‘No,youcan tell her!’ he roared. ‘Youcreated this situation,youcan bloody well sort it out.’ He slammed down the receiver angrily.
‘Problems?’ Kate asked shakily.
He spun around, clearly startled to see her, the fury in his face replaced by surprise… and something else that Kate couldn’t put her finger on. He looked at her blankly, struggling to shake off the phone call, his eyes still flashing angrily.
‘Just staff problems,’ he said, raking a hand through his hair.
‘Oh!’ Kate said, feeling sorry for the hapless employee on the other end of the phone. ‘I’m going to make dinner.’ She plonked her bags on the table and started to unpack them.
‘Looks great.’ He bent to kiss her. ‘I’ll just go and have a shower. By the way, Freddie rang. He wants you to call him back. He said he couldn’t get through on your mobile.’
Kate fished in her bag for her phone, wondering why she hadn’t heard it ringing. She pulled it out. ‘Oh, shit! It’s dead,’ she said as Will left the room. ‘I’ll call him from the landline.’
When she picked up the phone to call Freddie, Kate was dismayed to hear other voices on the line. Whoever Will had been talking to hadn’t switched off their mobile properly. She was about to hang up, when she recognised the voices as those of her mother and Rachel. That meant Will had been talking to one of them just now – so why had he lied about it? Her blood ran cold.
‘—very grateful to him for helping us out with Kate and the whole Tree-hugger business,’ Rachel was saying. ‘But I told him we’re not going to let him lose Tina over it.’ Kate froze, hardly daring to breathe. ‘He did a brilliant job of luring Kate away from the Tree-hugger,’ Rachel continued, ‘but we can’t expect him to fall on his sword and end up stuck with her for the rest of his life. I mean, she’s there right now – she’s practically moved in!’ Rachel sounded indignant. ‘I was talking to her this morning. She thinks they’retogethernow.’
Kate felt rooted to the spot, her blood turning to ice in her veins. ‘But, darling, don’t you think?—’
‘Look, Mum, I know you like the idea of Will and Kate together, but it’s not real, and the sooner she realises it, the better.’
‘I’m sure Will would never?—’
‘Oh, come on, Mum,’ Rachel interrupted impatiently. ‘We put him up to it, remember? Though he did exceed his brief. I specifically told him we didn’t expect him to go so far as to sleep with her. Still, I suppose he thought he might as well get some fun out of it.’
‘Rachel!’ her mother protested. ‘Why can’t you believe that Will’s in love with Kate?’
‘Mum, you werethere. He told us straight out that he wasn’t interested in Kate in that way. He couldn’t have made it clearer. We had to twist his arm to get him to agree to take her to Tuscany if you remember.’
Oh God, oh God, oh God!Kate clutched the table for support. She felt as if she was falling very fast into a deep, deep pit. She couldn’t listen to any more. Her hand was shaking as she replaced the receiver, and for minutes she stood paralysed, leaning weakly against the table as the world crashed down around her.
I don’t want her here! Get rid of her!Will’s words reverberated around in her head, taunting her. How could she have been so stupid? The past couple of days had felt like a fantasy, and now it turned out that that was exactly what they had been – a fantasy dreamed up by her mother and Rachel and dutifully played out by Will. In an agony of humiliation, she wanted to crawl into a corner and hide and never have to face anyone ever again.
She thought of how Will had looked at her so lovingly last night, his passionate touch, his tender words. It had all seemed so real. She was shaking, too shocked even to cry.
Hearing Will moving around upstairs shook her out of her trance. She picked up the phone again and called a taxi. Numbly, as if in a dream, she went upstairs to Will’s bedroom, where they had thrown her case last night, and repacked it. It didn’t take long. Passing the bathroom door, she heard Will still in the shower and fervently hoped she would be gone by the time he came out. She dragged her bag downstairs and went into the kitchen to wait for the taxi, pacing up and down restlessly, watching for it out the window, at the same time listening for Will.
The bathroom door opened, and Kate’s pacing quickened. Almost simultaneously the bell rang. As she opened the door, Will came downstairs to investigate, a towel wrapped around his waist.
‘Taxi?’
Kate nodded, and the driver went back to his car. But as Kate made to follow him, Will ran down the last few steps, bounded across the hall and stood in front of her, blocking her way. He was still wet from the shower, little rivulets of water running down his face.
‘Kate, what’s going on?’ he asked, eyes darkening with concern as he took in her stricken face. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘Nothing,’ she said tightly, making to pass him.
But he wouldn’t move, putting a wet hand on her shoulder while the other held onto the towel.
‘You’re upset.’ He frowned. ‘What is it? Did Freddie have bad news?’
‘I wasn’t talking to Freddie,’ she said, shrugging off his hand.
‘Where are you going?’ He looked down at her case.
‘Home.’
He reached out and touched her cheek, and she flinched. The wounded look on his face was the last straw and something snapped inside her. ‘You can cut that out!’ she snapped, taking advantage of his surprise to duck away from him.
