Fortune in the Stars (20 page)

'If I rightly remember I once cautioned you against
impatience, but it certainly wasn't patience that won out then,' he
accused, his body a scorching heat against hers. 'Or perhaps you don't
remember?'

'I remember,' she admitted in a voice that shook, acting
the thought furthest from her mind as need became a savage ache within
her.

'Perhaps it's time we got out of here,' he suggested
hoarsely, his eyes burning down into hers.

She nodded, pride no longer a consideration as her mind
closed itself to all but love and the overpowering need in her to be
able to give physical expression to that love for just one more
time—before fate gave its final twist of the knife in her.

It was
to the shrill ring of the phone and the abrupt separation of her body
from the warmth against which it lay that Penny awoke.

For several seconds her mind and body did battle, the
latter fighting off the attempts of the former to deprive her of the
last comforting vestiges of sleep. Then suddenly she was totally awake,
her body struggling upright as her ears strained to interpret the
terse, monosyllabic utterances which Dominic was making into the
mouthpiece as he paced back and forth, tanned and naked and with the
receiver jammed tightly against his ear.

'Yes…and you're both all right?' he demanded.

Penny watched, a heavy, suffocating tightness in her chest
as she tried to gauge from the marbled immobility of his features what
answer he might be receiving.

'Yes… I understand, of course I do.'

Unable to contain herself any longer, Penny leapt from the
bed, her eyes begging for a hint from his.

'Right,' he was saying as he gave a small shake of his
head and impatiently motioned her to wait. 'I'll see you then.'

He replaced the receiver and stood for several seconds
gazing down at it blankly.

'Lexy…just tell me she's safe,' Penny begged
hoarsely, a sick fear in her that he would shake his head and tell her
the opposite.

'She's safe…thank God,' he muttered, sinking
down on to the chair behind him with little sign of being aware of
having done so.

'Thank God!' echoed Penny with a heartfelt sigh, no more
conscious of her own movements than he had been of his as she stumbled
to his side and placed her arms around him, cradling his head to her in
a spontaneous gesture of love and shared relief. 'For one terrible
moment I thought…but it doesn't matter, she's all right,'
she stammered brokenly, tears streaming down her face as she felt the
sudden jolt of a delayed reaction shudder through him. 'It's all over,'
she whispered, her hands offering him the silent comfort of love as
they stroked gently against his hair.

For an instant she felt his body tense, then he suddenly
broke free from her and was on his feet.

'Yep, it seems you were right all along,' he announced
with studied jocularity. 'And now, as you say, it's all over.'

Penny stood as though frozen in that instant before he had
leapt free of her, her arms curved outwards before her as though still
holding him.

'Anyway, they're just about through with the police and
I've arranged to meet them at Lexy's place in half an hour,' he stated
briskly, his voice drawing away from her as he moved towards the
bathroom. 'Perhaps you could arrange to have some breakfast sent up
while I have a shower?' he suggested, closing the bathroom door behind
him without waiting for an answer.

Stunned, Penny felt her arms drop heavily to her sides.
Yes, it was most certainly all over, she told herself numbly. And it
had been her intuitive awareness of the imminence of this end that had
instigated the almost demented lack of inhibition in her during those
tempestuous hours that had filled their night.

She pressed her hand to her mouth, stifling a sob as her
passion-bruised lips throbbed to memory-laden life beneath the
unintentional pressure of her fingers. Time and again she had given
herself to him in the frenzied ardour of love…and now it was
all over.

She lifted the receiver and mechanically ordered breakfast
while her mind dissected the events of these past moments with a
brutal, wounding clarity.

Her response to the long-awaited news had been to hold him
and share the joy…his had been to cut himself from her
entirely. He had wanted to share none of it with her, his baldly
uninformative statements and puzzling references to 'they' leaving
questions crying out to be answered.

She picked up her dressing-gown and put it on, a spasm of
pain mixed with mounting disbelief crossing her face as it occurred to
her that no mention had been made of her accompanying him to the
reunion about to take place.

