O how that glittering taketh me!” ‘
Julia was mesmerised, as much by the indecently honeyed tone of his voice as by the way his grey eyes slid over her face, over the silk to where it drew taut across her breasts, reminding them both of how he had touched them. Indeed they began to ache, as if he was touching them now.
‘Oh, very appropriate,’ sniped Richard sourly. ‘Poetry, yet, big brother. You’ll be taking to the boards next.’
‘The kind of poetry that suits Julia is rather unsuitable for public performance,’ returned Hugh smoothly, not taking his eyes off a blushing Julia.
All through dinner it was the same, Hugh topping every endeavour of Richard’s to gain Julia’s attention. After she got over her initial breathless confusion Julia was tongue-tied by a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance at his heavy-handedness. He was being so obvious, surely everyone knew he was being sarcastic? But Connie was beaming benignly at them, Charley grinning knowingly and the others richly entertained by the romantic contest. Only for Julia was it a penance, knowing it was Hugh’s way of getting back at her.
‘Will you cut it out, you’re making everyone suspicious,’ she hissed desperately at Hugh as he leapt to pull out her chair when they all rose to leave the table.
‘Nonsense, they’re loving it,’ he murmured blandly into her ear. Catching Ros’s lascivious wink Julia knew he spoke the truth. ‘And look at Richard … on his last legs. If I can be moved to such revolting sentimentality he knows he may as well throw in the towel.’
Julia clenched her fists to stop herself throttling him. Revolting sentimentality! It was beautiful, heart-stopping … if only it was sincere. Oh, how she longed for him to mean every single sentimental word of his wooing. It gave her the shivers, imagining what it would be like to have Hugh so completely and utterly in love with her that he laid his heart at her feet with delicious phrases … O how that glittering taketh me! She escaped from her hut flushes into the kitchen, where she put the coffee on. Drifting back into the hall, wrapped in cosy dreams of mutual and everlasting love, she ran into Richard as he came out of the dining room. He struck a dramatic pose of woe.
‘ “Farewell, farewell, one kiss and I’ll descend.” ‘
‘Ohh, Richard, not now!’ snapped Julia.
‘Dear Juliet, why art thou yet so fair?’ He grinned at her fierce scowl. ‘You can take that hideous expression off your face, love. I concede.’
Julia viewed his graceful gesture with suspicion.
‘You know what Byron said about friendship?’ he continued with rueful charm. ‘It’s love without his wings.’
‘Well, we are kiwis,’ murmured Julia, naming New Zealand’s unique flightless native bird. Her heart sank into her shoes. The last thing she wanted to do was to call off the charade with Hugh. She wanted more time, needed more time, to show him that their relationship was worth something for its own sake.
‘I am,’ said Richard. ‘I’m beginning to think that you and Hugh are birds of a different feather.’
‘Are you two coming? Or are you going to stand out there exchanging clichés all night?’ It was Hugh, standing in the lounge doorway. ‘We’re going to toast Steve and Michael with the rest of the champagne.’
He reached out a casual arm and hauled Julia against him as she walked past, anchoring her there so that she was forced to share his glass of champagne. How much had he heard? Probably too much for her to pretend that Richard was still going to be a problem. And weren’t they all drinking to Steve’s recovery? She felt torn in two, and Hugh’s mockery suddenly became too much to stand.
‘If you don’t mind, I think I’ll have an early night,’ she told the assembled gathering after coffee had been distributed.
‘Good idea.’ Hugh put his own cup down.
‘Go ahead,’ said Michael drily. ‘Why should the night of my triumph over the Muse be different from an
y other night?’
‘Don’t be a sourpuss, darling,’ scolded his wife. ‘You two go on up,’ she said to Julia and Hugh, for all the world as if they were an old married couple. ‘The twins can help if I need assistance to wheel the old man away. He always gets stonkered when he finishes a play. Not a pretty sight.’
‘We could stay a little longer …’ offered Hugh, but Julia, sick of playacting, leapt in with both feet.
‘No we can’t,’ she said flatly, and flushed as everyone looked at her, tucked within the circle of Hugh’s arm.
‘That’s OK, we understand,’ Ros grinned at her eagerness. ‘Just remember what Connie told you about the you-know-what.’
Hugh raised an eyebrow and Julia gave a tiny groan as she dragged him upstairs and rounded on him fiercely.
‘You’re worse than Richard, you know that!’ she accused distractedly. ‘You made them think ..: them think …’ She stuttered to a stop in the face of his amusement. ‘There was no need to be so … so …’
‘Amorous?’
‘Lecherous!’ she howled, enraged by the smile that so usually enchanted her. He had no right to be so unfeeling.
‘What’s the matter, Julia?’ he asked with soft emphasis. ‘You can dish it out but you can’t take it? Not so amusing when you’re the butt of a joke, is it?’