Second Best Wife (16 page)

He was openly amused. 'At the risk of your thinking me even more conceited than you do now, yes, I am.'

'You can't know that!'

He put his hands on his hips and laughed at her, a great bellow of sound that rang round the silent bungalow.

'For heaven's sake!' she rebuked him. 'What did you have to do that for? Miss Campbell will wonder what on earth we're doing!'

That made him laugh again. 'Do you care?' he asked, his eyes dancing.

'Yes, I do,' Georgina answered him soberly. 'I think Miss Campbell a dangerous woman and I wouldn't want to stir her into any further activity like the demon of last night.'

'Miss Campbell?'

She nodded. 'Who else, William? Who else would want to frighten Celine into a scene?'

'I don't know, my dear, but do you think Miss Campbell has the imagination to make use of such a thing? She and Celine haven't been here long, only a few days before we arrived ourselves, and she's not the type to go down to the village by herself. It was probably just a coincidence.'

Georgina had her own doubts, but she was not prepared to give voice to them. 'She looks like a witch,' she said instead. 'Perhaps she is one.'

William gave her a startled look. 'If she is one she'd have had a job to persuade the Aborigines to allow her to make use of their sacred objects. It was the sound of a whirring rope that set Celine off in Australia. It always began the same way — and ended in her being frightened into a fit. One of the Australian doctors we consulted suggested she might have witnessed some Aboriginal ceremony as a child, some thing she wasn't supposed to see, and that it had haunted her ever since.'

'That's no excuse for Miss Campbell telling her she's touched in the head!' Georgina said sharply. 'That was cruel!'

William studied her face with a thoughtful look. 'Women don't always examine their weapons with sufficient care before they throw them, Georgina. You should know that!'

'I've never tried to drive anyone mad!'

They stared at one another in mutual consternation, but Georgina couldn't bring herself to take the words back.

'But why?' William asked.

Georgina laced her fingers together. 'I don't know. Celine says she was in love with her father. William, that woman has to go!'

'She'll expect to serve out her notice and I have no reasonable excuse for sending her away before the month is out. I agree she has to go, but don't overrate Celine's lucidity, will you? She'll never be more than a little girl at heart —that was about the only thing the doctors were agreed about! There's no point in encouraging her to start thinking of love and romance when she can never be a wife.'

'I don't see why she can't be. She's a lovely girl.'

William's lips twisted into a wry smile. 'A man wants more than mere beauty in his wife,' he said.

But
he
didn't! He wanted Jennifer, and what for, if not for her delicate beauty? The answer to that hurt so badly that Georgina felt it like a physical pain inside her. When one loved, beauty didn't matter,
nothing
mattered except the joy one felt in the beloved's presence. That was how she felt about William. That was what was so awful about it, that he didn't feel the same way about her and he never would.

‘Celine has a lot more than beauty to recommend her,' she said aloud. ‘I'm sure Stuart sees her as something more than a little girl. I know I do.'

‘Despite the scene last night?'

Georgina nodded. ‘That was fright. We're none of us ourselves when we're badly frightened. At other times Celine is as lucid as you or I. That blank look she puts on is probably a defence she's grown up with. Anyone would if they had to put up with Miss Campbell all day and every day.'

William grinned. ‘So you don't like Miss Campbell, Georgie Porgie, but I couldn't have managed without her— nor could Celine's father! How d'you suppose he would have looked after Celine on his own? He had his work to do. He couldn't have had a retarded daughter hanging on to his sleeve all the time.'

Georgina looked down at her hands, trying to stop herself from entering into an argument on such slight evidence that even she could see she had formed her opinion largely on guesswork and a hunch that, despite its implications, wouldn't go away.

‘And what were Miss Campbell's rewards?' she asked.

William froze. ‘What do you mean?'

‘Only that her major interest doesn't seem to be money, does

it?'

William hauled her up on to her feet and into his arms. She hid her face against him, trying to still the trembling that had seized her limbs. He smelt nice, she decided, but then she liked everything about him. His attraction for her was so strong she felt quite dizzy with it. His fingers found the nape of her neck and closed about it, before entangling themselves in her hair and forcing her face up to meet his.

'Why is it never the right time for me to kiss you properly?' he demanded in her ear. 'I can't and won't wait for ever, Georgie Porgie!'

She shuddered against him, saying nothing. There was a lump in her throat the size of a tennis ball and she swallowed helplessly, trying to make it go away. It didn't. On the contrary, it grew so large she was afraid it would dissolve into a flood of tears and he would think it was something he had done to her.

'Don't you want me to kiss you?' he asked, smoothing the curl away from her forehead. 'Don't you think you could try to kiss me too?'

'I — ' She swallowed again as he bent his head bringing his lips within half an inch of her own. 'I can't!' she blurted out.

'Why not?' he murmured, touching his mouth to hers. 'You like that well enough, my Georgie!'

She liked it far too much!'It's lunchtime — '

'I'd rather have you for lunch!'

'No!
Oh no!' She stepped back from him in a panic and found herself still held by her hair. 'William, we can't! Not now!'

His lips twitched in ready amusement. 'I won't let you go until you kiss me, Georgie Porgie.' He wiped away a tear from her eye with a gentle finger. 'And this time there'll be no tears from either of us, huh?'

She wriggled desperately, found she couldn't get free from him that way, and tried kicking his shins instead. It was a mistake. His fingers tightened in her hair and his other arm lifted her clear off the ground, placing her firmly on his knee as he collapsed into the chair she had only recently vacated.

