Love's Only Deception

Logan drew in an angry breath, his nostrils flaring, his lips thinning. ‘Maybe we were better off not knowing about each other.’ He picked up his jacket. ‘I wasn’t aware that I was spending the evening with a narrow-minded girl who’s easily influenced by other people’s misguided opinions.’

‘I’m not—’

‘Aren’t you?’ He shrugged his shoulders into the velvet jacket. ‘You’ve just quoted the opinions of some long-haired lout who’s read his way through a few Marxist books and now thinks he’s an authority on socialism. Tell me, Callie, if it works so well why are so many people defecting from Russia?’

‘I—’

‘Because it doesn’t work, that’s why,’ he told her coldly. ‘On paper it’s Eden, all for one and one for all. But in theory it’s just oppression at its worst. Okay, so I have money, and I made it by producing such frivolous things as cosmetics and perfumes. Maybe your young friend should take a vacation in one of these socialist countries, see how those people really live!’

She had opened a hornets’ nest. Logan flushed with anger, his eyes cold. ‘I didn’t mean—’

‘No, I’m sure you didn’t,’ he sneered. ‘Go back to your socialist friends, Callie. And in future I’ll stick to my rule not to get involved with impressionable children!’

‘Logan—’

‘Goodbye, Callie!’

He slammed the flat door so loud as he left that Paul instantly woke up, taking her attention for the next half an hour. But Logan was right about the talking. Paul slowly drifted back to sleep as she rocked him in the chair, murmuring softly to him all the time.

The flat seemed very quiet when she came out of the nursery, and strangely lonely too, the only reminder of Logan’s presence here this evening the faint aroma of his aftershave.

She hadn’t meant to anger him, and he had been completely wrong about Jeff. He hadn’t been a socialist, he had felt that if someone worked for what they earnt then they were entitled to it, but he had obviously felt that the money he received from Spencer Plastics was not made by his merit but because of who he was. She hadn’t meant to imply that Logan hadn’t worked for his money, hadn’t wanted him to storm out of here never to see him again.

And she wouldn’t see him again, she knew that. Heavens, if only he knew, she was just as much of a capitalist as he was, was part owner of a successful firm, had so much money coming to her she didn’t know what to do with it!

It got so late that in the end she dozed on the sofa, receiving one telephone call from Bill to tell her that there had been no change in his father-in-law’s condition.

There had been no further word from him when she finally crawled, stiff with discomfort, from the sofa at seven o’clock the next morning. Paul would be waking for his breakfast in a minute, and what he was going to make of the absence of both his mother and father she had no idea. But she could take a good guess.

She had thought a lot about Logan Carrington during the long silent night, and she had decided she owed him an apology. Whether she had meant to or not, she had passed judgment on him, had been scornful and condescending about his way of life. She had been hypocritical, and she deserved his anger.

When Bill arrived home at seven-fifteen she was glad of his help with the inconsolable Paul. The poor baby was crying as if everyone had deserted him! And maybe to him it seemed as if they had.

But the arrival of his ‘Dad-dee’ did a lot to calm him, so much so that Callie even managed to get some cereal down him while she listened to Bill.

‘The doctor thinks Ted’s going to pull through now, the worst is over, thank God. But Edith, Marilyn’s mother, collapsed when the doctor told her he should be all right. Marilyn wants to move in with her mother for a while, and I think it’s probably the best thing too.’

‘Yes,’ Callie nodded understandingly. ‘Although I’ll miss you.’

‘Let’s hope it won’t be for too long,’ Bill said ruefully. ‘I know Ted’s ill, and Edith needs us, but I’m not sure I can take living with her for too long.’

‘I’m sure it won’t be for long,’ s

he assured him, being quite familiar with the discord between Bill and his in-laws. ‘You have to come back for Christmas, it will be Paul’s first real one. He was only three months old last year.’

‘That’s five weeks away. You don’t think we’ll be away that long?’ he groaned.

‘I hope not,’ she grinned.

Bill frowned. ‘You weren’t frightened here on your own last night?’

Callie suddenly became very interested in feeding Paul his cereal. ‘No, I was fine.’ She didn’t feel now was the time to tell Bill that she hadn’t spent the evening alone, just the night.

‘Was Paul good?’

‘Oh yes.’ She went on to tell him about the new trick of talking the baby to sleep.

‘I’ll tell Marilyn,’ he said absently. ‘Hey, would you mind packing Paul’s things while I deal with Marilyn’s and mine? Then you’ll have to be getting to work, won’t you?’