Mistress of Deception

She wanted no more afterwardses. Not ever.

The taxi stopped outside the high security fence that guarded the Carstairses' home. She paid the fare and alighted, drawing her black woollen cape around her black woollen trousers. Her mohair jumper was black too, but with pearls sewn in a flower pattern around the neck and across the padded shoulders. Her hair was braided, falling down the centre of her back

in one long thick plait. She was only wearing a smattering of make-up. Deirdre had said dinner would just be the two of them.

Using the keys still in her possession, she let herself in through the security gate and crunched up the gravel drive, glancing in fond memory at the fountain in the centre of the well-ordered gardens. She had used to like feeding the birds that flocked around that fountain in the spring. She used to like living in this house. It had seemed so warm compared to her growing-up years. Even the boarding-school Alan had sent her to was warm compared to those grim, lonely years. She'd actually felt loved for the first time in her life.

Loved...

Ebony ignored the contraction in her heart and stepped up on to the wide white-columned portico. The house itself was also white and looked relatively modest from street level, but actually had three levels which allowed it to hug the steeply sloped block as it dropped down to the shoreline of Double Bay. Besides the house itself, there was a terraced swimming-pool, a tennis court and a private jetty, Alan's small but luxury cruiser, Man-About-Town, moored not far off shore.

Ebony could have let herself in with her keys, but that would assume a casual intimacy with this house and its inhabitants which she'd lost four years before. She felt sorry that Alan's mother was slightly bewildered by her and Alan's public behaviour towards each other. Deirdre Carstairs had never been anything but kind to her since her son had brought her home as a shy, rather introverted girl of fifteen. Maybe Mrs Carstairs had been a little lonely at the time—Alan's sister had just left home. Whatever, the woman had welcomed Ebony with open arms and the two had become as close as Ebony's reserved nature had allowed.

Ebony was very fond of her. Which was why she could not refuse this invitation to dinner, despite having felt slightly uneasy about it from the start. Right at this moment, that uneasiness seemed to be increasing, which was ridiculous. Alan's car was not parked in front of the house where he always left it when he was home. He was away in Melbourne on business. Deirdre had told her as much only yesterday She was safe.

Shrugging off her edginess, she moved forward to press the front doorbell, sweeping her cape off in readiness for stepping into air-conditioning.

Bob answered the door. 'Hello, Miss Ebony,' he said, taking her cape as she stepped inside.

'Hello, Bob. What's on the menu for tonight? Another of your fabulous Italian dishes?'

'I don't know about fabulous, but Mr Alan won't eat anything else these days.'

Her panic was immediate. 'Mr Alan? But I thought '

'Ebony, dear,' Deirdre Carstairs exclaimed as she rushed across the foyer, looking flustered but stylish in a pale blue shirtmaker dress that complemented her silver-grey hair. 'You're a bit early.'

'Mrs Carstairs, did I misunderstand? Bob implied just now that Alan would be here for dinner. You said that he was going to Melbourne tonight.' Guilt was written all over the woman's face. 'Yes, I know I did, dear, but you see, Alan said that.. .well, he was sure that... Oh, dear, I was afraid this wouldn't work.'

'It already has, Mother,' Alan drawled as he joined them, looking casually elegant in an extremely modern suit of the palest blue-grey wool, made all the more modern looking by his teaming it with a white turtle-neck sweater. 'Ebony's here,' he stated smugly.

'Yes, but she's not happy about it. You've only got to look at her...'

Ebony would have liked to slice the smile from Alan's face with a meat cleaver. Instead, she assembled every ounce of composure she had, squashing any panic and controlling her rush of adrenalin with a couple of steadying breaths. Then she did the very opposite of what Alan would have been expecting. She smiled back at him.

'Did you think you had to lie to me to have the pleasure of my company? Silly man. You only ever had to ask nicely, Alan, didn't you know that? All that old antagonism was quite unnecessary. I'm very amenable when men are nice to me. Just ask Gary.'