‘Well, I suppose in a way it made sense for the two of you to give us a joint present,’ Joy acknowledged breezily. ‘After all you were once… Well, anyway, we’re both thrilled with it. ‘I’d always loved the one that you and Luc—’ She stopped awkwardly. ‘Oh, dear!!’
‘It’s all right, darling, I fully understand what you’re trying to say,’ Belle reassured her.
‘Oh, Andy,’ Joy exclaimed thankfully as her new husband walked up. ‘I was just telling Aunt Belle how thrilled we are with the present she and Luc gave us…’
‘The bed? Too true. Joy had been dragging me over to that shop virtually every week.’
‘I was so upset when the shop told me that it had been sold, even though I knew we couldn’t afford it, and then when Luc came round and told me…’
‘What was all that about?’ Luc asked Belle, arriving back at their table as the bridal couple moved on to talk to some of their other wedding guests.
Whilst he handed Belle the drink he had gone to fetch for her she explained.
‘They were thanking me…us…for their wedding present.’
‘The bed?’
‘The bed,’ Belle agreed.
As he bent towards her Luc murmured provocatively, ‘Well, if they get as much…pleasure out of using it as we have recently done ours…’
‘Luc,’ Bell warned him, and then added dryly, ‘And you certainly weren’t saying that when we divorced seven years ago.’
‘That was then. I’ve come to see that shop-bought bed in a different light since then,’ Luc told her suavely. ‘A very different light… especially since you’ve bought those new curtains for the cottage. What was wrong with the old ones?’
‘They were looking worn and tired. They were the same ones I put up before we divorced…’
‘They reminded me of you,’ Luc told her tenderly. ‘That’s why I kept them…’
‘Watch out, here comes your mother,’ Belle warned him.
‘Luc… and Belle. You’re looking wonderful, my dear…’
As she bent to kiss her ex-mother-in-law, Belle acknowledged that she had always got on well with Luc’s mother, even if originally she had been a little in awe of her.
‘What’s this about you both giving Joy and Andrew a bed? And from the same place where—I should have thought…but then…’
‘We’ve decided the time has come to forgive the bed its sins,’ Luc told his mother mock gravely. ‘After all, it wasn’t entirely to blame.’
‘Oh, Luc…if you’re going to be flippant. I simply meant that I thought it was rather odd you should have chosen to give them something that wasn’t even on their wedding list…and to give it to them jointly.’
‘We decided that we could give them something a little more substantial if we combined our resources,’ Belle told her gently.
‘Well, yes, of course. But people do keep asking questions.’
‘Perhaps we made the wrong decision,’ Belle suggested.
There was a small, intimate pause, and then Luc responded obliquely, ‘Oh, I don’t think so.’
Belle remembered them making the decision to buy the bed, and the phone call which pre-dated it…
* * *
‘Belle, I’ve had an idea…’
As she cradled the telephone receiver Belle felt a small frisson of pleasure begin to curl through her body. She had been away on business for three days, and it had been heaven to come home to find Luc’s messages on her answering machine. And now here he was, ringing her to welcome her home.
‘Mmm…?’
‘About the wedding present…’
‘Mmm…?’
‘You did say you were coming home to house-sit for your parents this weekend, didn’t you?’
‘Mmm…’
‘Well…’
When he’d finished telling her his idea, she exclaimed, ‘You’re saying that we should buy them a bed? Like the one we…I… It wasn’t on their list.’
‘No, I know, but Andy let slip that Joy would love to have one.’
‘Well, yes, but, Luc! You don’t think it would be tempting history to repeat itself, do you…?’
There was a small pause before Luc replied, ‘Don’t be silly. Besides, I thought we’d agreed.’
‘It will cause talk—you know that, don’t you? You and I giving them a joint gift.’
‘I don’t mind—let them talk,’ Luc told her softly, adding persuasively, ‘Andy says Joy’s set her heart on the bed. It would be a wonderful surprise for Joy if we gave it to them. Andy’s promised to keep it a secret from her.’
‘Well, yes, I know what you’re saying, and it would be lovely to surprise Joy with it.’ Belle gave in.
‘Yes, it would,’ Luc agreed, and then asked her softly, ‘What time this weekend are you expecting to arrive?’
* * *
‘Belle, it’s Carol. Look, I was wondering, since you’re in Cambridgeshire for the next week, if you’d like to come round and have supper with us on Saturday evening. I’m not sure what time you’re due to arrive, but I know that Mum and Dad are planning to leave for the airport at two in the afternoon. It would give us a chance to talk. I’ve been so busy with the wedding arrangements—’
‘Carol, I have to go,’ Belle interrupted her sister firmly. ‘I’d love to see you whilst I’m down at Mum and Dad’s house-sitting, but I’m afraid that Saturday night is going to be out.’
Deliberately she didn’t offer any further explanation, swiftly ending the call before her sister could question her any further. There was no way she was going to tell Carol that the reason she couldn’t accept her invitation was because she had already accepted an earlier one—from Luc.
And fortunately her sister was too preoccupied to question the deeply unusual circumstances of Belle and Luc giving Joy and Andy a joint wedding present.
* * *
From the sitting room window of her parents’ house, Belle could see a car pulling into the drive. She drew in a sharp breath as she saw Luc climbing out of it and walking towards the front door.
‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded as she opened the door to him. ‘You said you’d pick me up at eight o’clock tonight…’
‘I know, but I couldn’t wait any longer to see you,’ Luc confessed as she let him in. ‘Oh, Belle…’
Not since they had been a courting couple had they behaved like this, Belle acknowledged as Luc barely waited until he had closed the front door behind them to take her hungrily in his arms and kiss her with a passion which she admitted she had no difficulty whatsoever in matching.
‘It’s less than a week since you saw me,’ Belle managed to find the logic to remind him when she was finally able to talk.
‘A lifetime,’ Luc told her mock solemnly, his tone belying the look of sparkling humour in his eyes.
This was a side of him she had never truly appreciated in the past, Belle acknowledged, as she shared his laughter, his sense of fun and teasing good humour. Perhaps because she had taken herself so seriously in those days, she had never allowed herself to appreciate it, but, as she was now discovering, shared laughter was a very, very potent aphrodisiac.
‘Carol rang the other day. She wanted me to have dinner with them this evening.’
‘What did you tell her?’ Luc asked as he followed her into her parents’ kitchen.
‘I said that I’d got a prior engagement,’ Belle informed him wryly.
‘A prior engagement… mmm …’
There was no mistaking the way Luc reinforced the word ‘engagement’, and followed it with a meaningful look at her left hand.
‘Luc, honestly!’ Belle reproved him. ‘What on earth would people think if they could see us…hear you…?’
‘I don’t care what other people think …only what you think… what you feel,’ Luc told her extravagantly.
‘Oh, Luc…’ A little shakily Belle went into his arms. ‘Are we right to be behaving like this? We made a mistake once…’
&n
bsp; ‘Look, we promised ourselves that we wouldn’t question what was happening, that we’d just take things…and each other…on trust,’ Luc reminded her.
‘Yes, I know,’ she admitted. ‘It’s just… Mmm… Luc, someone might see us,’ she protested halfheartedly as he started to kiss her.
‘Mmm…but at least this time it won’t be your father,’ Luc responded reminiscently. ‘Remember that evening when he came down?’
‘Mmm…he hadn’t realised that you’d come in with me, and he walked into the kitchen, where I’d gone to make us both a cup of coffee…’
‘And I’d followed you to help you.’
‘Oh, that was what you were doing, was it?’ Belle asked darkly.