Plain Jane in the Spotlight

In the silence that followed they both looked at him, puzzled. That Travis, a man known for his sweet temper, should speak in that way was astonishing.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, recovering himself quickly. ‘It’s been a long, hard day and I’m not at my best.’

‘I’ll be off now,’ Rita said. ‘I only came to return your book.’

She pushed it towards him, blew them both a kiss, and was gone.

‘Did it go well today?’ Charlene asked.

‘Not too good. I’ve got a bad headache. I’ll go straight to bed.’

‘Let me get you something to eat.’

‘No, thanks.’ His words were tense and his smile forced. ‘I just need to sleep. Goodnight.’

He vanished into his room, leaving Charlene staring at the closed door, frowning.

Why was Travis cross with her?

Ah, well, she thought at last. His headache must be worse than he’d said.

* * *

Travis lay awake for a long time. Something had happened that he needed to come to terms with, if he only knew how.

The moment when Charlene had landed in his lap was still with him. Her wriggling movements had been innocent, he knew. She’d been trying to steady herself, not inflame his senses, but she’d inflamed them nonetheless. The awareness of her body was burned into his flesh: searing, alarming, impossible to remove.

He’d never dreamed of this. Her plain looks had tricked him into thinking that the rest of her was the same. But now he knew otherwise, he thought, groaning as he remembered the enticing way she had moved against him, almost caressing him. Beneath her usually unrevealing clothes was a truly lovely body, one that he wanted to see as well as touch. The alarming discovery had been the reason he’d snapped at them, driven to distraction by the effort to keep himself under control while Rita joked about Charlene’s sensual possibilities.

He groaned as he felt desire singing through his body, ignoring his attempts to silence it. He no longer knew the woman living in his home. She was a new, different Charlene, one he’d never imagined before.

One thing was clear. She must never know. His desire violated every promise he’d made to her. It also, he realised, broke her own promises about keeping everything sisterly. But in her innocence she had no idea about that. Nor would he allow her to suspect.

Over breakfast next morning his phone rang. As soon as he answered, his face brightened. ‘Mom! You’re coming home? Great. Tomorrow. We’ll be at the airport. Yes, both of us. You can meet Charlene and I can meet-what did you say his name was? Sure I’m cheeky. I always was.’

He hung up, saying, ‘You probably gathered what that was about. I told you my mom leads a colourful life.’

‘With plenty of “gentleman friends”?’

‘Definitely. She’s been on vacation in Paris with Eric, the latest, and they’re returning tomorrow.’

They were there early next day. To pass the time Travis bought a magazine and flicked through it casually until he came to something that made him stare.

Glancing over his shoulder, Charlene saw a young woman, scantily dressed, stretched out on a sofa. Her figure was curvaceous and magnificent, but that wasn’t her chief attraction. It was more the look in her eyes as they gazed into the camera, a look that said, Why don’t we get together and…see what happens?

She felt mildly insulted. If Travis expected her to play the role of the faithful girlfriend it was hardly courteous of him to slaver over another female in public.

‘Hmm,’ she said.

Glancing up, he read her thoughts. ‘No, no, it’s not what you think. That’s Cassie.’

‘Cassie? The one who-?’

‘The girl Marcel wants to marry, and who told him to take a running jump. I did hear a rumour that she’d once had a career as a glamour model-’

‘She seems to have returned to it.’

‘And how! Poor Marcel.’ Travis sighed. ‘I shouldn’t think he’ll get her back now.’

‘I wonder how much they paid her for that,’ Charlene mused. ‘Enough to buy her a lot of independence.’

‘Is that all you see?’ he demanded, comically outraged. ‘Money?’

‘It matters. When we’re finished, I think I’ll buy myself a toy boy.’

‘He wouldn’t be called Lee, would he?’ Travis asked lightly. He knew he shouldn’t have asked the question, but since the other night something mysterious seemed to have happened to his self-control.

‘Lee? No way. He’s in the past. But of course-’ she studied the picture again ‘-if I looked like her I wouldn’t need to pay. The men would be clamouring to enjoy my charms.’

‘It’s not just voluptuous women who make men clamour,’ he observed. ‘There are other things that can be enchanting.’

‘Nonsense!’ she teased. ‘That’s just polite male talk. What all of you actually think is that real women are plump and luscious. The rest of us are too skinny to count.’

‘Oh, that’s what men think, is it?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows.

‘Sure is.’

‘And who made you an expert in male thinking?’

‘Women are born knowing it. And if they don’t, they soon find out.’

He cocked his head on one side. ‘So you’re going to lecture me on the subject?’

‘Why not? Since we’re brother and sister, I can say what I like to you.’

‘Brother and sister,’ he murmured.

‘It’s what we agreed. That way, we’re both safe.’

‘Then, since we’re speaking frankly, let me tell you that you don’t know half what you think you do. Some men like to be taken by surprise.’

That made her gaze at him, wondering about his meaning and the slight edge in his voice. But then the loudspeaker shrieked, ‘The flight from Paris has landed-’

The moment collapsed and died. It was time to get back to real life.

Whatever that was.

Julia Franklin still looked much as Charlene remembered her from old films on television. Though well into her fifties, she could have passed for forty or less, the result, Charlene guessed, of much cosmetic surgery and sessions in the gym. It was the same with her charm, which was untouched by the years.

She greeted Travis with an eager cry of, ‘Darling!’ shrieked over a distance, and began to run. He did the same and they threw themselves into each other’s arms, to the delight of the crowd, most of whom had recognised Travis.

Behind Julia came a man in his thirties, with a cherubic face and a good-natured air. This must be Eric, Charlene thought. Travis greeted him amiably, but with the caution of a man who’d met too many of his predecessors.

A cab took them to Bunker Hill, where Julia lived in a house that was defiantly colourful and un-modern. From the first moment Charlene felt herself under inspection. Julia had clearly heard the talk and was buzzing with curiosity.

‘I haven’t told her everything about us,’ Travis had said earlier. ‘Only that we met by accident in the studio, and found we could talk to each other easily. She doesn’t know anything about Lee.’

During the meal, Julia dominated the conversation, talking about Paris and Rome, where she and Eric had spent their vacation. Eric sat looking at Julia with a little smile on his face.

Afterwards, Julia drew Charlene aside, saying, ‘Come and have lunch here tomorrow. We’ll do much better without the men.’ Her voice became teasing. ‘I think we always do better without men, don’t you?’

‘Sometimes.’ Charlene laughed. ‘But they come in handy now and then.’

‘Good thinking,’ Julia said triumphantly.

Later, Julia pulled her son into the kitchen and shut the door.

‘So that’s her. That’s really her. I’ve been dying to meet her, although I’ve seen so many pictures of the two of