‘What’s it got to do with you, anyway?’ Bella said furiously.
He had only a few marbles left now in the centre of the solitaire board. She watched his long fingers, mesmerized.
‘All I’m saying,’ he said softly, ‘is that if you loved Rupert, you’d have arrived on time, sober, properly dressed, instead of swilling whisky in the Hilton Bar with one of your lovers.’
Bella turned green. ‘W. . what are you talking about?’ she whispered. ‘I was having an audition.’
‘Maybe you were earlier in the evening, baby. But when I saw you, you were so engrossed with your handsome desperado, you didn’t even notice I was sitting only a few tables away.’
Confusion and horror swept over her. Lazlo had seen her with Steve. How much had he heard of their conversation?
‘He’s an actor,’ sheliedquickly.‘We. . er. . we were discussing a play we’re doing together next week.’
‘Rehearsing all the love scenes,’ said Lazlo dryly. ‘If you gazed at Rupert with a tenth of that slavish adoration, I’d be only too happy for you to marry him.’
He was left with one dark green marble now. He looked at it for a moment, then, putting the board down, took out his cheque book.
‘Now,’ he said, in a businesslike tone. ‘How much do you want? If I give you — oh, five grand, will you leave Rupert alone?’
Bella laughed in spite of herself. ‘I never realized people really said things like that! No, I won’t.’
‘Because you adore Rupert and can’t live without him?’ he said acidly.
‘I never said anything about love,’ she said. ‘It’s you who keeps banging on about it. But since you want things spelled out — I don’t intend to break it off!’
‘Ten grand,’ said Lazlo.
There was a pause. Bella looked out of the window.
Wow, the things I could do with ten thousand pounds, she thought. I wonder if it would be tax free? Then aloud she said, ‘I don’t want your rotten money. You’ll have to think of something else.’
Lazlo put away his cheque book and got to his feet. The sheer size of him made her step back. ‘Well, if you won’t be sensible about it, I shall have to try other methods.’
‘You can’t stop me marrying Rupert.’
‘I can’t?’ he said softly. ‘You obviously can’t be familiar with our family motto: “Scratch a Henriques and you draw your own blood.”’
The long scar showed white on his swarthy skin. A shiver ran down Bella’s spine.
He’s like the devil, she thought.
‘My family’s got a lot of influence,’ he went on. ‘We can make things very difficult for you if you don’t play ball.’
‘You’re threatening me?’ she said.
‘Yes, and I’d warn you, I fight very dirty. Are you sure you don’t want that cheque?’
Bella lost her temper. ‘Get out! Get out!’ she screamed. And, picking up a blue glass bowl, she hurled it at him. But he ducked and it smashed on the wall behind him. He laughed and left.
Bella couldn’t stop shaking after he’d gone.
Oh no, she wailed. Why did I blow my top? Loathsome, horrible bully. He’s only bluffing. He wouldn’t do anything really.
And yet. . and yet. . with all that money and power behind him. .
She shivered with fear. Perhaps she ought to take the money and clear out with Steve. But Steve was unreliable, not to be trusted. And then, of course, there was poor Rupert to be considered.
Suddenly the doorbell rang, making her jump out of her skin. Lazlo again? Steve? Her heart was cracking her ribs. Whoever it was was leaning on the bell.
‘Who is it?’ she sobbed in terror.
‘It’s me, Rupert.’
She opened the door and, as he followed her inside, she burst into a storm of weeping.
‘Darling! Hush, sweetheart! It went all right.’ He pulled her down beside him on the sofa, stroking her hair. ‘They’re always bloody at first. You should have seen them with Teddy. Wasn’t Lazlo nice to you?’
She shook her head. She hadn’t meant to tell Rupert, but she couldn’t control herself any more.
‘He hates me,’ she sobbed. ‘More than any of them. He said he doesn’t want me to marry you.’
‘He doesn’t? Probably fancies you, that’s why he’s so rude. Anyway, my father’s crazy about you.’
How good it was to be held in his arms and comforted.
‘I’m so rotten to you,’ she muttered. ‘Arriving late and cheeking your mother. I don’t know why you put up with me.’
And you don’t know the half of it, she thought miserably.
‘There’s nothing to put up with,’ Rupert said. ‘I love you ten times more than I did this morning. I’d kill anyone who hurt you.’
She moved away and looked at him. Harlequin’s face, sad, pale, with great blue rings under his eyes.
‘Bella, darling, please let’s get married.’
And whether it was to spite Lazlo, or to escape from Steve, or because she was drunk, or because Rupert wanted her so much she never knew, but the next moment she was saying yes.
Chapter Six
Bella woke next morning with a series of flashbulbs exploding in her head. Scenes from last night’s debacle re-staged themselves with relentless accuracy — the disastrous audition with Harry Backhaus, the meeting with Steve, the catastrophic dinner party at the Henriques’. She was just wincing her way through that appalling moment when she’d hurled a glass bowl at Lazlo, when she sat bolt upright and gave a groan.
Jesus! She’d let herself get engaged to Rupert. But she didn’t love Rupert. She loved Steve — and that snake Lazlo Henriques knew it too, and would pull out every stop to make her break it off with Rupert.
Oh God, she wailed, pulling the bedclothes over her head, what a terrible mess!
The events of the next weeks left her breathless. Rupert insisted on looking at dozens of houses, taking her on a triumphal round of his relations and showering her with presents — including a huge plastic pink, heart-shaped engagement ring because he knew it would irritate his mother.
Bella had expected Lazlo to come round breathing fire, but he did nothing, obviously biding his time. What really crucified her was that even though Steve must have read about her engagement — every paper splashed pictures of ‘The Millionaire and the Showgirl’ — he made no attempt to get in touch with her.
The sex side with Rupert hadn’t been going well either. Now she was engaged, she could hardly refuse to sleep with him. Rupert, fobbed off for so long, wanted to spend every free moment in bed, then afterwards was desperate for reassurance.
‘Was it all right, darling? Are you sure it was all right for you?’
‘Yes, yes,’ she would say, pulling him down on to her breast until he fell asleep, and she would gaze unseeingly at the ceiling, her body twitching with unsatisfied desire and longing for Steve.
A week later, after a performance at the theatre, she slumped down in front of her dressing-room mirror, cheers echoing in her ears. She had acted superbly. Now she was all in.
Rupert had gone to a dinner in the city and wasn’t meeting her until later. It gave her a breathing space.
Convincing him how blissfully happy she was to be marrying him put more of a strain on her than anything else.
Dully, she reached for a pot of cleansing cream to take off her make-up. There was a knock on the door.
‘Come in,’ she said, listlessly.
Then her heart gave a sickening lurch. Steve stood in the doorway — lazy, smiling, impossibly blond and
