Defying Drakon

Gemini had taken advantage of a brief lull in the day’s business and left her assistant in charge of the shop while she retired to her office, intending to go through the accounts and check on the rest of the month’s bookings. The last thing she had been expecting late on a Tuesday afternoon—or at any time, in fact—was a visit from Angela!

She drew in a deep breath before glancing up at her father’s widow, not in the least reassured by the angry glitter she could see in Angela’s eyes and the bright spots of colour in her cheeks. The rest of her appearance was as elegantly beautiful as usual; her hair was perfectly styled, the blue silk knee-length suit a perfect match in colour for her eyes, the three-inch heels on the matching shoes making her legs appear both slender and shapely. An elegantly beautiful viper!

‘What did I think I was doing in regard to what?’ Gemini enquired calmly as she placed her pen carefully down on the desktop in front of her.

‘Don’t try and play the innocent with me!’ Angela snapped as she stepped fully into the office and slammed the door behind her before striding over to stand in front of the desk and look down at Gemini contemptuously. ‘You’ve always acted so primly self-righteous. I never would have guessed that you would attempt something so underhand!’

Gemini looked at her blankly. ‘Flattered as I am to have so obviously succeeded in surprising you, I still have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.’

Angela’s pale blue gaze swept over her scornfully. ‘You know exactly what I’m talking about.’

Her patience with this woman had worn thin long ago, and now that her father was dead, and Angela was selling everything he had ever worked for and owned, Gemini saw absolutely no reason why she should even attempt to hide her dislike any longer.

She stood up impatiently. ‘If you don’t tell me what you’re doing here in the next few minutes then I’m afraid you’ll leave me with no choice but to demand that you leave.’

Those blue eyes flashed angrily. ‘Perhaps the name Drakon Lyonedes might help to jog your memory?’

Gemini felt the colour drain from her cheeks. Drakon? Angela was here because she knew Gemini had been to Lyonedes Tower to talk to him concerning Bartholomew H

ouse? Did Angela also know she’d had dinner with him there on Friday evening? That they’d kissed? And, if so, how did she know? Surely Angela could only have learnt those things from Drakon himself?

Did that mean he had been lying to her, after all, when he’d denied any personal involvement with Angela?

Gemini eyed the other woman guardedly. ‘What about him?’

Angela gave an inelegant snort. ‘I told you not to try and play the little innocent with me.’ She looked daggers at Gemini. ‘And to think Miles always believed you were such a sweet little thing too.’

‘Whatever problem you think you have with me, you will leave my father out of this,’ Gemini said, her hands clenched so tightly at her sides that her nails were digging painfully into her palms.

‘Will I?’ the older woman challenged derisively as she perched one slender hip against the side of the desk. ‘I wonder what Miles would have thought about your having thrown yourself at a man like Drakon Lyonedes.’

‘I did not throw myself at him!’ Gemini protested.

‘Liar!’ Angela straightened abruptly, her eyes once again glittering. ‘I always knew you didn’t like me, Gemini—and, believe me, the feeling is completely reciprocated. As far as I’m concerned you’ve always been far too much of a reminder of the perfect first wife that Miles so obviously adored.’

‘How could you possibly have been jealous of a dead woman?’ Gemini gasped.

‘I was never jealous of Rosemary!’ Angela glared furiously.

‘It sounds distinctly like jealousy to me,’ she retorted.

‘And what would you know about it, little rich girl?’ the other woman demanded. ‘You lived in a mansion all your life, doted on by rich and indulgent parents, you owned your own pony, attended private schools, and holidayed in exotic places all over the world several times a year. What would you know about growing up on the twelfth floor of a tenement building in a family of six who had nothing to look forward to but the next dole cheque?’

‘I—That was you?’

‘Oh, yes,’ Angela sneered. ‘Until I reached sixteen and was old enough to break my ties with my family in order to reinvent myself and use the one asset I have—my body and the way that I look. Of course I had to put up with the pawing of a succession of wealthy old men, but it was all worth it when I finally persuaded the wealthiest one into marrying me.’

Gemini went deathly white at these revelations. ‘You told my father that your father had gambled away your family fortune before committing suicide—’

‘And he did gamble—probably still does. What little money the government gave us always went to the bookies or on another bottle of whisky to throw down his throat,’ Angela said harshly. ‘He rarely, if ever, gave my mother enough money to actually feed any of us.’

‘You told my father that both your parents were dead.’

‘I lied,’ Angela admitted. ‘I’ve never been back, but as far as I’m aware both my parents are still alive—and no doubt living in exactly the same squalor as always.’

Gemini could perhaps understand what had driven Angela into seducing Miles into marriage now that she knew the truth of the other woman’s background—obviously any wealthy man would have done. Could understand and even sympathise with her. What she couldn’t accept was the unhappiness that selfishness had caused her disillusioned father before he died…

She took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry if that truly is how you were forced to live as a child—’