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‘He never acted like that before!’
‘You never appealed to his susceptibilities before. So…was there a little revenge wrapped up in the mixed signals you were giving him tonight, Harriet? Beckoning him yet pushing him away? Were you punishing him for ignoring you in the past, for treating you as if you didn’t exist as a woman? Or perhaps it was all men you were trying to punish…?’
/> She was ashamed to admit that there might be a grain of truth in what he said. ‘I dressed the way I did tonight purely for my own enjoyment!’
‘For fun?’
‘Yes! Can we go now, or are we going to sit at this stop sign all night while you lecture me about things that are none of your business?’
‘Where?’
What was he suggesting? That she might want to go somewhere else with him? Harriet’s heart beat a little faster. ‘Home, of course!’
‘I mean which way do I turn?’ he asked, returning both hands to the wheel.
‘Oh.’ Her heartbeat slowed and she hid her chagrin in her terse directions. ‘Left, and then the second on the right.’
The rest of the short drive was accomplished in silence, and when he pulled up outside the gate and turned off the engine Harriet groped at her side for her mesh bag and muttered a hurried thank-you.
‘My pleasure,’ he replied courteously, making her feel like an ungrateful beast.
‘And I’m sorry for ruining your evening,’ she said contritely.
‘Is that what you did?’
She was disconcerted by his murmured comment. ‘Well, yes…of course. I mean…taking you away from your friends like that. But you could still go back to the nightclub—’
‘Generous of you to suggest it, but they’ll have left by now.’
‘Oh, well…’ Her fingers awkwardly pulled at the latch to release her seat belt. ‘Were they going on somewhere? Perhaps you could catch them up.’
‘I think that would be most unwise.’
‘In what way?’
‘I might have to answer all sorts of awkward questions about you. And I don’t want to be seen to be rushing back to Lynne’s side at the first opportunity. If I had been less…distracted…by other matters over these past couple of months I might have realised that between them she and Susan seem to have created the impression amongst my circle of acquaintances that we’re an established couple. Tonight was supposed to be a casual intermingling of mutual friends of both sexes but Lynne managed to build something personal out of it by asking for a lift and thus pairing herself off with me. Perhaps this will help jolt people out of their misconceptions…’
It certainly gave Harriet a jolt. ‘But you said you told them I was only an employee—’
His smile mocked her naivety. ‘And you think they believed that was really all there was to my knight-in-shining-armour act? Do you think that Lynne believed me, after the way she caught us out this morning?’
She froze. ‘But she didn’t catch us out. W-we weren’t doing anything wrong,’ she stammered.
‘Of course we weren’t,’ he said in a soothing tone that had the opposite effect. He unsnapped his seat belt and she suddenly realised what he was doing.
‘You don’t have to bother to get out.’ She scrabbled quickly for the doorhandle.
He was already out of the car. He bent to smile at her through his open door. ‘Nonsense; my mother would be appalled by such a lack of manners.’ He closed it with a solid clunk and strode around the bonnet to whisk hers out of her uncertain hand, impressing her yet again with the speed that seemed at odds with his contemplative character.
‘Your mother’s still alive?’ she asked curiously, conscious as she swivelled in her seat that her outside leg was the one bared almost to the top of her thigh by the deeply asymmetrical hem of her skirt.
‘Unfortunately no; she died not long after my marriage, but she placed great importance on politeness and respect for others, and her lessons will be with me all my life.’
There was a rich regret in his voice that spoke of deep esteem and an unashamed love. Was that why he was so kind and considerate towards Susan Jerome, so tolerant of her bossy interference in his life—because she had taken the place of his mother in his affections?
‘And your father?’ She ignored the hand he was holding out to assist her, asserting her independence by placing her sandals primly together on the concrete kerb and launching herself forwards and upwards with the momentum of her upper body.
‘My father was an alcoholic who drank away every cent of a considerable inheritance and then conveniently fell ill so that the government would subsidise his booze. When he died I had to leave university to pay the debts he had run up. It was because of him, I think, that my mother set such store by manners and appearances; it was the only way she felt able to maintain her dignity in the face of increasing emotional and physical deprivation.’
