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She jammed the key into the lock, her hand shaking so hard that she couldn’t seem to turn it. David pushed her hand aside and took hold of the key to unlock the door then handed it back to her, his face set and uncompromising. ‘We have to talk, Beth. There’s no point in being ridiculous about this. Surely we can act like two sensible adults for a few minutes while we sort this out?’
‘Talk? About what? What I heard at Maggie’s house that night, the truth that you had been keeping hidden from me so successfully? Forget it, David. You and I have done all the talking we are ever going to do. Frankly, you made yourself more than plain that night!’ There was no disguising the raw agony in her voice as the barriers started to fall one by one, leaving her defenceless against the pain.
‘You can’t still believe that I tricked you, Beth? That the whole of our marriage was set up for one reason and one alone, so that I could make a play for Maggie? Come on, where’s your common sense? You know that isn’t true!’
Anger ran through his voice, but Beth ignored it, caught up in the spiral of her misery. ‘I know what I heard!’
‘Do you indeed?’ He swore softly, elbowing the door open to push her inside the room. Beth backed away from him, fear running through her when she saw the naked fury on his face. He skimmed a glance around the threadbare room, distaste showing briefly in his eyes before he looked coldly back at her. ‘I find it hard to believe that you prefer this to the comfort of the flat. What have you been trying to achieve by hiding out here, Beth? Were you hoping to punish me in some way for those supposed misdeeds I’ve perpetrated?’ He laughed harshly. ‘Seems to me that the only person who’s been suffering is you, living here in this…this hovel when you could have been living in luxury and comfort at the flat!’
His cruel assessment of her home stung and she glared back at him, no longer afraid. ‘This “hovel”, as you call it, is my home, David. If you don’t like it then you can always leave. In fact, I would be delighted if you would do so right now!’
She moved towards the door, but he stopped her as she drew level with him, his hand closing around the slender bones in her wrist. ‘I shall leave when I am good and ready to and not before. I didn’t come here tonight to play more silly games with you. I came to sort this situation out once and for all.’
‘There is nothing to sort out.’ She wrenched her hand away, rubbing her skin where his fingers had left an imprint. ‘You used me as a cover to restart your affair with Maggie. That’s all there is to it, and nothing…not one single word…will make me believe any differently.’
‘Why? Why won’t you at least spare a few minutes to hear me out? Afraid that you might start to doubt what you claim to believe? Afraid that your excuse for leaving me might be damaged in some way?’ He looked around himself, scorn evident in the set line of his law. ‘It surprises me that Andrew lets you live here. Doesn’t he find such humble surroundings somewhat daunting to his ardour? After all, he can’t take you home, can he? Not when his wife is there.’
The cruelly mocking words sent caution winging out of the window. ‘Andrew has nothing to do with where I live. He’s never been here and I have absolutely no intention of inviting him!’
His expression altered subtly, his eyes gleaming in a way that made her immediately regret her impetuous statement. ‘Haven’t you indeed? Yet you led me to believe that was your intention, that you were going to contact him again and pick up where you left off? What went wrong, Beth? Wasn’t he willing…or was that all a pack of lies?’
The way he was watching her was making her nervous, making the blood rush to her head, making her skin prickle in a silent warning. In her heart she knew she should try to calm down and keep this meeting as low-key as possible, but it was impossible now that David had loosed all these emotions inside her. For all these weeks she’d lived in that strange state of limbo and now she was coming abruptly out of the trance. ‘Yes! It was all lies…every bit of it. I couldn’t give a damn if I never saw Andrew ever again. He means nothing to me, David Kane, absolutely nothing!’
