So why, in view of all that, did she have such a feeling of heaviness on her? Kim asked herself silently. There was a lead weight on her heart and an underlying feeling of restlessness she could well do without.
This was further enhanced when the telephone rang just after she and Melody had finished tea. It was Maggie, and from the tone of her friend’s voice Kim knew immediately something was wrong.
‘I’m taking that job in America for six months, Kim.’ Maggie had told her a few weeks before about the wonderful offer from a wealthy businessman who wanted Maggie to design and oversee the interiors of both his new apartment in New York and a sumptuous beach house in California. But Maggie had been unsure about leaving England—and more particularly Pete—for such a long stretch, and had been dithering as to whether to take the commission. ‘I leave after the weekend.’
‘It’s a brilliant opportunity, Maggie.’ Kim repeated the words she had used when Maggie had first told her about the venture. ‘What made up your mind to accept?’
‘Pete,’ said Maggie flatly. ‘I’ve had enough, Kim. I’ve told him he’s a free agent while I’m gone but if he wants me when I come back it means the whole hog—full commitment, and that includes marriage. I want children, Kim, and soon. We’ve been together long enough for him to make up his mind one way or the other, and this seems like the perfect time for him to sort himself out. If he can’t do without me, great
. If it’s all over when I come home, so be it. This is the short, sharp shock treatment you suggested once.’
‘Are you sure?’ Kim asked anxiously. Maggie worshipped the ground Pete walked on.
‘No, I’m frightened to death he’ll pull the plug, if you want to know,’ Maggie said dejectedly, ‘but I can’t carry on the way we are, either. It’s killing me, Kim. We’ve agreed no contact, no letters or phone calls for the whole of the six months, so it’s really make or break.’
They talked some more and after Kim had replaced the receiver she continued sitting at the foot of the stairs, staring into space.
She’d miss Maggie, and so would Melody, but she felt in her spirit Maggie was doing the right thing. It was a gamble, but then everything in life carried some sort of risk.
She frowned suddenly, aware her mind was trying to tell her something she couldn’t grasp. And then the doorbell rang.
Kim glanced at her watch. Seven o’clock. Who on earth was calling at seven o’clock? she asked herself wearily. It had to be a salesman of some kind or other—the only other person who would pop round was Maggie and she’d only just got off the phone to her. She hoped it wasn’t one of the more persistent individuals, that was all. She didn’t feel like doing battle tonight.
She pulled herself up from the bottom stair and walked across the hall, opening the door with a polite refusal already hovering on her lips. ‘Lucas!’ She could feel the colour pouring into her cheeks but she couldn’t help it.
‘Hello, Kim.’
‘But you’re in America,’ she said stupidly.
‘Am I?’ He smiled. A tired smile. ‘Clever me.’
‘I mean, I thought you were in America,’ she corrected quickly, suddenly hotly aware of the old jeans and skinny-rib jumper she had pulled on before making tea.
‘Can I come in?’
She could feel the intensity of his gaze on her hair, which she had brushed out when she’d changed and was wearing loose on her shoulders, and her blush deepened. ‘Oh, yes. I’m sorry. Of course, come in.’ She was so flustered she nearly fell over her own feet as she backed away from the door, and then Melody emerged from the sitting room like a small bullet, her tiny face all lit up.
‘Lucas!’ With a total lack of inhibition Melody ran over to him and smiled up into the hard rugged face. ‘Have you come to see me?’ she asked trustingly.
‘That I have.’
With his gaze now on the small figure of her daughter Kim was able to really look at him, and she saw the harsh face had a grey tinge of exhaustion and he looked utterly done in.
‘Good,’ Melody declared happily. ‘Mummy and me are doing a jigsaw I had for Christmas. You can help if you like. It’s very hard,’ she added with a small frown.
‘Darling, Mr Kane—Lucas—is tired,’ Kim said quickly.
‘But not too tired to try my hand at the jigsaw,’ Lucas put in swiftly, holding out his arm to Melody, who took his hand immediately and dragged him off to the sitting room.
The jigsaw was lying on a big tray on the rug in front of the fire, and Kim watched with something approaching disbelief as her dignified and illustrious boss shrugged off his suit jacket and loosened his tie before squatting down next to Melody on the floor.
The light caught the shining blue-black jet of his hair and the fragile fairness of Melody’s waves, emphasising the contrast between them, and for a moment Kim felt such a sense of panic she wanted to run across the room and snatch Melody up in her arms.
‘Would…would you like a drink?’ she asked helplessly from the doorway.
‘I’d love one. Black coffee, please.’ Lucas turned round and looked at her as he spoke, and the flickering glow from the fire picked out the lines of strain round his mouth and eyes.
He was dead beat. Kim stared at him for a second more and then heard her voice asking, ‘Have you eaten? I can rustle up something, if you like?’