other items, including several packets of condoms. Gemma tried not to make judgement over this-at least he was practicing safe sex - but seeing so many of them sitting there so openly and so casually sent a funny little shiver down her spine.

Her eyes darted along the shelves and when she spied some headache tablets she snatched them up, extracted a couple and put the packet back, relieved to slide the glass door back into place. Popping them into her mouth, she turned on the tap, cupped her hands and drank from the pool of water that formed in them.