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‘I can’t stay, I’m afraid.’ Dee overrode her. ‘I only popped in to see how you were. I’ve got a meeting in less than an hour. We’ll go out for supper next week, but remember to ring me as soon as your order arrives...’
* * *
As she got in her car to drive away Dee was conscious of an unfamiliar heat burning her face. She glanced in her driving mirror, anxious to see if she looked as uncomfortably self-conscious as she felt. As a young teenager she had endured the misery of a particularly painful blush which it had taken her a lot of effort to learn to control.
In fact, those who knew her now would no doubt be surprised to learn just how shy and awkward she had felt as a young girl.
All that was behind her now. Her father’s death had propelled her into adulthood with a speed and a force that had left its mark on her almost as much as losing him had. The pain and anguish of those dark days still sometimes haunted her, no matter how hard she tried not to let them.
Going back to her old university hadn’t helped, and the relief she had experienced at seeing even a vaguely familiar face at the cocktail party she had so reluctantly agreed to attend had negated her normal sense of curiosity, so that she hadn’t really asked very many questions of Alex Andrews, although she had noted how keen he had been to talk about Beth.
It had been her father’s old friend who had brought up the subject of Julian Cox, though, asking, ‘Do you see anything of that Cox fellow these days?’ and then shaking his head before opining, ‘He was a bad lot, if you ask me. Your father...’
Anxious not to reactivate painful memories for either of them, Dee had quickly tried to change the subject, but Alex Andrews, who had been standing with them at the time, had frowned and joined the conversation, asking her, ‘Julian Cox? That would be the man who Beth...?’
‘Yes. Yes...’ Dee had confirmed quickly. If she had to talk about Julian, she would much rather the conversation centred on Beth’s relationship with him rather than her own or her father’s. She knew that people thought of her as being cool and controlled. Outwardly maybe she was. But inside—no one knew just how difficult she found it sometimes not to give way to her emotions, not to betray her real feelings.
‘He hurt her very badly,’ Alex had said curtly.
‘Yes, he did,’ Dee had agreed. ‘We...her friends...thought at one point that...’ She’d paused and shaken her head. ‘That was one of the reasons we encouraged her to go to Prague. We thought it might help to take her mind off Julian. As it happens, though, her feelings weren’t as deeply involved as either we or she had feared. I think once Beth realised just what kind of man he was she recognised how worthless he was, and how impossible it was for her to really care about him.
‘She obviously spoke to you about him,’ she had added curiously.
‘She told me that because of him she found it impossible to trust any man...not in those words, perhaps, but that was certainly the message she wanted to give me.’
‘Julian is an expert at destroying people’s trust,’ Dee had told him, looking away as she did so so that he wouldn’t see the shadow darkening her eyes.
They had gone their separate ways shortly after that. There had been several old colleagues her father’s friend had wanted to talk with, and Dee had good-naturedly accompanied him, joining in their conversations even though there hadn’t been one of them under seventy years of age and the people and events they were discussing had had little relevance for her.
Mind you, in many ways it was just as well that she hadn’t needed to concentrate too hard on what was being said. That had left her free to keep a weather eye on the room, strategically placing herself so that she had a clear view of the entrance. She hadn’t wanted to be caught off guard by the arrival of...of...anyone—Sternly now, Dee reminded herself that she had an important meeting to attend, and that she needed to keep her wits about her if she was to keep the two warring factions on her action committee from falling out with one another.
A little ruefully she reflected on how something so therapeutic and ‘green’ as planting a new grove of English trees on a piece of land recently bought in a joint enterprise between the local council and one of her charities could arouse such warrior-like feelings amongst her committee members. Her father would have known exactly how to handle the situation, of course, and it was at times like these that she missed him the most. Chatting with his contemporaries, she had been so sharply aware of her loss, and not just of the father she had loved so much. Had he lived, what might she have been now? A wife...a mother...?
Dee swallowed quickly. She could still become a mother if that was her ambition. These days one did not even need to have a lover to achieve the ambition, never mind a partner. But she had been brought up by a sole parent herself, and, much as she had loved her father, much as he had loved her, she had missed not having a mother.
How often as a young girl had she dreamed of being part of a large family of brothers and sisters, and two parents? She had had her aunts and uncles and her cousins, it was true, but...
Her agents had still not been able to find out what had happened to Julian after he had disappeared to Singapore.
Dee moved uncomfortably in her seat. The cocktail party had reawakened old memories, old heartache and pain, old wounds which had healed with a dangerously thin and fragile new skin.
* * *
Alex smiled warmly as he heard his aunt’s voice on the other end of the telephone line.
‘How are you?’
‘Tired,’ his aunt told him wryly. ‘It’s meant hard work, getting this important order together for you.’
* * *
Beth was just about to close up the shop for the night when she saw the delivery van pull up outside, followed by a highly polished chauffeur-driven black Mercedes.
It had been raining during the afternoon and the pavements were wet, glistening under the light from the Christmas decorations which the Corporation’s workmen had been putting up and which they were currently testing, prior to the formal switching-on ceremony the following weekend.
On the counter in front of her Beth had a list of customers she intended to ring during the evening. They were the customers who had expressed an interest in the new glass. She had not, as yet, told them that it wasn’t going to be available.
The van driver was heading towards her door. Uncertainly Beth watched him, her uncertainty turning to shock as she saw the woman climbing out of the rear of the elegant Mercedes and recognised her instantly.
