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Dee stopped speaking as she walked into the storeroom and realised that Beth wasn’t alone—and then she saw the glass.
Beth winced as she saw Dee’s horrified expression.
‘What on earth...?’ Dee began, and then stopped. ‘I’m sorry, Beth,’ she apologised, ‘but...’
Alex acted quickly. His mind had been working overtime and he had come to an impulsive and probably very unwise decision but he simply couldn’t bear to see the shame and pain in his darling Beth’s eyes.
‘Yes, you’re quite right,’ he told Beth, as much to her confusion as Dee’s. ‘The order will have to be replaced.’
‘It most certainly will,’ Dee agreed swiftly, turning to Alex with, ‘And in time for the Christmas market.’
‘Dee...’ Beth began, knowing that she would have to tell Dee the truth—that not only was Alex not responsible for her order, but also that there was no way he could correct the mistake she herself had made. Not in time for the Christmas market and, in fact, not ever. She would also have to tell Dee that she was going to have to terminate her lease, but that was something that would have to wait until after she had spoken to Kelly—and the bank.
Right now, what she wanted more than anything else was to close her eyes and transport herself back to a time before she had gone to Prague, before she had ever met Alex, before she had ever known Julian...before...
‘If you’ll excuse us,’ Alex was saying affably but firmly to Dee, ‘I think this is something Beth and I need to discuss in private.’
‘Beth?’ Dee began questioningly, and Beth nodded. What other option did she really have?
‘Er...yes...it’s all right... I’ll be fine,’ she reassured Dee, knowing what the other woman was thinking.
Just as soon as Beth had heard the shop door close behind Dee she turned on Alex and demanded tiredly, ‘What did you say that for, about the order being replaced? You know it isn’t true.’
Her voice cracked as the real emotion generating her anger surfaced and betrayed her.
‘Beth. Beth, please don’t,’ Alex begged her, feeling her pain as though it was his own and aching to make things right for her. ‘Look, is there somewhere we can go to talk in private?’ he asked her.
‘I don’t want to talk to you. There isn’t anything more you can say,’ Beth told him bitterly. ‘You’ve done what you came to do...had your gloat. You should be satisfied with that.’
But Alex shook his head.
‘You’ve got it wrong. That isn’t why I’m here. Look, why don’t I close the shop and we can talk in here and...?’
‘No, not here,’ Beth denied, shivering slightly as she looked round at the packing cases. She couldn’t bear to spend another minute in here with them, with the evidence of her stupidity.
‘I live upstairs...it’s this way...’
‘Let’s lock the shop door first,’ Alex suggested gently. Beth’s face burned. She should have been the one to think of that. Where was her sense of responsibility, her maturity, her...? She tensed as Alex came back.
‘I’ve put the “closed” sign up and locked the door,’ he told her.
Silently Beth led the way to the rear door; just as silently Alex followed her.
Why had Alex said that to Dee about the glassware being replaced when they both knew that was impossible? What on earth was Dee going to think when Beth had to tell her that Alex had lied and that she had let him?
Once they were in her sitting room Beth stood defensively behind one of the chairs, indicating to Alex that he should take a seat in the other one.
‘Beth, I promise you that I didn’t come here to gloat,’ he told her, ignoring the chair and coming instead to stand in front of her.
‘Then why did you come?’ Beth demanded. He was standing far too close to her, the chair between them no defence at all to the way her body was reacting to him, and certainly no defence against the emotional bombardment his presence was inflicting on her senses.
Even without closing her eyes she was sharply, shockingly aware of just how he would look without his clothes, of just how he would feel...smell...be...
A small keening noise bubbled in her throat. Frantically she fought to suppress it.
‘I came because...because...I wanted to warn you just in case you hadn’t actually paid for the glass already,’ Alex prevaricated. It was, after all, partially true. That was certainly what had urged him into action, even if the real reasons for what he had done were far more complex and personal.
‘How...how did you know, anyway...about...about the glass?’
