Lovers Not Friends

Amy was sitting quietly in the garden in the evening shadows, the hub of London life barely reaching into the protected opulent grounds surrounding Blade’s beautiful mansion except for the odd faint scream of a police siren now and again rising above the muted drone of the world outside. The thick warm air was heavy against her face and bare arms; it had been a baking hot day and the weather man had forecast more to follow.

She followed the progress of a busy little insect gathering pollen from a flowering bush nearby, its transparent wings a blur in the dusky air, with sleepy interest. It was strange, this feeling that seemed to have taken her over since she had lain the burden of her illness on Blade’s shoulders. She wasn’t exactly happy—the knowledge of what she had to face was still too new for that—but somehow a kind of acceptance had settled like a warm comforting blanket over the horror and pain, and with it the joy of living had been revived. She couldn’t be sure of what the future would hold, Blade had impressed that on her time and time again, except that they would face it together and for the moment that was enough.

She glanced at the delicate gold watch on her wrist idly. Nine o’clock. Evening birdsong had started, the pure loud notes of a missel-thrush competing with the other resident birds that inhabited the vast grounds of Blade’s mansion. Blade would be home this time tomorrow evening if all went well, but she was already missing him desperately although he had only been gone since six that morning. She shut her eyes as she leant back in the huge cushioned cane chair, her thoughts heavy and dreamy. He loved her. More than she had ever imagined possible. There was no more room for doubts or fears but she wished, oh, she wished she wouldn’t have to leave him alone so soon. The next few years seemed a painfully short time. It was the knowing that was so hard; if it had happened suddenly, in an accident, then maybe …

‘Hello, sleeping beauty.’ The warm hard kiss brought her instantly awake from the light doze she had fallen into, and she opened dazed blue eyes to stare straight into Blade’s glittering gaze. ‘Oh, Amy, my love …’ He had whisked her up from the chair, and into his arms before she could speak, holding her so tight as he whirled her round and round in a frenzy of excitement that she felt she would faint if he didn’t stop.

‘Blade, no more—’ He cut short her protestation with another kiss that was almost savage in its intensity before letting her slide on to her feet still in his arms. ‘You aren’t supposed to be home till tomorrow.’ She stared at him anxiously. He looked strange, wild, as though something was burning inside that was going to explode.

‘I’ve got something to tell you.’ His voice was shaking but the look on his face reassured the sudden panic that gripped her throat for a second. It couldn’t be bad news, not with him looking like that. ‘Sit down, you’ll have to be sitting down, and let me finish before you say anything. Promise?’ He sank with her on to the bowling green-smooth lawn, careless of his expensive suit, and she nodded silently as her eyes swept over his handsome face. ‘I’ve been to see Sandra.’

‘Blade!’ She reared up like a scalded cat. ‘You promised me you wouldn’t, not yet, not till I could face it.’

‘You didn’t have to,’ he said quietly as he pulled her back down beside him. ‘I didn’t plan to tell you anything about it. I just wanted to find out details, doctors, things like that so I could make my own enquiries. I didn’t intend to leave a stone unturned—’ He stopped abruptly. ‘Hell, I’m not making a very good job of this. Amy …’ He took her face in his hands as he gazed deep into her troubled eyes. ‘You don’t have the disease, you’re safe, it’s not going to happen.’

‘What?’ Time had stopped, suspended and hanging on a thread in the dusky stillness. ‘Blade, what did you say?’

‘You don’t have it, Amy, I’ve checked, I’m sure.’ He watched the colour flare and then recede in her face anxiously. ‘I didn’t mean to tell you like this, I was going to lead into it gradually to cut down the shock.’ The buzzing in her ears was deafening but she fought against the faint feeling sweeping her body with sickening weakness, and leant against him shakily. This wasn’t happening, it couldn’t be, it was too much like all the hopes and dreams she’d had in the last few months to be true.

‘Let me tell you now, from the beginning, and don’t say anything.’ His arms were strong and secure as they held her close and she nodded silently, her heart pounding. She mustn’t hope, not for a minute. It would be a mistake. She knew it.