Conveniently His Omnibus

A hot wave of colour flooded her skin as Sophy found herself unable to free herself from his gaze. He had taken off his glasses—to dry them, she supposed, and had not put them back, so that she could quite clearly see the wry amusement darkening his eyes to indigo blue.

‘What’s this?’

He said it softly, watching her like a hunter stalking his prey...seeing far too much for someone who was supposed to be so short-sighted.

‘I was cold.’

She saw his eyebrows lift with pardonable mockery, shock jolting through her body as he said softly. ‘How disappointing... I was hoping it was a love-object substitute...’ he sat down beside her and concluded silkily, ‘and that that love-object was me.’

How could he do this to her? Her fingers curled into her palms, not even the dying sound of the storm having the power to frighten her now.

‘Why are you saying these things to me?’ she demanded huskily. ‘Isn’t Lillian enough for you?’

His prompt ‘No,’ stunned her. She could only stare silently up at him, her mouth slightly open. All humour had gone from his eyes now and in fact they were almost frighteningly grim.

‘I could shake you, Sophy, for being so stupid,’ he told her bitingly. ‘How on earth could you be so easily deceived?’

‘Deceived?’

‘I don’t care what Lillian might have told you.’ He reached out and cupped her face. ‘Sophy, Lillian and I were never lovers. Oh, I know what she told you,’ he continued before she could speak, ‘but only because Mary-Beth told me. I had no idea that Lillian had—’ He broke off, his mouth curling in bitter derision. ‘That woman astounds me, astounds and frightens...’

‘Jon...’

‘No...listen to me. Let me tell you the full story,’ he paused and when she made no move to speak he started softly, ‘I told you that I met Lillian when I went to Nassau, but what I didn’t tell you was that she seemed to develop what, for lack of a better description, I can only describe as some sort of fixation about me.’ He grimaced faintly. ‘It got so bad that I was actually having to find ways to avoid her. When she first invited me to use her apartment and pool I had no idea. In the end I had to appeal to Mary-Beth for help and it was then that I discovered that Lillian has a history of these almost violent fixations. It’s a sad story in a way. In many respects she’s absolutely brilliant...perhaps almost too much so. Apparently she had some sort of breakdown just after she left university but she’s very good at her job and Harry, who’s a bit of a softie in many ways, took her on to his staff after he heard about her history of mental problems from his predecessor. Workwise he has no criticism of her at all but emotionally, she doesn’t seem to have any conception of reality or self-control.

‘When he told me all this I was glad that I was leaving Nassau so soon—and not only for that reason,’ he added cryptically. ‘I got the shock of my life when I walked into that hotel in London and found her waiting for me there in the foyer. Apparently Harry had had to ring Nassau and he had spoken to her on the telephone—about some problems she was having with her work. She asked him about me and without thinking he mentioned that I was going to London to do some work for Lexicons, which happens to be a company that Nassau deal with.’ He shrugged tiredly.

‘Harry admits now that that was a mistake, but as he says, it never even crossed his mind that Lillian would ring Lexicons, pretending to be my wife and find out from them which hotel they had booked me into and when I could be expected there.’ He saw Sophy’s expression and smiled harshly. ‘She was quite proud of what she did, believe me. For me it was like the start of a nightmare. Every time I tried to persuade her to go back to Nassau she started threatening to destroy herself. Finally I managed to persuade her to let me ring Harry and he came down to London straight away to talk to her.

‘The plan was that Harry would see her safely on to a plane to go home and that she would be met at the other end, but somehow it backfired and she managed to give Harry the slip.

‘He rang me yesterday morning to warn me. That was why I went out to see him so that we could try and work out what on earth she was going to do. The last thing I expected was that she would turn up here.