It had been Lexy's disappearance that had got her into
this ghastly mess in the first place, she reminded herself angrily. And
she was damned if she wasn't going to be in at the end of it!

With determination setting her features, she got out her
cases and began packing them; whatever happened, she wasn't staying in
this place a moment longer than she had to.

The waiter had just arrived with the breakfast tray when
Dominic emerged from the bathroom, and it was without a word to him
that Penny passed him on her way into it, the clothes she intended
wearing draped over her arm.

And they exchanged not a single word when, barely ten
minutes later, she re-appeared, showered and dressed.

The fact that Lexy was safe had to be some indication that
things were taking an upward turn, she told herself, pouring a coffee
and drinking it while Dominic finished packing the bag he had brought
with him from Mallorca and the case Monique had had sent over from
France. And very soon now it really would all be over…and
she would be able to embark on getting some semblance of order restored
to her life. As that thought, intended to cheer her, began filling her
with an aching dread, Dominic straightened suddenly and glanced down at
his watch with a frown.

'I'd better ring for a cab from Reception while I'm
settling the bill,' he muttered half to himself.

'I'll see you down in the lobby, then,' she stated calmly,
her only feeling towards him one of loathing. 'I'm coming with
you…unless you'd rather I made my own way there?'

Without so much as an acknowledgement that she had spoken,
he strode to the door and opened it.

'Right—I'll see you in the lobby,' he flung at
her over his shoulder as he walked out.

In the shroud of silence that had descended on them in the
taxi, Penny was not only having difficulty keeping her delicate veneer
of calm in place, but also the thoughts slipping into her head were
making it almost impossible for her to retain a grasp on reality. And
it was the almost surrealistic absurdity that two bodies, not long ago
locked as one in the frenzy of a mutual ardour that had driven them
throughout the hours of the night, could now be sitting in hostile
denial of one another and as far apart as was physically possible
within the confines of the taxi that her mind was finding it almost
impossible to equate. And time and again, as they sped through the
traffic, she found herself wondering if the same torrid memories as her
own could ever possibly exist in the mind of the cold, remote stranger
seated beside her.

No, she told herself with bitter resignation as the cab
drew up to their destination—it was as though he had flicked
a switch somewhere within him and eliminated her from existence.

It was Sarah who opened the door to them, flinging herself
at Penny in an unusual display of emotion and hugging her tightly as
Dominic strode in past them.

'Oh, heck, I think I'm in danger of making the most
monumental fool of myself,' confided Sarah, verging on tears.

'Don't you dare,' gulped Penny, returning her hug. 'You'll
get me going too. Sarah—is Lexy really OK?'

'Lexy? she's fairly blooming—the cow!' chuckled
Sarah tearfully. 'Jake and I were given a rather garbled account of
what's happened when we arrived a few moments ago… but I've
a feeling Lexy's a bag of nerves at the prospect of facing her brother.
And Niall Winterton doesn't exactly seem thrilled to bits with her,
either,' she sighed. 'So I suppose we'd better go in and give her a bit
of moral support.' She turned and started walking towards the
living-room, giving Penny no chance to put any of the questions begging
to be asked.

Dominic and his sister were wrapped in a bear-hug as they
entered, while he, at the same time, was subjecting her to a litany of
most unbrotherly abuse.

The expression on Jake Marlow's face was one of twinkling
amusement as he waved to Penny in greeting and winked conspiratorially
at his wife.

'I'd have taken odds on his wringing her neck when he
walked in just now,' chuckled Jake when they joined him.

'And he'd have done it with my blessing,' muttered a jaded
voice from behind them.

Penny looked round to find a well-built, tawny-haired man
stretched out on the sofa behind them. His eyes were darkly ringed from
exhaustion and he had what looked like several days' growth of beard on
his chin.

'You're Niall Winterton!' she exclaimed, embarrassed that
she had had such difficulty recognising him.

'A mere shadow of the healthy specimen you met a few
months ago,' he murmured with amused understanding.