'Still determined to be the little thug we all know and love?' he taunted her. 'You ought to know by now it won't work with me, my Georgie! Now kiss me properly, my love, or take the consequences!'

'I won't!' She glared at him, her heart beating so fast she thought she might faint and that she might even welcome such an escape at that moment.

'You will if you want any lunch, my pet.' A smile flickered

across his face and the unwelcome suspicion crossed her mind that he was enjoying himself. 'How will you explain your nonappearance at the village?' he added in the same, conversational tones. 'Young Stuart will be disappointed.'

'He's not all that much younger than you are!' she declared.

'You think not?' He turned the matter over in his mind.

'He's young enough to let you make the running, but you're too feminine to put up with that for long! Aren't you, Georgie?'

'I prefer it to being patronised!' she shot back at him.

'Ah, but you are mine to treat with as I please,' he teased her, his eyes alight with laughter as he waited for the coming explosion.

'Then you can't complain if I treat you just as I like!'

'You can try!' He lifted an eyebrow in derision. 'You should listen more closely, sweetheart. I did say "treat with", but I daresay one way is as good as the other with you.'

'I won't be browbeaten—'

'My dear little Georgie, what's much more to the point is neither will I! Come, kiss me of your own free will and we'll cry a truce for the afternoon, if that will please my lady?'

She brooded over his words, knowing herself to be caught in a cleft stick. Nor was she as reluctant as she pretended. She leaned away from him, gazing at him thoughtfully, liking her position far better than she would have him know.

'And if I do kiss you? Will you be content with that?'

'For now,' he drawled. He looked sleepy and not at all dangerous. 'One good kiss on the lips, Georgina!'

Her eyes widened as her one line of retreat was cut off. She spread her hand across the opening of his shirt, giving herself a little more time to make up her mind what to do next. The hairs on his chest created a
frisson
of pleasure against her fingers.

'You're easily pleased if that's all you want,' she said at last. 'Wouldn't you rather wait until I offer to kiss you without being forced?'

He shut his eyes entirely. 'When will that be?'

A cautious reconnoitre informed her that he was confident enough to have relinquished his hold over her. She patted his cheek gently, delighted with her own cleverness, and made to get off his knee, only to find herself caught more firmly than before.

'Cheat!' he said mildly. His eyes opened and they were full of a lazy amusement that brought the colour to her face and a singing to her ears. 'Give in, Georgina,' he recommended her. 'You're not going to get your own way this time no matter how you twist and turn.' He smiled at her outraged expression. 'What's a little kiss between friends?'

'We're not friends!'

He gave her a quizzical look, but he said nothing, waiting for her to make the next move. And she would have to, she thought, for he plainly meant to go on sitting there until she did.

'I think you're mean!' she informed him roundly. 'Why should you want me to kiss you?'

'I wonder!' he mocked her.

She tried another tack. 'I think you should woo me a little first,' she said.

'My dear girl, what else have I been doing ever since we arrived in Sri Lanka!'

Had he — ? Was it possible — ? His laughter demoralised her completely and she thumped him on the chest.

'Oh,
you!'
she exclaimed. But she was half glad he had defeated her. Her body tensed as she put her mouth to his and she kissed him as a child might kiss an adult under protest. 'There!'

'That was a kiss? You have a lot to learn, Georgie! Come back where you were and I'll show you what I mean by a kiss!'

She relaxed into a delicious surrender that only wanted to please him and thereby herself. She felt his hands on her back and on the soft curve of her breast and dug her own fingers into the hair of his chest.

'That's better!' William murmured. His voice sounded husky but the mockery was still very much in evidence. 'Who said you couldn't kiss if you tried?'

'But it wasn't me kissing you!' she crowed in triumph.

'No?' The flecks of gold in his eyes reminded her of fireworks. 'Then what were you doing?'

She decided it was a rhetorical question undeserving of an answer. 'May I go now?' she countered on her own behalf.

He raised his hands, freeing her from his embrace. 'If you want to.'

It wasn't fair, but then he never did play fair. She could only hope that he didn't know how little she wanted to drag herself off his knee. She went over to the dressing table and seated herself in front of the looking-glass, running a comb through her hair without bothering to see what she was doing. There was no reason why she shouldn't kiss her own husband, she comforted herself, annoyed by the guilty excitement that had reduced her to an eager participant in the embrace. What was there in a kiss to make her want more and more of the same?

William came up behind her and took the comb from her hand, finishing off the job for her, a half-smile curving his lips as he did so. His eyes looked her over with appreciation in the glass.

'Did you mind so much?' he asked her, when he had finished and was putting the comb down on the table in front of her.

She made a gesture to avoid answering, but as her eyes met his in the glass, she knew she was being less than generous. She turned away, fingering the ring on her finger with a nervous touch.

'No,' she said at last and, jumping to her feet, she practically ran out of the room.

Celine was waiting for her on the verandah. She looked up anxiously as Georgina hurtled through the french window, her cheeks flaming with a very becoming colour.

'Georgina, may I speak to you now?' she begged. 'You do like me a little bit, don't you? I mean, you don't like anyone here better than me, do you?'

Only William. 'No,' Georgina agreed vaguely.

'That's good! I was afraid you liked Stuart.' Celine frowned. 'William thinks you do.'

'I like him well enough,' Georgina admitted. 'I hardly know him.'

'Oh dear,' said Celine, 'I was afraid of that. I think— I think he likes you too.'

Georgina gave her an impatient look. 'What are you talking about?' she demanded.

Celine's face crumpled. 'I thought you'd understand!' she wailed. 'But you're just like all the rest of them. You don't think I can feel anything, but I do!'