A Whirlwind Marriage

‘Go on.’ Zeke hadn’t taken his eyes off the Frenchman when his sister had spoken. ‘You did not want to be a party to what, exactly?’

‘You know what.’ Claude had gone ashen. ‘I tell her. I tell her that this is not good, that it will end badly. I tell her but she won’t listen.’

‘Elucidate,’ Zeke bit out savagely.

Claude darted a glance to the left and right of him, clearly terrified. ‘She wouldn’t listen,’ he whined nervously. ‘She said if I still wanted money I had to do it. She said you would never find out.’

‘You made the phone call.’ Marianne had half risen in her seat, one hand gripping hold of her father’s arm and the other pointing at the big florid Frenchman in front of her. ‘You said that you were Liliana’s lover, that she was having an affair with Zeke.’

‘Of course he did.’ Zeke’s voice was full of contempt. ‘I have known Claude for years, and he does whatever his sister tells him to do. That is so, isn’t it, Liliana? Claude has a little problem, an expensive little problem, and big sister provides the cash for his habit in return for his absolute devotion to the cause of promoting Liliana de Giraud at all times and giving her exactly what she wants. He would murder his own grandmother if Liliana required it.’

‘A slight exaggeration.’ Liliana’s head was up and she was far from beaten.

‘I don’t think so.’ For the first time Zeke glanced the redhead’s way and there was a dangerous glitter in his eyes. ‘You tried to set me up that day when you said you had an appointment in Stoke, didn’t you, Liliana? And no one—no one—does that to me and gets away with it. By the time I’ve finished with you you will be lucky to get a job anywhere in England, let alone London. But you made a mistake in using Claude. I keep my ear to the ground and I knew damn well you hadn’t got a lover at that moment; the rest, as they say, is history.’

She had thought Zeke looked at her strangely last night when she had mentioned Liliana’s ex phoning her, Marianne thought numbly. He had guessed then; she was sure of it. And so he had organised what the redhead and her brother had thought was a nice cosy meal for just the three of them. And that meant… The numbness was beginning to wear off. That meant their affair was purely in Liliana’s dirty little mind.

‘I could say we’re having an affair anyway.’ Liliana’s red-painted mouth was white round the edges with rage and furious resentment at the position Zeke had placed her in.

But now it was Josh who spoke, and he sounded very much the doctor as he said quietly, ‘Why humiliate yourself any further, Miss de Giraud? It seems to me it is not only your brother who needs help.’

‘Zeke does love me. He does. We should never have parted; he knows that at heart. I’m far better suited for him than her!’

Marianne didn’t wilt beneath the savage enmity of Liliana’s eyes as they flashed her way, but inside her spirit shrank at what was almost madness in the other woman’s gaze. She was unbalanced, Marianne thought sickly. She had to be.

And then Zeke challenged the thought as he said softly, ‘She doesn’t need help, Josh, not in the way you mean anyway. She is obsessed, all right, but not with me, not really. Liliana always comes first with Liliana, and when I finished our relationship some years ago she couldn’t accept that a man had actually chosen to walk away from her. It was the first time it had happened, you see; before me it had always been Liliana who ended the affairs. She wants what she can’t have, like a spoilt child in a toy shop, and when she gets the toys she wants she takes delight in breaking them. I knew that by the time I left her, but she fooled me inasmuch as I thought she’d accepted how things were between us and ceased to care. I’d never have offered her the job otherwise.’

Josh looked straight at Zeke now, as he continued to grip his daughter’s hand beneath the table, and said drily, ‘It seems to me you shouldn’t have offered it to her anyway. Not one of your best decisions, Zeke.’

Zeke looked back into the older man’s calm eyes and then nodded slowly. ‘No, it wasn’t,’ he agreed expressionlessly.

Liliana had clearly had enough of being discussed as though she was not present. She rose in one fluid, sinuous movement of black silk and glared at them all as she spat, ‘You’ll pay for this; you see if you won’t. I won’t be treated like this.’

‘Sit down.’ Zeke didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to; he was quite terrifying enough as it was.

Marianne had always known he could be a formidable opponent—he must have been to get from where he’d started to where he was now—but she was seeing the cold, hard side of him in action for the first time and he was frightening.

His eyes were like piercing steel as they skewered Liliana’s, and his voice was glacial, penetrating the thought process like liquid ice.

Liliana sat. The devil himself would have sat.

‘I can make you wish you were dead, Liliana,’ he said, softly but clearly, ‘in a hundred different ways you haven’t even thought of. I can strip you of your reputation, make sure you never work again, arrange it that you never get invited to another show, another first night, another exclusive party. And I would do it without any compunction after what you’ve done. You understand that?’

Liliana opened her mouth twice to speak, but all she could manage was a nod of her carefully coiffured head.

‘No one touches me and mine, and you give Marianne the respect due to her as my wife when you address her. Okay? She is worth a hundred of you and you know it; that’s what really eats you up. The contract is cancelled as from now and you’ll get out of London if you know what’s good for you. One word, one whisper against me and mine, and I’ll make sure you suffer the torments of the damned.’

‘Zeke—Zeke, I didn’t mean it.’

‘Yes, you did, and we both know it. You would have wrecked my marriage on a pack of lies without a grain of truth in them. I don’t want to hear that you’re back in town for a very long time, Liliana, and just be thankful I’m holding my hand and you can still work in Paris and Milan and New York.’

The waiter chose that moment to arrive with their cocktails, and he placed each one in front of them hurriedly, his antennae picking up that this was not a good time.

Liliana watched him depart and then she picked up the fluted glass of deep, almost black liquid and drained it, replacing it on the table with a flourish that wasn’t lost on the rest of them before she rose gracefully to her feet.

She might be a lying, venomous little snake, without a moral to her name, Marianne thought, but one thing was undeniable. Liliana had class.

‘Goodbye.’ The opaque eyes swept over each one of them as Claude shuffled to his feet beside his sister. ‘I will be sure to be in Paris by the end of the week. Will that suffice?’ Liliana asked Zeke, her voice cool and even but her cheeks flushed with high, angry colour.