'Penny!' shrieked Lexy, dragging herself from her
brother's embrace and flinging herself into that of her friend. 'Oh,
Penny, I'm sure you've had to bear most of the brunt of all
this—can you ever forgive me?'

'She's a fool if she does,' muttered Niall Winterton,
almost at the same time as Dominic roared out his sister's name.

'Oh, God, I knew he'd be angry,' whispered Lexy, 'but I
didn't expect—'

'Lexy!' roared Dominic a second time. 'You can dispense
with these hysterical reunions until you've explained yourself.'

'And you're all on your own, sweetheart,' Niall Winterton
informed her with decided satisfaction from his supine position.

Her expression a mixture of alarm and defiance, Lexy
stepped back from Penny, her eyes openly pleading as they sought those
of the man on the sofa.

'Niall, don't be so rotten, darling…you know
you wanted that creep put away every bit as much as I did,' she
wheedled.

'You mean the police have Langton?' exclaimed Penny.

Lexy nodded triumphantly. 'And with enough evidence
against him to be able to throw away the key, they reckon.'

'And might I remind you that while you've been playing
Sherlock Holmes, or whatever the hell it is you've been up to, I've
been having the place torn apart looking for you?' demanded her brother
frigidly. 'So, start explaining and I warn you it had better be good
because I've been half out of my mind these past few days over you and
your carryings on!'

'On second thoughts, to hell with moral support,'
whispered Sarah. 'I'm going to put on some coffee— coming?'

'Chicken,' laughed Jake via the corner of his mouth. 'I
intend having a ringside seat here; I'm the one who's experienced the
rough edge of Raphael's tongue, thanks to that hare-brained sister of
his—not that I hold it against him. But it'll be a pleasure
to witness justice being done.'

'I'll join you,' said Penny, following Sarah from the room
as Dominic's and Lexy's voices began rising heatedly.

'The thing I'll never understand is why she couldn't have
let Dominic know what was going on!' exclaimed Penny in bewilderment,
as Sarah closed the kitchen door behind them and shut out the verbal
free-for-all erupting in the background.

'You know as well as I do how devious Lexy can be once
she's set her mind on something,' said Sarah. 'Especially when she
knows people will try to dissuade her from whatever it is she's up to.'

Penny said nothing as a bitter voice within her reminded
her of the destructive effect Lexy's actions had had and were likely to
go on having on her own life.

'Almost from the day Erica died I think Lexy's always
harboured a secret determination to bring Langton to book,' sighed
Sarah. 'Then she met Niall Winterton and learned he had a cousin who
had had a close shave with drugs—though mercifully she has
responded well to treatment. I'll give you one guess who introduced her
to the habit.'

Penny gave an involuntary shudder as she filled the
kettle. One innocent life destroyed and another jeopardised at the
hands of this evil man…and how many others?

'Unfortunately, Niall confided in Lexy that he'd been
keeping tabs on Langton in the hope of one day nailing him. Lexy being
Lexy decided to step in and speed things up by offering herself as
bait…apparently Langton's most partial to women.'

'But Niall must have been out of his mind even to consider
such a thing!' exclaimed Penny, horrified.

'The poor devil had no idea what she was up to until it
was too late to stop things,' Sarah told her. 'I don't know the ins and
outs of it, but I know he was livid when he discovered the lengths
Dominic had been driven to by worry… It seems he's had just
about every petty criminal in London on his pay-roll in an attempt to
get information.'

'I suppose it's no wonder Lexy was so ultra-casual about
Niall,' said Penny. 'She was barely admitting to knowing him when I met
them together at a party.' She glanced sharply at Sarah, surprised to
hear her chuckle.

'I'm not too sure how much that has to do with the fact
that our Lexy is head over heels in love with the dashing young
doctor,' she murmured. 'And, I suspect, has been since pretty soon
after she first clapped eyes on him.'

'And how does he feel?'

'I'd say the feeling was definitely mutual,' replied
Sarah, her expression suddenly serious. 'But she's certainly more than
met her match in this guy; how things turn out is something I wouldn't
care to predict.'