Master of Comus

'My God! But how...' Silence followed. Then Paul said gently, 'Yes, of course, Diane. I'll be there right away.'

Diane? Leonie felt a sharp stab of jealousy. Why was Diane ringing Paul at this time of night? And why was Paul prepared to go out obediently at her lightest request? What had there been between them before Paul flew to Comus? Could the relationship have been deeper than everyone supposed? Was it true, as Emilie had told her, that Paul was just one of Diane's circle of admiring males? Or was there something more serious between the two of them? Diane's malice towards her had been so personal that Leonie's feminine intuition told her Diane had suffered from bitter jealousy towards her.

Paul appeared in the doorway, shrugging into his jacket again, his shirt open at the neck, exposing the strong brown column of his throat.

She looked at him calmly, masking her fear.

'I have to go out,' he said. 'That was Diane. George has had a heart attack.'

'Oh, no!' she was aghast at her own earlier 1 thoughts. 'Poor George!' Then, from shame at herself, 'Poor Diane! Is there anything I can do? Would you like me to come with you?'

Shaking his head Paul said, 'No, get off to bed. You look tired. They've taken George to hospital.

Diane wanted someone to talk to while she waits for news. She's in a state of shock, which isn't surprising. George has always looked so healthy. This is a very unexpected development. Coming so suddenly it's knocked her completely off balance. I've never heard Diane sound so distraught.'

'She must be very worried,' nodded Leonie.

Paul sighed. 'Yes, of course. Well, goodnight. Don't stay up late. You need some sleep.'

When he had gone Leonie slowly tidied up, put out all the lights, showered and slipped into her nightdress, then got into bed. She could not relax; her mind was far too active. She tossed and turned on her pillows, consumed with anxiety.

She remembe

red Diane's cold contempt towards her husband at that dinner party. Could that have masked real affection? Somehow Leonie did not believe it. Diane did not love George. No doubt his heart attack had been a shock to her, but Leonie found it disturbing that it should have been to Paul that Diane turned at such a moment.

If George died Diane would be free...

She sat up restlessly, biting her lip. Such a thought was cruel in the circumstances, selfish and petty, yet it would not be banished.

If Diane was free what effect would that have on Paul, on their marriage? How did Paul really feel towards Diane?

Thinking of the other woman's blonde beauty Leonie could only feel miserably afraid. She had no weapons to combat Diane's sophisticated loveliness. Diane had the advantage of having known Paul for years, of sharing a past with him.

Her head began to ache intolerably. She padded into the bathroom and found some aspirin in the cupboard. Taking two with a glass of water, she settled down in bed again with a book, a detective story she had found in Paul's bookcase.

Somehow she managed to concentrate on the involved plot, but the characters were so bizarre and the background so gothic that she could not engage herself with the story. At last her eyelids began to droop. She put out the light and fell slowly to sleep.

When she woke up she heard the vacuum cleaner humming in another room. Daylight lay over the room like a pall. She slid out of bed and moved to the window. It was a grey morning with a smell of rain in the air. It matched her mood.

Madame Delarge was cheerful as she passed, bidding her a brisk good-morning.

Leonie felt numb and depressed. She drank some chilled orange juice, sipped at a cup of strong coffee, looked through the Paris newspapers, practising her schoolgirl French. She had made up her mind to read a newspaper once a day in order to improve her grasp of the language, but today the print blurred before her eyes.

Paul was not back yet. His room stood empty, the bed still neat and unused.

Doris rang at eleven. 'Have you heard?' 'About George? Yes.'

'Do you know the latest bulletin?'

'I only know he had a heart attack last night and is in hospital,' Leonie said.

'Paul rang Carl this morning. Apparently George is holding his own, but only just. It's touch and go.'

'How is Diane taking it?' Leonie had to ask. Paul had not rung her. He had rung his friends, but he had not rung her. What did that indicate? What was going on between those two at the hospital?

Doris made a little grunt of disgust. 'Who knows? Paul said she was very distressed, but you know Diane! She has one face for men, another for women. I'd like to see for myself before I believed anything about her.'

'It must have been a shock to her!'